"We originally came here for Brother Xiao, so even without your invitation, we were planning to stay at your cave abode for a few days." Daoist Qingping replied with a smile.
Han Li considered for a moment, then nodded.
"Very well, it's settled then. Honored friends, please follow me to the nearest combat arena first. I'll leave matters here to my sect's disciples." Hearing this, a hint of joy appeared on Xiao Ming's face. He glanced at the Blood Crane City guards who had already begun appearing in all directions, and spoke thus.
The old woman and Daoist Qingping naturally had no objections. After Han Li silently transmitted two voice messages to Zhu Guo'er and Patriarch Shi, he likewise followed the three toward a certain location in the city.
Zhu Guo'er and Patriarch Shi exchanged a glance, then silently departed the area, quickly vanishing into the nearby streets.
Half an hour later, within the center of a ring-shaped building a thousand zhang in diameter, a layer of white, hazy light curtain rose up. In the empty space within, Xiao Ming and the old woman stood facing each other from a distance.
Outside the light curtain, on the spectator stands, Han Li and Daoist Qingping watched the proceedings with calm expressions.
A moment later, Xiao Ming exhaled softly, uttered the words "first move," then suddenly opened his mouth and spat out a beam of blood-colored light that expanded in the wind and transformed into a giant bone blade.
The tip of this weapon was inlaid with several silver rings that jingled ceaselessly in the breeze.
Xiao Ming seized the bone blade, gave a low shout, and swung his arm violently, hurling the weapon directly at the old woman.
With a muffled thud, the moment the massive bone blade left his hand, countless blood-red rune markings surfaced across it. In a single flicker, it bizarrely traversed several hundred zhang of distance, appearing directly in front of the old woman with barely a hand's breadth between them.
"Hmph, is that all you've got?"
The old woman snorted lightly, a trace of disdain in her tone, though in reality she didn't dare show the slightest carelessness. One of her hands flashed upward like lightning, drawing out an ancient-looking black wooden hairpin, which she slashed downward in an empty arc toward the incoming bone blade. A clear ringing sound rang out.
A jet of black flame sprayed from the tip of the wooden hairpin, and after a brief flicker it wound itself around the bone blade, erupting with blinding radiance.
A startling scene unfolded.
After the black flame merely coiled around the bone blade a few times, the blade was forcibly halted in midair and began to rapidly melt at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Second move."
Seeing this, Xiao Ming showed not the slightest surprise. Instead, he calmly made his next move.
He pointed a single finger at the bone blade, which had melted nearly halfway in the void.
Those silver rings — still gleaming brightly untouched within the black flames — immediately began to tremble slightly. After a brief blur, they forcibly broke free from the coiling fire and vanished from their original position.
The next instant, the old woman's expression changed. She suddenly twisted her body, transforming into a beam of azure light that shot skyward.
In the spot where she had just been standing, spatial fluctuations rippled, and several silver-glowing rings appeared silently, all contracting inward simultaneously.
But thanks to the old woman's preemptive movement, they naturally hit nothing but empty air.
However, Xiao Ming continued muttering incantations under his breath, pointing his finger at the rings repeatedly in midair without pause.
With a thunderous boom, countless silver arcs of lightning surfaced across the rings' smooth surfaces, and amid crackling thunder they charged upward toward the old woman high in the sky.
Seeing this, Madam Wan's expression darkened. She waved the wooden hairpin downward again and again.
Waves of black flame surged downward, but aside from momentarily stalling the rings' advance, they proved largely ineffective.
Though Madam Wan's figure flickered and shifted repeatedly through the void, the silver rings similarly teleported from place to place, pursuing her relentlessly amid the sounds of wind and thunder.
After dodging several times, a look of impatience finally appeared on the old woman's face, and she let out a sharp shout:
"You really think you can suppress my Devil Flame with just this exotic treasure? Old monster Xiao, let me show you the true terror of the Bone-Corroding Devil Flame!"
As soon as these words left her lips, the old woman flung the wooden hairpin away, spat a mouthful of vital essence onto it, and at the same time black light flashed behind her, conjuring the phantom of a massive black lion more than ten zhang tall.
The lion was wreathed in rolling black flames, and the moment it materialized it emanated an eerie aura that chilled the heart.
Meanwhile, the wooden hairpin radiated brilliant light and transformed directly into a pitch-black short sword.
The blade was merely half a foot long, yet it radiated an unbelievable heat that filled the surrounding void with the acrid smell of scorching, as though the very air were being set aflame.
Taking advantage of this opening, the silver rings flickered once more and reappeared directly above Madam Wan, smashing downward with tremendous force.
The black lion let out a low roar, raised its head, and spat a billow of black fire clouds skyward, forcibly catching and holding the silver rings aloft.
Madam Wan then drove her will into the short sword.