Ying Ziyu was utterly dazed now, her mind a blank. All she could do was stare dumbly as the other's wing drew closer and closer, and then a strange thought suddenly surfaced: "Is this what death feels like?"

"What nonsense are you spouting!" Qiu Lingshan's voice abruptly rang in her mind, and the next moment she had leapt straight out of the defensive formation, planting herself before Ying Ziyu without a moment's hesitation.

"How old are you, to be thinking of dying? A bit early for that, isn't it!" Wu Chengtian appeared before her as well.

"Exactly!" Yu Bing was there too. At a moment like this, the only ones among them quick enough to react were these three peak experts of the early Foundation Establishment stage.

"You all..." Ying Ziyu felt a sting at the bridge of her nose. She knew very well that all of this was her own blunder; even if she died, it would be no more than she deserved, and she could blame no one. Yet now Qiu Lingshan and the other two had shielded her without a moment's hesitation, and that could lead to only one outcome—life traded for life, and three lives traded for her one!

With the defensive formation broken, even fighting together, Qiu Lingshan and the others had no hope of surviving Jumang's savage assault. When all was said and done, the three of them were only at the peak of the early Foundation Establishment stage.

Seeing this, Jumang simply went along with the shift, and at once switched its target from Ying Ziyu to Qiu Lingshan and the other two. Everyone present was merely its prey, after all; it was only a question of how it ate them.

Yet at that very moment, a bone-piercing cold of immense power suddenly erupted from behind them, accompanied by Leng Leng's voice: "Ice Prison Mirror Shatter!"

In the month and a half since the trial tournament, she had done nothing else. Even though she had already reached Foundation Establishment major completion, even though the finest golden core Wei Zhao had given her was in her hands, she had shown not the slightest intention of forcing a breakthrough to the Golden Core stage. After all, too much was as bad as too little; she had only just left behind a legend of breaking through with every single match at the trial tournament, and a reckless forced breakthrough would only drain her own foundation—even if she succeeded, she would be reduced to mediocrity ever after.

Leng Leng was naturally not about to do anything so foolish. So she had devoted herself to one thing only: practicing with all her might her ultimate trump card, Drawing the Ground as a Prison—and, of course, its even more powerful advanced form, Ice Prison Mirror Shatter!

A single stroke of Ice Prison Mirror Shatter had once been more than even Duanmu Yu at full power could withstand, and this Jumang before them was no different. It toppled stiffly on the spot, becoming a thorough ice sculpture of human face and bird body.

Having survived the ordeal, Qiu Lingshan and the others exchanged glances, their eyes full of lingering dread and relief. Had Leng Leng not erupted in time, every one of them would have become Jumang's rations!

On the other side, Wei Zhao faced the other Jumang alone, and unexpectedly he had been unable to slay it at the first opportunity. This Jumang was exceedingly cunning; it almost never committed to a full-force attack, but instead fought in a hit-and-run fashion, striking and pulling back to wear him down—and it was incredibly fast. Several times Wei Zhao loosed his Five Elements Killing Aura, but could not finish it off. Otherwise he would never have allowed Leng Leng and the others to fall into such a perilous, bitter fight.

"This thing is genuinely troublesome!" Wei Zhao could not help but frown. Though this Jumang's strength fell short of the Golden Core stage, it had absolutely surpassed most experts of Foundation Establishment major completion.

Of course, if that were all, it would be nothing—Wei Zhao could handle it well enough. But because he was wary of the third Jumang that had yet to appear, he did not dare stray too far from the group; otherwise, falling for a lure-the-tiger-away-from-the-mountain ploy would be a serious problem.

Yet that inevitably left him fighting with his hands tied, and his opponent, with consummate cunning, did nothing but harry him at range, never engaging head-on. Forget killing it—Wei Zhao could scarcely even land a hit on it. When even the Five Elements Killing Aura was useless, the only tool left to him was a single move: the Electric Arc.

Hitting the creature with the Electric Arc's speed was not difficult, but the problem was that this was no Fire Bat King—it was a Jumang whose strength surpassed even Foundation Establishment major completion. The Electric Arc's power was enough to tickle it, but expecting to finish it off with that alone was a bit too naive.

Pfft! That Jumang again sent a stream of green venomous gas from far off, and then, without even checking whether it had worked, turned and retreated without hesitation.

"Damn it all..." Wei Zhao was truly at his wit's end. Apart from sending out an Electric Arc to briefly numb it, there was nothing else he could do—unless he used the super-limit Butterfly Microstep to chase it down. If he could close the distance to within three paces, the creature would have no hope of evading his Five Elements Killing Aura. But he simply dared not take that risk, for he knew full well that the third Jumang was lurking nearby, watching for its chance to strike.

If Leng Leng were in good condition right now, it would still be manageable. So long as she could hold out even briefly, Wei Zhao could turn the enemy's lure-the-tiger-away ploy against them even knowing it for what it was, for he was confident enough that he could return before anything happened to the others. Unfortunately, Leng Leng had drained herself enormously by unleashing Ice Prison Mirror Shatter, and now lacked even the barest ability to protect herself.

Qiu Lingshan and the others helped Leng Leng sit down to recover while they watched this scene unfold, exchanging glances. Wei Zhao's predicament was plain to them all, yet they were powerless to help; with their meager strength, they did not even qualify to play the hero, or they would drag everyone else into danger just as Ying Ziyu had a moment ago.

"These Jumang are all completely insane! After taking a beating, shouldn't they know better than to keep pushing? What's the point of clinging to us like this?" Wu Chengtian curled his lip in helpless frustration.

"Indeed. They clearly seem so intelligent—how would a clever creature do something so thankless?" Yu Bing and the others were all equally baffled.

Qiu Lingshan thought for a moment, then suddenly said, "The way they're going to such lengths to stall us—could there be reinforcements coming?"

The words gave everyone a fright, and even Wei Zhao's heart skipped a beat. Because he had been keeping an eye on the third Jumang all along, his thoughts had until now run only to the lure-the-tiger-away trick; he had never considered this possibility.

From the coordinated, unified way these three Jumang acted, it was clear they must be creatures that moved in groups. In that case, there might well be a fourth and a fifth—or far, far more than that!

"No place to linger here! Everyone, keep formation and press on. Leng Leng, take pills at once and recover your true qi—there may well be a hard fight ahead!" Wei Zhao made his decision on the spot. Though that Jumang was still harrying them, so long as he was there, such harassment was nothing to worry about. What worried him was the prospect of real reinforcements—if a few dozen more Jumang showed up, the joke would be well and truly on them.