Past life sage: This life a dual cultivator

A powerful aura came out from Shui Liying's body as she descended towards the ground. Her aura was not tyrannical rather her aura was extremely pure. A normal cultivator would think of worshipping her when one came across such purest aura. 

"Empress of woods: third technique: Dance of vines", Shui Liying softly spoke. She made few hand signs with her hands and the wood energy of the entire surrounding started to gather around her.

The energy undulation was so great that it attracted the attention of both Zhan Chen and the devil emperor. A bad premonition rose in the heart of the devil emperor as he decided to leave the forest.

He flew upward and tried to leave the heights of the forest. He was almost successful but at the last moment few vines came out from the tall trees and surrounded him. Before he could react, his body was already bound by numerous vines.

Shui Liying was doing different hand seals with her hands and controlling the vines. The vines themselves were not powerful as they could be cut apart by the attack of an early stage emperor but their strength lied in their numerical superiority. The devil emperor tried to resist as he created numerous wind blades and tried to cut apart the vines but he remained unsuccessful. New vines came out in large numbers, the more he cut them with wind blades. Finally his fingers were tightly bound and he couldn't perform any hand seals to control the elemental energy around him.

Zhan Chen witnessed an incredible sight, a late stage emperor realm devil expert was lying helplessly in front of Shui Liying's might. He tried to use his tyrannical physical strength to break through the vines but his attempts remain futile. Each of his body part was strongly bound by Shui Liying's vines.

A drop of sweat appeared on Shui Liying's forehead as she continued to use hand signs. Despite her exhaustion, she felt a sense of acheivement after catching the mighty devil emperor. "Husband, what should we do? I can't keep him bound forever", Shui Liying looked towards Zhan Chen.

"Don't you have any killing moves? You can take his head and claim a reward from the Sky dragon alliance. I bet everyone will be surprised when they learn about your acheivement", Zhan Chen spoke. He encouraged Shui Liying so that she could get something useful for herself from the Sky dragon alliance.

"Husband, can you handle him for me after I decapacitate him. Unless it is extremely necessary, I prefer not to take a life", Shui Liying spoke.

Zhan Chen felt slightly perplexed after hearing Shui Liying's words. He didn't understand why she would hesitate to kill an enemy emperor. But now was not the time to think about it. So, he decided to focus on dealing with the devil emperor first.

"Forest fury; Sylvan strike", Shui Liying murmured. She gave a hand signal and numerous energy swords appeared around the body of the devil emperor. The devil emperor struggled madly but he could only watch helplessly as the numerous wood elemental swords impale his body.

The devil emperors's physical body was very sturdy and it was impervious to many attacks but his body's defence could not last long infront of Shui Liying's incessant attack. Numerous wood elemental swords collided with his body and finally few scars appeared on his sturdy body.

His physical body could no longer resist the wood elemental swords as he got impaled by numerous swords. "Ahh", the devil emperor let out a pained roar. His eyes were full of hate and anger as he looked towards Shui Liying.

"Bastards, you think you can deal with me like this?", the devil emperor roared out. His aura completely exploded as a red glow appeared all over his body.

"Blood explosion technique", the devil emperors roared out as his aura skyrocketed. Shui Liying's expression changed as she found it difficult to keep binding the devil emperor.

"Liying, retreat. You are no match for this crazed devil at this moment", Zhan Chen spoke. He used the Ethereal cloud steps and appeared beside Shui Liying to protect her. 

"Puny humans, how dare you mess with me like this? I will eat your bones and sacrifice your souls to the devil god to get even. After I am done with you both, I will personally go to butcher other humans from the Grey ash city", the devil emperor spoke as he shook his body. To Shui Liying's surprise, her technique rendered inefficient as the devil easily broke the binding of the vines.

"Liying, let's retreat", Zhan Chen pulled away Shui Liying. He was observing the devil emperor closely and he knew the devil emperor was thrice stronger than before after using the Blood explosion technique. The devil emperor's body filled with stabbing sounds and blood was pouring out from each of his wounds. With all the blood and the vengeful expression on his face, the devil emperor was looking absolutely terrifying.

"Husband, what is with this devil emperor? How can he erupt with so much strength after getting injured like this?", Shui Liying asked with a look of disbelief on her face. She had never heard or seen such a technique where a dying cultivator would erupt with so much power.

"Liying, don't judge a devil by our human race 's common standard. He is using a forbidden technique at the moment but he can sustain it longer than a human emperor can do. In short, he will stay in his empowered version for an hour or two. After that, he will be extremely weak because of the backlash. So, all we need to do is stall for time", Zhan Chen spoke.

"Husband, I understand. Let's fight together", Shui Liying spoke. Despite seeing how terrifying the devil looked at the moment, she didn't get flustered. Rather her eyes glowed with fighting intent and determination as she stood along with Zhan Chen.

Retreating was not an option for both of them after they heard what the enraged devil had spoken. If they flee, the devil would go to trouble the Grey ash city.

Till now, both of them were unsure about the situation in the Grey ash city when they were away. Appearance of a late stage devil emperor was bad news for them because there was a chance that he had come to assist the devils who might came to attack the Grey ash city.

If a war was really going on in the Grey ash city, then the addition of a late stage devil emperor would tilt the balance towards the devil forces. So, Zhan Chen and Shui Liying decided to fight the devil emperor despite knowing how terrifyingly powerful the devil emperor was at this moment.