Chapter 157: Pear Blossom in a Rainstorm

Master! I am tangled up, you guys hurry up and escape! The great lion, Little Fierce, roared in a mix of fury and panic.

Its roar was relayed in real-time to Dulong's mind by the spirit ring beauty, which only made him even more anxious and uneasy. Ever since entering the Monster Beast Forest, such a critical situation had never occurred before!

The three young people, having already removed the heavy burdens from their bodies, exerted the Wind-Walking technique to the fullest. Their speed could be described as exceptionally fast. Unfortunately, the huge gap in strength, combined with the Snow Ape's greater familiarity with moving at high speed through dense forests, caused the distance between them to constantly shrink.

Two Snow Apes could be seen, one in front of the other, frequently leveraging large tree branches and vines to chase after them at an even faster speed!

The late-stage Tier 3 Snow Ape's speed was roughly on par with Dulong and the others, but the speed of the early-stage Tier 4 Snow Ape was a large margin faster, and it was on the verge of catching up to the three of them.

Flipping his hand, Dulong retrieved the Scarlet Flame Slash. Knowing that this battle was now unavoidable, he shouted to the two women: "Qinglian! You take Huofeng and go first, I'll hold them off!"

"No! How can you deal with two Snow Apes all by yourself? If anyone stays, I am staying with Sister Qinglian. At the very least, I can help you hold off the weaker Snow Ape!" Huofeng refused outright on the spot.

"The Princess is right! We will try our best to stall the weaker Snow Ape!" Xia Qinglian also replied with a resolute expression.

"So be it!" Dulong could only say helplessly: "Do not clash head-on with the Snow Apes under any circumstances. If an attack is truly unavoidable, try to use your weighted vests to fend it off. The heavy vests can effectively disperse attacks and have very strong defensive capabilities!"

After giving these instructions, Dulong knew there was no time left for idle talk. The early-stage Tier 4 Snow Ape was already forty or fifty meters away, and it looked as though it could catch up to him in just a few more leaps.

He abruptly stopped, turned around, and slashed out repeatedly!

Swish, swish, swish...

Five consecutive fiery blades, each a dozen meters long, were unleashed in a web-like formation, shooting fiercely toward the rapidly approaching Tier 4 Snow Ape. Such a dense, wide-area attack, combined with the fact that the Snow Ape had never expected this human to dare stop and launch a counterattack against it, meant it was already too late for the beast to dodge!

The fiery blades collided with the high-speed Snow Ape. A blinding white light could be seen erupting across the Snow Ape's body; clearly, at the very last second, this nearly ten-meter-tall behemoth finally reacted, channeling its inner energy throughout its entire body to take Dulong's fiery blade attacks head-on!

Boom, boom, boom...

The five fiery blades slammed successively into the Tier 4 Snow Ape, erupting into fierce flames that completely enveloped the early-stage Tier 4 beast.

Awoo!

Letting out a cry of pain, the early-stage Tier 4 Snow Ape burst out from the raging inferno. The behemoth, previously entirely white, was now charred black all over, bearing five distinct wounds where the fiery blades had made direct contact, tearing open its flesh!

Looking helplessly at this behemoth that had survived being struck by five Scarlet Flame Slashes, Dulong advanced instead of retreating. He simply could not afford to fall back, otherwise, the women he loved would be the ones to suffer!

Swish, swish...

The Scarlet Flame Slash swung fiercely once more, instantly sending several more fiery blades hurtling toward the blackened Snow Ape. At such close range, the wide-area attack of the dozen-meter-long fiery blades was unavoidable. The Tier 4 Snow Ape had no intention of dodging these attacks anyway; it circulated its inner energy once more and charged forward at full speed.

It knew in its heart that these attacks were not fatal. Once it crossed the distance, it would tear this human brat into a thousand pieces—only in that way could it vent the fury in its heart!

Another series of fiery explosions resounded through the dense forest. Enduring another five or six fiery blade attacks, the Tier 4 Snow Ape finally broke through the explosion zone, suddenly opening its eyes, which radiated a crimson light born of pure rage.

The sight before it made the beast freeze for a fraction of a second. The human brat who had repeatedly injured it had actually leaped into mid-air right in front of it. The fiery red blade in his hands was gone; instead, he held a cylindrical tube in both hands aimed directly at its head, a cruel smile plastered across his face.

"Oh no!" A sense of danger instantly surged from the depths of its heart. The Tier 4 Snow Ape only had time to make a single movement: closing its eyes.

Hum!

Before it could close its eyes, it heard a faint humming sound, followed by the vague sensation of countless black lights shooting toward its head. Centered around its head, its entire upper body immediately registered a myriad of stinging pains, as if it had been pierced by ten thousand arrows.

Awoo!

The Tier 4 Snow Ape let out a heaven-shaking cry of agony. Nearly a thousand terrifyingly piercing black profound iron nails shot out from the Rainstorm Pear Blossom Needle tube in Dulong's hands, fiercely piercing its eyes and embedding a thick layer of nails across its entire head and upper body!

