Standing eight meters tall, every step the beast took forward the ground quaked slightly and a clear imprint of its huge feet was firmly stamped on the muddy earth. Its formerly lustrous reddish fur was completely scorched and most of it had been turned into ashes exposing red-hot flesh with countless burns of varying degrees.

With an extremely ferocious expression capable of making anyone shudder in fear and freeze on the spot, the giant ape looked at Shangguan Bing Xue as if she were the culprit behind the extermination of its entire race.

Shangguan Bing Xue looked at the giant ape with an ice-cold expression on her beautiful face, completely ignoring the disturbance of the wind and rain that blocked her vision considerably.

Not only had the beast suffered terrifying burns that had rendered it practically unrecognizable, but it had also lost a limb. The Second Order giant ape's left arm had disappeared from the elbow down and judging by how the burnt flesh sealed the wound, it was very plausible that either the ape had done it to itself to stop the bleeding or that the Crimson Blood Judgment attack had somehow ended up helping the beast.

Furthermore, Shangguan Bing Xue also noticed that the steps the giant ape was taking were not as steady as when it was fervently fighting against the white tiger and the mutated spider.

As a level 40 soul evolver who in the past already was very intelligent in her own right, Shangguan Bing Xue quickly analyzed the situation she was in and the situation the beast in front of her might be in.

Because the current her was aware that defeating this Second Order beast that was probably as strong or even stronger than the white tiger would not be a simple task. After all, regardless of how talented and monstrous Shangguan Bing Xue was, she was still a First Order existence.

Unfortunately, she was not Bai Zemin in this case.

With lightning speed, Shangguan Bing Xue's mind drew the conclusions with the most sense and then began to devise a battle plan.

Roar!

The giant Second Order ape roared as it used its two red-veined swollen eyes to stare at the prey before it. 

Bang!

With a stomp, the beast made use of the momentum generated by its powerful legs to launch itself forward at a terrifyingly fast speed. In just an instant, the distance between the monster and Shangguan Bing Xue was closed!

The two-meter fist was reflected in Shangguan Bing Xue's pupils as it zoomed forward.

The difference between the eight meters tall giant ape and Shangguan Bing Xue's 1.67 meters created such a grotesque contrast that anyone watching this scene would probably scream before fainting in fear while imagining how the beautiful woman's blood would stain the ground in the next instant.

However, such a scene naturally did not happened.

Bang!

The giant fist of the Second Order ape struck the head of 'Shangguan Bing Xue' and then continued downwards before finally hitting the ground. A crater ten meters in diameter appeared in the place where there was scorched but firm earth before.

The body of 'Shangguan Bing Xue' exploded into a pile of tiny flickering lightning snakes that illuminated the vicinity for a few moments before disappearing into midair as if nothing.

The beast's eyes that were red not only from anger but also from the high temperatures of the flames that burned its body and from which it barely escaped widened slightly. The creature seemed surprised by what was happening but its intelligence was not developed enough to allow it to understand the situation.

Swoosh!

The giant ape quickly turned its body when it felt the fluctuation of mana behind it but was already too late. In the next instant, an arrow of ice shot out from the top of its shoulder. A bloody wound approximately 50 centimeters long and 5 centimeters deep appeared just above the ape's right shoulder.

Twenty meters away, Shangguan Bing Xue looked at the wound practically insignificant compared to the beast's overall size but her expression remained as cold as ice and her eyes filled with an unwavering battle will.

On her slender but curvaceous body, tiny blue flashes flickered steadily around her deep blue armor. 

This was the first time Shangguan Bing Xue activated her recently acquired Second Order level 5 'Lightning Movement' skill and was naturally surprised by the terrifying boost her movement speed received.

At this moment, Shangguan Bing Xue had activated 2 skills.

One of them was naturally Lightning Movement. The other was another movement skill, one that she had had for several weeks now and the skill that allowed her to prevent the Second Order Archaic Bear from escaping back then when Bai Zemin momentarily stalled due to exhaustion.

The name of the skill was Frozen Slide, and it increased her Agility by 30 points when she moved on ice. Usually, Shangguan Bing Xue did not use it because the skill needed her to consume too much Mana to make ice platforms, however, with a storm as large as this one, Shangguan Bing Xue's Mana consumption was practically negligible.

"Frost Rebuff." 

Her cold voice rang out amidst the lightning and the Frozen Winter Sword in her right hand shivered for a moment before a faint azure glow appeared on the blade of the weapon. 

Raindrops falling on the sword or nearby froze into small ice cubes before falling onto the ground with light tinkles at the same time as a light mist of frost was released from the blade of the sword.

[Frost Rebuff (First Order active skill) Level 5: Increases the speed of your slashes and the strength behind your attacks depending on the amount of Mana and Magic of the user. Wounds inflicted during the active effect of Frost Rebuff cannot be regenerated. The effect works against creatures up to 50 levels above the user and can be applied on sharp weapons. It consumes 60 Mana points to activate for 20 minutes and has a cooldown time of 2 hours.]

