The black mud surged forward with the momentum of a burst river dike, and in the blink of an eye, another of Jiang Ying's shields was shattered!
She gasped slightly and took several steps back.
Just then, the black mud, which had been pouring forward, suddenly began to swirl, forming a massive vortex. The center of the vortex tapered into a sharp cone that struck straight at the shield before Jiang Ying.
The vortex of black mud was overwhelmingly ferocious, leaving Jiang Ying with only defensive options. She immediately pulled out another stack of Shield Talismans, layering them one after another in front of her!
Seeing that Jiang Ying was struggling to hold her ground, the old man was overjoyed.
As long as he killed this little girl, the surrounding water-mist maze would naturally collapse on its own.
Abandoning Xiao Fensi, he immediately manipulated the vortex to bear down directly on Jiang Ying.
After a rapid series of "crack, crack" sounds, several more shields were shattered. Under the immense force, Jiang Ying was forced back another few dozen feet. Her face grew increasingly pale, and a trickle of blood spilled from the corner of her lips.
Her footsteps faltered slightly. She instinctively reached into her sleeve, but her movement suddenly stopped.
The Shield Talismans... were gone.
Jiang Ying's face turned even paler. She clenched her teeth, her fingers twitching as she formed a hand seal.
"Four dimensions, up and down, guard and assist my body!"
As the incantation finished, a giant lotus flower instantly bloomed outward, centered on her. Its five petals slowly rose following Jiang Ying's hand gestures, closing inward to converge around her into a transparent water shield.
However, having just been battered by the black mud impact, her stamina was ultimately depleted, and the spiritual power she could muster was unstable.
By the time the petals converged above her head, her spiritual power could no longer sustain them. The shield failed to close completely, leaving a massive opening right above her head.
Gritting her teeth, Jiang Ying forced her magic power once again, trying to condense more water elements to patch the flaw. But forcing a spell when lacking spiritual power had the opposite effect.
Far from closing, the water shield began to wobble precariously, as if it would shatter at any moment!
Jiang Ying's chest heaving violently, she spat out a mouthful of blood!
Seeing that Jiang Ying was at the end of her rope, the old man let out a sinister, ghastly chuckle.
His fluctuating cloak contracted and then ballooned outward. With a loud bang, a sludge cannon blasted out from the vortex!
The sludge cannon had an even greater impact force than the previous sludge columns. Its crushing weight slammed heavily down onto the very last layer of Jiang Ying's water shield!
Jiang Ying had already been at her absolute limit when condensing the water shield. Under the heavy blow, she had no remaining defenses left, and the shield was instantly pierced through!
The old man let out two cackling laughs and fired off another sludge cannon, hurtling fiercely toward Jiang Ying!
With no shields left in front of her and too late to dodge, Jiang Ying took the sludge cannon square in the chest!
With a loud crash, Jiang Ying's body trembled violently. She was violently knocked backward several steps and fell flat on her back onto the ground!
The old man burst into a triumphant, ghastly laugh.
After a moment, however, the water mist did not dissipate, and the spot where Jiang Ying had just fallen left no trace whatsoever.
She seemed to have simply dissolved into the water mist!
The old man's laughter came to an abrupt halt.
Only then did he seem to finally realize that what the sludge cannon had hit was not Jiang Ying's real body at all!
His hunched body beneath the cloak slowly turned back around. A six-foot-tall, three-foot-wide water mirror had somehow been erected right in the middle of the wasteland!
So, what he had just hit was merely an illusion reflected by this water mirror.
Had he really been played by this little girl?
As for Jiang Ying herself, she was already behind the water mirror, heading straight for Xiao Fensi.
Didn't bring enough Shield Talismans?
Impossible. She would never in her life leave the house without enough talismans.
This was merely part of a clever little trick Jiang Ying had thought up on the spur of the moment.
For her, saving Xiao Fensi was the top priority, so she needed to lure the old man away from Xiao Fensi.
