The black-robed Qi warrior smiled sinisterly as he gradually closed in on Dong Li.
As his hands constantly wove in the air, numerous streaks of dark-green smoke rapidly flew towards Dong Li, along with a foul smell.
Meanwhile, Dong Li’s cyan awl spun as it sailed through the air, creating streams of cyan light around it.
Within the cyan light, the shadows of spirit beasts would flash into appearance every now and then, letting out angry roars.
As the cyan light and the dark-green smoke clashed repeatedly, a large amount of sparks sputtered out.
Dong Li looked panicked as she yelled non-stop, as if she were waiting for a miracle to happen.
Since she called out the name Hua Tian over and over again, it was obvious that she was hoping Hua Tian would swoop in and “save her life”. However, Hua Tian still hadn’t showed up.
“Bitch! You got seven of my martial brothers killed! Even if you’re a member of the Dong Clan, I’m going to tear you apart!” With these words, two clusters of green flames suddenly blossomed in the black-robed man’s grayish-brown palms.
In the next moment, they threaded through the air and shot directly towards Dong Li’s face.
Panic and fear appeared on Dong Li’s masked face as she twisted her curvaceous body to avoid contact with the two clusters of green flames.
“Die!” The black-robed man sneered as two swords wreathed in green flames suddenly flew out of his cuffs.
Meanwhile, a shield made from beast bones flew out upon Dong Li’s summons.
BANG! BANG!
The two clusters of flames slammed heavily into the bone shield, sending out green sparks in every direction.
The strong impact from the bone shield made Dong Li trudge backwards.
Not only that, but the tremor created by the impact seemed to spread from the bone shield to her arms, and even her entire body.
Her plain-looking face started to crack and fall off like a crushed turtle shell.
A moment later, her mask broke off completely, revealing her singular beauty.
Her red lips trembled as she begged the dumbstruck black-robed man, looking as if she were going to weep, “Please don’t...”
The Qi warrior from the Realm of Black Marsh was bewildered, since he had never expected that his opponent’s face would change upon taking his strike.
Right now, her face was so city-fellingly gorgeous that he couldn’t even bear to launch another attack.
“Please let me go. I promise I’ll stay out of your way. Please!” Dong Li said in a very soft voice. Even her bone shield gradually sagged, as if its weight had become unbearable to her.
“W-who are you exactly?” The black-robed man asked in a smitten state.
“I’m... the one who kills you!” With these words, Dong Li suddenly lifted her bone shield, a circle of bones as sharp as blades sticking out the edge of the shield.
With a turn of the bone shield, the sticking-out bones suddenly left the shield and shot towards the man’s chest.
POOH! POOH! POOH!
In the blink of an eye, the bones pierced into the man’s chest.
At that moment, the delicate look Dong Li had put on was already gone. Her gorgeous face now looked cold and cruel.
She turned her bone shield again and slammed the bones that had pierced into the man’s chest with the shield’s surface.
POOH!
Upon impact, the tips of the bones pierced out of the black-robed man’s back, like steel nails being hammered into wood.
“Who do you think you are…? A toad lusting after a swan’s flesh!” A cold smile appeared at the corner of Dong Li’s mouth.
Then, she reached out her splayed hand, and the cyan awl flew into her palm.
As she grabbed it and planted into the man’s neck effortlessly, the light in the man’s eyes went dim.
With a disgusted expression, she spit towards the man.
Then, she pulled each and every bone out of the man’s chest, and reloaded them into the bone shield.
Seeing that the man didn’t collapse to the ground after he died, she let out a cold harrumph as she took out her cyan awl and stabbed him a few more times in the chest.
BANG!
The black-robed Qi warrior, whose cultivation base had been at the middle Greater Heaven stage, slightly higher than hers, finally collapsed to the ground with a loud crash.
With her cyan awl in one hand and her bone shield in the other hand, Dong Li didn’t spare the man’s corpse another glance. Instead, she looked coldly at the other Qi warriors from the Realm of Black Marsh, who were still dashing towards her.
“Hua Tian!” She yelled at the top of her lungs. “If you don’t show yourself now, none of those who have the faintest relationship with you will be able to leave the Realm of a Hundred Battles alive!”
“God damn it!” Nie Tian’s voice suddenly rang out. “Didn’t you say you would count to three? I was waiting for you to count!”
