Chapter 13: The World, in Danger!
At the center of the Queen's bedchamber, as Su Xiao's blade clashed with the Ghost Clan Queen's weapon, the impact radiated outward, lifting a layer of stone slabs from the floor. The next instant, the flying gravel shattered into a sky full of dust particles.
Su Xiao held his longsword in his right hand and a Blood Spear in his left. After blocking the Queen's dual blades, he felt pressure but not an inability to hold his ground. Although the Queen was stronger than him, it wasn't to the point of being unmanageable.
Back when he fought the old knight, that was truly unmanageable. The old knight's Overlord Slash—if you dared to parry it, you'd most likely have your blade shattered.
The Queen was a different type of powerhouse. She was slightly stronger than Su Xiao in terms of strength, but far surpassed him in speed, especially her swing speed.
This was the Queen's terror. Once she gained the slightest advantage, even if you could defend against her consecutive slashes, she would only slash faster and faster, her cutting power growing stronger, until the final blow broke through your defense and shattered you. That's how the 12 Dual-Blade Mad Dog met his end.
Although Su Xiao blocked the Queen's Light and Dark Blades, he didn't interrupt her offensive rhythm.
With a crackling sound, the Light Blade scraped along the edge of Dragon-Slaying Flash, and the Dark Blade also grazed the tip of the Blood Spear. The Queen intended to ignore Su Xiao's parry and defense, building up her own momentum.
Su Xiao wouldn't allow that. He released the Blood Spear in his hand, and a sense of crisis washed over him. The Queen was about to unleash a chain of slashes. A fight wasn't about trading blows one after another; it was a contest of reactions, experience, abilities, and even courage. There was no such thing as watching an enemy charge up a big move.
The Light and Dark Blades cut through the air with a piercing wail. The Queen was about to perform her Spinning Slash Dance—the move that had killed Ascension Brother and the others. Suffice it to say, Ascension Brother had truly ascended this time.
As the blades reached Su Xiao's neck, the Blood Spear beside him exploded. To avoid being injured by the blast himself, he formed a crystal layer in front of him.
A booming sound echoed. The Queen's slashing momentum was halted—was she being suppressed mid-attack? In the eyes of others, once the Queen started her Spinning Slash Dance, the only option was to run far away. But that was wrong. At the very beginning of her Spinning Slash Dance, there was a slight, barely noticeable flaw—the unavoidable transition from initial speed to maximum speed.
Although the Queen's attack was only paused for a moment, it was enough for Su Xiao. He stepped forward with one foot, sending a surge of force ahead. At the same time, he shattered the crystal layer in front of him.
With a cracking sound, the crystal layer broke apart, shooting forward with a whistling sound. The crystal fragments struck the Queen.
First hit by the Blood Spear explosion, then by the crystal fragments, it seemed to cause no real damage to the Queen, but it successfully prevented her from using the Spinning Slash Dance. If the Queen had gotten her rhythm going, Su Xiao would have been in serious trouble.
If the Queen's swordsmanship was a combination of extreme speed, elegance, and beauty, then Su Xiao's swordsmanship was: a normal slash is a big move.
Boom!
The ground beneath Su Xiao's feet shattered. He lunged forward, charging straight at the Queen. Until now, no one had dared to launch a direct assault on the Queen. He was the first.
‘Blade Path Sword: Extreme.’
Su Xiao raised his right arm high and slashed down diagonally. The meaning of ‘Extreme’ wasn't extreme speed, but the limit of cutting power.
A black-blue slash mark was carved out by the longsword, lingering in the air. To Gu Lu, Sacred Hymn, and the others, this slash wasn't fast. Even Sacred Hymn, a healing-type, felt confident she could dodge it.
But they didn't know what kind of brutal follow-up attacks would await anyone who recklessly dodged this strike.
As a Dual Grandmaster, the Queen sensed the surrounding danger and immediately raised her dual blades to block.
Clang!
Sparks flew. The Queen, who had been keeping a low stance, staggered back two large steps. As she retreated, she slashed her Light and Dark Blades to both sides of her body, dispersing the dense series of slashes that were about to form.
