Chapter 765

The black-robed figure, seeing the barrier reappear, said nothing but swiftly formed hand seals.

Low, ancient incantations issued from his mouth; his chilling demonic aura surged several feet outward, transforming instantly into pitch-black, ink-like tentacles that writhed wildly.

Han Li narrowed his eyes, fixing his gaze motionless on the opponent, but within his sleeves, his hands emitted faint thunderous crackles, golden light flickering subtly.

Against demonic cultivators, Han Li had long been confident he could instantly annihilate an equal-rank foe—provided he seized the opening during their attack.

Yet in that fleeting instant, the black-robed man's pupils turned blood-red, and a bestial roar erupted from his mouth; his demonic aura dispersed, and his body beneath the robe began to swell.

In the blink of an eye, his size more than doubled.

"Huh!" Han Li paused slightly at this sight.

It wasn't the change in his form that startled him—it was the sudden, total disappearance of the demonic aura, replaced by an unsettling, peculiar energy.

The black-robed man's blood-red eyes revealed madness; his swollen body suddenly shrank, collapsing in an instant into a dwarf no taller than three feet, then shot backward toward the barrier wall.

Han Li was startled, his thoughts racing—something deeply wrong was unfolding.

He raised both hands; two thick golden arcs shot forth, merging midair into a vast golden net that descended upon the black-robed man.

Simultaneously, he shook his robe sleeve—a small blue shield flew out, expanding into a massive barrier before him. His other hand slapped his waist pouch, and the sealing bead landed in his palm.

If things turned dire, he would immediately activate the bead to break the barrier and flee.

Knowing the opponent had a trick up his sleeve, he wouldn't stand idle here.

Just as Han Li's thoughts churned, the black-robed man beneath the golden net let out a piercing scream. With a thunderous *boom*, his entire body exploded—every inch of flesh turned to blood mist, spraying in all directions.

Han Li was momentarily stunned, then his expression turned to bewilderment.

He had assumed the man intended to unleash some self-destructive, brutal secret technique—but the blood and flesh had splattered only onto the barrier wall, leaving not a trace on the inside, as if utterly powerless.

Han Li, puzzled and uneasy, began to suspect something strange.

Then he noticed something unusual.

The blood and flesh fragments clung to the opposite barrier wall, not a single drop falling away; under his gaze, they grotesquely writhed across the surface.

Seeing this, Han Li was dumbfounded.

*Puff, puff*—the blood and flesh suddenly turned into clots of crimson mist, spreading rapidly along the barrier wall. So fast was their advance that in an instant, half the white barrier turned blood-red, emitting a nauseating, overpowering stench of blood.

Han Li's heart froze. He hurled the sealing bead with all his strength toward the rear barrier wall.

*Boom! * The moment it touched the barrier, the bead exploded into a sphere of pitch-black darkness.

The affected section of the barrier flickered wildly, and the entire light shield trembled faintly.

Han Li rejoiced—his ten fingers snapped rapidly, sending ten emerald sword qi strikes in succession to the same spot. The white light flashed violently—soon, the barrier wall would shatter.

He was just elated—when a flash of crimson light swept before his eyes; a vast tide of blood mist obscured the barrier, turning it entirely crimson.

Han Li's heart sank. He looked up, scanning all around—only then did he realize the entire barrier had turned blood-red, its surface churning with mist, condensing into thick, sticky droplets of blood. The stench of blood intensified drastically.

Without hesitation, he spat out a golden arc as thick as a bowl—striking the crimson barrier directly.

After the golden light exploded, the blood mist briefly scattered—then instantly reformed, as if utterly unharmed.

This took Han Li completely by surprise.

The green bamboo bee-cloud swords he had intended to release halted mid-preparation; his face grew grim.

At the same time, the scene of the black-robed man's self-destruction turning the barrier crimson unfolded simultaneously across all ten battlegrounds.

The ten Nascent Soul cultivators participating in the wager, caught off-guard, were all trapped within the mutated barriers.

The ten Core Formation cultivators monitoring the array below naturally sensed something was wrong—they urgently formed hand seals to halt the array, all the while keeping watch on the opposing Daoists.

But to their shock, as soon as the barriers turned crimson, the Daoists said nothing, immediately turned, and flew back to their own ranks.

This left the ten women of the Song clan not relieved, but acutely aware that matters had turned grave.

Clearly, the barrier's mutation was the Daoists' doing.

As predicted, though the array was halted, the crimson barrier remained unnaturally intact. The blood mist thinned, leaving thick layers of blood coating the entire surface—as if hundreds of people's blood had been poured into it at once.

