Chapter 972: Victory...?

What Thao Zhi saw as he approached the base walls not only frightened him but made his blood boil from the anger he began to feel in his heart; a heart that was beating so hard in his chest that it seemed to be about to burst!

All the goblins had died, they had all been turned into nothing after being incinerated by the golden flames of the enemy female that was still standing in the same place as before under the protection of some human powerhouses.

As for the sea creatures, Thao Zhi did not take long to understand that Xian Kun stopped using the pagoda's power after seeing that except for Third Order creatures everyone was being killed easily under the power of the fire domain.

The problem was that Xian Kun was covered in blood while fighting two Third Order soul evolvers among whom Thao Zhi recognized the Seventh Princess, Xian Kun's sister.

Xian Kun was fighting miserably against his little sister and Nangong Yi. Although Xian Mei'er was his blood sister, Xian Kun was being attacked with ferocity and murderous intent just as he would and was doing.

Unfortunately, the union of Nangong Yi whose defense was abnormally high thanks to his Dragon Transformation skill and Xian Mei'er whose magical skills covered practically every area a mage needed to be powerful gave him more trouble than he thought he would face.

BOOOOOM!!!

After a clash between two lightning-covered flood dragons and two sword slashes from Xian Kun, part of the wall collapsed and the latter was forced to retreat while counterattacking Nangong Yi, inflicting a bloody wound on his chest that began to heal at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Just at that moment, Xian Kun sensed Thao Zhi's presence but when he looked towards the horizon and saw the miserable state in which the latter was fleeing under the pursuit of his enemies the Third Prince's expression turned pale as a sheet but there was also a certain relief in his eyes when he saw that Thao Zhi had not died... After all, Xian Kun had seen the Cosmic Particle Cannon appear right before his eyes with a clone of the enemy male.

At that moment, when the cannon fired, Xian Kun had practically given Thao Zhi up for dead, therefore, seeing him alive was a pleasant surprise despite seeing him so badly wounded.

"Lord Thao Zhi!"

Thao Zhi had a serious expression on his face as he pointed the tip of his magic staff forward and said in a deep voice, "Fire Blade."

The expression on Xian Mei'er and Nangong Yi's faces turned livid as they saw the huge fire blade slashing towards them. They both retreated back at the same time as Xian Mei'er launched several attacks, greatly weakening the incoming attack but still unable to stop it.

Just at that moment, a huge multi-colored barrier appeared in front of the two an instant before they were hit.

BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The explosion caused more than half of the wall to collapse, and the shockwave killed practically all the soul evolvers and human soldiers that were there.

The defensive barrier was soon filled with cracks, but to Thao Zhi's surprise it did not break immediately and instead managed to stay firm as the mermaid princess and the human soul evolver retreated in a hurry.

Thao Zhi did not chase but hurriedly approached Xian Kun and waved his magic staff, enveloping them both in a large sphere of wind under Xian Kun's bewildered eyes.

"Lord Thao Zhi?!"

"We are retreating." Thao Zhi said in a deep voice.

"What?!" Xian Kun's expression turned white not with fear but with anger as he howled, "Retreating?! I've practically lost my entire army here! If we retreat now my siblings-"

"If we don't retreat now, you will die." Thao Zhi glared at him.

Xian Kun was about to say something but just at that moment a purple lightning dragon flashed down from the clouds and when he felt the terrifying magic power in this attack his face paled even more as he looked at the human female rushing over from the horizon.

"Annoying Ant!" Thao Zhi pointed his magic staff towards the sky and roared, "Lightning Storm!"

Outside the Emperor Wolf Domain, the sky was clear blue and Thao Zhi had regained that 20% natural stats that had been sealed all this time.

When he cast Lightning Storm, the blue sky soon darkened and under Shangguan Xinyue's gloomy face tens of thousands of golden lightning bolts rained down on her.

BOOM!!! BOOM!!!! BOOM!!!! BOOM!!!! BOOM!!!! ...

The lightning dragon was mercilessly struck by thousands of lightning bolts at the same time, its body did not resist more than a second or two before it was completely torn apart and disappeared without a trace.

Shangguan Xinyue was having trouble dodging all the magical attacks, and in fact she had been hit once on her now completely black right arm.

Just as Thao Zhi was raising his magic staff again having regained his self-confidence, determined to kill this annoying human female that had given him so many headaches in these few minutes, his expression changed for the worse when he saw the horizon start to turn blood red and before he could say anything he saw a flash of golden light flying towards him.

"Jade Emperor Barrier!"

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!

Thao Zhi's face was deathly pale as he stared at the elegant yet terrifying golden spear spinning like a drill on the surface of the barrier now filled with cracks; cracks which reminded him that his current self needed to retreat in order to recover soon!

Looking at Xian Kun, who had fainted with blood pouring out of his hearings due to the terrifying sonic blast at such close range, Thao Zhi soared into the sky and sped away.

