Swish!

The golden, drill-shaped attack tore through the air, spiraling in an aerodynamic twist that made it even faster. All the spectators were completely fooled by Zhao Huiyin. She had faked vulnerability to Jiang Qing'e's attack and then sprung an ambush. Anyone else in Jiang Qing'e's shoes would have panicked at the sudden twist.

The drill-shaped attack was right in front of Jiang Qing'e's face, close enough to be reflected in her calm, golden eyes. At the last moment, she tilted her head coolly to one side, and the attack passed her.

Pssh!

It whistled past her ear and continued its violent path into the forest behind, where it bore a giant hole through the first tree trunk it ran into.

A line of holes could be seen through all the trees in the drill’s path. It flew on, until it finally buried itself deeply in a mountain wall, deeper than they could see.

The penetrative power of Zhao Huiyin's attack was stupendous!

If this had connected, even a Fiend Body expert would probably have been severely injured.

But not even a surprise attack could touch her. Jiang Qing'e had dodged it by the skin of her teeth!

"Whew." Li Luo silently let out his breath. He had a brow full of cold sweat when the sneak attack had been unleashed. Zhao Huiyin had clearly been planning that attack for some time, to put up such a convincing act.

And that attack was crazy!

From the damage it left on the wall, he could tell that the attack had focused all of its destructive power solely on one tiny spot, and not even a defensive gold-eye treasured artifact could have stopped it.

Li Luo was not the only spectator with cold sweat on his brow.

Zhao Huiyin was taken aback that her attack had missed. "Well, Jiang Qing'e's reputation is exactly as the reality is," she said with a sardonic smile.

"Surprise attacks will not work on me," Jiang Qing'e said serenely.

"Light resonances have speed on par with wind and lightning resonances. Indeed, it's hard to catch you off guard." Zhao Huiyin agreed grudgingly. Still, she had thought it would be worth a shot. The payoff of something as deadly as Golden Tongue Drill connecting would have been huge. Many stronger opponents had been lured in before.

Still, Jiang Qing'e's acute sensitivities and speed were not to be taken lightly.

Reacting to the Golden Tongue Drill appropriately in the heat of the moment might be extremely difficult for anyone else, but it was just another easily-read move for Jiang Qing'e.

Zhao Huiyin was retreating speedily again.

She knew that Jiang Qing'e was about to counterattack.

Jiang Qing'e watched her back away. Twisting her fingers together, Jiang Qing'e summoned another thick coil of energy, spreading it out into small light points that floated around her head.

Each point of light began to expand and flatten until they became light mirrors.

Light energy from the environment responded accordingly, gathering naturally on the light mirrors.

Soon, all of the mirrors were sparkling with light energy, like a cluster of flat spotlights around their wielder. They lit up the entire mountain range.

"Sun's Mirror," Jiang Qing'e said softly.

Swoosh!

The mirrors aligned themselves forward, then they shot blasts of light bright enough to make the audience's eyes sting. Many squinted or shielded their eyes.

Even then, they could feel the scorching heat blast past them.

This was light power intense enough to call the power of fire.

Not red flames of traditional fire, but a divine, fiery light.

The heat that was born of pure light.

"What speed!" Zhao Huiyin thought to herself, eyes narrowing as she judged the attack. It was even faster than her Golden Tongue Drill!

So fast that she could not avoid it!

Zhao Huiyin's lips parted, golden light gathering again on her tongue. She fired out another one.

"Golden Tongue Drill!"

The conical screw attack flew out again, smashing into the light rays that were flying her way.

Pssh!

The moment the attacks clashed, the drill attack began to melt at frightening speed. The metal resonant power was burned away, and the drill ground to a halt as its grooves melted down.

This fiery light could even melt resonant power!

Even the elders' eyes widened at the effect. All of them had seen light resonance cultivators in action before, of course. Indeed, light resonance could call the power of heat, when concentrated enough... that was one of its signature powers. But they had never seen a fiery light strong enough to melt resonant power before! Furthermore, Zhao Huiyin's metal resonant power was nothing to sneeze at—she was an upper eighth-grade herself!

Even so, it had not stood up against the fiery light.

Such was the queenly power that Jiang Qing'e's ninth-grade light resonance held.

Zhao Huiyin's dismay was plain to see as she watched her attack liquidized before her eyes. She could feel Jiang Qing'e just one step behind her now. All of her carefully planned tricks and attacks had not posed much of a threat to the golden-haired girl from the Astral Sage College.

Swoosh!

The light rays melted the golden drill completely, then continued on their path towards Zhao Huiyin.

She retreated desperately, gathering golden light on her fingertips. This time, it seemed to flow like liquid.

Zhao Huiyin was no pushover either. She had honed her metal resonant power to excellence as well. Turning solid metal into liquid spoke of her exceptional control over the element.

"Liquid Skymetal!"

Zhao Huiyin flicked out the drop of golden liquid, which expanded into a wave of golden liquid that surged forth to crash against the fiery light.

BOOM!

This time, the heated light was finally stopped.

Zhao Huiyin had no time to feel relieved. The light mirrors above Jiang Qing'e's head glowed again, and a dozen more light rays flew towards her. Her attack had no pomp, no additional flair to it. Just relentless, pure power that was beauty in its own right.

Zhao Huiyin slammed her hands together, digging deep to summon drop after drop of the golden liquid. She gathered them all up in a small sphere and then curled up within it.

The liquid metal was rapidly cut away by ray after ray from Jiang Qing'e.

BOOM!

The fiery light rained down on the molten sphere around Zhao Huiyin.

The intense heat left the ground unharmed. It was a unique fire that did not harm objects, but would sear flesh badly and even incinerate bone.

Part of it was due to the special nature of this fire; it used the victim's body as fuel, growing stronger upon contact.

The flames of light had completely caged Zhao Huiyin now. Everyone was watching closely. Surely the outcome would be decided here, right?

Jiang Qing'e narrowed her eyes and poured on the fire.

Weng!

Suddenly, a scythe of metallic power burst out of the nimbus of light, slicing the flames of light into two.

A figure leaped out of its midst.

The audience could not believe their eyes, watching in amazement.

Zhao Huiyin landed on the ground, her neatly-tied hair now loose and wild. Metallic ripples of power flowed over her glassy body, and she now had a golden pole scimitar in her hands.

She slammed the curved blade into the ground with monstrous strength.

Her arched and coy eyes now had a demonic look to them, a cold, crazed energy that made them twitch.

Zhao Huiyin looked like a completely different person from before.

A more dangerous one.

Lu Cāng and the other Blue Abyss Sage College students leaned back and smiled in relief.

"So she's pulled it out..."

"Senior Zhao's true trump card, the weapon that once created a slaughter in Blue Abyss..."

"The Metal Rakshasa."