Chapter 544

"Even if I were to indulge in wild thoughts now, what good would it do?" Han Li glanced at the ground-fire pool and replied with a bitter smile. WWW. feiazw. COM

"You understand the stakes, then." Feng Xi spoke these words, yet a cold sneer flickered across his face—he clearly didn't believe Han Li's insincere reply.

Seeing this, Han Li kept the same pained expression on his face, but silently cursed inside: "Old demon."

Then he walked to a corner of the formation, sat cross-legged, and settled down.

Feng Xi, having personally watched Han Li obediently take his assigned spot, nodded in satisfaction, then turned politely to the Poisonous Dragon and the Tortoise Demon and said:

"Brothers, enter the formation. Prepare yourselves!"

Upon hearing this, the Poisonous Dragon and the Tortoise Demon stepped forward without objection, entering the formation and taking their places at the pre-memorized formation nodes.

Feng Xi let out a light chuckle and slapped his waist pouch.

The pouch flew out on its own, drifting slowly above the ground-fire pool, its mouth inverted as a burst of rosy light erupted forth.

Within the rosy glow, a small cluster of silver light suddenly appeared, then rapidly expanded—within moments transforming into a pair of bone wings, over ten feet long, gleaming with pale, bony radiance.

One wing was missing its upper tip; the other was ragged and severely damaged.

At first glance, they looked utterly ruined. Yet these broken bones shimmered with silver light, radiating a massive aura of pressure that compelled awe.

"These are the Wings of the Lei Peng!" The Poisonous Dragon stared at them, murmuring in amazement: "Tsk, tsk!"

"Naturally! This Lei Peng didn't die of old age or natural cultivation exhaustion. Its bones are this shattered because someone trapped it in its deathbed and overwhelmed it in battle. Otherwise, with the Lei Peng's near-peerless speed and its cultivation at the late stage of transformation, it could have escaped even if it couldn't win." Feng Xi stared unblinkingly at the wings, his face gradually suffused with fervor.

At this moment, Han Li also gazed at the Lei Peng's wings with surprise.

"Let's begin then. Crafting this thing will surely take months!" The Tortoise Demon, seemingly uninterested in the wings, glanced at them briefly before unexpectedly growing impatient and urging them on.

Feng Xi paused at this, then suddenly remembered something and burst into a silent laugh.

"Hah! I forgot. Brother Gui just passed his transformation tribulation less than a hundred years ago—he naturally finds thunder-affinity objects uncomfortable. Then let's not delay—let's begin our joint cultivation!"

The Poisonous Dragon had no objections.

The three muttered a low chant Han Li couldn't understand; their bodies slowly emitted astonishingly potent demonic energy, each glowing with white, blue, and yellow light respectively.

Whether it was their demonic energy activating the formation, or the formation being secretly triggered by some other method, it suddenly flared to life.

With a faint tremor, the formation began to rotate; the dozen or so mid-grade spirit stones embedded along its edges flared with blinding light in sequence.

Han Li felt uneasy and glanced around.

At that moment, Feng Xi suddenly barked a low command, clasped his hands together, then split them downward—two thick, arm-width beams of white light shot out simultaneously and plunged into the formation beneath his feet.

A deep hum echoed; the ground trembled slightly, and the ground-fire pool at the formation's center erupted in rolling waves of flame.

"Puff!"

A fireball the size of a human head shot up from the pool, streaking straight toward the hovering bone wings.

A burst of sound followed—the intensely hot crimson flames instantly engulfed the wings.

Seeing this, the Poisonous Dragon and the Tortoise Demon exchanged glances, then raised their hands together.

Vast streams of blue and yellow light threads erupted from their palms, densely weaving through the flames, wrapping directly around the bone wings, beginning to cross and glow, reshaping themselves.

In moments, solely through these spirit threads, they had fully repaired the broken wings into their original form.

Han Li, watching this, was just beginning to feel his eyes wide with wonder—

when Feng Xi's eyes flashed with strange light, his hands swiftly formed a hand seal, and his ten fingers began to flicker rapidly.

Dozens of thumb-sized white light orbs shot out, striking the wings with perfect accuracy.

