Chapter 416: Hounding

The Bone Worm may not possess an eye, but it managed to turn towards Bi Ling with its jaw wide open—the clear target of its fiery breath attack.

There was a flash of yellow on its side—it was the towering skeleton, Wu Ye, his bone blade coated in a dazzling flash of bright yellow as he aimed for a horizontal slash at the Bone Worm.

These attacks would not inflict any actual harm on the mammoth-sized Bone Worm, but the creature wasn't known for its intelligence. It was unduly distracted by both of its attackers, as it now had no idea which one to focus its ire on. In the end, it made a choice to ignore Bi Ling—who had taken the opening to escape over a distance as he slowly turned invisible—and charged at Wu Ye.

Just as Wu Ye and the crystal skeleton were engaging the gigantic Bone Worm with barrages of distracting attacks, a tenebrous shadow had slowly loomed closer and closer toward the back of the Bone Worm.

Under the cover of that shadow were Shi Mu and Yan Luo, both hidden using the green cloak as they slowly advanced toward the leviathan.

"Can you feel where it is?" Shi Mu asked quietly.

"Yes. It's around the area above its underbelly," Yan Luo replied, her body scintillating in silver wisps of lights, her Soul Flames flickering.

A blood-curdling shriek ripped through the air.

Shi Mu and Yan Luo immediately turned to the source—it was Wu Ye.

He was standing before the Bone Worm in midair as if he was riding a puff of smoke, but his bone blade had long left his grip. The Bone Worm opened its jaws wide and exhaled a thick blast of white flames precisely at the hovering Wu Ye.

Engulfed by white-hot flames, Wu Ye's Soul Flames shone violently for a while before he disappeared in the droves of ivory flames completely. The next time he was revealed, he had turned into a pile of transparent bones before falling back onto the ground limply.

Bi Ling was just about to launch another of its covert ambush attacks when it saw the misfortune of its fellow comrade. Abandoning its plan immediately, it turned transparent in the span of a second before running away.

The Bone Worm, as if capable of sensing the invisible, turned its pate in a sharp spin and exhaled another powerful white gale that turned into a ten-yard long dragon aimed in Bi Ling's direction. Everywhere the dragon howled through, stones and dust were lifted off from the ground as if the wind was peeling off a layer of the earth.

Bi Ling may have rendered its own body to be unseen by eyes, but it definitely had no tricks against the howling gale. In a second, it was lifted and sucked into the wind.

Its tiny frame was like a blade of grass thrown around in a cyclone as he tumbled and spun weakly in the wind, bracing countless debris and rubble pelting its body in an endless bulletstorm-like racket, almost getting torn in half by the force.

After being thrown off about a hundred yards away, Bi Ling slammed hard onto the earth. Its Soul Flames were dimmed down almost as if they were near being snuffed out. Even though it was still alive in a sense, Bi Ling had sustained so much damage that it could no longer move.

With the tide turning against them suddenly, Shi Mu's expression shifted as he now realized that he had greatly underestimated the Bone Worm's prowess.

"Let's call it off this time, alright? That Bone Worm is too much to handle," Shi Mu turned to Yan Luo and voiced his opinion.

"No!"

Her Soul Flames blazed brightly before she yanked the green cloak away from her body. The black Meteoric Iron rod in her hand flashed with a layer of gleaming black light before she brandished them before her, shooting out a long black rod wave.

Bang!

The black wave smacked right into a certain part of the Bone Worm's underbelly. Despite the tough exterior of the Bone Worm's skeletal skin, the area where the attack had landed was crushed into a big gaping cavity as if its bones were brittle.

In a heartbeat, just when the attack landed, Yan Luo had sprung toward the target like a silver phantom, her direction laser-focused on the cavity she created.

Roar!

In its pain, the mammoth-like Bone Worm suddenly rolled backward and coiled its body like a snake, bringing its gigantic tail in with the howl of winds as if it had turned its tail into a gigantic bullwhip lashing at the advancing Yan Luo.

Yan Luo was too late in her momentum to evade the attack, so with a flash of silver in her hands, the black Meteoric Iron rod she held scintillated in dazzling black light before converging into a single arch of the black rod-shaped beam before her body—she was planning to take the attack head-on!

"Move!"

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At this very moment, an arm—completely covered with golden scales—appeared and yanked Yan Luo from the back, wrenching her away from the attack while a figure leaped before her.

It was none other than Shi Mu, who had managed to intervene at the most critical moment. With a hoarse growl, his gilded right fist shone brightly before pounding at the Bone Worm's tail.

Boom!

A terrible force erupted from the blow, throwing Shi Mu and Yan Luo over a hundred yards or so before the ground finally broke their fall.

Shi Mu's face was white as a sheet. He coughed out a little blood as fragments of the golden scales on his right fist fell to the ground.

Yan Luo, being protected from most of the blast by Shi Mu, was not harmed. Watching him coughing blood out of his mouth, her Soul Flames shimmered a little, though she ultimately said nothing.

The Bone Worm opened its jaw in a silent roar before it abruptly spun and aimed its gigantic jaw at Shi Mu and Yan Luo.

"Go! I'll buy you time!" His heart skipping a beat at what was inevitable, Shi Mu's body glowed in gold as he pulled out his black Meteoric Iron blade and charged toward the Bone Worm. Simultaneously, his body flashed in a deep crimson color before the lights united into the Crimson Ape Energy Construct hurling itself before Shi Mu to charge at the Bone Worm first.

Yan Luo watched his back from where she was, her Soul Flames briefly changing into complicated colors. She did not follow his words, however—in a flash, she was already behind Shi Mu, also charging at the Bone Worm.

