[ 7th floor of the Ancestral Training Grounds ]
Xiao Fang's clone trailed behind Li Lian and Xun Wei, watching them move with focus and determination. With Xiao Hei now fully awake, she leapt off Xiao Fang's back, stretching her limbs with feline grace.
"So we're really doing this…" she whispered nervously to Xiao Fang.
Xun Wei glanced at her. "It'll be fine. Just don't get separated from us."
Despite her words, even Xun Wei's fingers tightened slightly on the hilt of her sword.
The air on the 7th floor was different. Heavier. Wilder. The scent of blood and beast musk lingered, the terrain more jagged and overgrown. Monstrous roars echoed from the distance, so guttural and low, others sharp and deafening.
"Fang… I don't want to fight here," Xiao Hei complained.
"Do your best. We're close to the exit anyway, so if anything happens, you all have the ans to escape. I'll stay behind and buy you ti since I'm just a clone," Xiao Fang said to make Xiao Hei feel a little less anxious.
"Hmph, fine," she whispered reluctantly.
It wasn't long till Xiao Fang could hear a beast approaching, but it didn't feel like an 8th-tier beast like he had hoped.
Xiao Fang's clone remained silent but alert, surveying their surroundings in case there were more lurking in the area. However, as far as he could tell, there was only that one. It didn't take long for the other 3 to sense that sothing was coming as well.
Suddenly, a gust of wind pushed them back, and a shadow could be seen dashing through the trees.
"Fang-" Li Lian spoke as if to ask sothing.
Understanding what she was going to ask, he answered,
"It's alone."
"Good. Then I'll take it from here. Xun Wei, leave this one to ," Li Lian said, her hand on her whip, flas faintly curling around her fingers.
"Understood." Xun Wei said before her body began to fade away.
Seeing as Xun Wei was using [ Stealth ], Xiao Hei decided to join her.
"Fang, watch ," Li Lian said as her [Heavenly Fire] spirit attribute surged to life, engulfing her body in divine fla. Her hair turned a vibrant red, and her aura flared like a star in the night sky.
Then ca a roar—deep, draconic, and thunderous—that shook even Xiao Fang to his core.
[ 1st Stage Dragon Perception ]
Li Lian wore her flas like a second robe, flickering and regal. Her hair swayed with an unseen wind, and the earrings on her ears shimred as she began to ascend into the sky. Xiao Fang stared, awestruck. He had seen her fly once before, but it didn't make the sight any less incredible now.
In an instant, her battle power soared into the Divine Realm.
Then she did sothing that made Xiao Fang's eyes narrow in disbelief.
She created two [ Illusory Clones ], each cloaked in the sa [ Heavenly Flas ] as her original body. While it was obvious to him that they were illusions, there was more to them than t the eye. Xiao Fang just couldn't shake the feeling, as if he was in the presence of three Divine Realm cultivators fighting side-by-side.
'It's those earrings,' he thought.
He rembered her telling him the Matriarch had gifted them to her, but he had never imagined they could hold this much Qi.
Suddenly, a monstrous howl tore through the forest. From the shadows erged a massive 9th-tier beast—a crimson-furred wolf with two tails, each tipped with serrated bone. Its blood-red eyes locked onto them, and frothy saliva dripped from its snarling mouth.
Xiao Hei froze, fear gripping her limbs as she remained in [ Stealth ].
The wolf lunged.
One of Li Lian's clones t it halfway, her whip crackling with fire as it lashed out, carving a line of fla across the wolf's side. But the beast twisted midair, avoiding the brunt of the strike, and retaliated with one of its tails. With a vicious sweep, the clone was split clean in half.
But it didn't vanish.
Instead, it began to shine—bright white, radiant like a star.
Xiao Fang's eyes widened. That light… he knew that technique.
As if confirming his thoughts, a devilish grin appeared on Li Lian's face.
[ Exploding Star ]
The clone detonated with a deafening boom, engulfing the beast in a wave of heat and force. The silver-furred beast was sent staggering, blood spurting from its jaws.
Before it could recover, it spun—sensing another attack—but it was already too late.
Another blow landed, this one from an impossible angle.
Its eyes widened in horror as it recognized the source—it was the clone that had just exploded. It was reforming itself.
'[ Reanimation ],' Xiao Fang thought in shock. He never imagined the technique he learned from her could be used in such a way.
A nervous sweat appeared on Xiao Fang's face. Li Lian wasn't the sa girl she was in the Outer Court, if he was to fight her now, faking an injury would be sothing he'd need to worry about.
The beast looked up. Li Lian hovered above it, radiating divine power. But her gaze wasn't cast downward simply because she was flying—she was looking down on the beast as if it were inferior to her.
Realizing its disadvantage, the 9th-tier beast turned and bolted.
{"Xiao Hei,"} Xiao Fang called out via spirit transmission.
{"On it."}
Xiao Hei shifted into her sleek black feline form and darted through the forest in a blur of shadows. The beast didn't even spare her a proper glance—until it was too late.
From above, Xiao Hei's [ Solid Clone ] dropped from the canopy, sinking her fangs into the back of the beast's neck. It roared, thrashing violently, and crushed the clone against a tree—but the distraction had worked.
Erging out of its shadow, Xun Wei's [ Shadow Clone ] slashed at its hind heels, while her real body dashed in to simultaneously slash at its front two heels before slipping away.
[ Quick Draw ] the swords were too quick to see they appeared invisible. It was hard to notice but Xiao Fang could tell her attack was amplified by the use of her [ Nine Winds of the Azure Dragon ] spirit attribute; another thing Xiao Fang didn't think was possible till now.
It all happened in the blink of an eye.
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