Seven pillars of fire, ablaze from the seven blue flags, shot skyward, weaving into a net a hundred meters above the ground. A ghostly blue barrier, like an inverted giant bowl, enveloped the entire mudflat, silencing even the sound of waves crashing against the shore, plunging the world into an eerie silence.
"Don't panic." Han Feng raised his hand to stop the restless members of the aristocratic alliance behind him. "I can break the barrier. Let's watch the show first."
His eyes sparkled as he quietly analyzed the barrier's structure—the moving runes were seven parts similar to the underwater formations, but with a more sinister aura.
In the center of the barrier, Mu Xiaoxiao knelt on one knee, the crystal on her chest floating in the air. The surviving Youjing Clan warriors all knelt down in unison, their foreheads pressed against the ground, as if welcoming the arrival of a god.
"Playing tricks!" Aya Ikegami's vertical pupils contracted sharply, but she couldn't stop herself from retreating. She felt an overwhelming pressure forming within her.
The blue light from the dome suddenly collapsed, transforming into a blurry, illusory figure. The figure had only a human outline, but its face was a swirling nebula, and each fluctuation distorted the light within the barrier.
"My lord," Mu Xiaoxiao said devoutly, "the remnant soul of the Moon Demon Queen has been revived."
The phantom "looked" at Aya Ikegami, and with just one glance, Aya Ikegami coughed up a mouthful of blood. Her vertical pupils on her forehead shot out beams of pinkish-purple light in response, but they disintegrated on their own before touching the phantom.
"Blue Star...I'm leaving it to you." The illusory voice whispered like millions of people at once, "Two...Great Dao Realm...small fry..."
A blinding blue light separated from the phantom and shot straight into Mu Xiaoxiao's crown. Her body stiffened as if electrocuted, her hair stood on end and turned ice blue, and nebula patterns appeared under her skin, identical to those in the phantom.
The illusory figure gradually dissipated, and the last words echoed within the barrier: "Speed...up..."
Mu Xiaoxiao slowly stood up, every bone in her body crackling like popping beans. When she opened her eyes, her pupils had turned into two spinning blue crystals.
"Now..." she stretched her neck, "it's time to settle the accounts."
Aya Ikegami's expression changed drastically, and she rapidly formed hand seals: "Moon Shield!" A shield composed of countless tiny crescent moons instantly took shape.
\"Bang!\"
Mu Xiaoxiao casually threw a punch, and the Moon Shield shattered into countless sparks. The aftershock sent Chi Shangling flying dozens of meters, carving a deep trench in the mudflats.
"That's it?" Mu Xiaoxiao strolled closer, blue crystal steps forming beneath her feet. "Is this all the Moon Demon Queen taught you?"
Aya Ikegami wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, then suddenly grinned maliciously: "You thought... that was all?" She ripped open her collar, revealing a pinkish-purple crescent moon brand on her chest, "Lunar Eclipse - Soul Sacrifice!"
The brand writhed like a living thing, and Aya Ikegami's skin shriveled at a visible rate, while the vertical pupil on her forehead swelled three times its original size, almost taking up half of her face. A pinkish-purple beam of light, over ten feet in diameter, blasted towards Mu Xiaoxiao, causing fine cracks to appear in the space it passed through.
"Interesting." Mu Xiaoxiao neither dodged nor flinched, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Nether Crystal Wall!"
Blue crystals materialized out of thin air, forming a multi-layered hexagonal shield. The beam of light collided with the shield, and the resulting shockwave ripped up the ground within a radius of a hundred meters. Even with Han Feng protecting them, the Dragon Abyss team members watching the battle were still thrown about by the shockwave.
"This is... the power of the Great Dao Realm?" Chen Feng gripped the rock tightly, his voice trembling.
Amidst the smoke and dust, Mu Xiaoxiao's shield was reduced to its last layer, but Chi Shangling's pillar of light had also exhausted its strength. The two stared at each other from a distance, simultaneously forming hand seals.
