Lin Qingyue stepped down from the void, one step at a time.
Behind her, ink-black clouds churned, a living Abyss, a solidified pressure.
"Damn it! Damn it! You damn bug!"
The [Spirit of Pride] had its hair disheveled, its once exquisite makeup now smudged like a clown's.
Its spatial abilities were sealed, its retreat cut off.
This suffocating sense of being trapped completely ignited the powder keg of its emotions.
A shriek, so sharp it cracked, tore through the Temple.
Its body, collapsed on the ground, trembled violently as vast expanses of foul-smelling black sludge, like tar, gushed from its surface.
Glug.
Glug.
Accompanied by nauseating bubble sounds, countless pitch-black humanoid creatures crawled straight up from the swamp.
[Spirit of Pride (Attendant)]
Their outlines resembled humans, but their faces were a blur, like clay molds carelessly shaped by a clumsy craftsman, their bodies emitting a strong smell of tar.
In an instant, half the Temple was submerged by this silent army of mud figures.
These things felt no pain, had no reason, only pure hatred for the living, and launched a frenzied, suicidal charge toward the four people.
"Out of tricks!"
Lin Qingyue didn't even bother to lift her eyelids, her steps still unhurried.
"Human wave tactics? Couldn't you do something with a bit more skill?"
Lin Xiyue, who hadn't had a chance to strike and could only hold her shield and act as a backdrop, felt her eyes instantly light up.
When fighting the BOSS, she was a tickling-feather; but when clearing minions, she was a professional player!
"Su Wan! Xia Lian! Time to get to work!"
Lin Xiyue shouted excitedly, completely ignoring the battle between the deities. The massive shield in her hand, [Blackstone's Protection], slammed violently into the ground!
Hummm!
Golden ripples of Holy Light swept outward, precisely taunting all the minions rushing Lin Qingyue and steadily drawing their hatred.
"Listen up, you little runts! My Sis is giving your boss a lesson right now. As students auditing this class, you will all be under this instructor's unified command!"
[Fearless Charge]!
Lin Xiyue transformed into a golden war chariot charging recklessly, plunging straight into the dense crowd of mud figures.
As her shield struck, mud figures were sent flying all over the place, and before they even hit the ground, they shattered midair into disgusting puddles of mud.
The team's tacit understanding required no words.
Su Wan stood in the center of the battle line, tapping her staff lightly. A calm light shimmered in her icy blue eyes.
"Be... a little more quiet."
An extremely cold mist spread rapidly across the ground, instantly freezing all the mud figures attempting to bypass Lin Xiyue, turning them into black ice sculptures in comical poses.
"Minions need to learn their place. Don't you dare interrupt the main character's stage."
Xia Lian had already leaped onto a fallen stone statue, seizing the high ground and pushing the Ranger's advantage to its absolute limit.
The bowstring of the [Dark Night Starwhisper] in her hand was drawn taut. The arrows, imbued with the Star-Concealment effect, transformed into a silent roll call of death.
Twang! Twang! Twang!
The sound of the vibrating bowstring merged into a continuous stream.
Dozens of arrows, imbued with Explosive Mana Runes and trailing plumes of fire, precisely covered every corner like cruise missiles.
With each arrow that fell, a small area was completely cleared.
In just a few breaths, the seemingly terrifying tide of mud figures was firmly intercepted ten meters behind Lin Qingyue by the three of them, unable to advance a single step.
Lin Qingyue turned her head slightly, her peripheral vision sweeping over those three busy yet efficient figures, and the corners of her lips curved into a faint smile.
She turned her head back, and her blazing gold pupils locked back onto the massive creature still struggling in vain before her.
"See?" she said softly. "No one is disturbing our lesson anymore."
The battlefield of the Temple was now clearly divided.
On one side was an efficient clearing operation.
On the other side, it was a one-sided artistic direction.
Or rather, an execution.
The [Spirit of Pride] roared as it swung its sharp claws, desperate to tear apart the hateful woman before it with the most primal violence.