He ignored the yells and taunts of his opponent, Thao Zhi was an old dog who had seen everything in the world; he would not be swayed by the taunts of a kid.

However, before he disappeared, he pointed toward the wall where the Cosmic Particle Cannon was and said in a cold voice, "Black Hellfire Spear."

Just before he vanished, a magic circle 50 meters in diameter appeared in the sky and a spear of black flames as big as a building shot straight out toward the half-destroyed wall.

Nangong Lingxin gritted her teeth upon seeing this and hurriedly activated several skills at the same time.

"Energy Barrier!"

"Booster!"

"Magic Potency!"

"Double Defense!"

A bright and huge energy barrier glowed with rainbow colors, and as the giant black flame spear impacted against the barrier the sky boomed fiercely as the wall collapsed more and more, crushing the buildings below and killing the most unfortunate soldiers in the process.

Nangong Lingxin was a level 132 soul evolver, in terms of physical and magical defense she could even stand above Bai Zemin thanks to a number of her skills which coupled perfectly well with her main skill Energy Barrier.

However, the power difference between her and Thao Zhi was simply too high, and the difference in levels certainly didn't help.

The barrier began to crack after two seconds of resisting, and as the enemy's magic spear continued to press downward a pained expression crossed her face.

Nangong Lingxin knew that the Cosmic Particle Cannon was too important to Bai Zemin and the faction in general so she ignored the pain and pretended not to feel the blood slipping out of her mouth more and more uncontrollably.

Forget about the cannon, if that spear fell here hundreds of thousands of innocent lives would be lost among which there was certainly no shortage of small children and newborns!

With the sky rumbling with black flames and the wall beneath her feet collapsing, Nangong Lingxin hollered from the bottom of her lungs as she expended every point of Mana and used every bit of her magic power to resist at least a little longer.

Two or three seconds later, the barrier finally crumbled and she received a strong backlash that sent her flying backwards.

The last thing Nangong Lingxin felt before she fell unconscious was a pair of strong arms around her and cushioning several explosions as at least a dozen buildings were destroyed by their bodies flying backwards.

Shangguan Bing Xue had no time to worry about anything. She stretched both hands skyward and using what little Mana she had left raised a large wall of ice.

"Mana Drive!" she shouted and suddenly her Mana was fully recovered as the earring Bai Zemin had given her released a faint but beautiful silver radiance.

Although that Mana was only temporary and was quickly being burned away, Shangguan Bing Xue couldn't be more grateful as it was precisely that Mana what supported her long enough until the magic power of the black flame spear disappeared along with the skill itself.

At the same time, as she sighed in relief, she felt a pair of gentle arms holding her body on the verge of collapse followed by the soft voice of the one who was probably her most loved one.

"Are you okay?"

Shangguan Bing Xue nodded at her mother's question, and with her support slowly sat up gasping for air. Her face was so white that even her pink lips had been affected; it was as if all blood had been drained from her body.

About 30 seconds later, the two exhausted women raised their heads to see Bai Zemin enveloped in a halo of golden light bringing the unconscious body of Nangong Lingxin in his arms.

"Are you all right?" Shangguan Bing Xue asked, noticing that there was a large gash on his forehead with a line of blood trickling down his face.

Bai Zemin looked off into the horizon with an unreadable expression on his face, and after several seconds nodded slowly as he said softly, "...I'm fine."

He looked at her and asked, "You okay?"

Shangguan Bing Xue nodded: "I will not die, but I will probably need some time to fully recover.

Bai Zemin nodded. He was in the same situation, his injuries were not small.

Suddenly, both Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue were drawn to the sound of sobbing, and both were speechless as they watched Shangguan Xinyue wiping away non-existent tears.

"My heart feels cold and desolate. My daughter, whom I raised with great care and effort, doesn't even care about my well-being." She clutched at her heart using her healthy arm while the other remained still at her side and said with false sadness, "Of course, you will always be replaced by a man. That's life after all. I'm just an old single woman after all."

"Mom, you..." Shangguan Bing Xue really didn't know what to make of her mother, she could even joke at this moment...

"Hmph. I've decided, I'll steal him from you!" Shangguan Xinyue suddenly took a step forward and pressed her petite body to Bai Zemin's as she hugged him and looked at her daughter with a challenging expression, "I don't care anymore about you!"

Shangguan Bing Xue rolled her eyes and instead of replying she took out a Mana Recovery Potion from which she began to drink with delight and pleasure.

Bai Zemin looked at the beautiful woman whose body was small but whose age was old enough to be his mother even though she appeared to be younger than him and asked in a serious voice, "Aunt, are you alright?"

Shangguan Xinyue only reached halfway up Bai Zemin's chest so she had to raise her head to look at him. When she met his serious expression, Shangguan Xinyue muttered something before stepping back, "You're not funny."

Then, she frowned with a now serious expression on her face and as she raised her face towards the horizon she asked in a low voice, "Little King, what will you do now? That alligator ran away."