The Human Emperor clearly favored Liu Jiang Fusheng's pure and flawless soul. Zi Ying's frantic shouts did not draw even a fleeting glance from him.
Like a bulging black mass, with bloodstained bandages dangling and fluttering in the wind, it reached out towards Liu Jiang Fusheng, and a horrifying scene unfolded.
Its five finger joints protruded from beneath the skin, the scaly bone-fingers growing longer and sharper, their edges as keen as knives, its five fingers like withered vines and old branches.
A biting wind whipped across the face, like ice blades cutting the skin. Liu Jiang Fusheng rotated his wrist, urgently blocking each strike with his immortal sword. His light blue figure darted up and down like a fledgling swallow.
The finger bones, slender and sharp as willow leaves, stabbed forward in unison. The fierce clash and impact between the two sides stirred up ripples, and the ice pond and flame pond were affected, their boundaries becoming chaotic and dual-natured.
In terms of strength, Liu Jiang Fusheng was far inferior to the Human Emperor. Even in his current chaotic and delirious state, the Human Emperor was a powerful monster who had wreaked havoc for many years. His combat power was unparalleled.
Although Liu Jiang Fusheng managed to block this blow with his immortal sword, the black energy that swept towards him like an "evil, ferocious black snake" was difficult to counteract, as it could break through spiritual energy barriers.
Liu Jiang Fusheng could not evade it in time, so he simply stopped dodging, letting himself be injured, and pressed on with the counterattack.
At this moment, the stone coffin on the side of the fire pond exploded with a "boom," and a female corpse, also floating out of the coffin, flashed like lightning to block in front of Liu Jiang Fusheng.
As the wind blew through her hair, a wisp of the smell of smoke from the fire was lifted. Liu Jiang Fusheng's eyes widened slightly, and he watched a slender, upright figure shield him.
This was a puppet substitute that Gu Junshi had prepared in advance as a precaution before entering. She had nurtured it with a wisp of her soul before entering, allowing it to act freely for a short period.
She curled her claws and grabbed the coffin lid from below, throwing it towards the Human Emperor to intercept the opponent's razor-sharp bone blades.
The Human Emperor's pupil-less, demon-tainted eyes swept towards her. He was still enveloped in a mass of black energy, his appearance and form unknown, but it was clear that she had attracted his attention.
However, what swept towards her was not the usual cheerful and pleasant weather, but the death stare of an annoying insect.
Gu Junshi unconsciously tightened her finger joints, her eyes becoming unfathomable.
So, she loathed seeing the Human Emperor from another life. He was that person, yet not that person.
She naturally knew how to restore him to normal, but she did not want anyone else to witness the process. Therefore, she had to safely send away her little husband and the third female character first.
She pushed her palm outwards, creating a void that sank into the molten pool. The flame pond behind them surged up from the bottom. She grabbed her little husband's slender waist and instantly flashed to Zi Ying's side. A sea of fire surged behind them and rolled towards the Human Emperor.
While he was obscured by the wall of fire, she turned back and said to them.
"Cross the bridge."
The female corpse's voice, unused for a long time, was already broken and hoarse. The two words were rough and unpleasant, but Liu Jiang Fusheng stared at her without blinking. The sense of familiarity in her expression made him react a beat slower. It wasn't until Zi Ying ran onto the ice bridge and urged him from behind, "Senior brother, hurry!"
Although she didn't know why the female corpse in the stone coffin was fighting the male corpse in the ice coffin, for them, it was an excellent opportunity to escape.
The female corpse, Gu Junshi, intended to cover their retreat, but Liu Jiang Fusheng looked at her with a strange expression and grabbed a piece of her hem: "Who are you?"
Gu Junshi looked back at his exquisitely beautiful hand with its sharp lines.
She wasn't exactly beautiful in her current state, as this female corpse had been dead for over a hundred years. Because she was an extreme Yin water spirit, her corpse did not decay after death, which was why she was placed in the coffin as a prop to suppress the formation.
She remembered that he and his sword both had mysophobia, didn't they?
"Let go."
With a "rip," her robe was torn in half.
She suddenly shot up into the air. The Human Emperor merely swung his arm, and the sea of fire was torn to shreds. Then, he retaliated, his bone fingers slicing through the row of ice coffins behind him as easily as slicing tofu. The broken ice coffins tilted and fell from above, shattering into pieces, along with the items placed within them.
These were not corpses, but strange objects.
Each of these items was a special object deduced and calculated to suppress and seal the Human Emperor. Unfortunately, due to the passage of time, the Du Sheng Taoist Temple had become desolate and deserted, and no one had maintained the formations. Their effects had been almost entirely depleted.
If all of them were destroyed like this, perhaps nothing would be able to stop him in the future.
"Senior brother, hurry!"
Zi Ying could no longer concern herself with him. With a final plea, she ran across the ice bridge like a gust of wind.
With powerful beings fighting above, she could only escape through the cracks.
Liu Jiang Fusheng remembered the little white mouse in his arms. He looked down, and it seemed listless, curled into a ball. But at this moment, he strangely found that the urge to hold on had faded.
His clear eyes dimmed, and his delicate lips curved upwards into an increasingly puzzling and eerie arc.
So, he had… been bewitched?
Unexpectedly, after the ice coffin was shattered, the dormant, petrified ice and fire twin-headed dragon ahead began to stir.
Its quietly coiled body trembled slightly, and the petrified parts on its body began to crack and crumble piece by piece.
Zi Ying sensed the movement, and the next second, she looked up, meeting its suddenly opened, lantern-sized, deep green snake eyes.
It had fully awakened.
But she felt that she might have to sleep here forever.
Zi Ying froze, her small face pale and green, on the verge of tears.
Why did it have to wake up at this moment? Now it was truly bad, with a wolf in front and a tiger behind, and she was in the middle, crossing the bridge.
The ice and fire twin-headed dragon was the guardian beast of the ice and fire pool. It showed no mercy to intruders.
However, it only recognized and attacked living creatures. It ignored dead beings like the Human Emperor and the female corpse.
"Waaah—"
Zi Ying turned and ran. Because the ice and fire twin-headed serpent's movements were restricted, it whipped its tail towards her back. Its two flat, terrifying heads rose, hissing and flicking their tongues.
Gu Junshi looked back, knowing that the bond between these two was as fragile as "facing disaster, each flies separately." She said sternly to Liu Jiang Fusheng, "Save her!"
Liu Jiang Fusheng froze for a moment. The next second, he teleported, grabbed Zi Ying by the collar, tossed her backwards, and then evaded, with a "splat." The solid bridge could not withstand the whip and broke into several sections.
"Th-thank you, Senior brother, for saving my life." Zi Ying, seeing the broken bridge, was still trembling.
He knew that it was almost impossible for everyone to cross the bridge together now. Someone had to stay behind to restrain the ice and fire twin-headed dragon.
He threw the little white mouse in his arms directly to Zi Ying and said coldly, "Take it and go."
Zi Ying, holding the treasure-hunting mouse she had longed for, had a complex expression, both surprised and strange.
Was this still the Senior Brother Fusheng she knew?
Why had his attitude completely changed, and why was he now intending to sacrifice himself to protect her and let her go first?