When Shi Mu's peripheral vision caught Yan Luo's action, he was admittedly frustrated, yet warmed at the same time. Ever since Zhong Xiu left him, the only other person who would stay with him since was Yan Luo.

This sentimental thought flitted past his mind almost as quickly as it was aroused. With his eyes now fixed on the Bone Worm, he returned to his previous calm.

With a hum, the Heavenly Meteoric Black Iron Knife in his hand scintillated in a blinding, massive black glow until the blade had accentuated into a ten-yards long, humming energy blade.

The Bone Worm opened its jaw wide and a pillar of white flames rose to meet Shi Mu.

He sneered. The Crimson Ape Energy Construct's hands shone and two large flaming broadswords materialized in its hand as the Crimson Ape brandished them in a crossing fashion toward the white flames.

The swords shined brightly in red the moment they collided with the ivory flames, the flames dancing on the edge of the blades suddenly convulsed unevenly.

With a booming sound, the two broadswords broke off instantly under the attack, filling the sky with sparks and flames.

Now that the pillar of white flames had destroyed the swords, it seemed that the Crimson Ape was next to go up in flames.

Then, suddenly, the Crimson Ape opened its mouth wide and exhaled pure fire. The flames, forming a nimbus, were so hot that the air around it distorted as suffocating heat radiated to all sides.

It was the Primordial Inferno attack.

The two blasts of attacks collided into a thunderous racket as flames of different color vied for dominance.

Being the effective antidote to all things unnatural and undead, the Primordial Inferno showed itself to be powerful enough to fight against the pillar of the white flames despite being smaller in size. In fact, the Primordial Inferno was slowly eating the white flames away!

Joy crossed Shi Mu's visage. With a shimmer of red light behind him, the lights united into a pair of flame wings. He zipped into a red blur in the sky, deftly navigating through the sparks and aftershocks of the colliding flames in the middle.

He had now arrived at the top of the gigantic Bone Worm's pate. With a low cry, the black glowing energy blade swung down like a plummeting mountain.

The Bone Worm may not have half the brain, but it knew of the power of the black blade. White flames rolled out of his body into a boiling flame shield around its head.

Shi Mu chuckled coldly. Ever since his battle with Liu An, he had already known how to fully activate every mote of power imbued within the Heavenly Meteoric Black Iron Knife—he was even better at it than Yan Luo.

He strained his arm, and the blade became even more devastatingly sharpened.

Snap!

The white-flame shield was instantly rent into half, not even putting up any sort of defense against the black blade.

The blade instantly expanded into an umbrella-like shield on its tip before pounding on the crown of the Bone Worm through its unstoppable downward motion.

With a snap, the Bone Worm's cranium was hashed so badly that its head almost completely sundered into two. In the deepest part of the cut, one could even see a disc-shaped silver Soul Flame that emitted powerful soul pulses.

Shi Mu, greatly overjoyed, jerked the blade in his hand as he planned to continue splitting towards the silver Soul Flame.

The Bone Worm's head may have been nigh cracked apart, but it did not seem to have sustained any sort of serious damage. Its silver Soul Flame, shrinking inward, suddenly expanded wide like a beating heart.

Hummmmmmm!

A pale silver wave rocked out on the void above them. Then, silver Soul Flame started spilling out from where it was, hitting Shi Mu.

Surges of painful pangs—neglecting his physical defenses—clawed themselves into his mind like a million hammers were pounding on his brain right within his skull, giving him an agonizing migraine.

"Soul... Attack..." With a violent migraine assaulting him, how could Shi Mu possibly carry on with his own attack?

Fortunately, his mind was powerful enough to retain its basic reflexes despite the agony. With a flap of his wings, Shi Mu darted aside and out of the region where the silver pulses were.

His headache receded like a tide. He exhaled a breath and shook his head, finally regaining his previous clarity.

But that little detour was enough for the Bone Worm to heal its own wound—with a single flicker of white flame, the gash patched up instantly.

It spun its head suddenly, white flames lazing on top of its crown before they materialized into two orbs. They were like the Bone Worm's eyes as they stared at Shi Mu like daggers.

At the same time, all the flames around its body ceased completely.

Shi Mu's heart throbbed. He could very acutely sense that the flames had been withdrawn deep into its body to form a powerful, unbridled flaming power waiting to be unleashed.

His flame wings flapped and he hurled himself backward into a trail of after-images as he pulled the distance between himself and the Bone Worm over a dozen yards away.

It was then when the Bone Worm's mouth opened wide and a single puff of white fireball, about the height of an average human, shot out from its jaw.

The fireball was as white and pure as the purest, blemish-less white jade. It emitted nothing—not any dazzling lights, nor even any heat.

Shi Mu's face was twisted in a look of horror the moment he set his eyes on the fireball—it was the first time he had ever shown fear during this fight.

He couldn't help it—the intensity of the fireball made him flashback to his memories of the Heavenly Phoenix True Inferno, the very same one that had almost burnt him into crisp back then.

The white fireball was fast in its course. Like a white comet, it zoomed toward Shi Mu.

Shi Mu gave a long howl, his flaming wings shrunk to half their original size while his speed shot up dramatically as he turned to a distance and fled.

Fortunately, the white fireball's speed was no match for Shi Mu's, and after tailing him for ten-odd yards, it stopped in its tracks.

The Bone Worm gave a low growl—and the white fireball suddenly turned its course and headed in another direction—

Yan Luo was just about to charge at the Bone Worm when she found herself meeting the white fireball face-to-face. She froze.

And then silver lights scintillated out of her as the black rod in her hand blazed in black. She was planning to defend against the attack.

"No, get away!"

Shi Mu's expression instantly warped in horror as he cried hoarsely, his flame wings burning and blazing before hurling toward Yan Luo.