109: Chapter 109 Turning Defeat into Victory

"Retreat!" Chief Shi Ba roared the order to withdraw, his pride shattered by the Holy Light at this moment like an ice sculpture melting under the sun.

Clutching his ruined right arm, his grayish-brown stone skin peeled away like falling petals in the golden domain as he fled frantically to the east with the remaining forty Blackstone Barbarian Warriors.

In the dust and smoke, his figure resembled a collapsing rocky mountain, all the majesty of a Tier 6 Barbarian Warrior and Brute Force Warrior crushed completely within the Holy Light Domain,

as if the sturdiest rock on the Desolate Continent had been scorched through by the sun, a trail of grayish-brown stone skin fragments drifted behind him, just like the rising dust of a collapsing rocky mountain.

"Don't let him escape." Wang Sheng took a step forward.

But the moment he took a step, his legs gave out.

The toll of the Holy Light Domain was like an ebbing tide; spiritual energy rapidly drained from his body, as if the sun had burned through its very last bit of fuel.

The golden light faded from blazing to dim, from dim to weak, and from weak to nothingness.

His vision began to blur, as if someone had drawn a golden veil before his eyes, behind which everything wavered in the blur like reflections in water.

After lasting for about three minutes, the Holy Light Domain dissipated like morning mist after sunrise. The golden light receded from all directions back into his body like a low tide, leaving his empty meridians resembling a dried-up riverbed.

"Wang Sheng!" Murong Xue's voice came from the north through the communication spirit stone, carrying an unprecedented anxiety.

That anxiety was like a silver spear piercing through his blurred consciousness, forcing his stumbling legs to stay rooted to the ground as if pinned by silver nails.

"I'm... fine." Supporting himself with his Holy Light Battle Armor, he stood firm. The ice-blue frost flower circuits in the lining resembled fireflies on the verge of dying out, yet they still bore the last of his spiritual energy consumption for him.

His voice was like shattered stone bricks, heavy but firm. "To the west... the Beast Tide..."

Wang Sheng dragged his exhausted body and rushed toward the west.

Although the Holy Light Domain had already dissipated, and the golden light had receded from his body like an ebbing tide, the Power of Holy Light within him was still thirty percent stronger than usual.

The power of his four wives continued to flow through the marital link, like four rivers of different colors pouring into his dried-up sea of holy light—moonlight white, frost blue, spirit sound silver, and nature green.

The four glows wrapped around his golden Holy Light like threads, as if four invisible hands were channeling power to him from afar.

He looked down at his hands.

The golden light was mixed with the four glows of moonlight white, frost blue, spirit sound silver, and nature green, like four different-colored tributaries flowing within a golden river, weaving between his fingers like a rainbow.

Shen Xun'er's Moonlight Affinity doubled his spiritual energy recovery speed, like silver moonlight turning into the gentlest glaze within the golden sun.

Frost Mage Lin Shiyun's Frost Affinity enhanced his defense, resembling ice-blue iron bones supporting every single crack within the golden armor.

Zhao Linger's Spirit Sound Affinity expanded his perception range to a hundred-meter radius, like silver threads in a golden sea detecting the slightest ripple of shadow.

Su Mengyao's Natural Affinity continuously restored his physical strength, like emerald vines channeling an endless stream of vitality through the roots of a giant golden tree.

West defense line.

The Shadow Iron-Backed Wolf King was currently breaking through Frost Mage Lin Shiyun's frost defense line.

The Tier 5 Barbarian Warrior-grade Shadow Iron-Backed Wolf King was covered in dark-iron scales, with deep purple Shadow Crystal Core fragments squirming like maggots between the crevices of its scales.

Its dark purple vertical pupils looked like two wisps of ghostly fire rising from the abyss in the morning light, cold and ominous.

Its brute force was like an out-of-control armored chariot; under its impact, the ice wall resembled an icy surface struck by a giant hammer, cracks spreading outward from the center as shards of ice splattered like shrapnel.

Frost Mage Lin Shiyun's ice-blue spiritual energy was nearly depleted. In her exhaustion, her long silver-white hair resembled faded moonlight, and the ice in her ice-blue pupils looked like a lake about to melt,

yet, a tsundere curve still hung on the corner of her lips, as if a frost queen still sat regally on her throne inside a collapsing ice palace.

"Get out of the way!"

Wang Sheng thrust a palm forward. It was not a Holy Light Slash, but the residual power of the Holy Light Domain.

A golden light enveloped a ten-meter radius, as if the sun had reached out a scorching hand from the clouds, pouring down golden light like a waterfall onto the Shadow Iron-Backed Wolf King.

The dark purple vertical pupils of the Shadow Iron-Backed Wolf King were purified in the golden light. The dark purple glow disintegrated layer by layer like an ice sculpture scorched by the sun, and the Shadow Crystal Core fragments dissolved into ashes within the Holy Light...

With the shadow purified, its eyes resembled those of a beast startled awake from a nightmare, reverting from abyssal dark purple to the wild, brassy yellow characteristic of Savage Beasts, like a controlled puppet whose strings had just been cut.

"Awoo—!"

The Shadow Iron-Backed Wolf King let out a painful howl—not the frenzy before an attack, but the excruciating pain of the Shadow Crystal Core fragments being purified by the Holy Light, akin to pulling out a venomous stinger embedded in its nerves.

Its body seemed to lose control as its aggressiveness plummeted, its brute force receding from its limbs like an ebbing tide.

But the purification of the Holy Light was not fully complete. The Shadow Iron-Backed Wolf King was like a trapped beast in its intense pain, and its violent brute force was still lethal even without the shadow enhancement.

Wang Sheng seized the opportunity.

With the Holy Light Slash: Second Stage, two golden light arcs slashed out crosswise, like two golden scimitars slicing toward the Shadow Iron-Backed Wolf King's head,

empowered by the marital link, the golden light arcs were sharper than usual,

with moonlight white and frost blue wrapping around the blades like silver and ice-blue threads,

as if the most exquisite forging hammer had layered a sheet of silver and a sheet of ice upon the blade...

The two golden light arcs crossed and pierced through the Shadow Iron-Backed Wolf King's head.

Under the slicing of the Holy Light Slash: Second Stage, the Tier 5 Barbarian Warrior-grade dark-iron scales were like sheet metal sliced open by a golden knife,

and the Savage Beast blood fell like black rain in the morning light, splattering onto the cracked ice like a final red plum blossom splashed onto a silver canvas.

"Boom—!"

The Shadow Iron-Backed Wolf King collapsed to the ground.

The Beast Tide retreated.

The aftermath of the Holy Light Domain continued to diffuse across the battlefield, as if the sun had set but its residual warmth still lingered over the earth.

Upon contact with the Holy Light, the shadow-eroded Savage Beasts lost the control of the Shadow Crystal Core fragments one after another.

They seemed to wake from a nightmare, scattering in confusion like puppets losing their direction after their strings were cut, resembling lost lambs.

Without the drive of the Shadow Crystal Core fragments, the Beast Tide collapsed, like a black torrent hitting a golden dam,

splitting, disintegrating, and retreating. The remaining Savage Beasts fled toward the Savage Beast Forest like an ebbing flood, as if the nightmare controlled by the shadow was dissipating like morning mist in the Holy Light.

Murong Xue sent word from the north gate. Her voice carried a clear breathlessness, yet remained distinct.

"The Savage Beasts in the north are also retreating. The Lingxi River crossing is safe."