Chapter 1102

When Li Luo stepped into the vine-covered passage, he felt space violently twist, the space before him shattering, followed by a sensation of weightlessness and dizziness welling up.

This feeling seemed to last a long time, yet also felt like only an instant, until at a certain moment, he suddenly heard noisy sounds rushing into his ears.

Thus the dizziness began to fade, and the scene before his eyes quickly became clear.

What met Li Luo's eyes was a bustling, boiling street, with crowds flowing like woven threads, pedestrians shuttling back and forth, vendors hawking their wares—a picture of a prosperous market scene.

Li Luo stared blankly at this scene, dazed for several breaths—where was this?

Weren't they supposed to enter Xiao Chen Tian?

How come it looked like a town instead?

Li Luo looked up, only to see the sky filled with a hazy, gray mist, the light of heaven and earth leaning toward a dimness and... an inexplicable chill.

From this heaven and earth, he felt a strong sense of discomfort, especially in his heart, where a vigilant emotion kept arising, causing goosebumps to break out all over his body.

He suddenly understood.

He had indeed entered Xiao Chen Tian, and Xiao Chen Tian had already been shrouded by the projection of that so-called "All-Souls Ghost Skin Membrane"—meaning, he was now inside that "All-Souls Ghost Skin Membrane."

Then what were these pedestrians before him...?

Li Luo gazed at the utterly real pedestrians and vendors before him, their faces bearing intense smiles, yet when these smiles fell into his eyes, they made his skin crawl.

"Li Luo!"

At that moment, he suddenly heard a voice, wrapped in xiangli, coming from behind; Li Luo quickly turned and saw Feng Lingying, Jiang Wanyu, Lu Ming, and Zong Sha.

They were also standing on the street, not far away.

Feng Lingying's cheeks showed a hint of solemnity as she transmitted: "Everyone be careful—we've just fallen into a 'Strange Nest.'"

Li Luo's mouth twitched slightly; the so-called "Strange Nest" was simply a gathering place for aberrations—his luck was truly terrible, directly thrown into a monster pile.

But for now, he still couldn't discern the pattern, so he could only observe the situation first.

Thus, he restrained his aura, the xiangli in his body flowing silently, his gaze calm yet vigilant as he watched the surging crowd on the street—no one knew how many aberrations lurked within.

And under Li Luo's gaze, the crowd came and went without cease, the vendors' cries continuously entering his ears—everything felt utterly real.

The surrounding crowd seemed also unaware that Li Luo and his group did not belong here.

And Lu Ming, Jing Tai Xu, Sun Dasheng, and the others were also stiff all over, daring not to move a muscle, their eyes fixed straight ahead.

Among the crowd, Deng Zhu, who came from the same academy as Lu Ming, swallowed a mouthful of saliva; he could sense that danger permeated this place, its intensity feeling stronger than the dark caverns they had previously entered.

Bang.

And just as Deng Zhu was thinking these thoughts in his heart, a white skin ball suddenly bounced out from the crowd and landed at his feet.

Deng Zhu's heart tightened instantly, and then he saw a child run over, looking at him with an innocent, guileless smile: "Big brother, can you give me the skin ball?"

Hearing that childish voice, Deng Zhu's eyes instantly became somewhat confused; the child before him looked exactly like his adorable younger brother at home.

In Deng Zhu's ears, there seemed to be a strange, inexplicable whispering sound.

Thus, Deng Zhu somewhat stiffly reached out and picked up the white skin ball; upon holding it, it exuded a thick yin-cold aura.

The innocent, adorable child also reached out, and as he caught the skin ball, he suddenly flashed a weird, sinister smile at Deng Zhu: "Big brother, can you give me your skin too?"

Deng Zhu jolted awake, only to suddenly discover that the child's hand had already grabbed his wrist, and a yin-cold aura continuously poured into his body from there.

"Get lost!"

At this moment, Deng Zhu no longer remained unaware that he had been struck by the Dao; he immediately flared with anger, xiangli erupting within him as he threw a punch that slammed directly into the child's chest.

The child's body flew backward like a skin ball, simultaneously emitting a clear yet weird laugh.

The child was blown away, but Deng Zhu felt horrified as, with the yin-cold aura continuously flowing into his wrist, his skin began to gradually swell.

The skin seemed to be separating from his flesh and blood.

Intense pain surged forth, causing Deng Zhu to cry out in anguish.

At this moment, Li Luo, Feng Lingying, and the others also saw Deng Zhu's skin gradually swelling; their hearts sank immediately—they hadn't even seen what Deng Zhu had done, yet he seemed already infected by malicious qi?

Under the horrified gazes of the crowd, Deng Zhu's skin kept bulging, then actually became like a large human-skin balloon, with Deng Zhu's head perched atop it, continuously emitting anguished cries.

Hum!

