“BOOM!”
The chain struck the Nine Yang Jade Origin thunder. The thunder instantly turned from solid to ethereal, then raced along the chain straight toward the demonic avatar.
“CRACK!”
The avatar actively shattered the chain. Demonic qi and thunder annihilated each other and vanished.
In the next instant, more than a dozen new chains materialised out of thin air and whipped toward Lu Zheng and Shen Ying.
These dozen chains were far thicker than the original eight, and the demonic qi within them was on another level entirely.
Lu Zheng remained unmoved. He formed seals with his hands, and pure white cloud qi gathered from the void, enveloping him and Shen Ying in layers of protection.
The demonic chains lashed relentlessly against the cloud qi. Though the white clouds rippled violently, they did not scatter.
Shen Ying had nearly been ambushed moments ago. Lu Zheng would never again give the avatar an opening. Layers of primal cloud qi wove together, soft and gentle in appearance yet unbelievably tough and flawless. Even if the avatar tried the same trick again, it could never breach this defence.
“Cloud arts?”
A hoarse voice came from the demonic avatar. “Just who are you?”
“The one who will end you!”
Lu Zheng reached out. A massive white cloud hand seal formed instantly and slammed downward.
The avatar snorted coldly. A demonic qi hand rose from behind it and met the cloud hand head-on.
Then, astonishingly, the two giant hands began wrestling in mid-air, probing for weaknesses, each trying to crush the other without taking damage itself.
Lu Zheng controlled the cloud hand with one hand while raising his lightning-struck peach-wood sword with the other. Several more bolts of Nine Yang Jade Origin thunder crashed down.
But the avatar was no ordinary foe. Demonic qi swirled around it; uncharged thunderbolts only burned away some of its protective mist.
“What a formidable demon!”
“If it weren’t strong, it wouldn’t dare trouble Yi Qingtian.”
Even if Yi Qingtian was not as powerful as Hu Yijun, as Hu Yijun’s friend—one important enough for Hu Zhou to deliver a letter in person—his strength was unquestionably top-tier.
Whether this demon had used schemes, exploited weaknesses, or simply overpowered him through raw force, its own power was absolutely at the pinnacle.
Had Yi Qingtian not still been resisting and tying up most of the demon’s strength, Lu Zheng would never have confronted it directly.
Yet now…
Lu Zheng shielded himself with cloud qi while trading blows with the avatar. Shen Ying poured endless peach-blossom baleful qi to erode the demonic wall. Inside, Yi Qingtian fought with all his might.
Under the combined assault of three sides, the avatar was clearly struggling.
If it focused on suppressing Yi Qingtian, Lu Zheng hammered it and the demonic wall thinned faster.
If it turned to crush Lu Zheng and Shen Ying, Yi Qingtian’s demonic power surged back, expelling the invasive qi from his body.
“You court death!”
Furious, the avatar pulled out two arm-like appendages and etched countless runes onto the chains binding Yi Qingtian, temporarily sealing the eagle’s resistance. Then it fired a beam of black light into its own avatar.
Refining Yi Qingtian, the strongest of the three, was proving too slow. Better to seal him briefly, free its hands to kill the two meddlers, then return to finish the eagle at leisure.
Black light entered the avatar. Its aura exploded upward. The demonic hand swelled, on the verge of crushing the white cloud hand.
“So fierce?”
Lu Zheng’s eyes flashed. He poured more power in. The cloud hand grew larger in turn and gained a trace of true dragon intent, reversing the pressure and pinning the demonic hand instead.
The avatar: ???
“You think killing us is that easy?”
Lu Zheng sneered. White Cloud Temple’s arts inherited the Supreme Clarity lineage—perfectly balanced in both offence and defence. To overwhelm him required far greater strength than this.
People might think his thunder, wind, and sword arts were his focus, but in truth his deepest mastery lay in cloud arts.
After all, he was a White Cloud Temple disciple, and his theoretical understanding of the Primal Cloud Transformation Scripture was the highest.
Even with its boosted momentum, the avatar’s dozen chains still could not pierce his cloud defence.
Shen Ying’s peach-blossom baleful qi remained endless, eroding demonic qi without pause. Her contribution was no less than Lu Zheng’s.
Despite the reinforcement, the avatar still could not take them down quickly.
“Two juniors—die!”
The avatar roared. Abandoning the long-range contest, it pointed. A black shadow tore through space, carrying a strange fluctuation straight toward Lu Zheng’s brow.
“Heartless True Desire demonic art!”
This was the demonic path’s ultimate trump card: corrupting the victim’s mind and assimilating their true self. The glazed Buddha who had fallen to demonhood that year had tried the same, seeking to drag them into his Glazed Buddha Kingdom.
The art easily overwhelmed those with flawed hearts, but against someone with unshakable resolve, only overwhelming force worked.
Lu Zheng’s heart was naturally unshakable—and he had a jade seal in his sea of consciousness.
He flicked out several Flying Cloud Evil-Breaking Talismans. Together with his protective cloud qi, they annihilated the black shadow.
But in that moment the avatar itself closed in.
Lu Zheng instantly understood.
It wanted to do to him what it had done to Yi Qingtian—attach itself to his body!
It must have some special ability that let it unleash far greater power once attached.
Yi Qingtian had probably been caught off guard and possessed, then helplessly suppressed.
Demonic qi flared around the avatar like towering infernal flames. The dozen chains burned through layers of cloud defence.
Lu Zheng’s eyes flickered. He exhaled, turning his breath into a Geng Metal Divine Wind to hold the avatar at bay.
Then he retreated with Shen Ying while his hands rapidly formed seals. Strands of Nine Yang qi gathered above his head, concealed within swirling clouds.
The avatar surged forward, demonic qi deflecting the wind, forcing its way through the layered cloud barriers. It cackled grotesquely as it closed in.
“Leave now! Or stay forever—you cannot escape!”
“Can you even reach me?”
Lu Zheng smiled calmly and flung several more Nine Yang thunderbolts.
“Perfect!”
The avatar laughed maniacally. It instantly turned ethereal, demonic qi cloaking it as it shot along the path the thunder had cleared, sacrificing a layer of black light to slip past the bolts and arrive in an instant.
“Hahaha! You never expected this!”
The avatar solidified again and lunged straight at Lu Zheng’s body.
In the next heartbeat, Lu Zheng’s cold voice rang in its ear.
“Supreme Ultimate Without Limit, Three Pure Ones command: Freeze!”
