Chapter 123: A Battle To The Death

When Tang San launched himself forward, he had already made up his mind. Having faced countless challenges across three lifetimes, his combat experience was immensely rich.

Undoubtedly, the creature before them was not something they could confront. With a physique almost akin to an eighth-order demonic beast, even standing still and allowing them to attack might not break its defense.

The Winged Tiger's innate bloodline ability was the Wind Astral, an extremely powerful amalgamation of offense and defense. And it could fly, which made escape impossible.

The fact that the town's mayor could withstand a ninth-order Winged Tiger King was no small feat. Thus, at this moment, they could rely on no one but themselves.

Wu Bingji was not mistaken; the tigress's body had indeed paused twice in mid-air. One pause was due to Gu Li's Chrono Croc Transformation, and the other was from Tang San. This was his first use of the Chrono Crocodile’s bloodline ability.

When using Time Freeze, he felt a portion of his spiritual power being drained instantly, and everything in front of him twisted momentarily.

His Chrono Croc Transformation imprint was only at the third order, so it was theoretically less effective than Gu Li’s. Still, his current spiritual power had liquefied, making him much stronger than Gu Li on a spiritual level, hence the similar effect in time solidification.

Tang San acted in that moment of the tigress's frozen stance. He suddenly sprang from the ice spear, which fell under his stomp. His figure, soaring into the air, flickered ethereally. In the next instant, he had already dodged the tigress's claw. Using the light of the Wind Astral on the tiger's claws as cover, his form abruptly vanished for a moment.

Wu Bingji and the others only saw a blur before Tang San, inexplicably, was already above the tigress's head.

Tang San never stuck to outdated notions, especially in life-or-death situations.

Leopard Flash Transformation!

A single flicker brought him directly above the tigress. He was instantly on the tigress's back after fully activating his Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon technique. Instead of attacking directly, he fully engaged his Mysterious Heaven Technique, frantically devouring energy!

He didn't know if his ability to devour demons would work on demonic beasts. But he knew this was his only chance.

To survive the tigress's attack, he had to do two things: strengthen himself and weaken the enemy.

"Boom—" A massive surge of bloodline power instantly rushed into Tang San's body.

It worked!

That was Tang San's first thought. But in the next instant, the tigress reacted, and the Wind Astral on its body suddenly erupted. A massive burst of energy surged, catapulting Tang San into the air.

He was blasted a hundred meters away, breaking through the tree canopy. Even so, at the instant of the Wind Astral's explosion, he knew that he had achieved his goal. In that brief moment, he had touched the tigress’s back and accessed the bloodline energy surrounding its heart.

This was where its blood and energy were most concentrated, and naturally, the place where the bloodline energy was richest. Due to the effect of two Time Freezes, in that instant, the tigress had been left without its Wind Astral protection, and it had only taken a mere moment for Tang San to drain it.

With this absorption, Tang San did not even stop to consider whether his body could withstand it. His cultivation of the Mysterious Heaven Technique was already at the peak of the fifth order, and it was instantly elevated to the utmost limit within this level.

What Wu Bingji and the others saw was Tang San being violently blasted into the air, blood spurting from his mouth, and his clothes torn apart. His life or death was uncertain.

"AAAAHHH!!!" Wu Bingji shouted, instantly throwing the icicle he had formed in his hand, fully unleashing his ice elemental power and charging toward the tigress.

Gu Li did the same. At this moment, his inner grief overcame fear. They didn't know what Tang San had done, but the instant Tang San was blown away, the tigress's suppression of their bloodline powers was noticeably weakened.

They figured Tang San might have died, so they went all out!

At the very least, they wanted to buy time for Cheng Zicheng and Du Bai to escape. Even if they didn’t make it, they had to ensure that their younger siblings escaped.

Even with its peak seventh-order strength, the tigress felt weakness throughout its body from Tang San's absorption. That Tang San's clothes were torn apart as he flew in the air wasn't actually due to the Wind Astral's impact but because he had absorbed too much energy too quickly. His body was unable to withstand it, and the energy had dispersed through his pores and shredded his clothes.

Bang!

Wu Bingji was sent flying by a claw strike; his protective ice armor shattered into large pieces. If it weren't for Gu Li's Time Freeze forcibly arresting the strike’s momentum for half an instant, that strike might have cost him half his life.

In his frenzy, Gu Li swung his tail hammer and struck the tigress's right claw, forcing it to the ground. But the next instant, he was sent flying by the tigress's left claw. The sharp tiger claws left five deep, bone-visible scratches on him. Even the thick scales of the Chrono Crocodile couldn't entirely stop the tiger's claws, and blood gushed out.

If it weren't for Tang San's absorption, which had weakened the tigress's strength, Gu Li would have lost his life in that instant.

The gap was too vast. Their attacks couldn't breach the defense of the seventh-order Winged Tiger, and every strike from the beast threatened their lives.

Wu Bingji struggled to sit up, continuously shooting icicles at the tigress's eyes, trying to distract it. Unfortunately, even the young Winged Tiger’s Wind Astral could block the icicles normally; facing the power of a seventh-order beast, they were instantly shattered by the Wind Astral.

Meanwhile, Tang San had reached peak altitude and was now plummeting back down.

The tigress harbored a more profound hatred for him—the human that had done

something

to its energy.

It didn't pursue Wu Bingji and Gu Li anymore. Instead, it suddenly lifted its head, flapped its wings, and leaped toward the sky. Its gaping maw opened, and its enormous fangs were poised to bite Tang San in half.

A few more seconds and Tang San would become tiger food

"No—" Wu Bingji bellowed, and in an instant, the ice elemental power burst forth. An ice wall behind him shattered, propelling him like a meteor chasing the moon, rushing straight toward the tigress.

His time with Tang San had been brief, yet he had learned much from him in that short half-month. He could feel that his junior had an astonishingly brilliant talent, even though he only had the lower-tier Demonic God Transformation of the Wind Wolf. Although he was only nine years old, Wu Bingji admired and deeply respected him.

A roar also echoed at this moment: "Freeze!"

Gu Li, his entire body stained red with blood, let out this roar with all his strength. The intense white light mingled with the blood on his body, manifesting the strongest Time Freeze he had ever done in his life.

The tigress clearly slowed down, and its wings stiffened in place. Despite the inertia still carrying it upward, its gaping jaws simply couldn't close.

"Freeze!" A familiar voice rang out at this moment beside Wu Bingji's ear.

Due to being propelled forward by the exploding ice wall, Wu Bingji's back was mangled and bloody. However, the pain allowed him to remain lucid, in spite of being completely drained.

The ice spears he had thrust out instantly shattered on contact with the beast. He suddenly spread his arms wide, and as his ice-blue body collided with the tigress, his arms wrapped tightly around the beast's thick neck.

The ice-blue color instantly spread over the tigress's body. And as the last drops of energy of the sixth-order Ice Nymph Transformation were squeezed in a supreme effort, the tigress froze.

At the same time, the green figure falling from the sky somehow somersaulted and curled up. Faced with the enormous jaws coming to bite him, he didn't evade but instead plunged into them.

The tigress watched him fall into its mouth, but the Time Freeze, coupled with the freezing that chilled its entire body and stiffened its movements, made its jaws clamp down just a beat too late.

The next moment, a dazzling green light burst forth inside its mouth. The tigress let out a heart-wrenching roar, spewing out a thick mist of blood mingled with a green glow.