With the translucent green bamboo staff in her hands, the woman in white managed to hold back the rolling tide of mist unleashed by the eight three-tailed vixens.
The haze drifted across the clearing in thick waves, blooming outward like a poisonous cloud. It was the infamous Peach Blossom Haze, a signature technique of the Vixen Clan and the foundation of many of their techniques.
The technique was born from the ancient Peach Blossom Grove where the vixens had trained for generations. By absorbing the fragrance of those blossoms and blending it with their own carnal essence, they produced a strange necrotic mist that carried both destructive power and insidious charm.
Yet the haze was feared for more than its raw force.
Hidden within the fragrance was a powerful sedative effect. Even a single breath of the mist could send a person collapsing into a deep coma, no matter how strong they were, unless they possessed an unusually high resistance to status ailnts. Once soone fell unconscious, there was only one known cure: a Vixen’s Essence Core. Ordinary dicines were completely useless.
It was a terrifying technique, one that many warriors dreaded facing.
According to old legends, if a vixen managed to refine the art into the even higher form known as Peach Blossom Miasma, the mist could grow powerful enough to trap a Divine Beast itself. But reaching such a level required a vixen to possess at least eight tails and centuries of accumulated energy.
Even so, the eight three-tailed vixens working together were already formidable.
The only reason the woman in white was still standing against them was the staff she carried.
The green bamboo rod glowed softly in her hands, its light forming a shimring barrier that pushed the haze back whenever it tried to creep closer. It was no ordinary weapon but a legendary Divine Artifact known as the Asclepius’ Herbal Staff.
The staff was famous for its ability to neutralize poisons and dispel miasma. Any toxic substance that approached it would be weakened or purified, making it the natural bane of venomous creatures and corrosive techniques. Against the Peach Blossom Haze, it was practically the perfect counter.
Without it, the woman would have fallen long ago.
But even a Divine Artifact had its limits.
As the eight vixens spat out their glowing Essence Cores, the power behind the haze suddenly surged. The pink mist thickened and churned like a living thing, pressing harder and harder against the staff’s protective light.
The woman in white had no combat techniques of her own to rely on. She could only channel her energy directly into the artifact, and the strain was beginning to show.
The haze slamd against the green barrier with a violent hiss. The impact produced sharp crackling sounds in the air, like static bursting across glass. Although the barrier held for now, the shockwaves traveled straight into the staff itself, causing faint tremors to ripple through its slender body.
The green glow flickered, and for a brief mont, it dimd.
The woman’s brows drew together as a shadow of worry crossed her delicate features. Her pure, tranquil expression was slowly giving way to visible distress. She knew the situation was turning against her.
Seeing this, the three-tailed vixens intensified their assault, forcing more and more mist forward.
Behind them, the Seven-Tailed Vixen let out a soft, chilling laugh.
It was the kind of laugh that carried no anger, only amusent. She had clearly decided it was ti to end the fight.
’I’m out of options,’ the woman in white thought with a quiet sigh.
These vixens had discovered the hidden sanctuary where she lived with her grandfather. They had chosen their mont carefully, waiting until he was away before launching their ambush. Their goal was simple: a single drop of the Spring of Life, a rare sacred water her grandfather had obtained by chance many years ago.
The attack had co so suddenly that she had not even had ti to equip her own Divine Artifact, the Hundred-Flower Cloud Robe.
If she had been wearing it, things would have been completely different. With the robe and the Asclepius’ Herbal Staff working together, she could have escaped the battlefield without much trouble, or at least held out long enough for her grandfather to return to Rosewood Valley.
Instead, she was trapped.
All her strength was being poured into the staff just to maintain the barrier against the haze.
She did possess a natural resistance to many toxins, but the peculiar sedative effect hidden in the vixens’ peach-blossom fragrance was sothing else entirely. It was not purely poison but a strange mixture of charm and narcotic energy. If the barrier failed and even a trace of the mist reached her lungs, she would lose consciousness almost imdiately.
And once that happened, she would be completely at their rcy.
Her eyes drifted toward her companions, the Sapphire-Eyed Violet Panther and the Gold-Clawed Inferno Hawk, who were still battling the Seven-Tailed Vixen in the distance.