But ‘Blade Path Sword: Extreme’ was just the opening act. The real killing move was yet to come.
To counter the follow-up slashes generated by ‘Extreme’, the Queen slashed her blades to both sides, leaving her front wide open. Su Xiao instantly lunged forward, feigning a straight kick.
The Queen's vertical pupils contracted slightly. She knew she couldn't let Su Xiao land this straight kick.
The Queen released the Light Blade in her hand. Light flashed on it, creating a shockwave that slowed everything around it, including the oncoming Su Xiao.
The Queen's right hand, holding the Dark Blade, slashed horizontally, aiming to cut Su Xiao in half.
At that moment, Su Xiao felt only a blinding white light around him, seeing nothing else. A gust of wind pressure came from his side, and his waist ached with a dull pain—a sign he was about to be cleaved.
Pfft!
The Dark Blade slashed through Su Xiao's waist, cutting him in two. A large amount of blood splattered.
Having severely wounded Su Xiao with one strike, the Queen's left hand clenched in the air. The Light Blade she had dropped flew back into her hand. She followed up with a downward thrust, pinning Su Xiao's upper body to the ground.
Boom.
Light exploded. Su Xiao's upper body shattered, blood splattering everywhere, soaking the surrounding ground.
The bedchamber fell deathly silent. Su Xiao, who had just been clashing head-on with the Queen and even suppressing her, was now blown apart by the light explosion.
But 0.5 seconds later, centered on the Light Blade embedded in the ground, the blood splattered around gradually turned into blood mist. More importantly, after Su Xiao was blown apart, no flesh, blood, or bone fragments flew out.
Any ability shouldn't be used rigidly. Take blood energy, for example. In Su Xiao's view, blood energy was one of the best energies for forming a ‘substitute body’. Blood energy could 100% mimic real blood. As long as one's energy control was strong enough, the blood energy substitute, when attacked, would splatter blood convincingly.
Su Xiao couldn't do this before, but after mastering the Blood Spear Grandmaster and gradually developing it, he succeeded.
Dragon Shadow Flash + Blood Energy Avatar combined evasion and deception.
Space ripples appeared above the Queen. Su Xiao materialized above her back and stomped down.
Boom!!
The impact spread. The Queen, who was already in a low stance, was forced to one knee, almost falling flat on her face. She created a large crater, dust billowing.
The recoil from the stomp lifted Su Xiao slightly. As the Queen was knocked down, his longsword flashed with a cold gleam, stabbing towards her heart.
During his descent, Su Xiao felt a stinging pain all over his skin—frostbite damage from the extreme cold. Almost as soon as this feeling appeared, a fine network of ice crystals formed around him. He was bound for an instant but broke free.
Although it was only a moment's restraint, it was enough for the Queen below. Despite the heavy stomp that nearly broke her spine, she had already gotten up from the crater and reached out a hand towards Su Xiao.
Wind pressure surged. Mid-air, Su Xiao sheathed his longsword. If the Queen dared to grab him, the instant draw-slash power would be enough to sever her fingers.
But the Queen didn't care. She grabbed for Su Xiao's torso.
Zheng~
A crisp slashing sound spread. The Queen's reaching hand, along with the silver armor covering her skin, was shattered. Severed fingers fell.
Su Xiao landed. The Queen's other hand also reached for him. Her speed was too fast; he couldn't dodge.
Looking at the Queen now, a light clone had appeared behind her. This clone only had an upper body, like an afterimage following the Queen, sharing the same lower body in a seamless way.
The clone's trait was enviable. While it existed, all damage the Queen took was transferred to it. For example, the Queen's left hand, which had just been shattered, had already regenerated, while the light clone behind her had lost its left hand.
The Queen grabbed Su Xiao with one hand without hesitation. She knew clearly that when grabbing Su Xiao, it was uncertain who was in more danger. So she used all her strength to hurl him towards a wall dozens of meters away.
Su Xiao shot through the air, creating a series of sonic booms, before crashing heavily into the wall. A semicircular crater appeared in the wall, with debris flying everywhere.
