Chapter 742

In the shadows, Li Yuan watched the battle.

After his Shadow Demon Body ascended to the fourth realm, it also coalesced a primordial divine ability, allowing free transit within shadowy forms within a certain range.

That toad's divine ability was indeed ferocious and violent, yet insufficient to harm him.

The Shadow Demon Body is a pure yin form; its internal Shadow Demon Realm has gathered countless impurities, and even if forced to endure, it could digest the toad's poison.

But he clearly had no intention of confronting this quasi-sixth-rank ferocious beast; he used the chaos to vanish into the shadows, waiting for an opportunity.

"The heavens and earth reflect—neither false nor real. No wonder I could never find it…"

Li Yuan focused his perception, and a sudden understanding dawned in his heart.

Over these years, he had sent countless demonic cultivators to scour the heavens and earth, yet not a single trace of any Li had been found—forcing him to lie low among these demonic cultivators.

Now, seeing this, he finally understood: these demonic cultivators must possess some method to seek the Li.

"Roar~"

A ferocious cold current swept across tens of thousands of miles; the giant emerald toad instantly turned white. It opened its mouth and let out a furious roar, and a waterfall of green light surged outward, intending to poison all demonic cultivators.

"Watch out!"

Han Han Shuilan shook her ice-jade bell, and blinding white light expanded rapidly in concentric circles, enveloping all the demonic cultivators.

The Bingpomo Sect cultivators clearly had deep knowledge of this toad; beyond the great array, they possessed numerous restraining techniques.

At the instant the green light surged skyward, all demonic cultivators activated their divine abilities—spells, spirit treasures—channeling the array's power to protect themselves.

But they had clearly underestimated this toad; the freezing cold current had not fully solidified the toxic light.

Visible to the naked eye, the cold current turned emerald green.

"Ah!"

In less than a breath, two fourth-rank demonic cultivators screamed—upon contact with the green light, their spells and spirit treasures melted like candles.

The screams had barely begun when they were already dead.

"Strengthen the array!"

Seeing this, Han Han Shuilan's eyes hardened. With a loud shout, all demonic cultivators burned their magic power again, stirring up an even fiercer cold current.

This cold current flowed from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; wherever it passed, grass, trees, mountains, and rivers froze—even the void seemed to solidify.

Li Yuan, hidden within the shadows, felt his entire body stiffen; he could not mobilize his spells or magic power.

"This array truly restrains this toad."

Li Yuan saw the pattern.

This toad was fused with heaven and earth; once its divine ability activated, it spread through spiritual qi and empty space, reaching everywhere—even someone as cautious as him had truly been caught off guard before.

But now that the Bingpomo Sect's great array had activated, it nearly froze all things; though the toad's divine ability remained ferocious and violent, it had become visible, no longer omnipresent.

"Pity—the realm gap is immense."

Li Yuan muttered inwardly, silently urging his shadow demons.

From the locations of the two poisoned cultivators, two barely perceptible shadow demons flowed into the shadows, carrying the lifetimes of cultivation from those two demonic cultivators into the Shadow Demon Realm.

Over these years, his mastery over shadow demons had reached a divine level; among the Bingpomo Sect cultivators, all except Zhao Zhao Wangji carried his shadow demons.

"Huh!"

The Shadow Demon Realm trembled slightly; ink-black Shadow Demon waters surged like ocean tides. Within this ocean, the Shan Xuan Yin Thunder Pool overflowed, countless shadow demons interwoven like clouds.

"No wonder these demonic sect cultivators are elite among elites—for the Shadow Demon Body, they are a supreme tonic."

Feeling the changes in his Shadow Demon Body, Li Yuan was satisfied.

Out of caution toward the Shi Li Fa Jie and the Netherworld cultivators behind it, the Shadow Demon Body had not voraciously devoured everything—but even so, it had already slain over thirty demonic cultivators, each starting at the fourth realm.

The number of shadow demons cultivated now surpassed even that time within the Blood Phoenix's belly.

"Pity—it's not like a same-rank Guai Land."

Li Yuan felt a slight regret.

