207: Chapter 207 Azure Phoenix Gold-Level Attack

After dodging the Three-Headed Hellhound's attack.

The Blue Phoenix flew out from behind the first Wind Barrier; its position was no longer directly in front of the Three-Headed Hellhound, but rather to its front-left.

Behind it, the Phoenix Flow had already condensed into six streams.

The Three-Headed Hellhound's six eyes turned simultaneously, locking onto the Blue Phoenix's new position.

The gray-purple head in the middle opened its mouth, and a thick cloud of purple-black poison mist surged from deep within its throat, spreading wildly in all directions like a bursting dam.

The poison mist spread extremely fast, covering an area the size of an entire basketball court in the blink of an eye.

The Blue Phoenix was at the edge of the poison mist, and a few wisps of purple mist had already touched its tail feathers.

But this time, the poison mist did not surround the Blue Phoenix pervasively as it had before.

Because it had collided with a Wind Barrier.

The second of the two Wind Barriers happened to block the path of the poison mist's expansion.

The Wind Barrier's reverse wind roll.

With two Wind Cores, the wind directions were opposite, creating a high-speed counter-current airflow in the middle—forcing the oncoming poison mist back.

The purple poison mist hit the Wind Barrier like a tide hitting a dam, stopping, rolling back, and flowing in reverse, instead spreading toward the Three-Headed Hellhound's own direction.

The Three-Headed Hellhound's gray-purple head froze for a moment.

It hadn't expected its own poison mist to be blown back.

But the Blue Phoenix gave it no time to react.

"Connect to the second Wind Core," Qin Ce ordered!

The Blue Phoenix flew out from behind the first Wind Barrier, tracing an arc in the air and precisely sweeping past the second Wind Core on its figure-eight movement path.

The power of the Wind Core pulled its body again, and its flight trajectory shifted once more, moving from the front-left to directly above.

Behind it, the Phoenix Flow had already condensed into nine streams.

Nine silver-white energy ribbons swayed behind the Blue Phoenix, each refined to the extreme, like nine taut harp strings ready to play a lethal high note at any moment.

"Flowing Cloud Wave Roll."

The nine streams of Phoenix Flow surged into the Blue Phoenix's body simultaneously.

The Blue Phoenix's wings lit up, a silver-white light spreading from the base of the feathers to the tips, growing brighter and denser.

Its beak opened, and a Wind Blade condensed deep in its throat—it wasn't the size of a palm or as tall as a person, but a giant Wind Blade a full two meters long with a faint golden edge.

The Wind Blade shot out from the Blue Phoenix's mouth, trailing a golden exhaust flame as it dived from high above, its speed so fast it pulled a blinding white trail through the air, slashing straight toward the Three-Headed Hellhound.

The Three-Headed Hellhound's six eyes stared at the Wind Blade simultaneously, and its dark-red head opened its mouth, a fireball larger, brighter, and hotter than before condensing in its throat.

Boom—!

The fireball and the Wind Blade collided in the air.

The corners of the Three-Headed Hellhound's mouth curled up.

A little Silver Rank bird dared to counterattack it?

Then, its smile froze.

The Wind Blade sliced through the fireball—it wasn't smashed; it was sliced.

Like a red-hot knife cutting through butter, it sliced into the center of the fireball and emerged from the other side.

The fireball was split in two, turning into two dim bursts of fire that flew to the sides, exploding into two shallow pits on the ground.

As for that silver-white Wind Blade, only the golden light on its edge had dimmed slightly; its overall structure remained intact as it continued to slash down without losing speed.

The Three-Headed Hellhound's pupils constricted sharply.

Its body instinctively dodged to the right, and the Wind Blade grazed past its left head, slashing into the corner of the dark-red head's eye.

Puchi.

Dark-red blood gushed out, and a fist-sized eyeball popped out of the socket, rolling onto the ground and being sliced in half by the Wind Blade's aftershock.

"Awoo—!!!"

The Three-Headed Hellhound let out a shrill, miserable scream.

That dark-red head jerked back, a bloody hollow now where the eye had been. Dark-red blood mixed with transparent tissue fluid flowed down its cheek, dripping onto the grass with a faint sizzling sound—its blood temperature was extremely high, like sparks landing on dry grass.

The Three-Headed Hellhound was enraged.

Its three heads turned toward the Blue Phoenix simultaneously, a mad killing intent burning in its six eyes.

A little Silver Rank bird, an insect it wouldn't even deign to look at, had actually injured it!

"Roar—!!!"

The heads on the left and right opened their mouths simultaneously, firing a fireball and a Shadow Impact side by side.

These weren't ordinary attacks, but strikes driven by full power and fury, at least thirty percent more powerful than before.

The fireball's temperature was so high that the surrounding air distorted, and the density of the Shadow Impact was like a solidified pillar of black light.

The two attacks, one on the left and one on the right, sealed off all of the Blue Phoenix's escape routes in every direction.

