Watching Xiao Xue charge toward him, Iron Protector reacted instantly.
With a movement of his palm, a pitch-black chain extended from it, accompanied by a clattering sound.
The pitch-black chain twisted and coiled around him like a venomous snake.
Iron Protector let out a strange laugh and flicked his arm.
The chain instantly tore through the sky, transforming into a black streak as it met Xiao Xue's attack head-on.
Although he had only recovered to the strength of a Dou Huang, the Hall of Souls possessed quite a few methods to suppress Soul entities.
Therefore, facing Xiao Xue's offensive, Iron Protector did not choose to dodge, but instead chose to meet it head-on.
With his methods, holding Xiao Xue back for a while would be no problem at all.
Once Dugu Jian and Xie Bi Yan regained their senses, it would be the end of Xiao Xue!
Swish!
The black chain pierced through space like a venomous snake.
Immediately, the chain turned into a blurred black streak, shooting violently toward the nearby Xiao Xue.
The tip of the chain was exceptionally sharp, and the pointed section was covered in profound runes.
Spiraling patterns wrapped around the tip of the chain, and under the stimulation of Iron Protector's energy, faint traces of Evil Qi seeped out.
Clearly, this deep-colored chain was no ordinary iron chain; it possessed immense lethality against Soul entities.
Xiao Xue, or rather, Ah Li, saw Iron Protector's attack but did not dodge in the slightest.
She even charged straight forward and threw a punch directly at the chain.
However, to everyone's surprise, the next moment, a figure flew out from the battlefield.
The figure flying backward was not Iron Protector, nor was it Xiao Xue, but the Myriad Scorpion Gate Sect Leader, Xie Bi Yan!
Xie Bi Yan spat out blood, his chest caved in; clearly, he had been severely injured by Ah Li's all-out strike.
He had now completely lost his ability to fight.
"Wait, what just happened?!"
Iron Protector and Dugu Jian regained their senses, their faces showing horror—
"An illusion, that was an illusion just now!"
"We were all hypnotized by her!"
Even Iron Protector had not sensed the slightest anomaly while in the illusion just now!
And just now, the person Xiao Xue attacked was not Iron Protector, but the one among the three with the lowest Soul strength, Xie Bi Yan!
It is better to break one of a person's fingers than to injure all ten; the situation on the field had instantly turned into a two-on-one.
Two Peak Dou Huang fighting one Half-step Dou Zong!
One must know that Ah Li's Soul Power was already at the Spirit Realm Initial Stage.
And what level is the Spirit Realm Initial Stage?
Grade 8 Low-level, the level of a Grade 8 Alchemist!
Even some Dou Zun experts among humans were only Seventh-Rank Alchemists.
Their Soul Power was merely at the Mortal Realm Great Perfection!
Ah Li's Soul Power had already transcended the mortal and entered the spirit; this was Xiao Xue's greatest confidence in fighting three Dou Huang alone!
Of course, this does not mean that having powerful Soul Power makes one invincible in the world.
For Alchemists, under normal circumstances, their Soul Power is higher than experts of the same level.
But in a 1v1, an Alchemist with strong Soul Power does not necessarily defeat an opponent of the same level.
If the Soul Power is not significantly higher, the direct boost to combat effectiveness is actually not very large.
Strong Soul Power primarily enhances one's overall grasp of the battle situation and the ability to predict the opponent's movements.
After all, even if you have ten parts of Soul Power, only three parts might be directly usable to attack the opponent.
The remaining Soul Power is consumed prematurely because it is not concentrated enough during release or due to other reasons.
Therefore, even if the opponent's Soul strength is only seven parts—not as strong as yours—they can easily ignore your Soul attack.
This is the reason why Soul Dou Techniques are priceless and hard to find—
A Soul Dou Technique allows you to use all ten parts of your strength, or even more!
If your Soul Power is much higher than the opponent's and you know some Soul attack methods.
Then, when facing an opponent with lower Soul strength, it is not impossible to directly annihilate their Soul.
However, as a Demonic Beast, Ah Li naturally did not possess those rare Soul Dou Techniques that only the Pill Tower and the Hall of Souls have.
In other words, her current Soul strength is very high, but it is low-offense and high-defense, only capable of passive defense.
As for using Soul attacks, Ah Li was currently in poor condition, so being able to utilize even one part of her strength was already quite good.
The intensity of her Soul attack was not enough to make an expert who had been at the Peak Dou Huang for many years lose their ability to fight.
After all, Dugu Jian and Xie Bi Yan had been stuck at the Peak Dou Huang for many years.
Since they could not achieve a Breakthrough, they must have been trying every possible way to reduce their weaknesses.
Therefore, Ah Li could not yet manage to directly annihilate the Souls of these people.
But Charm is a Bloodline talent of the Celestial Fox clan.
With her Soul Power fully unleashed, making the three of them fall into an illusion briefly was not a problem!
And when the damage to Ah Li's Soul is fully recovered, even without a physical body, she could annihilate the Soul of a Dou Zong with just a Soul attack!
Dugu Jian and Iron Protector regained their senses, and seeing Xie Bi Yan instantly severely injured, they could not help but swallow hard.
However, the three had no personal connection, and the two of them felt no sympathy for Xie Bi Yan.
Now, they were merely in a cooperative relationship, each taking what they needed.
If an accident happened and you died, it could only be said that your skills were inferior to others, and you could not blame anyone else.
After all, instances of agreeing to risk one's life for a certain satisfying reward, only to end up with no life to claim it, were everywhere on the continent.
Especially among the Alchemist group, this phenomenon was even more prevalent.
You help me do things, and if successful I give you a Medicinal Pill, but ending up dead midway due to an accident was not uncommon.
It was a matter of mutual consent, so one could not blame anyone.
One could only blame the fact that the other party offered too much, making one unable to resist the temptation.
"Dugu Jian, her current state cannot last too long; let the two of us join forces and kill her directly!"
After all, Iron Protector understood Soul entities better, so he shouted loudly at Dugu Jian.
"Kill her, and I guarantee you will enter the Dou Zong!"
"By then, without Xie Bi Yan, this Izumo Empire will be yours for the taking!"
Hearing this, Dugu Jian stopped talking nonsense, and surging, thick gray Dou Qi erupted from his body, covering the sky and earth.
Although it was hard to see with the naked eye, one could clearly feel the terrifying pressure permeating the sky.
A Poison Master at the Peak Dou Huang, the poison Dou Qi surrounding him was something even a Dou Zong would not dare to touch lightly.
Iron Protector also let out a series of strange "Jie Jie Jie" laughs, then fiercely waved his sleeves.
Wisps of eerie black mist rapidly surged from his body, finally condensing into dark, heavy clouds in the sky.
Black clouds swirled, and Iron Protector seemed to have become invisible, mysteriously vanishing without a trace.
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