Facing this despairing situation of certain death with no hope of survival, Lin Wan'er, pinned mercilessly beneath the foot, had already lost all ability to resist.
She despairingly closed her eyes and bit down hard on her lower lip — biting it until it was bloody — yet still forced herself to endure, refusing to let out even a single agonized scream.
Because she knew that Young Master Lin Feng in the distance had already suffered grave injury, and if her scream carried over to him at this moment, it would surely throw the young master's mind into disarray, leaving him utterly rattled, and thus give the enemy an opening to seize.
But the gauntlet woman's heavy iron gauntlet, covered in black scab, was mercilessly trampling and grinding down upon her waist and abdomen with an exceedingly brutal, freakish force.
"Ngh!"
The immense agony made Lin Wan'er unable to help abruptly spitting out a great mouthful of blood laced with fragments of viscera.
The Primeval Essence within her aperture, already scant to begin with, was at this moment utterly depleted and hanging by a thread.
Even though that Rank 2 Life-Hanging Gu was striving to give off its last dying warmth — blazing frantically within her aperture like a meteor about to burn itself out entirely, trying to forcibly stitch together her ravaged vitality— this force of forcibly suspending her life, under the constant destruction of external force, instead brought Lin Wan'er a searing pain ten times more terrifying than death!
She struggled to open her eyes, and that pair of once clear, delicate pupils were now filled with terrifying red bloodshot veins.
She fixed her gaze unwaveringly upon the gauntlet woman's savage face above, and within that gaze seeped a hair-raising venom and malice, as though she were a vengeful spirit about to become a wrathful ghost — one who, even if she fell into the eighteenth level of hell, would still bite down on her enemy and drag them down with her!
"Pah, cheap wretch."
Watching this dainty, delicate woman beneath her foot — who, even as she was subjected to every manner of trampling, still would not make even the slightest sound of begging for mercy— and that pair of eyes brimming with hatred, made her feel ill at ease all over.
Within the gauntlet woman's heart, a trace of exceedingly irritable savagery arose for a moment.
Her gaze still searched her surroundings with exceeding vigilance. Lin Wan'er had guessed correctly — this act of hers was precisely to force Lin Feng to make his move, so that she could kill two birds with one stone and successfully take down both of them.
But under the pitch-black night, there were only the swaying shadows of trees. After turning her line of sight in a full circle, apart from those few shrubs trembling faintly in the night wind, there seemed to be nothing else.
Could it have been an illusion?
The gauntlet woman refused to believe it. She turned her line of sight once more, staring unwaveringly at that patch of pitch-black shrubbery on the left.
Only, this time, the disturbance in that thicket erupted with a visible, exceedingly violent motion, exploding thunderously outward!
"Roar—!"
Accompanying a roar like that of an ancient savage beast, what came bearing down upon her was a terrifying heavy fist — as large as a sandbag, wreathed in raging flames!
It was none other than Lin Wuxie!
Earlier, when Lin Feng was ambushed, he too had been drawn away by the gauntlet woman's exceedingly cunning Shadow Split Gu phantom, pulled far from the main battlefield, thus giving the enemy an opening to exploit.
Now, having smashed that phantom to pieces with a single punch and learned that he had been deceived, Lin Wuxie came bearing a chestful of fury and self-reproach, wishing he could vent all his savagery upon the gauntlet woman!
Boom!
In an instant, upon Lin Wuxie's pair of fists, a layer of exceedingly dazzling, scorching-hot raging flames abruptly burst into blaze!
Rank 2 strength — the Burning Flame Gu!
This was another path Lin Mu had opened, mimicking the killing momentum of Punishment Hall's Lin Yan, a Strength and Fire Path Gu worm purchased specifically for Lin Wuxie.
Once this Gu was activated, it was unrivaled in raw ferocity — the fists would be attached with exceedingly savage flames, each blow carrying high damage of explosion and incineration.
But this kind of Gu worm that pursued extreme slaughter also had exceedingly terrifying side effects — namely, "wound the enemy a thousand, lose eight hundred of one's own."
The Gu Master themselves, when using it, would also truly and genuinely feel the inhuman torment of endless flames scorching their flesh!
However.
This slight agony of flames scorching flesh, compared to the kind of backlash torment Lin Wuxie had endured day and night before, could truly be said to be dwarfed in comparison — a mere trickle beside a great flood!
Not only that, but this agony of flesh being charred, far from making Lin Wuxie flinch in the slightest, instead greatly stimulated his savage nature, provoking him into growing ever more crazed!
"Die, you son of a bitch!!!"
Lin Wuxie's eyes were scarlet, his fists as though heedless of his own life, transforming into a sky full of burning fire-meteors, one punch after another, smashing down upon the gauntlet woman with exceeding ferocity!
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
The muffled sounds of impact interwove with the crackling roar of flames.
This suicidal offensive — which had utterly abandoned all defense, coming like a violent storm — actually forced the Rank 2 peak stage gauntlet woman into retreat again and again!
As the saying goes: the soft fear the hard, the hard fear the fierce, and the fierce fear those who care nothing for their own lives!
At this moment, Lin Wuxie was that madman through and through!
