Chapter 277: The Smiling-Face Demon's Spell

Between heaven and earth, black mist spread thickly, and eerie, inexplicable whispers kept echoing.

From within the black mist, wave after wave of strange creatures surged forth like a tide, while the Smiling-Face Demon, at this moment, stood before the black mist, gesticulating wildly.

The scene was absurd, yet not a single one of the many students on the high wall could laugh, because at this point even a fool could tell the Smiling-Face Demon must be brewing something.

But they had no way to stop it, and could only play it by ear.

Jiang Jiang Qinge had long since given the order for everyone to maintain the highest level of vigilance.

Outside the stronghold, hordes of demons howled; inside the stronghold, all was quiet and oppressive.

Under the tense gazes of the many students, after a moment, the Smiling-Face Demon's body finally came to a halt, the smile on its face seemingly deepening at this moment.

Then it slowly opened its mouth full of black fangs.

Puff puff puff!

One could only see streaks of black light shooting out from its mouth; these black lights whistled as they fell straight toward the clay figures atop those clay platforms.

Hiss!

The black light sank into the clay figures, and then there was no more sound.

Everything fell silent.

The many students waited for a good while, yet saw no sign of any anomaly, and immediately looks of astonishment surfaced on their faces—had the spell gone wrong?

Ah!

But before they could rejoice over this, suddenly, beyond everyone's expectations, an abnormality appeared within the stronghold, and one after another, screams rang out.

Everyone turned in panic, and then saw that within the stronghold, from the bodies of some students, billowing black smoke suddenly surged out; they let out screams, because their mouths were rapidly tearing apart, eventually forming that eerie smile.

Thick malevolent-force, like a tide, drowned their bodies.

In just a few breaths, these students seemed to have been transformed into puppets; then, with crimson eyes, they lunged at the other students nearby like wild beasts.

The entire stronghold instantly plunged into chaos.

On the high wall, Li Luo watched the chaos within the stronghold, and his expression also grew exceptionally ugly.

"These people were pollutees who hadn't been discovered before..."

Jiang Jiang Qinge's golden eyes gazed coldly at the scene and said: "Earlier, the clay figures the Smiling-Face Demon shaped from black mud should have formed a connection with the pollution seeds hidden within their bodies, and then directly triggered them, causing them to become puppets under its control."

Li Luo's heart grew heavy; although they had previously discovered some polluted students, clearly those weren't all of them.

Perhaps this was also the Smiling-Face Demon's deliberate doing—truth mixed with falsehood—making it hard for people to sort things out completely.

Duze Duze Honglian's face also turned a little pale; if the pollution within her body hadn't been cleared at this point, she would probably be just like those students.

Suddenly, she thought of something and hurriedly reminded: "Be careful of Yuan Xiong, Ye Ye Qiuding and the others; they're like me, having come face-to-face with the Smiling-Face Demon, and it's very likely they have hidden pollution too!"

Yuan Xiong was her teammate.

Boom!

And the instant her voice fell, suddenly a stone tower collapsed at this moment, and a disheveled figure shot out backward, smashing a wall to pieces.

That figure was Tian Tian, who had been supervising Yuan Xiong, Ye Ye Qiuding and the others!

And at this moment, her face slightly pale, she stared at the shattered stone tower, only to see several figures wrapped in thick malevolent black smoke slowly walk out from within.

Gazing through the black smoke, one could faintly make out Yuan Xiong, Ye Ye Qiuding and the others, their faces torn and bleeding, except now their eyes were all crimson, clearly having lost control of their minds.

"Captain, after they were polluted, their strength increased!"

Tian Tian looked toward the high wall where Jiang Jiang Qinge and the others were and urgently reminded her.

Hearing this, Jiang Jiang Qinge's pretty face turned icy, and at the same time her calm voice rang in the ears of every student within the stronghold: "Don't panic; everyone immediately join forces to suppress the polluted students."

"Near the central tower, form a defensive line; do not let the polluted students approach. Their target must be to destroy the central tower and shake the purification light barrier!"

The originally chaotic stronghold, as Jiang Jiang Qinge's calm voice reached their ears, did manage to calm the panic somewhat; the next moment, everyone erupted with phase force and began to encircle and suppress those polluted students.

They all understood that if the current situation truly allowed the central tower to be destroyed, then they, having lost the protection of the purification light barrier, would surely be drowned by those countless strange creatures.

Absolutely no way out!

Under the threat of death, they did cast aside some of the fear in their hearts and began to fight with all their might.

Li Luo, Duze Duze Honglian, Senior Qiu Bai and others also struck at this moment, suppressing the chaos within the stronghold.

Only Jiang Jiang Qinge still stood upon the high wall; her breathtakingly beautiful face calmly watched the stronghold, then shifted her gaze, still locking onto that Smiling-Face Demon.

Although the opponent's eerie methods had caused chaos within the stronghold, for now it was still within controllable bounds, so she needed to keep a close eye on it at all times and wait for an opportunity to act.

