Elder Meng Shan's movement technique shifted beneath his feet, and his figure charged towards Yuan Ming like a phantom.

"Shadowless Step..."

Yuan Ming's heart tightened as he suddenly saw a cold gleam light up ahead.

The instant Elder Meng Shan charged in front of him, the dagger in his hand, emitting a greenish hue, thrusted towards his chest and abdomen.

Yuan Ming was already prepared. The palm he had hidden in his sleeve suddenly shot out, the Nine Elements Technique wildly circulated within his body, channeling mana, just as the small Eight Diagrams Mirror in his palm had barely finished refining when it lit up with a golden light screen.

The moment the dagger struck the golden light screen, a massive force exploded, scattering the golden light and shattering the surface of the Eight Diagrams Mirror with a "crack" sound, showing cracks.

Yuan Ming also felt a huge force assaulting him, a power surged up his arm to his shoulder and neck amidst the severe pain, sending him flying backward.

Before he landed, Yuan Ming noticed something odd about the ground behind him.

He saw waves of soil and stone upturning from underground, forming a noticeably elevated ridge of earth, clearly the Mountain Turtle utilizing its innate divine ability to burrow beneath the ground.

As the earthen ridge rapidly extended, heading towards the female array master, Elder Meng Shan's smile became increasingly evident on his face.

But just then, the bulging earth ridge suddenly halted and stopped moving.

Following that, through the thick layers of earth, a dull yet piercing mooing sound came from underground.

The ground shook violently, and as the soil and stone collapsed, a huge figure burst forth from underground — it was indeed the Mountain Turtle.

However, at this moment, its eyes were full of terror as if there was something extremely horrifying beneath the ground.

Yuan Ming looked at the black spots appearing on its massive head and a hint of a smile flashed through his eyes.

Since he needed to protect Xi Ying, how could he possibly not be fully prepared?

With soul crows monitoring from the trees and a Black Toad safeguarding underground, he was ready to prevent any exotic beasts from tunneling underground and launching an attack that he might not be able to fend off.

The strongest Black Toad could only be arranged to guard under the array master as the last barrier.

The Mountain Turtle's massive body became extremely heavy, and after running only a few steps, it collapsed amidst intense agony, convulsing on the ground, its huge head struggling with its last bit of energy before it fiercely drooped down.

Seeing the Mountain Turtle's head crashing towards the female array master,

Yuan Ming, who leaped into the air, saw the silver cat Guoguo, who had been sitting somewhat dazedly by the female array master's side, suddenly lunge as the head fell.

Its body radiated a sudden surge of silver light, and its small form grew instantaneously, transforming into a six-foot-long, over three-foot-tall snow-white ferocious beast, almost resembling a robust White Tiger.

A Second Level Early Stage spirit beast!

At this time, Guoguo's body was silvery-white, with longer fur and pupils one gold and the other amber, while its claws gleamed coldly.

With a fierce roar,

Guoguo merely swung its paw, causing a gust of wind, followed by a loud "bang".

The Mountain Turtle's massive head was effortlessly torn open under its sharp claws, turning into a shower of blood rain mixed with fragments of bone and flesh.

This scene not only stunned Yuan Ming, but even Elder Meng Shan was taken aback.

But what surprised him even more came next.

The massive silver-white tiger suddenly emitted a layer of silver ripples and abruptly disappeared from his view.

Yuan Ming immediately released his divine sense to search, but he found nothing.

The silver tiger had not only vanished in form but its breath had also completely disappeared.

Each time the silver cat could appear beside him undetected, only revealing itself when it chose to let Yuan Ming notice its presence – this time was no exception.

Not just Yuan Ming, but Elder Meng Shan also lost perception of the silver tiger.

But in the next instant, Elder Meng Shan immediately swung his hook claw, fiercely striking towards the empty space beside him.

The hook claw shone with dark light, and a tremendous force surged forth.

Accompanied by this was a blur and distortion in the void, as if enveloped by a layer of mist, when a huge white shadow emerged from it, precisely the silver tiger.

Just as it revealed its form, a snow-white sharp claw had already swung with full force, sweeping towards Elder Meng Shan.

The white sharp claw exactly collided with the black hook claw, and a powerful impact instantly exploded from the collision.

The silver tiger's massive form was pushed backward by this force.

But Elder Meng Shan didn't gain any advantage either, retreating seven or eight yards backward.

"What immense power!"

At that moment, he saw the array master being attacked and teleported, anticipating she wouldn't be transported very far, he decided to search the surroundings alone, hoping to luck out. If he found her first, it would undoubtedly be a rare opportunity.

Yuan Ming hadn't expected not only a brat to stand in his way but also that this Array Master, severely wounded by the Great Elder's soul bat, would have such a powerful spirit beast hidden.

