173: Reencounter with Zhou Mei

A voice, charming to the bone yet laced with bone-chilling cold, suddenly drifted from the narrow cave entrance they had entered through, like a phantom!

Di Jingzhe and Feng Linger's hearts sank straight to the bottom!

At the cave entrance, the thick smoke was pushed aside by an invisible force.

A slender figure, like a demoness emerging from the dark night, stepped gracefully onto the head of the broken stone bridge.

The newcomer was none other than Zhou Mei!

She wore tight-fitting crimson leather armor that outlined breathtaking curves, but her beautiful face no longer held any trace of a seductive smile; instead, it was replaced by a playful, cat-and-mouse mockery and cold killing intent.

Her gaze first swept greedily and with shock over the Dragon Sparrow remains, which loomed like a small mountain and emitted an immortal pressure, an uncontrollable feverishness erupting deep within her pupils.

When her sight fell upon the broken black spear deeply embedded in the Dragon Sparrow's breastbone, her breath even hitched for a moment!

A divine object! An earth-shattering divine object!

Then, like a venomous snake, her gaze locked onto the collapsed and wretched Di Jingzhe, and the weakened Feng Linger with blood at the corner of her mouth, her lips curling into a cruel arc.

“Tsk tsk, two little mice certainly know how to find a place. Not only did you escape the encirclement of my Crimson Thunder Guards, but you even discovered such an... ancient hidden Legacy that not even my Zhou Family knew about?”

Zhou Mei's voice carried a strange rhythm, every word seemingly striking at the heart, causing one's blood to churn. “It is truly... a pleasant surprise, yet also... infuriating.”

Behind her, figures shifted at the cave entrance as ten fierce-looking individuals entered one after another, quickly spreading into a Formation at the narrow bridgehead.

The two leaders had auras as heavy as mountains, both shockingly at the Purple Mansion Realm Tenth Level! The other eight were at least at the Purple Mansion Realm Third Level!

The powerful aura of thunder and fire merged together, forming a heavy pressure that instantly dispersed the residual mental pressure of the Dragon Sparrow, yet brought another kind of fatal suffocation.

Ten elite Crimson Thunder Guards in total! Plus Zhou Mei, who was at the Purple Mansion Realm Tenth Level Peak and possessed a strange demonic voice!

“Young Miss, the solar flame energy here is exceptionally violent, and the pressure from those remains is startling; there might be complications. Why don't we seize these two little thieves first, then proceed slowly?”

A Purple Mansion Seventh Level guard suggested in a deep voice, warily scanning the Dragon Sparrow remains and the boiling sea of lava below.

“Complications?” Zhou Mei chuckled, her gaze never leaving Di Jingzhe and Feng Linger, as if looking at two playthings about to be hers. “Isn't the biggest complication the surprise brought by these two little mice? As for that dead thing...”

She glanced at the Dragon Sparrow remains with a hint of disdain. “No matter how strong it was, it's been dead for who knows how many tens of thousands of years. Its lingering Soul was just exhausted by these two fools; what waves could it possibly make?”

Her gaze finally fixed on the ancient zither in Feng Linger's arms, a strange light flashing in her eyes: “Though this zither... is somewhat interesting. No wonder it could break my demonic voice.”

Then, her eyes turned incredibly cold. “However, this is where it ends.”

Zhou Mei slowly raised a slender, jade-like hand, her fingertips swirling with strands of strange pink mist. Within the mist, countless tiny, distorted human faces seemed to be wailing.

“Take them!” The command was issued, cold and heartless.

“As you command!”

Two Purple Mansion Seventh Level Crimson Thunder Guards had fierce glints explode in their eyes as they stepped forward simultaneously!

“Crimson Thunder Void-Locking Formation! Rise!”

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Dazzling crimson lightning erupted from the ten Crimson Thunder Guards all at once!

Streaks of crimson thunder-fire chains shot out from their hands, instantly crisscrossing the narrow space at the bridgehead to form a massive crimson thunder-fire net covering dozens of feet!

