As Zhang Deming’s thoughts flashed, with a thought, vines sprouted from the quicksand beneath his feet. They were constantly being devoured, and while the toll was considerable, the destruction of the vines weakened the suction pulling him down.
The Light Wings on his back pulsed, and Zhang Deming escaped the vast expanse of quicksand.
The remaining three weren’t so quick. They were all trapped in the quicksand, sinking little by little.
However, while the Demon Dog had trapped the three, it had also nearly exhausted its power. It stood motionless, locked in a contest of strength against them.
When Zhang Deming broke free, the beast didn’t act immediately. Instead, it attempted to use this brief window to devour one or two of the men with the quicksand.
However, while the three men couldn’t break free, they still had the strength to resist, so they were sinking very slowly. Seeing that Zhang Deming had escaped, their sense of urgency vanished.
Zhang Deming glanced at the Demon Dog, and the beast swiveled its eyes to glare back at him. At the same time, it secretly exerted more force, intensifying the quicksand’s pull.
’Heh, acting as if I don’t exist!’
Zhang Deming’s expression turned grim. He raised his hands above his head, and countless Jade Threads began to surge forth.
Between his hands, they condensed into a Jade Long Sword.
Zhang Deming took a deep breath. ’Have a taste of this.’
Developed Technique: Vine Sword Slash!
Rune Technique: Enhancement Skill!
Instantly, Zhang Deming’s aura skyrocketed. Waves of energy churned around him, his Daoist Robe billowing and snapping in the wind.
The Demon Dog’s pupils contracted. Before it could react, Zhang Deming’s sword was already descending.
The instant Zhang Deming swung, the Jade Long Sword expanded, transforming into a massive jade blade dozens of feet long that he brought crashing down.
This one Sword Slash, a combination of a Tier Four Enhancement Skill, Tier Four Ruyi Vine, and Tier Two Sword Control Technique, manifested as a colossal Jade Long Sword that struck down at the Demon Dog like a bolt of lightning.
The immense pressure, combined with the unique targeting lock of the Sword Control Skill, left it no opportunity to dodge.
The Demon Dog could no longer be bothered with maintaining the giant quicksand trap or its contest of strength with the three men. The Spiritual Power in its body surged, and its scales once again flashed with a dazzling yellow light.
Simultaneously, the Shield that had been shattered earlier was forcibly conjured again. The surrounding earth roiled and surged, wrapping around the beast to form a sphere of rock and mud.
Just then, Zhang Deming’s giant sword struck.
KRAK...
POP...
The earthen sphere and the yellow Spiritual Power shield shattered instantly. Without losing any momentum, the long sword struck the Demon Dog.
CLANG...
With a deafening clang, the long sword struck the Demon Dog’s back. Its scales burst apart, and the strike was so deep it exposed the beast’s spine, which was now gushing crimson blood.
But after breaking through layers of defenses, the long sword only reached the spine. It failed to cleave the bone and was stopped cold.
In the blink of an eye, the Demon Dog’s body was stained red with blood. Its surface began to flash with silver light once more.
Zhang Deming’s expression flickered. The long sword in his hand rapidly shrank, breaking contact with the Demon Dog.
But Zhang Deming was taken aback, because the Demon Dog didn’t unleash a blast of electric current as expected.
Instead, the instant it was free from Zhang Deming’s long sword, the earth beneath it roiled. A yellow light flashed around its body, and its figure instantly disappeared into the ground.
’Earth Escape? One of the strongest low-level Escape Techniques?’
"Damn it, it’s getting away!" Zhang Deming’s expression changed as he roared.
It was one thing to let other Demon Beasts go, but canine-type Demon Beasts were extremely vengeful and skilled trackers. On top of that, a Duality-level Demon Beast was quite intelligent.
’It’s one thing to leave a vile creature like this alone, but now that we’ve engaged it, we can’t let it escape. Otherwise, if we ever want to set foot in these mountains again, we’ll have to be prepared to be stalked.’
"Let the words be known: By ancient Law Order, Earth Escape is forbidden in this place!"
Nangong Cheng, having just freed himself from the quicksand, saw this and immediately spoke without hesitation.
Zhang Deming could no longer worry about whether his hidden trump card would be enough to kill it. The priority was to stop its escape.
Technique: Spirit Species—Vine Growth!
During the two times his attacks made contact with its wounds, Zhang Deming had used his Silk Thread Vine and Jade Long Sword to inject a large number of Spirit Species into the beast’s body.
However, because the beast possessed Thunder and Lightning Power, not many of the seeds had successfully taken hold—certainly not enough to decide the battle in a single stroke.
Thus, Zhang Deming had been holding back. But now that his opponent chose to use Earth Escape, he couldn’t be so reserved.
As Zhang Deming activated the seeds with his full power and Nangong Cheng’s Law Order took effect, the Demon Dog’s disappearing form reappeared over a dozen meters away with a flash of yellow light.
Furthermore, from the wounds on its body, numerous blood-red vines began to sprout, growing nonstop.
After the Demon Dog reappeared, arcs of electricity flashed across its body. Many of the incessantly growing Ruby Vines went limp from the shock, but the jade-like vines were unusually resilient. They weren’t burnt to a crisp, and new ones kept sprouting to take their place.
Just then, Nangong Cheng’s aura changed abruptly. The power of the Duality Third Transition erupted from him, and on the storybook floating before him, a lotus flower appeared.
"A single lotus ’twixt the azure sky and emerald sea, to purge the world of all injustice!"
As he spoke, characters materialized from his mouth and flowed into the lotus on the storybook.
The lotus’s stem began to gleam with a sharp, cold light. With its stem as a spearhead, the entire lotus transformed into a meteor and streaked toward the Demon Dog.
The lotus was as fast as a beam of light. The Demon Dog, entangled by the Spirit Seed Technique, had no time to defend itself before the lotus stem struck.
This time, its hard skull provided no resistance whatsoever. The lotus stem plunged straight through its head, piercing it clean through and pinning it to the ground. The Demon Dog stiffened for a moment, then went still.