"I'm okay. But my body feels quite sore," Pit Hong replied telepathically.
Lan Ming felt a little relieved, although he was more worried about the increasingly tense situation. Lan Ming admitted that this wood tiger spirit, unlike any other spirit, seemed to have endless energy and relentless attacks. Lan Ming began to suspect that this wood tiger spirit had been summoned by someone powerful.
Spirits like this are usually created by the blood of gods. Therefore, their energy and combat abilities are truly at a high level. Even an ordinary god would perish when facing a wood tiger spirit like this.
Lan Ming felt that this battle had already taken too much time. If they continued to let the battle drag on for long, he worried that Pit Hong would collapse. Additionally, he realized that his own energy was slowly dwindling due to sharing it with Pit Hong.
The thread that he had previously tied to his finger was now almost severed. This indicated that the energy being channeled was diminishing. Finally, Lan Ming had to do something reckless. He spat out sand from his mouth, then sprinkled it all over his body. Slowly, the sand began to absorb him. Lan Ming's form vanished in an instant, accompanied by a gust of wind.
The wood tiger spirit appeared puzzled, unable to move its body. Meanwhile, its companion tried to help, but to no avail.
Suddenly, the immobilized wood tiger spirit's body seemed to become fragile. Before disappearing with the wind, it crumbled away. Meanwhile, the other wood tiger spirit attempted to flee.
It created a shield of its thorns and continued to brutally fire the cannon. But its efforts were futile. Soon, its body also began to crumble and vanish with the wind.
Feeling that their opponent had been defeated, Lan Ming began to reappear in one swift gust of wind. However, when his body was almost fully manifested, a sudden unseen attack emerged. It nearly sliced through Lan Ming's body.
Quick to realize, Pit Hong pushed Lan Ming and allowed his humanoid body to act as a shield. In just a few seconds, the humanoid body was destroyed by the unseen attack. Its fragments scattered before Lan Ming's eyes.
"Pit Hong!" Lan Ming ran to reach Pit Hong's falling body. As he reached out, Lan Ming felt an intense ringing in his head, causing him to collapse and lose consciousness.
***
"Lan Ming! Lan Ming!" Pit Hong called out, shaking Lan Ming's body.
Lan Ming blinked his eyes until they fully opened. "Pit Hong?! Are you okay?" Lan Ming was surprised to find Pit Hong holding him up.
"No. My energy is almost depleted. If I push myself, I could lose my life. Moreover, my humanoid body is completely destroyed. We were both expelled from your mind's dimension. It seems the wood tiger spirit deliberately split its energy into several parts. So when we entered your mind's dimension, the wood tiger spirit attacked us with the prepared energy. What we fought in your mind's dimension was just one fragment of its energy," explained Pit Hong.
Hearing Pit Hong's explanation, Lan Ming realized that the wood tiger spirit had indeed been prepared beforehand. Its boundless energy must have been channeled by someone very powerful.
"The wood tiger spirit's energy is truly endless. It even destroyed my humanoid body when we were trapped in your mind's dimension. If we attack it recklessly now, defeat is inevitable," said Pit Hong. "What should we do, Lan Ming?"
Lan Ming himself did not know what to do. The wood tiger spirit was proving incredibly difficult to defeat. Eventually, he decided to avoid it as much as possible to buy some time. Lan Ming created a sand fortress and took Pit Hong there to hide.
They hid inside the fortress, exchanging thoughts to come up with a plan to defeat the wood tiger spirit. But their minds were nearly blank, unable to think due to exhaustion and their injuries.
From inside the fortress, they could feel intense tremors coming from outside. And it was clear that these tremors were caused by the increasingly frenzied attacks of the wood tiger spirit.
"Darn it... I'm worried this fortress will collapse. The attacks from the wood tiger spirit are getting more intense," Pit Hong expressed his concern because the tremors were so strong. He could even feel that the fortress, their place of refuge, could crumble at any moment.
Lan Ming knew that their situation was truly dire. He thought about using his sand chains to bind the wood tiger spirit. Although he doubted it would be easy to defeat the wood tiger spirit, he still wanted to try. Sitting idly by without resisting at all would only lead to their defeat.
"Pit Hong, you should wait here. I'll try to bind the wood tiger spirit with my sand chains," Lan Ming instructed before leaving Pit Hong inside the fortress.
"Alright. I hope it works," Pit Hong said. He realized that he wouldn't be much help at the moment. His injuries were quite severe, and his energy was dwindling. Pit Hong didn't want to die foolishly and make the situation even more difficult. He decided to retreat for now and could only watch the battle from afar.
Lan Ming quickly exited the fortress and floated into the air, summoning his sand chains from both hands. The chains made of iron sand were flung far and attempted to bind the wood tiger spirit.
Fortunately, with just one throw, the sand chain successfully ensnared the wood tiger spirit. The wood tiger spirit roared in an attempt to free itself. But Lan Ming strengthened the chains, causing the wood tiger spirit to choke. Feeling trapped, the wood tiger spirit then channeled negative energy through the choking chains.
Lan Ming could feel the flow of negative energy attempting to disrupt the energy within his body. Although he was in pain due to the chaos caused by the wood tiger spirit, Lan Ming did not release the chains. He endured all the pain caused by the disruption of energy in his body.