Inside the crater in the wall, Su Xiao stared at the Queen. Although he felt like every bone in his body was about to break, his expression remained unchanged. Crying out in pain wouldn't alleviate it; it would only let the enemy know how badly you were hurt. Being able to remain expressionless at such a time was thanks to Mawen Hua'erzi.
His body's senses quickly returned. Inside the crater, Su Xiao tilted his head. A Light Blade embedded itself right next to his ear. The flying gravel even left a few shallow scratches on his face. The Queen had thrown the Light Blade from dozens of meters away.
He dodged the Light Blade, but the Dark Blade followed immediately. This time, there was no avoiding it.
Blue light surged in Su Xiao's eyes, his pupils contracting slightly.
‘Blade Path Sword: Time.’
The domain of Time spread out, enveloping the incoming Dark Blade. The Dark Blade's flight speed slowed, but it was still unavoidable. Su Xiao's body hadn't fully regained its senses yet.
Crack, crack, crack~
A crystal layer wrapped around Su Xiao's left hand. Trying to deflect the Dark Blade now would be underestimating the Queen's killing move. Even within the domain of Time, the most Su Xiao could do was alter the Dark Blade's trajectory.
Su Xiao felt everything around him slow down. He slowly raised his left hand, creating ‘water ripples’ in the air. As the Dark Blade approached, his left hand pressed against the front side of the blade's spine, and he pulled hard to the side.
Boom!
The Dark Blade pierced into the wall beside Su Xiao's waist, the hilt slightly tilted upward.
As his body recovered, Su Xiao used the Dark Blade's spine to push himself up. Then, with a light leap, he stepped onto the blade's spine. He walked forward step by step, finally placing one foot on the very end of the hilt. Throughout this entire process, his gaze was locked with the Queen, who was dozens of meters away.
Watching this, Gu Lu and Sacred Hymn had to admit they were envious—envious of the various abilities of a Technique-type. But then they remembered how poor Technique-types were, and their hearts immediately felt balanced.
Wood was continuously weakening the Queen's combat power, and so was Ouna, who had invaded the Queen's body. But honestly, Su Xiao didn't feel much of a difference.
This wasn't because Wood and Ouna were slacking off. Wood's weakening was just very slow to take effect. As for Ouna, she was having a miserable time. After invading the Queen's body, her experience was especially brutal. Even as an Ancient God system user, she couldn't gain any advantage against Abyss Force.
‘Blade Path Sword: Azure Demon.’
Zheng!
A blue-green slash flew out, heading straight for the weaponless Queen.
Azure Demon slashed diagonally towards the Queen with a terrifying momentum. Just as it reached her, the Queen waved her hand, and a burst of cold air swept past.
With a sharp freezing sound, the ice-blue Azure Demon struck the Queen's collarbone, then exploded, sending ice shards flying.
Pathetic. It got frozen.
Witnessing this, Su Xiao wondered if his previous in-depth development of Azure Demon had been a waste.
But saying Azure Demon was useless wasn't quite right either. Su Xiao had used the opportunity to charge right in front of the Queen.
‘Blade Path Sword: Flow.’
An ethereal wind scar slashed across. A cut appeared on the Queen's chest and abdomen, blood spilling. Without a weapon, she could only endure Su Xiao's slash.
Su Xiao advanced to within three meters of the Queen. Wounded by ‘Flow’, the Queen finally showed a hint of weakness. But at that moment, the Light and Dark Blades suddenly reappeared in her hands. As a Blade Grandmaster, she naturally had full confidence in retrieving the weapons she threw.
Clang, clang, clang, clang...
A rapid series of slashing sounds came. The Queen's dual blades slashed continuously, leaving trails of cuts in the air. The clashing of weapons caused sparks to fly one after another. The Queen had been feigning weakness.
Rip~
A wound appeared on Su Xiao's shoulder, followed by his abdomen, ribs, and other places. If Lide saw this, he would probably become increasingly unstable—not because Su Xiao was injured, but because he would be roaring: ‘Stop coming to me to repair leather armor!’
Su Xiao's longsword blocked repeatedly in front of him. He could feel the pressure from the Queen growing stronger. His right arm, holding the sword, was already becoming numb from the continuous blocking.
