Perhaps it was due to sheer confidence, but the ape demon did not back down despite having noticed Zhao Yunxiao coming at him from behind Pu Feixiang.
It only hesitated for the slightest of moments before punching forward, aiming right at Pu Feixiang's chest.
Pu Feixiang was unable to pull his spear back in time, but this slight delay allowed him to hurriedly put his arm up as a guard.
Bang-!
A thunderous collision sounded as the ape demon's fist smashed into Pu Feixiang's arm.
"Argh!" Pu Feixiang groaned in pain as he was sent flying straight into the ground.
The impact created a crater on the ground, sending leaves and twigs flying in all directions.
At the same time, Zhao Yunxiao's halberd headed straight towards the ape demon's face.
In response, the ape demon raised its other arm to block.
Even though Zhao Yunxiao was not executing any profound combat technique, his halberd was still imbued with essence energy and powered with every ounce of his strength.
The sheer power behind his attack was definitely not to be underestimated!
The halberd penetrated through the ape demon's thick hair and easily reached the flesh underneath.
With a roar, the ape demon swung its arm to throw Zhao Yunxiao off.
The latter skilfully pulled back his halberd, drawing an arc of blood droplets in the air before he gently landed on the ground.
Unfortunately, his attack did not seem to have inflicted too heavy an injury either.
"Regroup!" Mo Mian ordered as he charged past everyone to arrive before the ape demon.
Essence energy erupted from within him, and his figure turned into a blur. The next instant, Mo Mian became one with the wind, blending into nature to draw upon its mystical powers.
It was as though he had disappeared all of a sudden, replaced by a vicious wind that repeatedly battered upon the ape demon.
Slash-! Slash-! Slash-!
Sword wounds appeared one after another on the ape demon's body as it wore an expression that was filled with both confusion and rage.
Against this relentless assault that seemed to be coming from all directions at the same time, the ape demon was left completely helpless!
As for defending itself, how was it supposed to do that when it could not even accurately track the enemy's movements?
All it could see was a blurred whirlwind that kept circling around it like a predatory force of nature, seemingly seeking nothing but its eventual demise!
Zhao Yunxiao widened his eyes in awe as he witnessed this scene play out before him.
He had expected Mo Mian to have a few additional moves hidden up his sleeves, but he never thought that it would be something like this.
As expected of the leader of the Mystic Cavalry...
If Mo Mian could keep this up for long enough, he might even be able to defeat the ape demon all by himself!
"Do you know what Senior Martial Brother Mo's alias is?" Chu Han asked after seeing the look of shock on Zhao Yunxiao's face.
"Senior Martial Brother Mo's alias?" Zhao Yunxiao revealed his ignorance by repeating the question.
"Phantom Blade," Chu Han answered with a proud smile. "Phantom Blade Mo Mian. And this is what the leader of our Mystic Cavalry can do when he is serious."
"Phantom Blade..." Zhao Yunxiao nodded. "How apt."
Indeed, it was almost as though Mo Mian had turned into a phantom, freely slashing away at the ape demon while the other party had absolutely no way of tracking his blade.
Zhao Yunxiao could not help but wonder what he could do if he were to ever land in a situation like that.
Would he be able to do anything at all?
Or would he have no choice but to stand there and let his opponents do as they wished, just like what the ape demon was doing right now?
Zhao Yunxiao quickly shook off his stray thoughts.
Now was not the time to think about all that.
"Are you all right, Senior Martial Brother Pu?" Zhao Yunxiao turned towards Pu Feixiang who was pulling himself up from the ground.
"Yeah... thanks for earlier," Pu Feixiang said with a cough.
Even though Zhao Yunxiao did not manage to stop the ape demon from attacking Pu Feixiang, his actions had at least distracted the ape demon to a certain extent, even forcing it to use one of its arms to defend.
Otherwise, Pu Feixiang might have ended up in a far worse state.
"All right, get into position if you are fine," Chu Han said matter-of-factly. "Senior Martial Brother Mo won't be able to keep this up forever."
"Got it," Pu Feixiang nodded.
"Wait, something is wrong!" Gui Longcan yelled. "The ape demon is burning its blood essence!"
"What? Already?" Chu Han reacted in shock.
Rahhhh-!
The ape demon roared in rage as its demonic aura exploded, causing even Mo Mian to retreat out of caution.
As he finally ended his previous state of being one with the wind, Mo Mian's figure appeared once again before everyone's eyes.
His eyes remained sharp and focused, but his heavy breathing was a testament to just how exhausting the previous move actually was.
Even though he had been the one doing all the attacking, he actually looked more tired than the ape demon.
Of course, that was not the party's main concern right now.
All five members of the Mystic Cavalry remained a safe distance from the ape demon, watching it carefully as they braced themselves for what was to come.
At the same time, they could not help but feel uncertain about this sudden change in situation.
Burning one's blood essence was usually left as a last resort, something that would only be done when pushed to the very limit.