Lin Qingyue moved.
Ink Lotus bloomed layer by layer beneath her feet, and her entire figure transformed into a splash of ink upon the canvas of space-time. With an utterly unreasonable posture, she forcibly cut into the Spirit of Pride's final defensive circle.
At this moment, the Grandmaster's Soul of [Yixuan] was completely activated.
It was not a rigid set of moves, but rather the martial Dao's divine essence, tempered a thousand times and brought to the Pinnacle of Perfection.
Every move and every strike was naturally formed.
"Art" and "Martial Prowess" danced in perfect harmony at this moment.
Lin Qingyue's left hand slowly guided and pulled in the void, and the Sticking Formula lightly met the Spirit of Pride's wildly swinging giant claw, deflecting its force with a four-ounce-deflecting-a-thousand-pound technique, causing its power to fall empty.
The next instant, instead of retreating, she advanced, closing the distance into its embrace.
Her right arm retracted, her elbow becoming like a massive siege engine, borrowing force to strike back, carrying the terrifying Inch Force that could pierce through all things, and slamming hard into the BOSS's lower abdomen!
"Inch Force: Ink Crash."
The seemingly ordinary elbow strike, at the moment of contact, erupted with a surge of black light!
BOOM!!
A dull thud that made one's heart stop exploded directly from within the BOSS's body.
A mass of force compressed to its absolute limit pierced through its hide and detonated violently inside its body.
The [Spirit of Pride]'s tough abdomen burst open on the spot, its massive body blasted backward by this strike, arching like a cooked shrimp.
Before it could catch its breath, Lin Qingyue's follow-up attack had already arrived.
An elbow strike, a knee strike, a spinning kick.
Each strike was accompanied by the dull thud of flesh colliding.
With every collision, a brilliant Black Ink Lotus bloomed at the point of contact, exquisitely severing the energy circulation within its body.
The Spirit of Pride was driven mad by this shameless interruption mechanism, unable to complete even a single spellcasting gesture.
Lin Qingyue was a master of wild cursive calligraphy.
Using her body as a brush, every attack was a wild stroke of violent calligraphy written upon the BOSS's form.
Amidst the perilous close-quarters combat, she even split her focus, flicking her fingertips to shoot highly compressed Runes directly into the opponent's wounds, playing a game of zero-distance targeted demolition.
The Spirit of Pride forced down a mouthful of black blood, and a destructive red glow flared again deep in its throat. It actually intended to tank a full combo just to unleash a point-blank Dragon's Breath!
"Spitting the moment you open your mouth. Are you uneducated, or just unfinished with evolution?"
Lin Qingyue slammed a knee strike into the BOSS's lower abdomen. The moment it opened its mouth in pain, the miniature explosive Runes condensed at her fingertips had already been stuffed inside.
"Your breath stinks. Shut it."
Her right palm struck upward, carrying a churning mass of profound black lightning, and viciously smashed into the Spirit of Pride's chin.
The immense force slammed that abyssal maw shut!
"Wuuu—?!"
The violent energy on the verge of eruption in the Spirit of Pride's throat lost its outlet, detonating instantly within its own body!
BOOM!
The destructive energy threw a grand party inside its belly.
Its neck and chest visibly swelled, and pitch-black smoke erupted from its nostrils, ears, and even the corners of its eyes.
Blasted into a stupor by its own ultimate move, it stumbled backward like a drunken fool.
"Too slow."
Lin Qingyue delivered a ruthless, real-time lesson while beating it.
"Stiff movements, sluggish joints. When was the last time these parts of yours were greased? Hundreds of years ago?"
SLAP!
A resounding slap, crisp and clear.
The BOSS's head, just about to spew again, was sent spinning ninety degrees.
If any Mage from the outside world saw this scene, they would probably tear up their professional textbooks on the spot.
What kind of Mage fights like this?!
Every punch carried the afterglow of a spell; every step aligned perfectly with the ultimate truths of martial arts.
Hardness and softness combined, fluid and seamless, violent yet elegant.