Chapter 2365: Skeleton

As soon as the short sword emitted a buzzing sound, the eerie insect patterns on its surface seemed to come alive, writhing and shifting restlessly.

With a flick of his arm, the elderly man surnamed Yu sent the short sword hurtling toward the iron cage as a streak of crimson light, slashing downward.

A loud “bang” erupted as the crimson light collided with the cage, immediately triggering a thunderous roar, with countless golden arcs crackling into existence.

The crimson light whimpered and rebounded, transforming back into the short sword in a flash before landing back in the old man’s hand.

“Evil-Warding Divine Lightning!”

The old man paled in shock and hastily inspected the short sword in his hand, only to find several fine cracks running through it—clearly, it had suffered significant damage.

Had Han Li witnessed this scene, he too would have been astonished.

At first glance, the golden arcs rebounding from the iron cage bore some resemblance to the divine lightning he cultivated. However, upon closer inspection, there were subtle differences.

Though these golden arcs shimmered brilliantly, each flash and burst was accompanied by faintly discernible violet-gold runes, their power far surpassing the Evil-Warding Divine Lightning Han Li had mastered.

“This truly is Evil-Warding Divine Lightning… No, wait—it doesn’t seem like ordinary Evil-Warding Divine Lightning. Ah, I recall now. It’s said that the legendary Tian Ding Zhenren not only mastered several types of thunderforce but also possessed a technique to refine and purify thunderforce, amplifying its power tenfold or more.” The last elder, witnessing this, was initially startled but soon furrowed his brows in contemplation.

“This is troublesome. Evil-Warding Divine Lightning already counters our Wuling lineage significantly. If it’s been refined and purified, how are we supposed to break through it?” The elder surnamed Yu retracted his short sword with a resentful expression.

Though the sword appeared unremarkable, it possessed several extraordinary abilities. Its unexpected damage now pained him greatly.

“Don’t worry. No matter how formidable Evil-Warding Divine Lightning is, without someone actively controlling it, it’s merely a lifeless force. At most, it’ll just take us longer to dismantle. What concerns me more is that this iron cage likely has more than just this one restriction. The subsequent ones might prove even harder to break.” The elder surnamed Wu stared thoughtfully at the eerie spikes on the cage and the blood-red chain coiled around the skeletal remains.

“No matter how difficult, we must open it. Otherwise, all our efforts would have been for nothing. Very well, let me test whether my Netherworld Yin Water can neutralize the Evil-Warding Divine Lightning first.” The last elder perked up slightly, opening his mouth to spit out a dull gray gourd.

With a single-handed gesture toward the gourd, it flipped upside down, its surface shimmering briefly before unleashing a torrent of inky black water.

The water was unbelievably frigid. The moment it emerged, the surrounding air temperature plummeted drastically, while wisps of gray mist wafted from it, carrying a strange, decaying odor.

As the elder chanted an incantation, the black water swirled in midair before abruptly morphing into a hazy black flood dragon, its claws bared as it lunged toward the iron cage.

Thunder roared once more from the cage’s surface, golden runes flickering into existence as a dazzling golden lightning net materialized.

A deafening explosion erupted!

The black water and golden arcs clashed violently, unleashing blinding radiance.

—

Han Li stood in an immense hall, gazing at a strikingly lifelike statue on the altar opposite him, his eyes flickering with contemplation.

The statue, roughly life-sized, depicted a middle-aged Daoist robed in white, a blood-red longsword slung diagonally across his back.

The statue’s gaze was cast slightly upward, its expression serene, exuding an ethereal aura that seemed beyond the mortal realm.

Flanking the Daoist statue were two spirit beast sculptures—a massive azure eagle and a silver mantis—both equally vivid and terrifyingly fierce.

“This must be Tian Ding Zhenren. It’s hard to imagine anyone else possessing such presence.” Han Li murmured after a moment, then swept his eyes across the surroundings.

Strewn haphazardly on the ground on either side were four blood-armored puppets, each two zhang tall, and two unidentified skeletal remains.

Though the four puppets lay motionless, their armor gleamed flawlessly, devoid of even a single scratch. The massive hammers and swords they wielded were also perfectly intact, as if they could spring back to life at any moment.