The Blue Phoenix didn't try to tank it. "Third Wind Core."

The Blue Phoenix's body made a sharp turn in the air, sweeping past the third Wind Core and instantly moving from directly above to the rear-right of the Three-Headed Hellhound.

The fireball and Shadow Impact lost their target and continued forward, crashing into a patch of bushes at the edge of the figure-eight Wind Core movement path, exploding into a burst of fire and black mist, leveling the bushes.

The Blue Phoenix rose from the rear-right of the Three-Headed Hellhound.

Behind it, the Phoenix Flow had already condensed into thirteen streams.

Thirteen silver-white energy ribbons surged behind it like a tide, each one brighter, more solid, and larger than before.

"Slash again."

The thirteen streams of Phoenix Flow surged into its body.

The Blue Phoenix's beak opened again. This time, what condensed was no longer a Wind Blade with a golden edge, but a giant Wind Blade that was, in a true sense, one-third gold.

With a silver-white core at the center, golden light spread from the core to the edges, covering a full third of the Wind Blade—Gold Rank. This wasn't an energy level just touching the threshold of Gold Rank, but a genuine, solid Gold Rank attack.

The Wind Blade shot out from the Blue Phoenix's mouth at a speed nearly equivalent to teleportation, leaving only a golden afterimage in the air.

The Three-Headed Hellhound's dark-red head was still bleeding, its remaining eyes staring intently at the golden Wind Blade.

Its body instinctively wanted to dodge, but the Wind Blade was too fast—so fast that its nerves didn't have time to transmit the command and its muscles didn't have time to contract.

Puchi.

The Wind Blade slashed into the Three-Headed Hellhound's right hind leg—not just grazing it, but slicing deep inside.

The golden Wind Blade sliced through dark-gray bristles, thick skin, tough muscle, and stout bone.

Ten centimeters deep. The wound stretched from above the knee to the hip joint. Dark-red blood gushed out like a fountain, and the sliced muscle peeled back to the sides, revealing the stark white bone beneath, which had a deep notch in it—one bit more, and the entire leg would have been severed.

The Three-Headed Hellhound let out an extremely shrill scream.

Its body lurched, its right hind leg unable to support its weight. Its entire body tilted to the right, nearly falling over.

It propped itself up with three legs, its remaining two intact heads looking around frantically for the Blue Phoenix's position.

Then it saw.

The Blue Phoenix hovered in the air, the Phoenix Flow condensing behind it once more—five streams, nine streams, sixteen streams.

For the first time, fear appeared in the Three-Headed Hellhound's eyes.

It wasn't afraid of injury, pain, or even death.

But it feared this feeling of being completely suppressed, unable to even fight back.

Its fireballs wouldn't hit, its Shadow Impacts couldn't catch up, and its poison mist would be blown back.

Meanwhile, the opponent's attacks were growing stronger and more accurate with every strike.

It lowered its heads, all three pointing toward the ground. Three different colored lights lit up deep in its throats—dark-red fire, pitch-black shadow, and gray-purple poison mist. The three energies met, fused, and compressed in its chest cavity, forming a three-colored interwoven energy ball half a meter in diameter.

The energy ball condensed one meter in front of the three heads, growing larger and brighter.

Fire, shadow, and poison—the three energies were forcibly compressed together, rubbing violently against each other and emitting a piercing hum. Tiny arcs of energy constantly sparked out from the surface of the energy ball.

Body Integration Technique.

The Three-Headed Hellhound's trump card.

Forsaking the independent attacks of the three attributes, it gathered all its energy into a single strike, its power far exceeding any single-attribute attack.

The energy ball shot out from in front of the three heads, trailing a three-colored exhaust flame as it blasted straight toward the Blue Phoenix.

The power of this strike had reached the upper limit of Gold Peak.

Qin Ce's pupils constricted slightly. "Wind Barrier."

The Blue Phoenix's body made a sharp turn in the air, sweeping toward the figure-eight Wind Barrier in front.

Two Wind Cores lit up simultaneously, their opposite wind directions forming a high-speed counter-current wind wall between the Blue Phoenix and the Three-Headed Hellhound.

The energy ball collided with the Wind Barrier.

Boom—!!!

The collision between the three-colored energy and the wind energy exploded in a flash of blinding light.

The energy ball spun violently against the Wind Barrier, the three attributes of energy frantically tearing at the wind wall—fire burning, shadow corroding, and poison mist penetrating.

The Wind Barrier held.

But it only held for a second.

The wind wall trembled violently under the impact of the energy ball, cracks spreading from the center like a spiderweb.

With a crash, the two Wind Cores exploded simultaneously, dissipating into countless tiny silver light specks in the air.

The Wind Barrier shattered.

The energy ball passed through the Wind Barrier and continued to blast toward the Blue Phoenix; although its speed was slightly slower and its power slightly weaker, it was still a Gold Peak attack.

"Phoenix Dance Nine Turns."

The Blue Phoenix's body flickered continuously between the Wind Cores.

