Chapter 177 The Shadow Cat

Rammy and the wounded cultivator stopped the following attack when they saw a dome of darkness swallow their leader.

They watched in horror as dark spikes shot outward from the dome, stopped, and reversed course, shooting back inward. It was a harrowing sight that all but guaranteed a cultivator would die. However—

A massive fire blade shot a hundred feet into the sky, piercing the darkness before crashing to the earth, cutting through the dome and everything else in its path.

BOOOOOOOM!

Evalyn's widened in horror when the blade sliced through the fourth residential mansion, setting it on fire. She immediately ran to the site and waved her hand, creating a blizzard-like blanket of frost that put out the fire.

The shadow dome warped, dancing with the flickering flames. It exposed the blonde, who flew out, bleeding, with murderous eyes.

"Crux!" Mary yelled angrily, "Face me, you cowardly beast!"

"You're so loud." A hypnotic female voice replied not a hundred feet away.

Mary turned to the voice and her eyes glazed over, unamused. "What the hell are you wearing?"

A beautiful woman with flowing black hair and rich amethyst eyes stared at the Cultivation Lord from the air, wearing her favorite dress-sized green frog hoodie, covering her cat ears.

Her attire's cuteness overwhelmed the strength, beauty, and dignity she had otherwise commanded.

"It's called a hoodie." Crux replied in Skylain.

"No, Crux." The blonde cultivator scoffed, "I mean why are you wearing that… thing?"

"It's a hoodie." The divine beast reiterated, "And I'm wearing it because I like it."

"You like it?" Mary laugh-scoffed, shaking her head in disbelief, "Unbelievable. You've come to this abhorrent insect nest, and now you're taking part in their weak, disgusting culture?"

"You only say that because you've never tried [cake]." Crux replied mockingly, "And because you're more arrogant about their strength than I was."

The Cultivation Lord laughed a slight hiccup. "Their strength? Crux, are—"

Mary's eyes widened in shock when he felt an icy breeze approaching her from the back. She turned and saw a blinding blizzard of ice shards flying at her, with a radius of 150 feet. "How did—"

Evalyn's attack was slow, so she tried to fly, but Crux's shadow blades shot at her from both flanks, limiting her movements.

The Cultivation Lord lifted her hand and cut it down with full force. "Howling Winds!"

Whoooooooosh! BOOM! Boom! BOOM! Boom, boom, BOOM!

A massive flurry of wind blades cut through the blizzard annihilating more than 80% of the shards on contact. It also counter-struck, sending Evalyn flying backward.

However, it came at the cost of getting hit by hundred shards and stabbed by a shadow blade.

"Annoying pest!" Mary scoffed vitriolically, gazing at the bleeding blonde, "It was worth getting backstabbed by this traitor to kill you!"

All the Immortals and soldiers fell silent in horror, leaving a smirk on the woman's face. "And you, confirmed backstabber, have you no honor!?"

"You're a fool." Crux scoffed coldly, "No person of honor will humor a person who monologues mid-battle or continually ignores the enemies who nearly killed them."

"That's fair." Mary replied dryly, "So, can we talk now that I've rid the world of that venomous insect? Will you explain—"

The divine beast didn't listen to her. Instead, she created a large orb of darkness in the sky, which fragmented and shot blades at the blonde.

"What's your excuse now!?" The Cultivation Lord screamed in anger, "Tell—"

While dodging the attacks, she felt an icy chill crawl down her spine. She turned as quickly as possible, barely avoiding a massive ice spear shooting at her neck.

Evalyn ran away, followed by two soldiers who followed her to perform healing cultivation.

"HOW!?" Mary yelled, "CRUX, TELL—"

The woman screamed in pure anger when another round of shadow blades shot down at her. She was humiliated beyond words and faced mortal danger—on the Mortal Plane.

"Rammy, Nate, Will, Peter, what are you fools doing!?" Mary screamed at her subordinates. She turned around and realized that only two were present, frozen.

Rammy was cut up, robes were torn, and the Will was soaked in blood.

Mary noted that Nate or Peter's cultivation signatures had disappeared, indicating that they had died. "Whoever's able, massacre the weak and kill the blonde!"

"Yes, mam!" Rammy yelled, turning the Immortals.

Likewise, Will, the brown-haired cultivator, bleeding profusely, took a deep breath. "Right… away—AGH!"