Roar!

The giant ape roared again and completely ignored the wound that had been inflicted on it. In fact, the beast did not even feel Shangguan Bing Xue's cut as the amount of pain and damage was negligible compared to what the ape experienced after receiving the heavy aftereffects of Bai Zemin's Crimson Blood Judgment attack.

After roaring, the beast charged forward again like a cannonball. In its enraged eyes, there was only one image; the woman before it! It only wanted to vent the anger it felt and the beast could still remember how the Soul Power of the human before its eyes was very close to the user whose Soul Power caused all its pain!

Shangguan Bing Xue hastily backed away and waved her sword backward while silently activating the rune of her Ice Maker skill.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Over twenty ice swords formed from the storm and then flew at full speed towards the giant ape.

The beast simply shook its right fist fiercely and a powerful air bullet shot forward to meet the incoming attack.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!....

Half of the ice swords were crushed with ease and only about 10 of them managed to continue forward, striking the beast's chest and abdomen mercilessly.

Having lost the protection of its fur and with its skin and flesh exposed, it was naturally impossible for the giant ape not to feel pain when struck by such sharp ice objects. However, even though the beast roared in pain, its steps did not falter and it continued to chase.

Shangguan Bing Xue created several ice weapons at the same time as she used her Frozen Winter Sword to apply part of the Frost Rebuff effect on her creations formed from her Ice Maker skill. 

As the giant ape chased after her, she managed to inflict several hundred wounds that slowly began to bleed, and that blood began to be washed away by the rain water before more blood came out. However, the wounds were too small! The giant ape was a monster over eight meters tall!

If Shangguan Bing Xue wanted to defeat it, she would need a lot of work and it was highly likely that her Mana would be drained early at the same time as her skills would go into cooldown time!

If my Ice Maker skill were Second Order.... Shangguan Bing Xue lamented in her heart as she agilely made perfect use of her martial arts knowledge to gracefully dodge the enraged ape's explosive attacks.

But thinking about the last remaining requirement to complete to evolve her main skill, Shangguan Bing Xue became even more resolved that she definitely had to defeat the creature before her!

After chasing for almost a full minute, Shangguan Bing Xue realized that in a few seconds she would be overtaken as her Agility was still far below that of the Second Order giant ape. She hurriedly pointed to the ground behind her and the bracelet on her wrist momentarily glowed.

Swoosh!

A two-meter earth spike flew out of the ground aiming for the giant ape's heart, but the beast didn't seem to notice as it simply continued to advance.

Bang!

The magical earth spike struck the monster's chest, but for the first time, the attached skill that possessed enough power to pierce a small armored vehicle failed to damage its target. 

Even so, Shangguan Bing Xue's objective was partially met as the giant ape was forced to retreat two steps back and pause for a moment before continuing to chase. This gave her the opportunity to increase the distance between the two.

Gradually, the giant ape began to feel exhausted.

Not only had it been severely injured before the battle started, but it had also previously been fighting two Second Order beings like it. In addition, Shangguan Bing Xue had been using her Ice Maker skill to attack from afar with ice spears, ice swords, ice blades, ice pikes, and so on.

With her Ice Maker skill and Frost Rebuff in perfect sync under Shangguan Bing Xue's exquisite control, the giant ape's body was now riddled with wounds that could not be regenerated while the Frost Rebuff skill was in effect. 

After the constant loss of blood, the giant ape finally felt its footsteps waver and almost fell to the ground as the fierce look in its eyes stagnated for a second.

Shangguan Bing Xue's eyes lit up with a fearful flash of bone-chilling light as she noted that the opportunity she had been waiting for had finally arrived.

Swoosh!

Shangguan Bing Xue turned her body with surprising agility and the flashes of lightning that flickered on her body traveled towards her legs automatically boosting her movement speed to the maximum possible as small sparkles of ice glittered under her combat boots.

The partially exhausted ape hurriedly looked up, but even though its brain and beast instincts urged it to move, it still needed a moment more before it could take a step. However, the beast did not resign itself and raised its fist high before punching forward with all its might.

The air split under the immense atmospheric pressure and a small cut appeared on Shangguan Bing Xue's beautiful face. Although the attack had not yet reached her, the resulting wind alone was enough to break through her natural defenses. She didn't even want to imagine what would happen if that giant fist descended on her small body.

If it were anyone else, regardless of gender, they would very probably be terrified at the sight of the imminent death just a few meters ahead of them. However, Shangguan Bing Xue was not only ruthless against her enemies, she was also a woman who was ruthless to herself.

That was the reason why she managed to reach the position she was currently in despite all the setbacks she suffered throughout her life!

Just as her head was about to explode into a bloody mess, her sky-colored eyes shone brightly like two beautiful lights in the middle of the darkness of the night.

* * * * * * *

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