Chapter 233: Each Displaying Their Own Methods
The toxins dispersed into the air, condensing into a purple poison mist. It was difficult for it to cause fatal harm to a Professional Beast Tamer.
However, the purple poison mist could obscure vision, interfere with Spiritual Power perception, and weaken the enemy’s strength. For Zhou Ming, that was already enough.
The snake tail beneath Zhou Ming swayed casually, transforming into several afterimages as he drilled into the poison mist and began slaughtering.
His first target was the Beast Knight riding a Shadow Leopard. The opponent’s beast could pursue and retreat, and could even launch sneak attacks by borrowing shadows. Moreover, his strength was only at Entry-level Professional Rank.
Zhou Ming held to the belief that crippling ten fingers was inferior to severing one. He intended to kill the opponent as quickly as possible.
Blood Descendant Secret Technique · Phantom Snake Hands.
Over a dozen blood-colored serpent phantoms instantly appeared on his left hand. They elongated in an instant, spreading like a heavenly net to envelop the opponent, completely sealing off all escape routes.
Holding his sword in his right hand, his movement technique resembled a specter in the night as he directly arrived beside the opponent and thrust out a sword strike.
Seeing there was no way to evade, the opponent immediately gripped his spear with both hands and shook it. It bloomed like a plum blossom as it stabbed toward Zhou Ming.
The life energy condensed within his body as battle fury instantly stirred the surrounding poison mist. The spear was like a bolt of lightning crashing down upon a storm-tossed sea.
“You actually dare to engage a Beast Knight in close combat. You are far too arrogant.”
The Beast Knight riding the Shadow Leopard revealed a savage grin, his face filled with confidence. Even if Zhou Ming’s strength exceeded his, he did not fear close-quarters combat.
However, Zhou Ming feinted. His body twisted like a spirit serpent, avoiding the attack. The blood-colored serpent phantoms seized the spear in the flow of motion, binding it in place, while he reversed his grip and thrust the Phantasmal Spirit Sword toward the Shadow Leopard.
Faced with Zhou Ming’s attack, the Shadow Leopard immediately prepared to raise its claw to block. But at that moment, the Throne Power of the Dark-gold Serpent Pupils erupted.
The Shadow Leopard’s Spiritual Consciousness was instantly disrupted. In that brief daze, it was pierced through the chest by the Phantasmal Spirit Sword. Snake Venom surged into its body through the blade and exploded within.
“Ah…”
The Shadow Leopard’s vitality was extinguished, and as a Beast Knight, its master could not escape death either.
In less than two or three breaths, Zhou Ming had successfully slain one person.
Yet at that very moment, a blood-colored tentacle tore through the surrounding poison mist and struck toward Zhou Ming with an extremely fierce momentum.
The tip of the blood-colored tentacle resembled a crescent moon, like Death wielding a scythe to reap lives.
A Crimson Apostle, relying on the ability to sense fresh blood, had locked onto Zhou Ming’s position at the very first moment.
Facing the blood-colored tentacle that could lock onto vitality, the blood-colored serpent phantoms on Zhou Ming’s left hand wrapped around the corpses of the Shadow Leopard and its master, using them directly as shields.
In the next instant, the Shadow Leopard’s corpse was split into two.
Although Zhou Ming had evaded the Crimson Apostle’s attack, the other high-ranking members of the Dark Card Organization had already reacted, locking onto Zhou Ming’s position and launching attacks.
Spells and combat techniques descended like bombs dropped from bombers. The shockwaves from the explosions blew away the surrounding poison mist, leaving behind a massive crater more than ten meters in diameter.
However, Zhou Ming’s poison mist was viscous. Once the shockwaves dissipated, the mist began to reconverge, once again shrouding the exposed area.
At the same time, Zhou Ming, who had narrowly avoided the attacks, immediately summoned two ordinary Ironthread Snakes.
Blood Descendant Secret Technique · Snake Shadow Clones.
After losing several Ferocious Beast-level Ironthread Snakes in the Panlong Mountain Range, Zhou Ming had specifically used those Spiritual Seeds to contract ordinary Ironthread Snakes, intending to use them as expendable consumables during slaughter.
