Qiao Xuan ignored everything else and concentrated on applying more Mana into his golden claws. They shone brighter, announcing his next attack would be very strong.

With the boost he received from that ancient armor set, his strength doubled and Arwen's poison effectiveness dropped as well, making her finally feel some pressure. However, the fact that it was necessary an ancient armament to balance things out, pretty much showed who was stronger until that point.

After feeling some pressure, she gave up fighting him head on and started to retreat. Qiao Xuan wouldn't let leave so easily now that he would be using a powerful attack, but he had forgotten of something.

Arwen stopped trying to escape, since she wouldn't need to do anything in order to push him back anymore. The poisonous tornado that was still swirling non-stop, was about to reach their location and she was going to take advantage of that.

Those corrosive and rapid wind currents reached the place where they were, completely enveloping everything.

Qiao Xuan felt the incoming threat and saw how the Elf Queen wasn't trying to distance herself from him anymore, but control the tornado to better fit that situation instead. He quickly decided to change his approach and instead of charging towards her, he relocated the energy he had gathered on his claws to form another attack.

Now that he was wearing his protective armor, he simply ignored the tornado, only making sure to avoid not getting stuck inside of it. He rapidly prepared to use one of the most famous skills from the Lion's Pride Golden Palace; a skill pretty much everyone residing there could use, but no one could compare to him when using it.

The place and time for that ability was just perfect as well, since it would not only repel all those poisonous wind currents away, but it would create a great opportunity for him as well.

His whole body exuded a fierce and aggressive aura, that ran all the way to his throat, forming a powerful vibration on his vocal cords.

ROAR!

A loud din echoed out of Qiao Xuan's throat, bringing powerful Mana fluctuations and creating a golden blast that left through his mouth, blasting everything away.

The golden blast, infused with Mana Sovereign energy, generated the loud sound of a roaring lion, a predator that was ready to pounce on its prey.

The shockwave emitted, made the poisonous winds completely disperse, disturbing the core of that deadly tornado and disrupting it. That ability cleared the whole environment and got rid of all the poison present on the air and on the floor as well. But it didn't stop only there... That blast made Arwen's body suffer a pushing force, moving backwards very fast and making her lose her balance, exposing an opening she would never expose on normal circumstances.

Qiao Xuan was a veteran of war and would never let an opportunity like that pass by, so he quickly decreased the distance between them and extended his arms for a decisive strike. He saw that the Elf Queen would not have time and space to react or defend herself and that was the perfect opportunity he was seeking for.

Rip!

His arms descended towards Arwen's body, bringing forth the power of a Mana Sovereign cultivator, ripping the enemy in front of him with those deadly golden claws. As his claws were being brought downwards, a golden mark was left behind in the space, as if it was being torn apart by that weapon.

That attack was unavoidable and Arwen took it entirely. Those golden claws penetrated her body, completely tearing her entire figure apart; however, Qiao Xuan felt something was completely wrong.

Swoosh!

The elven figure standing in front of him suddenly vanished. Actually, it had turned into tiny particles, that dispersed like the wind. Arwen's timing on executing that evasive skill was so perfect, that even a Mana Sovereign like Qiao Xuan had difficulties on understanding what was really happening.

As a master of the wind element, the air was her ally and even at a situation where she completely lost her balance, using the wind as a support, Arwen could easily recover.

The Lion King felt a sudden sense of impending doom and tried to recompose himself faster, but before he could do anything, the sharp tip of a green jade sword penetrated the back of his armor, cutting through it like it was a piece of tofu. The green jade sword continued to go forward, till it penetrated his body.

He felt the blade entering on his back, trying to force its way towards the other side, but his hard muscular build helped him containing the force behind that attack. Oher than that, the golden armor he was wearing had practically absorbed sixty percent of the power behind that strike, else not even his tough build would have saved him.

It turned out, that the Elf Queen had timely used her evasive skill, completely changing her position, while leaving an illusory wind technique behind. Now, she was standing behind him, holding her jade sword that was penetrating Qiao Xuan's body already.

The fact that a powerful powerhouse like Qiao Xuan, wasn't able to accompany her movements with his eyes, showed how smooth her movements were. Everything worked perfectly so she could turn a disadvantage into an advantage.

Arwen felt that with her physical strength, she would never be able to penetrate further into his body. His physical constitution was something out of the ordinary and it was a solid fact.

Nothing she did, would make it possible for her to injury him further than that. However, she didn't need to do a physical injury deep enough to kill him, her abilities didn't require that. Just the fact her blade was able to have an access into his body, was already a fatal error committed by someone that fought against a poison user.

Arwen's sword started to shine in a greenish color, discharging the Evergreen Essence right inside Qiao Xuan's body. Everything happened in a fraction of a second and there were no possibilities for him to escape that poisonous judgement.

"Fuck!

"

Qiao Xuan infused Mana into his golden armor and many rays of light shot out of it, forcing the Elf Queen to move away while using her Mana to block those rays of golden energy. After she stopped every single one of them from hurting her body, the distance between them had increased a lot and they stood quite far from each other again.

The Lion King wasn't bothered in the least by that minor physical injury he had received. The real problem was that numbing sensation spreading from the area he had been cut, to the rest of his back. He felt that with each passing second, things were getting worse for him.

The Evergreen poison began to spread incredibly fast inside of his body and even his Mana Sovereign base cultivation, turned out to be useless against that strange green poisonous energy. His iron muscles served for nothing as well.

Qiao Xuan quickly took some special medicine pills out of his storage ring, swallowing them in a single second, but even after taking those strong and expensive pills, he was only able to feel the effects of that poison being slowed down a little. However, nothing he did was able to decrease the poison effectiveness or eliminate it from his system. Suddenly, he felt dizzy and tired, symptoms that were unknown to a cultivator like him. But when he started to feel powerless, he finally realized it had reached a critical point.

If they were to fight once again, with him in that state, things were going to go down the hill very quickly.

His armor was useless against a poison that had infiltrated his body already and instead of helping, Qiao Xuan felt those golden pieces had abruptly gotten heavier beyond measure. But even though his enemy had acquired a huge advantage and he was in a tight spot, he wasn't panicking yet.

The Lion King looked towards the Elf Queen with his turbid sight and said:

"I was planning on keeping you alive... But you forced me to do this...

"

The only choice left for Qiao Xuan, was to take advantage of his mystical Golden Lion transformation now. One of the main functions of his bestial transformation, was the fact that there would be a god-like cleansing energy circling inside his body, getting rid of any impurities. That cleansing energy was going to be responsible for nullifying Arwen's poison and bring him back to top condition. However, he could only use this once, since that transformation wasn't a switch that could be turned off and on as he pleased.

Qiao Duyi had used a similar tactic in order to dispel First Shadow's fake poison when they fought at the outskirts of Misty Horizon, but even though he succeeded in dispelling that fake poison, everything he did was useless against a Mana Sovereign entity like First Shadow.. But now, the one going to transform wasn't a subordinate, but the Lion King himself.