Only when a cultivator's Shi De Shen Jing falls into the Gui Xu does a Guai Land evolve; only after the Gui Xu's qi erases the cultivator's primordial imprint can their Liu Xia De Fa and divine abilities be absorbed by others.

Otherwise, the Shadow Demon Body's harvest this time would have been unimaginable.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

Between heaven and earth, thunderous roars echoed; the giant toad writhed violently, and each struggle shattered vast stretches of the cold current. Many demonic cultivators had already turned deathly pale.

Occasionally, one or two demonic cultivators would be poisoned and killed.

After silently collecting seven or eight demonic corpses, the remaining cultivators' faces grew grim; many glanced around, preparing to flee.

"Senior brother!"

Han Han Shuilan dodged the spurting toxic light, her voice tense with anxiety.

"Hold on a little longer!"

Outside the cold current, Zhao Zhao Wangji's brow was slick with sweat; he knew the nature of his fellow disciples.

Had it not been for the risk of the toad targeting them if they fled, they would have scattered in panic.

"Not enough?"

He scattered blood-crystal stones in handfuls to prevent the toad from escaping, while gripping the Netherworld token tightly:

"Why isn't it enough?!"

Zhao Zhao Wangji's face was utterly grim.

To lure this toad, he had consumed hundreds, even thousands of blood-crystal stones, and poured in countless types of Offerings and blood offerings.

According to his calculations, even including the blood soul of the cultivator named Qi Qi Zhili, the Offerings should have been sufficient.

Yet he never expected that nearly ten of his fellow disciples had died—and they still lacked one Qi Qi Zhili…

"Wrong…"

Zhao Zhao Wangji's mind raced. He suspected someone was watching him in secret, but even if he knew for certain, he could not stop now.

The commotion of Shi Li's appearance was too great—Mo Mo Yunzi, Bai Wangsheng, and even demonic cultivators from other sects were likely already on their way.

"Boom!"

The next instant, a light blazed between his brows, and a blinding divine radiance shot forth—in the blink of an eye, it had slain two fellow disciples who had tried to flee.

"Senior Brother?"

"You…"

Every demonic cultivator present turned pale.

Yet Zhao Zhao Wangji's face instantly darkened to the extreme, his gaze fixed dead on a wisp of demonic shadow invisible to ordinary eyes:

"Qi Qi Zhili!"

"Boom!"

The divine light was dazzling. Zhao Zhao Wangji, furious beyond measure:

"Fellow disciples, this beast used a divine ability to secretly murder Junior Brothers Wang and Liu—slay him quickly!"

"Qi Qi Zhili?!"

Han Han Shuilan and the others shuddered. Beneath that divine radiance, they saw two demonic shadows wrapped around qiankun pouches vanishing, and watched the corpses of their two fellow disciples turn to dust.

"…"

A black pot had been dumped on his head. Li Yuan found it rather speechless, but he couldn't even be bothered to refute it, letting the spells and divine light of the demonic cultivators wash over him.

He quietly shifted into another demonic shadow.

"Roar!"

The demonic cultivators were distracted for only an instant, but the toad had already let out an earth-shaking bellow.

"Not good!"

Zhao Zhao Wangji's furious face went deathly pale in an instant.

His reaction was lightning-fast, but he only managed to pull Han Han Shuilan, who was closest, away. The next instant, screams rose one after another—over twenty demonic cultivators were poisoned to death on the spot!

The remaining dozen or so retreated in panic, swallowing pills and urging their arts to detonate spirit treasures, barely managing to withstand that wisp of poisonous light—but every one of them had turned green, heavy poison coursing through their bodies.

"Not good, my divine realm…"

One demonic cultivator had swallowed a great number of spirit pills, but before the pills could even digest, he let out a scream and melted away into the void like wax.

Then a demonic shadow fled into the void.

"Qi Qi Zhili!!"

Zhao Zhao Wangji was furious beyond measure. Tens of thousands of ice-essence divine rays shot forth in clusters, blanketing tens of thousands of miles of void.

At this moment, his killing intent boiled over.

Because, despite dozens of fellow disciples being poisoned to death, he still had not met the sacrificial requirement of the Underworld Token!