Trapped by the water mist and unable to escape, the old man had naturally thought of killing Jiang Ying first. That was why she had deliberately feigned weakness and revealed flaws, letting the old man shatter shield after shield. She had played along to feed his ego, making him think he was right on the verge of killing her. In reality, while the old man was breaking her shields, she had secretly set up the water mirror, used it to project her own illusion, and surrounded the illusion with Shield Talismans while fighting and retreating, finally succeeding in tricking the old man into abandoning Xiao Fensi.
Jiang Ying knew a bit of Illusion Technique. While not particularly proficient, it was more than enough to fool this stinky old man of comparable cultivation!
The illusion projected by the water mirror couldn't use spells anyway, which was why the talismans she cast shattered at a single blow.
Gazing at the water mirror, the old man's cloak billowed furiously with anger. With a eerie cry, he lunged to attack Jiang Ying again.
At that moment, a sharp white light suddenly erupted, shattering the water mirror and stabbing viciously straight at a certain part of him!
"Ten-Thousand-Year Kill!"
Caught completely off guard, the old man was heavily struck by that streak of white light!
Behind the water mirror, Jiang Ying had already scooped Xiao Fensi into her arms. To prevent the old man from attacking them again, she quickly slapped Speed Talismans onto both herself and Xiao Fensi, sprinting away in the opposite direction.
The water mist could trap the old man, but as the caster, Jiang Ying was naturally unaffected by it. Moving through it without hindrance, she quickly dashed a dozen feet away.
At that moment, she caught sight of the old man shaking violently. Like a deflating bladder, with a "puff," a plume of black smoke billowed out from a certain area...
Accompanied by this wispy black smoke, the old man's figure came to an abrupt halt. As if in excruciating pain, his hunchback arched even higher, and his cloak twisted into an increasingly bizarre shape.
The cackling sounds grew noticeably intermittent and hoarse.
Jiang Ying felt a mild surge of elation. Was this reaction caused by her Ten-Thousand-Year Kill Talisman?
The old man had shown no reaction when pierced through the body by a Water Sword, and the Repel Talisman couldn't push him back either. He lacked a sense of pain, blades could pass straight through his body, and he apparently lacked a physical form as well—yet the Ten-Thousand-Year Kill Talisman had actually made him "leak."
This old man's constitution was evidently vastly different from ordinary cultivators, exuding strangeness at every turn.
A vague conjecture suddenly took root in Jiang Ying's mind. Could this old man actually be...
Just then, the eerie cackling sounds suddenly turned shrill. Black mud poured out from beneath the cloak once more, spreading out like a pool of water and rapidly creeping toward Jiang Ying's feet.
—It turned out that the old man, trapped by Jiang Ying's water mist and wounded by her, had been unable to break through the encirclement and had flown into a rage, completely losing control!
Without a second thought, Jiang Ying scooped up Xiao Fensi and retreated rapidly, hurling two more Ten-Thousand-Year Kill Talismans behind her.
Two streaks of white light once more mercilessly pierced the old man's sensitive spot...
The old man roared, airflow seeming to thrash wildly inside his body, violently tossing his cloak up and down.
Suddenly, he dropped flat onto the ground. His entire body seemed to merge into the earth, leaving only his hunched back beneath the cloak as he burrowed forward at top speed, vanishing three dozen feet away in the blink of an eye.
Filled with heavy suspicions about the old man, Jiang Ying initially wanted to pursue him further. However, the old man fled so swiftly that he soon melted into the night.
After a brief moment of reflection, Jiang Ying gave up the chase. After all, she was still carrying Xiao Fensi, who was limp in her arms and clearly had yet to recover from her dazed state. For now, Xiao Fensi's safety was far more important.
With that thought, she headed toward the Cultivator Market with Xiao Fensi, failing to notice a figure flashing past at breakneck speed within the water mist.