The Blood Demon Empress Wusha bathed in Li Lanhao's berserk golden spiritual power waves without suffering a scratch. All that fluttered were her silver locks in the wind, warmed by the glow of the golden spiritual energy.
Yet, shattered stones flew in all directions around the Blood Demon Empress, with dust and snowflakes swirling across the sky. A massive crater had been blasted open in the ground, courtesy of Li Lanhao's spiritual power explosion. But Wusha had merely experienced a brief wave of dizziness, and that was solely due to hunger and oxygen deprivation.
What could Li Lanhao do? As he spun backward through the air, he was utterly dumbfounded. If that previous strike had been a fluke, why had his full-powered attack just been repelled and sent him flying yet again?
Li Lanhao landed a hundred meters away, his boots scraping violently against the ground and smoking. If he hadn't forcefully jammed his sword into the earth, he would likely have worn clean through the soles of his shoes before finally coming to a halt.
"What the hell? I feel like I'm the lowest-ranked Martial Warrior here, that's for sure. A female beast managed to push me back purely with hand-to-hand combat? This... the gap between us is five major realms, and each major realm has nine minor stages! You beastly woman, do you really have to be this absurdly defiant?"
Li Lanhao's confidence was utterly shattered. Just moments ago, he had been ready to fight to the death, but after this exchange, he decided he could no longer go toe-to-toe with this beautiful beast.
Yet Wusha remained completely composed, still dragging her spear sideways as she stepped closer and closer to Li Lanhao. He had no idea how to fight this battle anymore.
"Hey, beast! How about we talk? Aside from... the Ice Ridge Eagle, what else do you want?"
"What? Are you scared? The Ice Ridge Eagle belongs to me in the first place; you merely picked up a bargain. Hand the Ice Ridge Eagle over to me, and I will still let you leave alive."
The truth was that after her recent strike, Wusha's breathing had turned ragged. Her stunning, long legs could barely keep her standing. She was starving, exhausted, dizzy, and suffocating with irritability.
The dignified Blood Demon Empress Wusha was truly compromising for a good meal for the very first time. To be fair, this demand was hardly unreasonable for the high-and-mighty Empress.
Initially, Li Lanhao felt there was still room for negotiation. Even if he had to hand over his ancestral Blazing Longsword, he could at least consider it. However, the Ice Ridge Eagle was absolutely out of the question.
"Beautiful beast, would you accept this ancestral precious sword instead?"
"A piece of junk. I have no use for it."
To Wusha, any ancestral sword that couldn't be eaten was just a pile of scrap metal. As for weapons, was there any weapon under the heavens easier to use than the Blood Demon Spear?
"What? Scrap metal? Do you even realize the Blazing Longsword is a rare Heaven-grade Top-tier Divine Weapon?"
"Oh? Wasn't it bent in half by a single blow of mine?"
"You—"
Li Lanhao was left speechless. Her words seemed entirely accurate; the Blazing Longsword had indeed been bent twice. With the facts staring him in the face, what could Li Lanhao do about his frustration?
"Well? Are you going to hand the big bird over to me yourself, or will I have to come and take it after I kill you?"
"Sigh! You stubborn beast, why must you be like this? Neither the big bird nor the Ice Ridge Eagle is going to you."
"Fine by me. Once I kill you, they'll still be mine."
Wusha closed in step by step. As he spoke, Li Lanhao frantically searched his mind for a countermeasure. The poor fellow was rather clever—since close combat clearly wasn't in his favor, why not try ranged attacks?
With that thought, Li Lanhao slung his sword onto his back, unstrung his recurve bow, and fished out a Feather Arrow. Drawing the bow and loosing the arrow in one fluid motion, he let fly. With a sharp "whoosh," a Feather Arrow crackling with spiritual power shot straight toward her. Unflustered, Wusha slowly raised the Blood Demon Spear and pointed it directly ahead.
*Boom!*
*Screeech!*
*Hiss—*
The instant the arrow tip met the spearhead, the golden energy erupted. The berserk energy whipped Wusha's long hair into a frenzy, making her look breathtakingly gorgeous, while a clean, fragrant scent of hair filled the air.
The Feather Arrow was cleaved cleanly in two by the spear tip, yet Wusha continued her slow advance. Li Lanhao's heart was bleeding; those Feather Arrows had cost him a pretty penny!
"This... ranged attacks don't work either? Beautiful beast, I think we should really talk this over."
