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**
On the other side, Xie Yue and Hu Liena had also heavily injured two of the Ghost Tiger clones. One clone had been struck several times by Xie Yue's Moon Blades, and under the attack of his third soul skill, Flame Moon.
It was hit head-on by an extremely fierce blade aura. A huge gash appeared on its body, and dark-attribute Soul Power continued to seep and overflow.
Although Hu Liena could not compare to Yan and Xie Yue in pure, direct destructive power, the Mystic Trace Canyon held one advantage for her.
Because the evil beasts in the canyon possessed low intelligence and were highly chaotic, they were far more susceptible to mental control-type soul skills than soul beasts of the same cultivation level in the outside world.
While the Ghost Tiger's main body had a cultivation clearly above four thousand years—and as a high-tier soul beast, although its mind was chaotic and mad here, its overall foundation was still not small—
Hu Liena's Charming Fox martial soul was currently only at the three-tail stage, so her mental control soul skills might not have worked on the main body. However, doing so against a mere clone of the Ghost Tiger was not difficult.
Of course, this was assuming it was the clone of the evil Ghost Tiger before them.
If they were in the outside world, using mental control methods on a clone produced by a Ghost Tiger of this cultivation level would be difficult given Hu Liena's current cultivation.
At this moment, Hu Liena used her first soul skill, Charming Heart, to temporarily control the clone, and followed up by executing the Flame Tail Lock.
The three silver-white flame tails bound the Ghost Tiger clone like chains. The scorching heat condensed by the Fox Flame Burst directly injured the Ghost Tiger.
Taking advantage of its weakened state, her three fox tails gathered together like a giant hammer and delivered a Flame Tail Hammer. The astonishing force combined with the high-temperature flames heavily injured the Ghost Tiger.
Its overall dark-attribute Soul Power was significantly reduced, having been burned and weakened by the flames. With the Ghost Tiger's three clones either eliminated or severely injured, the situation looked highly promising.
However, Ling Xiao's side was not nearly as optimistic.
As the Ghost Tiger let out a chilling roar, its main body suddenly erupted with an extremely dense purplish-black light, and the dark-attribute energy fluctuations surged violently.
It displayed a cultivation level even higher than before, although Ling Xiao and the others could not yet precisely sense it with their spiritual power.
Moreover, a thick black mist rose around its body, obscuring its huge frame and preventing Ling Xiao from perceiving the situation inside the mist.
However, it seemed its cultivation was not yet strong enough to support the further expansion of the black mist; otherwise, it would have been enough to form a domain-type ability.
At that point, it could have used the black mist to envelop its enemies. Fighting within that black mist would undoubtedly have been extremely advantageous to the beast, practically ensuring it was invincible from the start.
The black mist enveloped the Ghost Tiger's body as it pounced toward Ling Xiao in an instant. Ling Xiao could not clearly see the Ghost Tiger's movements within, but he could see the black mist twisting violently.
A massive amount of black mist instantly transformed into a giant black tiger even larger than the original Ghost Tiger, and a giant black claw several meters long slammed down.
The momentum was truly terrifying, appearing as an unstoppable strike—at least, for the majority of Soul Masters, it was by no means something that could be blocked at the three-ring Soul Elder realm.
Facing this strike, even Ling Xiao's expression grew incredibly solemn, unsure if he could block it. Yet, regardless of the outcome, he had to go all out to hold back the Ghost Tiger's main body and buy time for Xie Yue and the others.
Otherwise, if the main body combined its attacks with any of the clones, the three of them would be picked off one by one, leaving no chance for victory.
"Profound Sky Slash."
Without sparing his Soul Power, Ling Xiao activated his martial soul with all his might.
Holding the Profound Sky Axe high, he brought it down instantly. An astonishingly large axe beam was cleaved out, extending from the body of the Profound Sky Axe itself.
The black and red energy was extremely dense and condensed, exuding an astonishing sharpness and aura. The giant tiger claw formed by the black mist lunged down heavily.
With a "boom," a rather crisp and clear sound rang out, and the axe beam formed by the Profound Sky Slash shattered instantly. It turned into wisps of residual energy, proving its prior existence.
