Chapter 2253 - Lin Jianxing's Location
The moment the golden cage had fully formed, Yin Chen had already eaten a hole into it. Lin Linglin had wanted to use her lifebound beasts' advantageous strength to completely crush Tianming's hopes, but things didn't seem to be going too well for her. Even so, the seeds her beast launched weren’t an attack that Yin Chen could stop.
"Let's not be so quick to spout arrogance, alright?" Tianming charged out of the cage when Yin Chen made the opening. Quite a lot of seeds hit him, wounding him somewhat, but it was no big deal. He immediately locked on to the heavenly sunflower in the distance, which was causing him and his beasts quite a bit of inconvenience. "So, you're the fiercest one among them, eh?"
While Yin Chen was eating away at the flower, it would have quite a bit of trouble properly suppressing it, given the flower’s huge mass. Tianming's prime wonder rose up. It was one of the crucial trump cards that he was currently using in place of his totems. The gigantic tower turned into nine rings in the air before flying off in an instant, shattering the golden vines as they shot toward the heavenly sunflower. Countless golden leaves were shot out to block the rings, while at the same time, the plant was dealing with the Yin Chens that were on its roots and didn't pay too much heed to the power of the divine wonder.
Divine wondermancers were few and far between in Ebonia, so most people wouldn't even have a chance to face one in their entire lives. Lin Linglin definitely hadn't, either, and her heavenly sunflower couldn't imagine how powerful divine wonders were. The nine Prime Cosmic Rings shot out with crazy momentum, colliding with the leaves. When the seventh one hit, it burst through the shield of leaves, making a hole as it wrapped around the stem.
"Constrict!" Like a remote-controlled artifact, Tianming's Prime Cosmic Ring started shrinking to choke the heavenly sunflower. It let out a horrifying shriek as its roots and leaves wildly flailed, but the bugs infesting it couldn't be shaken off no matter how many abilities the sunflower used.
The heavenly sunflower was the core of Lin Linglin's fighting formation. The moment it was suppressed, Lan Huang, Ying Huo, and the others could unleash their full fighting potential. Xian Xian's abilities allowed them to fight even more fiercely! The other beasts of Lin Linglin’s were constantly pestered by vines, blood-red petal swords, exploding loti, and life-sapping blossoms that constantly chipped away at their defenses.
All of a sudden, the sharp cry of a bird rang out. Ying Huo had left a gigantic hole in the chest of the goldblade meteor peng! While the peng's flesh was hard, it wasn't something that could brush off Ying Huo's Blazebane, Cosmic Blade and it was dealt such a heavy injury that it was out for the count.
Tianming was being attacked by the flower seeds and Lin Linglin. Her Divine Flower Burial Dance made it rather difficult for him to break through and attack her, especially with her advantage of stronger astralforce. Thankfully, Ying Huo had managed to deal with its opponent, and with the sunflower itself being encumbered, the scales of victory were tipping in Tianming's favor.
"Hold it back!" Tianming cried. Xian Xian immediately understood and sent its black roots piercing into the goldblade meteor peng as it fell.
"Lin Linglin, stop resisting." Tianming didn't want to fight a fellow disciple of the Lin Clan to the bitter end. All he wanted was the green skeleton, and it seemed that the goldblade meteor peng was just the right thing to trade for it.
"Stop? Are you afraid?" She was enraged to see her lifebound beast injured to such a degree. She still didn't know what Tianming's goal was, but she raised her sword high in the air. "Come, swordbeasts!"
Hearing her orders, her lifebound beats—including the injured peng—changed into their swordbeast spiritforms and entered her sword. The peng was able to escape from Xian Xian's grasp just like that!
Lin Linglin was almost in her strongest form, with one weird exception: her heavenly sunflower that was being held back by the prime wonder couldn't return. It turned into its swordbeast spiritform, but the Prime Cosmic Ring's shocking constrictive powers kept it pinned down
Tianming willed his divine wonder to pull the heavenly sunflower close to him. "Lin Linglin, I'll trade you your beast for the green skeleton. Let's settle this quickly. I don't get a kick out of hurting it."
"The green skeleton?" The Soarstream Double Yang glowed brilliantly in her hand, having taken in five swordbeasts. Golden scales covered it, coated by the power of abilities being amassed. It was the perfect combination of human, sword, and beast!
She didn't think that Tianming would be able to hold his own against her, much less push her back, but she kept her composure. Though she had her reservations, she still coldly smiled and said, "Do you think you can get me to cave by torturing my lifebound beast? Fine. Kill it, then. Do you dare to do it with so many seniors watching you?"
Tianming was indeed troubled by that. She clearly knew that he wouldn't dare to do anything seriously debilitating to her. She also knew that she was having a hard time taking him down, so she was trying to buy time. Alright, I'll just beat her up and take it for myself! The decision was made in an instant, though not before he asked Yin Chen about Lin Jianxing's location. The fight had been intense, but not much time had elapsed.
"He isn’t coming back?" Tianming was quite surprised by Yin Chen's response. Given how much Lin Jianxing hated him, why wouldn't he rush back?
"Lin Feng, there's no rush. I didn't have Brother Jianxing come back. I told him that you're capable enough to escape before he returns, so he has to capture that cat to truly be able to get you. You must be happy at how highly I’ve evaluated you, right? I bet you're completely elated. Congratulations!" Her eyes shone bright gold and her sword had grown a few times larger, spreading its powerful aura across the battlefield.
This turn of events was out of Tianming's expectations. With Lin Jianxing now targeting Meow Meow, he clashed with Lin Lele. Thanks to that, Meow Meow had managed to escape.
"These two really know how to hang on to the fight. Guess I'll have to trouble Sis Lele."
Lin Lele had said that since all of them were from the same clan, and Lin Jianxing was a key figure of the third branch, he wouldn't dare to act too egregiously towards her in much the same way as Tianming didn't dare to permanently harm the heavenly sunflower.