As for the two skeletons, one had only half its body remaining, with four pitch-black flying swords shattered into a dozen fragments scattered nearby.

The other skeleton was missing its skull entirely, with only a mostly shattered purple shield and a silver ruler twisted into a corkscrew shape lying beside it.

The two skeletons lay amidst the puppets, their postures suggesting they had fallen in battle against them.

Judging by the faint spiritual energy lingering on the bones, they were likely two of the cultivators who had fought the giant beast in the lower hall.

After scrutinizing the skeletons and finding no other remnants of treasures, Han Li vanished from his spot in a flash, reappearing behind Tian Ding Zhenren’s statue.

There, a partially damaged small-scale formation was revealed, its center occupied by a milky-white stone platform about a zhang in diameter. The platform’s surface bore several oddly shaped indentations, as if something had once been embedded there—now long gone.

At the edge of the formation, two more skeletons lay side by side, their heads tilted upward. One wore silver armor that had shattered into fragments, its bones pierced through the dantian by the other skeleton’s bony hand.

The other skeleton was clad in a green robe, but its bones had turned pitch-black, as if poisoned by some lethal toxin, causing instant death.

This time, Han Li barely glanced at the skeletons before waving a hand. With a series of soft “pops,” four differently colored storage bracelets flew from the remains, landing precisely in his grasp.

After a brief scan with his spiritual sense, Han Li stored them away expressionlessly and turned his attention to the damaged formation.

“A teleportation formation!”

Upon inspection, he confirmed its original purpose, though it was a single-use construct and now thoroughly ruined. Even with his mastery of formations, restoring it would take considerable time.

After circling the formation several times, Han Li suddenly paused at a dark-red stain. With a grasping motion, a faint, flickering blood light emerged—so weak it seemed on the verge of extinguishing.

He flipped his hand, summoning the vial containing Ice Soul’s essence blood.

Without any incantation, the wisp of blood light immediately darted into the vial, vanishing inside. The glow within the vial brightened slightly.

“So, this is indeed Ice Soul’s residual essence blood. It seems she was here and teleported away via this formation.” Han Li murmured, a faint smile crossing his face as he studied the damaged formation once more.

With a flick of his sleeve, a series of formation flags, plates, and fist-sized crystals of various colors flew out, hovering around the formation.

Han Li focused, pointing a finger.

A slender green beam several chi long shot from his fingertip, swiftly repairing the missing spirit patterns on the formation.

Though it wouldn’t be an exact restoration, with his expertise, repairing it to seventy or eighty percent would suffice to reactivate its teleportation function.

—

A day later, an astonishing surge of energy erupted above the blood lake. A black monster—with a deer’s head, a human body, clad in dark scales, and wielding a massive silver blade—materialized in the disturbance, slashing downward with terrifying force.

A piercing shriek echoed through the cavern!

Gray mist coiled around the silver blade as clusters of faint green light orbs manifested beneath it.

The surrounding space distorted violently in the blade’s wake, as if on the verge of being cleaved apart.

Another earth-shaking explosion followed.

A green sunburst erupted where the blade struck, growing brighter with each pulse.

A devastating force radiated outward, pressing down on the blood lake and revealing a circular area a li in diameter, exposing countless white bones at the bottom.

With a thunderous “boom,” a massive silver arc as thick as a water vat flashed across the sky. Dark clouds roiled, unleashing a torrential downpour of blood rain that engulfed the entire lake.

As the green radiance faded and vanished, the scene below became clear amidst the crimson deluge.

The Three Wuling Sages now hovered in three separate positions, each holding a foot-tall statue identical to the deer-headed monster.

The massive iron cage between them now bore a gaping breach over ten zhang long at its top.

“Hah! Excellent. All our efforts weren’t in vain—we’ve finally breached the cage. Fellow Daoists, what are we waiting for? Let’s enter!” The elder surnamed Yu laughed heartily before stowing his statue and darting toward the breach as a streak of green light.

The other two elders, equally exhilarated, followed suit, vanishing into the cage in flashes of light.

The deer-headed monster, having delivered its strike, remained motionless above the cage.

When the three elders reappeared inside, they hovered a dozen zhang above the half-human, half-horse skeleton, their faces alight with excitement as they scrutinized the remains still bound by the blood-red chains.