"Don't panic!"
Lin Qingyue's voice wasn't loud, yet it possessed a strange penetrating force that instantly pierced the despairing cloud hanging over everyone's heads.
Miraculously, the agitated hearts began to calm.
"It's not time to give up yet!"
Her gaze darted rapidly between the enemies on either side.
The Death Knights exuded a terrifying aura but remained motionless, as if assessing the battlefield.
The real threat was the Stitched Abomination lumbering forward once more.
We have to take down that behemoth first!
"Xiyue!" Lin Qingyue barked an order.
"Understood!"
Lin Xiyue nodded sharply, without the slightest hesitation, hefting the massive Immovable Mountain shield and charging toward the monster.
She didn't try to withstand the blow head-on.
The Abomination's giant bone club, crackling with thunder and wind, crashed down, its colossal shadow engulfing her completely.
Lin Xiyue lowered her stance, aligning her body in perfect harmony, and tilted the Immovable Mountain shield upward at an impossibly precise angle.
Clang—!
A deafening metallic clang exploded, the sonic boom erupting into visible shockwaves that spread violently outward!
Lin Xiyue wasn't knocked back.
The rocky ground beneath her feet fractured into a web of cracks as the mountain-like force shoved her backward, her feet plowing two terrifying furrows into the earth.
But she finally stood her ground!
Using the curvature of her shield and precise force redirection techniques, she successfully deflected the Abomination's savage, unreasonable, and berserk force sideways, dissipating over half of it!
"It's not just you who's grown, Sis!"
Lin Xiyue gritted her teeth, the muscles in her arms trembling violently under the immense strain, yet her eyes burned with astonishing brilliance.
Since the College Entrance Exam Dungeon, aside from practicing the Standing Stance with her sister, she had devoted most of her time to frenzied, targeted training.
Her sister's combat style was both fantastical and unpredictable, her damage output almost inconceivable.
As the team's most steadfast shield, Xiyue knew she couldn't simply endure attacks. She had to learn how to use her skills to counter terrifying beings far exceeding her in raw power!
"Well done, Xiyue!" Lin Qingyue praised sincerely, her heart swelling with pride and relief at her sister's growth.
But the battle allowed no pause.
Lin Qingyue raised her staff, and clusters of pink light surged forth in rapid succession, slamming into the Stitched Abomination's flesh.
"Healing Spell!"
"Healing Spell!"
"Healing Spell!"
Zzzzz—
The moment the pink Holy Light made contact with the Abomination's defiled flesh, a violent purification reaction erupted, as if scalding oil had been poured onto snow.
Vast swathes of rotting flesh were seared away, revealing the writhing, unknown sinews and stark white bones beneath. A nauseating, acrid stench of burning flesh filled the air.
The Abomination roared in agony, its attacks growing even more frenzied.
Above Lin Qingyue's head, the chibi unicorn phantom wearing a tiny crown, "Little Ica," reappeared.
Passive Skill: Sunny Rainbow Little Ica activated!
A dazzling rainbow tornado, accompanied by an adorable "Biu!" sound effect, slammed mercilessly into the Stitched Abomination's forehead!
Boom!
The Abomination staggered, its massive body actually forced back half a step by the impact. A vibrant, multicolored scorch mark now marred its forehead.
Enraged beyond measure, the Abomination abruptly intensified the frequency and power of its attacks.
Lin Xiyue, relying on her increasingly refined force redirection techniques and shield parries, narrowly blocked the Abomination's attacks again and again.
Each parry sent tremors through her body, causing her qi and blood to churn and her hands to go numb, yet her defensive line held firm.
Su Wan and Xia Lian immediately followed up with their attacks.
"Ice Spear!"
"Armor-Piercing Arrow!"
Su Wan abandoned large-area control spells, instead compressing ice elements into razor-sharp ice spears, specifically targeting the wounds Lin Qingyue's "healing" had exposed.
Xia Lian's arrows struck with pinpoint accuracy at the Abomination's bloody, vulnerable points.
Yet the effect was minimal.
The Abomination's colossal size made its vitality a vast, bottomless swamp.
As soon as a fist-sized hole was purified on one side, the flesh on the other side would writhe frantically, healing the wound in an instant.
Lin Qingyue maintained her high-intensity Healing Spell output while calculating frantically.
