Tie Feng faced the empress head on with his eyes full of madness. His presence also changed dramatically as he roared, "Sword field!"
The longsword in his hand plunged into the ground. Immediately after, blades started to sprout out of the earth, spiraling around him to form a large circular field of swords with him in the center.
Flitting across the sword tips, the empress gave no heed to the blades. Her shoes were soon damaged beyond repair, but she pressed on and stepped on the sword tips as if she was performing a dance. Each blade she ran over shattered into a million shards of light behind her blurred figure.
Everyone could see that she was taking the straightest, most direct path through the field of swords.
"Execute!" Tie Feng commanded. He lifted his longsword out of the ground in one stroke, unleashing a beam of red light from its blade. The red beam slammed into the red blur that was the empress.
At the same time, a flurry of swords shot out from the ground and formed a dragon that chased the empress from behind.
Dust was flying everywhere, and the sound of metal clashing against metal rang through the air.
Everything was over when the dust settled. As the two of them stood in the middle of the battlefield, the empress held a bright red heart in her hand. Bloodstains lined her cheeks, complementing the purple streaks on her face and painting a hauntingly beautiful picture.
Tie Feng was clutching at the hole in his chest with one hand while his other hand still wielded his sword. His body swayed in the breeze and collapsed on the ground. The same crazed look remained on his face to the end, revealing his contentment at having wounded the empress.
Streaks of blood flowed from the empress's abdomen, but the bleeding quickly stopped. The empress was consciously stemming the bleeding, but was unable to heal it right away.
Following Tie Feng's demise, the man lying on the ground from before finally succumbed to his chest wound. The area around his wound ruptured, leaving only his ribcage behind.
It was as the empress had said. His fate was already sealed, but the empress made sure that Tie Feng would go first.
Two dead, one seriously injured.
The empress had suffered two slash wounds.
"Chief!"
"Warlord!"
The Earth Wheel experts bemoaned as they watched Tie Feng collapse.
Those who watched the fight from above were sad, but knew that Tie Feng wouldn't have lived very long after expending practically all of his qi and blood on those final two techniques. From this fight, however, it was obvious that Tie Feng was extremely close to forming his own Heaven-grade weapon.
He could have released his soul without tapping into his qi and blood, but most certainly did so anyway because he knew there was no way he was getting out alive. As a parting gift to Qi Zixiao, he had put 100 percent into his attack and managed to inflict substantial injuries to her.
Those watching quickly put their grief aside.
After all, they had gathered here expecting to die.
The empress's injuries sent her into a vastly different state. Her eyes were now completely red, and an insane killing intent emanated from every inch of her body. She turned to face the nearest enemy and charged toward him in an instant.
"Stall her! Such a state will not last for very long!" Qingyun Sword shouted. There was no doubt that Qi Zixiao was several times more powerful in her current state, but things would be fine if they could hold out until it ended.
"Get in formation!"
"Kill those at the top."
Seeing the empress take a hit just to kill that other Spirit Wheel expert led Qingyun Sword to figure out Ren Baqian's importance.
Acting this way was despicable and against his principles, but this was no time to be fussy. All of the experts in Tianjing Basin were gathered here with vast numerical superiority to fight against a single woman. What could be worse?
Qingyun Sword made his move, sending his sword floating around the empress in an unpredictable manner. The longsword was constantly shifting its position in an odd manner.
Instead of traveling properly through space like a good physical object, the longsword was teleporting from point to point, making its movements much harder to lock down.
"Asking for it!" The empress fended off the incoming attacks with ease. She took two leaps and rammed her shoulder into Chang Tian's temple, sending him flying backward with blood spurting out of his mouth. She then lunged at Qingyun Sword without missing a beat.
At this point, there were two others who had gone up to attack Ren Baqian and company.
"We need one more person up there! That young lady is not to be trifled with!" Qingyun Sword frantically reminded.
Three out of the 18 Spirit Wheel experts were already dead. Sending three of the remaining 15 to sneak attack Ren Baqian and the others had greatly increased the stress placed on those who were still fighting the battle-heightened empress.
