Chapter 2086

The burly man activating the residual image of the Broad Yin Treasure Mirror in midair, upon hearing this sound, was instantly startled, his divine sense hastily sweeping downward toward the black mist.

That tragic cry was unmistakably the voice of one of the Bai family disciples he had brought along.

Normally, with his cultivation level, he could instantly and clearly discern the situation within the formation, but now, with his cultivation greatly suppressed and further hindered by the formation's power, he could not clearly perceive what was happening within the black mist.

He only vaguely sensed that, among the six disciples' auras originally present in the formation, one had suddenly vanished.

The yellow-haired burly man, shocked and enraged, had not yet had time to react when two more tragic cries echoed consecutively from within the black mist.

Following this, the auras of two more Bai family disciples strangely disappeared.

"Senior, save me!"

Suddenly, a figure shot out from the black mist, emitting a frantic shout from a Bai family disciple, rushing straight toward the nearest Lu Long Heavenly Monarch.

However, amidst this sea of fire, even at full speed, how fast could he possibly fly?

And Lu Long Heavenly Monarch's expression shifted slightly, yet he remained completely motionless in place.

Seeing this, the white-haired Bai family disciple's face instantly showed despair. Before he could even begin to curse Lu Long Heavenly Monarch, as he rolled out from the black mist, a streak of Bai Guang shot forth—arriving first despite being launched later—unaffected by the sea of fire's power, merely flashing forward to strike the Bai family disciple ahead.

After a miserable cry, the elder's protective demon aura dissipated, his entire head rolling down like a ball, while at the original neck position, another blurry head suddenly protruded, the Bai Guang hazy but its gaze like blood, coldly glancing once at the nearby Lu Long Heavenly Monarch.

Upon Lu Long Heavenly Monarch's eyes meeting the hazy, blood-like gaze of the skull, he instantly felt a bone-chilling cold pour from the crown of his head down his entire body, as if all his blood had instantly frozen.

Lu Long Heavenly Monarch was greatly alarmed; with a shake of his sleeve, a bone shield flew out, accompanied by eerie wailing sounds, blocking in front of him.

At this moment, two soft "pū pū" sounds came from the black mist, as Bai Yunxin and another Bai family disciple flew out in panic—one rushing toward Han Li, the other fleeing toward Han Qizi.

The strange head that had appeared on the elder's neck glanced blankly at the two, then suddenly transformed into a streak of Bai Guang, flying out from the elder's body, then becoming a blur before splitting into two, shooting toward Bai Yunxin and the other disciple.

In just a flash, it strangely appeared not far behind the two.

"Senior, save me! ""Han Senior…"

The other Bai family disciple and Bai Yunxin, seeing this, immediately had their souls fly apart in terror, screaming as they each unleashed several protective magical artifacts—some turning into layers of black mist, others into rolling clouds of rosy light—to shield their entire bodies.

But the Bai Guang seemed to be an intangible entity, completely ignoring those black mists and rosy lights, piercing through them in a flash and directly entering the two disciples' bodies.

In the next moment, Bai Yunxin and that Bai family disciple likewise cried out as their heads rolled off the ground, from which two additional hazy Bai Guang heads emerged.

The speed of the Bai Guang's movement was such that even Han Li and Han Qizi had no time to intervene and assist.

Both of their expressions changed slightly.

Had they not been unable to use escape techniques and trapped within the fire sea restriction, rescuing these two Bai family disciples would not have been particularly difficult; but now, they could only watch helplessly as Bai Yunxin and the other disciple fell lifeless to the ground.

Han Li glanced at the headless elder's body from which the Bai Guang had just departed, only to find the corpse already withered into a shriveled lump, all flesh and blood completely gone, resembling the several miserably dead Bai family disciples previously discovered in the mine tunnels—indistinguishable in their wretched state.

It appears the few guardians left behind at the Bai family outpost met their end at the hands of this unknown monster.

However, these two split-off monsters seemed to also know that others were not as easily dealt with as the six previously slain; although they had taken over the bodies of two Bai family Void Refinement disciples, they merely stared coldly at Han Li and the others with bloody red eyes, without launching any flying assault.

Yet this very fact—indicating the monster possessed considerable spiritual intelligence—only made Lu Long Heavenly Monarch, Han Qizi, and the other old demons grow increasingly wary.

After witnessing the white light split into two and display such divine power, the yellow-haired burly man and the purple-haired woman exchanged glances, saw shock and anger in each other's eyes, exchanged a few quick mental transmissions, then the yellow-haired burly man immediately shouted toward Han Li: "Fellow Daoist Han, you and my junior sister first engage this monster; I and Lu Long, Han Qizi—two fellow Daoists—will first handle this demon beast below. Once we settle this beast, we'll join you again to deal with that monster."

As his words fell, the purple-haired woman's white battle armor suddenly blazed with light, forcing back the nearby crimson flames, then she shot straight toward Han Li.

Upon hearing this, Han Qizi's eyes flashed with a gloomy Yin light, and over ten clusters of cold light on his body instantly shot forward without a word, similarly parting the fire sea as he flew toward Lu Long Heavenly Monarch and the yellow-haired burly man.