Although Ling Xiao's full-powered Profound Sky Slash could not withstand the black mist tiger claw, it significantly reduced the immense power of the giant black claw.
Even so, it still contained a force powerful enough to heavily injure an ordinary Soul Elder, and it continued to press down on Ling Xiao like dark clouds covering the sky.
Beneath the enormous black shadow it cast, a golden light suddenly flashed, and a massive, hemispherical golden light curtain rose to protect Ling Xiao.
This was precisely Ling Xiao's third soul skill, the defensive light curtain formed by the Vajra Barrier, with a purple thousand-year Soul Ring slowly rotating around his body.
"Bang!"
Although the tiger claw formed by the black mist was condensed from the dark-attribute energy inside the Ghost Tiger and appeared to be a non-physical entity, when it landed on the Vajra Barrier, it produced a tremendous roar like thunder.
Dominated by the power of the Shala Iron Tree within the Soul Ring, the materialized golden energy barrier suddenly revealed a large number of cracks.
Along with an extremely crisp cracking sound, it suddenly disintegrated, and the entire huge golden energy wall turned into a large amount of fragments and scattered downward.
Although the Vajra Barrier was shattered by the black tiger claw, Ling Xiao did not show a look of disappointment, because after breaking the Vajra Barrier, the black tiger claw was no longer as formidable as before and began to dissipate slowly.
It seemed its power had been completely exhausted, and it lacked the strength to continue maintaining itself. However, Ling Xiao's expression changed instantly, and his brow furrowed tightly.
He saw that although the black mist had dissipated, a huge black figure rushed out from the fading mist.
A beast claw covered in purplish-black fur swiped toward Ling Xiao. Ling Xiao had already used two soul skills in succession and exerted his full strength; at this moment, he had no remaining energy to resist or dodge.
With no other choice, he could only channel his Soul Power, inject it into his martial soul, and swing the Profound Sky Axe with all his might to put up a slight defense.
Ling Xiao was already prepared to be injured and keep fighting, but the warning of danger he anticipated in his heart did not appear.
Just at this critical moment, Ling Xiao felt his waist tighten as if being wrapped by something, and at the end of it, a sudden jolt of force pulled Ling Xiao's body away, just in time to avoid the Ghost Tiger main body's strike.
Having dodged the danger, Ling Xiao relaxed and couldn't help but look down.
The one that had pulled him away from the spot at the critical moment turned out to be a long, silver-white tail. After a single glance, a smile couldn't help but tug at the corners of Ling Xiao's mouth.
Without needing to think, it was Hu Liena who had just rescued him.
"Ling Xiao, as your companions, how could we let you face such a strong enemy alone?" Hu Liena said softly.
As she spoke, her long tail curled and then released, setting Ling Xiao down. At the same time, her figure shot forward, dodging the Ghost Tiger clone's attack, and then blocked it with a Flame Tail Strike.
On the other side, just as Hu Liena had said, not only did she keep an eye on Ling Xiao—who faced the greatest pressure among the four of them while fighting the Ghost Tiger clone—
Yan, after dealing with a Ghost Tiger clone, also immediately rushed over to provide support. Taking advantage of the moment Hu Liena pulled Ling Xiao away, Yan circulated his Soul Power and erupted with astonishing power.
He shot forward like an arrow leaving the bowstring and unleashed a Blazing Sun Burst, striking the Ghost Tiger main body's claw that was aimed at Ling Xiao. The dark-red flame erupted with a roar, surging like a torrent, and just barely blocked the attack.
Taking a few steps back, Yan paused and couldn't help but secretly marvel at the Ghost Tiger's immense strength.
"Yan, you and Ling Xiao join forces and hold it off for a while. Na Na and I will quickly take care of its other two clones," Xie Yue said on the other side, looking at the situation on the field after having just helped Hu Liena temporarily restrain a Ghost Tiger clone.
In his opinion, as long as everything went smoothly, the four of them would soon be able to join forces to take down this Ghost Tiger, which was approaching five thousand years of cultivation.
**
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