Lin Qiaole woke up from her groggy state in an instant. Her eyes lit up dangerously, and she disappeared with the wind.
The Earth Wheel experts down the mountain were in formation. They formed two large circles around the battlefield, trapping those inside within the formation.
Qing Yuan and Hong Luan were becoming distressed. Unable to be of any help, they stood there stamping their feet anxiously.
After blacking out for some time, Ren Baqian finally woke up. He was in a state of shock and couldn't figure out what was happening.
On his head, there was a bright red bump that made him look like a unicorn.
It was a long while before he finally came back to his senses. The first thing he asked was, "Who hit me just now?."
Qing Yuan and Hong Luan shot him a glance and quickly turned away. Were they supposed to tell him that it was Her Majesty?
As much as that was the truth, it was a difficult thing to admit.
Ren Baqian touched the bump on his forehead and promptly screamed in pain, "Damn it! Sh*t!."
Qing Yuan and Hong Luan glanced at him and quickly turned away again. They thought about whether this insolence should be reported to the empress.
The two of them were loyal to a fault!
Ren Baqian swore under his breath before looking down at the chaos below and seeing the empress fight off a dozen other people. One of these people would fly off while spurting a mouthful of blood every once in a while, only to struggle back into the fray.
He had barely watched for two minutes when he saw the empress slam someone's head down into his torso.
And then there were 11.
A smaller battle was being fought between Lin Qiaole and the three Spirit Wheel experts who had left the main battle below. The three of them bore scratch marks inflicted by Lin Qiaole while she suffered several cuts to her face and a puncture wound to her abdomen.
The ever-sleepy Lin Qiaole finally revealed her claws. She stared intently at the three Spirit Wheel experts, always keeping her prey in sight.
The Earth Wheel experts continued to maintain their formation. Nobody was to leave.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Three dull sounds could be heard as three fresh bodies crashed into the ground. Another Spirit Wheel expert had died to the empress's violent punches. At the same time, the empress gave Shan Rou a powerful kick squarely to the chest, causing it to cave in.
Cries of "Teacher!" and "Pavilion Master!" could be heard.
A new wound had emerged on the empress's leg. The laceration was about three inches long and bled incessantly…
The empress's eyes were growing redder and redder. The purple streaks throughout her body were becoming more substantial while her current strength was way beyond that of her uninjured form.
Her very presence sent shivers down the spines of her enemies.
To them, Qi Zixiao's current form resembled a divine ancient beast more than a human being. She had the upper hand in a fight against so many Spirit Wheel experts, had killed at least four of them, and had severely injuring another two. No one knew if Shan Rou would be able to survive.
Taking the task force of three Spirit Wheel experts out of the equation, there were only nine remaining who stood against the empress.
It was now a matter of how much longer she could sustain this form.
This life and death battle was as ferocious as they come. Every moment that the empress remained in this heightened state was extremely deadly.
As more of them got killed, the stress on the remaining few would increase. The more they had to bear, the faster their bodies would give way. Everyone of them was aware of this fact.
Qingyun Sword knew what the others were thinking since the exact same thing was also on his mind.
How can anyone be this strong?!It was simply unimaginable that there could be anyone even more powerful, yet such people existed!
He could not afford to let such thoughts bring them down. Subsequently, he shouted out loud, "She can't maintain this state for long."
"Heavenly Star Formation, gather!"
Following his command, the inner formation began to move in, shrinking the perimeter.
He planned to use their formations to expend the empress's remaining energy.
Qingyun Sword didn't expect the young lady up the mountain to be this skilled, but he understood that there was no longer any other choice. This was the price they had to pay for failing to kill that gigolo earlier.
Ren Baqian looked worriedly at the empress. As a Man Wheel expert, he had a poor grasp of the power situation. He was unsure how much more she could take.
Ren Baqian opened the box that Lin Qiaole had been carrying, revealing the dozens of fortified smoke grenades stored within.
It was his time to shine!