With a burst of speed, Li Jue Tian charged forth, and Shi Chang Xiao, Ying Bo Kong, and Lei Wu Bei dared not lag. They swiftly shifted positions, instantly securing their attack coordinates, launching their strikes in sequence. Though they had no prior strategy meeting, each of the three was a seasoned veteran; the precise positioning they adopted was the optimal setup to coordinate with and echo Li Jue Tian's assault against Mei Zun Zhe.

Li Jue Tian shot forward, his figure gradually fading—he was attacking at maximum velocity. The Venerable Mei snorted and unleashed a punch.

Li Jue Tian recoiled, closing the distance to the Venerable Mei, only to slip away like an eel to the side, retreating diagonally. From the position he had just vacated, two fists suddenly erupted, colliding squarely with one of the Venerable Mei’s blows. Simultaneously, Ying Bo Kong soared into the air, unleashing his Full-Speed Flying Eagle technique, diving down from above—Ghost Eagle Nine Claws, First Style.

Lei Wu Bei's dusky long blade flashed again, stabbing past Shi Chang Xiao's ribcage, aiming directly for the Venerable Mei's sternum, encompassing a five-foot radius around her upper body. This was a battle for honor and life; even treasuring his precious blade, he had to risk everything.

At the same instant, Li Jue Tian’s retreating side profile spun back like a high-speed gyroscope, converting his retreat into momentum, turning departure into return, launching a fierce counter-attack from the flank.

The four attacks were sequential, yet their coordination was seamless, all targeting the Venerable Mei’s vital areas with unpredictable, baffling maneuvers. Superficially, it seemed to be a simple exchange of punches and kicks, but the Venerable Mei knew perfectly well that engaging any one of them would immediately devolve into an impossibly complex cascade of follow-up moves, trapping her within moments, while the true killing strokes of the other three would strike the instant she was ensnared.

Facing the combined might of the Four Supremes, the Venerable Mei dared not be careless. With a long cry, she spun, first evading Shi Chang Xiao’s dual fists. Her black robe billowed out, deflecting Lei Wu Bei’s incoming blade by the slightest margin. As she turned, she shifted sideways, yet the punch she had not yet retracted continued its direct trajectory toward Li Jue Tian. At the same moment, she flicked her left hand, and a razor-sharp blast of energy shot out like a cannonball, intercepting Ying Bo Kong as he plummeted from the sky.

Confronted by the four Supremes’ coordinated siege, the Venerable Mei remained unruffled, dissolving all four assaults in the blink of an eye, while simultaneously retaliating without yielding an inch.

Li Jue Tian gritted his teeth and, paradoxically, accelerated. He knew that among the four, one had to commit to a head-on collision with the Venerable Mei to give the other three a chance to complete the encirclement. Since the others lacked the courage—or the willingness to sacrifice—and his own injuries meant he couldn't sustain the fight for long, the burden fell to him. Hatred for the Venerable Mei fueled Li Jue Tian’s utterly reckless decision. The knuckles on his fist cracked, faintly shrouded in a pale green aura; clearly, this punch was thrown with every ounce of his remaining strength, intending a genuine, unadorned clash.

He had calculated that after repelling the other three, the Venerable Mei’s footwork, however superb, must be nearing exhaustion, forcing her into a direct exchange with him. If he were in her shoes, this would be his only option.

The Venerable Mei’s face grew icy. In a flash of lightning and flint, she retracted her fist only to launch another Void-Piercing Punch to meet Li Jue Tian’s. Simultaneously, she let out a long shriek, unleashing forty-nine consecutive kicks with both legs, propelling her entire body upwards like a rocket, soaring high above. While the three below were still occupied, a continuous series of explosions erupted in the air above, as the Venerable Mei and Ying Bo Kong traded seven or eight lightning-fast blows.

Two dark shapes flashed simultaneously. Ying Bo Kong tumbled back into the sky once more, while the Venerable Mei descended in a gracefully arcing trajectory. However, at the moment of descent, she suddenly inverted, head downward, extending both sleeves—wide and flowing—and abandoning Shi Chang Xiao and Lei Wu Bei, fiercely lunging toward Li Jue Tian.

Observing this posture, anyone could discern the Venerable Mei’s relentless momentum; she clearly intended to exploit Li Jue Tian’s severe injuries and eliminate this most detestable and troublesome adversary first.

Li Jue Tian bellowed and retreated at lightning speed. Though he had sought a clash, doing so now was utterly irrational. At this juncture, the others were all left behind by the Venerable Mei, making it a one-on-one fight, and he was slightly off-balance, having exhausted old strength before new power could manifest. Even if he risked his life for a decisive blow, the Venerable Mei could casually evade any ensuing attacks after striking him down. Furthermore, with Ying Bo Kong launched into the heights, the aerial threat was temporarily neutralized. Thus, Li Jue Tian could only retreat, constantly falling back. “This is bad,” muttered Lei Bao Yu and Bu Kuang Feng, observing from a distance, both jerking their thighs.

