Cao Yun was almost fighting with a real snake. The movements of his enemy's spear were so unpredictable and sleek that it was very hard even for him to fight against him. Thankfully, his own mastery of martial arts was on point.
This had not been any accident if Mo Zi had kept this particular demonic cultivator alive. All the other ones had served as fuel apart from Neng Lue who was the muscles and Wang Jinhua who had helped him before. Mo Zi wasn't very sentimental or loyal, but he had been reluctant in draining the power from her. Besides, she was so weakened that her death would have not made much difference in the end.
Both spears collided with each other.
'Terran Serpent'!
'Dragon's Chest'!
With this shock, Cao Yun felt how powerful his enemy's spear was. In fact, the scale of the Ebony Snake Dragon had gone completely silent now. Even with his seven stars active, the bloody spear had suppressed his own weapon. This spear had to be either a 5-star Human weapon, or it had even crossed into the rank of Heaven weaponry. For now, Cao Yun was not too sure. Ren Chao would have been able to dispel his doubts but he was otherwise occupied.
Indeed, Neng Lue had released her grip on him but they were still fighting. Neng Lue was very tall and incredibly muscular. Cultivators tended to not have huge muscles because they didn't need them in order to produce strength. For most cultivators, this was an aesthetic choice. In the Hongchen Kingdom toned muscles were preferred to bulging mass. But some cultivators were heavily relying on physique cultivation. Neng Lue was one of those. She had been practicing the 'Hell Devouring Body'. According to this method, one would be able to absorb the fires of Hell in order to improve their physique.
With this physique cultivation, Neng Lue had a physical strength that had no rival in her entire cultivation realm. Yet, here she was, bested by a young man who was still only a Mortal. What she did not know was that he had a Golden Silk Body. Even without any physique cultivation method, his body was incredibly powerful. But while he had been inside the Palace of Supreme Wisdom, he had found one cultivation technique, 'Golden Saint Bones'. Thanks to his physique, he had been given incredible marrow in his bones. And with this technique, he had been able to use them to improve his physique even further.
Until now, his physique had been expressed without his direct intervention. It had simply permeated through his body but through no conscious effort of his own. Of course, as a poor blacksmith, he had harshly trained his body without any fancy method or miraculous pill. Despite that, this very harsh training had still partially activated his physique. But because he didn't even know it was there, it had been minimal. Now, he was voluntarily pushing it to become stronger and stronger.
Faced with Neng Lue, he was still at a huge disadvantage because he could not manifest his Qi. Thus, he got an idea, a very simple and yet effective idea. He didn't give her any chance to manifest it.
Ren Chao was constantly attacking, giving her no room to breathe. Neng Lue and Ren Chao had stopped wrestling but they were now fighting hand-to-hand up close. All their attacks were so powerful that they were echoing throughout the entire Demon Palace for everyone else to be deafened by. The mere wind pressure was enough to even crack the walls and pillars.
When Neng Lue was hitting Ren Chao, her attacks damaged his soft tissues but his bones were impervious. For her, it was like striking against a Spirit weapon. Ren Chao's entire skeleton had been broken during the stampede, but it had healed even stronger than before. And with his 'Golden Saint Bones', his bones were now as enduring as ever. In fact, Neng Lue was more hurt by her own attacks than Ren Chao actually was.
On the other hand, Ren Chao kept on attacking again and again. He only blocked her attacks when they were too dangerous. The rest of the time, he was happy to let her strike his ribs or his skull. He knew that his bones were just too strong for her to break them in a short amount of time. With Qi Manifestation, she would have probably been able to. But this was why he kept on attacking, disregarding the pain. His strikes were so powerful that they were sending her Wei Qi and even her Qi into turmoil. As such, she was unable to keep enough control over it to manifest it outside. Right now, she was barely maintaining her own Wei Qi. Besides, she had to rebuild it often because of those very attacks.
At the same time, Sun Liao and Mo Zi were still locked in a battle of wits to see which one would prevail. Mo Zi was trying to set up the Eightfold Torrents array formation. But if he succeeded, the group would probably lose. Thus, Sun Liao kept on trying to disturb him. The best thing would be to destroy the array formation plate altogether but this wasn't easily done. Indeed, it was within Mo Zi's grasp who had a higher cultivation than him. In fact, if they engaged in a real battle, Sun Liao would die very fast. Thankfully though, they were a distance away from each other. To get to him, Mo Zi would have to go through all of his friends. That included Cao Yun and Ren Chao, who were both rather worrisome.
Unfortunately, although Sun Liao was a genius when it came to array formations, his cultivation was still a little bit behind. As such, Mo Zi would ultimately get the upper hand. And he was already trying to press forward. At the same time he was fighting against Sun Liao's relentless sabotage, he was using his own Qi to set up another kind of array formation. He couldn't go all out for the simple reason that he was otherwise busy. Thus the array formation was only an Earth one. But it would be enough as a distraction.
Sun Liao could sense the Qi around him moving in a known pattern. Mo Zi was trying to build a Mind Muddy Bog array formation. It wasn't particularly dangerous for someone like Sun Liao who had mastered Lifting the Fog of a Dream. But this illusory array formation would be enough to distract him. In order to protect himself from that, he was now focusing a tiny bit of his attention to taking it down. The fight of the two men kept on escalating. Unfortunately Sun Liao was constantly on the defense because of the disparity between the two of them.
At some point though, he tried to be pro-active. Although his cultivation did not allow him to create an array formation with his mind alone, he had now formed a perfect Bamboo Map of the Demon Palace. He had also noticed the void that had started to devour the roof they were under. If that were to spread, everyone would be consumed and would die. But for now, he had to deal with Mo Zi. He was convinced that he had a way of getting out of here. And hopefully Sun Liao could also find a way to activate the Supreme emblems of all the disciples to save them from the upcoming collapse of the unstable realm. Thus, he decided to take some risks. With his arrows, he did not just try to disturb Mo Zi's array formation plate, he was also striking less significant places in order to set up his own array formation.