The pain was beyond verbal description. This Tier 4 Snow Ape had finally suffered an extremely fatal blow. After its cries of agony, it went completely mad, thrashing its massive arms and launching violent attacks in all directions!

Although Dulong, suspended in mid-air, desperately tried to control his body to retreat, he was still struck in the back by one of its massive arms. Though the weighted vest cushioned the blow somewhat, the immense force still sent him flying on the spot.

Boom!

Dulong's entire body shot out like a cannonball, instantly crashing into a massive tree and snapping the tree—which required three people to embrace—right down the middle. Under such immense impact, he felt a sweetness rise in his throat and coughed up a large mouthful of blood!

"Husband (Young Master)!" The two beauties cried out in alarm, flashing toward the direction where Dulong had fallen.

Helped up clumsily by the two women, Dulong, whose face was covered in blood, opened his eyes in a daze. Knowing the Snow Ape was not yet eliminated, he relied on his sheer willpower to keep himself from passing out completely.

"Hehe! Don't worry, I'm not dead yet!" Grimacing, Dulong—still bleeding from the corner of his mouth—flashed an extremely ugly smile, flipped his hand to retrieve a healing pill, and shoved it straight into his mouth.

Only then did the two women's hearts drop back into their chests. However, seeing his blood-soaked face, they couldn't help their eyes turning red as rebellious tears fell.

"Wuwu! Husband, I thought..." Huofeng choked out, "I thought you..."

"Don't talk about that now!" After swallowing the healing pill, Dulong interrupted Princess Huofeng, struggling to his feet. "Stop crying, everyone! There are still two monster beasts left to deal with!"

Not far away, the Tier 4 ape, having suffered a fatal blow and completely blinded, was going mad, attacking everything around it. Wherever it passed, trees fell and the forest was destroyed. This continued for a long time before it finally let out a reluctant, mournful howl and collapsed to the ground, motionless.

All of this played out before the eyes of the remaining late-stage Tier 3 Snow Ape. The creature stared in absolute horror as its companion—far more powerful than itself—died such a miserable death right before its eyes. It had long since forgotten its mission of pursuing the three young humans and stood stupidly in place, looking completely at a loss.

Even its stronger companion had been killed in an instant by those three humans; its courage had long since been shattered. How could it possibly dare continue hunting down the human brat carrying that terrifying killing weapon?

Dulong was naturally more than happy for the easy way out. He quickly circulated the Profound Heaven Art, guiding the chaotic energy within his body to begin repairing his heavily damaged meridians. Aided by the healing pill, his injuries steadily improved.

Logically speaking, taking a direct blow from a Tier 4 Snow Ape practically head-on, with Dulong's peak Qi-Circulation realm strength, he should have been slapped to death instantly!

However, his long-term devilish training had pushed the physical endurance of his acquired profound-yang constitution to the absolute limit of what the Qi-Circulation realm could achieve. Coupled with the weighted vest absorbing a portion of the attack, although Dulong had sustained heavy internal injuries, they were not entirely fatal!

Princess Huofeng and Xia Qinglian gripped their respective weapons, standing alert on his left and right to guard against any sudden surprise attacks from the remaining Snow Ape.

Feeling the chaotic energy within his body stabilize, Dulong immediately stood up. Wielding the Scarlet Flame Slash in his right hand and the Rainstorm Pear Blossom Needle tube in his left, he slowly walked toward the remaining Tier 3 Snow Ape.

The clueless Tier 3 Snow Ape saw Dulong approaching with a ferocious expression and snapped back to reality. Remembering that its far more powerful companion had met a miserable end at the hands of that very cylindrical tube, the creature's fur stood completely on end.

Under the astonished gazes of Dulong and the two women, the behemoth turned tail and fled, its white figure disappearing into the depths of the boundless dense forest in a few leaps.

"This... this fellow has no backbone at all, does it?!" Dulong shook his head and sighed speechlessly.

"Heehee! Who told you to use an already-fired Rainstorm Pear Blossom Needle tube to scare it? It would be a wonder if it didn't run away in fright!" Seeing the Snow Ape actually flee in terror, Huofeng flashed to Dulong's side and replied with a smile.

"Young Master, when did you bring the Rainstorm Pear Blossom Needle tube with you? Using this thing for a close-range sneak attack is truly impossible to guard against!" Xia Qinglian followed closely behind.

"Haha! When we tested this Rainstorm Pear Blossom Needle tube back then, figuring we were heading north to venture into the Monster Beast Forest, I brought the only one crafted by Brother Ou Yezi along just to have an extra layer of self-preservation!" Dulong laughed in response.

"Husband is wise! If not for this super weapon today, the three of us would be in deep trouble!" Huofeng said with deep emotion.

"No time to chat! We need to dig out this behemoth's beast core quickly and then keep running! Little Fierce is no match for that Tier 5 Snow Ape; if it gives up on Little Fierce and comes chasing after us, we'll be in big trouble!" Dulong reminded them urgently, then rushed toward the lifeless body of the Tier 4 Snow Ape.