Wu Hou grinned, watching the Venerable glide out from between the mountain walls, a sharp light igniting in her eyes and shooting straight towards him: "You will forever be nothing more than my servant!"

The Venerable swung his staff, summoning countless Earth Spirits. These spirits hauled themselves up from the ground, their entire bodies emerging, but just as they began to stir, Wu Hou’s gaze struck them, instantly turning them into hard, white blocks of stone. Yet, as Earth Spirits were products of nature itself, they gradually stiffened, shattered, and fell to the ground; those fragments of stone seemed imbued with life, reassembling themselves to regain their original forms.

"Kill them!" Wu Hou hadn't anticipated that her former servant had grown so formidable. She roared, pointing a finger in the Venerable's direction. Behind her, the pack of wolves surged forward like a tidal wave crashing down.

"Earth Spirit Formation!" The Imperial Clan members leaped beside the Venerable in unison. Their staffs activated, causing multicolored light to bloom across the scene. Beneath that light, countless Earth Spirits crawled from the ground. These spirits took on the massive form of giants, composed entirely of earth, stone, and sand; they possessed no minds, yet they obeyed the commands of the Imperial Clan. Facing the oncoming wolves, they knew no fear.

"Puff... Thud..." In an instant, the wolf pack collided with the Earth Spirit Formation. The surrounding earth trembled. In a flash of lightning and thunder, it became impossible to distinguish earth from beast with the naked eye! Beneath the swirling dust and smoke, the wolves tore and gnawed the Earth Spirits apart with their sharp fangs and claws. In a short time, they gained complete dominance over the field, standing amidst the rubble, their mouths wide in ferocious snarls directed towards Mount Buxian.

"Hahahaha, servants can only ever be servants!" Wu Hou's gaze was piercing; she paid the Buxian Imperial Clan no mind. She spread both hands wide, and above her head, countless small serpent heads thrashed madly. "Tear them to shreds!"

"Aooo..." The wolf pack obeyed Wu Hou’s summons, their fangs bared. They tore up countless clumps of ash and dirt from the ground, their eyes burning red as they charged straight towards the Imperial Clan members.

"Awaken the Spirits!" At this moment, a contingent of the Imperial Clan, clad in green robes, rose into the air holding jade-green leaves. They unfurled the leaves, and dew as gentle as spring water instantly sprinkled across the entire land. As those droplets slowly seeped into the piles of broken stone, the formerly white fragments instantly shifted to a profound ochre. They scurried about, meeting and converging to form a single, colossal Earth Spirit Giant.

"Pshhh..." The Earth Spirit Giant materialized with a whoosh. It opened its massive maw and roared a deafening sound at the approaching wolf pack, the sheer force of the cry blowing the foremost wolves clear away. However, these wolves were not without cunning. Seeing the might of the giant spirit, they began to weave and dart back and forth. The giant spirit tried to smash them down with a single sweep, but they flipped and leaped onto its body, using its form to charge past toward the clansmen behind.

"Not good, everyone retreat quickly!" The Venerable saw the wolves growing fiercer and their numbers endless. He raised the crystal staff in his hand and traced a beautiful semicircle in the air. This arc was accompanied by a scattering of pollen, forming a green shield. "Be careful, everyone. These divine beasts brought by Wu Hou cannot be faced head-on."

"Thump-thump!" Some wolves leaped over the body of the Earth Spirit, opening their jaws to swallow the Imperial Clan members one by one. But when they slammed into the green shield, they unexpectedly triggered its latent power. Every wolf that contacted the shield was instantly ensnared by plant vines that sprouted from its surface. These vines tightly bound the beasts and rapidly constricted, strangling them to death upon the shield itself.

"Charge! Charge for me!" Seeing the supernatural abilities of the Imperial Clan, Wu Hou became enraged and commanded the blue Skeleton Warriors behind her. "Kill them all, kill them all!"

The Skeleton Warriors moved slowly, but they were tall, dragging long broadswords as they finally reached the Earth Spirit. With a single downward stroke, they managed to slice away the stones forming the giant spirit's legs, one by one.

With the wolves biting from above and the skeletons heavily striking from below, the Earth Spirit was caught completely off guard. In that instant, it clenched both fists and slammed them violently into the ground, cracking open a long fissure. This chasm was so deep that the slow-moving skeletons could not possibly approach it.

"Venerable, look up at the sky!" an attendant called out to the Venerable.

Indeed, high in the heavens, the Chiwen was slowly closing in on the center of the conflict. It writhed its body, staring fiercely at the ground, and within its mouth, a huge mass of cloud-mist energy was rapidly condensing.

"Is there truly no way to counter Wu Hou?" The Venerable watched the scene with deep worry. The Chiwen pressed down with terrifying momentum, and as a divine beast among the Nine Sons of the Dragon, no one could naturally resist it. On the ground, the endless stream of wolves had already blanketed the entire shield; the shield before them was now a tapestry inlaid with wolf corpses. The blue skeletons piled up against the fissure before the giant Earth Spirit, their strikes ceaselessly eroding its power. "This isn't just Wu Hou's strength; there must be someone hidden behind her."

"Wuu..." At that moment, a sharp cry echoed from the high heavens. A massive air bubble had formed before the Chiwen's mouth. It raised its head and forcefully blasted that bubble downward. The bubble shot out like a sword, appearing as an object from beyond the heavens piercing the ground, bringing with it waves of immense compressive force wherever it passed.

"Everyone be careful! Form the Hundred Nether Golden Light Array." The Venerable once again brandished his staff, leading the surrounding clansmen in casting a spell to create a yellow shield formation. This shield glittered, and any wolf that lunged at it was instantly turned to ash.

"Clang!" A dull sound reverberated as the air bubble struck the giant Earth Spirit swaying before the array. The explosion followed the spirit's utter disintegration. The impact of the bubble destroyed the blue skeletons arrayed before the formation and obliterated the charging wolf pack. When the resulting fragments of stone struck the indestructible Hundred Nether Golden Light Array, they actually punched numerous small holes through it. Every Imperial Clan member struck by these shards suffered broken hearts and shattered bones.

"Heh heh! My former servant..." Wu Hou raised one hand and pointed toward the Chiwen in the sky. She licked her lips with satisfaction and chuckled, "How can mortal strength compare to an ancient divine beast? Today, Mount Buxian will fall by my hand."

The Venerable soared into the air, looking down upon everything before him. The wolves and skeletons struck by the Chiwen instantly reverted to their complete forms. But the Imperial Clan's array was broken, and the giant Earth Spirit could no longer stand. He could only use his staff to launch soul energy blasts to drive back the wolves, but he could not save the corpses of his clansmen who were firmly pinned beneath the feet of the skeletons. Could Mount Buxian truly be destroyed by the hands of the Wu Hou he once knew...?