Lu Qingxue’s cold eyes lifted, staring directly at Mu Fan, conveying a reassuring gaze.
Her right hand suddenly spun without warning, the blade pointing straight upward.
Lu Qingxue’s left hand gathered three fingers, suddenly flicking the scabbard of the Snow Building Sword.
A buzzing sound echoed eerily in the dark.
The long blue hair behind Lu Qingxue instantly floated up.
In the next moment, a fierce swordsman light slanted out from in front of her, streaking across the arc of light behind her.
It was as if a white lightning bolt flashed in the darkness.
A slicing sound rang out, followed by a piercing scream of agony.
A thin stream of pale green blood suddenly spattered into the air.
Lu Qingxue’s figure moved gracefully forward five steps, as if untouched by the mundane world.
Two wooden spikes the length of a palm scattered to either side, rolling rhythmically to the ground.
The Snow Building Sword that vanished into the air reappeared before Lu Qingxue.
The sword’s edge crossed through the air, gently lifting her robe.
Sheathed the sword, returned to the scabbard.
Lu Qingxue turned around, seeing that mad figure standing in place.
"My... eyes!"
"My eyes!!"
The formerly ruthless yellow-brown eyes were now horizontally sliced by a deep sword mark, erased.
Pale green blood gushed out from the sword mark.
Mu Rensheng’s eyes... were cleaved by Lu Qingxue, who stood silently behind him!
"How did you know! This, impossible."
"You’re still human, so you have body heat," Lu Qingxue responded coolly.
The answer was as simple as that.
For the Valkyrie, who had reached the pinnacle of martial force through swordsmanship, discarding supernatural powers to appear within three meters around her was foolish in the extreme.
Half crouched on the treetop, Mu Fan grinned, giving a thumbs-up to the cool and lovely visage.
Lu Qingxue saw Mu Fan’s gesture, a slight curve forming at the corner of her mouth.
"You’ve angered me..."
Mu Rensheng knelt with hands on the ground, letting unceasing blood drip from his eyes.
At this moment, all the vines on his back suddenly snapped away.
His entire body split into countless writhing vines amid the crackling wood, suddenly snapping back to the large tree behind him.
And at this moment, the bark of the roughly twenty-meter-tall Black-collar tree around him suddenly bulged and extended towards the sky, twisting and turning completely.
A vague human silhouette began to emerge; this tree actually... truly came to life.
At this moment, Lu Qingxue’s long hair fluttered, pointing the sharp tip of the Snow Building Sword at the ground, a dense layer of ice crystals instantly covering her sword.
Her gaze was arrow-sharp, her slender legs crossing one another in strides, charging high towards the massive "Tree Man."
But, she did not know that just then, behind the forest at the foot of the mountain, a black muzzle suddenly appeared on the deck of the spaceship, tethered by tree vines.
In the dark muzzle, a mercurial metallic sheen flashed.
Boom!
There were no flames, but the muzzle shook violently, a massive "missile" shot out, flying straight into the forest.
All tree trunks in its path shattered completely.
...
Mu Fan’s temple veins suddenly throbbed violently at this moment.
The tree trunk he supported with one hand transmitted a faint tremor, raising alarms in his heart.
His heart was instantaneously compressed to a quarter of its size and then expanded vigorously, his heartbeat soaring to 500 beats per minute.
He slipped into the Blessed Relief state in an instant.
At that moment, he finally felt the airflow around him and the movements slow down.
Mu Fan only saw, at the edge of his vision, a massive black shadow charging lightning-fast straight at Lu Qingxue, with a sense of annihilation.
At the same moment, Lu Qingxue also sensed the anomaly, her hand fiercely reversing her long sword before her body.
A posture of extreme elegance and perfection in defense unfolded.
Because the size of the "missile" falling from the sky was excessively large, its covered range was exceedingly enormous.
On the other side, being blinded, Mu Rensheng couldn’t restore his vision even after turning into a "Tree Man," so he was merely roaring madly, ready to attack by extending his senses into every plant in the dense forest.
He did not know that the black shadow about to crash into Lu Qingxue signaled an anomaly when feeling his branches and leaves brutally torn apart.
The instant before the "missile" struck Lu Qingxue, a figure dashed through the forest at a speed that exceeded everyone’s imagination, leaving a long afterimage as if through teleportation.
The tree crown where Mu Fan previously stood exploded again, yet he had already vanished from there.
As the "missile" came within less than three meters of Lu Qingxue, the figure solidified before her violently.
Then crossed his arms before himself.
The muscles in his arms swelled violently, slamming into each other with a cross-like jolt. Ghost Energy combined with Blessed Relief under the state of... Six Forms: Iron appeared before everyone.
Six Forms - Iron Cross Shield!
"Move!"
Boom!
At this moment, it seemed as though a sound of iron colliding resounded throughout the forest.
Mu Fan’s body shivered violently, his feet sinking entirely into the earth, then forced back violently, crashing towards Lu Qingxue.
The Snow Building Sword instantly returned to its sheath. Lu Qingxue did not dodge, exerting her soft, boneless white palms with all her might to support Mu Fan from behind.
The massive force that couldn’t be filtered surged into Lu Qingxue, her beautiful, cool face grunting softly, a trickle of light pink blood seeping from the corner of her mouth.
Yet Lu Qingxue bit her lip tightly, neither dodging nor flinching, exerting all her strength to help Mu Fan dissipate the force.
Both retreated over ten meters before coming to a stop.
At the intersection of Mu Fan’s crossed arms, a visible dent appeared, but it was slowly recovering.
During that frightful instant of impact, Mu Fan truly felt as though his body might withstand a missile.
Had it not been for the Six Forms activated by Ghost Energy, he was sure he’d be completely crushed into paste now.
His eyes surged with a blood-hued ferocity as he fixed them on the figure rising slowly ahead, shouting coldly to the rear: "Why didn’t you dodge!"
For the first time since they met, Mu Fan addressed Lu Qingxue in such a strong tone.
But unusually, there was no trace of displeasure on Lu Qingxue’s face; instead, she used the back of her left hand to gently wipe the blood from her mouth, turning her face serious and stubbornly away.
"I won’t dodge."
She refused to say another word; just now, it was obvious that Mu Fan was enduring the impact for her.
Had the rampant kinetic energy been entirely borne by Mu Fan, she would never have agreed.
"Haha, to actually use your body to endure, that’s a surprise. Are you a Mutant too?"
A magnetic metallic-sounding voice echoed.
In the dappled light and shadow, a strong figure close to two meters tall, his physique rivaling Ruan Xiongfei whom Mu Fan had met, stood slowly, cropped with short hair.
Most distinct of all, his entire body, from hair tips to fingers... was covered in a silver metallic sheen.
"Iron Man... I can’t see anymore, help me... smash these two bastards!"
Inside the enormous "Tree Man" behind the metal man, a hoarse voice emanated, teeth-grinding with bone-deep hatred.
"Is this the result that reassures me? Absolutely worthless."
The metal man glanced dismissively at the twenty-meter-tall "Tree Man" behind him, voice cold and disdainful.
Having said that, the metal man turned to Mu Fan, extending his right hand to the side, where flowing liquid metal began condensing into a chain in his palm, dangling long to the ground.
"The farce should end; I’ll mold you into a Bone Ball and send you back to base."
The metal man glanced at Mu Fan, tone merely stating a fact.