176: Chapter 176 Phoenix Flow's Ultimate Limit

Qin Ce hovered in the air, watching the grey figure closing in from behind. Cold sweat dripped from his temples down his cheeks.

The pterodactyl was too fast.

He had never seen a flying beast this swift. Those five Gold Rank raven guardians from the beast tide were already considered top-tier in terms of speed among Gold Rank beasts. The Azure Phoenix, with its threefold speed boost, had still been able to maneuver amidst their encirclement. But this pterodactyl before him was at least another tier faster than those five raven guardians.

Its speed didn't come from energy acceleration, but from pure physical prowess. Those thirty-meter wingspan membranous wings were like giant sails with each flap, violently compressing air behind them, generating thrust so immense that white sonic booms erupted at its wingtips. Its muscle density, skeletal structure, and wing membrane tension were all born for speed, optimized for close combat.

It had forsaken all long-range attacks, pouring every evolutionary point into speed and melee.

This was a Gold Rank pterodactyl.

The Azure Phoenix was flying for its life, blood still seeping from the wound on its left wing. Each wingbeat brought a piercing pain. But its speed, compared to the pterodactyl's, was as slow as a struggling butterfly.

Qin Ce gritted his teeth.

"Little Qing, turn around, Spider-Web Wind Blade!"

The Azure Phoenix beat its wings, whirling around to face the pterodactyl head-on. The three newly condensed green Phoenix Flow behind it surged into its body instantly. It opened its beak, and a silvery-white Spider-Web Wind Blade shot out.

The Wind Blade exploded mid-air, transforming into dozens of fine, interwoven Wind Blades that formed a net, descending upon the pterodactyl. This move had been a divine skill against the Red-Scaled Earth Lizard King—that net could even restrain a Silver Rank Earth Lizard King, rendering it immobile.

The pterodactyl didn't even dodge.

It merely raised its right wing, the talon at the wingtip extending a half-meter-long bone blade, and gave a light swipe.

Schlick.

The net woven from dozens of Wind Blades tore in two down the middle, like paper cut by scissors.

The Wind Blades scattered, striking the pterodactyl's scales without leaving even a white mark.

The pterodactyl's speed wasn't hindered in the slightest; its trajectory didn't deviate a fraction.

Qin Ce's pupils contracted sharply.

The Spider-Web Wind Blade was like paper before the pterodactyl.

This was the true power of a Gold Rank beast that had forsaken all long-range attacks, dedicating every point to close combat.

Its wing claws weren't ordinary talons; they were its sole weapon for survival, a killing tool honed over a lifetime, capable of tearing through anything.

Before it, the Spider-Web Wind Blade was no different from an ordinary fishing net.

"Go!"

The Azure Phoenix turned and fled, the pterodactyl in hot pursuit.

The pterodactyl was too fast. So fast that even the Azure Phoenix, renowned for its speed, paled in comparison.

The distance between them closed rapidly. Qin Ce could even hear the wind whistling from the pterodactyl's wingbeats, could feel the foul-smelling gale rushing towards his face.

Qin Ce gritted his teeth, his mind focusing.

[Shadow Sight].

A giant Wind Blade, as tall as a man, condensed and shot out from before the Azure Phoenix.

The moment the Wind Blade left its grasp, it absorbed surrounding wind elements, materializing an azure phantom identical to the Azure Phoenix.

The phantom paused briefly in the air, then shot eastward with extreme speed and an erratic trajectory.

The pterodactyl blinked.

It watched the suddenly split azure figure, a flicker of confusion in its dark red eyes.

But it was only confusion, not hesitation.

Its nostrils flared twice, then it chased Qin Ce's true form without a second thought.

The scent of bone powder was on Qin Ce, not on that phantom.

Just as the pterodactyl caught up to Qin Ce and the Azure Phoenix, its eyes flashing with intense hatred.

It slashed viciously towards Qin Ce and the Azure Phoenix.

A spatial swap occurred. Qin Ce and the Azure Phoenix appeared several hundred meters away.