Instantly, deafening thunder roared within the flames—the newly repaired bone wings erupted with countless fine electric arcs.

These arcs were impossibly slender, shimmering with silver radiance. After bursting forth, they swiftly merged into the blue and yellow spirit threads.

As the threads absorbed them, the silver glow intensified, blending together, their color instantly shifting to pure silver-white.

Seeing this, Feng Xi's expression turned grave—he stomped his foot hard.

A cultivation seal shot into the formation.

"Puff! Puff!" Several muffled thuds echoed.

Five beams of differently colored light shot diagonally from around the ground-fire pool, converging at a single point above the wings, blindingly radiant.

Han Li's eyes narrowed slightly; when his vision returned to normal, a thick, shimmering five-colored energy shield now hovered in midair.

Han Li's expression flickered, then returned to impassive calm.

The silver-white bone wings, still wrapped in flames, burned fiercely within the shield—showing no sign of damage.

Below, the three demons exhaled in unison.

The first step had been completed without error—not a single mistake!

Next, Feng Xi's expression relaxed as he pulled a translucent blue crystal from his body—he didn't know what it was, yet tossed it without hesitation into the shield.

After a short while, the crystal softened into liquid form.

Feng Xi quickly sent out white spirit threads, controlling the liquid to evenly coat the surface of the wings.

After completing this, Feng Xi's face grew solemn again.

He glanced at the other two demons, gave a slight nod, and softly uttered: "Wind."

Then he spat out a white, crystalline pearl from his mouth, which instantly shot into the shield.

The Poisonous Dragon and the Tortoise Demon didn't dare delay—they each spat out their own hard-won demonic pearls, which flew into the air and intertwined.

Feng Xi flicked his hand, sending a cultivation seal toward his own demonic pearl; immediately, white demonic fire of wind affinity surged from its surface.

The other two demonic pearls—yellow and blue—behaved differently.

Under the control of the Poisonous Dragon and the Tortoise Demon, they each spat out demonic fire as thick as a thumb, which merged midair with a "crackling" sound, transforming into a shimmering silver flame.

As soon as these two demonic fires appeared, they each sucked in half of the surrounding crimson ground-fire, their power surging dramatically.

Then, with uncanny sentience, they each wrapped around one of the bone wings, slowly refining them.

At this moment, Feng Xi's face betrayed a barely concealed joy; he gestured to the other two demons, then sat cross-legged on the spot.

The Poisonous Dragon and the Tortoise Demon did the same.

Instantly, the massive formation fell into silence.

Han Li sat alone in his corner, silent, but his eyes flickered with unusual light.

Yet when he glanced around, a bitter smile appeared on his face.

He didn't know how the formation was designed, but the moment the five-colored shield formed overhead, an identical shield appeared around Han Li's seated position—trapping him completely, unable to move an inch.

If there had been even a hint of flame within the shield, Han Li would have suspected the three demons intended to refine him as another material.

Han Li felt uneasy; the fact that he remained unharmed so far only deepened his worry.

At this moment, the situation finally changed—the shield's aura flickered, dimming and brightening irregularly.

Han Li's pupils contracted slightly, then returned to normal.

Before he could guess what was happening, he suddenly felt an odd sensation in his body—he froze, then quickly looked down.

As the five-colored shield flickered, faint, nearly invisible pale green light began emanating from his body. Though slow, his spiritual power was indeed leaking out naturally, slowly drawn away by the shield.

Han Li frowned, his expression darkening.

Clearly, the three demons had no intention of letting him participate in the artifact's forging—they were using him merely as a massive spirit stone.

Yet after a moment's thought, his expression returned to calm—but inside, he sneered.

He didn't believe the three demons would trap him indefinitely, siphoning his spiritual power forever.

According to his estimation, they would eventually need his help.

Otherwise, why bother bringing him—a cultivator skilled in wood-affinity arts—along? They could simply have placed more wood-affinity spirit stones.

Thinking this, Han Li felt slightly relieved. He closed his eyes, began practicing Qi Refining, and allowed the formation to slowly drain his spiritual power.

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