Chapter 25: The Evil Camel Bell and the Dao-Protecting Wife

The red-clothed woman sitting there seemed to have had insight long ago.

When the sword edge fell to the top of her head, her body split into two, stood up beside it, and then, she slapped out with a light palm.

Li Youyi's full-force surprise attack only slashed away her afterimage sitting on the ground, leaving a deep gash by the blood pool. Before he could be shocked, his face felt painful; the opponent's palm wind was coming overwhelmingly.

In his haste, he could only mobilize seventy percent of his peak state power, forming a palm seal with his left hand to clash head-on with her.

"Bang!"

Li Youyi only felt his left hand hit a metal wall, the pain spreading from his wrist to his shoulder.

Then he flew backward, falling to the ground a zhang away, using his sword to point at the ground to stabilize his center of gravity, avoiding the miserable outcome of rolling on the ground.

The red-clothed woman also retreated half a step, soil rolling into the blood pool beneath her feet.

She was surprised: "In just a few days, you've actually broken through the realm and opened the second spring eye of the Gushing Spring Realm. Your cultivation speed is so fast?"

Li Youyi's left arm was sore and weak; he secretly mobilized the air current from the soles of his feet to heal and recover, looking at Qi Shanshan standing by the blood pool with disbelief.

She was wearing the skeleton demon's clothes, the bone wind chime tied to her waist, her hair hanging to the ground, her eyes completely different from before, cold and arrogant, with a majesty that looked down on all living beings.

"You drank Jin Wu blood... no, you're not Dr. Qi, you're that skeleton in the grave." Li Youyi saw Jin Wu fire light overflowing from the red-clothed Qi Shanshan and guessed that she had drunk Jin Wu blood to strengthen her physical body.

She hadn't shed her shell to become an immortal spirit, but she had another strange and demonic temperament.

Li Youyi felt that Dr. Qi had likely been possessed or devoured by her.

In legends, these dead soul monsters were proficient in these methods.

"Skeleton demon?"

The red-clothed Qi Shanshan muttered to herself, then said in an extremely calm tone: "I can feel the hostility on you, but what I want to say is, there's no need for us to fight to the death; why not talk first? Perhaps we can take what we need and achieve mutual benefit."

Her voice was somewhat different from the previous Qi Shanshan, more ethereal.

"Your strength is above mine, yet you propose negotiations first. It seems you have some kind of apprehension in your heart, which is why you dare not act rashly."

Li Youyi felt that what the red-clothed Qi Shanshan feared was the Dao Ancestor's Taiji Fish.

But she didn't know that, in fact, Li Youyi still didn't know how to activate it even now.

So Li Youyi also felt very hollow inside and could only pretend to be calm: "But I would like to know what you want, and what you can give me."

The red-clothed Qi Shanshan said: "Aren't you asking what you already know? I want the blood in your body."

"How much?"

Li Youyi didn't understand why she would say "asking what you already know" and felt she might have misunderstood something.

"A lot."

"Is half a bowl enough?"

The half bowl Li Youyi had released earlier was still left there.

"Not enough, far from enough. Besides blood, I also want your soul," the red-clothed Qi Shanshan said.

Li Youyi understood; she wasn't trying to negotiate at all, but was playing with him, so: "Then I want your whole body of bones; will you give them?"

The red-clothed Qi Shanshan narrowed her eyes, cold light shooting out, feeling that Li Youyi had no sincerity at all. This descendant of the ancient clan was too impolite; he had only just stepped onto the path of cultivation, yet he had no respect for her at all.

It seemed necessary to teach him a lesson now, otherwise, wouldn't he enslave her in the future?

She slowly raised her palm, her momentum reaching its peak in an instant: "Fine, I'll take it myself! Li clan junior, summon your Dao-protecting wife; with your current low realm, fighting two with one, I imagine it shouldn't be too difficult."

Li Youyi was getting more and more confused by her: "Wait a minute, you must have misunderstood something."