Five Blood Spears converged above Su Xiao. The appearance of the long-range Blood Spear, the ‘Blood Spear: Hunt’, could basically be considered Su Xiao entering his second phase.
Bang, bang, bang!
Three Blood Spears pierced through the air, stabbing diagonally down at the Queen. The Queen, in the middle of her chain slashes, could only use her dual blades to meet the Blood Spears. As her blades struck the Blood Spears, they exploded.
This was the most shameless... ahem, the strongest point of ‘Blood Spear: Hunt’. Even if you blocked its piercing attack, the subsequent blood energy explosion was equally troublesome.
Sure enough, the Queen was blown back repeatedly.
One Blood Spear after another appeared above Su Xiao. As soon as they formed, they shot towards the Queen. The continuous explosions of blood energy made it hard to see anything but the Queen's silhouette.
Amidst the blood energy explosions, the Queen gradually retreated, while Su Xiao steadily advanced. Every time a Blood Spear was fired from above him, a new one immediately formed, creating a continuous suppression effect on the Queen.
From the corner of the wall behind, Gu Lu saw the Blood Spears and was flooded with bad memories. She had been blown sky-high by consecutive Blood Spear explosions before.
The deafening roar continued. After being suppressed and taking a few steps back, the Queen began to continuously slash out Light and Dark attribute blade auras, intercepting the incoming Blood Spears.
Although the Queen managed to block the continuous Blood Spears with her blade auras, her health was gradually dropping due to the blood energy explosions.
The Queen realized this couldn't continue. The focal point of her eyes shifted. Cold air rose and then expanded. The Queen vanished from her spot, reappearing where the cold air was—right behind Su Xiao.
The Dark Blade came crashing down, ruffling Su Xiao's black hair. There was no time to dodge. He raised Dragon-Slashing Flash above his head, holding the hilt with one hand and bracing the spine with the other, tilting the blade to use its angle to reduce the force of the downward strike.
Clang!
The blow was heavy. The ground beneath Su Xiao's feet cracked extensively. After enduring the strike, he flicked his longsword, the blade scraping as he deflected the Dark Blade. Then, he pointed his longsword diagonally at the ground. Blood flames flickered on it as he briefly gathered power.
The Light Blade slashed from behind Su Xiao, cutting through his body without any resistance. He had entered a spatial penetration state.
Facing away from the Queen, Su Xiao used his Dragon Shadow Flash ability to appear behind her.
‘Blade Path Sword: Slay.’
Whoosh!
A black-red slashing chain shot out, enveloping the Queen. After a brief charge, the power of ‘Slay’ skyrocketed. This move was similar to ‘Ring Break’. If used instantly, it was garbage; after charging, its power was absurd.
Inside the black-red slashing chain, the Queen's body was covered in dense cuts, as if she were being sliced into a thousand pieces. Her perpetually expressionless face finally showed some pain, indicating that her rationality was returning slightly.
‘Blade Path Sword: Azure Demon.’
A blue-green blade aura shot out, cutting through the Queen's neck. As blood sprayed, the Queen's health dropped to 49.52%.
The Queen straightened her body, raised her head, and let out a furious roar. Her ice-white hair fluttered without wind. This roar seemed like an accusation, questioning the Ghost Clan's rulers, questioning the foster father who raised her—why they had chosen to betray her back then.
With a cracking sound, the Queen's lower body, made of extreme ice energy, shattered. Only her upper body remained as she fell. From the waist down, her entire body turned into ice particles, drifting in the air.
When the Queen was betrayed back then, she wasn't just having her legs cut off. The soul below her waist was burned away by a soul-targeting poison. The legs she had shaped with extreme ice energy could no longer be maintained in this battle.
Cold air spread around. Su Xiao continuously backflipped, absolutely needing to avoid being touched by this cold air.
With only her upper body left, the Queen's skin rapidly turned into a translucent ice-white. The Light and Dark Blades were stuck in the ground. Her hands transformed into angular extreme ice claws, each the size of a washbasin, with sharp tips.
