Chapter 2307: Power of the Dome

"That small gap can easily be filled with vital energy," Madam Zhu sneered, her eyes full of scorn. "Old fossil, you've been holed up in your cave for too long, haven't you? Didn't you know the outside world has already changed?"

Uncharacteristically, it did not pounce directly as it usually would when harassing prey.

Mount Qixia Sect had many treasures; this Elder Chu must have another trick up his sleeve.

Madam Zhu saved all her wits and patience for the main battle.

To be honest, this fire ape was, after all, a spiritual entity from an ancient immortal sect. Even with Madam Zhu's strongest web, it would be difficult to contain. Although the Heart Silk Web she wove with painstaking effort had fire-repelling abilities, nothing was absolute; it had a limit, and once exceeded, it would still be incinerated.

However, with the added boost of vital energy, it was a different story.

Cang Yan's vital energy was incredibly powerful, instantly raising the web's strength by a significant margin. Now, the fire ape wouldn't be able to break it anytime soon.

Elder Chu was merely short-tempered, not foolish. He was secretly alarmed as he pondered Madam Zhu's words.

Using vital energy to bridge the gap to ascension? This didn't align with his understanding of vital energy.

Over a hundred years ago, among the small nations destroyed by Mount Qixia Sect, Julu Kingdom's vital energy was quite formidable, but it was still negligible against the sect's divine abilities. Although this peculiar power had existed for thousands of years, Elder Chu had always disdained it, believing that the difference between immortals and mortals was like heaven and earth, rendering mere vital energy useless.

However, Liu Qingdao had previously mentioned in his conversation with the illusory image of Sect Master Yuan that the laws of vital energy had changed and were no longer what they once were. Even if Elder Chu didn't fully believe it, he harbored a question in his mind, as Liu Qingdao was an immortal from his own era, with considerable knowledge and experience.

Now, the hairy spider before him said the same thing.

Could the change in vital energy laws truly become a powerful weapon in the hands of human nations?

Elder Chu muttered to himself, but his hands were not idle. The immediate priority wasn't to fight this giant spider to the death, but to break through the encirclement and rendezvous with Sect Master Yuan. After all, that was the main battlefield, and the sect master needed their support.

Although this web was annoying, he still had a way to break it.

As the saying goes, "one force subdues ten skills"; now was the time for brute force.

Elder Chu also pulled out a statue, squeezed a drop of fresh blood onto it, and murmured, "Let the great winds rise and clear a path for me!"

Madam Zhu knew that most statues held by Mount Qixia Sect members were vessels for spiritual entities, much like ghosts dwelling in Jula wood. However, this particular statue had a peculiar form; it was neither object nor human, but sculpted into the shape of surging waves.

It couldn't help but ask, "Hey, is that..."

"Yes!" answered Jieshui, the Fire Lizard True Man. "That's Qionglong! Be careful, don't stand in front of it."

Mount Qixia Sect possessed two great protective treasures, and Qionglong was one of them. However, it was not a legacy of Yuanshan but a supreme treasure forged by Mount Qixia Sect itself.

Madam Zhu's twelve eyes fixed on the statue in Elder Chu's hand. Her eyesight far surpassed that of humans, often detecting things invisible to them. At that moment, she noticed a faint wisp of steam rising from the statue, like boiling water, with a hazy aura on its surface.

With just that slight anomaly, a sudden warning surged in Madam Zhu's heart.

Danger!

It immediately leaped to the side.

The Cave Spider Queen's leap was incredibly swift, yet it felt something brush past its body, cold and sharp, severing several bristles from its leg.

Given the current strength of its exoskeleton, even a divine weapon would struggle to sever a single hair after an entire day of cutting. Yet, an invisible sneak attack from its opponent was this sharp!

After Madam Zhu landed, she immediately launched into a series of consecutive leaps.

Unable to see the object, it relied solely on instinct. Fortunately, once the bristles covering its entire body softened, they became extremely sensitive to airflow, allowing it to perceive the slightest changes. Any subtle alteration in air currents in any direction could be instantly detected.

However, fighting this way was still too dangerous; its opponent was an immortal.

The soft skin beneath Jieshui True Man's throat swelled, as if brewing something, then he suddenly spewed out a sky full of sparks.

These sparks resembled those produced by charcoal combustion, fine, tiny, and dense. As soon as they appeared, they floated in mid-air, covering an area of fifty zhang around them.

If a Mount Qixia Sect member accidentally touched these sparks, they would easily get a blister. However, their primary function wasn't to harm but to mark.

The air was disturbed again. Madam Zhu turned and saw a group of sparks among the myriad ones in the sky move, coalescing into the shape of three or four returning blades, shooting towards her.

Moreover, these returning blades would collide with each other, splitting into countless more, seemingly at random.

Without a pattern, they were impossible to predict. Seeing them, Madam Zhu felt her previous two dodges were incredibly lucky.

These were not the shapes of sparks, but the invisible magical abilities of her opponent.

Jieshui True Man used the sparks to mark his opponent's moves.

Wind Blades!

Qionglong was an invisible spiritual entity. Its true form was originally a wind spirit from the Northern Gale Plains. Later, when Mount Qixia Sect attacked Wind Demon Mountain, they injured the Great Wind Demon and incorporated part of its power, resulting in immense might. Thus, it was forged into Qionglong, a treasure protecting the sect.

The power of wind could be endlessly transformed, and the spiritual entity's nature as a combination of illusion and reality further maximized the wind's potential.

Elder Chu didn't have many profound crystals left and originally didn't want to summon Qionglong, as the Giant Spirit God was already a huge consumer of profound crystals. But Madam Zhu was entangling them too tightly; he now just wanted to end the battle quickly and reach Sect Master Yuan as soon as possible.

Madam Zhu and Jieshui True Man cooperated, leading Elder Chu and his companions on two more evasive maneuvers.

They also had a way to deal with Qionglong: when evasion was impossible, they would burrow underground.

Earth Escape!

No matter how fierce Qionglong was, constrained by the laws of the minor world, it couldn't pursue them underground, only swirling up dust in frustration.

Madam Zhu's acquaintances, like He Lingchuan, would know that while the Spider Queen was formidable in combat, her true strength lay in her ability to escape and disengage. When Elder Chu and his group tried to leave, she would intercept; when Elder Chu pursued her, she would turn and flee.

She had truly mastered the essence of He Lingchuan's tactics.

Elder Chu, infuriated by the chase, simply grabbed the statue and chanted. Qionglong obeyed his command, fully manifesting its true form from the statue and transforming once more.

A mighty wind immediately swept through the area.

It was an incredibly violent tornado, every swirl of wind forming sharp wind blades and frost swords. Jieshui True Man, caught off guard and a moment too slow, had the tip of his tail grazed and it was instantly severed!

It hissed in pain, then quickly burrowed underground.

This was Qionglong's true power: capable of directly severing an immortal's body. Even the Great Wind Demon of the Wind Demon Plains, at its peak, could not match the power of its wind blades.

If Jieshui True Man were truly caught by this tornado, he wouldn't last even a quarter of an hour, and that was with the assistance of vital energy.