At this moment, with a formidable enemy before them, it was no time for argument; this ice-cold-looking demon venerable clearly accepted the yellow-haired burly man's suggestion.

Han Li gave a faint smile, showed no objection, and waited until the purple-haired woman and her companions floated to within about ten or so zhang of him before mentally transmitting: "Fellow Daoist Fu Tian, this monster is so strange—do you know anything about its origin?"

"To be honest, I feel ashamed—I've never seen such a monster before. But I once read an ancient strange book describing a kind of demon spirit that seems somewhat similar to the one before us. Still, I cannot confirm whether it is truly this demon spirit." The purple-haired woman hesitated, then replied slowly.

"Demon spirit?" Upon hearing this, Han Li's expression tightened slightly.

Although the woman's words were somewhat vague, it was clear this demon spirit was not easy to deal with.

"Indeed. I suspect this monster might be a demon spirit formed from the spiritual energy of this vein! If so, this demon spirit would not only be formless and bodiless, immune to blades and spears, untouched by water or fire, and even capable of moving freely within this vein without much hindrance from escape techniques. I only wonder why it would ally with demon beasts—we must therefore proceed with extra caution!" The purple-haired woman transmitted carefully.

"I see. Then I'll test whether it truly is immune to blades and spears!" Han Li glanced at the body of Bai Yunxin occupied by the Bai Guang, a thread of cold light flashing in his eyes as he spoke a single word, then glanced toward the other side at the yellow-haired burly man and Han Qizi, along with the three other demon venerables.

Only to see these three demons had already, once again, launched a counterattack against the lava giant formed from the demon beast.

Besides controlling the Broad Yin Treasure Mirror, the burly man also threw out another pair of black-mist-enshrouded iron hooks, circling and rolling endlessly around the lava giant, each strike inevitably leaving a bowl-thick hole on the giant's body.

Meanwhile, Lu Long Heavenly Monarch's form suddenly expanded several times in size; opening his mouth, he spat out a stream of hazy purple wind, which gradually forced back the crimson fire sea point by point.

Han Qizi, at this moment, transformed his body into a translucent ice sculpture-like crystal; with every raise of hand and lift of foot, waves of icy power rolled downward, pushing his extreme cold divine ability to its utmost limit.

Though the deer-headed demon beast was formidable, under the full unleashing of the three demon venerables' divine powers—especially with their opposing forces intertwined—it was immediately driven into a disadvantageous position.

However, though the lava coating its body suffered severe damage, with a lava lake below providing endless replenishment, it could still persist.

This left the three demon venerables temporarily unable to truly injure the beast.

Seeing this, Han Li's expression remained unchanged, but suddenly one hand grasped at empty air—a flash of green light, and a three-foot-long hazy green sword instantly appeared, then he slashed at empty space toward the monster occupying Bai Yunxin's body.

The sword merely flashed, then vanished from Han Li's hand, but in the next moment, a tremor occurred on the headless corpse of Bai Yunxin, as a hazy green crystal thread flashed into view, then transformed into a light breeze drifting downward.

Soundless and traceless, but after the breeze passed, the suspected demon spirit's hazy white head, from between the brows, was instantly cleaved in two by a single slash.

This was precisely the Divine Sword-to-Thread Technique.

However, in Han Li's hands at the late stage of Spatial Tempering, this technique had nearly reached the point of being unfathomable to gods and ghosts—hence he could so easily cleave that skull.

A sharp, piercing cry suddenly erupted from the two pieces of the hazy white skull, causing those who heard it to feel their spiritual sense momentarily dazed; Bai Yunxin's headless body instantly became withered beyond compare. In the next moment, the two separated skull fragments flew out from the flesh, merged in midair, and recondensed into a single streak of hazy white light, which then shot straight toward Han Li.

Given Han Li's immensely powerful spiritual sense, he naturally cared nothing for the opponent's piercing cry as a sound-based attack, but seeing the light shadow come flying through the fire sea utterly unaffected, he couldn't help but narrow his eyes, then suddenly flicked his sleeve inward and shook it.

In that instant, dozens of small green swords shot out, instantly transforming into dozens of identical hazy green crystal threads, rushing to meet the light shadow.

In a flash, the light shadow's rushing form paused, its surface now marked with dozens of faint green traces, then instantly split into dozens of irregular fragments.

But what left onlookers stunned was that these light shadow fragments merely flashed, then instantly reassembled into their original form, still maintaining their original speed as they continued to rush toward Han Li.

"Indeed, blades and spears cannot harm it—truly, it seems to be a demon spirit born from this vein's spiritual energy." Han Li, seeing this, murmured without changing expression, but then his other sleeve suddenly shook, releasing a cluster of silver flame that shot forth, spinning rapidly, and accurately struck the restored white light shadow.

"Boom!"—a tremendous roar!

The silver flame on the light shadow's body surged several feet high, instantly engulfing it completely.

The purple-haired woman, meanwhile, while monitoring the other split-off demon spirit, naturally also closely observed Han Li's actions. Just as she thought the silver flame could not possibly affect the demon spirit, a startling event occurred.

The light and shadow, wrapped in silver flame for a moment, suddenly let out a sharp cry from its mouth, then became incredibly shrill, and in an instant went mad, rolling on the spot as if trying to extinguish the flames on its body.!.

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