“Ah, as I expected, you are here!” Upon hearing Nie Tian’s response, Dong Li rapidly began counting with a broad smile, “One, two, three! Okay, done!”
SHEW!
All of a sudden, a beam of dazzling starlight shot out of a tall bush by the lakeshore, where Qi warriors from the Realm of Black Marsh were rushing towards Dong Li.
An early Greater Heaven stage Qi warrior noticed the anomaly, and jerked his head back to see what was going on.
Nie Tian, who had approached them by casting a short-range Starshift, unleashed his vigorous fluctuations of life, which he had been suppressing with his bloodline talent.
A thick blade blast, mixed with flames and starlight, suddenly slashed out from behind the sight-blocking plants. Like a shooting star, it reached the man’s face within a breath’s time.
CRUNCH!
The man’s head was split in half by the Flame Star’s blade blast.
The other Qi warriors from the Realm of Black Marsh instantly stopped their dashing momentum.
That was when Nie Tian walked out from behind the plants that were as tall as two men, with the Flame Star in his hand.
The Flame Star shone with bright light while emanating an extremely fierce aura.
After Nie Tian killed the man with one strike, his Flame Star-bearing hand relaxed slightly before gripping it tightly again. Simultaneously, his spiritual power of various attributes suddenly rushed out of their respective vortexes and madly infused into the Flame Star.
He could sense with great clarity that there were a number of exquisite spell formations inside the Flame Star.
Each spell formation was separated from the others. Like independent formations of channels, they allowed flame power, wood power, and star power to flow inside of them.
As his different spiritual powers flowed within those unique spell formations, they seemed to be strengthened.
The blade of the 1.5-meter-long Flame Star was thoroughly dark-red. Its handle was made from a rare type of wood. Holding it in his hand, Nie Tian felt a mysterious connection between it and the vortexes within his spiritual sea.
No matter how he wielded it, it felt right, as if it was an extension of his arm.
“Li Ye does have some real talent in equipment forging!” He marveled inwardly.
As he lifted and pointed the Flame Star at the other Qi warriors from the Realm of Black Marsh, an extremely strong aura burst forth from the tip of the blade. He said, “I’m the Hua Tian she’s been calling out to.”
The leader with a hawk nose took a deep look at Nie Tian and said with a grim expression, “A Heaven stage clown actually snuck up on Guan Jing and killed him with one strike. What are you waiting for, Guan Yue?”
The face of the middle Greater Heaven stage Guan Yue had long since grown distorted.
The man who Nie Tian had just killed was none other than his younger brother.
Without uttering a word, Guan Yue leapt three meters into the air before swooping down at Nie Tian like a eagle attacking its prey.
At the same time, a vague bellow came out of his throat. His eyes turned bloodshot as his claw-wearing hand grabbed down towards Nie Tian.
A large number of claw-shaped shadows suddenly appeared in midair, along with a pervasive foul smell. A mere whiff of it made Nie Tian want to throw up.
“Let them fight. Guan Yue alone is enough to kill a clown with such a low cultivation base.” The leader turned around and charged on towards Dong Li upon seeing that Guan Yue had made a move. “We’ve got to kill that woman as soon as we can! We’ll wash off the humiliation she’s brought to us with her life!”
Even though Dong Li knew she had been considered the primary target, she still remained calm and composed as she observed the battle between Guan Yue and Nie Tian. Not the slightest fear could be seen on her singularly beautiful face.
In the meantime, she lifted her milky-white wrist and whispered something into her bracelet.
At that moment, the other three groups of human Qi warriors, who had been attracted by the brawls and screams, marched through the tall plants and appeared on Black Water Lake’s shore.
Some among them recognized Dong Li and exclaimed, “Miss Dong!”
Dong Li reached out with one hand and pointed at the three exploration teams from afar as she ordered with a domineering tone, “You! You! And you! Work together and kill those bastards from the Realm of Black Marsh! That lot violated my clan’s rules and butchered many fellow explorers in this region!”
The three groups of explorers had heard something about what those men from the Realm of Black Marsh had done and what they were after.
Therefore, they made up their mind soon after hearing Dong Li’s order.
After exchanging a glance with each other, they summoned their spiritual tools and rapidly converged on Dong Li’s location.
Seeing that they had all moved out, Dong Li smiled increasingly brightly. Then, she whispered into her bracelet, “Stay at the perimeter and wait for my orders. Don’t come close unless I tell you to.”