“Split it evenly with you?” Upon hearing this, Ji Yin’s gloomy face twitched slightly, as if somewhat tempted. For Ji Yin, as long as he claimed a share from Han Li, his nominal disciple, no matter how the treasures were divided, his portion would never be too small.
But before Ji Yin could ponder further whether this was feasible, the brawny man standing at the front, Man Huzi, threw his head back and laughed arrogantly: “Split the Void Heaven Cauldron evenly? Wan Tianming, you think too highly of yourself! If you want to snatch food from my mouth, first see if your claws are hard enough!”
After saying this, Man Huzi gave a command without another word. The giant leopard that had been lying in front of him suddenly stood up, let out a low roar, and its third beastly eye immediately opened wide, shooting out an earthy yellow beam of light straight toward Wan Tianming on the opposite side.
“Beast, seeking death!” Wan Tianming couldn’t help but roar angrily.
He hadn’t expected Man Huzi to dismiss his suggestion outright and attack without hesitation. No matter how he looked at it, his side had the assistance of the Cold Flood Dragon and the Li Turtle, giving them a slight advantage in strength. This caught Wan Tianming off guard, and he hurriedly released a purple light that intercepted the yellow beam.
However, the moment the purple light touched the yellow beam, the yellow light exploded.
Then, with a “clang,” the purple light vanished without a trace, and instead, a white object fell from mid-air. Before anyone could clearly see what it was, the object shattered upon impact. Only then did everyone get a clear look—it was an ordinary piece of rubble. Most of the onlookers were stunned, momentarily confused.
But when Wan Tianming saw this, his expression changed several times in an instant. His eyes narrowed with a sharp glint, and he said in disbelief, “Transmutation Art! Your Three-Eyed Leopard is a mutated spirit beast!”
Upon hearing the term “mutated spirit beast,” both the righteous and demonic factions present showed expressions of shock.
At first glance, mutated spirit beasts and primordial exotic species sound very similar, but in reality, they are worlds apart. “Primordial exotic species” refers to certain rare spirit beasts from ancient times that, over the course of time, changed their habits and appearances due to various reasons, forming new populations that retained some characteristics of ancient spirit beasts but were entirely different.
However, such spirit beasts are mostly extremely rare, with very limited numbers, and are generally hard to find.
Mutated spirit beasts, on the other hand, are each unique. They are spirit beasts that, during their advancement process, undergo unpredictable mutations for unknown reasons, resulting in drastically altered abilities. While the outcomes of such mutations vary, some of the mutated abilities are exceptionally unique and powerful, even capable of feats ordinary spells cannot achieve.
For instance, the ability to turn most magical instruments and treasures into stone is one of the more famous among them.
This ability is truly formidable. Once, a Core Formation cultivator used this ability of his mutated spirit beast to wipe out three or four Core Formation cultivators of the same level in one go, shaking the entire Chaotic Star Sea. Since then, the cultivation world has collectively referred to the bizarre abilities of mutated spirit beasts as “Transmutation Arts” to distinguish them from ordinary spells.
Man Huzi’s Three-Eyed Leopard originally only shot fire-based attacks from its third eye, but now it emitted a beam that directly turned Wan Tianming’s unknown magical instrument or treasure into stone. This was undoubtedly the result of a mutation in the spirit beast.
This left everyone present dumbfounded.
It is important to note that the emergence of a mutated spirit beast is a one-in-ten-thousand occurrence and only happens in high-level spirit beasts above the fourth rank. Since the discovery of spirit beast mutations, only about a dozen famous mutated spirit beasts have appeared in the Chaotic Star Sea, and among them, only a small fraction possessed useful abilities after mutation.
This makes mutated spirit beasts even more precious. The last time a mutated spirit beast appeared was over a thousand years ago in the Chaotic Star Sea, making it practically a pipe dream for spirit beast breeders to hope for a mutation during advancement.
Now, both demonic and righteous factions stared at the Three-Eyed Leopard with varied expressions!
Only then did Wan Tianming understand why Man Huzi had so unceremoniously rejected the proposal to split the treasures evenly—he had this trump card! With this mutated Three-Eyed Leopard alone, he could likely neutralize the threat of the Cold Flood Dragon and Li Turtle on Wan Tianming’s side.
Realizing this, Wan Tianming’s expression turned serious, and he glanced toward Ji Yin and the scholar-robed elder. The two wore expressions of surprise and delight, clearly having abandoned any thought of splitting the Void Heaven Cauldron evenly with the righteous faction.
