Chapter 387: A Sudden Breakthrough!
Having thought that the battle would take a longer amount of time before a victor could be determined, everyone was completely caught off guard by the sudden victory.
“It’s...it’s dead!!”
It only took a few short breaths before the aura of the snake to fully disappear. With the rest of its body crashing to the ground, the snake moved no more.
Whitening in the face, Zhang Yunpeng made a hurried note to the others.
“The innards of a purple-crowned snake are only harvestable for ten minutes after its death, it’s completely useless after that!!
“It’s crown is extremely useful as a tonic ingredient as well, it’s as precious as a soulgem! We have to act now, or else the bloodlion’s going to eat it!”
What he said brought Bai Yunfei back to reality from what he was thinking. Looking at the freshly-killed snake, and then back to the bloodlion with a doubtful look.
“We can’t wait any longer, Long, let’s go!!” Biting his lips, Zhang Yunpeng ordered the group forward. Withdrawing his golden staff from his ring, he moved to lead the charge with Long.
“Got it!” With a nod of his own, Long immediately took out his three swords. Alongside Zhou Feng and Kun, the four of them were now all ready to strike.
“Hold on, something’s not ri—”
A warning came forth from Bai Yunfei, but it was too late.
Zhang Yunpeng and the others were already charging out towards the bloodlion!!
In an instant, Long’s eyes flashed once with light before elemental lightning burst forth from his body. Dashing forward while Zhou Feng and Kun as support behind them, Long and Zhang Yunpeng moved out with Ye Zi and Han Yan watching anxiously behind them.
“Tsk!” Clicking his tongue, Bai Yunfei drew out his Fire-tipped Spear. Dashing forward with the aid of the elemental fire underneath his feet, Bai Yunfei rushed straight for Long to fight the bloodlion with him while Zhang Yunpeng charged towards the left to the purple-crowned snake.
“Roarrrr!”
A roar erupted from the bloodlion when the five came out from their hiding spots. Previously closed when the soulbeast was enjoying the ‘bloodbath’, the third eye of the bloodlion’s opened up, revealing a scarlet pupil within it.
But the strange thing was....when the eye opened up, the blood on its body started to move towards its eye, as if attracted to it.
The blood was being...absorbed into its third eye!!
Not even ten seconds went by before all of the blood on the bloodlion vanished without a trace! It had been such a startling sight that Ye Zi and Han Yan couldn’t help but gasp in fright.
Done cleaning itself of the blood, the bloodlion turned its head to look at Bai Yunfei and the others. Long was the first to strike with both his arms in an X formation with each other so that the blades ran in an intersection. Elemental lightning surged through his body in large amounts, increasing his momentum to deliver an astonishingly fast strike!!
“Three Swords Style....Demon Slash!!”
A blade of lightning let loose from each of his three blades to fly towards the bloodlion.
“Tzzk!!”
A spurt of blood flew into the air but....it was Long’s blood, not the bloodlion!
Still standing in its original position, the bloodlion didn’t even look like it had moved a muscle. But from his position behind Long after he was thrown backwards gave Bai Yunfei a clear perspective of what had happened. After Long made his move, the bloodlion had merely swiped one of its paws to break through the elemental lightning infused Demon Slash move and then graze Long’s body with the followup.
If not for Long managing to move just enough out of the way, the move would’ve killed him. But even then, this small moment of contact did enough to heavily injure him.
“Roarr!!”
Again, the bloodlion roared, but it was Bai Yunfei who was attacking this time, and in triplets!
Doppelgangers!
Thanks to the +12 effect of the Fire-tipped Spear, he was able to call out two additional doppelgangers to stab at the head, waist, and tail of the bloodlion!
Roaring furiously, it swung its shortened tail like a whip to slap against one of the incoming spears. With a pop, the doppelganger was swept aside to hit the other doppelganger aiming for its waist!!
With two of the doppelgangers swept aside in one tail strike, this left the bloodlion free to swipe at the third Bai Yunfei with a single claw swipe, as one might try to take down a fly.
There was a clanging sound as the claw struck against the spear, the force being large enough to cause Bai Yunfei to lose his sense of balance. By usage of the Wave Treading Steps, Bai Yunfei was able to orientate himself and move away from danger next to Long’s side.
“Swoosh! Swoosh!!”
Two distinct poofing sounds were heard when the bloodlion lashed out with another two claw strikes.
And just like that, the two doppelgangers were completely dispelled!!
“Long, are you alright?” Worried about Long’s physical health, Bai Yunfei knelt down by his side.
“I’m....I’m fine....” Waving Bai Yunfei away, Long tried his best to stand back up, the three claw marks on his upper waist made it difficult for him to do so. Despite his best efforts to staunch the bleeding, the several seconds it took to do so took long enough for a puddle of blood to form underneath him.
From his position ten meters away from the bloodlion, Long had a look of disbelief on his face. “But....but how though?! The bloodlion is a...mid-stage class six!”
In just one instant, the battle prowess of the bloodlion was revealed not to be an early-stage class six soulbeast, but a mid-stage class six!!
“It brokethrough.....it brokethrough during the battle with the purple-crowned snake!” Bai Yunfei exclaimed, “It became a mid-stage class six soulbeast during that fight!”
“Im...impossible...!”
“It is what it is, we can’t say it’s impossible.” Replied Bai Yunfei. His eyes never wandered away from the bloodlion, “Things are a little more annoying now!”
Before he could even finish his sentence, the bloodlion was already gone from sight!
Blanching in fright, both Bai Yunfei and Long moved into a defensive stance, but the bloodlion wasn’t coming for them.
“Boss Zhang, look out!!”
The target of the bloodlion wasn’t Bai Yunfei or Long, but Zhang Yunpeng, who was just about to start harvesting the purple-crowned snake!
It was quite evident that the bloodlion wouldn’t let anyone steal away its ‘spoils of war’.
Thanks to Bai Yunfei’s warning, Zhang Yunpeng was able to put up a guard just in time. Unfortunately, he wasn’t strong enough to fully block or evade against the bloodlion, and so by the time the bloodlion was upon him, very little was done as the bloodlion slashed at his chest!
“Eeeek!”
From behind Zhang Yunpeng, the figure of Xiao Kong flew up into the space between the bloodlion’s claw and Zhang Yunpeng. With Xiao Kong there, it was able to bring up Zhang Yunpeng’s soul armament, saving them from certain death!
“Bang!”
Hit with the recoil of the blow, he and Xiao Kong were sent flying backwards like a bullet!
Their trajectory brought them flying into Zhou Feng, bringing the three of them flying another hundred meters away before finally crashing to the ground.
The left part of Zhang Yunpeng’s waist had three terrible looking wounds that bled blood quickly, and as he tried to stand back up, a mouthful of blood came out violently from his mouth, promptly leading to him fainting straight away!
He hadn’t been able to fully fend off the bloodlion’s attack and was almost killed because of it!
“Boss Zhang!”
Following his fall, a small figure in blue darted out from behind the trees for him--it was Han Yan!
Ye Zi and Han Yan were coincidentally not too far from where Zhang Yunpeng landed, so it only took a few mere seconds for the girl to reach her team leader. Eyes brimming with tears, but silent in her panic, she pressed both hands to his wound and started to treat it with Hydrotherapy.
“Roarr!!!” Roaring again, the three-eyed bloodlion opened its bloody jaws wide. A fireball three meters wide began to form in the area in front of its mouth, and when it fully formed, it flew off towards the direction of the unconscious Zhang Yunpeng and Han Yan!