It looked utterly terrifying!

Seeing this, Brother Zhiyang Cangkun Shiren and the others were stunned; when they saw the ten cultivators could not stop the array, they could no longer remain calm. In an instant, three blinding streaks of light shot skyward.

"Come down! This is beyond your handling."

Arriving above the array, Brother Zhiyang Cangkun Shiren glanced at the mutated barrier, his face darkening. "Come down."

The cultivators below breathed a sigh of relief and swiftly returned to their own ranks.

The woman named Song, glancing at Han Li's crimson barrier, showed a flicker of worry—then reluctantly departed as well.

Among the opposing Daoist ranks, the emaciated elder and others had initially shown triumph upon trapping Han Li and the rest; now, seeing the three True Persons fly toward the array, their expressions remained utterly calm—as if they had no fear the three could break the crimson barrier.

Behind them, two new black-robed figures—a man and a woman—had appeared without notice.

"Lord Fang, the plan succeeded. I hope the Blood Luo Barrier truly lives up to your sect's claims—able to trap ten Nascent Soul cultivators for half a day. Once Tiannan loses these ten, their strength will plummet. Half a day is more than enough for us to settle matters with the Tiannan cultivators." The emaciated elder turned and chuckled dryly at the black-robed man.

"Rest assured. The Blood Luo Barrier is one of our sect's six secret arts. It requires sacrificing ten blood corpses raised for a century—and to avoid suspicion, we made those corpses ingest Demon Spirit Pills, then had ten of us—including myself—use split consciousnesses to control them, thus evading their detection. We went to such lengths, even sacrificing a fragment of our souls, so naturally I have absolute confidence. Even a Nascent Soul late-stage cultivator would need to expend immense magic power for half a minute to break it. Will you give them that chance?" The black-robed man sneered at the elder.

As if to prove the black-robed man's words, Brother Zhiyang Cangkun Shiren, far away, struck one of the crimson barriers with a single slash.

With a thunderous roar, the barrier trembled slightly—then returned to its original state.

Brother Zhiyang Cangkun Shiren's face darkened instantly.

Wei Wei Wuya and Hehuan Lao Mo, seeing this, made no further move.

With their experience, though only one had tested it, they immediately sensed the barrier's sealing strength. This strange crimson barrier was incredibly resilient, with unknown hidden properties—extremely difficult to break.

Yet even this single strike revealed the barrier's purpose: it was designed solely to trap, not to harm.

The three exchanged glances, then grimaced.

They had assumed the enemy would unleash deadly attacks during the duel to cripple the ten cultivators—but instead, the enemy had planned from the start to merely trap them.

This caught the three old devils off-guard; their preparations were now largely useless.

"Brother Yi, what demonic technique is this? Your Six Demon Sects have no such art—requiring self-destruction to activate it. We never anticipated this." Wei Wei Wuya sighed slowly.

"No, I've never seen such a strange secret art. The Jin state cultivators truly cannot be underestimated." Hehuan Lao Mo frowned tightly.

Frustrated, the three had no heart left to question the enemy.

For the enemy's Daoist army had begun to sound war drums; some Daoists rose into the air, hovering mid-sky, while ground troops shifted positions, chanting incantations, forming an offensive stance.

Behind them, the cultivator army, though shocked by the bizarre wager scene, remained orderly under the guidance of their high-rank masters. Their formations began to move, and colored spiritual lights flickered across their ranks.

"We've taken a heavy blow this time. But at least they're only temporarily trapped, not dead. If we prolong the battle, they may still escape. We originally had more high-rank cultivators than the Mulan. Even without these ten, we're no weaker than their Daoists." Brother Zhiyang Cangkun Shiren mused.

Hehuan Lao Mo and Wei Wei Wuya knew Brother Zhiyang Cangkun Shiren's words were mostly self-reassurance—but given the situation, they could only accept it helplessly.

Naturally, both felt deep anger.

"Enough. We don't need to command the lower ranks. Our task is to hold off the Mulan Divine Masters." Hehuan Lao Mo's face flashed with murderous intent as he spoke coldly.

Ignoring the other two, he looked up and roared toward the enemy Daoist army:

"We've long heard the Mulan Divine Masters wield incomprehensible divine arts. Yi and two others wish to test your skill—will any of you step forward to fight?"

Hehuan Lao Mo's roar, amplified by some secret technique, rang like thunder across miles of sky and earth, shaking everything in its wake.

The chanting from both armies fell silent. Even some airborne Daoists, of low cultivation, swayed and nearly fell from the sky.

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