Chapter 159: A Fight to the Death

Chapter 159: A Desperate Battle

The Blazing Ice Sword screamed through the air, bridging the distance between the three of them and reaching King Jinling and King Heiyu almost instantly.

"A mere trick!" King Jinling's eyes flashed with disdain. He reached out to grab the Blazing Ice Sword. Although it radiated two completely opposing elemental forces of extreme cold and scorching heat, he paid it no mind.

His hands were enveloped in a layer of golden light, imbued with powerful suppression attributes. This was the unique characteristic of King Jinling's ability, which could suppress most natural element powers.

In his view, this kind of attack, possessing two completely opposing elements, might have some lethality against the other four princes, but it posed zero threat to him.

"Overestimating your capabilities!" He grabbed the Blazing Ice Sword in one swift motion. Immediately, a wave of extreme cold spread out, attempting to freeze him. Unfortunately, the moment it reached his elbows, it was swiftly blocked by a golden force radiating from his arms, then rapidly pushed back and ultimately dissipated.

Following that, the extreme cold energy instantly transformed into blue flames, engulfing King Jinling. However, no sooner had the flames flared up than they encountered their nemesis, once again being countered and dispersed by the golden ability.

King Heiyu stood aside, temporarily adopting the role of a spectator. King Jinling had sternly told him not to intervene just yet. Out of respect for King Jinling, King Heiyu agreed. After all, he also felt that with King Jinling's strength, dealing with a human who had only just comprehended spatial power was no big deal.

Xia Zheng had been observing King Heiyu and noticed that he genuinely seemed to be holding back for the moment. Comprehending this, a strange, cunning smile crept onto the corner of Xia Zheng's mouth.

"These royal vampires are truly arrogant. Clearly capable of a two-on-one, they insist on a one-on-one. But... I love this kind of stupidity."

Xia Zheng drew his bow and nocked an arrow once again. This time, however, the arrow he shot was not condensed from natural elemental forces, but was purely imbued with his spiritual consciousness, coupled with an intentional attribute—"Explode!"

Just as King Jinling contemptuously neutralized the Blazing Ice Sword, a sudden wave of paralysis caught him off guard in sheer astonishment—he had completely not expected it. Right at that moment, Xia Zheng's arrow of spiritual consciousness struck him square in the face. To be precise, it hit his left eye, and then detonated.

"Ah..." A miserable scream rang out. King Jinling's left eye was blown straight apart, leaving behind a gaping, bloody crater. He had been too careless.

Even though King Jinling poured all his strength into expelling the arrow, he discovered that this time, his ability could not suppress the opponent, because it did not seem to be any kind of natural elemental power.

King Heiyu let out a roar, his body rapidly expanding and tearing through his clothes, revealing a heavily mused, monstrous physique of brute strength.

"Vampires are nothing special. I thought you were actually formidable. With this level of competence, you're bound to be toyed to death by us humans sooner or later..."

Xia Zheng began spewing trash talk. Almost immediately after his provocative words, the sky overhead darkened into gloom, and dense bolts of lightning crashed down, as if his words carried the force of law.

Activating the "Spring Thunder on the Tongue" technique, Xia Zheng rapidly darted and hovered between King Jinling and King Heiyu while continuously running his mouth.

These bolts of lightning were no ordinary strikes; they were infused with Xia Zheng's spiritual consciousness, directly attacking the souls of the two vampires.

King Heiyu and King Jinling felt as though they had entered a state of severe network lag, repeatedly performing slow-motion movements. Under the powerful stunning and paralyzing effects of the lightning, every step they took was a struggle.

Xia Zheng had already chewed down a massive mouthful of energy pills to restore his spiritual power. Having depleted his other spiritual mental beads, he had no choice but to dip into his reserves.

The duration of Spring Thunder on the Tongue was one minute. During this window, King Jinling and King Heiyu were virtually immobilized, forced to endure Xia Zheng's onslaught head-on.

Faced with this prime opportunity, Xia Zheng went all out. He unleashed mental attacks exclusively on King Jinling, while bombarding King Heiyu with natural elemental attacks.

Arrows rained down like artillery fire, striking various parts of the two adversaries and deepening their injuries continuously. At the same time, he manipulated the Dripping Water Sword to form a massive sword array, sealing off all paths of escape around them.

Roar!

Amidst a heaven-shaking roar, Xia Zheng felt a wave of intense dizziness. The Spring Thunder on the Tongue state was abruptly shattered, and the lightning vanished instantly.

A dark shadow crashed toward him savagely. Xia Zheng immediately unleashed his spiritual will, activating the "Repulsion" attribute to ensure King Heiyu could never touch him. He knew he was terrible at close combat, and his physical constitution was far inferior to King Heiyu's; being grabbed at close range would be extremely dangerous.

At this moment, King Heiyu finally experienced the endless variety of Xia Zheng's attack attributes. Various natural elemental forces were summoned as casually as taking a breath.

Rolling floods... Impacting earth... Exploding thunder... Entangling wood... Toxic corrosion... Raging fires...

The five common natural elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth alternated in their attacks. King Heiyu's strengths lay in raw power and speed, but facing this kind of spell-casting assault, he felt utterly helpless. The crucial issue was that he could never close the distance to Xia Zheng, remaining perpetually a hundred meters away, rendering his attacks completely out of reach.

"King Heiyu, step aside!" King Jinling's voice rang out from behind, having suppressed his injuries. Though displeased, King Heiyu had no choice but to retreat, as he truly was not gaining much of an advantage. Having broken through to the Spirit Fetus Realm, Xia Zheng's overall strength was now comparable to that of the royal vampires.

King Jinling sealed his blown-out eye, binding it diagonally with a strip of black cloth. With his hair disheveled, he looked quite disheveled, but the aura exuding from his body was terrifyingly dangerous.

"Seal!"

Without wasting words on Xia Zheng, King Jinling made his move directly, unleashing spatial power—none other than the barrier that had imprisoned Xia Zheng the last time.

A sharp glint danced in Xia Zheng's eyes. This time, he would not surrender without a fight. He immediately deployed his own spatial power—"Intrinsic Domain."

Two barrier energies radiated outward from their respective bodies. King Heiyu sensed their matching, formidable power and quickly backed away. The collision of such barrier energies was catastrophic; currently injured, the consequences would be unthinkable if he were caught in the shockwaves.

And indeed, as Xia Zheng's and King Jinling's intrinsic domains collided, the space began to twist violently. The barriers started devouring one another while simultaneously feeding the collision backlash back to their casters.

King Jinling spat a mouthful of blood, but ignored it, continuing to pour strength into his barrier.

Xia Zheng likewise coughed up blood. At this moment, they were like martial arts masters locked in a contest of internal energy; neither could withdraw easily, or the one who backed down first would suffer the most devastating blow.

"No, if I keep fighting him like this, I'll be the one who loses out. My physical body is far inferior to his."

Enduring the backlash of the barrier energy, Xia Zheng's injuries worsened continuously. Although the enemy was in a similar state, the vampire physique was simply too resilient and their recovery astounding—something a human body could never match.

Seemingly sensing Xia Zheng's helplessness and anxiety, King Jinling sneered, "Today, this king will reduce you to ashes!"

The barriers collided once more, triggering an even more intense backlash. Xia Zheng spat blood yet again, plunging into a state of severe injury...