Chapter 212

Ai Hui sized up the blood-traced cat before his eyes carefully . This was the cleverest blood-traced fiend that he had seen so far . There was a sense of calm within its ice-cold eyes instead of the blood-thirstiness evident in other blood-traced fiends .

Ai Hui had a faint feeling that the cat was also sizing him up .

Under the pressuring silence, they stood opposite each of other .

The blood-traced cat had blood-red hair, but each strand was abnormally hard and thick like needles . Its paws were solid and wrapped up in fine fish scales . This was also the only part of its body that had scales .

According to Ai Hui’s experience, fish scales meant strong defense . Iron hooves? Was this still a cat?

Its sharp claws were like blades that could easily pierce into solid ground .

Ai Hui’s gaze fell upon the cat’s tail, which was as thick as a whip . A “whoosh whoosh” sound filled the air when the cat swept its tail, undoubtedly convincing Ai Hui of its strength .

Life was full of surprises indeed . Ai Hui sighed .

In the Wilderness, every dire beast was like an uncrossable, tall mountain . At that point, he absolutely did not imagine that one day he would casually bump into strange and extraordinarily strong dire beasts .

The good thing was that everyone’s skills had improved tremendously as well .

Ai Hui’s mind was spinning rapidly . When dealing with this blood-traced cat, the most important thing was to restrain its speed . Otherwise, not to mention hunting it, he would get attacked .

“I’ll go first, you guys cover for me . “

Shi Xueman said suddenly while holding onto Cirrus, eager to give it a go . As a newly registered elementalist, she wanted to test her own abilities .

The water plant-like fog on her back had now grown into a pair of snow-white azure wings . She took off the broken Central Pine Armor, revealing the blue-white war armor .

Central Pine Armor had very low defensive power . After her battle with the blood worm last time around, it had become utterly dilapidated .

There it was, her snow-white azure wings, jet-black and thick hair, exquisite blue-white war armor, and stainless Cirrus, whose body emitted white mist streamers . Her cold-as-ice appearance was suffocating to look at, and her bright and clear eyes displayed great confidence .

She held onto Cirrus and ambled along as a representative .

Filled with elemental energy, Cirrus hummed, as if responding to her . Cirrus was a top-notch Heaven-grade weapon, hand-casted by her father . She felt full of courage whenever she held it .

The blood-traced cat gradually retreated .

Everyone fell into a daze . Retreated . . .

They had come across countless blood fiends, but it was their first time seeing one withdraw . Before, all of the blood fiends would directly pounce on their enemies upon finding them .

A premonition arose in Ai Hui’s chest .

Suddenly, the blood-traced cat let out an expected whine . This wasn’t a mournful sound . Then a wisp of incorporeal motion was emitted from its body .

After two seconds, two incorporeal motions exploded simultaneously at two different places .

Ai Hui quivered before shouting, “It’s calling backup!”

Calling backup…

Everyone’s faces changed . No way…

Why were the blood fiends becoming more and more different?

But they quickly got ready to battle any way, as Ai Hui’s judgments were usually never wrong .

Boom boom boom!

The floor trembled . With his right hand, Ai Hui raised up enough dust to hide the sky and cover the earth . The noise of buildings collapsing sounded incessantly, and with loud rumblings, the ground started to close up . Some blood fiends were frantically moving toward that side too .

Boom!

The house to his right exploded suddenly, and the fragmented bricks flew everywhere as if there was a storm . A red, short silhouette emerged amidst the raised dust .

When the dust dispersed, a two-meter-long blood-traced lizard appeared before everyone’s eyes . A dense, blood-like light circled around this lizard’s body, spun non-stop, and was very destructive . The blood-traced lizard’s body was wrapped in red fish scales . Seemingly forged by a mysterious metal, they carried a strong, golden luster .

The blood traces on its body were very peculiar, like an irregular pattern formed by black, warped characters . After counting, Ai Hui located nine blood traces .

The blood-traced lizard had ice-cold, completely emotionless eyes .

Just then, a blood fog arrived quietly from their left . It moved in an observable speed and started fading as a petite, red blood fox appeared in front of everybody . It glared at them with its red, ceramic-like eyes, giving them the cold sweats .

Everybody’s faces turned pale . They wanted to hunt for one blood fiend but never imagined that there would be three appearing together! No, the two that were summoned .

Blood-traced fiends who knew how to fight in groups were bad news to Ai Hui and the gang .

The tremendous pressure brought about by three nine blood-traced fiends was stifling and the air froze up .

It was as if everyone had been doused with a pail of ice water . The joy from the earlier breakthroughs vanished into thin air .

They had been battling for days, and not one was as ruthless as today’s .

Duanmu Huanghun’s eyes flicked with light as he took a stride forward, saying cooly, “I’ll deal with the small fox . “

This moment, Ai Hui took a deep breath before speaking . “I’ll get the lizard . “

Shi Xueman and Duanmu Huanghun turned over at the same time .

Ai Hui quickly added, “The rest, please provide assistance . “

They turned back around . While Ai Hui wasn’t in his best condition, it was manageable if he had everyone’s support .