"Lunar Eclipse - Burial of Ten Thousand Souls!"
"Phantom Crystal Soul Devourer!"
Countless vengeful spirits flew out from Aya Ikegami's vertical pupils, wailing and forming a torrent of skeletons; Mu Xiaoxiao released blue ice flames from the crystal, freezing even souls wherever they passed. The two forces collided in mid-air, without a loud bang, only a teeth-grinding "sizzle" sound—the sound of space being corroded.
"Snap!"
A black fissure suddenly appeared at the center of the collision, greedily devouring everything around it. The pebbles on the mudflats, the seawater, and even the light were sucked in, and the fissure expanded at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"A spatial rift!" Han Feng's expression finally changed. "Everyone, retreat!"
"Retreat! Retreat to the sea!" Han Feng spread his arms, and a silvery-white light curtain formed by the power of stars enveloped the crowd behind him like an eggshell. Veins bulged on his forehead, and every muscle was taut to the limit—resisting the suction of the spatial rift was more difficult than he had imagined.
Chen Feng staggered backward, dragging his two teammates along. The beach collapsed beneath their feet, and rubble was lifted up as if by an invisible hand, hurtling towards the menacing black fissure in mid-air. Further away, a dozen men in black screamed as they were pulled off the ground, their limbs flailing wildly as they disappeared into the depths of the crack, their screams abruptly ceasing.
"Captain! Captain!" a young Dragon Abyss member pointed at the sky, his voice trembling, "What the hell is that?!"
Han Feng looked up, his pupils shrinking sharply. The battle in the sky was beyond the comprehension of the Blue Star people—Six translucent purple tentacles unfurled from behind Ikegami Aya, each tipped with a vertical pupil identical to her forehead; Mu Xiaoxiao was encased in armor made of blue crystals, her hands constantly releasing ice flames and light blades.
Each collision between the two caused spatial tremors. Suddenly, Aya Ikegami's tentacles lit up simultaneously, shooting out an interwoven net of purple-red light; Mu Xiaoxiao, on the other hand, flung dozens of prism-like crystals from her palm, which refracted at bizarre angles within the net of light, reflecting some of the energy back.
\"boom--\"
The flash of the explosion temporarily blinded everyone. With his enhanced vision thanks to the power of the stars, Han Feng could barely see that Chi Shangling had been hit by part of his attack, her left shoulder a bloody mess; Mu Xiaoxiao's crystal armor also cracked, and a trickle of blood slid from the corner of her mouth.
"The barrier is still expanding!" Dongfang Wantang suddenly shouted. "We're trapped in this area!"
Han Feng then noticed that the entire mudflat was shrouded in a translucent blue light shield—clearly a trap set by Mu Xiaoxiao beforehand. The spatial rift was expanding wildly at the center of the barrier, and the suction force was growing stronger and stronger.
"Form ranks!" Han Feng knelt on one knee, slapping his palm onto the sand. "Star Orbit - Earth Vein Anchor!"
A silvery-white light radiated from his palm, piercing dozens of meters into the ground like tree roots. The Longyuan team members felt their feet stabilize, and the terrifying suction force that was about to pull them off the ground immediately lessened considerably.
"Stay in that position and don't move!" Han Feng instructed, his gaze fixed on the battle in the sky. He needed to observe the fighting styles of these two—both Chi Shangling's eerie eye techniques and Mu Xiaoxiao's Nether Crystal Secret Technique could become threats he would face in the future.
In mid-air, Aya Ikegami suddenly let out a piercing, inhuman scream. Her vertical pupils on her forehead opened wide, revealing the layers of compound eye structures within. A beam of light, almost white with pink, shot out, ionizing the air in its path and producing a deafening explosion.
Mu Xiaoxiao finally revealed a solemn expression. She crossed her arms in front of her chest, and all the crystal armor disintegrated and reformed, forming a giant shield covered with runes in front of her. The moment the beam of light collided with the shield, the entire interior of the barrier transformed into a world of interwoven white and purple.
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