Runes flowed upon the fire net, emitting a powerful aura of restriction and burning. It not only blocked all space for evasion but also frantically extracted the already violent solar flame energy from the surroundings, causing the temperature within the net to skyrocket and the air to begin to distort!

“Die!”

The two Purple Mansion Seventh Level guards struck the moment the Formation was complete!

One held a giant axe burning with crimson thunder-fire, swinging it down with a force that could split a mountain. A ten-foot-long crimson thunder-fire axe-light tore through the air, carrying the power to shatter stone as it slashed down toward the struggling Di Jingzhe!

The other formed hand seals, condensing three head-sized, constantly rotating and compressing crimson thunder orbs before him. They emitted extremely unstable waves of destruction and shot toward the weakened Feng Linger like cannonballs!

The offensive was like a thunderclap, ruthless and fatal! It gave them no room to breathe at all!

A desperate situation! A true scenario with no chance of survival!

Di Jingzhe watched the crimson axe-light cleaving down, the searing heat wave almost igniting him.

The shadow of death had never been as clear as it was at this moment.

Inside his body, the severe pain from the impact of the Dragon Sparrow's lingering Soul had not yet subsided, the Kui Thunder Power was suppressed, the waves of annihilation were eroding his vitality, and his true essence was nearly exhausted... The Zhou Family's Crimson Thunder Void-Locking Formation was like a red-hot iron cage, trapping him firmly.

Was he going to die?

Die in this pitch-black underground?

Die under the siege of his enemies?

Feng Wuji hadn't been found yet, and Feng Linger's brother's fate was unknown... He had promised to help her!

He hadn't repaid his Family yet, and the Clan Chief might be watching him from somewhere; how could he lose face for the Di Clan!

How glorious were the ancestors of the Di Clan; how could he let the Di Clan's prestigious name fall!

No!

A surge of unwillingness and rage from the depths of his Soul erupted like a dormant volcano!

It was even more intense than when he faced the Dragon Sparrow's lingering Soul earlier!

The pride flowing in the Di Clan Bloodline and the bravery bestowed by the Kui inheritance were completely ignited by the threat of death in this instant!

“I! Di Jingzhe! How can I die here! How can I die at the hands of you scoundrels!”

He roared in his heart! His eyes were instantly filled with a frenzied blood-red and rampaging lightning! A resolute will to burn himself and disregard everything else soared into the sky!

The suppressed, eroded, and nearly exhausted dark-gold lightning within his body actually underwent an incredible mutation under the pressure of this heart-burning rage!

Sizzle, sizzle—!

The dim thunder patterns on his body surface suddenly lit up like a final flash of brilliance!

But this time, it was no longer pure dark-gold!

The domineering solar flame energy from the Dragon Sparrow remains that had invaded his body, the searing fire elements gathered by the Crimson Thunder Void-Locking Formation, and even the waves of annihilation emitted by the black broken spear... At this moment, driven by his frantic will to burn everything and perish together, they were actually treated as fuel by his body, which was on the verge of collapse!

The Profound Truth of the Kui Thunder Shakes the World Art operated frantically between life and death, using his own will as the furnace and his heart-burning rage as the catalyst!

The Kui Thunder Shakes the World Art, fused with the first volume of the Myriad Realms Return to Origin Scripture, had already far surpassed the original Cultivation Technique!

This was one of the reasons why Di Jingzhe was only at the Profound Core Realm but possessed such powerful combat strength.

“Merge... for me!”

Di Jingzhe let out a roar that didn't sound human!

He abandoned all defense, pouring all his remaining power and even burning a portion of his life Origin into his right fist!

On his fist, dark-gold lightning, crimson fire elements, a wisp of strange black annihilation energy, and his own boiling essence blood were forcibly blended together!

Under the command of that indomitable Kui True Intent that could crush ten thousand armies, and within Di Jingzhe's furnace of will to perish together, a certain violent qualitative change occurred!

Boom!