And just then, Feng Lingying suddenly raised her hand; a long sword wrapped in xiangli shot straight toward Deng Zhu's body, piercing through it and then nailing him firmly to a stone pillar.

"Senior Deng Zhu!" Lu Ming exclaimed, seeing this, her heart leapt—had Feng Lingying just killed Deng Zhu?!

But fortunately, in the next moment, Lu Ming breathed a sigh of relief, for although Deng Zhu was nailed to the stone pillar, his swollen skin seemed to deflate at this moment, sagging loosely on his body as fresh blood continuously flowed out.

The long sword piercing his abdomen also caused considerable injury, distorting his expression.

"Don't move yet; wait until we clear this place before I help you purify." Feng Lingying said coldly.

Deng Zhu nodded with a pained expression; he also knew that although Feng Lingying's strike was harsh, if it had come a moment later, his skin might have directly triggered an explosion of flesh and blood.

Everyone's hearts pounded with dread—Deng Zhu, at least a Tian Zhu realm cultivator, had accidentally been struck by the Dao, nearly losing all resistance and being killed outright—this All-Souls Ghost Skin Membrane was truly bizarre.

"Feng Xuejie, there's a mission!" Li Luo suddenly spoke up at this moment.

Hearing this, everyone turned to look at the emerald-green leaf badge on the back of their hands; at this moment, it had a faint glow flowing through it, and with a thought, information surged into their hearts.

Destroy the Thousand-Skin Evil Heart Pillar, reward: one Yi Gong; slay the Heavenly Disaster Aberration, additional reward.

Everyone's hearts trembled slightly—did this small town actually have an Evil Heart Pillar? And it looked to be of the Thousand-Skin grade.

And just at this moment, Li Luo and the others suddenly felt the noisy voices on the street disappear; they saw only that the passing pedestrians turned their heads, directing their gazes at them.

Obviously, Deng Zhu's earlier exposure had also made it impossible for them to remain hidden.

"Gather!" Feng Lingying softly shouted.

Thus, everyone hurriedly huddled together, as waves of mighty xiangli rose up.

On the street, the faces of the passing pedestrians showed weird, twisted smiles appearing, and in the next instant, they directly lunged forward.

During the lunge, the skin on their bodies began to rapidly swell, in just a few breaths forming what resembled human-skin balloons.

On these human-skin balloons, bloodstains continuously tore open, faintly revealing thick malicious qi surging from within.

"They're going to self-destruct!" Jiang Wanyu quickly said.

The hundreds of alien beings formed human-skin balloons that came rushing at them—a sight that was truly spectacular.

With so many alien beings self-destructing, the malicious energy released must be extremely terrifying.

Feng Lingyuan's hands flashed as she formed seals, and immense phase power surged outward; behind her, faintly, gray-black spirit servants appeared, identical in appearance to Feng Lingyuan but emitting countless gray-black rays of light, as if pulling at something.

That was Feng Lingyuan's own phase affinity.

Lower Ninth Grade, Phantom Shadow Aspect.

"Marquis Seal Technique, Bronze Turtle Puppet Secret!"

The murky phase power howled, directly transforming into a massive turtle shadow, the turtle shadow appearing as if cast in bronze, emitting an impregnable defensive force.

Boom! Boom!

The incoming human-skin balloons exploded one after another, the terrifying malicious energy sweeping in like a storm; the bronze turtle shadow guarding everyone let out a low roar, green light flickering, resisting the erosion of the malicious energy.

Yet facing this impact, the bronze turtle shadow remained unmoved, its green light flowing, like a mountain, unmoved by the storm's assault.

Li Luo watched the bronze turtle shadow, on which flowed a special heavy rhythm; this similar rhythm he had also seen when he himself deployed the Black Dragon Netherwater Banner.

Clearly, Feng Lingyuan's Marquis Seal Technique had been cultivated to the state of great completion.

The malicious energy storm gradually subsided; at this moment, the formerly bustling and noisy street ahead had completely changed in appearance, the pedestrians long gone, the street empty and deserted.

Snowflakes seemed to be drifting down from the sky.

But Li Luo and the others could see clearly that those were not snowflakes, but pallid skin flakes.

Moreover, the skin flakes drifting across the sky gradually merged, finally forming large pieces of human skin floating in midair; on the skin, strange twisted faces emerged, with gray-white pupils staring fixedly at Li Luo and the others.

Thick malicious energy emanated from these human skins bearing faces.

Clearly, these human skins were a kind of alien being.

Li Luo's gaze then turned toward the distant town, where faintly he seemed to see a pillar tens of meters high, pallid in color.

Boundless malicious energy was emanating from there, enveloping the town.

Li Luo turned his head and exchanged a glance with Feng Lingyuan.

That thing should be their target.

Thousand-Skin Evil Heart Pillar.