The battle seemed to have begun long ago, yet only a few minutes had passed sis start. Tang Xi felt every muscle protest against the physical strain, but her mind remained razor-sharp. The excessive use of talismans made the bat more dynamid less reliant on pure spiritual energy, yet the ption was stant. As she moved at high speed, preparing her pierg attack with the Lunar Umbrel, a thought crossed her mind:' This battle is more physically taxing than it is eically—mainly because of the talismans. Although they require spiritual energy when activated, the time and ption are far less than what a regur attack would demand.'

  The chaotic expression on the female cultivator before her betrayed the state of her mind. The wound on her shoulder throbbed, her breathing was uneven, and in a frantic gesture of desperation, she searched her space pouore talismans. But she found nothing—oiness. Shock was evident in her eyes; she had expended all her resources.

  The male cultivator, visibly exhausted, made the same move only to front the same cruel reality. However, he still had o recourse: body-enhaalismans. Without hesitatioivated them. In an instant, his muscles swelled and his earthly aura strengthened in an arming fashion. He had no choice—if his partner perished, he would be left alone against Tang Xi and her superior speed.

  Tang Xi caught sight of the man lunging toward her from the er of her eye, but she had already decided the oute of this battle.'Too te.'

  The tip of the Lunar Umbrel bzed with fmes as it sliced through the air in a cutting motion. The female cultivator tried to dodge, but the strike found its mark on her chest. Fiery energy burhrough her flesh and bones, f a pierg scream from her before she colpsed. The gaping wound in her chest testified to the severity of the injury.

  Barely had the woman fallehe male cultivator surged forward with a roar of fury, his fists encased in a war glove imbued with earthly aura. Every punch geed a subtle pressure in the air—remi of a killing aura, yet distinct, carrying a crushi that uled Xi.

  She dodged deftly, her body moving like a bzing blur. The [Phoenix Wings] drained energy rapidly, but the elemental cycle verting other forms of energy into fiery energy kept her power flow stant.

  Meanwhile, the fallen female cultivator, lying some distance away, appeared motionless—but Xi noticed out of the er of her eye that she still clutched a healing pill between her fingers. The woman wasn't dead… not yet.

  'I o retreat, but I won't be able to... Damn brat, it shouldn't be this hard to deal with him!' — thought the male cultivator, as his body began to accumute injuries. Blood dripped from deep cuts, and his breathing grew more erratic. He wao flee, but he knew he couldn't; Xi was simply too fast.

  The blow came dangerously close. Xi's fming strike tore through the man's left shoulder, slig diagonally across his chest down to his waist. The stench of burning flesh filled the air.

  He could no longer afford hesitation."Damn brat!I prepared the woman for months to advanow I'll have to use her to deal with you!" — he fumed, hatred boiling in his heart.

  Tang Xi tinued her relentless assault, her strikes growing in iy. The enemy was nearing colpse, yet something bothered her—a gnawing sense of unease, as if something were amiss. She couldn't tell whether it was the presence of the cultivator before her or the fallen woman at her feet, but that disquiet was intensifying. She o end this immediately.

  Before she could deliver the final blow, the man hurled a talisman in her dire.

  With razor-sharp reflexes, Xi quickly evaded, readying herself for a terattack. However, instead of unleashing an explosion or a destructive assault, the talisman merely dispersed a cloud of fine dust around her.

  "Isn't that an attack talisman?" — she realized at o it was too te.

  As her attention shifted to the seemingly harmless talisman, the man exploited the brief opening and charged toward his fallen panion.

  A chill ran down Tang Xi's spine. Something was wrong. Very wrong. The sense of foreboding that had been nagging at her intensified as she watched him approach the woman's body. Her instincts screamed.

  Without hesitation, she reacted the moment the man touched the cultivator.

  "Amplify weight!"

  Tang Xi activated the ability as she hurled the Lunar Umbrel like a spear metalliergy.

  The umbrel sliced through the air like a meteor, its lethal trajectory aimed squarely at the man. But it wasn't fast enough.

  Her eyes widened in horror as she saw his hand pierce the chest of her partner. A beating, darkened heart was ripped out without a moment's pause, and in the instant, he swallowed it. The woman, uo prehend the terror of her owh, perished at the hands of her panion.

