A loud clamor sounded behind them. After the chimera had awoken, their original pathway was blocked off, effectively cutting off their means of escape.

“Go distract the beast,” Baihe commanded. Without the slightest bit of hesitation, she slowly moved away and crept along the edges, trying to escape the chimera’s line to sight.

For a moment, Fenglong was stunned. He clearly saw the desire in her eyes itching for a good fight and yet, she wanted him to take care of the chimera? No, ordered him to do so.

“You’re not going to fight?” Fenglong asked. Then as if he wanted to provoke her, he added: “Running away?”

Baihe was planning to ignore his question, but seeing the challenge in that pair of inquisitive sapphire eyes, she flashed him a shallow smile; “To face the chimera head on? Do you think I’m suicidal?”

Her words brought forth a deep frown as Fenglong suddenly conjured an unpleasant thought. This woman, she couldn’t have considered him as one of her cannon fodders right? Instantly, his face turned gloomy and an unforgiving aura permeated the entire chamber.

Under such immense pressure, the chimera felt threaten by the human male before it and glared at Fenglong pensively. It reared up on its hind legs; then, heavily hammered down with its front paws. The ground shook viciously from the force and boulders of rocks were hurled into the air before crashing down with an earth-shattering impact.

It was fortunate that the two of them were nimble enough to dodge the dangerous rocks; however, seeing the trespassers unscathed greatly agitated the chimera. One of its forelegs kicked the ground a few times before charging toward Fenglong. Its primal instincts told the beast that the human male was the real threat.

Delighted that the chimera was targeting Fenglong instead, Baihe took this time to observe the beast.

As expected, before the chimera had even reach him, Fenglong eluded its attack and propelled his body up the beast. His movements were light and quick, but every step he climbed was packed with spiritual energy, knocking the chimera backward before finally stomping on its snout, leaving behind deep feet imprints.

Indignation rose in the beast and the chimera shook its enormous body to throw the opponent off, but Fenglong concentrated internal energy at his waist and maintained a stable balance as he continued to climb upward to the chimera’s head with his hands clasped behind him leisurely until reaching the main body.

With her unusually keen eyes, Baihe could tell Fenglong was purposely holding back; otherwise, with his strength, she surmised the chimera wouldn’t last much longer. Instead, the fight drawled on. Fenglong deliberately dragged on the battle as if he were waiting for something.

The corner of Baihe’s lips hooked up. This was good; not only was it great research material, but she’d be able to test out her new strength without drawing aggro to herself. Gathering a mass of spiritual energy around her fists, Baihe dashed forward and landed numerous sneak punches, but the chimera treated her attacks like she was throwing pillows at it.

From above, Fenglong sat lofty on the furious chimera. His body trembled from trying to stifle the laughter. As he thought, bullying this woman was the best; seeing Baihe’s dumbfounded and foolish look, his mood vastly improved. However, in the next second, his expression turned serious.

Baihe had summoned her three shimmering guqin strings and coiled it around the chimera, but because the beast was incensed, its body rattled wildly and her strings snapped. Luckily, Fenglong had fast reflex and sent the chimera flying in the air until its body smashed into the water fountain.

Since it was busy trying to protect itself, the chimera didn’t infuse too much strength behind snapping her three guqin strings and as a result, Baihe didn’t suffer from a backlash this time; however, she was now even more clearly aware of the disparity between a Mid Dao Stage 5 and a Nascent Soul Stage 5.

Despite her dangling a fresh human distraction in front of the chimera, Baihe was still unable to catch it off guard.

The enraged chimera pounced forward once more, swiping its front claws at Fenglong but missed its target. With a swoosh, its serpent tail swung in the air and jabbed toward Fenglong; yet once again, the human male evaded the attack. Its golden eyes glowed with violence; opening its mouth wide, the chimera released a breath of flamethrower.

Unfortunately, the fire hit no one besides one of the stone pillar, instantaneously melting it to the ground. When Baihe saw the grayish, black liquid, a trace of light flashed across her dark pupils; she suddenly recalled a certain mythological hero: Bellerophon.

Unexpectedly, the stone pillars were made from lead! Baihe could tell from a glance it wasn’t normal lead if the one inch smog clinging to the melted liquid was any indication. If the stories passed down from her old world were true, then the very weapon to kill the chimera had been in front of her face the whole time, albeit from a different culture.

Fenglong played around with the chimera, leading the beast by the nose as it angrily tried to claw or burn the human male but to no avail. Instead, Fenglong was exceptionally focused on Baihe, waiting to see what kind of surprise she would show him.

He was not disappointed.

Three shimmering guqin strings wrapped around one of the remaining three stone pillars and weeded it out from the ground. When the chimera opened its mouth wide again to release another blast of flamethrower, Baihe hurled the stone pillar directly into its mouth and successfully lodged it inside the chimera’s throat.

The terrible burning flame instantly melted the lead. With a loud roar, the chimera voiced its discontent at her action. Taking advantage of the fact that its mouth was still wide open, Baihe extirpated the remaining stone pillars and tossed them into the chimera’s mouth. This time, with the large volume of melted lead, it managed to block the chimera’s air passage.

Its huge body slumped over and landed on the ground. The monstrous beast writhed on the ground and squirmed in pain — slowly suffocating to death.

Seeing that the chimera was as good as dead, Fenglong didn’t wish to waste any more time on the beast. He lightly raised a finger and a black light shot across the horizon with a whoosh, landing on the chimera and putting the beast out of its misery.

The center of the platform where the chimera originally laid in slumber quaked as it sank into the ground. The rocks gave away and a rectangular ditch was revealed. Spectrum of crimson red lights shone from the chasm created by the platform. These red specks of light were the same dense spiritual essence Baihe had absorbed earlier, enabling her to improve leaps and bounds.

Excited, Baihe sat down cross-legged and began to cultivate, beckoning the crimson red essence to her body. Just like before, these weird essence eagerly poured into her lake.

By the sideline, Fenglong’s expression was a bit unnatural and there was a faint caution between his brows. “Heihuo, what exactly is going on?”

After a long pause, an ancient archaic voice lazily responded to Fenglong in his mind. “Someone deliberately sealed divine fire essence here in the mortal realm. Only the normal green spiritual qi should be available to humans; all other elemental essences are exclusive to the heavenly realm. If my guess is correct…it must be the work of that troublesome fellow — the one who trapped the phoenix inside the legendary guqin; otherwise, this girl should be dead by now.”

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