The first to move was Duanmu Huanghun . He had long been impatient . Thinking about how he would be able to render Ai Hui speechless fired his whole body up .

Reaching Initial Completion was a major breakthrough for him, and it changed the quality of his [Viridescent Flower] .

With a slight flick of his fingers, the viridescent flower coiling branch drilled its way out from the blood fox’s paws, winding around the blood traces .

The blood fox’s paws stomped on the branch, crushing it with a bang .

A strange smile appeared at the corner of Duanmu Huanghun’s lips . Without any movement, the shattered viridescent flower suddenly released an intense, cold air . Caught off guard, the blood fox’s paws were covered with a layer of frost .

The viridescent flower coiling branch trace and the ice trace switched around naturally without any pause . From this, it was obvious that Duanmu Huanhun’s control of [Viridescent Flower] had improved greatly .

Cold entering its body, the blood fox shivered and tons of blood fog surged out of its body . In the blink of an eye, its body was completely concealed within the blood fog .

The blood fog rolled up swiftly and went straight for Duanmu Huanghun like a rapacious beast .

Duanmu Huanghun made a “hmph” sound and a viridescent flower cloud appeared below his feet . Then he made a few jumps in the air to dodge the blood fog . Following closely behind, the blood fog flew up as well and pounced on Duanmu Huanghun .

The battle between Shi Xueman and the blood-traced cat was similarly intense .

The newborn azure wings increased Shi Xueman’s speed exponentially, but even then, she could barely keep up with the blood-traced cat’s speed . The blood-traced cat’s body was soft, as if boneless . It could turn and reverse in any direction like a bolt of strange, red lightning, reflecting and refracting within the building incessantly .

It was Shi Xueman’s first time meeting such an opponent, so she was highly-focused . She had to be . Any negligence, if she were to touch the red lightning even just a little for example, would lead to death or serious injury . The cat’s incomparable speed allowed it to execute each move fatally .

Within just ten seconds, Shi Xueman’s forehead was filled with sweat .

She knew that she couldn’t continue like that . She had to make a change, or once her body strength declined, she would never be able to follow the blood-traced cat’s speed . When that time came, there would be no chance left to launch a comeback .

She spun Cirrus with both palms suddenly, before shouting in a clear voice, “Open!”

The surging cloud of mist spread through the air like a deluge .

The blood-traced cat charged into the cloud of mist and found it amiss immediately . The cloud of mist was not lethal, but it had remarkable buoyancy, which caused the cat to lose control over its body . But with a strange snap, the blood-traced cat stabilized itself by assuming a twisted posture . It dodged Cirrus’ silent hit from within the mist .

But quickly, the blood-traced cat found that the situation was turning for the worse . The cat, trapped deep within this soft, cotton-like cloud gas, was immobilized . More critically, the cloud gas that wrapped around it was rising non-stop .

Having sunk into a dangerous situation, the blood-traced cat’s hair was as straight as steel needles . Its body trembled violently and the needle-like hair shot out from all around like a rainstorm .

Shi Xueman shook Cirrus promptly before drawing out a ring to block the incoming needle rain .

Just then, the red, needle-like hairs exploded simultaneously .

Shi Xueman only felt a strange force breaking into her Cirrus ring . She flew backwards seven, eight meters before regaining stability . She stared at her broken cloud gas as a red silhouette descended .

With this short showdown, both parties knew that their opponent wasn’t to be trifled with .

The blood-traced cat’s tail stood erect and its hair was pencil-straight . It glared unwaveringly at Shi Xueman, who was in midair .

The hair on the cat’s body was badly damaged and looked very ugly, but Shi Xueman dared not to belittle it at all . What she had thought to be a fatal blow had easily been undermined by the blood-traced cat .

Surveying the whole battlefield, no one, be it Shi Xueman or Duanmu Huanghun, had fallen into a disadvantageous position .

Except for Ai Hui .

Ai Hui was almost completely suppressed by the blood lizard . For a few times now, he had nearly knocked against the blood ring around the lizard’s body, causing him to sweat profusely out of fear . He saw with his own eyes how the blood ring had wrung and crushed incoming rain arrows .

The only person who could break through the lizard’s blood ring was Sang Zhijun . But her arrows, upon passing through, no longer had sufficient power to even leave a scar on the fish scales .

Ai Hui, who was experiencing vertigo, could not coordinate his Dragonspine Inferno properly, and his sword moves were crooked .

If not for the fact that the blood lizard had a restraining fear of Dragonspine Inferno, he would have retreated .

Ai Hui was anxious . What was happening to him? It would be difficult to withdraw if this continued, not to mention claim victory .

He gathered all of his energy, trying hard to control the elemental energy within his body .

His sky palace had no elemental energy… no elemental energy…

Ai Hui was hypnotizing himself non-stop, to force himself to ignore the blurriness and dizziness .

He placed all his attention onto the seven palaces, onto operating [Big Dipper], and onto the sword moves .

[Oblique Slash], [Heavenly Thrust], [Uprising Moon] . . .

Bit by bit, he channelled his attention onto the disobeying Dragonspine Inferno in his hands .