Slap, slap.
The Queen dragged her body forward using her two claws. Everywhere she passed, the ground turned into an ice-white color, emitting cold air. A Blood Spear stuck in the ground, yet to explode, was covered by ice and instantly frozen into ice shards.
The Queen plunged one hand into her own abdomen and pulled out a piece of bright red flesh. She swung her arm, and this piece of flesh, frozen by extreme ice, broke through a layer of sonic boom and smashed heavily into a wall dozens of meters away.
Amidst the dust and flying debris, Ouna appeared. She spat out a large mouthful of blood filled with ice shards, feeling speechless. She was speechless about what kind of enemy Su Xiao and Wood had provoked. Her first half of the fight was incredibly difficult.
"Honey, let me handle this."
The voice of Zuiyasi came from within the twisted cross. This wife-protecting madman was getting restless.
"I'll take this round. After this, you can go. It might get more dangerous later, so you need to stay in good shape."
"Alright."
Zuiyasi didn't insist. He was indeed a wife-protecting madman, but he also understood that spouses should respect each other's choices.
Ouna took out a strangely shaped dagger and slit her own throat with it. No blood spurted out. Her figure gradually became transparent.
At the same time, the wound on the Queen's abdomen healed at a visible rate. No, this was a rewind. Ouna had performed a brief temporal rewind on a specific event she had experienced.
That she could do this wasn't surprising. That bastard Zuiyasi had time-based abilities. While powerful, such abilities also had many restrictions.
Re-invading the Queen's body, Ouna regretted it. It was too cold.
Leaving Ouna's situation aside, in the frost-covered bedchamber, although the Queen had lost her lower body and was supporting herself on her hands, she didn't seem short.
The last shred of rationality the Queen had was now completely gone, causing a significant change in her form.
Not only did her skin become a translucent ice-white, but her long white hair also grew much longer and fluffier, emitting icy mist. Her face was completely different from before. Where there was once a beauty, there was now a bestial visage. Two slender, backward-curving ice horns grew from her head.
The Queen had now completely become a Daughter of the Abyss, no longer the elegant female Blade Grandmaster.
The Queen's health dropped below 50%. She didn't enter the Extreme Ice King state but instead irreversibly transformed into the Abyssal Daughter state.
"Roar!"
The Queen roared. Layers of soundwaves spread outward. Any object touched by the frost-white soundwaves was covered in ice crystals and then frozen into ice shards. The power of this move was ridiculously unreasonable.
Zheng! Zheng!
Two slashes flew towards the Queen in a cross pattern. The Queen swatted with her claw. Just before the claw was injured by the slashes, the extreme cold on it froze the slashes, which then shattered into ice shards.
A Blood Spear shot towards the Queen's forehead, but she caught it with one hand. Before the Blood Spear could explode, it was frozen into ice shards, which slipped through her fingers and fell.
The Queen's claw reached forward and then pressed down on the ground, moving forward in this manner.
Don't think she was slow. At this moment, the Queen was at the innermost part of the hall. The path she took and the areas on either side were covered in extreme ice. Touching the extreme ice would not only cause freezing damage but, once the freezing value exceeded a certain point, the body part touching the ice would be frozen into ice shards, scattering like sand.
It could only be said that Bubu Wang, standing on one leg on top of the sculpture at the very back, was very wise. Although it was shivering from the cold, at least it wasn't touching the extreme ice.
As the Queen moved outward, the size of the battlefield was rapidly compressed. Given the Queen's arm span and her extreme ice ability, the smaller the battlefield, the more advantageous it was for her.
Sacred Hymn, in the corner, turned pale. She seriously doubted whether this was really an Eighth Rank boss.
Su Xiao stood in the middle of the bedchamber. He couldn't retreat, but the Queen's extreme ice ability was too dangerous.
What Su Xiao didn't expect was that when the Queen got within a few meters of him, he didn't feel excessively cold. The extreme ice wasn't as terrifying as he had imagined.
