Chapter 249: Stripping Art

Boom!

Black Qi rolled in, and the strange creature with eight arms among them slammed the ground. As the earth trembled, its figure leapt up, bringing a swath of shadow and dark wind, and came howling straight toward where Li Luo and the other two stood.

The power of malice erupting from within its body already let Li Luo and the others understand this creature's strength.

At the very least, it had the strength of the fourth pattern of the Birth Pattern Stage!

If they clashed head-on with it, none of the three of them could take the hit; after all, the gap in raw strength was indeed considerable.

So the three of them hurriedly dodged.

Thud!

The eight-armed creature landed, missing its mark, but it spun around and pounced out again. Its eight bloody arms, like blood serpents, flashed toward the three dodging figures.

The three hurriedly employed their own methods to resist, leaping back at the same time.

In this brief clash, Li Luo and Student Xin Fu had both exchanged blows with the eight-armed creature, and the result was indeed just as they had expected: the opponent's power was too great. That twisted force of malice came howling like a tide, making them feel as if they were in an ice cellar, their bodies showing signs of gradually losing control.

In just a short moment, the three of them had begun to look somewhat ragged under the eight-armed creature's frenzied assault.

On the treetop of a large tree not far from the Purification Tower, Jiang Jiang Qinge and the other two looked down at the battle from above, their expressions each different.

Tian Tian asked with a smile, "Captain, it looks like they're having a very hard time dealing with it."

Senior Qiu Bai nodded and said, "This White Erosion creature is already extremely close to the strength of the fifth pattern of the Birth Pattern Stage. For them, it is indeed very tricky and dangerous."

Jiang Jiang Qinge still did not speak. Her golden eyes stared fixedly at the field, though Tian Tian and Senior Qiu Bai still keenly sensed the faint fluctuation of the light phase force within her body.

Clearly, Jiang Jiang Qinge was already on the verge of making a move.

Their gazes looked toward the battle in the distant withered forest, and they felt a little regret. Just a little more, and Li Luo's group would have been able to activate this Purification Tower on their own.

Still, there was no need to set the bar too high. After all, Li Luo's group were still freshmen; being able to reach this level on their first try was already quite impressive.

While they were thinking this in their hearts, the eight-armed creature in the withered forest grew even more violently aggressive. As its bloody long arms swept across, both Li Luo and Student Xin Fu were sent flying backward.

Immediately, the eight-armed creature screeched. Its eight arms slammed hard against the ground, its figure's speed surging as it pounced straight toward Li Luo's position. It had already sensed that the latter was the greatest threat among the three.

The eight-armed creature's pounce was extremely fast; even Li Luo could not dodge in time. The shadow descended and slammed heavily into the ground.

In the distance, Jiang Jiang Qinge's slender jade hand gripping the heavy sword suddenly tightened, and light phase force began to rise from her delicate frame.

Boom!

But just at that moment, the ground the eight-armed creature had pounced toward suddenly collapsed, as if forming a large pit, and Li Luo was hanging at the edge of the pit.

As for the eight-armed creature, it had fallen into that pit.

"That's..." Senior Qiu Bai exclaimed in surprise.

"Looks like a pit trap they rigged up. There's even water in it. This was formed using water phase force, right? But what's the use of it?" Tian Tian also said, puzzled.

A water pit could not possibly trap a top-tier White Erosion creature.

Jiang Jiang Qinge's hand, which had been tightly gripping the sword hilt, quietly loosened a little. Her eyes stared fixedly in that direction. Although she was also not quite sure what purpose a water pit would serve that Li Luo's group had rigged up, given Li Luo's character, he would not do useless work.

This should be because he had some kind of plan, right?

Just as curiosity rose in her heart, Li Luo at the edge of the water pit leapt up, and the eight-armed creature in the pit also roared as it tried to charge out.

"Starlight Butterfly!" Bai Bai Mengmeng cried out sweetly. Star-like phase force gushed out, transforming into a continuous flutter of light butterflies. The butterflies rushed toward the eight-armed creature, causing the latter's body to stiffen slightly—it had been given an illusion.

But very quickly, the force of malice surged over the eight-armed creature's body, directly wiping out the illusion triggered by the Starlight Butterfly.

"Ten Thousand Shadows Binding Art!"

But just as the eight-armed creature had barely broken free from Bai Bai Mengmeng's illusion, Student Xin Fu's low voice rang out in quick succession. Black lines shot violently out from the shadows, wrapping around the eight-armed creature's body and preventing it from leaping out of the water pit.

"Captain, I can only hold on for five seconds!" Student Xin Fu roared, veins popping on his forehead.

"Student Xin Fu, watch your words! Bai Bai Mengmeng is here!" Li Luo kindly reminded him.