A trace of helpless worry flickered across her face. She could tell they were struggling.
Soon, she might be the one in danger as well.
---
From behind the thick trunk of an ancient tree, Marcus watched everything unfold.
A surge of frustration tightened in his chest. He wanted to step in and help, yet the rational part of his mind knew exactly how foolish that would be. Even one of the three-tailed vixens was stronger than him in a direct fight.
Charging in now would accomplish nothing except getting himself killed.
For the mont, all he could do was remain hidden and observe the battlefield carefully, waiting for a mont of chaos, so small opening he might be able to exploit.
Then suddenly, the Seven-Tailed Vixen’s voice rang out across the clearing.
"Peach Blossom Falling Slash!"
Her tone carried a teasing confidence, and the words were followed by a burst of mocking laughter.
Two long scarlet silk ribbons flicked out from her sleeves as she spun gracefully through the air. The ribbons whipped around her body in wide arcs, carving glowing patterns through the air as if painting invisible runes.
A mont later, the sky filled with drifting pink petals.
At first glance they looked harmless, like blossoms caught in a spring breeze.
But each petal was razor sharp.
They spun through the air like tiny blades, riding the currents created by the vixen’s ribbons. Within seconds, thousands of them had ford a swirling storm around her, blanketing an area nearly ten ters wide.
Then, with a sharp flick of her wrist, the entire storm shot forward.
The petals scread through the air toward the panther and the hawk.
Both creatures imdiately sensed the danger.
The Sapphire-Eyed Violet Panther moved first. Its body blurred into motion, splitting into five phantom afterimages that dashed forward in different directions, attempting to intercept the deadly storm before it reached their mistress.
At the sa ti, the Gold-Clawed Inferno Hawk let out a piercing cry.
Flas erupted from its wings as it beat them powerfully, releasing a torrent of fire that surged toward the incoming petals while it tried to gain altitude.
For a brief mont, the battlefield lit up with fire and streaking shadows. But the Peach Blossom Falling Slash was simply too fast, and far too widespread.
The swirling petals engulfed them in an instant.
A flash of red light cut through the air, then ca the sound of tearing flesh.
Blood sprayed outward as the razor petals sliced through the two beasts. The soft pink blossoms were instantly stained crimson as they shredded through fur, feathers, and bone. Within less than a minute, the Sapphire-Eyed Violet Panther and the Gold-Clawed Inferno Hawk, creatures that had nearly reached the level of Mythic beasts, were reduced to nothing more than drifting blood mist and scattered fragnts.
The petals did not stop there.
Still spinning at terrifying speed, they tore through the nearby herb garden, ripping delicate plants apart and scattering soil across the clearing before slamming straight into the wooden manor behind it.
A series of violent explosions erupted.
The house shattered almost instantly, its wooden beams splintering apart as if struck by a barrage of invisible blades. Within seconds, the entire structure collapsed into broken debris.
Hidden behind the tree, Marcus stared wide-eyed.
’Holy...’
His heart pounded violently in his chest.
’That’s insane.’
The Seven-Tailed Vixen was without a doubt a Divine-tier monster, every bit as terrifying as the Double-Headed Raven King he had encountered before. Seeing this display firsthand made him silently grateful he had not rushed out earlier like so reckless hero.
This was the true power of a high-tier boss.
If the panther and hawk had been genuine Mythic beasts, they might have had a chance of resisting the attack. But being close to that level was still an enormous gap away from the real thing.
"Sapphire! Goldie!"
The woman in white cried out the mont she saw her companions torn apart. Her voice trembled with shock and grief as tears stread down her cheeks.
Even from his hiding place, Marcus felt a sharp pang in his chest. The pain in her voice was genuine, and for a mont he wished he could do sothing for her, though he knew he still had no real way to intervene.
Not far away, the Seven-Tailed Vixen simply laughed.
Her eyes glead with cruel delight as she looked at the blood-stained petals drifting slowly back to the ground.
With her seven tails swaying lazily behind her, she began walking toward the woman in white. Each step carried a slow, deliberate sway, her scarlet silks fluttering softly around her body as she approached, graceful and confident, like a predator closing in on prey that had already lost the fight.
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