While the cultivators were distracted, a massive flurry of ice blades pierced the man's open wounds with pinpoint precision. Due to his weakened state, they passed straight through his body, sending a waterfall of blood raining down.

Rammy's heart pulsed, watching the scene unfold. Her world slowed to a crawl, looking for the blonde while keeping tabs on the countless soldiers preparing Guided Arrows. "Disable and destroy; Sharp Breeze."

BEst

She waved her hand, and a gust of wind from the east to the west picked up speed at ground level, bringing micro shards of Qi through the land.

"AghhHHHhhHHhhHHhhHhhHhhHhh!"

Half a thousand Immortals and soldiers fell to the ground in pain as the weak attack shredded their bodies with ease. The attack killed few but disabled people in droves and broke their concentration.

"Don't lose focus!" Sandra barked, getting up from the attack, "She's doing this to prevent us from attacking! We're on the precipice of victory!"

A few dozen soldiers created Guided Arrows, preparing them to fire.

"Chaos and panic." Rammy whispered, waving her hand again. A massive arc of fire shot across the earth, trying to split the forces and create a fire to stir panic.

However, a blizzard-like flurry of frost hit it, turning the attack into hot steam.

Rammy's heart thumped, and she turned back to the Ice General, shocked by the attack speed. "If you had this attack speed, why didn't you attack first?"

Whooooooosh!

As she contemplated her situation, an abnormally large bolt of Qi shot from the side. The brunette dodged preemptively, but it followed her in real-time. She moved again, but so did it!

"What is this!?" Rammy cried as she turned her body sharply, feeling a sharp arrow cut through her side. Following the shot, she saw Veronica running with a Guided Arrow attached, fixed in place. "How can mortals handle fixed-point Qi attacks!?"

Moving with Qi locked into a relative position was extremely skilled. So she didn't understand how they knew about it, let alone be capable!

Whooooooosh!

Prepared for the next arrow, Rammy moved out of the way, preparing a double attack for the woman and Evalyn simultaneously. However—

Whooooooosh!

Like dancing dragons, another arrow following her every move shot from her other flank.

A short-haired woman with vicious blue eyes stared at her like a demon.

"Arrogant bitch." Rein scoffed, using her full concentration to twist the arrow in a pattern that was erratic and hard to dodge.

Rammy was trapped on all sides, a truly horrifying situation.

She tried to dodge both but only escaped one before an arrow pierced her shoulder. Feeling cornered, she looked to the sky but saw a massive chandelier of ice blades staring at her.

"Die." Evalyn ordered coldly, lowering her raised hand with decisive force. Hundreds of blades cut down from the sky, shredding the woman's skin and executing her.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

Before they could celebrate, a massive arc of orange light shot from a thousand feet to the ground, carving a massive chasm across the campus and destroying a section of the Immortal Skye amphitheater.

When the blade hit, it shattered into a million fragments of blinding Qi, shooting them in all directions like a frag grenade.

Crux created a shadow barrier before the shards hit her. While she was fine, she didn't come out unscathed. Her eye twitched uncontrollably, staring at the massive, bloody gash in her beloved hoodie.

The hoodie was a strange quirk for the dignified woman, an oddity. While most couldn't understand why someone so beautiful and refined would wear it, it had meaning for the woman.

Crux's power in divine beast form was enough to kill peak earth-grade cultivators when she was five. Therefore, she was recruited into fighting in the Killian war as a child due to necessity.

As a result, the Panthera princess didn't have a childhood. However, on the Mortal Plane, she was finally free of the constant fighting and chose the hoodie to embrace the "peaceful" apocalypse-stricken world she lived in.

So when Mary's attack cut the cloth, it didn't just attack the clothing—it subconsciously attacked her inner-self.

Without warning, the woman's eyes turned neon purple, and she lifted the baggy sleeves to the sky at a physics-defying speed throwing it upward and slipping out of it effortlessly.

Crux shot down to the earth, laden with vibrant yellow lingerie that caught everyone's attention before she disappeared behind the mansion.

"ROAaahhHHhhaaaAAWrrrR!"

A feral growl from behind the mansion shot through the airwaves, making everyone's heart pulse.

Understanding her dire situation, Mary panicked and flew over the Immortals and soldiers with ghostly speed, wagering that the divine beast wouldn't attack with them below.