He soon realized it wasn't that the extreme ice wasn't terrifying, but that his own resistance was extremely high. First, there was the extreme ice resistance boosted by the basic passive ‘Physique’. Then there was the extreme ice resistance boosted by the Berg Heart. But these two weren't the main factors. The [Blood Fragrant Fine Wine] Su Xiao had drunk earlier had massively boosted his extreme ice resistance.
Crack, crack.
Su Xiao stepped onto the extreme ice. The Queen stopped opposite him, her whole body emitting cold air. The next second, they both moved at the same time, charging at each other.
Clang! The longsword clashed with the ice claw. Su Xiao felt a tremendous force on his blade, almost making him lose his grip. The Queen was slower than before, but her strength had skyrocketed to a crushing level. If Su Xiao weren't a Triple Grandmaster, he would have been sent flying, blade and all, by now.
After the Queen swiped with one claw, she spewed ice flames from her mouth. Su Xiao was engulfed by the ice flames, instantly turning into an ice sculpture.
Seeing this, the Queen clapped her hands together. With a muffled thud, the ice sculpture shattered.
Space ripples appeared. Su Xiao materialized in front of the Queen and slashed at her throat.
‘Blade Path Sword: Extreme.’
Pfft.
Semi-transparent red blood splattered. The Queen's throat was cut open, but she didn't care. A shockwave spread out.
[Warning: You are being stared at by the 'Extreme Ice Eye'. You will lose 8% of your maximum health per second. This effect lasts for 5 seconds.]
Su Xiao's health began to plummet. The Queen's ability had no judgment, no warning—she just looked at him.
Baha, who had been holding back, burst out from the alternate space. He hadn't acted earlier to guard against the ‘good teammates’, but now he couldn't afford to worry about that.
Baha appeared to attract attention. He shouted loudly: "I..."
Just as Baha was ‘charging up’, the Queen shifted her gaze and looked at him.
"Damn it!"
After being stared at by the ‘Extreme Ice Eye’, Baha lost 13.7% of his health per second, the effect lasting 6 seconds. Baha was dumbfounded. Just one look, and he would lose a total of 82.2% of his health. No one would believe that.
A war of attrition was absolutely impossible. Just this terrifying gaze ability alone was unbearable.
Su Xiao's health was already below 50%. As his health plummeted, he was about to enter his third phase.
Ouna acted at this moment. Whatever she did, the Queen's life force weakened significantly. She spat out blood mixed with fragments of internal organs.
Wood, who had been lying low, also appeared. He looked like a black smoke reaper, his green eye flame rapidly dimming.
The Queen's aura weakened. Gu Lu, who had been in the corner, hadn't been idle either. She knew that if she didn't kill the enemy, she wouldn't survive in the end either.
Gu Lu entered stealth mode. The bonus from the Night Walker set activated. She slashed her short knife in the air in front of her. The next second, a cut appeared on the Queen's neck, a dozen meters away.
The Queen shifted her gaze. Gu Lu immediately endured the stare of the ‘Extreme Ice Eye’, her health plummeting. The terrifying damage intensity left Gu Lu dumbfounded.
Clang!
The longsword blocked a swiping ice claw. Su Xiao's body sank slightly, the stone slabs covered in extreme ice beneath his feet shattering.
A freezing pulse centered on the Queen spread outward. Ouna was the first to suffer. Then, frost covered Su Xiao's entire body. Wood was also frozen. Having endured the ‘Extreme Ice Eye’ plus this ‘Extreme Freeze Pulse’, Wood was in a bad state. While his current state could weaken the enemy, his own survivability was also greatly reduced.
Wood turned into an ice sculpture and crashed to the ground. Gu Lu and Sacred Hymn also turned into ice sculptures. Baha, inside the alternate space, was also affected.
In an instant, only Su Xiao remained combat-ready among their group. Gu Lu, frozen into an ice sculpture, widened her eyes slightly, as if to say: ‘You're the village's last hope.’
"Roar!!"
The Queen roared. Layers of frosty airwaves spread. Snowflakes fell from above, and the ground was quickly covered in nearly 20 centimeters of snow.
The Queen didn't even need to charge at the enemy. By continuing to change the environment here, she could kill all the intruders within the next ten-plus seconds.
