Chapter 22: Mutual Destruction

  Facing the dark night sky that was as deep as an abyss, Zhang Heng, who was flying in mid-air, finally couldn't help but turn his head to take one last look at the cave. After a moment of silence, he still decided to leave this place of right and wrong.

  He knew that in a world full of danger and cruelty, such things might happen every day, and even more brutal and shameful things were everywhere.

  Zhang Heng is not a saint, nor is he even a good person. In this world that is both familiar and strange, before becoming powerful, one must approach everything that happens on the distant immortal path with a psychology of reverence and caution.

  But just then, a mournful cry came from the depths of the cave, it was Xu Hong who made it, and his voice was filled with deep fear and incredulity.

  Zhang Heng carefully drove the spirit tool towards the cave, then cast a second-order spell, Lingyan Technique, and suddenly everything that happened in the cave appeared before his eyes.

  Li Hong's left arm was covered with a layer of silvery white frost, his clothes were torn in several places, his hair was disheveled and dusty, and his originally fair face now looked like it had been smeared with a large patch of black soot.

  Beside him lay Ningshuang, half-exposing her fair skin, with her orange skirt already pulled up halfway, revealing a slender and elegant neck like a swan's, and the faintly visible crystal-like red jade peak.

  Under the long skirt, a pair of slender white jade legs were slightly curled up, and a pair of blue embroidered shoes fell to the ground in disarray. The small and delicate feet could be seen, but they were wrapped in a layer of semi-transparent stockings like thin gauze.

  Her disheveled hair covered half of her delicate face, which was slightly flushed, and her eyes, as if shrouded in a transparent mist, gazed calmly at Xu Hong, who stood beside her in stunned silence, as if sizing up a stranger.

  Zhang Heng only glanced at Ning Xuefeng's snow-white skin for a moment, and then his gaze fell on the shallow red hairpin in her hand that was emitting a faint silver glow.

  "Luckily I had a hairpin given by my master for self-defense, otherwise..."

  "Big brother, you've really disappointed me. From today on, we'll have nothing to do with each other."

  Ning Xue's delicate and watery eyes flashed with a hint of disappointment and annoyance.

  Li Hong's face turned pale, his eyes were also uncertain, he stared tightly at Ning Xuerong who got up from the ground.

  In an instant, he said in a cold voice: "Since that's the case, there is no longer any relationship between us. And you can forget about leaving this cave today."

  "Do you still want to forcibly keep me here?" Ning Xue's pearly whites lightly bit her luscious, crimson lips, and her delicate eyelashes fluttered gently on her eyelids.

  "Sister, don't blame me for being ruthless and cruel. This ordinary cave will be the place where you'll meet your demise as a beauty. Don't worry, before I take the pure yin energy from your body, I'll let you experience some of the true pleasures of being a woman."

  Li Hongfei quickly set up a ban at the entrance of the cave, and then looked at Ning Xue with an air of victory, his eyes filled with lustful color roaming freely over Ning Xue's delicate body.

  Unfortunately, Ning Xue had already tidied up her disheveled clothes and hair when he set up the ban. Only one of her white jade-like small feet was still bare in the air, not having enough time to put on embroidered shoes.

  Ning Xue Rong silently looked at Li Hong, quietly casting a spiritual energy shield on herself. With a gentle wave of her jade hand, a gleaming cyan jade pendant flew out from her storage bag and suddenly enlarged to the size of a stone tablet, protecting her in front.

  Zhang Heng was carefully gathering his breath at this time, he had fallen to the entrance of the cave, a pair of eyes carefully observing the situation inside the cave.

  In the middle, Li Hong set up a ban at the entrance of the cave, which had the effect of sealing off external objects and isolating sounds, and could even block the eyes and divine consciousness of cultivators.

  But this prohibition is nothing but a mere formality for Zhang Heng at the moment, as he possesses a divine sense that surpasses that of a Qi Refining stage cultivator, allowing him to use his divine sense to observe the situation inside through the layer of prohibition.

  "Sister, I advise you to surrender now. With the defensive spirit artifact in your hand, it's hard for you to contend with me."

  Li Hong's left hand skillfully formed a seal, and the surrounding spiritual energy rapidly fluctuated. A scorching hot air wave swept through the not-so-spacious mountain cave.

  With a loud "boom", the ground burst into flames, like layer upon layer of raging waves rushing towards Ning Xuefeng not far away.

  Then, Li Hong summoned a feather fan made mainly of fiery red feathers from his storage bag. This was his mid-grade spiritual artifact, the Fire Feather Fan, which carried powerful fire attribute magic attacks when attacking.