And the wind-element energy phantom several hundred meters away appeared at Qin Ce's original location.

The next moment, it was torn to shreds by the pterodactyl.

However, Qin Ce, now several hundred meters away, felt no relief.

Qin Ce knew simple escape was meaningless. The pterodactyl's speed advantage was too great; they'd be caught within a minute.

Because the pterodactyl was too fast. They couldn't create distance. Even with Shadow Sight, they couldn't escape its pursuit.

Moreover, using Shadow Sight consumed immense energy. The Azure Phoenix could only use it three times at most.

Therefore, escape was impossible. They had to face it head-on.

At that moment, Qin Ce recalled that when operating the gold-level crystal core tower previously, using wind energy had allowed them to reach Gold Rank.

It was just that before, the Azure Phoenix had just leveled up, its foundation unstable. It could control at most nine strands of Phoenix Flow.

And the energy of nine Phoenix Flow strands was insufficient for the qualitative leap to Gold Rank energy.

Now, the Azure Phoenix's foundation had solidified, and it had advanced to Upper Bronze Rank. Its control over Phoenix Flow had improved.

Perhaps now it could independently gather enough energy to mutate to Gold Rank.

Now.

He had to find a way to buy time, to give the Azure Phoenix a chance to accumulate Phoenix Flow.

That's it!

Qin Ce's eyes lit up!

"Little Qing, Tethering Wind Blade!"

Through the Soul Talisman connection, the Azure Phoenix instantly understood Qin Ce's intent. It stopped fleeing in a straight line and began tracing arcs in the air.

Palm-sized Wind Blades shot from its wingtips—not fast, but with tricky angles, not aimed at the pterodactyl's body, but at its eyes.

The pterodactyl instinctively blinked, turned its head, dodged.

With each dodge, its speed slowed for an instant.

In that instant, the Azure Phoenix could gain over a dozen meters.

One Tethering Wind Blade after another shot from the Azure Phoenix's wingtips, like an endless rain.

Harassed and irritated, the pterodactyl tried several times to charge forward, but the Wind Blades always aimed precisely at its eyes, forcing it to dodge.

Its speed slowed.

Not just a little, but significantly.

Qin Ce noticed that while the pterodactyl was fast, its agility was inferior to the Azure Phoenix's.

Its frame was too large—a thirty-meter wingspan. Each turn required immense space and power.

The Azure Phoenix, with only a ten-meter wingspan, could execute tighter turns and sharper maneuvers in the air.

This was the opportunity.

The Azure Phoenix began circling the pterodactyl at high speed, like a hummingbird flitting around a giant beast.

Tethering Wind Blades shot at the pterodactyl's eyes from all directions, forcing it to constantly turn its head, blink, adjust its posture.

The pterodactyl was disoriented by the spinning. Its speed advantage was completely negated in this close-quarters dogfight.

Meanwhile, strands of Phoenix Flow were condensing one by one behind the Azure Phoenix.

Three, five, seven, ten.

Each strand of Phoenix Flow was wind-element energy the Azure Phoenix drew from the surrounding air during combat, compressed, condensed, and stored behind it.

This was the core ability of the second layer of Nine-fold Azure Sky's Wind Mastery—transforming external wind elements for its own use.

Qin Ce calculated rapidly in his mind.

During the beast tide, when he controlled the gold-level crystal core tower, he had five Silver Rank Beast Tamers inject their energy into the Azure Phoenix. Then, through the Wind Mastery talent's compression and purification, the energy level was pushed to Gold Rank.

That time, it was the combined full energy of five Silver Rank Beast Tamers.

On the Azure Phoenix's side, three strands of Phoenix Flow equaled Silver Rank energy, and that included its own energy.

Therefore, four strands of Phoenix Flow equaled one Silver Rank energy unit.

To reach the energy level of five Silver Rank Beast Tamers...

That required over twenty strands of Phoenix Flow!!!

The Azure Phoenix compressed every shred of wind-element energy drawn from the air to its absolute limit, wasting not a single wisp.

