Chapter 276: Malice Backlash

Inside the stronghold, more and more students were uncontrollably raising their heads to stare at the Smiling Face Demon in the sky, while the smiles at the corners of their mouths were gradually turning eerie.

This scene was not unfamiliar to Li Luo. Once the smiles at the corners of those students' mouths tore to their widest, they would lose control and fall under the Smiling Face Demon's domination.

"It's over. This Smiling Face Demon's ability can actually pierce straight through the stronghold's defenses—we simply can't stop it." Duze Duze Honglian stared at the scene, her face going pale as she couldn't help muttering.

"Stop being a crow's mouth here, will you?" Li Luo rubbed his face and said irritably.

His expression, however, was not overly panicked. After all, they had actually made some preparations for this kind of situation before.

Li Luo's gaze met Jiang Jiang Qinge's for a moment. The latter understood his plan and immediately gave a slight nod of her pretty head.

So Li Luo stepped forward, stood atop the high wall, and shouted loudly enough to echo everywhere: "Everyone with water phase or light phase, immediately circulate your phase force and cast phase arts like Water Mirror or Light Mirror!"

As his voice fell, he struck first. He saw phase force surge out from within his body, directly forming above him a water-light mirror roughly several zhang across, its surface smooth and translucent, reflecting light.

Hum!

Beside him, brilliant light erupted from within Jiang Jiang Qinge's body, and a light mirror ten times wider than Li Luo's water-light mirror condensed into existence.

Meanwhile, the students who still retained their rationality saw this and hurriedly urged their phase force as well, so one after another, water mirrors and light mirrors kept appearing throughout the stronghold.

A moment later, these numerous water mirrors and light mirrors gradually linked together, as if forming one enormous mirror surface.

The mirror surface's reflection shone directly upon the Smiling Face Demon in the sky.

And the Smiling Face Demon clearly froze for a moment. It looked down and saw, in the mirror reflection in midair above the stronghold, another Smiling Face Demon staring back at it.

In that instant, the Smiling Face Demon in the sky suddenly let out a shrill cry. The black mist around its entire body began churning wildly at this moment, and its two crimson eye pupils seemed to shed tears of blood, dripping down continuously, as if turning into a rain of blood.

It had originally been swaggering above the stronghold, but now it seemed to have taken damage, hurriedly retreating backward into the all-encompassing black mist.

And as the Smiling Face Demon retreated, the students in the stronghold whose mouths had been gradually tearing open also gradually regained clarity, their expressions still somewhat dazed.

However, once they understood what had happened earlier, they first felt a lingering fear, then burst into some cheers, because anyone could see that the Smiling Face Demon seemed to have been repelled by them once.

So it turned out the Smiling Face Demon's ability could be resisted in this way!

"Th-this, how is that possible?!"

Duze Duze Honglian stared at the scene in some shock. Such a powerful Smiling Face Demon had actually been repelled? And from the look of it earlier, the Smiling Face Demon should have sustained some injuries, right?

"When something happens, don't panic. Use your brain more."

Li Luo glanced at her indifferently and said, "Anyone who sees the Smiling Face Demon will involuntarily smile, then sync up with its smile, and finally be corrupted."

"This is a kind of visual corruption. Earlier, the Smiling Face Demon was wantonly releasing its malice corruption. We used the mirror surface to copy and counter it, causing it to suffer a damage similar to a backlash of malice."

After being lectured by Li Luo, Duze Duze Honglian's gorgeous cheeks couldn't help but alternate between blue and pale. She wanted to flare up but had nowhere to direct it, and could only swallow her anger in frustration.

Because Li Luo and the others' move had indeed countered the Smiling Face Demon's special ability.

No matter how unconvinced she was, she could only accept this.

"What a pity. If we could have waited until its malice corruption grew stronger before countering, it should have caused greater backlash to it." Jiang Jiang Qinge's golden eyes watched the thick black mist. Although the Smiling Face Demon had been struck by backlash earlier, the intensity had not reached the point of seriously injuring it.

"No choice. If we really waited until that point, the stronghold would have fallen into chaos first." Li Luo sighed and said.

