Chapter 2243: Volume 11 True Immortal Descends to the World Chapter 2224 Human-Faced Insect

After leaving the stone-paved road, only a few dozen zhang away, Xie Lian and the Green Stone Ancestor both sensed something and their expressions shifted.

The four flashed past one stone tower after another, flying less than two hundred zhang when their view suddenly opened up—a massive pit seven or eight zhang wide suddenly appeared before them.

Around the pit, seven or eight stone towers lay toppled, only half remaining, while the ground nearby was crisscrossed with countless grooves and sword marks, as if a fierce battle had just taken place here not long ago.

At the center of the pit lay a pitch-black, charred insect corpse; judging by its size and shape, only a small half of its remains remained.

Yet even with missing limbs, the creature's remaining ferocious appearance caused Xie Lian and the Green Stone Ancestor to suck in a breath of cold air.

The insect's body resembled that of a common silkworm worm, covered in a smooth, glossy carapace, but on its slender neck sat an extremely ugly male skull—though only half remained, the eyes, ears, nose, and other facial features were all intact, and it even bore a wild, tangled mass of green hair like weeds.

The insect corpse lay half-prone on the ground, motionless, with no trace of blood around it—clearly, it had been dead here for an unknown length of time.

"This must be the true descendant of the silkworm worm mother—it really makes one feel deeply uncomfortable!" Xie Lian stared at the insect remains, her face slightly pale as she spoke.

"Hmph, it's probably true. I never imagined these vicious worms could look like this. From this, we can infer that the silkworm worm mother must be even more horrifying and repulsive. Fellow Daoist Han, do you feel the same?" The Green Stone Ancestor snorted coldly, then turned to Han Li and asked.

"Perhaps. Until I've seen the mother worm with my own eyes, I dare not make any definite judgments." Han Li gave a light chuckle, then suddenly flicked his sleeve toward the pit.

With a "boom," an invisible force pushed forward, causing the prone insect corpse to roll over and flip belly-up.

Xie Lian's heart stirred as she focused her gaze—her jade-like complexion twitched again.

On the corpse's abdomen, she saw more than ten incomplete limbs, some quite sharp, covered in black hard bristles, no different from ordinary insect clans.

Other limbs had pale, tender skin, resembling human hands closely—except the tips were not five-fingered, but divided into one thick and two thin segments, jointed like fingers.

Seeing this, the Green Stone Ancestor's face twitched slightly, then he raised one hand.

A muffled sound!

Instantly, a ball of blue, misty fire appeared in his palm, his five fingers slightly curling—then it transformed into a streak of flame flying toward the insect corpse.

The fireball's surface showed no heat, but the surrounding air blurred visibly—clearly, this blue flame possessed immense power, far beyond ordinary true fire.

With a "puchi" sound, the moment the fireball touched the insect corpse, it instantly ignited into roaring flames.

Shortly after, the Green Stone Ancestor pinched a seal with one hand and pointed empty-handed toward the corpse again.

A muffled sound rang out—the blue flames vanished instantly, revealing the corpse beneath.

Aside from being slightly blacker than before, the corpse's surface showed little change—no signs of actual melting whatsoever.

The Green Stone Ancestor's heart tightened, his face darkening instantly.

Xie Lian's expression grew even uglier.

The Crab Daoist, aside from his eyes flickering a few times, showed no change in expression.

"Somewhat interesting—let Han Li give it a try too!" Han Li chuckled lightly.

As his words fell, he raised his arm—three fingers suddenly rang out with a clear, metallic chime before snapping forward.

A sound of breaking air rang out!

Three strands of blue-green sword light shot from his fingertips, linked together—upon uncoiling, they struck the insect corpse.

"Bang," "bang," "bang"—three similar sounds rang out, but the results of the three sword lights striking the corpse were utterly different.

The first sword light struck and immediately flashed, rebounding off.

The second sliced open a section of the corpse's carapace.

The third flashed past—and then cleanly split the corpse in half down the middle.

Seeing this, both Xie Lian and the Green Stone Ancestor couldn't help but flash a hint of surprise in their eyes.

After stroking his chin, Han Li revealed a thoughtful expression.

Xie Lian pondered briefly, then spoke directly:

"Han Brother, the three sword lights clearly had different power—otherwise, how could there be such different results?"

"Indeed, their power differs! The first sword light contains fifty percent of my mana. The second contains one hundred percent. As for the third, I fused a heart-connected flying sword—the Qingzhu Fengyun Sword—directly into the sword light, which allowed it to be effective in one strike." Han Li replied calmly, seemingly with no intention to hide anything.

Xie Lian and the Green Stone Ancestor naturally didn't know that, aside from the third sword light truly incorporating the Qingzhu Fengyun Sword, his claim about the first two lights containing certain percentages of mana was based on the typical mana levels of ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators.

Given that his true essence far surpasses that of ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators, the first sword light actually contained only about twenty percent of his mana, and the second only forty to fifty percent.

Yet even so, the insect corpse's physical body was so tough that it left Xie Lian and the Green Stone Ancestor somewhat shocked.

