Chapter 1103: Evil Xiao

A sky full of gray-white skin flakes drifted down like a blizzard, emanating a chilling aura. The moment they landed on a body, they took root directly in the flesh, spreading like a plague, rotting blood and tissue.

So everyone burst forth with phase force at this moment, shielding their bodies so that the skin flakes were dissolved by phase force before they could even land.

Li Luo gripped his palm, and the Dragon Elephant Blade flashed into being. His gaze fixed on the human-skin aberrations drifting in midair. They floated like kites on the wind, and on the ghastly white human skin, twisted faces let out savage, ear-piercing shrieks.

"You all protect the people from the lower star academies!" Feng Lingyuan said with an icy gaze toward those drifting human-skin aberrations. In her perception, these aberrations were roughly at the Tian Zhu Jing level, so she gave a word of instruction to Li Luo, Senior Zong Sha, and the others, then extended her slender hands.

From her fingertips, gray-black phase force blasted forth. The phase force seemed to be formed from countless rays of light, and the instant it shot out, it directly formed a sky full of hawk shadows, which then swept toward the drifting human-skin aberrations in an overwhelming tide.

The human-skin aberrations shrieked. The twisted faces roaming over them seemed to be struggling, and from within their pitch-black fanged mouths, white flames actually spouted out. The moment those white flames touched the sky full of skin flakes, they transformed into a raging sea of fire.

The sea of fire was a ghastly white, carrying no scorching heat, instead emanating endless chill.

The sea of fire collided with the countless hawk shadows, instantly setting the latter ablaze in quick succession.

But Feng Lingyuan, as the second seat of the Tian Xing Yuan of the Tian Yuan Ancient Academy, a genuine late-stage Da Tian Xiang Jing cultivator—how could her methods be so easily neutralized by these Tian Zhu Jing aberrations?

As those hawk-like shadows burned more fiercely, the black light within them shifted. The next instant, countless gray-black sword shadows shot straight out from within the pale-white flames, and in a flash, they pierced through the savage faces roaming on those human-skin aberrations with cunning, vicious precision.

Immediately, shrill screams rang out.

Those human-skin aberrations withered rapidly, curling up,

In just a brief instant, several Xiao Tian Calamity-level aberrations were completely eliminated. The efficiency made Senior Zong Sha, Lu Lu Jinci, and the others' eyelids twitch involuntarily.

Feng Lingyuan cleanly and decisively cut down these aberrations, but her gaze turned toward the other side of the small town, because from over there, some violent energy fluctuations had also been transmitted.

"There are other squads that have entered here as well. We need to destroy the Evil Heart Pillar before they do!" Feng Lingyuan's voice landed in the ears of Li Luo and the others.

Upon hearing this, Li Luo and the others were also startled. Immediately, everyone's phase force within their bodies erupted completely, accelerating as they shot toward the faintly visible "Evil Heart Pillar" at the center of the town.

Along the way, aberrations kept surging forth, but the moment these aberrations appeared, gray-black rays of light could be seen blasting out from the shadows all around, weaving together to form shadow-like claws that tore them apart directly.

Clearly, all of this was Feng Lingyuan's doing.

Li Luo watched along the way, and was secretly somewhat shocked at Feng Lingyuan's speed of slaughter. This was mainly because her phase nature was quite unique. The Puppet Shadow Phase was a type of shadow phase, and shadow phase—Li Luo had once seen it on Student Xin Fu, but clearly, compared to the "shadow phase" that Student Xin Fu had displayed, the gap between it and Feng Lingyuan's "Puppet Shadow Phase" was like the difference between clouds and mud.

With Feng Lingyuan acting, the group encountered almost no obstacles along the way.

And in the distance, the eerie pillar standing at the center of the town, ghastly white in color and roughly several dozen meters tall, grew increasingly clear in everyone's eyes.

At the same time, Li Luo and the others also saw that in another direction of the town, another squad was also charging toward the "Evil Heart Pillar." It seemed they all wanted to destroy it first, because the squad that destroyed the "Evil Heart Pillar" would receive a higher rating.

However, the captain of that squad was clearly far inferior to Feng Lingyuan in strength, so their speed was noticeably slower.

"Careful!"

But just as they were rapidly approaching the "Evil Heart Pillar," Feng Lingyuan suddenly called out softly. Her figure stopped first, her sharp gaze fixed ahead.

Li Luo and the others immediately looked over, only to see blood-red, viscous liquid flowing out from a patch of ruins.

Looking at that blood-like liquid, Li Luo's expression immediately became wary, because from it, he sensed an aura of malice far denser than that of the previous human-skin aberrations.

The blood writhed, and within it, blurry human figures seemed to be struggling, then gradually crawling out from within the blood.

They were six humanoid entities. Though they possessed human forms, their bodies were blood-red as if flayed, and their faces bore no features—only a blood-red, terrifying character for "evil" inscribed upon them.

The character for "evil" seemed to possess its own life force, slowly writhing; as its strokes shifted, it vaguely resembled the expressions of countless human-like beings, making it all the more ghastly and terrifying.

