Chapter 206: The Terrifying Strength of a Gold Powerhouse

Taoist Priest Xuanqing sneered. "Longevity Dao Art: Wither and Flourish of All Things!"

A brilliant azure light instantly erupted from his longsword, casting Shentu Lie in a sickly green glow. The next moment, a torrent of vitality surged frantically from Shentu Lie's wound, draining away like water sucked through a pump.

Shentu Lie's expression changed drastically. He had never expected the Daoist priest to possess such a bizarre technique—one capable of siphoning the life force directly from a giant demon's body.

Making a split-second decision, he braced himself to endure Yan Moxie's Shadow Magic Orb and spun around, blasting a palm strike toward Xuanqing.

The heavy, thunderous palm crashed down like a falling meteor. Wrapped in rushing currents of white air, it carried unstoppable momentum.

Xuanqing's eyes narrowed. A rare trace of genuine focus surfaced on his face as he violently drew his longsword and swung it in a vicious slash.

Boom!

The massive, fleshy fist collided with the azure-glowing blade. A deafening blast rang out as a powerful shockwave swept in all directions. The ground beneath their feet instantly fractured and caved in, sending dirt and stone flying.

"Shadow Bind!" Yan Moxie barked. Countless shadows shot out from beneath his feet, instantly stretching into tens of thousands of thin, dark threads. They wrapped tightly around Shentu Lie's massive frame, immediately restricting his movements.

Xuanqing naturally wasn't going to let this opportunity slip by. Dancing with the longsword in his hand, he unleashed streaks of azure sword qi that formed an impenetrable net, completely enveloping Shentu Lie.

His speed was pushed to the absolute limit. The surrounding air churned into a suffocating vortex.

Slash! Slash! Slash!

As a hundred flashes of sword light descended, Shentu Lie let out a muffled groan. Countless bloody wounds exploded across his five-meter-tall body. Blood sprayed wildly, drenching him until he looked like a man made of gore. The ghastly sight only made him appear even more ferocious, with stark white bone exposed at the deeper cuts.

Yet, even after suffering a hundred sword strikes, Shentu Lie's vitality remained stubbornly tenacious. With a maddened roar, the deformed flesh across his body swelled violently, instantly snapping the shadow bindings.

The bloodshed had fully awakened his feral rage. Like a cornered, dying beast, he charged straight at Xuanqing.

Boom!

The ground where the priest had just been standing was pulverized. Fortunately, Xuanqing had dodged in advance, narrowly avoiding being flattened into meat paste.

Missing his target, Shentu Lie immediately launched another attack. He might have looked like a mindless berserker, but his combat instincts were razor-sharp. All of Yan Moxie's continuous attacks hadn't done half as much damage as a single sword strike from Xuanqing. Furthermore, the priest wasn't nearly as agile as the shadow-wielding assassin. Naturally, Shentu Lie focused all his fury on Xuanqing.

It was the same logic used in video games. When a tank fought a one-versus-two battle, the most foolish thing to do was to split focus between the two enemies; they had to concentrate their fire on a single target. Xuanqing was essentially a high-damage marksman with no mobility, whereas Yan Moxie was a highly mobile assassin. It was obvious who needed to die first.

The three-way battle fell into a bitter stalemate. Although the wounds on Shentu Lie's body continued to multiply, he remained standing, refusing to go down.

Not far away, Sikong Zhen caught the scene out of the corner of his eye, and his heart sank. He knew it was only a matter of time before Shentu Lie fell. The big man was simply being slowly whittled to death by the duo.

Once that happened, three members of the Seven Deadly Sins would gang up on him. No matter how strong he was, he would undoubtedly meet a bitter end right then and there.

He couldn't let that happen. He had to eliminate Envy as quickly as possible and reinforce Shentu Lie!

Boom!

Terrifying arcs of lightning erupted from his body. At the same time, a deafening crack of thunder boomed overhead. He had actually drawn upon the atmospheric lightning itself, summoning dense storm clouds that roiled with violent flashes and roaring thunder.

Sikong Zhen violently thrust his right hand into the air. Rumble!

A terrifying bolt of lightning—one that looked as if it could cleave heaven and earth in half—crashed down from the sky, striking him directly. Yet, the lightning didn't harm him in the slightest.

