Chapter 562: The First Purification Spirit Bead

The purification light barrier stopped spreading when it reached roughly the range of two streets, clearly this was already the limit; to expand further, they could only wait for more purification spirit beads to form nodes and then connect with each other, so as to cover the entire Red Stone City and break this Huan Jing.

Moreover, Li Luo was looking at the edge of the purification light barrier, where black smoke kept rising, as if resisting the power of the purification light barrier and continuously eroding it.

"The purification light barrier is being eroded bit by bit. If this continues at this pace, I'm afraid it won't be long before the purification light barrier is erased by this Huan Jing." Lu Ming also noticed the change at the edge of the purification light barrier, and immediately said with a solemn pretty face.

Li Luo nodded and said: "This Huan Jing is very peculiar, as if it were a living thing. We've built a purification light barrier here, which is probably like driving a thorn into its body. Naturally, it will try to pull this thorn out. But right now there's only one purification spirit bead. Once more purification spirit beads are deployed, this Huan Jing should no longer be able to erode it."

"Still, being able to plant the first nail counts as a good start." Sun Sun Dasheng grinned.

"What do we do next?" Senior Zhu Zhu Xuan asked gloomily, his voice low.

Li Luo glanced at the earth-shaking battlefield in the distance behind them and said: "Let's wait. Wait for the various team captains to deal with the obstructing aberrations and come over, then we can continue to push forward."

Lu Ming, however, turned to look deeper into Red Stone City. In those places, there was no surge of malice energy at all; the streets were bustling with people, appearing noisy and peaceful. Yet it was precisely this peaceful scene that made them not dare to set foot in it, because no one knew what other terrifying aberrations might be hidden within.

Previously, the four of them had only encountered one "Bewitching Heart Aberration" that wasn't even at the Calamity level, and they were already forced into quite a sorry state. If they continued advancing alone, no one knew what they might encounter.

For people of their Diviner Stage, this kind of place was truly too dangerous.

So at the very least, they had to wait for some powerful helpers to come and protect them as they continued forward, so they could head to the next deployment point for the purification spirit bead.

Thus, the four of them stood on a broken wall, waiting.

However, just as this waiting continued, Li Luo suddenly sensed some dangerous aura. He immediately turned sharply, then saw his expression change slightly as, outside the purification light barrier, some intense malice energy suddenly drifted in from nowhere. Immediately after, within that malice energy, two aberrations appeared.

These two aberrations emanated powerful malice energy; one glance was enough to know these were two Calamity-level aberrations.

As soon as these two Calamity-level aberrations appeared, they tried to burrow into the purification light barrier. However, the purification power harmed them greatly; whenever they touched it, the malice energy on their bodies evaporated, causing them immense pain.

They cowered, yet as if driven by some compulsion, they could only brave the illumination of the purification power, step into the purification light barrier, and begin heading toward the position where Li Luo and the others were.

"Not good, they want to destroy the purification spirit bead?!" Lu Ming cried out in alarm at the sight.

Sun Sun Dasheng frowned and said: "The purification light barrier here is extremely targeted at malice energy. Generally speaking, these aberrations won't actively step into this range; even Calamity-level aberrations will try to avoid it."

Li Luo nodded and said: "Unless they were driven by some irresistible compulsion."

A heavy feeling settled in everyone's hearts. Within this Red Stone City, something capable of driving Calamity-level aberrations like this was, apart from the Great Calamity-level aberration hidden in the shadows, unlikely to be anything else.

Clearly, the first purification spirit bead they had deployed here had already been noticed.

"What do we do? Should we retreat? Those are two Calamity-level aberrations; we simply can't stop them." Senior Zhu Zhu Xuan couldn't help but say, clearly thinking of retreating—but it was only human nature, after all, two Calamity-level aberrations really weren't something they, at the Diviner Stage, could handle.

"We only just managed to deploy a purification spirit bead with great difficulty, how can we just retreat like that? Wouldn't all our previous effort have been wasted?" Sun Sun Dasheng was unwilling.

Lu Ming pondered slightly and said: "Although they are two Calamity-level aberrations, they will both be weakened somewhat within the purification light barrier. If we do our best to entangle them, we should be able to buy some time. As long as we wait for teammates to come support us, we can hold onto the purification spirit bead."

Although she also understood that stalling two Calamity-level aberrations was quite dangerous, she was also reluctant to give up the purification spirit bead they had planted with such difficulty.

Li Luo was silent for a few breaths, then said: "Everyone get ready to fight. Don't confront them head-on; try to evade and delay as much as possible. Just don't let them destroy the purification spirit bead."

Hearing Li Luo's words, both Lu Ming and Sun Sun Dasheng nodded vigorously in agreement.

Senior Zhu Zhu Xuan was somewhat displeased. He was clearly the senior from the Two-Star Academy here, yet no one paid any attention to his suggestion. These freshmen from the One-Star Academy truly didn't know how to respect their seniors at all.