If the situation just now had been allowed to drag on, many people would have been controlled by the Smiling Face Demon. Once they started killing each other frantically inside the stronghold, the stronghold might have collapsed without even needing to be attacked.

Jiang Jiang Qinge gave a slight nod of her pretty head. Of course she knew this too, but this mirror-surface backlash method could only work wonders the first time. After that, the Smiling Face Demon probably wouldn't so brazenly release this ability again.

Still, it was good—at the very least, they'd taken out one of its powerful moves.

Their gazes turned toward the outside of the stronghold. At this moment, from within the thick, viscous black mist, aberrations continued to pour out like a tide, finally colliding with the stronghold's light barrier.

Although they had blocked the Smiling Face Demon's first attack, Li Luo and Jiang Jiang Qinge's expressions remained Solemn and worried. Because from the earlier exchange, the Smiling Face Demon held an absolute advantage in strength, and its methods were bizarre and varied. No one knew how it would attack next.

Moreover, what worried Li Luo and Jiang Jiang Qinge the most was that the Smiling Face Demon's ability could actually pierce straight through the stronghold's purification light barrier and directly affect the people inside.

And one must know that this purification light barrier was the last shield on which all of them relied to resist the Smiling Face Demon. But if some of the Smiling Face Demon's methods could ignore the purification light barrier, the threat it posed to them would greatly increase.

Amid the two's worry, the aberrations' tide-like assault continued unabated.

However, Li Luo, Jiang Jiang Qinge, and the others did not focus their attention on this. Instead, they stared into the thick black mist, because only the Great Calamity-level aberrations could truly threaten the stronghold's defenses.

Having been thwarted by the backlash of malice earlier, the Smiling Face Demon certainly wouldn't let it go.

The current silence was merely to brew the next, even more vicious and bizarre offensive.

As Li Luo and Jiang Jiang Qinge stared intently at the thick black mist, Duze Duze Honglian, Senior Qiu Bai, and some other top-tier Three Star Hall students came up behind them, ready for battle.

At a certain moment, the thick black mist finally began churning violently once more.

Then Li Luo, Jiang Jiang Qinge, and the others saw their expressions shift slightly as a human figure slowly walked out from the black mist.

That figure was tall and burly, roughly several zhang tall, like a small giant. Its body was completely identical to a human's, with no twisted or bizarre aspects whatsoever.

Only its face was an extremely eerie smiling face.

The corners of its mouth torn to its ears, dark red pupils, a mouth full of sharp, spiky teeth, and a pitch-black interior—looking at it made one feel a chill of horror.

Its dark red pupils locked directly onto Jiang Jiang Qinge on the high wall. Clearly, in its perception, only the latter within this stronghold could make it sense even a hint of threat.

But it was only a hint.

A Great Calamity-level aberration arriving at the outer reaches of this Dark Cave was simply an unmatched existence.

The stronghold's defensive light barrier was somewhat troublesome, though. It contained intense purifying power, and even it would find it hard to break through in a short time.

But no matter—it had its own methods.

The eerie smile on the Smiling Face Demon's face seemed to grow even more intense. It thrust its arm into its mouth, as if rummaging around, and finally let out a dry-heaving sound.

Viscous black liquid flowed out from its mouth. This liquid was like foul-smelling black mud, caught in its palm and casually kneaded.

After a while, it formed several black mud figures whose features couldn't be made out.

The excess black mud was kneaded into a number of tiny mud platforms, stacked in front of it.

Jiang Jiang Qinge, Li Luo, and the others on the high wall watched the Smiling Face Demon, surrounded by countless aberrations, seemingly playing a game of molding mud. Although they didn't know exactly what it was doing, they couldn't help feeling a strong sense of unease.

But, unfortunately, they didn't dare go out to stop it.

So, in the end, they could only watch helplessly as the Smiling Face Demon finished building the numerous mud platforms, each only about a chi tall, and placed those mud figures on top of them.

As if performing some ritual.

Absurd and eerie.

After finishing all that, it stepped forward and stood in front of those mud platforms. Then Li Luo and the others' expressions grew even more interesting, because they saw the Smiley Demon begin to dance about wildly, throwing a fit.