Decapitation

Accompanying that sharp roar, Greed Divine General plummeted from the sky. The Bewitchment rune on his forehead flared, unleashing a blinding blood-red light that enveloped everyone like a spotlight. Bewitchment! Commandery Princess Yinyao, Xiao Yuan, and Jiang Ju froze, their eyes turning blank. Only Huang Taiji, with his profound endurance, automatically resisted the low-level Bewitchment rune. Unhurriedly, he stepped diagonally to block the earthen coffin, raising his hand to seize the edge of the blood saber. Bang! The keen blade hacked into Huang Taiji's palm. The sound that came wasn't the cleaving of flesh and bone, but rather of a blade plunging into a heap of sand. A clump of yellow light like thick slurry condensed in Huang Taiji's palm. "Don't be in such a rush. If you want to fight, at least wait until I reach the manor," he said. He gripped Greed Divine General's saber in reverse, his expression solemn yet his tone calm and steady. As he spoke, he drew a Nine Dragons Glazed Cover from his inventory and gently placed it over the earthen coffin. With a flash of translucent brilliance, a bell-shaped glazed cover enveloped the coffin, its surface refracting dazzling rainbow colors in the sunlight. This item possessed defensive power equivalent to a Level 6 Mountain God. It fell short of his own capabilities, but it was just right for this moment. Boom! A flash of fire erupted in the distance. Jiang Ju burst into roaring flames, shooting forward like an artillery shell and leaving a scorched furrow across the ground. Jiang Ju had only succumbed to Bewitchment because he was caught off guard. Now, having activated the Rager skill, he willingly cast aside reason to embrace fury. In this state, a Fire Demon could not be affected by low-level mental control skills. At the same time, Huang Taiji clamped both hands firmly around the saber blade, locking it tight. Greed Divine General had to either abandon his magical artifact or take Jiang Ju's explosive assault head-on. "Hmph!" Greed Divine General's muscles swelled, straining against his tight-fitting combat clothes. From behind his shoulder blades, four arms glowing with divine light burst forth, knotted with thick cords of muscle and brimming with pure power. The two arms on his left clenched into fists and punched out with all their might, meeting the whistling fiery cannonball in a direct clash. With a tremendous boom, the missile exploded. Streams of fire mingled with shockwaves and splashed outward, blasting one shallow crater after another into the ground. The earth collapsed, and the ground beneath Jiang Ju's feet liquefied into magma under the extreme heat. Cai Longshen's water clone instantly shattered. "Scram!" Greed Divine General's ponytail flared out as his muscles swelled yet again. Surging with murderous aura like a demon god, he exerted force through both fists, throwing Jiang Ju back. His other three fists weren't idle either. With a rapid series of bangs, he threw several combination strikes within a single second, fast as blurred afterimages. The clothing on Huang Taiji's back tore apart, and he was sent flying like a kite with a broken string. His body suddenly sank, using the earth's gravity to halt his backward momentum. Once he hit the ground, inertia still carried his feet sliding several meters across the dirt. "Buy me time to refine this ground!" Huang Taiji stomped down hard. Tons upon tons of gravitational weight crashed down onto Greed Divine General's shoulders. A Mountain God's core skill was "Mountain God" itself. Within their domain, they could match evil classes of the same level. The drawback was the excessively long casting time. During the refinement of the domain, the user could not move, or all prior effort would go to waste. Feeling the crushing gravity, Greed Divine General's shoulders dropped, as if he were hefting a cauldron of ten thousand jin. Seizing the opening, Jiang Ju morphed into a stream of fire and charged back in. Ducking to evade the sweep of Greed Divine General's long saber, he straightened his waist and drove an uppercut hard into his foe's lower abdomen. Fire splattered in all directions. A large swath of Greed Divine General's abdomen was carbonized. Just as the Divine General raised his knee for a counter-strike, Jiang Ju sprang off both legs, leaping away like a grasshopper. Turning into a stream of fire, he circled behind the Divine General and slammed another fist into the small of his back. Bang! Bang! Bang! Like an agile, explosive brawler, he repeatedly evaded the cleaving saber and the sweeping strikes of the six arms, leaving charred wound after charred wound across the Level 6 Mist Lord's body. In the eyes of Commandery Princess Yinyao and Xiao Yuan, all that could be seen was a streak of fire ensnaring the slowed Greed Divine General. Weaving along Z-shaped paths and V-shaped lines, dashing in, pivoting, and leaping back, Jiang Ju completely disregarded physical inertia. He put on an awe-inspiring display of agility. A Mist Lord renowned for close-quarters slaughter—a Greed Divine General wielding six arms—was being suppressed to the point where he couldn't fight back. This was the near-invincible Fire Demon of the Saint stage. A Fire Demon that had abandoned skills, abandoned intellect, and abandoned everything. Bang! Bang! Bang! Flames detonated continuously. The charring on Greed Divine General's burly frame accumulated steadily as the blistering heat