"In legends, descendants of your ancient clan, during infancy, would have elders from the clan travel through famous mountains and rivers, immortal tombs and ancestral graves, to find a Dao-protecting wife with a terrifying identity before death for you, hidden in your bloodline. Is the legend wrong?"

The red-clothed Qi Shanshan was puzzled, thinking that Li Youyi's identity had already been exposed, so there was no need to hide it.

Li Youyi felt that the opponent was using a strategy, deliberately saying some strange things to distract him. Therefore, he held the Huang Long Sword in front of him in a defensive posture, his eyes becoming increasingly solemn and sharp.

The red-clothed Qi Shanshan said no more.

Capture him first, then talk.

"Whoosh!"

She transformed into a red shadow, rushing out like lightning.

"So fast."

Li Youyi had the scripture belt for support, but in terms of movement speed, he was still inferior, so he had to take out the black iron seal and strike the top of the seal with the hilt of the Huang Long Sword.

He also mobilized the two cold and hot air currents to pour into it.

This was a method he had researched, which was more powerful and didn't hurt himself.

"Boom!"

Thunder roared and lightning flashed.

The red-clothed Qi Shanshan was forced back, with electric light landing on her body.

But the red clothes on her body had been immortal for a thousand years and were clearly extraordinary, so the electric light couldn't truly hurt her.

Seizing this rare opportunity, Li Youyi pursued, mobilizing the cold and hot air currents in his body to inject into his silver-silk gloves, silver light appearing on his hands, and his strength increased accordingly.

He slashed out more than ten swords in succession, each one with full force, heavy as a thousand jun.

The red-clothed Qi Shanshan fought while retreating, cracks appearing on the skin of her arms, blood constantly overflowing.

After all, Qi Shanshan's flesh and skin were only in a mortal state and couldn't withstand this level of collision at all.

The two were in the midst of a fierce battle, and when it was difficult to stop,

"Clang clang!"

In the tomb forest, a dense cluster of black Nether fog puffed and swelled, surging over.

The fog was accompanied by dense and loud camel bell sounds.

It came extremely fast.

In less than a breath's time, black fog covered the sky, bone-chillingly cold, and the field of vision was severely limited.

Li Youyi and the red-clothed Qi Shanshan changed color, both feeling the danger, and were about to stop and separate. However, the camel bell sound had already reached their ears, sounding like thunder.

In the Nether fog, the first half-virtual, half-real camel ghost appeared, three or four meters tall, with a hunched and withered human figure sitting on it.

That human figure waved a ghost flag, stirring up a biting air wave, hitting the two who hadn't had time to stop, causing them to fly backward like fallen leaves.

"Bang! Bang!"

The two fell to the ground, both spitting blood, clearly injuring their internal organs.

In an instant.

Li Youyi flipped up, holding his sword in one hand and the black iron seal in the other, in a defensive posture, never giving the opponent a chance to make another move.

The bell hanging on the camel ghost was extremely strange; every time it rang, it caused him to have countless negative emotions, and his resentment was endless; he had to perform the Jade Void Breathing Method to resist.

The red-clothed Qi Shanshan's body strength was not as good as Li Youyi's, and she was injured even more severely, her face extremely pale.

Slowly, she stood up and said in a strange language: "When the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman gains."

"Chan Hai Guan Wu, long time no see, haha!" The figure riding on the camel's back was sometimes virtual and sometimes real, holding a ghost flag and laughing loudly.

First a skeleton demon, and then another more vicious ghost?

Li Youyi had long heard some scientific expedition members say that they had seen a camel team walk into a tombstone, and he thought they were exaggerating. Later, he also heard camel bells vaguely many times, but thought it was a hallucination and didn't take it to heart.

Only at this moment did he realize that this camel bell was really not right.

Many things that happened on the ship might be related to it.

Li Youyi looked at the endless sea of tomb steles and secretly worried. Who were the people buried in the graves, and how many people were not completely dead?

