Chapter 457: The Dungeon Collapses
The several talismans Yang Haoran suddenly produced from his independent space at this moment were not made by him, but were talismans he had originally obtained from Master Zhou.
Before he became an Emissary of Death, Master Zhou's talismans had been quite potent for Yang Haoran, but after becoming an Emissary of Death, the talismans drawn by Master Zhou became less effective for him. Thus, he hadn't used any of them.
The reason he took these talismans out of his independent space now was to make full use of them. After all, they would only be wasted if left in his independent space, so he might as well bring them out now to serve a purpose.
These several talismans were all defensive types, but not of the same kind, so the protections they formed varied in both color and form.
However, as the defensive power of each talisman was limited, Yang Haoran used several defensive talismans at once. He didn't expect the protections formed by these talismans to block the First Brother's attack; all he wanted was to buy himself a moment, even if it was just a fleeting one.
The First Brother roared, then brought his hammer down fiercely. The protections formed by the several talismans were as fragile as tofu under his strike, yet these layered defenses still managed to pause his ferocious blow for that fleeting instant.
The protections formed by the talismans were shattered by the First Brother's left-hand hammer. Immediately after, his right-hand hammer descended once more, still aimed at Yang Haoran's head.
Boom!
The dungeon wall was smashed, leaving a massive crater from the First Brother's hammer. Shards of rock flew everywhere, but Yang Haoran was nowhere to be seen, having not met a gruesome end beneath his copper hammer.
Yang Haoran had blood at the corner of his mouth and was breathing heavily, but a smile graced his face—a smile that, in the First Brother's eyes, was nothing short of mockery and provocation.
“Damn it, I want to see just how far you can run! ”
The First Brother cursed under his breath, gripping his hammers with both hands, and launched another attack at Yang Haoran.
Yang Haoran, with a wave of his hand, summoned Remnant Moon. It broke free from the wall, transforming into a streak of black light that shot towards the First Brother.
Remnant Moon's speed was incredibly swift, appearing before the First Brother in an instant. The First Brother dared not let Remnant Moon get close, so he rapidly swung his copper hammers, attacking it.
Just as before, Remnant Moon was sent flying by the copper hammers' fierce assault.
But unlike before, Remnant Moon was now bolstered by a large amount of Yang Haoran's Spirit Power. It wasn't knocked back far, and each time it was struck, Remnant Moon, under Yang Haoran's control, could immediately close in and attack the First Brother again.
For a time, their confrontation sent sparks flying. Remnant Moon continuously launched swift attacks at the First Brother, while the First Brother, swinging his copper hammers with both hands, repelled the incoming Remnant Moon again and again.
Yang Haoran multi-tasked, manipulating Remnant Moon with his mind to continuously attack the First Brother, while also channeling Spirit Power to condense chains as thick as an arm, using them to assist Remnant Moon's offensive.
Meanwhile, the Third Brother was already no match for Ye Zhiqiu. Facing Ye Zhiqiu alone had already put him under immense pressure, and now with Bai Xue added to the fray, the Third Brother found even defending himself incredibly difficult, let alone launching an attack.
If it were a one-on-one fight, Bai Xue would undoubtedly unleash her potent and highly corrosive venom. However, the venom within her was an indiscriminate attack; once deployed, everyone except herself would suffer, and that included Yang Haoran.
After becoming an Underworld Official, Yang Haoran's body had been transformed, granting him immortality and eternal youth. But this was only under the condition that his physical body remained unaffected by external forces. Should he suffer an external blow, not only would he die, but if he encountered someone truly twisted, he would die a miserable death.
His immortality simply meant his physical body wouldn't age with the passage of time. If Bai Xue were to use her venom, it was certain to affect him.
Therefore, considering Yang Haoran's safety, Bai Xue did not release her venom. Instead, she attacked her target using her physical body and Demon Power.
The battle between the two sides reached a white-hot intensity. At this moment, neither side noticed the female demon fixed to the rack by four long nails.
