Would this turn into a drawn-out battle of attrition lasting several days and nights?
The young woman sat with her eyes shut tight, hands forming seals, five-colored light churning restlessly across her body with not the slightest hint of anything amiss. Ye Chu, meanwhile, continued to spew torrents of blue-green spiritual light, ceaselessly pouring them into the young woman's body — yet her own skin had changed dramatically.
What had once been an emerald green complexion reminiscent of a wood spirit was now crystal-white and smooth, flawless as fine jade.
She had transformed completely into a ravishing beauty — an oval face, phoenix eyes, star-bright pupils — looking no older than eighteen or nineteen.
Seeming to sense
Sensing a trace of irritation from her,
Just then, a strange crackling sound rang out from overhead — a sharp, ripping noise that set
The scene in the sky had changed drastically. The gale's force was transforming into brilliant blue spiritual light as enormous, crystalline ice lotuses bloomed across the heavens. An intense, bone-piercing chill that seemed capable of freezing through the very sky surged into the battle in the blink of an eye.
This extreme cold and the white flame coexisted in perfect harmony, without the slightest hint of mutual repulsion. On the contrary, these two diametrically opposed forces of heaven and earth seemed to complement each other, their combined power surging several-fold in an instant.
White fire and blue ice lotuses intertwined and spiraled across more than half the sky, pressing the lightning forces steadily backward.
The Variegated Phoenix had evidently employed some miraculous technique. Having transformed the power of wind into freezing cold in an instant, it now held a commanding advantage in the fight.
"Heh heh — the Five Elements transform, all essences return to one! You've finally decided to use the Yin-Yang Extremity Transmutation Art? Good, very good — I've been waiting for this very day!" The enormous Golden Dragon overhead, though seemingly on the verge of collapse, showed not a trace of panic. Instead, a deep, resonant voice boomed from its jaws, and it burst into hearty laughter, sounding genuinely delighted.
"You know this technique?" The Variegated Phoenix's form froze, and a voice filled with alarm and suspicion rang out — unmistakably the white-robed young woman's voice.
But the great dragon overhead paid the phoenix no heed. Instead, a deafening incantation thundered from its maw, and what followed was a scene that defied all expectation.
The dragon's colossal body suddenly shed its golden radiance, transforming instead into a vivid, dripping blood-red. Its jaws gaped wide, and a thick pillar of blood surged outward.
The moment the blood pillar met the air, it spun rapidly and condensed into a titanic sword more than ten zhang long.
The blade was entirely translucent blood-red, wrought in the form of a dragon's head and a phoenix's body. A thick miasma of bloodlust erupted from it in waves, making anyone who caught a whiff feel like retching.
"The Blood Crystal Maha Sword — this Spirit Treasure actually ended up in your hands! Don't tell me you intend to—" Upon recognizing the sword's form, the Variegated Phoenix cried out its name in shock, but immediately realized what was happening and descended into utter panic. It spread its wings and made to flee.
"You want to leave now? Too late!" An icy voice issued from the great dragon's maw. Its body lunged forward, shrinking countless times in an instant until it became a streak of blood-red light roughly a zhang long, which plunged directly into the blood sword.
The sword shuddered once, then slashed through empty air toward the distant Variegated Phoenix.
A faint shimmer of blood light flashed. A blood shadow over a hundred zhang long cleaved through the Variegated Phoenix's body — so fast that the great bird had no time to react.
A furious, startled phoenix cry rang out. The Variegated Phoenix's massive body appeared outwardly unharmed, but a spectral blood phoenix mere feet in size had been slashed out from within by the sword shadow. The blood-red blade shadow then swept backward, enveloping the blood phoenix phantom in a haze of crimson light, and shot back at blistering speed. In a few flickers, it returned to the blood sword.
The blood sword blazed with brilliance and emitted a deep, resonant hum.
The Variegated Phoenix's body gave a muffled "pfft" and dissolved into motes of spiritual light that scattered into nothingness. Only a small sliver of blood light plunged straight down from the dispersing glow, vanishing into the young woman's body below in the blink of an eye.
"The Celestial Phoenix spirit blood... more than half of my True Spirit blood has been siphoned away by that sword." The young woman's voice was slightly hoarse, and the composure she had maintained throughout was nowhere to be seen.
"Young Mistress, there is no need to panic. The Celestial Phoenix spirit blood is not so easily seized. For now, it is merely trapped within that sword. Even if that person from the Long family enters the sword wielding the True Dragon blood with his Primordial Spirit, he cannot possibly succeed in truly devouring and refining the spirit blood immediately. As long as we recapture the sword, we will still have a chance to reclaim it — and perhaps even seize his True Dragon bloodline in turn." Ye Chu ceased pouring her spiritual light, her gaze turning sharp as she spoke in a grim tone.
"Indeed — I can still sense the presence of that portion of spirit blood. The other party has not yet succeeded. Let us go and take back that sword. Brother Han, I know you are no ordinary Deity Transformation cultivator. If you help me recover my spirit blood this time, I promise that the Ye family will be willing to handle one matter within our capabilities for you, in return." The white-robed young woman, hearing Ye Chu's words, finally regained her composure. After a brief moment of thought, she turned toward