The red-clothed Qi Shanshan's eyes were cold: "I didn't expect that you actually had a wisp of soul thought preserved in the evil camel bell, lingering on. The things that happened on the ship were all your handiwork, right? Using the evil camel bell to bewitch the mind, create slaughter, and collect evil thoughts to strengthen your own soul thought."

"You're wrong! Evil thoughts originate from oneself; what does it have to do with the camel bell? Besides, if I don't collect evil thoughts to let my soul thought condense as soon as possible, I wouldn't even be able to walk out of the evil camel bell."

The thin figure on the camel stopped laughing and said again: "The treasure hanging on his neck, this king is determined to get it. Considering that everyone is an old acquaintance, I will spare your life today; you can leave! You are seriously injured, don't ruin yourself."

After the red-clothed Qi Shanshan stood up straight, she laughed: "Are you coaxing a three-year-old child? You failed to kill the two of us with one blow during your sneak attack, and you can only break us apart to defeat us. If I leave now, it would truly be certain death."

"Fine, if you want to die, this king will fulfill your wish."

The camel rushed out, fast as a steed.

The bell rang, and the ghost flag in the thin figure's hand slashed down at her.

The red-clothed Qi Shanshan was injured and didn't dare to take it head-on, immediately performing movement techniques to retreat and dodge.

Strangely, the ghost flag that was clearly slashing at the red-clothed Qi Shanshan, before it could fall, changed direction at a faster speed, heading straight for Li Youyi on the other side.

He was extremely cunning; his true target had been Li Youyi from beginning to end.

Li Youyi had been carefully guarding, and seeing the ghost flag coming like a storm, he immediately swung his sword.

A disdainful low hum sounded on the camel's back.

"Chi chi!"

It was not a head-on collision; the Huang Long Sword was like a flood dragon, winding and passing over the ghost flag, bringing out an arc-shaped spark.

All the power was unloaded.

Li Youyi's figure had already dodged six steps away; as long as he was prepared, it wouldn't be so easy to hurt him again.

"Yu Tuonan, you people from the Xiaoyao Capital, besides being arrogant, what else do you have? With just this bit of strength, if the two of us join forces, your wisp of soul thought will likely dissipate and vanish here."

The red-clothed Qi Shanshan said this naturally for Li Youyi to hear, using the Earth language.

Compared to the skeleton demon, Li Youyi now wanted the figure on the camel's back to have his soul fly away and scatter even more, to cut off the source of evil, his intent incomparably intense.

The figure on the camel's back was ashamed and angry, the ghost flag in his hand surging with even thicker Nether fog, using the flag pole as a spear to stab at Li Youyi's heart.

At this moment.

A strange scene appeared before everyone's eyes.

"Whoosh—"

The mouthful of blood Li Youyi had spat out earlier steamed up, making the surroundings a light red blood mist world.

The ground was rotting and molding inch by inch.

A slender figure dressed in a red wedding dress, wearing a veil with copper coins hanging from it, stood in the blood mist world, standing in front of the rushing camel. She raised her jade hand, from top to bottom, and waved forward.

What made Li Youyi's mind unsettled was that he was also raising his sword and waving it down at this moment.

Why was there a feeling that the two had merged into one?

"Whoosh!"

The half-virtual, half-real camel was split into two.

Accompanied by a scream, the thin ghost figure, and the ghost flag he held, turned into a burst of pitch-black Nether fog, retreating like a tide, disappearing into the deep and vast tomb forest.

In just an instant, the bride disappeared!

Appearing out of thin air, and disappearing out of thin air.

"What's the situation... Dao-protecting wife?"

This thought, which he himself felt was absurd, arose in Li Youyi's mind, and he immediately looked for the red-clothed Qi Shanshan, only to find that she had long since escaped without a trace.

Li Youyi hurriedly rushed back to the medical tent, worried that she had gone there.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 26 =====