"Oh? What's the matter? Out of tricks? And just who are you calling a beast?"
Strictly speaking, Wusha was a genuine demonic beast, but she thoroughly detested being called a female beast by some punk at every turn.
"If I don't call you a female beast, how about 'beautiful beast'?"
"You... you're asking for death!"
Wusha was boiling with rage. I ask you, could there possibly be a second Empress of peerless beauty in this world? Enraged once more, Wusha suddenly leaped into the air.
*Puff.*
Suddenly, a surge of hot blood rushed up her throat, and Wusha could not hold it back as a mouthful of blood sprayed wildly. This leap was visibly shorter than her previous ones.
This gave Li Lanhao a timely reminder. Right! The beautiful beast was severely injured, and her strength was dropping precipitously!
*Whoosh! Whoosh!*
Two Feather Arrows streaked through the air. Wusha swung her spear and shattered the arrowheads, but she was feeling weaker by the second. Li Lanhao acutely caught the subtle change in the female beast.
"Screw it, let's go all out!"
*Whoosh, whoosh...*
Li Lanhao fired arrow after arrow in rapid succession. Before long, all thirty-some Feather Arrows on his back had been shot out.
*Clang, clang...*
*Bang, bang...*
Waves of berserk golden energy surrounded Wusha. Although her spear technique was exquisite, the drain on her stamina was undoubtedly immense. She exhausted every last ounce of her strength before she could even leap close to Li Lanhao.
A generation's peak Blood Demon Empress, the supreme and sovereign ruler of the Tianmo Continent, Wusha was finally defeated by her own severe injuries and exhaustion.
Wusha caught Li Lanhao's final arrow, but the momentum sent her tumbling backward out of the sky, face to the heavens.
*Bang!*
*Plop!*
*Cough, cough!*
Wusha slammed into the ground back-first. Her plummeting physical condition caused her capacity to withstand damage to drop precipitously as well. The moment she hit the earth, a heart-rending pain tore through her entire body from the inside out.
It felt no different from the excruciating tearing sensation she had experienced right when she broke through her limit realm and nearly exploded from excess energy—no, strictly speaking, her internal injuries had simply worsened and torn open further.
Wusha hurriedly propped herself up with her spear, preparing to stand, but just as she raised her head—*bang!*—a massive boulder flew through the air and smashed straight into the side of her forehead, shattering into pieces.
*Boom!*
Wusha crashed heavily to the ground. A sizable bump had been battered into her exquisite right temple, looking uncannily like a newborn horn on her forehead just about to pierce the skin.
Need she guess? That smooth stone had been hurled by Li Lanhao. He had no desire to let this peerlessly beautiful beast send him flying again.
Li Lanhao was coughing up his own mouthful of fresh blood, thank you very much! He genuinely feared that if he had taken one more blow like that, the bones in both his arms would have been pulverized.
Dumbfounded, Li Lanhao stared at the peerless beauty writhing in the snow, panicking internally and completely at a loss. He didn't dare approach her casually; getting flipped away by a single stroke of the beast's spear was no laughing matter.
After stumbling several times, Wusha finally managed to stand. As the once-undefeated, fiercely proud, and icy Tiger Demon Queen, how could Wusha ever easily yield or admit defeat?
Wusha still maintained a posture of fighting to the bitter death, dragging her spear as she staggered step by step. Coughing up blood, her bloodshot eyes blazed as fresh blood stained her chest.
Li Lanhao drew his sword once more. He knew that a dying beast's last-ditch counterattack could be fatal; he absolutely refused to die out here in the Snowy Wasteland.
"Female beast, do you really have to fight to the death?"
"The Ice Ridge Eagle... give it to me."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then go to die!"
"Look, beautiful beast, you can barely stand straight. Is there really any need to keep fighting?"
"My name is Wusha, and I always fight my enemies to the bitter death unless you can kill me!"
"Wusha? Such an overbearing name, it certainly suits your desperate-to-the-death style. But in your severely injured state, you can't catch me anyway. I'll spare your life for now—go on and live well."
"Leave the Ice Ridge Eagle."
"Impossible."
With that, Li Lanhao turned around, ready to leave. If he couldn't afford to provoke her, he could at least afford to walk away. Besides, in the boundless snowfields, executing a severely weakened beauty of a beast—such taking-advantage-of-one's-vulnerability tactics were simply beyond Li Lanhao.
"Stop right there! If you don't leave the Ice Ridge Eagle, you die here!"