gradually seeped into his internal organs. During this onslaught, the Divine General used two items: an Earth Monster class orb and a Wood Demon class vine armor. The former made him even more sluggish, worsening his plight while being naturally countered by the Fire spirit. The vine armor, meanwhile, stood no chance against a Fire Demon running Rager. Once both defensive items broke, Greed Divine General's counters grew slower and weaker. Spotting the opportunity, Commandery Princess Yinyao hastily drew the Yin Jade Doll from her bosom, waking the resentful spirit slumbering within. "Hehe, let's play a game..." The shadow of a little girl emerged, instinctively skimming along the ground toward Greed Divine General. Halfway there, sensing the aura of a peak Level 6 combatant, she slammed on the brakes, burst into tears, and scrambled back, wailing: "Commandery Princess, this servant is still small! This servant isn't up to such a task! Please spare my life!" Commandery Princess Yinyao's spiritual energy rippled: "As long as your vessel remains whole, your soul will not perish. Go at once, or I will smash your true form." She raised the lifelike black jade doll. "To fight for the Commandery Princess, even death brings no regret!" the Yin Jade Doll wailed at the top of her lungs, spouting words that contradicted her every instinct. Her shadow slithered across the ground, rushed at Greed Divine General, and timidly wrapped around his heel. At the same time, Commandery Princess Yinyao dissolved into starlight and reappeared behind Greed Divine General. Raising her hand, she quickly drew in the air and launched a spirit-sealing talisman. Lacking ranged items, drawing talismans out of thin air served as a decent substitute. A spirit-sealing talisman posed little direct threat to Greed Divine General, but in his deteriorated condition, even its meager effect could compound his disadvantages, adding frost to snow. The hard crowd-control from the Yin Jade Doll followed the exact same logic. Bursts of starlight flared repeatedly. Commandery Princess Yinyao flashed to the left, then shifted to the right. With each star escape, she produced another spirit-sealing talisman, slapping it onto Greed Divine General's forehead, chest, waist, and legs. Strike after strike suppressed his spirit body. Seeing this, the Yin Jade Doll shrieked to bolster her own courage and climbed from his heel straight up his spine. Under the weight of stacked debuffs, Greed Divine General's body stiffened, falling into a stupor. Buzz! The gossamer wings behind Xiao Yuan fluttered. Weaving left and right amid the scattering fire, she struck toward Greed Divine General. A dark silhouette flickered, and in the next breath she had arrived behind him. Her plump, alluring bee abdomen curled inward, and a sharp, jet-black stinger shot out, lunging straight for the nape of Greed Divine General's neck. Suddenly, Xiao Yuan let out a heart-wrenching shriek. Her body cracked rapidly like glass, blood welling out from the fissures in her flesh. She had been cursed! Greed Divine General had previously ripped the venomous stinger from her body, and it had become the medium for the curse. No wonder Snake Woman and the others hadn't charged out—they had set up an altar to carry out a lethal curse ritual. A lethal curse cast using one's own flesh and blood as the medium was the most treacherous of all. Xiao Yuan's body was coming apart, her soul was fracturing, and her life was draining away at an alarming pace. Right at that moment, Greed Divine General whipped around and swung his blood-red saber. Whoosh! A shrill howl of wind roared in her ears. Xiao Yuan's blurred consciousness sank. Then she felt the world spin wildly, catching glimpses of the scorched earth and the azure sky. Is this what it feels like to be decapitated...? she thought numbly. Then she saw a tumbling head, followed by a headless corpse. It wasn't hers—it was Commandery Princess Yinyao's. Thud! Xiao Yuan crashed heavily to the ground, scattered chunks of flesh falling away from her. Straining to lift her head, she realized Commandery Princess Yinyao had shoved her aside, intercepting the enemy's blade with her own body. Boom! Jiang Ju punched Greed Divine General back, caught Commandery Princess Yinyao's corpse, and hurled it into the distance, flicking his toe at the same time. Commandery Princess Yinyao's head rolled across the dirt, coming to a stop beside Xiao Yuan. On the other side, Greed Divine General raised his saber and drew a sharp breath. The blood-red blade instantly dimmed by several shades. Flesh rapidly regenerated across his frame, and the carbonized, dead meat sloughed off. Bloodthirsty Rampage! For a Mist Lord at the Saint stage, a blood reserve was their most fundamental strategic asset, and most of their weapons possessed the ability to drink and store blood. "Warm-up is over!" Greed Divine General twisted his neck, his joints popping loudly. "The real battle has only just begun." As soon as his voice fell, a giant serpent slithered swiftly down the gentle slope leading from Divine Sword Manor. Behind it followed a burly man covered in tattoos and the enchanting, voluptuous Yi Chuanmei. The commandery princess's head lay before Xiao Yuan, her gorgeous face turned toward her. Her lips parted and closed slowly, and the small megaphone in the distance projected her voice: "Quick... heal your wounds... then stick my head back on... or it will be too late..."