Instead, the energy condensed over his body, taking the shape of the Thunderbolt Armor. Countless arcs of electricity surged wildly across him, casting him in a brilliant light that made him look like a descending god of thunder.

The surrounding air was completely ionized, emitting a constant, ear-piercing crackle.

"Die!" Sikong Zhen roared. He shot toward Xueyuan like a literal bolt of lightning, moving at a speed that left the Blood Clan entity horrified.

Xueyuan wasn't about to sit back and wait for death. Boundless blood qi erupted from his body, tearing the clothes from his back as a pair of pitch-black bat wings, spanning over two meters, tore through his skin. With a powerful thrust of his wings, he fled backward at top speed, desperately trying to put distance between himself and Sikong Zhen.

But how could wings of flesh outrun lightning?

The next moment—boom! An endless torrent of lightning pierced straight through Xueyuan, sending him hurtling backward. The devastating blast practically hollowed out his entire upper torso, leaving behind a massive, gaping cavity. The flesh around the edges of the wound had been instantly charred black, emitting the nauseating stench of burnt meat.

Was it over?

Just as Sikong Zhen entertained the thought, a low shout echoed out.

"Royal Court of Slaughter!"

A single drop of blood fell through the air, rippling outward as if dropping into a still pond. In an instant, the entire world was dyed red, bathed in a suffocating bloody hue. The supposedly dying Xueyuan stood tall in the center of it all, slowly raising a pale, bloodless hand.

Swoosh!

The crimson hue saturating the air instantly condensed into tens of thousands of bloody blades. They formed a sweeping waterfall of crimson steel, washing directly toward the elites of the Law Enforcement Bureau.

"Ah!"

"Aaaah!"

Agonized screams rang out in rapid succession as the surviving enforcers were instantly diced into pieces. They were reduced to piles of mangled gore littering the ground. Because the bloody blades had moved with such blinding speed, the severed limbs didn't die immediately; severed nerves caused the chunks of flesh to continue twitching and writhing in the dirt.

Only a handful of enforcers who were stationed further away and possessed slightly stronger cultivation managed to escape the slaughter.

Blood instantly soaked the earth, pooling into a veritable crimson lake.

Under Xueyuan's control, the blood defied gravity. It floated upward, morphing into crimson ribbons that converged onto his body. Nourished by the fresh blood, the terrifying, hollow cavity in his chest began to regenerate at a visible rate.

'Is this the strength of a Gold powerhouse? They really are powerful!' Su Mu, who had been observing the battle from the sidelines, now had a much more visceral understanding of a Gold powerhouse's capabilities. They were undeniably inhuman. The power gap between them and the Bronze and Silver tiers was simply insurmountable.

In fact, if one of these Gold powerhouses willed it, they could instantly obliterate any Silver Transcendent with ease.

"Damn it!" Sikong Zhen's expression turned incredibly grim. Looking at the rapidly recovering Envy, he knew there was no way he could kill his opponent quickly, and time was the one thing he didn't have.

On the other side of the battlefield, Shentu Lie was already mutilated beyond recognition. His flesh was a mangled mess; an ordinary person would have died a hundred times over from such gruesome injuries. Yet, he still refused to fall. However, his increasingly sluggish movements made it obvious that he was on his last legs.

Seeing this, Sikong Zhen knew the situation was beyond salvaging. This mission was an absolute failure. The moment Shentu Lie died, he would be forced to face three members of the Seven Deadly Sins alone. It would mean certain death!

At this point, his only option was to abandon Shentu Lie.

With that thought in mind, he locked his gaze onto Envy. He knew Envy's primary objective was to kill him, meaning the sin would never let him escape easily. He had to find a way to heavily injure Envy, crippling his ability to give chase.

Feeling the intense killing intent radiating from Sikong Zhen, Xueyuan's heart sank. He had, of course, noticed that Shentu Lie was on the verge of defeat, and this was exactly what he didn't want. If the Seven Deadly Sins achieved a total victory here, how was he—a fake Envy—supposed to deal with them?

His first instinct was to flee. But looking at Sikong Zhen standing in his path like a vicious tiger, he knew he wasn't going anywhere unless he heavily injured—or outright killed—the man first. Exposing his back to such an enemy while running away would be suicide.

The two men stared at each other in silence, the killing intent in their eyes practically overflowing.