Chapter 458 - Battles Of Masters (1)
Lou Lan’s head popped out from behind a half-destroyed wall. He blinked his eyes and looked at the distant, intense battle near the mayor’s residence.
He had not left yet, Why would Lou Lan leave first when Ai Hui and Xueman were still there?
The red light in Lou Lan’s eyes kept on flickering.
The lightning-fast afterimage in the sky was like a ferocious dire beast. It kept on colliding against the water screen. Every collision caused the earth to shake. The wall in front of Lou Lan had collapsed because of those collisions.
Clearwater City was completely empty. All its residents had escaped to a mountain outside the city. That was the mountain where the fight between Ai Hui and Han Li had taken place. Everyone on the mountain was looking at the distant Clearwater City with deep worry in their eyes. There were many people crying at this moment. Even though Clearwater City was built merely two years ago, it had become a home to many people who longed to live a peaceful life.
In times of chaos, peace was an extravagant privilege!
They could not afford to offend any of the Masters in the sky. Even if their home was destroyed, what else could they do other than cry their hearts out?
The lives of lowly individuals like them were as fragile as blades of grass.
Boom, boom, boom!
The booms coming from afar sounded like thunderclaps.
The atmosphere inside the mayor’s residence was very tense.
The guard who was watching over the elemental energy pool yelled, "The elemental energy pool has twenty percent of its energy left!"
Shi Xueman turned a deaf ear to him. With a calm and collected tone, she said, "From now onwards, everyone listens to my commands."
Venerable Volcano did not feel belittled. Instead, a look of admiration swept across his eyes. Shi Xueman was indeed like her father. Without any hesitation, Venerable Volcano replied, "Okay!"
Qiao Meiqi agreed as well. "Everyone shall listen to Miss Shi’s commands. Those who disobey her will be killed on the spot!"
"The elemental energy pool has fourteen percent energy left!"
The voice of the guard who was watching over the elemental energy pool was trembling. If the elemental energy pool dried up, the water screen would shatter with a loud bang.
An uproar broke out in the mayor’s residence.
Shi Xueman remained calm and collected. However, she had begun to speak with a faster speed. "The other party doesn’t have any earth elementalists. Mayor, Yaoyao, all the women and children, head down to the underground meditation room. You, you shall be in charge of leading all the guards."
Shi Xueman chose a seemingly calm-looking guard to lead the rest of the guards.
"All of you stay behind me. Every time you attack, you must lock onto a target and attack that target together," Shi Xueman said to that guard.
A lot of guards’ faces turned red. Even though they knew Shi Xueman was much more powerful than them, they still felt embarrassed for having to stand behind a woman.
"The elemental energy pool has ten percent energy left!"
Qiao Meiqi and the rest quickly scrambled towards the underground meditation room. Shi Xueman looked at Venerable Volcano and asked, "Venerable, can you deal with Northern Underworld King?"
"Alright!" Venerable Volcano replied with dignity.
His whole life had been rough. He had undergone countless moments of both glory and misery. At his age, he was no longer scared of death.
Similarly, Shi Xueman was calm and collected. And like she had said, she stood in front of all the guards.
She stood there with a spear in her hand and her hair drifting in the wind.
"The water screen is going to break!"
Just as she finished her sentence, a boom that was louder than all the previous collisions resounded through the air. Like a shattered bell glass, the water screen collapsed completely and a surging air current swept across the main hall. Shi Xueman’s cape fluttered violently in the wind.
With calmness in her beautiful eyes, Shi Xueman casually took off the cape on her body and let the strong wind blow it away, revealing her blue-white armor.
The fully-armored, beautiful and alluring girl plunged her Cirrus in the ground beside her feet.
She took off the red hairband on her wrist, raised her beautiful, ice-cold face and calmly tied up her long, drifting hair. Her pursed red lips gave off an austere aura. Plunged vertically into the ground beside her feet, her Cirrus was vibrating non-stop due to the surging air current, giving off a loud buzzing sound.
