A flash of terror shot through the Ice Soul Cold Jiao's eyes, but it could not immediately withdraw its frost breath to dodge. It could only watch helplessly as the lightning spears stabbed into its neck and chest.
Crack!
Bluish-purple lightning flared violently. Thunderous force instantly spread across the ice scales, the piercing sound seeming to bore through the eardrums.
But the next moment, one could see -- the Ice Soul Cold Jiao was completely unharmed!
What?!
This time, it was Bai Jie's turn to be greatly shocked.
A tall, upright man had at some unknown point appeared beside the Ice Soul Cold Jiao, looking at the demon spider with an arrogant expression.
And on the Ice Soul Cold Jiao's body, a layer of invisible aura film covered it -- it seemed to be this very thing that had insulated the lightning damage.
Something like an insulation ability?!
Could it be that Yinhe is some kind of rubber-man... while speculating to itself, Bai Jie couldn't help but snide inwardly.
Of course, this was merely snide. In reality, there was no absolute boundary between insulators and conductors.
So-called insulation was merely people's colloquial recognition of materials with high resistance in daily life; in truth, absolute insulation did not exist. When voltage reached a certain level, an insulator could be broken through.
"Bai Zhi, discovering your electric attacks are useless -- how does it feel?" Yinhe smiled.
His right hand lifted, and the ground beneath shook. Then several massive rocks burst out from the earth right beneath Bai Jie's feet.
Fortunately, thanks to its Spider Sense, Bai Jie had anticipated this, leaping away in advance and dodging these rock spikes.
But the "Lightning Net Barrier" was thus dispelled!
Seizing this opportunity, the frost breath instantly surged toward Bai Jie like floodwaters through an opened sluice gate, as if to freeze the spider to death alive.
Yinhe truly possesses extraordinarily powerful psychic power -- even exceeding my expectations. Only that could explain how he evaded my perception and arrived beside the Ice Soul Cold Jiao...
A thought flashed through its mind. Bai Jie did not pause for even a moment. Shaking its body and stretching its spider legs, it dodged and leaped through the numerous trees.
Hundreds of branches swayed, cold qi toppled. Countless limbs were frozen and destroyed by the frost breath, turning into shattered bits of ice.
Bai Jie also dared not land on the ground easily, for the ground would inevitably have sharp rock spikes ready to impale its body.
It had considered charging into Yinhe's proximity and beheading him with sharp blades, but with the Ice Soul Cold Jiao towering at Yinhe's side, it was reluctant to close in rashly.
Although the Ice Soul Cold Jiao's Vitality was only 320, Bai Jie knew well that Vitality did not represent actual combat power. It chose caution -- after all, a spider's body was too small.
"Bai Zhi! If you have any more tricks, bring them all out -- otherwise, you won't have the chance."
Yinhe laughed. Though his gaze never shifted, his psychic power continuously tracked and locked onto the demon spider. Meanwhile, he stayed glued to the Ice Soul Cold Jiao's side, never taking a step away, the miraculous aura film constantly covering both his and the Cold Jiao's bodies.
One man and one Jiao, coordinating perfectly, complementing each other.
"Pitiful human! Worm-Jiao! I must admit -- you have angered me."
"I will surely make you taste the bitter fruit of your insolence against me!" The demon spider's faintly enraged voice echoed across the entire mountaintop.
The next instant, a ring of purple toxic mist enveloped the area around the Ice Soul Cold Jiao and Yinhe, swiftly swallowing them both.
Within the toxic mist, besides containing intensely virulent toxins, also lurked the viruses of countless plagues. So long as it was a living being, it could not escape the infection and weakening of the pestilence in the air.
It was precisely the Authority of the demon spider's Talent: Death Blight, activated in conjunction with the Skill: Calamity Rain Mist.
This time, it did not choose large-scale rainfall, but instead raised toxic mist over a small area.
