74 Two is better than one

Since he could no longer use shadow lurk, Li Zhu was forced to charge towards Yun Mei without the use of skills, which made him incredibly visible. Fortunately this didn't matter though, as he was still able to effectively distract Yun Mei for enough time that she was unable to defend against Bo Ai's attack, which resulted in her stumbling back, her face becoming pale as paper.

In a battle between souls, one needed to be extremely concentrated, and any distraction could very well change the course of the fight. This, of course, was unfortunate for Yun Mei, since she now needed to deal with both Li Zhu and Bo Ai.

Li Zhu started off the fight by sending out a few shadow claws, some of which were fake, in hope that Yun Mei would be as easily tricked as Yan Peng.

Yun Mei followed up on his attack by forming hundreds of gestures with her hands, using the techniques of her Divine Water Clan.

The movements of her hand could not even be seen by how fast they were, and before he knew it, Li Zhu noticed a massive amount of water collecting above a particular tree, before slowly forming a familiar shape.

In the span of a few seconds, Yun Mei had managed to summon an enormous turtle made entirely of water, and throughout that short period of time, she had been protected by an invisible barrier, which allowed her to focus on her hand gestures without having to deal with Bo Ai's constant attacks.

That was not even her most impressive feat, though, as she then managed to direct the turtle to exit its shell, before moving towards Li Zhu. Yun Mei then entered the shell herself, effectively creating a powerful barrier between her and Bo Ai, one which she could see through, since it was made of water.

Normal turtles were incapable of leaving their shells, but it seemed as though the spirit beast created by Yun Mei was above those limitations, as it charged towards Li Zhu, at a speed which surprised everyone present.

Even though the turtle was nearly triple Li Zhu's height, it did not have many skills, and after missing a few charges on him, it started to stomp its feet, each movement forming deadly pillars of water which shot up from the ground.

The turtle did not stop its attacks, forcing Li Zhu to keep moving, or be hit by a pillar of water, which could easily injure him, considering the power behind it. Furthermore, Li Zhu did not really know where the next pillar would be, resulting in a suboptimal situation in which he was simply guessing.

Bo Ai was also struggling as well, since her Ghost Soul Arrows could not break through the turtle shell, while Yun Mei could still cast her skills from inside. By creating the turtle, she had of course used much of her energy, but that was not important, since she now had the advantage over both Li Zhu and Bo Ai.

As Li Zhu dodged the water pillars, fused with Buddy for more speed, he suddenly glanced back at the fight between Blue and Yan Peng, revealing a disheartening sight. The roc was circling around Blue, striking it and retreating before being struck by Frost Touch or the ice breath. The speed advantage had finally shown itself, and Blue had no way to defend against the roc, which was simply too fast to strike.

By now, the blue bird was riddled with wounds, and even the ice wings had shards missing, from where the roc had struck.

'What can I do?' wondered Li Zhu, panicking. Even though he had the Undying Beast Soul method, it still broke his heart to see his summon in such dire straits. He had no way to help, though, since the fight between the two birds was beyond the speed which he could muster, even when fused with Buddy.

At that moment, he suddenly had a realization, causing him to immediately turn his head towards Bo Ai.

"Bo Ai, Blue needs your help against Yan Peng... If you can use your soul techniques against the roc, the battle can turn around! In the meantime, I will deal with Yun Mei!" he yelled from afar.

Bo Ai was more than willing to follow this new strategy, since she had long gotten embarrassed at the severe disadvantage she had when fighting Yun Mei. They were both the heirs of their respective forces, but while the Myriad Soul Palace was stronger that the Divine Water Clan militarily, Bo Ai was losing out to Yun Mei.

Because of this, she immediately headed over to the fight between Blue and Yan Peng, just as the blue bird had nearly exhausted its energy completely.

Now that Bo Ai was out of the fight, Yun Mei could focus solely on Li Zhu, who now needed to dodge both water pillars from the turtle and the random skills thrown at him by her.

He had ample fighting experience, though, so as he dodged strike after strike, it almost seemed as though he could predict where Yun Mei or the turtle would aim for. This was not the case, though, and he simply had an incredibly fast reaction time, which allowed him to safely avoid even the closest attacks, as long as he stayed concentrated.

This stalemate continued for a while, before Li Zhu decided to change the course of the battle, since he was simply exhausting his energy by constantly dodging, without putting any pressure on Yun Mei. Although he wanted to attack Yun Mei, he could not use shadow lurk, and it was one against two, since the giant turtle was still alive and well.

As he thought about this, though, his eyes lit up. 'I also have an ally... Buddy! I have always fought fused with him, but maybe in this case it is better if we both fight separately!'

After this realization, Li Zhu interrupted the fusion between him and Buddy, before communicating to the black dog his plan, while still dodging the water strikes.

Then, Buddy entered shadow lurk, becoming invisible to all but himself. Shadow Lurk was only prohibited when it came to Li Zhu, since he was a participant. As for Buddy, it was the skill he was born with, so there was no reason for him to not be able to use it.

Li Zhu then ran towards the giant turtle, jumping from side to side to avoid the water pillars. As he approached the turtle, it stopped stomping its legs, preparing to smash into Li Zhu and defeat him with its massive body.

At that moment, though, Buddy jumped out of shadow lurk, viciously striking the turtle's side with shadow claws. This caused the large beast to turn towards Buddy, which Li Zhu used as an opportunity to get even closer, before jumping with all the strength he could muster, landing on the turtle's bald head.

The turtle was now extremely confused, since it could not decide whether to target Li Zhu on its head or Buddy at its side. After all, this was just a beast that Yun Mei had created from water, not an actual living creature that could devise battle strategies.

Li Zhu did not waste any further time, smashing his fist into the skull of the turtle, while Buddy launched himself onto its neck. The turtle simply struggled a bit, but it did not know who to attack out of the two enemies, so after a few seconds, it finally exploded in a burst of water, raining down on the forest below.

Yun Mei had a panicked expression as she saw this, since the giant turtle was one of her most powerful skills, and Li Zhu had easily managed to kill it. The shell around her was still there, though, so she continued launching her attacks at him from afar.

On Bo Ai's side of the battle, all it took to stun the roc into defeat was one Ghost Soul Arrow, since Yan Peng was not like Yun Mei, who had an incredibly powerful soul due to her role as an alchemist. With one arrow, Yan Peng lost the concentration required to keep up his form as a roc, and he fell from the sky, injured.

He did manage to stand up after that, but what met him was an angry Blue, who released a massive vortex of ice breath, freezing him into place.

Bo Ai smiled, overjoyed, since after fighting the Hundred Years Slumber Toad and Yun Mei, she had started feeling as though her abilities were quite weak. The one arrow against Yan Peng, though, proved that she had just been fighting opponents which could counter her skills well, and the Soul element was powerful, after all.

"Time to help Li Zhu in defeating Yun Mei!" she announced in a happy tone. The fight was nearing an end, and as long as they could beat Yun Mei, they would gain another five soul crystals, which would help them greatly in the trial.