Fourth Wind Core, fifth, sixth, seventh—four changes in direction traced a bizarre zigzag in the air, forcibly drilling out from the flight path of the energy ball.

The energy ball grazed past the Blue Phoenix's tail feathers and blasted into a distant mountain peak.

Rumble—!!!

Half of the mountain wall was blown down, boulders rolling down from the cliff and hitting the ground with heavy thuds.

Dust and smoke rose into the sky, filling half the horizon.

Qin Ce looked back at the collapsed mountain wall, a layer of cold sweat breaking out on his forehead.

If the Blue Phoenix's reaction had been half a second slower, if the angle of the Phoenix Dance Nine Turns had been off by a single degree, or if there had been one fewer Wind Core placed—it wouldn't be the mountain peak that was blown down now, but the Blue Phoenix.

Two Wind Cores were destroyed.

One of the two Wind Barrier bases had been shattered by the energy ball, leaving the figure-eight movement path missing a key turning point.

The Blue Phoenix's range of movement was instantly restricted; it could no longer weave through as freely as before.

But Qin Ce did not panic.

"Dismantle the second Wind Barrier."

The two Wind Cores of the second Wind Barrier lit up simultaneously, the wind direction changing abruptly.

Instead of maintaining the Wind Barrier, they were split into two independent Wind Cores and added to the figure-eight movement path.

The movement path went from five Wind Cores to seven, and the turning points increased from two to four—although it had lost the protection of the Wind Barrier, the Blue Phoenix's space for maneuvering had increased.

The Three-Headed Hellhound was panting.

The Body Integration Technique had consumed a massive amount of energy. A mixture of saliva and blood streaks hung from the corners of all three heads' mouths, and the dark-red one was still bleeding. It lowered its heads, staring at the Blue Phoenix with its remaining five eyes, breathing heavily. It was waiting—waiting for the Blue Phoenix to get close, waiting for it to enter attack range, waiting for it to show a weakness.

It knew that the little Silver Rank bird couldn't release that kind of Gold Rank attack indefinitely; such an attack surely required accumulation and time.

Qin Ce was also waiting.

He was waiting for the Phoenix Flow behind the Blue Phoenix.

Sixteen streams, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one.

The Blue Phoenix's body was trembling violently, and tiny beads of blood seeped out from between its feathers.

Because of its previous injuries, the Blue Phoenix's body was still very fragile, and it was starting to lose control of the Phoenix Flow behind it.

At this moment, twenty-one streams of Phoenix Flow were nearing the bearing limit of its injured mid-grade silver body.

Qin Ce looked at the Blue Phoenix's bleeding body and gritted his teeth. "Xiao Qing, attack one more time."

The Blue Phoenix let out a low-pitched cry.

It wasn't clear or high-pitched, but a hiss squeezed from the deepest part of its chest, carrying pain and determination.

The twenty-one streams of Phoenix Flow surged into the Blue Phoenix's body at once.

All of the Blue Phoenix's feathers lit up, a silver-cyan light spreading from the base of each feather to the tip, merging and then bursting forth.

Its beak opened, and a completely golden Wind Blade condensed deep in its throat—it wasn't just golden-edged or one-third gold, but entirely golden-yellow, like a sun compressed to its limit, emitting a blinding golden light.

Gold Rank.

A true, complete, and unadulterated Gold Rank attack.

The Three-Headed Hellhound's three heads rose simultaneously.

It felt it—the threat that made its hair stand on end, a threat felt deep in its bones.

It didn't dare wait any longer.

The three heads aimed at a point one meter in front of them simultaneously, and three colors of light gathered in their chest cavities once more—fire, shadow, and poison. The three energies were frantically compressed, forming a three-colored energy ball larger, brighter, and more unstable than before.

The Body Integration Technique condensed once more.

But this time, the Blue Phoenix did not give it the chance to release it.

Tethering Wind Blade.

The moment that golden Wind Blade shot from the Blue Phoenix's mouth, it didn't fly straight toward the Three-Headed Hellhound. Instead, like a fallen leaf blown by the wind, it traced a bizarre arc in the air—not flying toward the front, but toward its side.

The Three-Headed Hellhound's six eyes followed the golden Wind Blade's movement. The energy ball had condensed to its limit in front of its three heads and was just about to be released.

But the Wind Blade was not in front of it, so the energy ball could not lock on.

The Three-Headed Hellhound's instinct told it something was wrong, but it had no time to think.

The golden Wind Blade traced an arc in the air, circling to the side of the Three-Headed Hellhound, and then—accelerated.

The second effect of the Tethering Wind Blade: the Wind Blade could be controlled through Mental Energy during flight, allowing it to suddenly accelerate, suddenly change direction, or suddenly turn.

From an unbelievable angle, the golden Wind Blade slashed into the junction between two of the Three-Headed Hellhound's heads—between the dark-red head and the pitch-black head, that relatively slender neck where the scales were thinner and the defense was weaker.

...