Just like at the start of the battle, Princess Lan took the lead of the fight by directing Fu Kang despite him being the stronger of the two overall. Now that the two lovers have been empowered by whichever strength-boosting pill they swallowed, they'll surely be able to handle Jing at her full power. If not, she could only shrug. Their fate was in their own hands. Just how far did their determination go if she could overcome the two of them with just a water clone with about 1/10 of her real strength?
Jing tapped the ground with her foot to send herself flying at Princess Lan. The look on her face showed momentary surprise but Princess Lan was still able to respond to her foot nearly piercing through her skull with a blazing white slash from her sword to halt Jing's momentum. White flames exploded from the sword that caused several bubbles to form on the clone's body. Princess Lan smiled as she saw this.
'I figured out her weakness!' All of the increased power in her body from the Berserker Pill made by Fu Kang was used to fuel the power of her bloodline.
As the royal princess of the Liu Family, she has long since awakened her family's bloodline. The Blazing Tyrant bloodline boasts of flames that are nearly on par with Mystic Flames! Liu Lan was even an anomaly in her family because she surpassed both her father and grandfather in talent with this bloodline. Her father only gained 1/100th of the Blazing Tyrant bloodline while her grandfather was only able to use 1/1000th of the bloodline.
Lan was an anomaly because she was able to bring out 1/10th of the Blazing Tyrant bloodline for her own use! Unfortunately, this power came at a severe cost. If she ever tried using her bloodline to its full potential, she would lose her sanity and be swallowed up by the madness lingering in her bloodline from her ancestors. As of all of her 17 years of living, Lan has yet to figure out a method that could reliably stop herself when this happens. She only came to when everything around her has been burned to a crisp or her father directly stopped her.
"This plan of yours is not bad." Jing complimented as her body boiled.
"Hmph! Look cocky all you want. I've found out your weakness!" Princess Lan turned up the heat even more.
"I must say though... These flames of yours need some more training. I know of a person whose flames far exceed yours and they don't even have a bloodline to support them." Jing broke off the clash.
Jing could hear Fu Kang coming at her from behind. If she split her attention to him, she would easily fall into a disadvantage since they had her on both sides. The boost from the pills they ate wasn't insignificant. But this might be the push she needed to gain the ultimate satisfaction from this battle. From the many lives, she's gone through, there are few immortals who understand more about growing stronger than herself. Dire circumstances bring out the hidden potential inside.
So, instead of gaining some distance from Princess Lan and Kang, Jing continued her assault on Princess Lan. Previously her attacks only aimed at Princess Lan's vital areas which made them somewhat easy to predict but now she ramped up the skill level. Jing's foot swiped low and tripped Princess Lan. She was knocked off her feet from the force of the sweep and spun in the air without control over her body.
As the world seemed to turn into a spiral for the princess, she suddenly felt a sharp pain hit her jaw and things started to spin more rapidly before the pain spread to all parts of her body as multiple impacts hit her body. Liu Lan could faintly hear someone calling out for her but the pain was too much. When has she ever felt pain like this before? Not even her heart demon caused her this much pain.
"Xiao Lan!" Fu Kang cried out as rage took hold of his mind.
Madness took hold of him as he saw the water girl casually overpower and brutally crush his woman with her feet. The small smile on her face and crossed arms... Who was this girl?! Why was she so strong!? Being able to take them on just with her feet? She was too skilled!
But Fu Kang didn't let his shock impede his rage. Just as he reached the water girl, she whipped her leg out and kicked his woman far away into the dense fog. With nothing but overwhelming power and killing intent flowing through his body, his fist stuck a massive hole through the torso of the girl. He felt no resistance and this didn't feel right to him. Something was wrong!
"Have you forgotten I'm made of water?" Her head turned 180 degrees and a playful grin stared at him.
"Wha...?" Seeing such an unnatural sight spooked him.
Fu Kang pulled his other fist back and struck the girl's upper torso, completely splattering the girl into multiple droplets of water on the ground in front of him. It kind of upset him that she managed to scare him at the end but he had no time to worry about something like that. Xiao Lan was hurt, he needed to quickly go over and heal her before her injuries worsen. His body shrunk down as the side effects of the pill kicked in. He could no longer hold his transformed state from the pain wracking through his body.
As Fu Kang wobbled from side to side, barely able to keep himself standing as he made his way to where Princess Lan was sent flying, the water droplets began to shake before slowly moving towards each other. He was completely unaware of the familiar figure silently reforming itself behind him. However, a certain golden dragon's eyes widened as it saw this. It quickly blew out as much fire as it could to the mass of water forming together. Thankfully, evaporating the reforming enemy and completely defeating them for good.
"Xiao Lan... Please be okay..."
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"Are you sure he's trustworthy?" Hong Long asked, staring at the figure leaving their group.
"We've made a deal. Manchu isn't the type of man to go back on his word." Meili answered.
"Why didn't all of us go to ambush Hu Tao together instead of leaving it to that man?" Hong questioned.
"If things don't work out on Manchu's end, that's our backup plan. Bo Fai, Yanyu, are you two fine with that?" Meili soon looked over to the couple.
"I have no issues with that." Bo Fai responded.
He was the one to instigate most of the Inner Court into dealing with Hu Tao in the Treasured Plains. Why would he have a problem with doing something similar to him again? Especially after losing to him more than once. Bo Fai's pride as a reincarnated Earthly Immortal has been thoroughly thrashed by that unfathomable brat. As of now, he wanted nothing more than to throttle him by the throat and kill him with his own hands.
"If Boyfriend has no issues with it, then I don't either!" Yanyu supported.
"Alright then. I suppose our only job, for now, is to wait on Manchu's signal for success or failure. In the meantime, let's not forget to capture any ghosts we meet along the way." Meili reminded.
"I'll lead the way." Bo Fai decided to take the lead.
There were quite a few useful treasures he remembered people finding in this place. It would be difficult to find them but not impossible. When they described how they came across the treasures, there were some significant clues. Most if not all of them were stored or held in places of obvious importance.
"Oh... This is quite the line-up of faces." A blue feminine figure revealed itself to the group.
"What are you?" Hong questioned with hostility.
"I'd advise you not to stand in our way. As you can see, we hold the advantage in numbers." Meili kindly reminded.
"What if I want to stand in your way?" Despite only recognizing two faces at most, one of them was a rather important person to the watery being.
"Hmph. Some people truly can't recognize their own limits." Hong scoffed at the suicidal fool.
"You..." Bo Fai felt that this elemental clone looked familiar somehow.
"Is there something special about her that you recognize?" Yanyu innocently asked.
"I'm not sure. She does look familiar though." Bo Fai rubbed his chin.
"I feel the same way..." Meili added, killing intent radiating from her body.
This thing reminded her of that girl! The leader of Hu Tao's group! But Meili wasn't completely sure if it was related to that girl or not. Just that she felt it was similar to the girl.
"I came over for him. I hope you all will be kind and allow me to borrow him for just a moment." The water clone pointed at Bo Fai.
"If that was all you wanted, why didn't you come toward us with friendly intentions?" Meili interrogated.
"Hmm? I could've sworn I reigned in my excitement. Can you read hearts?" A meteor hammer formed of water slowly extracted itself from the clone's stomach.
"Hmph." Meili refused to answer such a question.
"Truly courting death..." Hong Long charged forward with his large golden sword.
Comment/Review on the story readers and give me ideas on possible xianxia things you want to see! No guarantees that I will add what you want. But it helps to have ideas out there. Please point out any mistakes you notice or anything you're not clear about. I'll try to answer them and fix them to the best of my abilities.