The two ordinary Ironthread Snakes instantly transformed into Zhou Ming’s clones, emitting his aura as they rapidly moved through the poison mist.
With the clones acting as bait, Zhou Ming seized the opportunity while the enemy attacked the clones. Using the poison mist to conceal his traces, he successfully killed two more people.
In merely two or three minutes, four Professional Beast Tamers had died at Zhou Ming’s hands.
Among them was a Professional Beast Tamer who had advanced into a Crimson Apostle. Since he could rely on blood to sense his targets, killing one such person was one less threat.
“Withdraw from the poison mist’s coverage and use area-of-effect attacks.”
Diamonds Six, seeing the heavy losses suffered by his side within just a few minutes, immediately abandoned the plan to encircle and kill Zhou Ming within the poison mist.
Within the mist, their perception was restricted. They could not freely unleash attacks and feared injuring their own allies.
Moreover, the poison mist constantly eroded their defenses, greatly limiting their strength.
Upon hearing Diamonds Six’s order, the others immediately withdrew from the poison mist’s coverage at the fastest speed, anger evident on their faces as they unleashed their trump cards.
Diamonds Six, the first to leave the poison mist’s range, now had a face as dark as water. As the person in charge of the Maple Leaf Ridge Stronghold, he had to give the organization an explanation.
“Hand of Furious Flames.”
Fire-element energy particles instantly condensed before him under the enhancement of his Phantasmal Beast. The massive hand formed of blazing flames distorted the air with heat, igniting the surrounding weeds and dead branches.
Upon closer inspection, the flame hand—over ten meters long—had clear palm lines, as though mysterious runes were blessing it.
Compared to merely condensing fire-element energy particles, Diamonds Six’s Hand of Furious Flames was far more terrifying.
The moment the purple poison mist touched the Hand of Furious Flames, it visibly dissipated at a speed discernible to the naked eye, completely reduced to nothingness by the high temperature.
Meanwhile, the other three high-ranking members of the Maple Leaf Ridge Stronghold—Clubs Five, Hearts Five, and Spades Five—also unleashed their methods from different directions.
“Yellow Sand Tornado.”
Clubs Five was enveloped in a yellow earthen Phantasmal Beast Armor. Pressing both hands to the ground, he condensed hardened yellow sand into a tornado, powerful enough to grind ultra-high-strength alloys into metallic residue.
A yellow tornado dozens of meters tall formed. The ground along its advancing path was scraped away to a depth of one foot.
“Flesh and Blood Touch.”
Hearts Five had advanced into a Crimson Apostle. As he cast a rare flesh-based spell, his Blood Beast underwent abnormal changes. Dozens of umbilical cord-like flesh tentacles sprouted from its surface.
These cord-like tentacles possessed the ability to absorb life energy, feeding it back to the Blood Beast to temporarily enhance its strength.
“Berserk Strike.”
Spades Five was a Beast Knight. His beast was an advanced-tier Violent Lion that had obtained the Beast Talent, Berserk.
As a brutal aura erupted like a volcanic explosion, the battle axe in his hand came crashing down. The berserk shockwave surged toward the purple poison mist like a tidal wave.
In addition to the four high-ranking members of Maple Leaf Ridge, the other Professional Beast Tamers of the Dark Card Organization also unleashed their respective spells and combat techniques, as if thousands of cannons were firing simultaneously upon the area shrouded in purple poison mist.
The roar of explosions resounded through the heavens, audible within several kilometers.
In the distance, Su Mei and Aina, hidden beneath the cover of night, immediately revealed a trace of worry in their expressions.
Even though they could transform into shadows, they could not withstand such terrifying attacks.
If not for Zhou Ming’s prior order, the two of them might have already rushed out to provide support.
As the smoke from the explosions slowly dispersed, the once lush and vegetation-filled mountain hollow had now become a wasteland.
The purple poison mist that had once covered several hundred meters had also vanished in the wake of the massive explosions.
And the scene within the core area of the blast gradually appeared before everyone’s eyes.