Upon seeing those faceless aberrations with the character for "evil" inscribed on their faces, everyone's expressions changed; Senior Zong Sha and the others even cried out in shock, "These are... Evil Xiao?!"

Li Luo's heart stirred slightly. Previously, they had already learned much intelligence regarding the "Zhong Sheng Ghost Skin Ru." It was said that under that Zhong Sheng Demon King, there was an elite aberration troop called the "Evil Xiao Troop," and each Evil Xiao possessed the strength of a Xiao Tian Xiang Jing, not to be underestimated.

The six entities before them, each bearing the character for "evil" on their faces, were clearly members of the so-called "Evil Xiao Troop."

This kind of Evil Xiao—even Li Luo did not dare be careless upon encountering one, and could only respond with full force.

Now that six had appeared at once, it was all the more troublesome.

"Li Luo, you all go destroy the pillar. These Evil Xiao, leave them to me." Feng Lingyuan spoke calmly. They were already close to the "Evil Heart Pillar" now, so this was clearly the final blockade.

Although the six "Evil Xiao" were extremely difficult to deal with, as a late-stage Da Tian Xiang Jing expert, Feng Lingyuan showed no fear whatsoever.

Upon hearing this, Li Luo and the others shot forward without the slightest hesitation. As for Lu Ming, Jing Jing Taixu, Sun Sun Dasheng, and the others, they stayed in place, preserving their living strength, ready to transfer energy to the main force members at any moment and replenish their consumption.

The six "Evil Xiao" sensed the movements of Li Luo's group of three, so three of them split off, attempting to intercept.

But the next moment, they stopped, because a terrifying pressure was descending from midair. Feng Lingyuan was seen standing in the air, and above her head, a scroll of gray-black color, like a canopy of heaven, was slowly unfurling.

Within that gray-black canopy, there seemed to be countless shadow-like things squirming, faintly releasing an extremely terrifying pressure.

The energy of the entire world moved with it, surging into that massive gray-black canopy.

The next instant, the canopy trembled, and gray-black rays of light poured down like a torrential rain, transforming into six giant hands that pressed down directly upon those six "Evil Xiao."

The character for "evil" on the faces of the six "Evil Xiao" grew increasingly blood-red; in the next instant, they extended sharp bone fingers and sliced their own faces open, from which torrents of blood-colored smoke surged forth, blotting out the sky as they collided with the six giant hands pressing down.

Immediately, a rumbling roar erupted.

Li Luo's peripheral vision swept across the "gray-black canopy" in the sky. That materialized thing resembling a scroll made his heart stir slightly, and he muttered to himself: "So this is the hallmark of Da Tian Xiang Jing, the Tian Xiang Diagram?"

He thought this in his heart, but his speed did not slow by even half a fraction. With Feng Lingyuan holding off the six "Evil Xiao," this was the perfect opportunity for them to destroy the pillar.

The only problem was that from another direction, four figures were also shooting toward them—they were members of another squad. The strength of their leader was roughly on par with Senior Zong Sha, both around Xiao Tian Xiang Jing.

It seemed they clearly wanted to snatch the first merit.

But at this moment, Li Luo and the others were already within several hundred zhang of the "Thousand-Skin Evil Heart Pillar." Looking over now, they saw that ghastly white pillar standing quietly, its exterior seemingly layered with sheets of chilling human skin. At the same time, countless blood-red eerie runes were inscribed on the pillar, making it look hair-raising.

Li Luo gazed at this "Thousand-Skin Evil Heart Pillar," yet a sudden, inexplicable unease rose in his heart.

"Junior Li Luo, let's move!"

Senior Zong Sha saw that the people from the other squad were also charging over, and hurriedly urged.

Li Luo's gaze flickered slightly. The Dragon Elephant Blade lifted slightly, but he did not slash it toward the "Thousand-Skin Evil Heart Pillar." Instead, he said: "Wait."

Senior Zong Sha and Lu Lu Jinci were both stunned upon hearing this. If they waited any longer now, the first merit would be snatched away... but out of trust in Li Luo, they still did not launch their attack.

With this delay, the four people from the other squad were overjoyed. The next instant, they struck without hesitation, their fierce and vicious phase force attacks piercing through the void and slamming directly into the "Thousand-Skin Evil Heart Pillar."

Boom!

The roar of phase force rang out.

Everyone saw that on the "Thousand-Skin Evil Heart Pillar," a deep crack had actually appeared, as if it had nearly severed the pillar.

Seeing this, the four-person squad immediately urged their phase force, ready to deliver another strike.

But at that very moment, a sudden premonition of danger flared sharply in Li Luo's heart, and he yanked Lu Lu Jinci, Senior Zong Sha, and the others as they hastily retreated.

Senior Zong Sha and Lu Lu Jinci had been somewhat baffled at first, but the next instant, the hair on their bodies stood on end, because they saw a rather enormous, blood-red face slowly emerging from the crack in the split pillar.

On that featureless face, an even more savage and terrifying character for "Evil" was carved.

At the same time, a terrifying miasma of malevolent intent erupted skyward, blotting out the heavens.

Senior Zong Sha, Lu Lu Jinci, and the others all cried out in horror.

"A Great Evil Specter?!"