Chapter 162: Night of Slaughter

Seeing Ning Xiu turn around, the Viper's eyes were filled with utter disbelief. Yet, things had reached a point where there was no turning back.

He could only brace himself and press on with his attack.

Ning Xiu merely gazed at him coldly, raised his right fist, and slammed it toward him fiercely.

In the Viper's shocked eyes, a golden wild ox Qi tore through the void and swallowed him whole.

Boom!

The Viper was sent flying backward over a zhang, crashing heavily into the yellow sand.

All the scales across his body shattered and peeled away entirely.

Excruciating pain flared up, driving him to the verge of agony. Fortunately, relying on the secret technique of viper molting, he managed to survive by a hair's breadth. Even so, every bone in his body was now pulverized, leaving him collapsed on the ground like a puddle of mud.

Aside from being able to take ragged breaths, he was no different from a dead man.

Ning Xiu was about to step forward to deliver the finishing blow when he suddenly sensed a fierce gale striking from behind. Concentrating his gaze, he saw a glowing silver bracelet hurtling toward him.

Clang!

The silver bracelet struck the golden bell enveloping Ning Xiu's body, producing a crisp, clear chime.

The bracelet rebounded through the air, spinning once before splitting into two, continuing to strike Ning Xiu from both left and right.

Ning Xiu raised his eyes to fixate on the Scorpion in the distance, knowing she had made her move.

Yet, in this briefest of moments, the injuries on the Viper's body had begun to slowly mend. While a full recovery was unlikely, it at least granted him the ability to flee.

"This is the Lord's blessing! Today, you are doomed to die no matter what!"

The Scorpion glared coldly at Ning Xiu, speaking in a harsh voice: "Mad Lion, strike!"

Before her words faded, the Mad Lion let out a furious roar toward the heavens.

A series of rapid, thumping heartbeats suddenly echoed in Ning Xiu's ears. Then, under his watchful gaze, the Mad Lion's already immensely muscular frame swelled even further in an instant, growing a full foot taller right before his eyes.

A tyrannical and berserk True Qi seemed on the verge of bursting through his skin.

Ning Xiu lifted his gaze, his expression gradually turning solemn. In his vision, a fierce lion phantom materialized behind the Mad Lion.

The lion's entire coat was crimson red, and stamped upon its forehead was a crimson moon emblem.

"Kill!"

The Mad Lion let out a long howl, kicked off the ground, and charged toward Ning Xiu at breathtaking speed. In the blink of an "eye", he closed the distance, raised his massive fist, and threw a punch.

Ning Xiu's expression remained unchanged as he returned the blow with a punch of his own!

Fist met fist, and a faint cracking sound emanated from the Mad Lion's arm. Yet, as if entirely oblivious to it, he continued his assault on Ning Xiu.

Every punch was fiercer than the last, every blow stronger than the previous.

He seemed entirely mad—no, rather, the Mad Lion at this moment was nothing more than a beast that knew only slaughter.

Untiring, insensible to pain.

In battle, such opponents were the most agonizing to deal with.

"Have you had enough!"

Ning Xiu let out a sharp shout as the Longevity Sword sprang from its scabbard, and countless sword beams flared into existence.

Sword Qi crisscrossed the air, and gruesome, terrifying bloodstains suddenly appeared all over the Mad Lion's body, crimson blood continuously flowing down from the wounds.

Yet, as long as the injuries were not fatal, he acted as though he would never stop.

Meanwhile, while the Mad Lion fought Ning Xiu, the remaining two divine envoys naturally did not stand by and simply watch.

After her "transformation", a long scorpion tail had sprouted from the Scorpion's lower back, the venomous stinger at its tip flashing with a dazzling, intimidating cold light.

As for the Viper, he now appeared half-human and half-snake; his limbs were no longer visible, and he slithered across the ground like a serpent, the yellow sand scorching black wherever he passed.

The herb in the serpent's mouth and the stinger on the scorpion's tail were both the most toxic poisons in this world.

Phantom beast apparitions similarly loomed behind these two figures.

Ning Xiu realized he had underestimated them at first; he had not expected the enemy to possess such hidden cards.

Regrettably, the gap in their actual strength was simply too vast to be bridged by such petty tricks.

Ning Xiu watched them coldly. A massive golden bell manifested around his body, completely sealing off the Viper and the Scorpion. No matter how frantically they attacked, they failed to shake it by even the slightest fraction.

The suppression of realm, coupled with the monstrous defensive prowess of the Golden Bell罩 (Golden Bell Shield), meant that if they could still manage to shatter it, this technique would hardly be worthy of the numerous destiny points Ning Xiu had expended.

The Viper and the Scorpion stared at the colossal golden bell before them, their pupils violently contracting. It was not as though they had never witnessed protective divine Qi shields before, but such an exaggerated manifestation of defensive Qi was something they were seeing for the very first time!

Only at this moment did they truly comprehend what a terrifying enemy their Moon Wheel Temple had provoked.

Within the golden bell, the Mad Lion—having completely lost his sanity—remained entirely oblivious, continuing his frantic assaults upon Ning Xiu despite being bathed entirely in blood.

"Courting death!"

Ning Xiu sneered. The Longevity Sword at his waist leaped from its scabbard, a dazzling flash of golden light sweeping across the blade and slicing through the Mad Lion's neck. A massive head was sent soaring high into the air, propelled by a fountain of blood.

Blood rained down, and Ning Xiu's blue robes were similarly soaked through, turning an eerie, dark, shadowy hue.

The Viper and the Scorpion stared at Ning Xiu, terror finally surfacing in their eyes.

Beneath the moonlight, two monstrosities were being driven into a desperate retreat by a single normal human.

"Flee!"

The Viper did not hesitate for a fraction of a second. The very instant the Mad Lion died, he had already made his choice.

Having lost his hands and feet and transformed into a serpentine form, his speed was shockingly swift.

In the blink of an eye, he had already bolted over ten meters away, yet a flashing blade proved even faster than him.

The Longevity Sword cleaved through the void, shooting directly toward the Viper.

Sensing the terrifying murderous intent closing in from behind, he instinctively reacted, whipping his head around and spitting forth a massive plume of venomous vapor.

The toxic breath condensed into a dense fog.

This was no ordinary poisonous miasma; even a blade forged through a hundred temperings would be instantly and utterly corroded upon contact.

Yet, the Longevity Sword, wreathed in golden radiance, directly pierced through the toxic mist and instantly impaled the Viper's skull. The Viper froze momentarily before his entire body crashed lifelessly to the ground.

On the other side, the Scorpion had long since lost her initial relaxed ease. Cold sweat drenched her forehead as she fled for her life with all her might, not even daring to look back.

Even so, the Grim Reaper caught up to her all the same.

"Where do you think you're going?"

A low, hoarse voice rang out, devoid of the slightest trace of emotion.

Then, she felt her head seized in a firm grip. Struggling, she turned her gaze back toward Ning Xiu, her face painted with absolute despair.

The night sky was as dark as ink, and the slaughter continued.

......

This battle was even more brutal than the skirmish at Black Gold City, and its significance for the Desert of Death ran far deeper.

This confrontation fundamentally reshaped the geopolitical landscape of the entire Desert of Death.

All four major divine envoys of the Moon Wheel Temple had fallen in battle, and over half of the ordinary divine envoys were also lost, leaving the temple's grip on the Desert of Death vastly diminished. The Loulan remnants, long lurking in the shadows, began to stir restlessly, convinced that this was the golden opportunity for them to overthrow the Moon Wheel Temple and reclaim the Desert of Death.

The Loulan remnants believed so, too.

Yet reality dealt them a merciless, resounding blow.