"Dodge!" Evan Chu shouted urgently, darting off to the side. Faye Knox, having just suffered from that white energy orb, also hurriedly shifted away.
The orb struck where they had just stood and immediately exploded, shaking the ground violently. Countless deep fissures crisscrossed the earth, and a massive crater—dozens of meters wide—gaped open.
Dirt and stones flew through the air in a terrifying cloud, while more boulders tumbled down from both mountainsides, quickly filling in the crater and cracks.
"Damn, that blast was seriously trying to kill us!" Evan Chu said, still shaken. The Nether Viper's energy orb was way more powerful than when it was in human form—taking it down would be insanely tough.
"Hey, little thief, how about we split up and attack? I'll hit it from the front and you go for the back. Together, we can break through its defenses!" Faye Knox suggested.
"Oi, woman, can you stop calling me 'little thief'? I have a name, you know! Besides, you're gonna devote yourself to me sooner or later—why not just call me 'husband' now and skip the awkwardness?" Evan Chu teased, not missing a chance to mess with her.
"Shameless! Once we finish off this beast, I'll settle the score with you—see how you die!" Faye Knox glared at Evan, furious.
"Heh, I like a good lover's quarrel. That's what you call a matched pair! Fine, let's go with your plan—just remember to go all out. My Stellar Power's running low, so I can only unleash one last ultimate move. You need to keep it busy while I look for its weak spot, then I'll hit it hard!" Evan Chu said seriously.
When it comes to life-and-death matters, Evan never gets careless. With a flash, he appeared behind the Nether Viper. Killing a beast this massive in one blow was no easy feat.
The Nether Viper writhed its gigantic body through the canyon, moving at incredible speed and sending rocks flying everywhere. "You two little brats actually dare to threaten me? You're dead meat!" it roared, its raspy voice echoing off the valley walls.
Faye Knox, meanwhile, was focused completely on the fight. Her black longsword started to emit sword-light, and she radiated a war goddess aura—her momentum overwhelming.
Suddenly, she moved. Her sword whipped up several layers of sword flowers, each packed with razor-sharp sword-qi, quickly weaving into a dense sword-net.
The surrounding space trembled. Even though Evan was some distance away, he could clearly feel the terrifying power of Faye's strike—maybe it was the strongest attack he'd ever seen. She hadn't even unleashed it yet, but the sheer aura and pressure said it all.
Still, Evan knew that if he used Star-Cleave, the Nether Viper probably wouldn't survive. But right now, he couldn't use it—without breaking into the Saint Martial Realm, his Chaos Dragon Force couldn't support the move. Back in the spatial black hole, he only managed it because he was desperate, and even then he had to rely on the Timewheel Bracelet.
The aftermath left him stuck in the Stellar Cultivation Chamber for over a year. He couldn't afford that kind of downtime here. If things got really bad, he could always grab Faye and escape—the Nether Viper couldn't catch up to his teleportation speed.
Besides, the Land of the Undead was huge—if he ran, the viper would never find him. Evan had already made the worst-case plan: if it came down to it, he'd unleash Unicorn Arm one more time before making a break for it.
But the real key right now was finding the Nether Viper's weak spot—its thinnest defensive point. Only by striking there could they seriously injure it. But with a body nearly a hundred meters long, finding that spot wouldn't be easy.
At that moment, Faye's sword-net suddenly burst apart, and countless black sword phantoms appeared in the air. Every phantom sword was charged with terrifying black sword-qi. If they all landed, Evan was sure the Nether Viper would be riddled like a beehive.
"Sword-Rain Dominion!" Faye shouted as the swarm of black swords shot toward the Nether Viper. When they were about ten meters away, something huge happened.
Just like Evan's Star-Cleave, all those little swords suddenly fused into one giant sword—more than ten meters long. The sword-qi radiating from it was terrifying, even stronger than Star-Cleave.
Evan was utterly shocked. Only now did he truly understand how terrifying a Ninth-Layer Saint Martial powerhouse was—he'd really thought he could challenge that realm easily, but now he saw how laughable that idea was.
The Nether Viper's huge body made dodging impossible—it could only take the hit head-on. Its massive jaws opened, condensing another white energy orb, nearly twice as large as before.
The giant sword's sword-qi surged toward it, and the Nether Viper spat out the orb. Sword and orb collided—"Boom!"—the thunderous crash echoed through the canyon, so loud it reached the clouds and could be heard hundreds of miles away.
The massive energy blast instantly collapsed both mountainsides, flattening the valley. But while both sides unleashed their ultimate moves, Evan wasn't idle. He might not know the viper's weak spot, but Soul Rend could still do real damage.
He swung the Frostbane Sword, sending a greenish sword-light of Soul Rend slashing into the viper's massive body. For a moment, the attacks from both sides and the serpent all erupted at once.
After unleashing Soul Rend, Evan flashed forward and appeared in front of Faye Knox—she'd been blasted back hundreds of meters by the energy clash before finally stopping. The Nether Viper's enormous body had also been thrown dozens of meters, covered in deep, bone-revealing wounds, bleeding everywhere.
But for a beast that huge, those wounds were nothing. What really got to it was Evan's Soul Rend—it felt the worst agony of its life, as if its entire soul was about to be split apart. The spiritual torment far outweighed the physical pain, and it thrashed madly, churning up dirt and stones.
Right now, Faye's face was ghostly pale, and she kept coughing up black blood, barely able to stay upright in midair. It was obvious that unleashing such a powerful technique had drained her badly.
Evan caught Faye as she staggered, grinning, "Wife, leave the rest to your husband. I can't believe you're actually this strong—go rest for now!"