While Mo Mian's attacks were sharp and relentless, it should not have inflicted nearly enough damage on the ape demon for it to feel that threatened just yet.
So why was it suddenly burning its blood essence?
"It is finally working," Zhao Yunxiao was the only one who did not act surprised.
"What do you mean?" the rest of the party turned their attention towards him.
"The poison. It is finally starting to take effect," Zhao Yunxiao elaborated.
Earlier, when the ape demon was chasing after his clone, Zhao Yunxiao had managed to douse it in one of the deadliest poisons that he had in his possession.
Back then, the ape demon had reacted rather strongly, which was telling enough for Zhao Yunxiao to understand that the poison was effective to a certain extent.
It might not be a poison that was designed to kill fast, but quite a bit of time had already passed since then.
On top of that, concerned that the earlier poison alone would not be enough to do the job, Zhao Yunxiao had also applied a second type of poison on his halberd when he struck the ape demon earlier.
This was an even more lethal substance, designed to kill fast.
The only downside was that it would only work when applied directly to the blood stream, but Zhao Yunxiao had managed to do just that with the help of Pu Feixiang, be it intentional or not.
Zhao Yunxiao had chosen the poisons only after careful deliberation.
Not only were the two poisons deadly when used separately, but when the two substances were used together on the same target, it would even cause a compounding effect that was far greater than the sum of its parts!
It would appear that even the tough ape demon was not impervious to this effect.
If Zhao Yunxiao had to explain why he was confident that they could take down the ape demon, he would say that there were two main reasons.
The first reason would be his confidence in Mo Mian.
Chu Han had already displayed his comprehension of the world laws through the grand array that sealed in the entire area. As the leader of the party, Zhao Yunxiao was certain that Mo Mian should be capable of feats on a similar level.
And since he was a main combatant of the party, Zhao Yunxiao naturally assumed that Mo Mian's abilities lay in the realm of direct combat.
This meant that as long as he had the party's help, Mo Mian should be capable of dealing with an opponent stronger than the monkey demon earlier.
As for the second reason, it would be Zhao Yunxiao's confidence in his own arsenal of poisons.
Some might consider poison to be an unorthodox path.
Indeed, it might not be the most honourable or impressive way of fighting, but Zhao Yunxiao believed that the result was the thing that truly mattered.
Honour was a concept reserved for the strong.
As an ordinary cultivator with mediocre talent, he naturally had to resort to all means necessary to gain every little advantage when it came to real life battles.
And that included not shying away from using what others would deem as sneaky tricks. After all, there was a reason why people often said that all was fair in love and war.
In this case, the choice was obvious if the alternative outcome could potentially lead to his death!
"Poison, eh?" Mo Mian chuckled. "No wonder it has been slowing down. I was thinking that things are going a little too well."
As someone who had been confronting the ape demon directly, he naturally observed every subtle change in the ape demon.
It was normal to start slowing down after receiving numerous wounds, but the ape demon's movements were getting sluggish at a far faster rate than he had expected.
Mo Mian had been confused about that initially, but it all made sense now that he knew that the ape demon had been suffering internally from poison all along!
"When did you even manage to poison it?" Gui Longcan asked. "Was it the halberd strike earlier?"
"Damn, was I the bait all along?" Pu Feixiang grumbled.
"That, and even earlier as well," Zhao Yunxiao answered.
"Even earlier?" Gui Longcan exclaimed in surprise.
Zhao Yunxiao was poisoning the ape demon while they were still dealing with the monkey demon?
Wasn't he only trying to distract it?
"I think I like you, Junior Martial Brother Zhao," Pu Feixiang joked.
"More than you like Junior Martial Sister Lu?" Zhao Yunxiao replied.
"In your dreams," Pu Feixiang snapped back without hesitation.
"All right, enough joking around," Chu Han shut them up. "We are not even done with the hard part yet."
They had already failed to keep the ape demon under control with their formation once, and had to be bailed out by Mo Mian's impressive individual display of skills.
Now that it had started burning its blood essence, the ape demon would only become even more difficult to handle.
"Will the poison be able to kill it?" Mo Mian asked the question that was on everyone's mind.
"Should be just a matter of time," Zhao Yunxiao answered.
"That makes things a lot simpler," Chu Han smirked.
"Let me guess, we just have to drag things out?" Pu Feixiang chimed in.
"Sounds simple indeed," Gui Longcan said.
Zhao Yunxiao might not have been sure of this earlier, but he was absolutely certain now that the ape demon had started burning its blood essence.
After all, burning its blood essence was equivalent to trading its vitality for a temporary boost in strength.
The ape demon was already struggling to suppress the poison before this.
How could it possibly fare any better now that it had consciously reduced its vitality and life force even further?
If the demon had done this while fully understanding the potential consequences, then it was nothing but a suicidal move in Zhao Yunxiao's eyes – an attempt at mutual destruction by an entity that had thrown away any regard for its own life.
And now, it was up to them to make sure that this suicidal attempt would not pan out as it wished!