As Li Jue Tian retreated, he unexpectedly found the Venerable Mei making no attempt to pursue, not even maintaining the momentum of her chase. Her body seemed pulled by an invisible line in the sky, shooting straight and fast toward Shi Chang Xiao. Before she even landed, her two legs, previously bent mid-air, suddenly lashed out like a storm.

The Venerable Mei’s true target was not Li Jue Tian, but the Supreme of Life and Death, Shi Chang Xiao—the man who posed the greatest threat on the ground and the only one among the three grounded figures who was completely uninjured! Clearly, the Venerable Mei intended to give this unblemished combatant the same treatment as the other two.

A misty film spread across Shi Chang Xiao’s face, his eyes seeming to instantly petrify; even his pupils appeared to have turned white. He roared and thrust both fists out in fury.

Hard Clash!

He could not retreat, for Lei Wu Bei was directly behind him. If he yielded, that strike would fall entirely upon Lei Wu Bei, who, in his current wounded state, could be rendered incapable of fighting by a single blow.

The Venerable Mei’s twin kicks vibrated the very air, far beyond the power of ordinary strikes. If Lei Wu Bei were eliminated in one move, the four-way siege would break, leaving only three against one, guaranteeing their defeat. Therefore, Shi Chang Xiao had no choice but to meet the attack head-on.

The Venerable Mei’s first kick struck Shi Chang Xiao’s fist. Shi Chang Xiao shuddered violently and urgently tried to retract his punch to dissipate the force, intending to follow up with another strike. But before he could pull back, the Venerable Mei’s second kick slammed down onto his retracting fist.

Shi Chang Xiao was alarmed. He hastily thrust his left fist forward, trying to remedy the situation in the brief instant before his body was fully thrown back. But before his left hand arrived, the Venerable Mei’s third kick descended with the force of a thunderbolt onto his right fist! Still that same fist!

These three continuous kicks landed with virtually no pause, as if the Venerable Mei possessed three legs attacking simultaneously, each kick more powerful than the last. Shi Chang Xiao’s body swayed precariously, and finally, he could not hold back, staggering back a step.

Just then, his left fist arrived, but the Venerable Mei’s left foot, which she had held in reserve, finally shot out. Even at this moment, the Venerable Mei’s body had not touched the ground—BOOM!

His left fist met the Venerable Mei’s left foot with a great shout, and then the scene repeated the earlier action with his right fist: three successive kicks! The Venerable Mei’s two legs parted like a pair of scissors, yet every kick felt as heavy as a mountain.

A sudden sweetness flooded Shi Chang Xiao’s mouth; he felt a distinct tremor ripple through his internal organs. Finally staggering backward, he felt an itch in his nose, and a thin thread of blood sprayed out. He had sustained internal injuries after all.

Concurrently, Lei Wu Bei did not waste the perfect opportunity Shi Chang Xiao had created by risking injury. His figure flashed out like a phantom, his long blade slicing through the air with irresistible force. With a shush, it plunged into the black robe of the Venerable Mei. Before he could savor the triumph, however, he felt a hollow sensation as the blade sank in. A thought flashed, and he yanked the blade sideways, trying to slice horizontally. He felt a brief resistance, a slight blockage, before seeing the Venerable Mei’s left hand emerge from the black robe, her palm tightly gripping the blade’s edge, shoving it forward forcefully!

Her hand grasped the edge of this near-divine weapon, gripping the sharp serrations on the back, seemingly without the slightest impediment!

At this moment, Li Jue Tian and Ying Bo Kong attacked furiously, one from above, one from behind. The Venerable Mei, holding the blade with her left hand, used the rotational force that Lei Wu Bei exerted to twist and injure her hand, and instead bent her index finger, flicking it against the blade three times in the direction opposite the force!

Then, the Venerable Mei’s body, which had been suspended in the air, finally settled. Her black robe snapped backward like an oversized iron plate, pushing flatly against Li Jue Tian attacking from behind. Her two hands instantly transformed into thousands of flickering palm shadows, whistling up wind and clouds, converging a hundred palms into a single, luminous white triangle, which slammed forward with immense momentum, once again launching Ying Bo Kong high into the sky!

The blade in Lei Wu Bei’s hand, struck three times by the Venerable Mei’s fingers, felt three massive concussions in his chest, as if a giant iron hammer had struck him thrice. His vision blurred, and in a moment of disorientation, he stumbled back awkwardly, involuntarily swept aside by the Venerable Mei’s residual energy flow, landing directly in the path of the swooping Shi Chang Xiao.

With a series of sharp clinks and clangs, Lei Wu Bei’s treasured blade shattered into fragments of scrap metal, falling to the ground amid a cascade of ringing sounds. In Lei Wu Bei’s grip remained only a short, broken hilt! This peerless divine weapon, requiring only a few finger strikes from the Venerable Mei, was now reduced to a pile of scrap iron. Lei Wu Bei was heartbroken and nearly paralyzed with shock.

This blade had already sustained minute fissures during its fight with the Serpent King. Lei Wu Bei knew this but hadn't paid much mind, believing that with the augmentation of his profound energy, and facing only four opponents, he could repair the blade at leisure after this battle. He never imagined that a mere few touches from the Venerable Mei would cause it to shatter completely…