Chapter 146.1 - Predator

“Base circle!”

Xue Qilin lifted Empyrean Universe horizontally.

With the sword and the arm forming a line, the sword tip draped in fire portrayed a full moon-like circle in the air. Then, the ring made of fire moved forward and narrowed quickly to the size of the lass’s hand.

“Li [1]!”

Xue Qilin tossed three talismans.

The moment the talismans passed through the ring of fire, they ignited, and the magic array depicted on them radiated dazzling light.

“Thunder Flame Dragon No. 7!”

The lass shouted the name of the spell.

In an instant, fire spiritual qi was completely extracted from the surroundings, and the fire burning on the three talismans expanded and finally joined into a giant flame dragon.

“Let’s do some barbecue!”

The scorching heat evaporated the moisture in the air.

Smoke winding around it, the giant flame dragon issued a silent roar and bit at Xi He, who has just adjusted her posture.

Faced with the overwhelming fire, Xi He felt a trace of killing intent for the first time.

Xi He doesn’t dislike Xue Qilin.

Not only that, but she also has a favorable impression of the other party.

Of course, this favorable impression is not unfounded, but originates from the time she met the lass in Luotian Town. On that day, the human Xue Qilin gave warmth – the final warmth – to a dying martial demon instead of the martial demon her, allowing it to die in an embrace.

Therefore, as the two were forced to face each other, much like Xue Qilin took into account their prior history and didn’t use her full strength, Xi He also couldn’t really hate her.

That is until now…

Now that she sensed killing intent from Xue Qilin’s spells, Xi He is finally… she is finally able to persuade herself, she finally has reason to stop being lenient.

Since the other party is serious, then she can also get serious.

People cannot easily harm a person who is not hostile to them. But they can kill someone who tries to harm them on the grounds of “self-defense”.

So…

“This is fine…”

Relieved, Xi He murmured to herself.

Then without hesitation, she threw the true qi projectile in her hand.

“Thunder Flame Dragon No. 3!”

The flame dragon opened its maw and fired a fireball to meet the fluctuating true qi projectile that has a silver-white tail. The two collided and exploded, and then the dragon figure emerged from the fragments of fire and true qi.

However…

“… if that’s the case, then I need not feel guilty.”

When the flame dragon was about to engulf the nine-tailed girl, as if it hit an invisible barrier, it suddenly burst into pieces. Even stranger, after the fire dragon exploded, it was not flame fragments that scattered around, but drops of water.

“Ahh…?”

For a moment, Xue Qilin could not believe her eyes.

She even made an embarrassing sound, because the scene just now was really unreasonable.

“This… what’s going on?”

Why did fire suddenly become water? Only this question remained in her mind.

However, Xue Qilin didn’t have time to delve into the “why”. She suddenly lost buoyancy and quickly fell to the ground.

Everything is so sudden and weird.

Xue Qilin didn’t react. She just stared blankly at the shrinking silver-white figure still floating in the air.

Xi He’s nine tails have entered the void at some point. As if rocks thrown into a lake, the space around the tail tips rippled again and again.

Her ears are buzzing.

At this time, Xue Qilin suddenly realized that her spells were likely dispelled.

Martial practitioners can float in the air by either covering the body’s surface with low-density true qi and thus reducing the body’s overall density, or by continuously ejecting true qi towards the ground.

As for Xue Qilin, different from ordinary martial practitioners, her flying ability comes from wind magic, which is contained within wood elemental magic.

However, just now her spell suddenly lost its effect and ultimately caused her to lose buoyancy.

But why did the spell suddenly lose effect?

“What’s going…?”

Faced with this incomprehensible situation, Xue Qilin fell into a state of shock. She forgot that she is getting closer and closer to the ground. Even for Heaven Realm masters, if they are unprepared, falling from such a high altitude can result in serious injuries or even death.

Fortunately…

“Qilin!”

Phecda awakened her master in time.

“Oh!”

Xue Qilin reacted and flipped her body upside down at once and let go of Phecda. At the same time, she threw four talismans.

“Speed reduction, set boundary!”

Xue Qilin clapped her hands violently in front of her.

In response to her order, the talismans flew towards her and pulled an invisible to the naked eye, membrane-like Speed Reduction Boundary. After passing through the boundary, Xue Qilin’s speed reduced. She immediately adjusted her posture and landed safely with her feet on the ground. Empyrean Universe has landed beside her.

There’s won’t be a next time! Staring at Xi He in midair, Xue Qilin exhaled and at the same time rebuked herself for being absent-minded in battle.

“What did you do?”

Although Xue Qilin’s voice isn’t loud, but it did span the distance between the two and reached Xi He’s ears.

“Did you know? Everything in the world is bound to be restrained by something.”

Xi He’s answer is confusing.

“And I… am your predator.”

In other words, she has a way to restrain my magic? Xue Qilin understood Xi He’s meaning thusly.

But how did she do it? Did she destroy the spell models?

Xue Qilin thought about it a little, but didn’t come up with a reliable answer.

However, intuition told her that the key lies in Xi He’s tails. The tips of the nine tails have pierced into the void.

Now is not the time to delve into it, because Xi He’s attack is already here.

Behind! Sensing fluctuations of spiritual qi behind her, Xue Qilin turned around immediately.

The moment when her vision was submerged in flames, a question arose – is this really Xi He’s attack?

In front of her, there is a huge wave of fire sweeping towards her, turning trees into ashes and melting rocks in its wake.

The scorching, raging fire is sweeping towards the petite lass.

Xue Qilin once again tossed four talismans, and at the same time, she put two fingers of her right hand together and made a gesture – she is depicting a magic array.

“Water rampart, set boundary!”

Clap – Xue Qilin clapped her hands violently.

Water spiritual qi in the surroundings poured into the talismans floating beside her.

Then…

Nothing happened.

Contrary to Xue Qilin’s expectations, the rampart of water didn’t appear.

[1] – li (離), qian (乾), zhen (震)