The strands of Phoenix Flow behind the Azure Phoenix grew more numerous, denser.

Thirteen, fifteen, seventeen.

When seventeen azure ribbons swayed behind it...

But Qin Ce noticed the Azure Phoenix's body was trembling slightly. Not from fear, but from being unable to hold on.

Its feathers glowed faintly, but not with the normal azure luster. It was a nearly transparent, strained white light, as if it were about to burst.

Its body trembled, its wings trembled, even its breathing trembled.

Qin Ce's heart clenched.

He knew the Azure Phoenix was pushing itself beyond its limits.

Seventeen strands of Phoenix Flow far exceeded its physical limits. It was using sheer will to suppress those violent energies, preventing them from exploding within.

"Little Qing..." Qin Ce's voice was hoarse.

The Azure Phoenix didn't respond. It just kept flying, kept circling, kept harassing the pterodactyl with Tethering Wind Blades.

The Phoenix Flow behind it continued to increase. Eighteen, nineteen.

They couldn't delay any longer.

Qin Ce gritted his teeth.

The Azure Phoenix couldn't hold on much longer. If they delayed further, the Azure Phoenix would explode from the internal energy before the pterodactyl even attacked.

But the current energy wasn't enough.

Nineteen strands of Phoenix Flow, though far beyond the Azure Phoenix's limit, still fell short of Gold Rank by a hair.

Qin Ce needed more energy. He needed the Azure Phoenix to break through that hair's breadth, to touch the threshold of Gold Rank.

But the Azure Phoenix had reached its limit.

Qin Ce closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

When he opened them again, a flash of resolve shone in his eyes.

"Little Qing, release Shadow Sight!"

The Azure Phoenix beat its wings fiercely. A giant Wind Blade, as tall as a man, condensed and shot out from before it.

The moment the Wind Blade left its grasp, it absorbed surrounding wind elements, materializing an azure phantom identical to the Azure Phoenix.

This was Qin Ce's final gamble.

Releasing Shadow Sight consumed vast mental energy, but the phantom itself also contained energy.

That energy wouldn't vanish when the phantom dissipated; it would disperse into the air, where it could be reabsorbed by the Wind Mastery talent.

Qin Ce didn't want the phantom's confuse effect; he wanted the dispersed energy after the phantom vanished.

At that moment, the pterodactyl suddenly accelerated, its bone blade slashing towards the Azure Phoenix's true form.

It turned out the pterodactyl had also been adapting to the Tethering Wind Blade attacks during this process, secretly preparing for this ambush.

And this exactly coincided with Qin Ce using Shadow Sight again.

"Swap!"

Qin Ce focused his mind. The Azure Phoenix's true form and the phantom not far away instantly swapped places.

The pterodactyl's bone blade struck the phantom. The phantom exploded, transforming into countless fragmented wind-element energies drifting in the air.

Those energies were frantically absorbed by the Phoenix Flow behind the Azure Phoenix.

Twenty strands!

Twenty-one strands!!!

The Azure Phoenix's aura climbed once more.

The Azure Phoenix's body began to bleed.

Not from external wounds, but from its meridians being torn apart.

Those violent wind-element energies rampaged within its body, tearing through its meridians, muscles, blood vessels.

Its feathers were stained red with blood, turning from azure-gold to dark crimson.

But its aura finally broke through that threshold.

Upper Bronze Rank—Bronze Peak—Silver Low-grade—Mid Silver Rank—Upper Silver Rank—Silver Peak.

Then, a thread of golden light ignited from within the Azure Phoenix.

It wasn't the reflection of feathers, nor the overflow of energy, but a deeper transformation, from the essence of life itself.

Golden light emanated from the Azure Phoenix's bones, from its muscles, from its blood, dyeing its entire body into a mass of golden flame.

Gold Rank.

Not a true realm breakthrough, but the energy level being forcibly pushed to Gold Rank within a short time.

The Azure Phoenix raised its head and let out a long cry. The sound was no longer clear and melodious, but carried a metallic, sky-rending roar.

