The suffocating, invisible weight pressing down upon the Sea of Whispering Bamboos shifted.
The mysterious woman standing upon the void took a single, casual step downward. As her silken boot touched the soft dirt of the forest floor, she intentionally softened the absolute spatial suppression radiating from her body. She didn't release them out of mercy; she released them because a lion does not fear the thrashing of a cornered mouse.
The moment the spatial lock loosened, the 5-Star Dou Wang of the Demon Flame Valley gasped violently, stumbling backward. His dark eyes were wide with a primal, suffocating terror.
He knew instantly that he could not outrun her. In the Dou Qi Continent, turning your back on an elite Dou Huang was equivalent to committing suicide. If he wanted to live, he had to use everything he had in a single, desperate strike to create an opening and get away.
"Formation!" the Dou Wang roared, his voice cracking with panic. He turned to the six Dou Lings who were scrambling up from the dirt. "Ignite your essence! Flame Creation Technique!"
The six Dou Lings, realizing their lives were hanging by a thread, didn't hesitate for a microsecond. They violently bit the tips of their tongues, spitting out mouthfuls of deep crimson essence blood. Their dark-red Dou Qi flared with a sickly, unstable intensity, visibly draining the vitality from their bodies. Their hair began to gray at the edges; their skin lost its luster.
Whoosh!
The seven streams of burning essence blood shot through the air, linking directly into the Dou Wang's Dantian.
Instantly, the Dou Wang's aura skyrocketed. He roared as the agonizing influx of energy forcefully temporarily elevated his power to the absolute peak of the Dou Wang realm, scraping the very edges of the Dou Huang barrier. Above his head, a massive, terrifying vortex of twisting, dark-red fire materialized.
The heat was so intense that the surrounding bamboo stalks didn't just burn; they instantly vaporized into white ash. The ground cracked, and the remaining moisture in the air evaporated into superheated steam.
Zhan Yue stood perfectly still, her silver-patterned robes completely untouched by the blistering heat. Her hands were casually resting at her sides.
"Hmm," Zhan Yue murmured, her voice calm and analytical as she tilted her head to observe the massive vortex. "So, this is the hallmark array of the Demon Flame Valley. By linking your meridians and sacrificing your lifespans, you attempt to temporarily touch the domain of a Dou Huang and fight. It is a highly potent tactical maneuver."
She let out a soft, mocking sigh.
"But... the more you use it, the closer to death you step. You are burning decades of your life for a fraction of a second of borrowed power," Zhan Yue continued, her eyes reflecting the roaring flames.
The Dou Wang's eyes were bloodshot, his veins bulging against his skin from the sheer, uncontainable pressure of the formation.
"Die! Disperse and Annihilate!" the Dou Wang screamed, throwing both of his hands forward.
The massive, dark-red vortex of flame shot forward like a descending meteor. The sheer kinetic and thermal force behind the attack tore a massive trench through the bamboo forest, threatening to completely incinerate Zhan Yue and everything standing behind her.
Captain Lin and Vice-Captain Feng shielded Xiao Yu and Yoriichi, bracing for an impact that would surely vaporize them all if the Guardian failed to block it.
Zhan Yue did not flinch.
"Besides," Zhan Yue said, her voice easily cutting through the roaring inferno. "I am not an ordinary Dou Huang."
She raised her right hand. A sleek, unadorned silver longsword materialized in her grip from her spatial ring. She circulate a bit of Dou Qi and then simply swung the blade in a casual, downward diagonal arc.
Ziiiip.
It was a sound like heavy silk tearing.
Zhan Yue's sword strike didn't just cut the fire; the sheer, concentrated density of her Dou Qi forcefully warped the physical space in front of her. A very thin, pitch-black rift—a momentary tear in the fabric of reality itself—opened up directly in the path of the meteor.
The terrifying vortex of flame crashed into the black line and was mysteriously, violently chewed up. The space itself devoured the fire, swallowing the heat, the kinetic force, and the essence blood in a matter of seconds.
With a soft pop, the spatial tear closed, leaving the air completely devoid of the dark-red fire. The ultimate attack of the Demon Flame Valley squad had been erased as if it never existed.
The Dou Wang collapsed heavily onto his knees. The backlash of his interrupted technique, combined with the sheer, soul-crushing despair of what he had just witnessed, broke him entirely.
"You... you witch..." the Dou Wang rasped, staring at her in unbelievable horror as blood leaked from his eyes and ears. "I didn't know... your powers would have grown so much... The rumors were true..."
He was completely helpless. His stealth kidnapping mission, meant to quickly snatch the siblings and vanish back to the Black-Corner Region, had failed in the most spectacular, fatal way possible because he had the absolute misfortune of running into her.
"Please... spare—" the Dou Wang tried to beg, raising a trembling, bloodstained hand.
Zhan Yue's expression remained perfectly cold.
Her hand shot up. Her silver sword blurred.
Schwing.
The Dou Wang's head was smoothly plucked from his shoulders, sailing through the air before hitting the ash-covered dirt with a dull thud. The Overlord of the Demon Flame Valley died instantly, his eyes still wide with terror.
Without pausing her stride, Zhan Yue blurred into motion. She moved like a phantom through the seven exhausted, kneeling Dou Lings. Seven flashes of silver light illuminated the night. Six more heads hit the ground simultaneously.
Finally, she stopped behind the bamboo stalks, her blade resting against the throat of the one-armed assassin, who was frozen in absolute, whimpering terror.
"You," Zhan Yue said softly. "You brought them to my students. You don't get a quick death."
With a swift, precise strike, she severed the assassin's remaining arm and both of his legs, cauterizing the wounds instantly with her aura to ensure he wouldn't bleed to death. He collapsed, screaming in agony. She casually kicked his torso, sending him crashing into the trees to be dealt with by the Law Enforcement unit later.
With the threat entirely eliminated, Zhan Yue sheathed her sword and turned back toward the clearing.
She paused, her fierce expression softening into a sigh.
The sheer, overwhelming pressure of the Dou Wang, followed immediately by the suffocating aura of her own Dou Huang domain, had been the final straw for the exhausted students. The adrenaline had completely left their systems.
Captain Lin, Vice-Captain Feng, and Xiao Yu were completely unconscious, slumped against the dirt.
Yoriichi was leaning heavily to the tree beside. For a few more seconds, he stubbornly kept his head raised, his crimson eyes fighting the encroaching darkness to ensure the threat was truly gone. Then, slowly, his eyes fluttered closed. He slipped into absolute unconsciousness, his ancient mind finally surrendering to the crushing limits of his mortal vessel.