  Only to see Li Hong's fingers quickly fluttering, the fire feather fan lightly flapped in the air, and instantly, the flames on the ground seemed to have divine assistance, their power increasing by a factor of two.

  Facing the surging flames, Ning Xue's jade face changed slightly, her slender fingers drew a spell in the air, and the defensive spirit instrument Ling Shuang Yu Pei in front of her instantly formed a layer of frost. A chilling aura spread around her.

  With the help of Huoyu fan, the flames that had increased in power quickly rushed to Ning Xue's face. The flames and frost collided, instantly making a "sizzling" sound, and large pieces of water vapor rose into the air, making the cave blurry.

  "Haha, junior sister, I wonder how long you can hold on?" Li Hong's triumphant voice echoed within the white mist.

  Huoyu fans flew quickly in the void, causing the flames on the ground to jump up happily, and then more violently rushed towards Ning Xue's Frost Region.

  "Go!" The jade lips lightly opened, and Ning Xue's white jade-like index finger shot out a streak of cyan light mixed with white mang, which happened to hit the giant Lingfeng Jade Pendant suspended in mid-air like a stone tablet.

  With a "hum" sound, Ling Shuangyu's jade pendant suddenly burst out with cold air, and then heavily chopped onto the ground. For a moment, the entire cave slightly trembled several times, and some stone fragments fell from the stone wall.

  A huge jade pendant crashed to the ground, then inserted half a foot deep, and the surrounding land was instantly frozen, extinguishing more than half of the raging flames.

  With Ning Xuefeng at the center, the land around her that was frozen by the cold frost turned into a bright and clean white ground, and the temperature inside the cave suddenly dropped several degrees.

  Li Hong's expression changed, his eyes fell on Ning Xue's delicate face with a hint of blush and slightly pale complexion, he coldly smiled: "Junior sister, are you going to exhaust yourself? With your mid-stage Qi Refining cultivation driving such a powerful technique, I'm afraid you're already at the end of your rope now?"

  Ning Xue Rong ignored Li Hong's words, and her slender jade hands once again cast several rays of light onto the jade pendant, extinguishing all the flames.

  "In that case, don't blame me for being merciless." Li Hong gritted his teeth and the Fire Feather Fan flew out a few meters away into the empty air.

  A mouth opened, and a blood drop wrapped in a faint green glow traversed a slightly curved trajectory through the air, landing on the Fire Feather Fan.

  In an instant, his face turned deathly pale. Previously, he had intended to rely on his profound magical powers to slowly drain Ning Xuefeng's energy and then launch a sudden attack when the latter was weakened, ultimately capturing him alive. However, Ning Xuefeng seemed to have seen through his intentions and began using her own vital energy to fight desperately from the start, forcing him to use even more powerful magic to end the battle quickly.

  Moreover, if the fight here lasts for a long time, it is likely to be discovered by other cultivators, after all, this place still belongs to the sphere of influence of Fang Yunshan.

  With Li Hongjing's blood as an auxiliary, the Huoyu fan emitted a dazzling fiery red light, illuminating the entire cave like daylight.

  Immediately afterwards, Huoyu's entire body was engulfed in flames, transforming into a bird with wings, and even let out a few chirps in the air.

  The true form of the Firebird is that fiery feather fan, with a deep red flame condensed in its center, surrounded by complex and dazzling flames. From time to time, a flame falls to the ground, leaving a shallow burn mark on the surface.

  Another long cry, the firebird flew quickly towards Ning Xue Rong.

  Ning Xue Rong's expression remained unchanged, a pair of jade-like fingers bloomed like a lotus flower, and she continuously struck out several spiritual seals.

  "Rise!" Ling Frost Jade Pendant rose into the air, shimmering with a cold light, and protected her in front of her body.

  A loud crash, a fierce impact, and a deafening roar, flames dancing across the sky, and billowing steam once again enveloped the entire cave.

  The cave immediately began to shake violently, and even large rocks fell from the surrounding stone walls or top.

  Rumble...

  After a long time, the water vapor gradually disappeared, and the cave returned to its tranquility.

  On the ground covered with gravel and dust lay a cracked fire feather fan and a broken jade pendant that had returned to its original size.

  Ning Xue Rong's face was pale and bloodless as she lay on the ground, her clothes torn in several places, revealing her fair and delicate skin underneath, her slender body motionless.

  As for Li Hong, Zhang Heng's divine consciousness searched carefully before discovering his situation: a boulder weighing over 100 catties, comparable to a large iron pot, was pressing down on him. His wounds were flowing with fresh blood, and it was unclear whether he was dead or alive.