Chapter 325: Hidden Battle

"Xue Hong!"

What appeared to be Senior Brother Chen Qiaoqian's dual-cultivation partner let out a grief-stricken cry. He waved both hands, and a streak of dark light shot out, swirling wildly around the woman's corpse, desperately searching for the Ice Spirit that had killed her.

Truthfully, this senior sister named "Xue Hong" had died a rather unjust death. If she hadn't momentarily succumbed to competitiveness and activated her talisman treasure, she might still be alive and well.

Before activating the talisman treasure, she had always had a light gossamer defensive artifact floating at her side. But in order to shorten the activation time and conserve some magical power, she had carelessly recalled the artifact—and without any protection, she lost her life on the spot.

However, it would be somewhat unfair to blame this woman purely on inexperience and carelessness for such a grave error.

She had seen all the enemies across from her encased in light cocoons and, believing herself surrounded by fellow sect members, felt safe enough to drive the talisman treasure without worry. But who could have guessed that the Ice Spirit would break free from its cocoon in a half-demon transformation, immediately turn invisible, and target her?

At that moment, she was in the final stages of activating the talisman treasure—she couldn't have stopped even if she wanted to. That was how she met her tragic end.

To be fair, when Song Meng had activated his spear talisman treasure earlier, he likewise hadn't used any protective measures. The only difference was that Song Meng's talisman treasure had lower power requirements, so he succeeded in activating it sooner. Otherwise, there was no telling whom the invisible Ice Spirit would have ambushed.

And forget about the two of them—even Han Li and the others who had just attacked had barely activated their defensive artifacts. After all, those light cocoons were nothing but helpless targets, and no one wanted to waste magical power deploying defensive tools on top of that.

But now, seeing this woman's gruesome death—heart torn from her chest—and hearing Han Li's warning, the others broke into cold sweat down their spines. Defensive artifacts and protective barriers sprang into existence all around them at once, guarding against another sneak attack from this cunning, ferocious enemy.

What left them even more dumbfounded, however, was that no matter what concealment-detection spells or artifacts they employed, they simply could not track the demon's whereabouts.

On the rare occasion someone caught a glimpse of movement, before they could even feel a spark of hope, the demon would vanish again as if it had never been there—clearly moving at extraordinary speed. The Ice Spirit was now thoroughly translucent, flickering in and out of visibility around them. Forget the naked eye—even spiritually attuned artifacts proved useless for active tracking,甩 off after just a few moments.

Everyone was now consumed by self-preservation, vigilantly scanning their surroundings with grim focus. They had been so thoroughly suppressed by the half-demon Ice Spirit that not a single person dared to move.

Only Han Li watched the scene unfolding before him, a strange expression flickering across his face.

That Senior Brother Wang who had fought alongside Han Li had never witnessed such a bloody spectacle. His face had gone deathly pale, openly revealing his fear.

For him, the fact that the senior sister who had been chatting and laughing with him just a short while ago had died so miserably—it felt like nothing short of a nightmare. This was completely, utterly different from the scenario he had imagined, where his side would display overwhelming power and crush the enemy with ease!

Thinking of this, he glanced at Xue Hong's dual-cultivation partner, whose expression had turned almost mad, and his own face grew even more haggard.

Perhaps it was a case of fearing something only to have it come true.

Whether it was because his trembling anxiety had been spotted by the Ice Spirit, or because it simply judged him the weakest and easiest prey, the result was the same.

In his moment of helpless vacillation, a transparent, icy claw materialized out of thin air behind him, lunging savagely toward his heart.

Wang Senior Brother's protective artifact—a small bronze shield—proved remarkably spirited. Without waiting for his command, it flashed over on its own, intercepting the blow perfectly.

A clear metallic clang rang out. Although the ice-like claw was repelled, the small bronze shield was instantly encased in a thick layer of frost and clattered straight to the ground, temporarily losing its spiritual properties.

Only then did Senior Brother Wang realize the catastrophe unfolding behind him. The color drained from his face in an instant. He spun around reflexively, panic-stricken, darting his gaze left and right.

Seeing no movement nearby, he hesitated for a moment before abruptly bending down to retrieve the small copper shield—he needed to thaw it out quickly and deploy it again.

"Get out of the way!"

Liu Jing, standing nearby, caught sight of what he was doing and shouted at him in alarm and fury.

"What?"

Senior Brother Wang froze, not yet understanding what was happening, when the water-attribute barrier behind him let out an extraordinarily crisp cracking sound. A bone-piercing blast of freezing wind surged toward his back.

"Oh no!" Senior Brother Wang realized what was happening almost simultaneously—the invisible Ice Spirit hadn't retreated after its first strike. It had circled behind him and launched a lethal follow-up attack.

In that instant, Senior Brother Wang's mind went completely blank. The only image that surfaced in his thoughts was the scene of Senior Sister "Xue Hong" lying dead in a pool of her own blood.

"I never imagined it would be my turn so soon!"

That was the only thought Senior Brother Wang managed before everything ended.