Chapter 535: One Against Two
At this moment, Qi Han was extremely grateful that he had cautiously restored himself to peak condition before coming here.
Otherwise, facing the attacks of two ten-thousand-year spirit beasts at once, he would undoubtedly be dead by now.
As for the current situation...
It was still too early to say who would emerge victorious.
Although Qi Han had not yet obtained his sixth spirit ring and was therefore not a true Spirit Emperor, he could already be considered a quasi-Spirit Emperor. He possessed his devastating Five-Skill Fusion and had Pururu's Mist Flash as a trump card, allowing him to teleport unexpectedly into positions his opponents could not evade.
Even against two powerful ten-thousand-year spirit beasts, he felt no fear.
He had no idea how these two creatures had managed to instantly reconcile and decide to gang up on him, but he believed a one-versus-two battle was still manageable.
After all, the two had already fought each other beforehand and were not at full strength.
The Three-Eyed Battle Bear, in particular, had suffered significant injuries.
. . .
Very quickly, the battle erupted into a chaotic melee.
Shockwaves from the clash tore through the surrounding forest, leaving deep scars across the landscape and sending countless weaker spirit beasts fleeing in panic.
The two spirit beasts divided their roles with remarkable clarity.
The Three-Eyed Battle Bear lunged directly at Qi Han almost immediately.
Standing seven or eight meters tall, its muscular frame resembled a moving fortress, radiating overwhelming pressure as it engaged Qi Han in close combat.
Meanwhile, the Evil Eye remained at a distance, occasionally firing terrifying dark-spiritual energy beams whenever Qi Han's attention was occupied.
A slash of Qi Han's blade carved a deep wound into the bear's body, the attack carrying an armor-piercing effect.
The next moment, he twisted the blade and used its flat side to block a full-powered strike from the bloodthirsty, nearly berserk Three-Eyed Battle Bear.
Borrowing the impact, Qi Han flew backward, simultaneously avoiding another attack the Evil Eye had been preparing.
He shook his wrist slightly.
The direct clash with the bear had left it throbbing with pain.
A faint frown appeared on his face.
This isn't going to work.
He had overestimated himself.
If these had been two ordinary spirit beasts of similar cultivation age, he believed he could have handled them.
But both of these spirit beasts possessed spiritual attributes.
And Qi Han wasn't Huo Yuhao.
His kitchen-knife Martial Spirit had absolutely nothing to do with spiritual powers.
As a result, fighting them was proving especially troublesome.
The Evil Eye's constant barrage of dual-attributed spiritual-darkness beams was already annoying enough.
But even the Three-Eyed Battle Bear possessed a spiritual skill known as Battle Roar.
Every roar carried a powerful mental shockwave.
Each time it used the ability, Qi Han felt dizzy and disoriented.
Although he could still maintain his composure for now, he could clearly feel the mental attacks becoming increasingly effective as they accumulated.
Worse still, the Evil Eye clearly wasn't fighting seriously yet.
A creature like that possessed far more innate abilities than a simple spiritual beam attack.
Yet up to this point, it hadn't used any of them.
Its naturally cunning nature made its intentions obvious.
It was holding back.
Most likely, it planned to cooperate with the Three-Eyed Battle Bear to kill Qi Han first, then turn around and finish off the weakened bear afterward.
But if it realized that holding back wasn't enough to defeat Qi Han, then once it started fighting seriously, the pressure on him would increase dramatically.
I can't drag this out any longer.
Experience had proven that the best way to fight one versus two was not to fight both at once.
It was to find an opportunity and eliminate one of them first.
A cold glint flashed through Qi Han's eyes.
After retreating to avoid yet another attack from the Evil Eye, he spoke quietly, "Pururu, teleport us behind the Three-Eyed Battle Bear."
"Meow!" Pururu responded softly.
Ever since the battle had begun, its pupils had already narrowed into needle-thin slits as it continuously gathered power and prepared itself.
The moment it received Qi Han's command, mist instantly began swirling around its body.
In the next second, both it and Qi Han vanished from their original location.