This isn't working. The efficiency is too low.
Her pink Holy Light could inflict continuous damage, but it was like trying to empty a water tank with a ladle.
At this rate, her sister wouldn't survive long enough for her to completely "heal" the behemoth to death.
She could clearly see Lin Xiyue's face growing paler with each shield block, her movements growing heavier with each parry.
I need a different approach!
Lin Qingyue's mind raced.
Abomination... stitches...
Her gaze fixed on the monster, skimming over the writhing, rotting flesh until it locked onto the grotesque black stitches—thick as giant centipedes—that crisscrossed the Abomination's body.
The key to this monstrosity lay in the Black Magic-infused sutures that bound it together.
These sutures forcibly stitched countless severed limbs and fragments from different bodies into a single, grotesque whole.
Were these sutures considered part of the creature's natural composition?
An utterly absurd yet heart-racing thought suddenly surged through Lin Qingyue's mind:
The Cleanse Spell!
The spell she used as a substitute for bathing.
Could the sutures be considered "filth"?
For this "whole" composed of countless corpses, were the threads that bound them together truly part of its original nature?
This was practically a philosophical conundrum!
But there was no time for philosophical debates now!
Just try it!
After all, trying wouldn't get her pregnant!
"Su Wan, Xia Lian, keep attacking and drawing its attention! Xiyue, prepare to retreat!" Lin Qingyue barked out her orders in rapid succession.
She aimed her staff at the Stitched Abomination, which was still frantically pummeling Lin Xiyue.
This time, she still channeled the immense Power of Holy Light within her, but the "concept" she imbued into it was entirely different.
Not healing, not punishment, but... cleansing.
Her mental focus sharpened to a razor's edge, locking onto the grotesque stitches as if they were grease stains on clothing or mud splatters on skin.
Then, she swung her staff.
And chanted the familiar incantation:
"Cleanse Spell!"
A gentle, faintly lavender-tinged halo of light rippled outward like water, silently enveloping the Stitched Abomination's massive form.
Everyone froze in stunned silence.
The Burly Captain, about to bellow, "Girl, did you use the wrong skill?!" choked on his words, stunned by the bizarre spectacle unfolding before him.
Su Wan's Ice Spear hung suspended in mid-air, her ice-blue eyes wide with bewilderment.
Xia Lian's fingers, poised on the bowstring, went rigid.
Even the Death Knight observing coldly from the other end of the canyon, his Skeletal Warhorse pawed the ground uneasily.
The two crimson dots of Soul Fire flickering through the visor of his helmet flared violently.
Under everyone's gaze, an impossible scene unfolded.
The grotesque black sutures, deeply embedded in the Abomination's putrid flesh, suddenly writhed and twisted violently!
Then, as if yanked by massive, invisible hands, they were brutally ripped from the Abomination's body!
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Thick sutures, dripping with viscous pus, snapped free like severed rubber bands, shooting out from every part of the Abomination's body, flying wildly through the air before splatting to the ground.
With the sutures' connections and restraints severed, the colossal monster, stitched together from countless corpses, suddenly froze.
For the first time, its mismatched eyes—each a different size—displayed an emotion akin to bewilderment.
It seemed to glance down at its disintegrating body.
And then...
Rumble—
The sensation was akin to a towering Lego tower collapsing instantly when its critical connecting blocks were yanked out.
Before the dumbfounded eyes of everyone present, the Stitched Abomination's colossal form disintegrated with a thunderous roar!
Countless severed limbs, shattered organs, and heads of varying sizes rained down from the sky, transforming into a bloody, fleshy deluge.
In an instant, a mountain of corpses emitting a pungent stench rose from the ground.
The entire battlefield fell into a deathly silence once more.
Only the miniature golden crown-wearing, Q-version unicorn spirit named Little Ica continued to hover above Lin Qingyue's head, emitting soft, endearing "doo-doo" sounds.
As if applauding the clean and efficient results of this "clean up," it finally vanished, its mission fulfilled.
[Ding! Congratulations, Host, for successfully discovering a novel application of your Skill! You have successfully transformed a "philosophical problem" into a "physical problem"! Elation Value +1234!]
Lin Qingyue silently stared at the mountain of flesh before her, then glanced down at the staff in her hand, her expression becoming subtly complex.
Perhaps...
I was always destined for the Path of Elation?