For a time, the originally dim, silent night forest was actually lit as bright as day by those violent flames upon Lin Wuxie's fists!
With the high-intensity attacks, his fists were even scorched by his own Gu worm's flames until they sizzled and gave off oil, and the air was even permeated with a nauseating stench of charred, burnt meat.
The flesh of those once-normal fists had already curled and peeled away in great patches, charred black — one could even faintly see the ghastly white bone beneath!
Yet the speed of his punches had not slowed in the slightest!
He's truly a fucking madman!
The gauntlet woman cursed frantically in her heart, and in the depths of her eyes flashed a trace of extreme horror and frustration.
Was this job even one meant to be taken on?!
The intelligence had clearly stated that the target was only Lin Feng, a single Rank 2 middle stage, and the rest were nothing but a few small fry making up the numbers!
But now it seemed that within this bizarre team, that Lin Feng — the most renowned, the number-one seed hyped to the heavens — was instead the weakest, the easiest to squash!
"Damn it!"
The gauntlet woman clenched her teeth and, with strenuous effort, crossed both arms to guard her chest.
Boom!
After hard-blocking a heavy, powerful flame charging-punch, she borrowed the recoil force to just barely slide backward several zhang, temporarily withdrawing from the center of Lin Wuxie's assault.
At this moment, the gauntlet woman was in an exceedingly wretched state.
That originally custom-made night-prowling garment on her body had nearly all been scorched to tatters by the flames, exposing great patches of charred skin.
And upon those gauntlets she took such pride in, cracked dark-red burn marks now covered them all over, on the verge of shattering!
However, in the instant she pulled open the distance, the gauntlet woman's exceedingly vicious eye immediately saw through Lin Wuxie's true state.
This brat — though his offensive is frighteningly fierce — is already at the end of his rope, his oil spent and his lamp dry!
Looking at the flames upon Lin Wuxie that had already spread up to his upper arms, and at his breathing that had grown ragged and heavy from excessive overdraft, her heart instantly settled.
Lin Wuxie's cultivation, after all, was only Rank 2 initial stage!
No matter how desperately he fought, no matter how crazed he became, the reserve of Primeval Essence within his aperture absolutely could not compare with hers as a Rank 2 peak stage!
"Whew…"
The gauntlet woman let out a long breath, forcibly suppressing the surging blood and qi within her body.
She knew that in this battle where every trump card had been played out, so long as she could hold on for another ten breaths, the one who laughed last would surely be her!
What she was most grateful for in her heart right now was that earlier she had not been greedy for merit and rushed in rashly, but had exceedingly decisively struck first to gravely wound that medical Gu Master, Lin Wan'er!
Had she not crippled Lin Wan'er just now, then if this tug-of-war dragged on, the one to lose would absolutely have been herself!
So then, next, all that remained was to hold on for these final ten breaths.
After ten breaths, there would come the one-sided massacre that belonged to her, without any suspense whatsoever!
Upon the gauntlet woman's face, that cruel, savage smile surfaced once again.
And within her heart, she began an exceedingly cold countdown.
The eighth breath!
Lin Wuxie roared, and a heavy fist carrying the momentum to burn the heavens came smashing thunderously down!
The gauntlet woman was overconfident no longer. Exceedingly calmly, she gathered a great mass of Primeval Essence and crossed both fists to hard-block!
With a bang — a thunderous crash — the gauntlet woman was heavily hammered flying by this freakish force.
The seventh breath!
Lin Wuxie once again pressed in close, but just as the gauntlet woman had anticipated, due to the double overdraft of stamina and Primeval Essence, his footing actually stumbled, exposing a fatal opening!
The joy in the gauntlet woman's eyes grew all the greater. She did not clash head-on with him at all — her figure flickered like a phantom, easily dodging this strike.
The sixth breath!
The fifth breath!
I'm going to win!
Watching Lin Wuxie's punching motions grow slower and slower, more and more feeble, the gauntlet woman frantically cried out again and again within her heart — the scales of victory had already tipped utterly in her favor!
The fourth breath!
The third breath!
Die!
The gauntlet woman drew a deep breath, and the black-iron luster upon her fists condensed once more, preparing, on the next breath, to bare the life-taking fangs outright.
However.
In this very third breath.
"Whoosh—!"
From the darkness beyond the dense forest, an exceedingly bizarre round object suddenly, without any warning, came flying in.
The object carved an arc through midair, then landed on the ground with a "plap."
"Rolling, rolling…"
The thing rolled and tumbled several times, exceedingly abruptly, across the blood-soaked muddy ground, and, neither too far nor too near, came to rest precisely at the very center of both the gauntlet woman's and Lin Wuxie's field of vision.
By the burning firelight upon Lin Wuxie's arms, the gauntlet woman instinctively lowered her head to look.
The next second.
The savage grin on her face froze utterly, dead upon it.
Her pupils abruptly contracted to the utmost, and an extreme, bone-chilling dread that shot straight from the soles of her feet up through the crown of her skull instantly made her feel as though she had plunged into an ice pit!
Because that object rolling on the ground.
Was, plain as day, a head — eyes refusing to close in death, its signature bronze mask already shattered in half.
A severed head.