But being displeased was useless; he couldn't exactly leave the group and go off alone, as that would be even more dangerous. So he could only reluctantly circulate his phase force.

Phase force rose from the bodies of the four of them, their gazes all warily fixed on the two Calamity-level aberrations that, braving the illumination of the purification power, kept drawing closer.

Li Luo gripped the Mysterious Elephant Blade tightly. The two phase palaces within his body trembled and roared, phase force flowing out like a stream, and upon colliding, burst forth with even more powerful dual-phase power.

The two aberrations began approaching rapidly.

Li Luo and the others could now clearly see the flesh flowing on the bodies of the two aberrations, strange and twisted limbs constantly extending out from the flesh, and within each blood-red pupil, boundless malice.

All four of them tensed up.

Hiss!

The two Calamity-level aberrations let out sharp shrieks, malice energy erupting like a flood, creating tremendous pressure. Under this pressure, Li Luo and the others all felt an extremely strong pressure, as if they were deep in a swamp.

Whoosh!

Then the two Calamity-level aberrations suddenly accelerated, shooting directly toward the four of them.

The stench arrived with the howling gale.

Just as Li Luo and the others were about to dodge these two terrifying Calamity-level aberrations, a sharp sound of breaking wind suddenly rang out from the sky. Then they saw two light nails burning with bright flames descend from above, plunging heavily into the bodies of the two aberrations and pinning them firmly to the ground.

Squeak squeak!

The two Calamity-level aberrations struggled frantically, letting out shrieks. However, no matter how they struggled, they couldn't break free from those two flame light nails. Moreover, the light nails seemed to possess extremely strong killing power; as the flames rose, these two Calamity-level aberrations were directly and rapidly melted into a patch of black mist.

In just a dozen or so breaths, the two Calamity-level aberrations were wiped out just like that.

Li Luo and the others stared, somewhat dumbfounded.

A few breaths later, a slender, tall figure descended from the sky and landed beside them.

The four of them looked and saw, amid the surging light, an exquisitely beautiful face revealed. Skin like white jade, under the flowing light, appeared even more sacred. Long hair like a waterfall was casually pinned up, and with a cape fluttering in the wind behind her, the girl before them was undoubtedly so dazzling that even Lu Ming, who was also a girl, felt a sense of awe.

"Sister Jiang Qinge!"

Li Luo cried out joyfully.

The one who had arrived in time to help was naturally Jiang Jiang Qinge.

Jiang Jiang Qinge turned her head, her golden eyes pausing on Li Luo for a moment. Seeing that he had no injuries, the corners of her lips lifted in a slight arc, and she nodded slightly: "Well done."

What she referred to was naturally the purification spirit bead they had successfully deployed here.

"It's all thanks to the teammates' contributions, especially Senior Zhu Zhu Xuan, who fed himself to the tiger and tested for us what changes would occur after being polluted." Li Luo said with a smile.

Hearing this, Senior Zhu Zhu Xuan's face immediately darkened.

"Senior Jiang, how are things with the other team captains?" Lu Ming asked.

"No major problems. Wait a little longer, and they should be able to gather over." Jiang Jiang Qinge said.

"If we can keep pushing forward like this, although the pace is a bit slow, deploying the purification nodes successfully should still be doable." Li Luo said.

And once the purification nodes were successful, this Huan Jing would be broken.

Jiang Jiang Qinge nodded, then slightly furrowed her willow brows and said: "But what puzzles me is that the Great Calamity aberration actually didn't take this opportunity to appear and coordinate with these aberrations to encircle and suppress us."

Li Luo nodded; he also found this somewhat puzzling. After all, if the Great Calamity aberration had appeared at this time, it would undoubtedly have made their situation even more difficult.

But regardless, being able to proceed so smoothly was, for them, ultimately a good thing.

So the five of them continued to wait here, and with Jiang Jiang Qinge rushing over to protect them, everyone's sense of security immediately strengthened. During the time that followed, more aberrant creatures came to interfere, attempting to break the Purifying Spirit Pearl, but without exception they were all wiped out cleanly by Jiang Jiang Qinge.

About half an hour later.

The other team members had also dealt with the blocking aberrant creatures and arrived one after another to regroup.

At this point, the first step of their purification node could be considered successfully completed.

As long as they maintained this pace and pushed forward step by step, this Huan Jing would eventually be destroyed.

And as everyone began to push forward again, they were unaware that on a certain Gao Ta in the city, a figure in crimson armor stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his gaze piercing through layer upon layer of the Huan Jing, silently watching them.

Then his gaze shifted toward the very center of Red Stone City.

He gazed at the figure within the scarlet pillar of light and smiled faintly.

"Brats of the Academy Alliance, I've created an excellent opportunity for you. I hope you won't disappoint me."