Mind Element vs. Mind Element
Ghost Woman was furious beyond all reason.
She had engineered the death of the formidable Flame Enchantress herself. Zhao Yulin and Shi Gui were locked in her grip, unable to stir so much as an inch. She had expected the remaining rabble to break and scatter — instead, they had rallied together to come at her.
"You? *Just you people?!*" Ghost Woman's shriek split the air with such force that the white cloth covering her face cracked open and fell apart.
The white cloth fluttered to the ground, exposing Ghost Woman's ruined face — charred features twisted into a single grotesque mass, the visage of something inhuman.
Hideous as she was, revolting as she was, wretched as she was, not a shred of sympathy could be stirred. Beneath that nauseating shell was a mind even more diseased: a heart so twisted and rotted it putrefied from within, so foul that even maggots would refuse it.
"Her third element is Earth Element — everyone watch her eyes," Nan Jue called out immediately.
Ghost Woman had been a notorious criminal throughout the Dunhuang region, responsible for the deaths of countless Mages. Nan Jue's most admired instructor had fallen to Ghost Woman's hands, which was precisely why she had long since made a thorough study of Ghost Woman's capabilities.
Ghost Woman was already splitting her focus between two simultaneous intents: on one side, her Curse power kept Zhao Yulin pinned and immobile; on the other, her Mind Element was directing the controlled Mages against Shi Gui. That left only Earth Element magic at her free disposal.
Earth Element had few destructive spells. Basic level was Earth Wave; Intermediate was Stone Wall — one for displacement, the other for defense. Only the High-Level Eye of Petrification was a genuinely terrifying killing art.
The only ones still capable of fighting were the younger Intermediate-Level Mages. Against petrification, they were desperately vulnerable. Be frozen into a statue, and there would be no saving them.
Sure enough, just as Nan Jue had feared, Ghost Woman sprang onto a stretch of burning rubble. A brown Constellation materialized in three-dimensional splendor, encircling her on all sides. When every Star Mote, Star Trail, and Star Chart of that brown Constellation blazed with sudden, fierce brilliance, Ghost Woman's eyes had already transformed into something that could only inspire terror — the Gaze of Medusa.
The Gaze of Medusa: meet those eyes and you turn to stone, every last trace of life extinguished.
Ghost Woman's Eye of Petrification swept outward in a broad fan. A curtain of ashen gray came rushing forward at frightening speed, swallowing everything in its path. Wooden debris on the ground, water spraying from the shattered pool — after that dreadful gray-white pall passed over them, all of it turned to rock. Even individual droplets suspended mid-air solidified into stone.
The wave of petrification surged toward Mo Fan, Xinxia, and Zhao Manyan, intent on turning all three into lifeless statues. The gray-white wall of death was barely a hundred meters away.
"Get behind me!" Zhao Manyan stepped immediately in front of the other two.
Golden radiance erupted in all directions. Moving with practiced precision, Zhao Manyan shaped it into a layered barrier before them — Light's Grace combined with a Picture Wall.
The golden wall rose before them. When the petrification shadow struck it, the glittering, translucent barrier lurched with a violent shudder, its brilliance suddenly guttering —
The petrifying force had slowed somewhat, but the Light's Grace Picture Wall was no match for a High-Level spell. It was on the verge of shattering entirely.
Zhao Manyan knew a single light wall would barely buy them anything. He immediately called forth his precious Shield Enchanted Gear.
The light wall collapsed at the exact moment the Shield Enchanted Gear rose to take its place. The fan of petrification had already smothered the flames around them, coating every surface in ashen gray — yet the small patch of ground where they stood was still holding on, barely, by sheer will.
"Nether Separation Shield!"
Seeing Zhao Manyan barely keeping them alive, Mo Fan quickly summoned his own Shield Enchanted Gear as well.
Two shields. The creeping petrification slowed. But both costly barriers had already turned to blocks of solid rock — one hard knock and they would shatter to dust.
"Water Control — Circulation!"
Zhao Manyan layered on a Water Element defensive technique, pushing back against the tendrils of petrification still seeping through the cracks. Beads of sweat stood out across his forehead, each the size of a soybean — testament to the strain of holding it all together.
"Stone Wall!"
Zhang Xiaohou, seeing the three of them still in desperate straits, threw up a defensive wall of his own to add to the effort.
"Ice Lock!"
"Ice Lock!"
At that same moment, a man's voice and a woman's rang out in unison from somewhere nearby. Seven or eight frost chains — each as thick as a person's wrist — came clanging and ringing toward the three of them. Under their casters' control, the Ice Locks wove layer upon layer into a lattice of chains, shielding them from the relentless onslaught.
"You two—" Zhao Manyan caught sight of the Ice Locks and turned toward Mu Xiu and Mu Ting Le, relief breaking across his face.
Mu Xiu was proud and bristling by nature — the kind of Noble Clan scion who could barely stand the sight of someone like Zhao Manyan. Even so, Ghost Woman's crimes were beyond the pale. Even the Mu siblings could not stand by any longer.
"You lot would never handle a High-Level Mage on your own," Mu Xiu said with a cold snort. "But with the two of us added? That's a different matter entirely."
"Damn it, would it kill you to drop the posturing?" Zhao Manyan shot back. "Your Ice Element counters her Stone Element hard — so stop wasting time and move!"
Stone Element's defenses could deflect the overwhelming majority of destructive spells — even the domineering force of Lightning Element — but against the all-pervasive chill of ice and frost, those thick stone walls were helpless. Ice could freeze stone solid, defenses and all.
The Mu siblings unleashed Ice Vine simultaneously. Both were Mages who possessed Spirit Seeds. As frost rained down from above and the creak and groan of freezing rubble spread across the ground, the power behind Ghost Woman's Eye of Petrification visibly weakened.
Seeing even those two Mu brats jump out to stand against her, Ghost Woman's scarred, burned face began to twitch.
"Perfect — I'll wash down the Fire Calamity Fruit with your blood!!" Ghost Woman's voice was a shrill, grating shriek. Combined with her deep mastery of Mind Element, the sound drove into the ears of every person present like a wail from beyond the grave.
At that sound, everyone frantically clapped their hands over their ears.
But this banshee screech was not a true Sound Element attack. It was a curse that worked from within — burrowing straight into the mind. Even a deaf man could not drive out that kind of hex.
"It's fear — everyone stay calm," Xinxia said, instantly recognizing that Ghost Woman had launched another Mind Element assault, and she cried out to warn the others.
With the immediate threat of the Eye of Petrification eased, a delicate trace of Star Trails began to spiral slowly upward beside Xinxia's slender figure, like ribbons woven from starlight. When the seventh Star Mote locked into place and completed the circuit, her Mind Element spell finished with quiet precision.
"Spirit Ripple — Soothe!"
Spirit Ripple: the Basic-Level spell of Mind Element.
The soothing soul-wave spread slowly through the hearts of every person present, settling over their agitation and dread. In the depths of their minds, ghastly apparitions had been shrieking and raging — making it impossible to concentrate, impossible even to form the syllables of a spell. But the gentle, calming ripple of the Soothe passed over it all like sacred music, purging every nightmare and every phantom from within, and with them the bone-deep, nameless fear.
"Ruining my plans — you little wretch!!" Ghost Woman's Mind Element assault had been dissolved by Xinxia for the second time. Shame and fury blazed behind those venomous eyes as she screamed herself hoarse.