The four stars slamd ho in rapid succession.
Gu Lanyue’s barrier of shimring, poison silk t the first stellar impact head-on.
It was a thunderclap that shook the earth beneath them, the silk rippling violently like disturbed water, but holding firm, deflecting the raw force outwards in a spray of corrosive green light.
The second star struck monts later.
A deeper, groaning CRACK echoed as the shield visibly dented inward.
The silk strands groaned under the strain, their luminous sheen flickering erratically.
Gu Lanyue gritted his teeth, a thin line of blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
The third star hit the dent.
The sound was the shriek of rending tal.
Hairline fractures, glowing with the contained fury of the star, spiderwebbed across the barrier’s surface.
Gu Lanyue gasped, stumbling back half a step as the impact reverberated through his bones, the transferred force making his internal organs churn.
Blood now stained his lips freely.
The fourth star hamred into the weakened point.
The barrier didn’t just crack; it shattered.
A deafening BOOM erupted as the poison silk shield exploded inward in a storm of dissolving, venomous threads and stellar energy.
Gu Lanyue was flung backwards like a ragdoll, a choked cry escaping him as he coughed up a gout of arterial blood, his face instantly ashen.
He hit the ground hard, skidding through the dirt, the defensive formation obliterated.
But the true horror was reserved for Fang Yuan.
The attack that had landed on Gu Lanyue poison silk returned with a reflected power of his own four stars, amplified by the poison silk’s insidious nature, damaged back at him with double the ferocity.
The sheer blunt force was catastrophic. His surging ocean of qi churned violently within him, forced to absorb an impossible shockwave.
Bones groaned, muscles scread, and blood erupted from his mouth and nose as his golden shell armor’s passive defense flared desperately.
He was driven backwards, feet carving deep trenches in the earth, the landscape around him shredded by the uncontrolled backlash.
He had no ti to recover.
As the dust and dissipating stellar light swirled, the counterattack was already upon him.
"NOW!" Gu Jian roared, a blur of motion leaving his father’s side.
His hands wove through intricate seals, the air crackling with condensed, jade-green qi.
"Jade Serpent’s Coil!"
Tendrils of solidified erald energy, sharp as razors and quick as striking vipers, lashed towards Fang Yuan from multiple angles, seeking to bind and pierce.
"Heaven-Piercing Talon."
Simultaneously, Gu Jian’s right hand ford a claw, unleashing a massive, translucent talon of force aid to crush Fang Yuan’s torso.
Lin Xukong, face grim, channeled his qi through his staff.
Heavenly Timber First Form - Wood Explosions: The ground beneath Fang Yuan’s feet erupted.
Not with earth, but with violently sprouting, hardened roots and trunks that detonated outwards the instant they breached the surface, showering him with shrapnel-like splinters carrying potent, numbing toxins.
Lin Pe, moving in eerie synchronicity, swirled her hands.
Heavenly Timber Second Form - Sleep Dust: A shimring, almost invisible cloud of fine golden pollen, deceptively beautiful, billowed towards Fang Yuan on an unnatural wind.
Battered, bleeding, and with his internal qi still roiling from the reflected stars, Fang Yuan faced the onslaught.
His mind, however, was a blade honed in countless battles.
Golden light flared not as a full-body shell, but as a single, intensely concentrated disc – the Second Form: Bravery, refined and improvised.
It wasn’t the safe, encompassing do his father had taught him, deed too risky for its single point of failure.
This was pure, desperate efficiency.
The improvised shield moved with flickering speed, a flickering golden afterimage.
It snapped into place just as Gu Jian’s Heaven-Piercing Talon descended, absorbing the crushing force with a resounding GONG, the golden light flaring bright.
Instantly, it vanished and reappeared below, intercepting the worst of the Wood Explosions’ shrapnel storm in a series of rapid, percussive PING-PING-PINGs.
A micro-shift deflected the lashing tip of a Jade Serpent’s Coil.
A final, desperate sweep tried to disperse the encroaching Sleep Dust cloud.
He moved like a phantom, the single shield a blur of golden defiance, blocking only where the lethal force converged.
It was a breathtaking, terrifying display of control and reaction speed, born from necessity and forbidden refinent.
He conserved qi fiercely, but the strain was imnse; each block sent fresh jolts of pain through his already battered body, his golden light flickering precariously under the relentless, coordinated assault.
The clang of steel ripped through the chaos.
Gu Jian, seeing his qi techniques partially thwarted, materialized his weapon, a six-foot staff of deep, shimring Verdant Ironwood, capped with jade-tipped points.
It humd with condensed poison qi.
"Enough dancing! Crush him!" Gu Jian roared, becoming a whirlwind of erald death. His staff beca a blur.
"Autumn Cicada Thrust!"
A lightning-fast, piercing stab aid straight for Fang Yuan’s heart, the jade tip leaving a trail of virulent mist.
Lin Xukong, staff already in hand, amplified his assault.
Heavenly Timber Third Form: Vine Lash!
Swinging his staff overhead, he summoned thick, whip-like vines, barbed and dripping paralytic sap, lashing out to bind and tear.
Lin Pe, graceful yet deadly, unsheathed twin daggers seemingly carved from living heartwood, their edges gleaming with Sleep Dust residue.
He flowed around Fang Yuan’s flank, daggers a stinging blur aiming for joints and pressure points, each cut releasing a puff of golden pollen.
And with a stomp, he triggered localized root bursts directly under Fang Yuan’s shifting feet.
Fang Yuan danced a deadly ballet.
His sword, beca an extension of his desperate will.
He parried Gu Jian’s crushing sweeps with angled deflections, sparks flying as steel t Verdant Ironwood.
He sidestepped the Cicada Thrust by a hair’s breadth, feeling the poison mist sting his skin.
He severed snapping vines with precise cuts and used swift, low kicks infused with qi to shatter entangling roots before they fully ford.
His Second Form: Bravery shield was a frantic golden flicker.
It snapped to block a cluster of Lin Xukong’s thorns aid at his eyes.
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