Wan Tianming’s guess was correct. After learning that Man Huzi’s Three-Eyed Leopard was a mutated spirit beast, Patriarch Ji Yin immediately discarded any thought of compromise.
As a demonic path overlord, he was no pushover. If he could monopolize the treasure, he would never agree to share it equally with the righteous faction.
So, after exchanging a meaningful glance with the scholar-robed elder, he without hesitation spun around, and countless dark Yin energy emerged from his body. Meanwhile, the dozen or so Heavenly Capital Corpses beside him twisted and vanished into black light.
The scholar-robed elder, on the other hand, transmitted a message to Han Li: “Step back a bit and focus on keeping yourself alive. There’s nothing you can do to help in this fight.”
After saying this, the flock of Green Thorn Birds above the elder’s head seemed to receive some command. With a shrill cry, they transformed into green arrows and charged toward the righteous faction. The elder himself waved his sleeve, and countless green threads shot out from within, densely following the bird flock.
Seeing the demonic faction take the initiative to attack, Wan Tianming also stopped holding back. Even though Man Huzi’s mutated spirit beast was troublesome, he wasn’t truly afraid. After all, no matter how powerful a mutated spirit beast was, it was still just a beast.
Moreover, he knew very well that the Transmutation Art, which turned objects into stone, was useless against cultivators themselves. As long as he was careful not to let his treasures be hit by the yellow light, dealing with this spirit beast wasn’t impossible.
With this in mind, Wan Tianming let out a cold snort and spat out two short words: “Attack!”
After saying this, he released the white Cold Flood Dragon, then clapped his hands together in front of his chest. Purple flames erupted around his body, and he instantly transformed into a purple-flamed figure soaring into the sky, charging toward Man Huzi.
Seeing this, Tian Wuzi quickly summoned the Li Turtle and without hesitation struck its shell hard. Immediately, the giant turtle’s small green eyes flashed with ferocity, and its mouth slowly opened, spewing white cold air that spread across the sky, transforming into a massive wave of icy torrents rolling toward the incoming green bird flock.
The Green Thorn Bird flock was not to be outdone. Simultaneously opening their sharp beaks, they shot out slender streams of green flame that rapidly merged into a huge green fire pillar, colliding and intertwining with the white cold air. Green fire and white energy splattered everywhere, seemingly locked in a stalemate for the moment.
The dark-skinned old man who looked like a farmer had a much more bizarre method of attack. He woodenly flipped his palm, and between two fingers appeared a vibrant green willow branch. With a slight wave of the branch, countless green illusions shot out from him in circles, immediately turning the area within ten zhang into a lush, green expanse, as if it had become a green ocean.
But within the green light and shadows, two black flashes appeared, and three Iron Armor Demon Corpses were suddenly exposed. The countless green threads around them immediately came to life, shooting toward the corpses. In the blink of an eye, countless silk threads tightly bound several Heavenly Capital Demon Corpses.
These demon corpses were originally monsters of immense strength, but bound by those seemingly fragile green threads, they could no break free, causing the two monsters to roar frantically.
Seeing this, Patriarch Ji Yin’s face turned cold, and he transformed into a large mass of black clouds, rapidly shooting toward the scene. Each of his Heavenly Capital Corpses was difficult to refine, and he had no intention of letting them be destroyed easily. Moreover, since the opponent was clearly using wood-attribute techniques, his Heavenly Corpse Fire would be particularly effective against them!
Seeing the Nascent Soul stage experts begin their great battle, Han Li didn’t need to be told to hurriedly retreat another ten steps or so.
Although he knew that even retreating a hundred steps would be futile, Han Li still instinctively wanted to put more distance between himself and the fight. If the righteous faction had any wicked ideas and decided to sacrifice the Void Heaven Cauldron just to eliminate him, the owner of the Bloodjade Spider, wouldn’t he be done for? He couldn’t be sure that Man Huzi and the others would be able to protect him in time. After all, this high platform of about a hundred zhang in size was practically tiny for them—they could cover the distance in an instant.
Now that Ji Yin was occupied with another Nascent Soul stage cultivator, it would be a good opportunity for Xuan Gu to launch a sneak attack. But would this old demon risk letting the righteous faction gain an advantage just to settle his own vendetta?
Thinking this, Han Li couldn’t help but glance at Xuan Gu, who was watching the battle from below the altar.
At this moment, the other party was expressionlessly watching the intense battle, his face showing no emotional fluctuations, making it impossible to guess what he was thinking.
“Crafty old fox!” Han Li cursed inwardly with some frustration.
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