Chapter 413: Bitter Battle

Bai Lang unleashed a palm and a claw, the palm aimed at the old man ripping the fire cloud; its power fully absorbed the palm technique the playboy had launched and countered it identically, sending an ice dragon shaking a hundred li. The dragon possessed full claws, teeth, and scales, and even its eyes could blink.

As the ice dragon swooped, its roar and bellow raised endless cold that swallowed the fire force. Then the tiger on the Golden Bell Shield leapt, and Bai Lang's figure seemed shrouded in a white‑tiger illusion; a claw pressed toward the young master, the tiger claw materializing illusory, as if obscuring half the sky.

Bai Lang's tattoos also flared—normally just flesh without a hint of color, now a rooster and a ferocious ape lit up. Accompanied by the ape's resonant howl and the rooster's crow, a massive rooster with a five‑colored feathered crown of golden‑red spread its wings and lunged at the old man who was using fire force to crush the ice dragon inch by inch.

The black ferocious ape then swirled up boundless great water, conjuring countless icy torrents like giant blades, rolling toward the young master, while Bai Lang's claw had not yet struck.

Handling the playboy forced Bai Lang to pour in his utmost effort; as for the old man, the fire force had formed, but Bai Lang instinctively thought the old man would stop at that fire force and could not advance further. Therefore, the playboy's ice dragon and his conjured Mao Sun Rooster were sufficient to deal with that fellow.

When the Three‑Water Ape combined with Bai Lang's own martial art, it was bound to slay the playboy beneath his claw; Bai Lang's true qi controlled at a distance, and the force of the Southern Dipper White Tiger Fist immediately infused the Mao Sun Rooster's claws and beak with a cold gleam. The Mao Sun Star Lord originally commands the Sun's true fire, but this old fellow who has only cultivated a single point of innate spiritual fire lacks the capacity to shatter the Star Lord's illusion in such a short span.

If he can turn void into substance, Bai Lang should step into the realm of inner scene outward release.

The Three‑Water Ape summoned the frozen North Sea to slam into the playboy; its icy force, after the surge, grew even colder, yet it could not reach Bai Lang through that North Sea. Bai Lang's claw, with a domineering and fierce momentum, was paired with ice blades standing up like a forest above and below, turning into clouds that were likely still inescapable.

Thus the man unfurled his fan, and in the blink of an eye it became a sky‑covering fire cloud; with a single sweep it turned the Three‑Water Ape's North Sea into vapor. This fire‑force martial art was far more refined than the old man's. Bai Lang instantly realized that this fellow cultivated a rare art that combined ice and fire at their source. The old man's attainment of the innate stage was likely due to forcefully piling up pills.

The fire cloud swelled arrogantly, and at the reverse palm it transformed into a long sword, bearing unrivaled sharp sword intent, wrapped in blazing fire force; a slash pierced the air, aiming to cleave Bai Lang's iron claw. At that moment Bai Lang's claw force had already summoned a raging wind across the heavens, the wind tinged with the terrible Bi Wind of the Three Calamities, and as it devoured souls and eroded bone it also carried rupturing thunder.

A sword and a claw met; Bai Lang's claw force, fierce and domineering, directly seized the sword, its intent piercing bone, and the white‑tiger illusion revealed the bones within the tiger claw, which began to crack inch by inch. This was a clash of qi forces, though the two sides had not yet exchanged claws and palms. Bai Lang's Bi Wind also enveloped the sword's intent; while crushing the white‑tiger's bone, it swiftly eroded the sword intent, and the once gleaming red blade, in a blink, seemed to have endured millennia of wind and frost, rusted away by the black wind.

Nevertheless, Bai Lang still suffered a minor setback, for although the sword intent disappeared, the blade had already sliced through his claw's force and turned the Three‑Water Ape into ash, severely draining Bai Lang's vital energy. The opponent's fire force rolled back, and the fire cloud spewed a mouthful of essence blood, reigniting the dimming fire cloud.

At that moment, half the sky was filled with reddish‑yellow fire clouds; the old man truly could not stand, and under these circumstances he couldn't withstand the Mao Sun Rooster's blow. Though the ice dragon had shattered, the Mao Sun Rooster's flash of light struck and actually ignited the old fellow... A gut‑wrenching scream echoed from the Great Sun True Fire.

In the next instant, a burning fire‑man curled up, ablaze, and a figure suddenly emerged from it, appearing as a red, shrimp‑like old man; it seemed he had employed the secret art Golden Cicada Shedding Shell, leaving the Great Sun True Fire to that shell... Yet this action likely drained his vital energy greatly, leaving him powerless to advance and strike for a time.

The old woman had already vanished, and as Bai Lang took a minor loss, a black arm suddenly emerged from the shadow beneath him, a palm slapping onto Bai Lang's body. Bai Lang, as if unperturbed, used a counter‑vibration force to turn that arm into flying smoke, and he also unleashed a palm; instantly a supremely powerful palm strike shattered the fire cloud before him, like a column of light piercing straight into its center.

Bai Lang didn't need to look to know that the spot where his palm was struck bore a black palm imprint; since the old woman cultivated demonic arts, that palm was surely poison or demonic intent. But what of it? Be it Golden Bell Shield Divine Skill or Southern Dipper White Tiger Fist, the true fight starts once the beast is wounded.

Bai Lang's killing aura roiled, his entire body hair standing, his voice like thunder—his upper garments, already ragged and ablaze, now turned entirely to ash, with only a few strips of cloth around his waist shielded by his true qi—Bai Lang would not give the old woman any cheap advantage.

Bai Lang's tattoos were vivid, yet they no longer materialized, instead they 'wandered' over him, siphoning the qi between heaven and earth and converting it into his innate true qi endlessly. Having reached this stage, he naturally surged forward recklessly, caring not whether the old man or the old woman might strike from behind; now he must kill the playboy.

The wind he summoned had fully become black Bi Wind; the fire cloud it met turned pale, then like rotting cloth turned black and finally faded away thread by thread. Bai Lang's twin claws thrust forward, then split left and right, ripping the fire cloud apart.

The fire cloud instantly transformed into an ice cloud; the blue ice cloud appeared cloud‑like but was filled with tiny ice crystals, these sand‑like ice crystals vowing to freeze Bai Lang within. The black Bi Wind blew onto the ice, and for a time it could not wear down those crystals.

Bai Lang simply reined in his force, letting the ice crystals carve white streaks across his body, sparks scattering. His flesh had been forged through countless trials; even if he applied the Golden Bell Shield's internal force to break through the White Tiger Fist, his body could not be shattered by this icy force in a short span.

Bai Lang took another palm strike to his back, the two black palm imprints on his body linking together, instantly spreading like ink on white paper. Yet Bai Lang paid no mind; he exhaled, shouted, 'Open!' and his twin claws surged, tearing the ice cloud before him, directly exposing the playboy.