Sun Wuji had never touched a woman before, much less a hug. Of course, Mei Yue'er did not count because he thought of her like a family member. This strange feeling that he never experienced before constantly stirred his mind.
But ultimately, as he still had a firm grasp of his task, Sun Wuji suppressed his inner storm and refocused his mind.
At that moment, Feng Luotian's voice sounded in his mind: "Everyone is in position. Wuji. Lingxi. Please begin."
"Understood!!" Both of them replied.
With the sakura petal beneath her foot, she bent her knees a little. Following a quiet swishing sound, Sun Wuji found himself in the air two hundred meters from the ground without any explosive burst of sound.
Her jump speed was so fast that the clone did not notice them at all. Feng Luotian watched attentively before giving a comment: "Last time, I did not see it clearly, but both of her abilities together are really amazing."
When they were about the reach the highest point of the jump, Tu Lingxi retrieved another sakura petal, crouched mid-air, and placed it under her right foot while her other arm was still holding onto Sun Wuji.
With another Void Jump, they moved to the place right above the clone without any sound at all.
Now, Tu Lingxi let go of Sun Wuji and then used another sakura petal to continue jumping and staying in the air.
As for Sun Wuji, once he started to descend, he transformed both of his arms into two gigantic stone knuckles.
Because Sun Wuji was dropped down by the use of gravity, there was no need for speed. So, he traded all of his speed to boost his attack and defense.
His stone knuckles gradually turned larger and larger until his speed hit zero. His arms were as huge as a house. Now, his attack and defense were quadrupled and more.
To put his damage output to its limit, he activated his skill, Avalanche, and dived straight down to the clone.
BOOOMM!!
Sun Wuji crushed down the clone together with the land itself, causing a devastating explosion. Earth and debris were flying around like an eruption from an earth volcano.
Although the clone was beaten down under the might of Sun Wuji's stone arms, the damage and the stun debuff from Avalanche were only so much as they were reduced by the suppressive principle.
Currently, Sun Wuji could not move at all as he traded all of his speed for the attack. He started to shift back his speed and turn himself back to his original body.
After the stunning state wore off in less than one second, the clone stood up and charged at Sun Wuji.
However, before the clone could begin its assault, it noticed numerous sakura petals fall down from the sky, prompting it to raise its head to look up and found a figure swiftly hopping among the petals with incredible speed.
The falling petals were from Tu Lingxi's skill: Thousand Sakura. She activated it right before Sun Wuji's Avalanche hit its target before she retrieved her advanced weapon, Autumn Creek Tonfa, and incessantly jumped from one petal to another, not letting her enemy have a clear target until she reached it.
Once arriving at her attacking range, Tu Lingxi started to circle around, searching for weak points. Right after she found it, she pranced at the clone with a swing of her weapon.
Alas, the clone was at Three Talons. It had an overwhelming quick reaction, and now without being disabled, it could freely counter an incoming attack.
While dodging the tonfa attack from Tu Lingxi, the clone performed a simple hand strike jabbing at her forehead.
Noticing that she was in a perilous situation, she suddenly became pale, her hair standing on its end.
But at that moment, a voice rang: "Lingxi, turn your head to the left about twenty centimeters and swing your right tonfa at two o'clock direction thirty degrees downward."
Tu Lingxi did not have the time to think, so she just followed whatever she heard, word by word.
To her surprise, after she carried out those orders, she was able to barely dodge the hand strike from the clone and also landed her tonfa on its face.
Escaping from such a situation, Tu Lingxi did not linger and quickly fled from the clone's attacking range.
Now that she got its aggro, the clone was focusing on her figure and actively chasing her down. Nevertheless, with tons of petals still falling from the sky, a couple of jumps took her high enough to shake it off.
Another voice rang: "Brother Wei, it is your turn."
"Okey-dokey!!" Wei Ci replied.
After a couple of flashy moves from Sun Wuji and Tu Lingxi, the rest of the party except He Chen was able to get close to the clone without it noticing, especially Feng Luotian who was able to get into sixty meters range and use his Momentum Eyes to guide Tu Lingxi out of critical condition.
Although Tu Lingxi was already out of the clone melee attack's range, it still had its skill. It promptly performed the same motion as when it previously wiped out the fifty-man party.
"Everyone gets ready!!" Feng Luotian reminded.
Right before the clone unleashed its Aurora Slash ...
A hymn was heard before several golden streaks of light emerged from the area around the clone and formed a golden net binding it to the ground.
The clone was now unable to move. It was a disabling skill cast by Wei Ci: Gold Lock.
Although the skill had no damage, its disabling duration was quite long. Even after being reduced by the suppressive principle for seven levels, his Gold Lock could restrict the clone's movement for quite a few seconds.
The rest of Wei Ci's body-splitting duplications eagerly awaited, preparing to perfectly chain-cast this Gold Lock skill to maximize the disabling time.
"Attack!!" Feng Luotian cried out.
Five figures: Feng Luotian, Mei Yue'er, Sun Wuji, Tu Lingxi, and Ying Lizhua, immediately charged at the restricted clone.
But after seeing one figure impatiently rush out with his sword while crazily brandishing it without caring for anyone else, the rest stopped their advance and decided to support him instead.
The first to attack was Ying Lizhua.
He had already activated his Eagle Flight onto himself. With his buff duration of ten minutes, and currently, there were less than ten minutes of the exam time, he did not have to worry about his buff wearing off before it was over.
His bloodline, Scarlet Wind Steel Eagle, had more offensive power than any other normal bloodline. Earlier, he sliced himself so that he would lose his blood around 25%, raising his attack by another fold.
Coupling with his Eagle Flight and his ability, Blood Steel, made his attack completely overcome the clone's defense. And with his highest level of cultivation being at Eight Fangs, Ying Lizhua suffered the least from the suppressive principle. That was why a single attack from him could deal damage several-fold higher than others in the party, leaving a visible wound on the clone in every attack.
Normally, Ying Lizhua would have to think carefully before initiating his raid due to his lack of defensive potency. Now that the clone is disabled, he could solely put his mind to attacking.
Ying Lizhua relentlessly swung his sword at the target.
Within ten seconds of disabling interval from four chain-cast Gold Locks, he was able to deal his damage until the clone's aura significantly dampened down.
Looking from its aura, the damage dealt should be more than a fifth of its original radiance, while He Chen's fifty-men party's ultimate strike could only deal less than a tenth.
"No wonder he was so confident in taking down a One Talon clone single-handedly. His damage output was insane." Feng Luotian could not help but click his tongue.
The rest of the party was also surprised by how much damage Ying Lizhua was able to do with that onslaught. They saw the clones receiving one clear wound after another.
When the last Gold Lock was about to wear out, Wei Ci shouted: "That's the fourth Gold Lock. You all will have to wait for about two minutes before I can use it again. In the meantime, good luck!"
Upon finishing his sentence, Wei Ci and his three doppelgängers quickly retreated. His action was understandable. He was the most fragile cultivators in the party. His physique was even weaker than those of normal Three Fangs Fighters. A little stray attack from this Three Talons clone could evaporate them on touch.
Gold Lock's duration soon came to an end, and the clone could finally move again. It swiftly turned toward Ying Lizhua and swung its hand down.
Feng Luotian's purple eyes flashed in blue light: "Lizhua, move back two steps and swing your sword to the—"
"Shut up!! I don't need your guidance!!" Ying Lizhua shouted. He raised his sword to meet with the clone's hand chop directly.
Ying Lizhua was confident that after being boosted by Eagle Flight. Although he could not deal as much damage as he expected, he should be able to fight with it evenly.
But he was wrong.