The female demon's gaze remained fixed on Ye Zhiqiu. Her face bore tear stains, and her expression was incredibly complex: excitement, guilt, worry, and a hint of longing—all these emotions were etched onto her face, making her appearance profoundly intricate.
Due to the intensity of the battle, the dungeon could no longer withstand such powerful destructive force. Even though the dungeon was built with special materials and reinforced with unique methods, it couldn't endure the torment inflicted by these individuals.
Ultimately, the dungeon failed to withstand the powerful destructive force of their struggle and collapsed with a thunderous roar.
The moment the dungeon collapsed, Ye Zhiqiu's first thought was of the female demon on the rack. Without a second's hesitation, he abandoned the chance to deliver a fatal blow to the Third Brother, flashed to the female demon's side, and then channeled his Star Spirit Power to form a protective barrier, enveloping both himself and the female demon.
As the dungeon collapsed, the small room above it also crumbled. Not just the room, but a large area of ground near it also fractured and caved in.
This happened because the dungeon's footprint was much larger than that of the small room, so its collapse affected more than just the room.
Boom!
Another colossal roar echoed as a massive creature burst from the earth. A strange hiss escaped her maw as her enormous body abruptly swayed, directly smashing the barrier shrouding the small room into smithereens.
This colossal creature was, naturally, Bai Xue, who had fully reverted to her true form.
Following Bai Xue's emergence, several more explosive sounds successively erupted from the collapsing ground, and several figures burst forth from the earth.
Yang Haoran was the first to rush out of the dungeon after Bai Xue, Remnant Moon rapidly rotating around his body, shattering the surrounding rocks.
After Yang Haoran was the First Brother among the five siblings. After bursting out of the collapsing ground, he gave Yang Haoran no time to catch his breath, his gaze sweeping to lock onto Yang Haoran's position, then charging at him once more, launching a ferocious assault.
Seeing this, Bai Xue wanted to intervene and help Yang Haoran alleviate the pressure. However, at that moment, the Third Brother also burst out of the collapsing dungeon. Recalling Yang Haoran's instructions, Bai Xue ultimately did not interfere in the battle between Yang Haoran and the First Brother, choosing instead to launch an immediate attack on the Third Brother.
The Third Brother had just emerged from the earth, not yet having a clear grasp of the situation outside, when Bai Xue's thick serpent tail slammed mercilessly onto his head.
Thwack!
The Third Brother spat out a mouthful of fresh blood, his head bursting open like a flower under Bai Xue's strike. As blood flowed freely, his body crashed violently into the ground.
Bai Xue's approach was identical to the First Brother's against Yang Haoran: she gave the Third Brother no chance to recover. The instant his body slammed into the ground, she unleashed another fierce attack upon him.
Ye Zhiqiu was the last to emerge from the dungeon. Besides himself, he was holding a torture rack to which a woman was still fastened. This woman was none other than the female demon he had intended to rescue from this place and then personally kill.
The situation had been critical just now, and Ye Zhiqiu couldn't remove the four long nails in an instant. So, he simply grabbed the torture rack, forcibly pulling the entire frame that secured the female demon from beneath the ground, thus leading to the scene before them.
Before the dungeon collapsed, Ye Zhiqiu had preemptively released his Star Spirit Power to shroud both himself and the female demon. He did this out of concern that the female demon might be harmed by the dungeon's collapse.
However, to Ye Zhiqiu's utter astonishment, the female demon *was* harmed, and the injury was considerable.
It wasn't because something had broken through the protection formed by Ye Zhiqiu's Star Spirit Power, but because the female demon sustained significant injury when Ye Zhiqiu forcibly pulled out the rack that held her.
The rack holding the female demon seemed to have some kind of seal laid upon it. When Ye Zhiqiu forcibly pulled out the rack, he effectively damaged the seal placed on it, and thus the female demon, who was bound to the rack, was also affected.
Seeing the female demon's pained expression on the rack, Ye Zhiqiu's face changed drastically.
“D-d-don’t worry, I’ll get you down right away! ”
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