Xu Qing immediately spat out a mouthful of blood and staggered before barely managing to stand.

After wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, Xu Qing finally became serious.

Unexpectedly, this colorful phoenix was so powerful that it easily destroyed the magical artifact that he had nurtured with his own blood essence.

Shi Lan gave him a cold glance and pointed at the Wind Serpent.

The wind serpent flicked its tongue, its body, strewn with withered branches and leaves, as it slapped at Xu Qing's protective aura.

The light shield flashed twice and then disappeared.

Xu Qing hadn't expected the wind serpent, which he had previously taken lightly, to have such power, so he quickly threw out a shield the size of his palm.

The shield appeared and quickly grew to a height of half a zhang, completely blocking Xu Qing's figure.

The wind serpent glared with fierce eyes, angrily lashed out with its tail again, and seeing that the shield's spiritual light had dimmed considerably, it turned around with satisfaction and breathed on the fire dragon that it had been unable to defeat.

Under Zhou Qing's tortoise shell, the fire dragon was already somewhat weakened. The aura of the wind serpent caused its body to swell again, and the fierce flames kept swirling and rushing towards the silk handkerchief that had already changed color.

Moments later, the silk handkerchief turned into ashes and scattered all over the ground.

Zhou Qing, pale-faced, huddled under a tortoise shell, her fingers trembling as she pinched two talismans.

Shi Lan's fingers flew across the paper once more, and streaks of spiritual light flew from her fingertips toward the colorful phoenix that was flapping its wings and attacking the shield.

Xu Qing gritted his teeth, enduring Cai Luan's attacks, and asked, "What exactly is this thing?"

Zhou Qing, panting, stuffed a handful of pills into her mouth and said, "I don't know. Senior brother, we can't hold on any longer, let's call for help."

Xu Qing bent down, concealed himself, and stuffed two spirit pills into his mouth to replenish his true essence. He said, "That's fine too." He dragged his shield toward Zhou Qing and gestured for her to come in.

Zhou Qing, without suspicion, shot out two spirit talismans, slightly hindering the wind serpent's attack, and then carefully stepped behind Xu Qing's shield, bracing herself against the tortoise shell.

Seeing that she had withdrawn her defenses, Xu Qing smiled and said, "I'll leave this to you, Junior Sister."

Zhou Qing realized that his words were not right and quickly retreated.

Xu Qing lured her in with the intention of finding a scapegoat, so how could he let her escape?

He grabbed her arm and threw her out of the protective shield before she could struggle.

When Cai Luan saw something flying in the air, she reflexively pecked at it. After busying themselves for a long time, the fire dragon and wind snake finally saw their prey and also entangled themselves towards Zhou Qing.

Seeing that the attack had slowed down, Xu Qing quickly put away his shield, activated a speed talisman, and turned to run away into the distance.

Shi Lan quickly made a hand seal to command Cai Luan to give chase.

Cai Luan shook off the corpse from its beak, swatted away the fire dragon and wind snake blocking its path, and prepared to give chase.

But a step too slow leads to another, and with the dense forest overgrown with vines, Xu Qing's whereabouts have vanished.

(To be continued.)