The magnificent dome roof of the mayor’s residence shattered with a loud bang. Stone pillars and beams that were supporting the roof collapsed, causing crushed stones to fall like rain.
The pony-tailed girl raised her elegant eyebrows and a determined look flashed across her beautiful eyes. Following which, she reached out her hand to grasp the Cirrus beside her.
She had decided to release the restraint on her base level!
The moment her soft, slim and snow-white hand grabbed her Cirrus, a powerful aura suddenly erupted from her with a loud rumble.
The crushed rocks and beams falling above her head froze in the air, as if there was a pair of invisible hands catching them.
Shi Xueman brandished her spear casually.
The frozen, crushed rocks and beams above were reduced to fine powder and became a grey-colored shadow. Behaving like a gigantic hammer, the grey shadow swept across the remaining walls surrounding the main hall and crushed them to smithereens!
The main hall had transformed into an open-air terrace.
Thud, thud, thud!
Holding Cirrus in her hand, Shi Xueman walked forward slowly. Mist began to form and swirl erratically around her body. Every step she took, her aura increased in intensity.
In the sky, the facial expressions of Autumn Water and her counterparts changed drastically.
All of them did not dare to underestimate Shi Xueman. She was born in an aristocratic family and her father was Shi Beihai. Since childhood, her talents were exceptional and she was extremely strict with herself. Reportedly, a lot of Elders in Elders Guild had felt that Shi Xueman was a candidate to become the next Great Elder. However, no one expected Shi Xueman to abandon her bright future and follow Ai Hui, causing a lot of people to feel pity for her.
Autumn Water and her counterparts could sense how powerful Shi Xueman was. However, they did not know why she wanted to restrain her base level.
As such, they had treated her as a Master since the beginning.
However, Shi Xueman’s strength was far more powerful than they’d expected.
How could it be?
How old was she? How could she possess such fundamentally sound and terrifying powers?
When Shi Xueman released the restraint on her base level, all of them were stunned. That was because Shi Xueman was extraordinary.
Most of the youngsters that attained the level of Master were well-versed in their understanding towards elemental energy.
However, Shi Xueman was completely different from the rest. She did not solely depend on her innate gifts. From her aura, one could tell that she had put in hours of hard work into her training and her powers were fundamentally sound and flawless, so much so that they caused her enemies to despair.
The swirling mist around her body was spotlessly white like snow, but it appeared as if it was heavy and solid.
Something was wrong!
All along, Mister Dou hadn’t wanted to offend the Shi family. Now that he saw how powerful Shi Xueman was, he did not want to become the Shi family’s enemy even more. As such, he took the lead and said, "Venerable, let the youngsters fight it out. Old fogeys like me and you should swap pointers with each other."
Venerable Volcano burst out in laughter and replied, "Come on, come on. Old Dou, today we shall put up a great performance."
Venerable Volcano flew up into the sky. Following which, he waved his hand casually and shot a cluster of blazes towards Mister Dou. The cluster of blazes looked extremely ordinary. However, Mister Dou did not lower his guard and plunged his vine staff into the ground.
When the vine staff was plunged into ground, countless root hairs grew at its bottom end. Meanwhile, leaves and green sprouts began to grow on the top half of the vine staff. In the blink of an eye, the vine staff had transformed into a gigantic tree.
Oddly, when this gigantic tree appeared, the sky began to darken.
The blazing sun that hung high in the sky dimmed significantly, resembling the setting sun during dusk.
Mister Dou had a unique Path of Master that was derived from this Northern Underworld King Tree!
This tree could devour all the light in its surroundings.
The cluster of blazes released by Venerable Volcano kept on emitting a dark-red glow as it flew through the air. However, as it flew closer to the gigantic tree, its brightness became more and more dim. By the time it reached the tree, its glow had completely disappeared, revealing its true from. It was actually a handful of lava. At this point of time, the lava had cooled down and became a piece of rock. With a pop, it was reduced to ashes in the air.
"You’re truly worthy of being called Northern Underworld King!"