Snowflakes blew in Su Xiao's face. He raised one arm to shield himself. His condition was terrible; his blood felt like it was about to freeze.
In this desperate situation, it was as if a flame had ignited inside Su Xiao. Not a raging inferno, but an ember fire.
[Inscription Base Effect: Ember Fire (Passive): When the base wearer is attacked and loses more than 20% of their maximum health in a short period, Ember Fire will ignite within you, greatly increasing your physical defense for the next 10 seconds.]
Su Xiao's nearly frozen blood felt like it was about to burn. Sparks and burning patterns appeared on his long leather coat.
[Wild Hunt Night Equipment Effect: Ember's End (Passive): When the wearer's health drops below 15%, this equipment will consume durability at a rapid rate to massively increase defense.]
Embers flew. Su Xiao's health had already fallen below 10%, entering the dying threshold. Without the Black King Bracer, he would be unable to fight.
[Blood Spear Grandmaster Lv.40 Ultimate Ability: Death and Rebirth (Passive): If the Hunter's health drops to a dying state, your soul power will be fully activated. During this time, all your melee attack damage is increased by 50%.]
A close-combat Blood Spear formed beside Su Xiao. With a snap, his left hand, wrapped in a metal bracer, grasped the ‘Blood Spear: Fortitude’. Su Xiao had officially entered his third phase—the strongest he could achieve.
Boom!!
The ground cracked open. The path Su Xiao took had rock slabs and ice layers shattering, flying into the air.
Clang!
The Queen's ice claw blocked Su Xiao's longsword.
‘Blade Path Sword: Extreme.’
Su Xiao pressed down with his longsword. With a tearing sound, he severed half of the Queen's palm. She tilted her head back slightly, preparing to spew ice flames.
Su Xiao swung the nearly 2.7-meter-long Blood Spear, delivering a powerful overhead strike. He had learned this move from Iron Feather King.
With a booming sound, the Queen, who was about to spew ice flames, choked it back. She was also dazed by the heavy Blood Spear strike.
Having gained the upper hand, Su Xiao slashed upward with his longsword, nearly ripping open the Queen's chest and abdomen.
It seemed like Su Xiao was suppressing the Queen, but his situation was actually very dangerous. The third phase was powerful, but his health was only 8.65%. Even with the defense boost from the ‘Double Embers’ effect, whether he could withstand a single blow from the Queen was uncertain.
After taking Su Xiao's slash, blood sprayed out. The Queen used the momentum to roar. Layers of soundwaves mixed with ice shards spread. Su Xiao's health dropped again.
Su Xiao threw the Blood Spear in his hand. It pierced through the Queen's neck. Blood sprayed. The Queen's roar stopped abruptly. She lowered her head to look at Su Xiao.
Su Xiao reached behind him with his left hand. The ‘Dead Silence Annihilation’ appeared in his hand. This slender, ancient gun was aimed at the Queen.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.
Five shots were fired in quick succession, each hitting the Queen's head. Under the erosion of the Dead Silence Force, decaying gray ash fell. The Queen, whose consciousness had become bestial, covered her face with both claws and roared in pain.
The Queen slammed both claws onto the ground. Her remaining eye stared at Su Xiao. She pushed off with her hands, lunging at him.
Su Xiao sheathed his longsword. He lowered his stance slightly, slowly exhaling white mist. All the blood energy within him surged onto Dragon-Slashing Flash. This was the strongest slash he could deliver using his blood energy system.
‘Blade Path Sword: Blood Shadow.’
Amidst the falling snow, Su Xiao and the Queen lunged at each other simultaneously. A blood-red slash mark and an ice-blue claw mark crossed paths. Then, they stood back-to-back. The scene seemed to freeze for an instant. 0.5 seconds later, the snow continued to fall.
Drip, drip~
Su Xiao's longsword pointed diagonally at the ground, blood dripping from it onto the snow.
With a thud, Su Xiao collapsed into the snow. His left arm was severed at the shoulder. Three vicious claw marks ran across his chest, cutting through his entire torso.