Outside the toxic mist, Wang Miaoyin, the Secret Keepers, and Elder Long rapidly retreated, not daring to touch even a wisp of it.
"Hmm? Not good!"
At the center of the toxic mist, Yinhe had at first been dismissive, confident in his psychic power being able to keep these toxic mists from invading his body just like he had with the toxic rain.
But the truth proved him wrong.
Although he could keep every drop of water from touching him, and even insulate electrical conduction, channeling currents into the ground,
the sheer number of toxins, viruses, and bacteria far exceeded the limit of what his psychic power could "capture." At most, he could perceive them, but could not manage to insulate against them all.
After all, viruses and bacteria were far, far smaller in volume than raindrops, nor could they be "captured" and guided by psychic power as a single whole the way lightning could.
The next instant,
his throat itched, his body temperature rose. He abruptly covered his mouth and nose, yet his complexion still gradually turned bluish-purple. Black blood vessels protruded visibly on his skin, and his eyes filled with bloodshot veins.
"Deploy your domain!" Long Bingheng suddenly shouted.
Bai Jie's heart sank. The Ice Soul Cold Jiao, as a Demonic Body lifeform, could actually deploy a "domain"?
The Ice Soul Cold Jiao opened its massive maw and let out a clear, long cry.
In that moment, the wind and snow that had ceased with the Ice Mirror Butterflies' deaths once again raged, sweeping across the land. The freezing gale dispelled the toxic mist while simultaneously freezing countless pathogens into stasis, turning even the soil into frozen earth!
The purple toxic mist transformed into blue ice mist, and the masterminds that wrought devastation upon all living things settled down, merging into the eternal frozen earth.
Under the deep winter, even viruses could not move freely.
"Pant, pant..."
Ignoring the cold, Yinhe breathed in great gulps. From who knows where, he produced a small medicine bottle and chugged the medicinal liquid down his throat.
The symptoms of illness and poisoning miraculously and gradually vanished from his body.
In contrast, Bai Jie's situation was far from optimistic.
Deep within the Ice Soul Cold Jiao's domain, Bai Jie clearly felt its speed slowing, its joints extremely stiff, as if ice crystals were jammed inside, radiating bone-chilling cold.
Crack!
Suddenly, the Ice Soul Cold Jiao swept its tail, generating an over ten-meter-tall ice storm that swept toward Bai Jie with even greater might than the earlier frost breath.
A bizarre suction force emanated from within the storm. The demon spider could not dodge in time and was swept into it. Countless shards of ice immediately flayed Bai Jie like a thousand knives. The agony nearly caused it to lose consciousness in an instant.
Crackling sounds rang out.
A total of three layers of bluish-purple lightning curtains, stacked one upon another, erupted from within the ice storm. The ice and snow abruptly dissipated, revealing a spider form covered in wounds.
Although the demon spider had ultimately deployed its "Lightning Net Barrier" and barely escaped, its body still bore varying degrees of frostbite and lacerations. Even the effectiveness of the Skill: High-Order Regeneration was greatly diminished.
"Lord Bai Zhi!" Catching a glimpse of this scene from the corner of her eye, Wang Miaoyin's face showed a flash of panic.
"Wang Miaoyin, surrender! Your ending cannot be changed." Jianxin issued a cold judgment from beneath his rigid faceplate.
"Its life force has greatly declined. It seems the situation is settled," Long Bingheng gave a slight sigh of relief. Even if the demon spider hid within the lightning curtain, Yinhe would always have a way to force it out.
"Haha!"
Seeing the demon spider's body bearing over a hundred wounds of varying depth, purple blood ceaselessly streaming down, Yinhe's face revealed a smile of vengeful glee. "Bai Zhi, you're nothing special after all!"
Though he had taken the medicine, the torment of the disease within his body had not yet subsided, leaving him feeling fear and fury.
"You filthy, evil venomous insect -- your very existence pollutes the world. You'd be better off returning to the hell where you belong!"