It was a rational assumption that chilled everyone to their cores. Crux had a reputation and attitude of hating humans. Therefore, none were sure if she would sacrifice them.

As things turned out, the action and discussion were unnecessary.

A massive panther shot out from behind the mansion, pivoting on its paws, and jumped at blinding speed, shooting 900 feet across campus, the length of three football fields.

Her claws ripped into the panicked blonde, dragging her down to the west T-Wall, which lacked humans due to their desire to fan out and flee.

BOOOOOOM!

The two shattered the reinforced wall, sending an explosive cloud of dirt and debris moving outward.

A wind shot through the area, forcing the debris out of the way a moment later, exposing the blonde and the shadow cat's positions.

Crux pinned Mary down with her claws and had her maw wide, fangs barring. Without a moment delay—

"ROAaahhHHhhaaaAAWrrrR!"

—she roared and bit down on the blonde.

The sight stunned everyone and sparked an overwhelming wave of cheers from the Immortals and soldiers, believing the Cultivation Lord was dead.

Unfortunately, the shadow cat's body deformed, bulging outward, before a massive reverse waterfall of corrosive blood shot from its back, raining down on the world.

All the Immortals and soldiers felt their hearts sink as terror and dread overwhelmed them. They felt Crux's unceremonious death spelled the end of them.

However, of everyone present, the most shocked was Mary, who felt black muck corroding her skin. "Where is—"

The Cultivation Lord panicked as a massive set of beachball-sized eyes glowed behind the woman, shocking everyone into silence.

"ROAaahhHHhhaaaAAWrrrR!"

Mary tried to roll out of the way, but Crux's jaws reached her left shoulder as she rolled, picking her up like a rag doll and throwing her into the sky.

"Sorrow Winds!" The Cultivation Lord yelled from above, sending down a wave of blades that spun counterclockwise. They created a tornado that cut through everything like a blender, didn't dissipate, and developed a distinctive sound that howled mournfully.

It didn't hurt Crux, but it made her jump out of the way, giving Mary a moment to breathe.

"Now!" Jake yelled to the Immortals. Eight hundred of them pulled Guided Arrows back, looking through the broken wall in a huge mass.

"FOOLS!" Crux roared at full volume as Mary waved her hand, shooting the wind blades at the Immortals like a lawn mower.

As everyone's eyes flashed before their eyes, the massive panther, releasing corrosive black miasma from its fur, landed in front of them.

When its paws touched the ground, a massive wall of black smoke shot outside the wall, colliding with the wind blades, howling across the area.

BOOOOOOOM!

A biblical blast shattered the airwaves as the black corrosive miasma hit the wind blades at counter-rotation.

It hit Crux and sent her flying across campus, rolling across the ground before crashing into the lake, sending a tidal wave-sized fountain in the sky.

"Did I see a Panthera princess protect a wild pack of mongrels?" Mary asked, shattering the ensuing silence with a loud scoff, "What is wrong with—GAH!"

The Cultivation Lord stopped talking when an ice spear shot through her shoulder wound.

"What did she tell you about your incessant monologues?" Evalyn roared angrily, attacking from an unpopulated area with crazed eyes.

Hundreds of blades shot at the confused woman, and a Razor Flurry attack cut off her exits.

"Don't get confident, you army ant!" Mary screamed. She waved her hand, and a massive gust of blades shot across the ground, not holding back or conserving Qi.

The Ice General created five layers of ice walls, each shattering before she got hit by the wind blades, shredding her skin.

The Cultivator Lord shot to the blonde's position to finish her off quickly so she could concentrate on Crux. However, a massive dark blade cut across her vision.

"It seems I need to take care of you first!" Mary roared, she waved her hand to the sky, preparing to deplete her Qi with another orange, exploding blade.

As she raised up, creating the orange beam of light, the sky became illuminated by a beautiful, intricate tapestry of rune-like symbols.

The Immortals had seen it before, so they immediately held their breaths, hope filling their hearts.

The orange blade reversed course, shooting back down on the woman, who canceled it.

BOOOM!

She jumped out of the way, avoiding her reversed attack before the golden dome lit up again, and a figure emerged, triggering a wave of tears and cries of joy.

"KAZE!" A woman screamed.

Another followed, triggering a complete explosion of cheering from everyone.

Kaze Lexicon had finally arrived.