Blood spread beneath Su Xiao, dyeing the snow around him red. Behind him, the Queen crashed to the ground. She turned around and looked at Su Xiao.
"Roar!"
The Queen roared. She seemed to be in better shape. But 1.5 seconds later, a vicious slash mark gradually appeared on her torso, diagonally crossing her entire chest and abdomen. The wound was extremely deep. As it slowly split open, her internal organs were exposed, with her heart, cut in two, being particularly noticeable.
A lump of bright red flesh broke free from the Queen's body. It wasn't her doing; it was Ouna, who had been frozen half to death.
With a loud crash, the Queen fell to the ground. On the other side, Su Xiao got up from the blood-soaked snow. The team ability ‘Vitality Awakening’ was truly a lifesaver.
"Hoo~"
Su Xiao exhaled cold air. His eyes glowing red, he walked step by step through the snow towards the Queen, stopping beside her. It wasn't that he didn't want to finish her off; he needed to catch his breath before he had the strength to strike.
The Queen wasn't dead yet. Her remaining eye had returned to a human eye. The Queen had amber pupils, very beautiful.
With her last bit of strength, the Queen slightly raised her upper body, tilting her head back as far as she could.
Su Xiao, with one arm, raised his blade and slashed down. Ice and blood splattered. The large head fell onto the snow.
"You won... that's good."
An almost imperceptible sound appeared in the air, as if it had really happened, or perhaps it was just an illusion.
The Queen's body gradually turned into extreme ice, shattering inch by inch, along with the severed head, turning into crystalline ice particles that drifted in the air.
The Ghost Clan Queen had been slain.
...
The battle was over. The snow stopped falling. After the Queen shattered into extreme ice, a crown fell onto the snow, along with Su Xiao's left arm, which the Queen had bitten off.
Su Xiao picked up the treasure chest and crown dropped by the Queen. Baha, frozen nearly into a sand sculpture, emerged from the alternate space. At the critical moment of life and death, it was fortunate that Baha had used his spatial ability to reduce the Queen's speed; otherwise, the victor would have been different.
Shivering from the cold, Baha took out a cell preservation box, opened it, and carefully placed Su Xiao's left arm inside. His movements were practiced. This was the seventh-generation cell preservation box, capable of keeping a severed limb as fresh as when it was first cut for a month.
Before Su Xiao could check the kill rewards, white tentacles spread out from a dozen meters away. Ouna, pale-faced, crawled out from among these tentacles.
Ouna didn't say much. Lying weakly on the ground, she grabbed the twisted cross around her neck with one hand.
The cross emitted white light, absorbing Ouna into it. The light on it changed to black light. An arm reached out from the black light. As black tentacles spread, Zuiyasi broke free from the twisted black light.
After appearing, Zuiyasi put the twisted cross around his neck. He was still wearing a clerical robe, a smile on his face.
"Bai Ye, we meet again."
Zuiyasi smiled sincerely because he was currently in the best condition.
"Damn, it's a couple's act."
Baha was half-frozen to death, but during the previous battle, he hadn't done much, precisely to guard against Zuiyasi. Ouna's various actions indicated that Zuiyasi would be entering the fray.
But one thing was worth noting. Although Doom Star had obtained two slots, something must have gone wrong. The couple, Zuiyasi and his wife, could only have one person show their face at a time, while the other had to reside within the twisted cross, at most communicating verbally with the outside world.
"Zuiyasi, I'm surprised you held out until now."
Wood, who had just thawed out, walked over. The trio of good teammates was reunited.
Just then, the door to the bedchamber opened again. It wasn't opening automatically after defeating the Queen; someone was opening it from the outside.
A figure, no taller than 1.5 meters, stood outside the door. He was thin, exuding one part sleaze, three parts sneakiness, and six parts cunning. Just seeing this person made one instinctively reach for their money pocket. Even if they confirmed the money was still there, they had to keep their hand on it to feel at ease.
"My dear friend, Kaiser is late."
Kaiser grinned slyly as he walked into the bedchamber. The trio of good teammates gained another member, becoming a quartet of good teammates. With these four gathered together, one could only hope that the Treeborn World would still be safe and sound.