All the blood and souls of his fellow disciples had been stolen by that Qi Qi Zhili…

"Boom!"

Tens of thousands of divine rays interwove like a great net, shaking tens of thousands of miles of void and heaven and earth.

The ice-essence divine light was fierce and murderous, and also capable of freezing the void, but compared to the Origin Divine Light of the Five Dragon Immortal, it fell far short.

Li Yuan shifted through it, even feeling rather like he was strolling through a courtyard.

While digesting the gifts from those dozens of demonic cultivators, he kindly reminded:

"Fellow Daoist Zhao, that toad is about to slip away."

"Beast!"

Zhao Zhao Wangji, furious beyond measure:

"I will kill you!!"

He had never imagined that a mere loose cultivator would dare to scheme against him, and that his divine ability would be so bizarre—in the blink of an eye, he had snatched away all his fellow disciples' blood and souls, not leaving him a single bit.

But he was currently bound to the great formation, and could only watch helplessly as the man vanished into the void…

"Roar~"

A great roar sounded at the same time. Zhao Zhao Wangji had just pulled Han Han Shuilan behind him when the remaining dozen or so fellow disciples were all poisoned to death in the void.

"Don't even think it!"

This time, Zhao Zhao Wangji reacted. He raised his hand and grabbed, snatching two corpses from among more than ten demonic shadows by force.

……

"Interesting."

Almost at the same time, outside Shi Li Fa Jie, Daoist Yuan Ming, who had watched the entire process through the light screen, let out a hoarse laugh and looked at the frowning Niro Monk:

"Fellow Daoist, do you recognize what divine ability this is?"

"It seems to be the Shadow-Demon Divine Art of Yuan Ying Fa Jie? But…"

Niro Monk was somewhat startled and doubtful.

"Close enough."

Daoist Yuan Ming did not say more, merely raised his hand and pressed down lightly.

"Hum~"

The next instant, the furiously enraged Zhao Zhao Wangji's heart jolted.

A grand voice exploded in his ears, and in the hearts of every cultivator bearing an Underworld Token throughout all of Shi Li Fa Jie:

【The Underworld Grand Selection begins.】

【He who slays Shi Li 'Chu' may enter the Underworld.】

"Hmm?"

Beyond the Cold Stream Grand Array, Feng Feng Mantian—who was digesting the offerings of those several dozen demonic cultivators—felt his heart jolt as well, and he abruptly raised his head to look beyond the void.

In a daze, he seemed to see a vast shadow shrouding the entire Shi Li Fa Jie, and behind that shadow, there appeared to be an incomparably terrifying figure,

watching him with great interest.

"It's that great cultivator from the Underworld!"

Feng Feng Mantian's very thoughts seemed frozen by an invisible, alien force; though it lasted only an instant, it left his whole body chilled to the bone.

The sensation this aura gave him was utterly terrifying, and it seemed as though it had long since noticed him…

"He's really watching Shi Li… I can't stay in Shi Li Fa Jie any longer!"

In the span of a heartbeat, Feng Feng Mantian's thoughts raced, and retreat had already taken root in his mind.

"Roar~"

The instant that divine sound echoed, the toad—most of which had been sealed in ice—suddenly let out an earth-shattering bellow, and its terrifying aura instantly shattered the Cold Stream array.

"Boom!"

In less than a thousandth of an instant, under the gaze of Zhao Zhao Wangji—and even of the crowd of cultivators rushing over from the extreme distance—the heavens turned a sheet of jade green.

The divine light, potent enough to poison-kill a great cultivator, in the blink of an eye spread across tens of thousands of li, expanding at extreme speed as if to cover the entire world.

Yet it itself suddenly contracted—in less than an instant, shrinking from the size of a star and moon to a speck of dust—about to slip into the void and vanish into the great unknown.

"Don't even think it!"

Zhao Zhao Wangji snapped back to his senses; his heart turned vicious, and he ruthlessly detonated the Ice Seal Grand Array he had spent years laying down.

"Rumble!"

In the extreme distance, Qin Qian's gaze hardened, and in the blink of an eye he vanished into the void.