As soon as the Violet Blood Puppet appeared, its six eyes simultaneously flickered with eerie crimson light. Suddenly, its hands clawed at the air, and a massive blood-colored axe materialized in its grasp, slashing toward the opposite side.
The colossal axe descended like a mountain, and even before it truly struck anything, a terrifying gust of wind pressure roared forth, violently shaking the silver lightning arcs below, as if intent on forcibly splitting them apart.
A beastly roar erupted from the lightning, and the arcs below instantly intertwined as if coming to life. Amidst the thunderous noise, they transformed into a massive silver thunder sword, rising to meet the descending axe.
With an earth-shattering explosion, the crimson light and lightning arcs collided, causing both massive blades to tremble and shatter simultaneously into nothingness.
A flash of lightning later, several green claw streaks, each several zhang long, shot toward the Violet Blood Puppet.
The blood-robed figure standing on the puppet’s shoulder snorted coldly through its nose, spat out a mouthful of essence blood, and hurled it forward with a backhanded motion.
The essence blood swirled mid-air, transforming into a crimson spear that shot forth.
With several “pfft” sounds, the spear pierced through the claw streaks in an instant, vanishing into the lightning below.
But suddenly, a silver flash appeared. The illusory head of a Nether Lightning Beast magnified several times, emerging from the lightning. With a single gulp, it swallowed the crimson spear whole, then spat it back out as an abnormally thick lightning arc, now taking the form of a silver flood dragon, charging toward the blood-robed figure.
The two crimson eyes of the Violet Blood Puppet flashed, and two beams of blood light shot out, striking the lightning flood dragon. Both dissipated simultaneously.
In this lightning-fast exchange between the Violet Blood Puppet and the Nether Lightning Beast, neither side gained the upper hand.
However, countless green threads immediately shot out from the blood mist, converging at a single point. Amidst a flash of green light, a slender figure materialized, standing atop golden flowers. It was none other than Mu Qing.
At the same time, a gust of yin wind swirled nearby, revealing the figure of the white-haired beauty.
Both wore extremely grave expressions, their eyes fixed unblinkingly on the beast heads opposite them.
The Nether Lightning Beast heads opposite them revealed ferocious expressions. Below, lightning surged, and another illusory horned head appeared, slightly smaller than the first and with a more slender horn.
Seeing the two Nether Lightning Beast heads, the white-haired beauty’s expression darkened. She murmured, “There are actually two Nether Lightning Beasts here. No wonder Fellow Daoist Zhu, who ventured in last time, perished so easily, despite the beast’s formidable power.”
“What’s the use of saying that now? The divine liquid is connected to the spiritual veins here. To sever their connection and retrieve them, we must buy more time for him. The three of us have no choice but to fight with our lives on the line,” the blood-robed figure said coldly, his tone gloomy, clearly in a foul mood.
Mu Qing and the white-haired beauty exchanged glances.
The blood-robed figure’s reaction was understandable. Anyone whose external avatar was suddenly destroyed would be furious, if not outright enraged.
“Fellow Daoist Dihue, it’s been quite some time since your external avatar was destroyed, and it happened before the other Nether Lightning Beast returned. It seems there’s something else here besides these two beasts. Either they’re lying in wait outside to ambush us, or they’ve already infiltrated this place. Perhaps they’re even watching us battle these two beasts right now,” Mu Qing said slowly, her beautiful eyes flashing with cold light.
“Even if we knew, what could we do? These two beasts are already troublesome enough. We can’t afford to worry about anything else. What’s more, I still can’t sense Han Li’s mark. It seems he was truly killed by the other Nether Lightning Beast. What a pity,” the white-haired beauty sighed.
“Since the Nether Lightning Beast returned so quickly, Han Li must be dead. Our priority now is to deal with the beasts before us! Though these two beasts aren’t highly intelligent, their lightning-based abilities largely counter ours. Only Fellow Daoist Six Legs can match them, but he’s the only one who can sever the spiritual veins. Since he can’t split himself, we have no choice but to fight with everything we’ve got. As for whoever destroyed my avatar outside, since they haven’t shown themselves yet, they’re clearly not strong enough to be a threat. We just need to be cautious and avoid falling into an ambush,” the blood-robed figure suddenly interjected.
Opposite them, one of the illusory beast heads suddenly expanded in size, its gaping maw lunging toward the trio. The other head lowered, its horn erupting with blinding lightning. With a thunderous crack, several thick silver arcs shot toward them.
Below, the two Nether Lightning Beasts simultaneously channeled their lightning power, conjuring more silver lightning orbs that surged toward the blood mist.
The white-haired beauty’s expression darkened. With a shake of her shoulders, a ghostly figure with disheveled hair appeared above her head, spewing a torrent of gray yin wind from its mouth.
Mu Qing’s body flashed with green light as countless green threads shot forth, not daring to delay.