  The Lunar Umbrel smmed into the man with devastating force, embedding itself in his shoulder and hurling him against a nearby tree. Everything happened in mere seds, leaving Tang Xi stunned.

  The woman's body, now lifeless, dissolved into a bck, sticky substahat exuded a ing stench. The revulsion she had felt earlier now became an unbearable weight on her chest.

  The man, with the Lunar Umbrel still lodged in his shoulder, grasped it firmly and, in a sudden movement, flung it away. The wound on his shoulder closed immediately, and a suffog, repulsive energy overtook him. Bloody stripes spread across his skin like writhing vipers. His level surged to the sixth level.

  'This is terrible! Is he a malignant cultivator? Did he really eat a huma?!' —thought Xi, struggling to tain the disgust and revulsion building within her.

  Despite the mounting disfort and nausea, her instincts remained sharp. She mentally recalled the Lunar Umbrel to her side while discreetly swallowing a few more fruits of Inferior Qi to recover.

  —"Boy, I'm going to tear you to pieces!" —the man growled, his voice dripping with hatred. —"I spent months preparing to e her! Do you have any idea how many resources I squahat should have been enough to boost me three levels! But you had to interfere—why didn't you just die on the first attack?"

  With that, his gaze shifted to her, sparkling with covetous desire as it fixed on Tang Xi. He licked his lips, an insane glimmer pying across his grotesque features.

  —"Wait... What a delicious st on your body! Your taste must be divine!"— his voice reverberated with greed and hunger, and without warning, he lu her with monstrous speed.

  Overwhelmed by repulsion, Xi reacted at the very st moment. The Lunar Umbrel returo her hand and unfurled into a defensive shield.

  —"Boom!"

  The impact was devastating. Xi was violently hurled against a tree more than five meters away. The collision shattered branches and split the trunk, momentarily darkening her vision. Thanks to the Lunar Umbrel's defense, some of the force was dissipated into the ground—which itself crumbled—but her body still bore the brutal shock.

  She no longer had any lunar energy to support her. The tide had turned drastically. One more mistake would mean her death.

  "He's too fast! The energy forces his body to colpse, yet it keeps him alive!" — Xi realized, feeling the crushi of this uneven battle.

  The man attacked again. Xi barely had time to react as her wrists trembled uhe absurd pressure of his blows. Her body was riddled with injuries.

  —"Where's your fidenow, boy?!" —the cultivator mocked, each attaing with eveer force.

  'He's toying with me, but I just need one ce...' — she thought, only to be interrupted by another brutal strike.

  The battle transformed the very enviro around them. Trees toppled, the ground split open, and thunderous booms echoed through the forest. Xi khe otion might attract other cultivators, but time was not on her side.

  The attack came. The Lunar Umbrel, now shrouded ihly aura, absorbed part of the impact.

  "Amplify weight!" —she murmured, elirike.—"Boom!"

  The blow only pushed him slightly back, momentarily breaking his rhythm. But Xi was also forced backward, leaving a deep gouge in the ground as her knees protested the strain.

  —"Now!"

  She gathered every st bit of energy remaining. The Lunar Umbrel became enveloped in a mantle of stelr fire, which fred out furiously. A e of indest fmes shot toward the cultivator.

  —"What?!"— he shouted, his eyes wide, before being pletely engulfed by the stelr fire. The ensuing explosioated an area within a teer radius, sending up a curtain of dust and sparks.

  Tang Xi colpsed to her knees. Exhaustion drained her final reserves of strength. The [Phoenix Wings] were deactivated. She drew a deep breath, trying tain sciousness.

  But whehing seemed over…A charred figure emerged from the wreckage—arm-less, staggering, yet still alive.

  —"I won't die alone!"— he roared, lunging toward Xi. His body exuded instability, his energy writhing out of trol.

  She tried to rise, but fatigue made her stumble.

  —"Boom!"

  The cultivator's body exploded, the untrolled energy ing him entirely. The force of the explosion spread outward, engulfing Tang Xi.

  In that moment, the world fell into absolute silence.

  Aug_N7052