The sudden disappearance caused both ten-thousand-year spirit beasts to freeze for a brief moment.
But Qi Han and Pururu had fought together countless times.
Their coordination was flawless.
Almost the instant they reappeared behind the Three-Eyed Battle Bear, all five spirit rings around Qi Han's kitchen knife lit up simultaneously.
The attack came too suddenly.
The Three-Eyed Battle Bear only had time to let out a despairing roar.
Then a blazing blade aura erupted into existence.
The slash nearly cleaved the enormous beast in half.
With such catastrophic injuries, the light in its eyes rapidly faded.
Within a few breaths, all signs of life vanished completely.
The Three-Eyed Battle Bear was dead.
On the other side, the Evil Eye remained stunned for only a brief instant before reacting.
A spiritual beam shot directly toward Qi Han.
Qi Han swung his blade upward.
The beam exploded apart under the strike.
Then, without hesitation, he stretched one hand toward the corpse of the Three-Eyed Battle Bear.
Spiritual power and spirit power were two fundamentally different forms of energy.
Although Qi Han's blade aura was incomparably sharp, it could not completely negate the Evil Eye's spiritual beam attack. As the beam was shattered, an invisible wave of mental energy continued forward unabated and slammed directly into him.
"Hngh..." Qi Han let out a muffled groan.
Under the impact of the Evil Eye's spiritual attack, traces of blood appeared at the corners of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
The Evil Eye's spiritual power was far stronger than that of the Three-Eyed Battle Bear he had just fought.
He had anticipated this situation long ago.
That was why, whenever he faced the Evil Eye's spiritual beams, he had never tried to block them head-on. Instead, he had constantly dodged and evaded.
The reason he had not avoided this attack was because he had something even more important to do.
The decision to kill the Three-Eyed Battle Bear first was not only because it was the weaker opponent.
There was another crucial reason.
The Three-Eyed Battle Bear could make him stronger.
With a thought, the bear's corpse—which he had already touched—instantly vanished.
Submit!
[Time-Limited Quest: Ingredient Acquisition (Completed)]
[ Reward: 1 System Spirit Ring (Claimable), 4-Star Recipe: Sisters of Pearl (Claimable) ]
Everything before Qi Han's eyes had become blurry due to the damage to his spiritual power.
Yet the quest interface remained perfectly clear.
He immediately claimed the System Spirit Ring.
At the same time, he shouted:
"Pururu!"
"Meow!"
Pururu instantly understood.
Another Mist Flash activated.
In the blink of an eye, Qi Han appeared beside the Evil Eye.
A white radiance shone from the kitchen knife in his hand.
Behind the five black spirit rings already circling it, a sixth spirit ring rapidly condensed into existence.
It began as white.
Then white turned to yellow.
Yellow became purple.
Purple became black.
The skill bound to this sixth spirit ring had somehow already reached the Perfect level.
This was completely unexpected.
Qi Han had assumed that a newly obtained spirit ring would only be at the thousand-year level.
But this was good news.
At this moment, however, he had no time to investigate what ability the sixth spirit ring contained, nor which culinary skill it was tied to.
Based on the pattern established by the first five spirit rings, he was confident that the sixth spirit skill could also stack together with the previous five.
Six-Skill Fusion!
His mental condition was already deteriorating rapidly.
If he could not kill the Evil Eye with this single strike, he would likely have no choice but to flee.
Hopefully, this newly acquired sixth spirit skill would be powerful enough.
The six ten-thousand-year spirit rings surrounding his kitchen knife erupted with dark radiance simultaneously.
In that instant, Qi Han felt all of his spirit power being violently drained away.
Even his already shattered spiritual power was squeezed dry.
Using the very last of his strength, he swung the knife.
A golden-red blade aura over a hundred meters long tore through the air.
Before he could even see the result of the attack, darkness flooded his vision.
His oil had run out; his lamp was extinguished.
At the final moment, using the last shred of consciousness he possessed, he entered the Training Space.
Then he completely lost consciousness.