But before Meng Shan could come to his senses, the ground beneath him suddenly trembled violently, and the soil and rocks collapsed once more.

A pitch-black vine suddenly shot out from below, swiftly coiling around his lower leg.

Immediately after, a cloud of black smoke spread from his lower leg, where his clothes instantly corroded and turned black, then crumbled into dust.

"Ugh..."

An intense and unparalleled pain instantly originated from his lower leg, causing him to let out a muffled grunt.

Elder Meng Shan quickly swung his hook claw down, sharply severing the vine.

After freeing himself, he immediately made several consecutive jumps to distance himself from the vine.

He looked down at his lower leg and saw that the flesh was necrotic where the vine had wrapped around it, and patches of black spots appeared on his entire lower leg.

"What powerful poison," Elder Meng Shan's expression drastically changed, and he completely panicked.

He never imagined that merely trying to capture a female Array Master and using her power to escape would involve so many defensive measures around her?

Two spirit beasts, as strong as Foundation Establishment Cultivators, one overt and one covert, both had extremely tricky innate divine abilities.

In his knowledge, such powerful spirit beasts must be the female Array Master's backup; how could they be related to that little Qi Refining Realm cultivator?

Before he could figure it out, a white silhouette suddenly appeared beside him, and the spirit beast, resembling a silver tiger, manifested out of nowhere and clawed furiously at him.

Elder Meng Shan had already developed the idea of retreating and quickly dodged, moving over ten yards back.

But before he could land, a shadow suddenly swept up from the ground behind him, and another black vine, like a spiritual snake, lunged at him, heading straight for his face.

Elder Meng Shan swung his hook claw to block it, but out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a black crow swooping in, also hurling itself at his face.

Despite his extensive battle experience, this string of continuous attacks left him somewhat flustered.

Just as he dodged the silver tiger's claw, cut off the poison vine, and spat out a whirlwind to blow away the crow, the intense pain in his lower leg struck again, and the bizarre poison began to numb his entire lower body.

When he landed, he stumbled and fell to the ground.

At that moment, the sound of a sword humming filled the air.

A giant, snow-white figure holding a sword flashed out. It was Yuan Ming who had donned the White Ape beast skin, transforming into the White Ape, gaining increased strength and vigor as he thrust a sword toward Elder Meng Shan.

A beam of cold light flashed swiftly, enveloping him in severe cold, instantly freezing the arm that held the black hook claw.

Elder Meng Shan felt a chill surging up. His arm stiffened, and just as he was about to gather his mana to resist, he saw Yuan Ming, transformed into the White Ape, swing his arm, hurling a round, bronze sphere at him.

The muscles in the White Ape's arm contracted sharply, generating immense force that made the bronze sphere, with a sonic boom, arrive instantly with a trace of afterimage.

Elder Meng Shan no longer had any chance to dodge.

The bronze sphere was covered in dense runes that brightened with conspicuous light traces.

Just when a light click sounded, the bronze sphere suddenly split open, revealing a bright silver-white light from within.

"Sizzle..."

After a flurry of silver sparks, the bundle of silver-white light exploded abruptly.

"Boom"

A striking thunderous light pillar surged skyward from within the woods, unleashing an immensely powerful shockwave. In the dazzling light, one could vaguely see Elder Meng Shan's body stiffen and sway as arcs of electricity exploded around him.

The loud noise drowned out his screams.

When all the electricity had dissipated, the ground was marked by a shallow, charred pit, and the trees within a radius of thirty feet were scorched, with flames still burning inside them and smoke wafting up.

In the center of the shallow pit, Elder Meng Shan's body still stood in its original position, although it was now unrecognizable. Right at the top of his head was a dreadful, lightning-struck wound still emitting smoke.

To his death, he couldn't believe that one day he would be killed by a mere Qi Refining Stage Cultivator.

Just then, the silver tiger moved in a flash and swung its massive claw down, shredding Elder Meng Shan's remains into pieces.

Yuan Ming hurried forward and picked up a finger from the ground, pulling off a blue-gem-embedded storage ring. Before he could examine the storage ring in his hand, the soul crow noticed a small group of people approaching from afar.

He quickly tucked away the storage ring and the hook claw magic artifact from Meng Shan's hand and stepped back to stand in front of Xi Ying.

Yuan Ming signaled to the Black Toad to continue hiding. Only a vine tendril piercing through the headless Mountain Turtle's neck remained visible, madly absorbing the remaining power while the piles of fierce beasts Yuan Ming had previously slain had already been pulled into its underground tendrils.

Turning around, Silver Cat Guoguo had also returned to her usual cute and well-behaved appearance, squatting next to the female Array Master and continuing to guard her.

The voices from the distance were now close at hand.

Yuan Ming followed the sound and saw a group of Dawn's figures, about seven or eight people, led by that clown, hastily approaching.

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