Student Xin Fu nearly spat out a mouthful of blood at those words. At a time like this, you're still messing around?!

However, although Li Luo was bantering with his mouth, his hands were not slow at all. He stared at the eight-armed creature trapped in the water pit, took a deep breath, and his hands suddenly formed seals. The phase technique he had long prepared was unleashed at this moment.

"Tiger General Art, Water Flow Stripping Art!"

Splash!

As he activated his phase technique, a huge ball of water immediately formed in the water pit, and at the center of the water ball was the eight-armed creature struggling violently.

Inside the water ball, the current suddenly began to rotate at high speed. A powerful tearing force emerged from within, acting directly on the eight-armed creature's body.

Under this rotating tearing, Li Luo and the others saw to their immense delight that the pale-white human skin of the eight-armed creature was being stripped away bit by bit.

Beneath the human skin, fresh red flesh writhed. A furious roar faintly emerged, and another strange creature's aura surfaced at this moment.

It was precisely the flesh-and-blood creature that had been devoured by the human-skin creature earlier!

Under Li Luo's Stripping Art, the flesh-and-blood creature that the human-skin creature had just swallowed was forcibly torn out by him.

The human-skin creature let out a piercing shriek. At this moment, it not only had to resist the tearing of the water flow, but also had to suppress the flesh-and-blood creature inside its body that was beginning to fight back. Its situation instantly took a turn for the worse.

However, at this point, no matter how it struggled, the resistance from both inside and out meant it could no longer maintain its own power.

So, after just a dozen or so breaths, accompanied by a shrill screech that rang out, the eight-armed creature in the water ball was forcibly split in two.

"Captain, we did it! You're amazing!" Bai Bai Mengmeng cried out joyfully.

Student Xin Fu also breathed a sigh of relief, unable to stop a smile of amazement from appearing.

When Li Luo had proposed this battle plan earlier, he had still been a little hesitant. After all, Li Luo's method was to use a brutal means to forcibly pull out the flesh-and-blood creature that the human-skin creature had just eaten. This would not only interrupt the human-skin creature's evolution, but also cause the two creatures to kill each other, while they reaped the benefits.

Student Xin Fu was very amazed by Li Luo's train of thought. After all, an ordinary person probably would never have thought of this approach...

The captain really was quite the oddball.

At this moment, even Student Xin Fu could not help but sigh in admiration in his heart.

Compared to the two excited people, Li Luo's expression was much calmer. He had long anticipated this scene, because this Stripping Art had also been strengthened by him.

Other people's Stripping Art was only driven by water flow, and the stripping intensity was limited. But in his Stripping Art, light phase force had been added. With the assistance of the light flow, the tearing force was such that even though this human-skin creature was far stronger than him, it could still be made to suffer plenty.

Therefore, if someone else were to use the Stripping Art here, they might not necessarily succeed, but for him... the success rate was still very high.

Bang!

The high-speed spinning water sphere exploded at this moment, and two figures tumbled out in a sorry state—it was the flesh-and-blood aberration and the human-skin aberration.

However, at this point, the evil-thought power coursing through both their bodies had become extremely listless, clearly indicating that being forcibly stripped like this had greatly weakened them.

The two aberrations landed, their gazes filled with evil thoughts locking onto each other, surging with killing intent, wishing they could tear the other to pieces.

But in the end, they didn't do that—instead, they turned and ran.

Although they didn't possess much rationality, they could sense their own current weakness; if they stayed here any longer, the ending awaiting them would be extremely dire.

Therefore, running away immediately was the most rational choice.

However, the moment their figures moved, Li Luo and Student Xin Fu appeared in front of them.

Li Luo lightly twirled his twin blades in a blade flourish, then looked at the human-skin aberration, smiling as he said: "You bastard, where did all that swagger from earlier go?"

"Stay and play for a bit."

The two aberrations' strength had now been weakened to the weakest level, basically equivalent to a First Mark's strength—this was the perfect moment to beat a drowning dog.

As for Student Xin Fu, he was even more direct—without saying a single word, he simply raised his blade and hacked at them.

Li Luo had no choice but to follow.

The battle erupted once more, but this time, the result was completely different.

On a treetop in the distance.

Senior Qiu Bai and Tian Tian stared at the battlefield's shift over there, falling silent for a moment.

Because even they hadn't expected that this situation could be solved in such a way...

This guy actually used this strange physiognomy art to rip out the flesh-and-blood aberration that the human-skin aberration had just swallowed? And then caused both aberrations to suffer severe damage, their strength plummeting.

The two exchanged a glance, and finally squeezed out a sentence: "Today, my eyes have truly been opened."

As for Jiang Jiang Qinge beside them, although she hadn't spoken, the slight upward curl of her lips made it clear how pleasant her mood was at this moment.

Li Luo's performance could be called perfect.