The battle continued in a stalemate. Keshab and the golden core formation realm cultivator from the Thapa clan, Saroj Thapa were still on stand-off. Both of them were charging their qi and the pressure around them was making the air still as if the surroundings around them were solidified. Saroj would have already rushed but he was still a newbie golden core formation realm cultivator and after seeing tricks pulled out by Keshab he was slightly wary of him.
Although there was a significant difference between a half-step core cultivator and a full-fledged golden core formation realm cultivator, if there were sufficient external help, the battle would turn into a stalemate. But since Saroj himself was a newbie in this realm he didn’t think he would be able to kill Keshab swiftly. So the two strongest cultivators of this battle were on stand-off looking at each other.
There were no words exchanged between them, only silence and palpable tension. Saroj would have used attacks to test the grounds but he still held back because he was waiting for something and he also felt that if the battle between them started this early, the battle would turn rather chaotic and may end early. The Thapa clan were in no hurry. Other than the war they also wanted to show the strength of their clan to the Lunaris city so after their departure there would be no one left to oppose their operation. They looked around the battlefield and saw the corpses of their clan members and their allies but they were not bothered.
It was established that there would be casualties in the war and even the whole clan may be destroyed. The two looked at each other with intense gaze ready to attack at a moment’s notice. As for Punya, the Thapa clan elders were starting to seriously attack him. The soul attacks from Liu Ming were held off by Kumari and her cauldron making them essentially useless. Well not useless as the soul attacks were gradually getting on her nerves but the backlash had hurt Liu Ming equally. He was getting injured repeatedly in small amounts but the large quantities of the backlash injuries were gradually accumulating to form a serious injury.
This was not a bodily injury as soul injuries take plenty of time and resources to heal but Liu Ming was in no condition to care. He was still in a rage, his eyes covered in tears and wrath becoming reddish. It was not to the extent of going berserk but he was not seeing anything but his father’s terrified expression on his face. The flame walls that stopped his soul attacks were making him even angrier and he gradually lost himself in the battle.
The Thapa clan members were battling Punya using various of their spells but they were getting nowhere as Punya deflected all of their attacks. His sword could change stances easily and there was no telling where the attack would come from. As for the two members of the Visigoth clan, the supreme elder and the clan leader went to help Liu Ming.
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Although they would be competitors after this battle, letting their ally die just didn’t sit well with them. Even if they couldn’t defeat Kumari, they wanted to distract her enough to save Liu Ming’s life because from their point of view, it was only a matter of time before he died before her flame and the Thapa clan members were busy with Punya. They didn’t have spare strength to help Liu Ming and even if they had, they wouldn’t choose to help. Frideric Visigoth and Alaric Visigoth went towards Kumari to defend Liu Ming from her attacks.
The crimson-hued flame was still burning and even the splashes from it were enough to melt most of the low-tier metals. But the two Visigoths were body path experts so they were confident in their defenses. They went before Liu Ming and shielded him with their bodies. It was a huge mistake. Although their body was strong enough to withstand most of the second-tier flames, the crimson-hued flame was a bit different.
It didn’t only burn the bodies of the cultivators but also their souls. When they blocked the flame with their bare bodies, the body didn’t hurt much but their soul did. Being body path experts, their body and tolerance for pain was great but their soul was their weak point and it did them more damage than it would have to normal cultivators.
This was the plight of the body path experts, until a certain stage their soul usually remained weak as it was hard for them to concentrate on both paths. Even if they focused on two paths, it would be the qi path as it was easier and more compatible. They became afraid at first but when they used their aura to eliminate the crimson-hued flame clinging to their body, they were surprised. The crimson-hued flame was extinguished immediately. Although the aura it took to completely extinguish the flame was more than they had expected, the clingy flame could be completely extinguished with their aura.
The supreme elder and the clan leader looked at each other and smiled. They had found a new way to deal with Kumari. It was as if they were the perfect counter for her. And they were right too because Kumari had only gone as far as adding a crimson hue to her flame. If she had more time to develop it, even the aura would corrode not to mention the soul with this flame. The properties of this flame were like a toned-down version of Amrit’s aura.
Kumari looked at the two cultivators with a little surprise because she didn’t know that aura could counter her flame but it didn’t matter as she found out that they had to spend more aura to extinguish the flames. She could keep this stalemate and deplete their aura. Although the aura could recover faster than qi or the soul power, it wasn’t as perverse as Amrit’s, the amount of flame in her cauldron was nothing to scoff at.
As long as she had a shred of qi in her, she could continue to produce the flames. The cauldron was a top-tier treasure of second grade with partial beast flame enclosed within. So she only had to inject a little bit of her qi to pour out the flame. If not for her lack of mastery of the crimson flame, she alone could have flooded the battleground with the crimson flame burning most of the cultivators to ashes in the blink of an eye.
The two Visigoths with their newfound discovery began to get excited and rushed toward Kumari with their fists full of aura. They wanted to attack her and defeat her in one fell swoop since they didn’t have to fear the crimson-hued flame that much.