The blood-robed figure, however, remained motionless. But the Violet Blood Puppet beneath him opened all six of its eyes, unleashing six crimson beams. Simultaneously, the blood mist below stirred, surging back toward the lightning orbs.
In an instant, the battle between the three demon kings and the two Nether Lightning Beasts erupted with unprecedented ferocity.
Blood mist roiled, thunder roared, and a myriad of phenomena swiftly engulfed Mu Qing and the others once more.
Han Li stood quietly near the entrance, his brow furrowed as he pondered how to rescue Yuan Yao and Yan Li.
If not for the presence of the green mist, things would have been simple. He could have seized the opportunity during the most intense moment of the battle, when the demon kings and the lightning beasts were too preoccupied to act, and snatched the two women away. The white-haired beauty and the others, focused on the Nether River Divine Milk, would likely not abandon their fight to pursue him.
But now, with the mysterious green mist in play, there was a risk of interference. If it acted against him, he’d be in serious trouble.
Han Li had no intention of taking such a risk lightly.
His eyes flickered rapidly as countless thoughts raced through his mind.
As time passed, the battle between the Nether Lightning Beasts and the white-haired beauty intensified. The two beasts, sensing that delay would work against them, grew increasingly agitated and violent, their attacks growing fiercer.
The beasts’ bodies crackled with countless lightning arcs, their horns thickening several times over. The bolts they unleashed were like divine spears from the heavens, each strike forcing one of the three demon kings back several steps. The beasts clearly held the upper hand, overpowering Mu Qing and the others.
Yet, defeating the three demon kings and driving them away from the pool below in a short time seemed exceedingly difficult.
Watching this, Han Li narrowed his eyes and began moving his illusory form slowly toward the distance.
Regardless, he needed to reach Yuan Yao and Yan Li first. Other matters could be dealt with as they arose. He was determined to rescue them.
To avoid detection by the combatants and the Nether Lightning Beasts, Han Li moved with extreme slowness. Every being in the hall far surpassed him in cultivation. Even with the Taiyi Concealment Talisman, there was still a significant chance of detection if a Body Integration-level existence scanned the area with full spiritual sense. Fortunately, the combatants were locked in a life-and-death struggle and unlikely to divert their attention.
After a long exhale, Han Li finally circled around the battlefield to the far corner of the hall, arriving beside the two women.
His gaze swept swiftly over Yuan Yao.
At such close range, he could see faint blood threads beneath her jade-like skin, so fine they were nearly invisible without the aid of his spiritual sight.
Han Li frowned.
The two women had been restrained by the Earth Blood Old Freak using strange blood talismans. These were clearly a powerful form of dark magic, likely vulnerable to Evil-Suppressing Divine Lightning or Devouring Spiritual Heavenly Fire. However, since the Devouring Firebird had been deployed at the entrance, only the divine lightning remained as an option.
But now was not the time to act. Breaking the restraints would not only reveal his presence but also alert the Earth Blood Old Freak immediately.
With these thoughts in mind, Han Li withdrew his gaze and glanced toward the green mist.
This entity was undoubtedly connected to the ghosts outside. He doubted it would remain passive indefinitely. Now was not the time to act; he could only wait and see who had more patience.
After much deliberation, Han Li settled on this cautious approach.
Moreover, the primary reason for his hesitation was the absence of Six Legs, the most powerful among the Earth Abyss demon kings.
Without knowing his whereabouts, Han Li dared not act rashly.
However, as Han Li shifted his gaze from the green mist to the eerie pool below the battlefield, he naturally suspected Six Legs might be hiding beneath its surface.
After all, the hall was not large, and aside from the pool, there was nowhere else to conceal oneself.
Unfortunately, the mist floating atop the pool blocked spiritual sense. Han Li’s probing senses could not penetrate it, though he could feel the astonishing purity of the spiritual energy within. A single deep breath of the white mist seemed equivalent to days of arduous cultivation.
This was why Han Li immediately recognized the pool’s contents as the Nether River Divine Milk.
Initially, Han Li found it strange that Mu Qing and the others hadn’t simply taken the divine milk and left. Even with the two formidable Nether Lightning Beasts, the trio should have had opportunities to steal the milk, especially since they already occupied the space above the green pool.
Upon further reflection, he realized the pool likely had powerful restrictions preventing them from acting recklessly, or the divine milk required a special method to retrieve, making it difficult to obtain.
Perhaps Six Legs’ absence was related to this.
With these thoughts, Han Li grew even more reluctant to act rashly.
He stood quietly beside the two women, waiting for the battle above the green pool to conclude or for the green mist to make a move.
Though the seal on his internal mark wouldn’t last much longer, the intensity of the battle and the Nether Lightning Beasts’ agitation suggested the stalemate wouldn’t hold. An opportunity could arise at any moment.
True to his expectations, after the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the two Nether Lightning Beasts finally lost patience and began fighting with desperate fury.
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