Jiang Jiang Qinge understood in her heart that if there was anyone who could pose even a little threat to that Smiling-Face Demon, it was probably only her.

However, even she had a gap with the Smiling-Face Demon that could not be ignored, so she needed to wait for an opportunity.

Thus, as the chaos within the stronghold continued, Jiang Jiang Qinge still stood quietly upon the high wall; a wind carrying the scent of blood blew past, lifting her long hair, while her hands merely rested lightly on the sword hilt, the blade tip touching the ground.

Her golden eyes, like amber, stared at the distant Smiling-Face Demon.

Hum!

Li Luo held twin blades; on the blades, water-light flowed at high speed, and the humming sound resonated through the air.

At this moment, he was exerting his full strength to send a polluted student flying.

But before he could pursue, his expression suddenly sharpened as he sensed an extremely vicious malevolent-force rushing straight toward his position.

Li Luo reacted extremely fast; phase force surged within his body, and a light mirror materialized at his side, reflecting a black-smoke figure lunging at him.

Bang!

The mirror surface shattered, and a rebounding force erupted from within, shaking that figure, but it was quickly neutralized; immediately, a streak of black light slashed down toward Li Luo like lightning.

Clang!

Li Luo hurriedly met it with his twin blades, all his phase force erupting within him.

The violent phase-force shockwave swept across; Li Luo's steps retreated repeatedly, and the palms gripping the twin blades throbbed with pain; he looked at that ambushing figure with a slightly grave expression.

At this moment, the latter was entirely wreathed in malevolent-force, with black smoke continuously pouring from its mouth and nose; although its appearance was already hard to discern, Li Luo still recognized it.

"Ye Ye Qiuding?"

Li Luo's brow furrowed slightly. Before being corrupted, Ye Ye Qiuding had been at the third stage of the Diviner Phase, his strength far surpassing Li Luo's. Now, after the corruption, his power had grown even further, and a direct clash between them was clearly not on the same level.

Shriek!

Ye Ye Qiuding's dark red pupils stared at Li Luo, thick Evil Thought power surging in his eyes. A strange laugh escaped his mouth, then he directly stirred up ferocious force and pursued like lightning.

Li Luo cursed under his breath and hurriedly retreated.

But Ye Ye Qiuding pursued him relentlessly, completely ignoring the others. Wave after wave of vicious, venomous attacks, wrapped in Evil Thought power, kept coming.

"Got that much of a grudge against me?"

Li Luo was being chased in a rather sorry state and couldn't help feeling depressed. Ye Ye Qiuding should currently be in a mindless state, yet he was still targeting him specifically. It could only mean that subconsciously, this guy harbored considerable hostility toward him.

And the source of that hostility wasn't hard to guess — most likely because of Jiang Jiang Qinge.

"This bastard, even after being corrupted he still remembers to be jealous?"

At this moment, Ye Ye Qiuding's strength was extremely powerful and his speed extremely fast. In just a short while, he caught up to Li Luo, and a terrifying attack swept down, forcing Li Luo into an especially sorry state.

After all, even with the previous enhancement from the Dark Spirit Pool, Li Luo was still only at the third pattern of the Natal Pattern Stage, while Ye Ye Qiuding was at the Transformation Phase!

Fortunately, Li Luo wasn't alone.

Soon, starlight phase force erupted behind him, transforming into a continuous stream of star butterflies that fluttered toward Ye Ye Qiuding.

Phantoms appeared out of thin air, slashing at Ye Ye Qiuding with blades.

Although the Evil Thought power around Ye Ye Qiuding surged slightly and wiped out all those starlight butterflies, the single breath of time it bought allowed Li Luo to break free from the pursuit.

At the same time, black phase force shot out from the shadows like arrows, viciously and ruthlessly aiming for the vital points all over Ye Ye Qiuding's body.

Hiss!

However, those shadow-like phase forces were casually waved aside by Ye Ye Qiuding and completely neutralized.

Whoosh.

Li Luo let out a long breath, his twin blades angled toward the ground. He glanced at Bai Bai Mengmeng and Student Xin Fu, who had appeared behind him, and said, "If you two hadn't shown up, you'd be collecting your captain's corpse!"

"Even if we came, we still can't beat him," Student Xin Fu said helplessly.

Even with three of them working together, Ye Ye Qiuding still overwhelmed them on every level. After all, he was one of the top students in the Two-Star Hall, and he had been further amplified by Evil Thought power.

"Can't beat him..."

Li Luo smiled and said, "Just call for backup."

He waved toward one direction, and then Student Xin Fu and Bai Bai Mengmeng saw a squad cutting through the chaotic base, rapidly flanking from another direction.

It was three familiar figures.

Beside Yi Yi Lisha, Si Si Qiuying, and Qiu Ye.

The two squads, one in front and one behind, had Ye Ye Qiuding boxed in.

Then, without any hesitation, both squads' six figures shot out simultaneously, launching the encirclement and suppression of this top student of the Two-Star Hall.