"This worm doesn't fear the Green Stone Daoist's true flame, and even Han Daoist's sword light can only destroy about half of it—this direct descendant of the silkworm worm mother is far more terrifying than we imagined. If we truly encounter more ahead, do the three of you have any good strategies to deal with them?" After a while, Xie Lian's jade complexion darkened uncertainly before she finally asked, her voice heavy with caution.

"What's there to fear? This worm isn't impossible to kill—if we truly meet it, we'll each use our divine powers. I don't believe we four working together can't handle a mere insect." The Green Stone Ancestor suddenly snorted coldly in reply.

"If it's just one or two, it's nothing. But if we encounter seven or eight, even a dozen or more of these vicious worms—can you still be so confident, Green Stone Daoist?" Xie Lian sighed.

"A dozen or more? That's impossible!" The Green Stone Ancestor, who had been feigning disdain, suddenly froze, his skepticism wavering.

"Heh, the chance of encountering so many is indeed slim. If the silkworm worm mother truly had the power to produce this many powerful offspring in one breath, she'd have long broken the ancient seal—how could she have remained suppressed here for so many years?" Han Li pondered, then shook his head.

"I hope it's truly as the two Daoists imagine. Otherwise, these vicious worms would be a major trouble. Judging by the scene, this one should have been slain by a previous group entering the underground palace—but why did they leave immediately? They seemed to have fled in haste—perhaps more of these creatures lie ahead." Upon hearing this, Xie Lian could only force a smile and nod.

"Regardless, we've come this far—we cannot retreat now. We've already delayed too much time here—let's continue forward. If our presence causes us to miss Baohua Daoist and the others' affairs, that would truly be disastrous." After speaking calmly, Han Li turned and floated back the way they came.

After confirming this vicious worm posed little real threat to them, he naturally wouldn't dwell on it further.

The Crab Daoist said nothing, following closely behind.

Seeing Han Li leave so decisively, Xie Lian and the Green Stone Ancestor exchanged glances—both somewhat surprised.

But after looking at each other, they felt Han Li's words made some sense, and followed with varying expressions.

Among the four Nascent Soul cultivators, the Crab Daoist completely obeyed Han Li's commands—plus, Han Li had just demonstrated a spiritual sense far surpassing the others.

Thus, even if Xie Lian and the Green Stone Ancestor harbored other thoughts inwardly, outwardly they had no choice but to follow Han Li as their leader.

Not long after, the four returned to the original path and continued forward along the route marked on the map.

This time, Han Li and the others passed through several regions of the underground palace in one breath—yet nothing happened, and they saw no trace of other vicious worms.

This brought relief to both Xie Lian and the Green Stone Ancestor.

Even though they are Nascent Soul beings, they certainly don't wish to truly face that kind of vicious worm again.

At this moment, a dead person arrived in a vast, extraordinary garden—on both sides, everywhere were low silver-shimmering flower trees. Their surfaces were covered with palm-sized silver flowers, soft and fluffy, extraordinarily beautiful—but utterly without fragrance.

At first, the Green Stone Old Ancestor was still somewhat wary of these silver-flowered trees, but after the Evil Lotus casually told him that these flower trees were a special plant unique to the demon realm, and besides being able to refine some low-grade pills, they had no other special uses, this otherworldly Nascent Soul cultivator finally relaxed.

"Fellow Daoist Han, according to the map markings, that forbidden hall ahead should be the location of the formation eye. As long as we repair it, our mission will be considered complete." Seeing that the three of them were about to walk out of the garden, and faintly glimpsing a small grayish-white hall in the direction of the garden exit, Bao Hua said with a light laugh.

"Hmm. Indeed not far off. It seems our journey has been quite smooth so far, though I don't know whether the other groups of fellow Daoists are faring as well." Han Li nodded slightly and replied without changing his expression.

For some unknown reason, ever since he entered this garden, although he detected no abnormality whatsoever, he had a strange feeling of being constantly watched by something.

And yet, with his current powerful spiritual sense, he still had not detected any trace of the observer—this was nearly impossible.

This either meant that the observer truly possessed some heaven-defying divine ability, capable of evading his spiritual scan, or that he was merely experiencing an illusion caused by the various restrictions and sealing forces in the underground palace.

However, given Han Li's cautious nature, he was naturally extra vigilant at this moment. But once Fang Yi walked out of the garden gate, this eerie feeling vanished completely, as if it had never happened at all.

This left Han Li utterly bewildered, truly at a loss.

At the same time, in a pitch-black underground cavern deep within the earth palace, a blurry human figure suddenly let out a low, gloomy laugh:

"Divine Soul Refining Technique... still cultivated to the second layer... Divine Soul Refining Technique. Someone from the lower realms actually cultivates this secret art! Hahaha, Heaven has not forsaken me... all my years of bitter perseverance here were not in vain..."

This laugh began softly and somewhat indistinct, but gradually grew clearer and more frenzied, making anyone who heard it shiver involuntarily!

(Chapter 7 is for the mortal-world book friend 'Liu Peng', wishing her a happy birthday! Hope this somewhat belated blessing brings her a fulfilling, healthy life!) To be continued...