The pterodactyl halted.

It hovered in the air, its dark red eyes fixed intently on the blood-soaked azure bird.

It sensed that power, on the same level as its own.

Its expression grew grave.

Qin Ce looked at the Azure Phoenix, his eyes growing hot.

He knew what the Azure Phoenix was enduring. Those energies were tearing its body apart; every second was torment.

But the Azure Phoenix didn't cry out, didn't retreat, even trying to suppress its trembling.

It didn't want Qin Ce to worry.

"Little Qing, the final strike." Qin Ce's voice was soft, almost a whisper.

The Azure Phoenix let out a low cry—a response, and also a farewell.

It channeled all its energy, compressing it entirely into the Wind Blade taking shape.

Twenty-one strands of Phoenix Flow, plus the energy dispersed from the two Shadow Sight releases, plus the Azure Phoenix's entire life force.

A golden Wind Blade condensed within the Azure Phoenix's beak.

The Wind Blade wasn't large, merely the height of a person, but it was condensed to the extreme, its edges shimmering with a blinding golden light.

As it condensed, the Azure Phoenix's body shook violently. Blood seeped from between its feathers, dripping down the edges of the Wind Blade.

The golden Wind Blade shot from the Azure Phoenix's beak.

The pterodactyl moved as well.

It beat its wings fiercely. The golden light on the bone blades at its wingtips surged, extending from half a meter to over a meter long.

Those bone blades were no longer ordinary keratin; they were reinforced to the extreme with metal-element energy, blades capable of cutting through anything.

Its claws crossed, the bone blades forming a cross-shaped net as it slashed towards the golden Wind Blade.

BOOM——!!!

Two Gold Rank forces collided in the air.

The golden Wind Blade slammed into the pterodactyl's crossed claws. The energy clash erupted in a visible shockwave, spreading outwards.

The air compressed, distortion, and shattered in that instant, releasing a deafening roar.

On the ground, rubble hundreds of meters away was flung into the air by the shockwave; dust filled the sky.

Qin Ce stared fixedly at the collision's epicenter.

The golden Wind Blade, under the pterodactyl's claws, was like a glass knife striking an iron hammer.

It held on, resisted, desperately trying to cut through those bone blades.

But the pterodactyl's bone blades were too hard. So hard that the golden Wind Blade could only leave shallow white marks before beginning to fracture.

Cracks spread from the Wind Blade's edges, spreading like a spiderweb.

One, two, three—more and more, denser and denser. Then—crackle.

The golden Wind Blade shattered.

Transformed into countless tiny golden fragments drifting in the air, like a shower of golden rain.

Several fine cracks appeared on the pterodactyl's bone blades. Several scales had been blasted off in the energy clash, revealing the dark red flesh beneath.

Blood seeped from the wounds, trickling down the scales. But it didn't retreat, didn't even slow down.

It charged through the golden rain, pouncing towards the Azure Phoenix.

The Azure Phoenix had no strength left to dodge.

Fusing twenty-one strands of Phoenix Flow had drained all its energy. Releasing Shadow Sight twice had exhausted its mental power. That golden Wind Blade had squeezed out the last of its life force.

Its wings trembled, its vision darkened, its body began to fall. It watched the pterodactyl draw closer, watched those bone blades enlarge before its eyes, lacking even the strength to close them.

Thud.

The pterodactyl's body collided with the Azure Phoenix.

Not with its wing claws, but with its torso.

It used its massive frame, like a runaway train, slamming hard into the Azure Phoenix.

The Azure Phoenix's body tumbled through the air like a kite with its string cut, rolling several times before plummeting towards the ground. Feathers scattered, blood sprayed, azure-gold feathers and dark crimson blood mingling, painting a Poignant arc in the sky.

Qin Ce was thrown off the moment the Azure Phoenix was hit.

He felt his body tossed like a leaf in a storm, tumbling, spinning, falling.

Wind howled in his ears. The ground loomed larger in his vision, closer and closer. He reached out, trying to grab something, but there was only air slipping through his fingers.