Chapter 2253: Battle of the Insect Mother (Part II)

"What powerful physical strength. I wonder how it compares to Ming Er," the eerie voice suddenly became surprised.

At this moment, Han Li focused his gaze downward. He saw that on the water's surface, a strange, beetle-like insect had appeared out of nowhere. Its body was crystalline and clear, as if condensed from liquid, and it was over ten zhang long. Its entire body was covered in eyes of various sizes, making one's hair stand on end at a single glance.

The eerie voice from just now had clearly come from this strange insect. As its two long, peculiar antennae touched, a continuous rumbling sound erupted between them, and arcs of gray-white lightning appeared, flashing and twisting with incessant thunder.

It was exactly the same kind of evil lightning that had nearly severely wounded Han Li earlier!

Han Li looked at the strange insect and the gray-white lightning above its head with a solemn expression. After his thoughts raced for a moment, he suddenly raised his head to look toward Baohua on the side.

At this moment, Baohua was continuously forming hand seals. Under her manipulation, the heaven-supporting giant pillar transformed from the Earth Emperor Nail was locked in a fierce struggle with the giant claw in the sky.

Although the giant claw was rampaging fiercely over there, its owner remained hidden within the rolling gray clouds high in the sky, revealing no trace of their form.

With a single flesh claw, it was actually holding its own against the giant pillar transformed from a Profound Heaven Treasure, and was even faintly gaining the upper hand.

As soon as Han Li saw the appearance of the giant claw, the broken weapon fragments he had seen earlier in the formation eye hall involuntarily surfaced in his mind.

Aside from the vast difference in size, everything else was exactly the same.

It seemed those things were most likely the handiwork of this giant claw.

Where the yellow giant pillar stirred, the void trembled and fierce winds raged.

Wherever the giant claw tore through, crystalline white marks appeared out of thin air. The two were locked in an inextricable battle for the time being.

However, judging by Baohua's slightly pale face, it was clear that manipulating the Earth Emperor Nail in this manner exceeded her limits. While she didn't appear to be at a disadvantage for now, it was obvious she could not sustain this for long.

"Brother Crab, deal with this fellow here. I'll go over there to help Baohua resolve that one first," Han Li said, his expression shifting several times before he suddenly gave an order to a spot behind him.

"Since you've said so, leave it to me. Even if this insect's spiritual sense secret techniques and evil lightning arts are powerful, they don't have much effect on me," a voice said.

In the void, the thunder-rumbling Daoist Crab appeared behind Han Li, his body wreathed in silver arcs, and spoke indifferently.

It was unknown what instructions Han Li had given this pseudo-immortal puppet, but it had quietly hidden itself from the very beginning of the battle and only now suddenly appeared from the void in response.

The moment Daoist Crab appeared, he rolled onto the ground.

"Boom!" A loud explosion!

A golden giant crab, its body radiating lightning, appeared in the air. It was a thousand mu in size, and its two giant pincers were raised high.

Thunder rumbled loudly!

Dense clusters of lightning balls rapidly condensed and rained down like a storm toward the transparent strange insect below.

These lightning balls were clearly different from ordinary arcs of electricity; not only was each one astonishing in size, but faint, countless silver-white light characters flickered within the electricity on their surfaces.

Upon seeing this, the strange insect seemed to fly into a rage. After a strange cry from its mouth, its two long antennae shook violently, shooting out countless gray-white lightning arcs that transformed into myriad rays of electricity, piercing toward the lightning balls and colliding with them.

For a time, the two types of lightning light burst apart, separated by a certain interface, their power appearing evenly matched.

Gray lightning and silver arcs intertwined, causing the entire void to become faintly scorching and hot amidst the tremors.

The golden giant crab's body was astonishingly large, but as its several lower limbs moved rapidly, its form blurred, wandering across the sky unpredictably, continuously unleashing lightning balls without ever making contact with its opponent.

The transparent giant insect's form was equally ghostly, flickering in and out of existence. As it flashed, gray-white lightning arcs continuously shot out, shattering those lightning balls one after another.

As for its most proficient spiritual sense secret technique, it had already been unleashed, but to a puppet, it was like playing the lute to a cow—it had no effect whatsoever.

On the other side, Han Li revealed the emerald green longsword in his hand. After a long whistle, his three-headed, six-armed Dharma form appeared once again, and with countless giant sword lights, he transformed into a giant mountain of sword shadows, slashing directly toward the giant claw.

Seeing this, Baohua felt her spirits lift. After a clear cry escaped her lips, the top of her head suddenly split open, and a giant pink flower emerged, supporting a small pink figure.

The small figure opened its mouth and spat out a pink halo. After expanding in the wind, it transformed into a crystalline giant ring, pressing directly toward the rolling gray mist high in the sky.

The owner of the giant claw should have been hiding in there all along.

With Han Li's assistance, the woman finally allowed her perfected Nascent Soul to emerge and strike at the owner of the giant claw.

Beneath the water's surface in a certain place, in an abyss nearly ten thousand zhang deep where the bottom could not be seen, an ancient-looking old man and a black-robed woman were staring blankly at an object below, their faces filled with shock and horror.