At first Mo Zi did not see through it because he was busy trying to do the same with his own Qi. But then he realized what his opponent was doing. Such a battle between array formation masters was rare. But for an expert, this was a sight to behold. Usually, even in duels, each array formation master was given some time to set up an array formation and then each one had to try and break it down. But now they were doing it at the same time. Each one was trying to trap the opponent in an array formation while destroying the ones created by the other.
Although the fight was not very impressive as Sun Liao's arrows were all aimed around Mo Zi without ever striking him directly and Mo Zi's Qi was invisible to the naked eye, it was indeed fierce. Both men were drenched in sweat. Strangely enough, despite the very serious stakes at play, both men were enjoying themselves. It had been a very long time since they had been challenged to such an extent. But Mo Zi could see that if Sun Liao reached the Mortal Warrior realm, he would immediately soar to the rank of 5-star Human array formation master. And in that case, he would have no chance of ever beating him without heavily relying on Mo Tian's array formation plates, even if he was at full power.
Mei Hua stopped assisting only Cao Yun. Her melody was spreading to all her brothers. They all felt their fatigue slowly vanish. Now that she was a Mortal Warrior, she could fully show her competence. Like Sun Liao, her mastery of her craft was so great that upon breaking through she had become a 5-star Human alchemist. The only thing missing was for her to pass the test. But she was absolutely certain that she would, with flying colors.
During the fight, she also noticed Wang Jinhua. The injured woman could not do anything at all. Ren Chao and Neng Lue's fight was so brutal that even getting close to them was difficult. There were constant shockwaves caused by their respective attacks. Just getting near them was sending her Qi into a frenzy, and her injuries didn't need that. Cao Yun and the pale man's fight was also way too intense for her. And finally, Mo Zi and Sun Liao were both very distant from one another and were displaying all their knowledge of array formations which she had almost none of.
Thus, Wang Jinhua had nothing of importance to do apart from trying to recover. Just to be sure that she was not a threat, Mei Hua used her previous weapon. Her old rope dart, 'Ten Thousand Thorns', flew toward her and bound her completely. The bondage was so intricate that each time she tried to wrestle against it, it was biting into her flesh more and more. It really was like having ten thousand thorns on her skin. And the pain inflicted depended solely on how much she was trying to break free. Hence, she had a huge incentive not to move around.
Helped with Mei Hua's melody which was soothing his soul, Cao Yun kept on fighting. Just like Sun Liao, he surprised himself enjoying the fight. Indeed, his opponent was vicious but his mastery of martial arts was on point. Apart from Chief Elder Baishen, he had never fought against someone like that. And the difference was that he was actively trying to kill him.
'Pierce to Earth's Core'!
From under Cao Yun, a column of rock stabbed toward the roof.
'The Dragon's Body Hits the Earth'!
He had barely enough time to dodge. Instead, he jumped backward while striking with the butt of his spear. The earth column exploded into tiny fragments. But from the section of the column, another extended toward Cao Yun. It was as though he had cut off the head of a snake only to see another one grow from its amputated neck.
Unfortunately, the pale man's martial art was the 'Winged Entombed Minghse'. The Wingshe was a terrible snake with four wings which was known to appreciate gold and jade. As such he was often coveting mines or tombs of powerful rulers. And this martial art was extremely rich in Earth element. In particular, the pale man's art was using the Mountain trigram. Just like Wind was one of the Eight Trigrams associated with the Wood element, Mountain was another of the Eight Trigrams, associated with the Earth element. And Earth was able to rot Wood. Thus Cao Yun was at a slight disadvantage. Of course, the Five Transformations and the Eight Trigrams were not absolute. Even in alchemy there were caveats. And in a fight where everything was always changing, any element could take over the element that was weakening it.
It was just that Cao Yun was both weaker than his opponent and using an element that had a slight disadvantage. As such, everything was against him. Even his weapon was inferior, and already damaged. Furthermore, Cao Yun's Qi Manifestation were weaker because he was still reluctant to risk using his Bai Hui. On the other hand, Cao Yun's mastery of the Spear Aura was much better than his opponent. Even though it was impressive in itself that he had understood it, this pale man had not such a thorough understanding of Spear Aura.
From Cao Yun's spatial ring, another spear appeared.
'Fish in the Galaxy'!
With all of his strength, he threw the spear toward his opponent. In the air, the image of a fish covered with dragon scales vaguely appeared. It seemed to swim across the air. Each movement of its fins caused small stars to appear for a fraction of a second. The tip of the spear had also turned into a tiny star.
The speed was so high that the pale man was surprised. He had not expected his opponent to throw away his weapon and he had not expected him to take another one out for that specific purpose.
'Fours Wings to Cover All Riches'!
The four wings he had manifested overlapped in front of him in order to stop the projectile. This time, it was stronger than Cao Yun's first attempt against his defense. One wing was almost entirely pierced through and the one behind it also began to crack.
'Dragon's Tail Sweeps the Sky'!
Not wasting any opportunity, Cao Yun unleashed another attack with 'Nine Chi Black Dragon Spear'. Dragon scales appeared on his spear and he swept the air in front of him. A tail made of dragon scales struck the pale man on his flank. From the four wings, the two which were still intact were able to move fast enough to block the attack. As it was not a piercing blow, it had less impact. But as he was blocking the attack, the pale man failed to sense Cao Yun's movement.
He had used 'Ashen Feather Seal' in the middle of the fight to hide his presence. And he was now directly behind his opponent, ready to strike.