With the demise of the Shadow Beast, the dense, gray smoke filling the canyon violently contracted in an instant before exploding outward in all directions with an even more ferocious and savage malevolence!
"I’m afraid we’ve drawn their attention," Chu Bai said, his voice utterly frigid.
From the surrounding shadows, five figures exuding an intensely ominous aura slowly emerged, like grim reapers.
It was all the remaining Shadow Beasts—every single one locked on target.
A deathly silence enveloped the canyon.
The five figures emerging from the gray, fiery smoke were like an insurmountable wall of despair looming before the four of them.
The two Qi Cultivation Third Layer Shadow Beast leaders in the middle now had eyes of piercing blood-red. The Evil Energy Weapons they wielded dragged on the ground, producing a harsh, grating sound.
The remaining three Qi Cultivation Second Layer Shadow Beasts fanned out to the flanks with a practiced coordination, sealing off every possible escape route.
"They sure hold us in high regard," Dong Feng said, tightening the Golden Scale Armor he had just donned. His voice was laced with grim, fatalistic despair.
Jin Changyu’s halberd-wielding hand trembled slightly. He glanced at his remaining sixty percent of Magical Power and gave a bitter smile. "Three hundred students to start, and we’re the ones who end up trapped... Four against five, and they even have a higher Cultivation..."
"Enough talk."
Chu Bai stood at the very front of the formation. Silhouetted against the sky of gray fire, his figure looked exceptionally frail, yet as resolute as a lone mountain peak.
"Jin Changyu, follow me!"
Chu Bai abruptly drew his badly notched Iron Sword and pointed it forward. "Lin Xuewei, Dong Feng! Each of you take one of the Qi Cultivation Third Layer monsters. Don’t try to kill them, just keep them occupied! Buy me a quarter of an hour! Jin Changyu and I will kill the three Second Layer beasts first!"
"A quarter of an hour?"
Dong Feng gazed at the mountain-like monster, recalling how Chu Bai had just stalled for a quarter of an hour to buy them time to recover.
A Qi Cultivation Third Layer Shadow Beast was far stronger than him, but with things as they were, he could only grit his teeth and say, "Fine! Even if I have to burn away every drop of my Essence Blood, I’ll hold the line for that quarter of an hour for you!"
Lin Xuewei said nothing. She simply tipped all her Jade Fall Nourishing Pills into her mouth, allowing the furious medicinal power to rampage through her meridians as the frigid aura around her instantly flared to its absolute peak.
"Kill!"
In that instant, the battle erupted.
To call this slaughter ’brutal’ would be an understatement.
Lin Xuewei was the first to strike, unleashing her family’s inherited Magic Technique, the Celestial Cold Water Seal.
A storm of ice crystals erupted, forcibly trapping one of the Qi Cultivation Third Layer Shadow Beast leaders within a ten-zhang-radius field of frozen energy.
Dong Feng, meanwhile, was even more reckless. Relying on the last dregs of Spiritual Power in his Golden Scale Armor, he became a living Fireball and charged head-on to meet the other Third Layer leader.
He abandoned all semblance of technique, seeking only to stall his opponent with the most primitive, head-on collisions.
Chu Bai and Jin Changyu exchanged a look, and both shot into motion simultaneously.
Jin Changyu’s long halberd became a bolt of green lightning, dedicated to running interference, while Chu Bai served as the absolute core of their offense.
Every Spirit Water Needle he formed was a condensation of his deepest insights into the Guiyuan Technique.
Perhaps because of all the slaughter, the effects of his Fate Chart seemed to grow more pronounced; at this moment, Chu Bai felt no fatigue whatsoever.
His senses were pushed to their absolute limit, allowing him to predict the flow of every wisp of smoke and fire.
Before the quarter-hour was up, two of the Qi Cultivation Second Layer Shadow Beasts had disintegrated under Chu Bai’s Spirit Water Needles.
After joining forces with Jin Changyu to quickly dispatch the third, the situation seemed to improve slightly.
"Back to support!" Chu Bai roared.
He could see that Lin Xuewei had reached her limit.
The two of them rushed back to help, managing to block a few attacks, but the Shadow Beast ignored its own injuries and pressed its assault relentlessly.
Enraged by the ice, the Qi Cultivation Third Layer Shadow Beast leader suddenly opened its maw and spewed a torrent of pitch-black Shadow Fire.
"Xuewei! Move!" Chu Bai screamed, his eyes practically bursting from their sockets.
However, to block the Shadow Beast’s follow-up assault, Lin Xuewei stood her ground, forcing herself to cast one final Seal.
Within that engulfing sea of black flame, Chu Bai watched, helpless, as the woman who had always been so cold and proud, a true prodigy, was consumed by the Shadow Fire, letting out one last, clear cry.
BOOM!
Her white Daoist Robe disintegrated into ash in the blaze, followed by her flesh, then her bones.
In the span of just three breaths, the place where Lin Xuewei had stood was now home to nothing but a cloud of ash scattering on the wind.
Jin Changyu let out a grief-stricken, furious roar and charged forward, abandoning all caution.
However, the disparity in their power was a cruel reality.
The moment Lin Xuewei perished, the other Qi Cultivation Third Layer Shadow Beast completely shattered Dong Feng’s Golden Scale Armor.
Sent flying and vomiting blood, Dong Feng was pursued by the Shadow Beast, which brought its massive Evil Qi Heavy Hammer crashing down from above.
"Damn it! Even in death, I’ll make you pay!"
With a final roar, Dong Feng chose to self-detonate all the Fire Magic Power within his body in his dying moments.
A dazzling ball of red light blasted a massive crater in the canyon floor.
Next came Jin Changyu.
While battling one of the Qi Cultivation Third Layer Shadow Beasts, he failed to defend in time. His Bronze Long Halberd was snapped in two, and his entire body was swallowed by Shadow Fire, dissipating into a drifting red mist.
In a mere hundred breaths.
His companions—all of them—were annihilated.
In this canyon, where a sliver of hope had once existed, only Chu Bai remained.
He stood alone on the scorched earth, surrounded by the drifting embers of his companions. Before him were two killing machines, almost completely unscathed, now closing in step by step.
In that moment, it felt as though Chu Bai’s Sea of Consciousness was about to shatter.
The blood-red Fate Chart spun madly within his Sea of Consciousness, dyeing his pupils a pure, unadulterated crimson.

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