An object lay quietly on the sea sand at the deepest part of the abyss. It was as white and clean as jade and was ten thousand zhang long—it was the skeleton of a giant insect of immense proportions.

Although the skeleton lay motionless, its body was shrouded in a faint layer of gray-white light, faintly emitting a terrifying aura that seemed bottomless.

This aura was extremely similar to the aura of the young girl they had seen earlier, but there were subtle differences.

"Is this the body of that Mother of Ming Insects?"

After observing carefully from high up in the abyss for a good while, the black-robed woman muttered hesitantly.

"It shouldn't be wrong! Aside from that insect mother, I truly cannot think of any other remains that would leave behind such a terrifying aura. The shed shell we saw earlier cannot compare to this," the ancient-looking old man took a deep breath and replied slowly.

"This Mother of Ming Insects has already passed away. Judging by the traces of the skeleton's existence, it seems this happened a long time ago. This is truly ridiculous. What about that fellow who appeared just now? Could it be that it has already cultivated to the True Immortal realm, allowing its Primordial Spirit to roam ten thousand miles without a body, eternal and indestructible?" the black-robed woman said with a dry laugh.

"I don't know about that either. But regardless, this should be a fortunate event for us. We have completed our mission for this trip without even having to lift a finger. As for why its Primordial Spirit is still able to jump around, it most likely has some connection to this skeleton," the ancient-looking old man replied with a bitter smile.

"Oh, that is indeed very likely. I've heard that some ancient secret techniques can store one's entire essence in a certain part of the body. If this Mother of Ming Insects made similar arrangements before passing away, its Primordial Spirit would indeed have a chance to survive for a longer period. Since that's the case, let me destroy it completely," the black-robed woman said, suddenly looking enlightened, but a ferocious expression immediately appeared on her face as she spoke viciously.

As soon as she finished speaking, the woman grabbed at the void with one hand. Suddenly, black light flashed, and a short spear as black as ink appeared.

"Wait!"

The old man suddenly remembered something, his expression changed, and he hurriedly tried to stop her, but it was already too late.

The short black spear let out a boom and transformed directly into a black lightning bolt, slashing down toward the giant remains.

"Bang!" With a sound, the black lightning struck directly at the skull of the skeleton, instantly transforming into countless fine electric threads that bounced and exploded. The momentum was truly astonishing!

But when all the black lightning arcs vanished in a flash, the skull of the skeleton remained completely undamaged, not even leaving a single mark.

"This is impossible! Even if my Heaven-Machine Spear isn't a Profound Heaven Treasure, ordinary top-tier treasures are like paper before its power," the black-robed woman cried out in alarm upon seeing this.

Just at this moment, the light halo shrouding the skeleton suddenly shone brilliantly, and at the same time, countless gold and silver runes surged out from the bones, dancing around the entire skeleton...

"No, this skeleton is not right!" The ancient-looking old man's expression changed drastically. With a loud shout, he threw the Ten Thousand Beast Tablet he had been holding tightly in his hand toward his front, and it immediately transformed into a shimmering jade gate standing in the void.

The old man then rapidly formed hand seals with one hand. Suddenly, ten thousand beasts roared, and as the gate opened, countless phantom images of strange beasts surged out from it in a dense swarm.

On the other side, the black-robed woman felt a chill in her heart. After raising both hands suddenly, a phantom image of a nine-headed strange snake appeared behind her. It was pitch black, with purple-black snake tongues. After opening its mouth, a large expanse of purple demonic flames rolled toward the skeleton.

Wherever these purple demonic flames passed, there was a stench, and the nearby void actually turned pale black, as if it had been directly defiled by these demonic flames.

Seeing that her treasure could not destroy the skeleton, the black-robed woman simply changed her cultivation technique and unleashed another of her trump card divine abilities: "Yellow Springs Defiling Flames."

This flame was refined from eighty-one types of the most poisonous defiling qi from several interfaces. Ordinary people, let alone touching a trace of it, would die immediately if they even smelled it from a hundred miles away.

As for the living beings directly engulfed by these defiling flames, it was said that not only would their physical bodies be defiled and disappear, but their Primordial Spirits and souls would also be defiled, directly erasing their qualifications for reincarnation and making it impossible for them to enter the Gate of the Yellow Springs from then on.

The black-robed woman regarded this flame as her greatest reliance, but unfortunately, this Yellow Springs Defiling Flame was a consumable item; it was used once and there was less of it. Unless it was a truly critical moment of life and death, she would never consider using it.

This was also because that skeleton was truly too bizarre, and the woman had already witnessed the power of the Mother of Ming Insects earlier with the young girl.

Seeing the rolling purple flames and countless beast phantoms completely engulf the skeleton below, the skeleton, which had been lying quietly, suddenly moved its white, bony chin and let out a cackling laugh. At the same time, its two arms suddenly moved, and a wave of invisible potential energy surged out crazily.

Whether it was the demonic flames or the beast phantoms, as soon as they approached within a few zhang of the skeleton, they were bizarrely unable to move forward an inch, as if they had all hit an indestructible transparent wall.

No matter how the beast phantoms self-destructed or the defiling flames rolled and surged, they could not get close to the skeleton.

Instead, the gloomy laughter continued from the skeleton, and as it pushed with both hands, the entire skeleton actually stood up shakily.