Venerable Volcano praised. His previous attack was merely used to feel out Mister Dou’s strength. However, now he could see that Mister Dou was really powerful.
"Venerable, there’s no need for you to hold back," Mister Dou said plainly.
A serious look appeared on Venerable Volcano’s face. Like a lead ball, he plunged into the ground with a soft popping sound.
After a while, a bump suddenly rose on the ground’s surface with a loud rumble. Following which, more and more bumps appeared on the ground’s surface. Rumble, rumble, rumble. It was as if there were tens of thousands of horses stampeding across the city.
A volcano rose from the ground not far away from the mayor’s residence with a visible speed.
Surging, thick smoke from the volcanic crater hid the sky and covered the earth while raging, scarlet lava erupted from the volcano.
Venerable Volcano’s Path of Master was [Volcano]!"
Venerable Volcano could directly harness the earth fire deep in the ground and form a volcano.
Boom!
A gigantic ball of flames, that was ten meters in diameter, erupted violently from the volcano. It shot towards the Northern Underworld King Tree with a terrifying force and whizzing sound.
The Northern Underworld King Tree became darker and darker, looking as if it was shrouded in ink-black darkness.
Traces of red glow were being pulled out from the fireball and absorbed by the Northern Underworld King Tree. The glow of the fireball dimmed rapidly. Eventually, the lava within it cooled down and it became a round-shaped rock ball.
Pop!
Intertwining cracks appeared on the surface of the rock ball and a dark-red glow gushed out from those cracks.
The outer shell of the rock ball shattered and revealed a fireball within it. Even though the fireball had become smaller in size, its glow was brighter and hotter.
When the fireball flew into the zone of darkness around the Northern Underworld King Tree, its speed suddenly reduced significantly. In a flash, the glow of the fireball was extinguished and became a rock ball once again.
Just as a relieved look appeared on Mister Dou’s face, the rock ball exploded with a loud bang and brightly-colored, dancing flames erupted from it.
The explosion was too close to the Northern Underworld King Tree!
Even though the Northern Underworld King Tree had a ring of darkness as its protection, a few of its leaves were still burned.
A distressed look appeared on Mister Dou’s face. The powers of the Northern Underworld King Tree had a direct connection to the number of leaves it had. Not only was the growing process for the leaves unusually slow, the tree also needed to devour an immense amount of light just to grow a single leaf.
The battle had just begun.
The battle between two Masters was long and bitter!
The battle between Mister Dou and Venerable Volcano appeared as if it had no impact on everyone else.
Yang Xiaodong looked at the mighty Shi Xueman below, as a tinge of regret creeped into his mind. He couldn’t believe that she was so powerful. However, he threw these distracting thoughts to the back of his head very soon. He was given life by Brother Dou. He would never reject Brother Dou’s request for help.
Back in the day, Brother Dou had lost his eyes when saving his life.
And if worse came to worst, he would return his life to Brother Dou.
When Yang Xiaodong thought of this, he felt relieved and regained his composure.
"Kill him!"
Suddenly, the mayor residence’s guards on the ground bellowed in rage. Countless light beams shot towards Yang Xiaodong who was in the sky.
All the guards loathed Yang Xiaodong, the traitor, and their first target was him. They still remembered Shi Xueman’s instructions. All of them had to lock onto the same target and launch their attacks together.
They were filled with expectation as they widened their eyes. They couldn’t wait to see Yang Xiaodong’s blood splashing across the air.
Just as their torrential attacks were about to hit Yang Xiaodong, a mirror-like gleam flashed across his body.
Densely-packed, transparent prism pillars hovered upright around Yang Xiaodong, resembling a huge forest of prism pillars. These prism pillars were formed from water elemental energy. They were pristine and crystal-clear, containing rushing water that was flowing silently.
The whizzing beam of gleam pierced into the forest of prism pillars. Unexpectedly, it changed its direction and was deflected one meter away from Yang Xiaodong.
Yang Xiaodong’s Path of Master, [Refraction Forest]!