While Han Li was deep in thought, his expression suddenly changed drastically. He and Qu Hun halted their escape light.
Ahead, in a previously empty space, the air began to blur and distort. With a sharp scraping sound, a humanoid monster crawled out from within.
“What is this?” Han Li couldn’t help but hold his breath at the sight.
The monster was entirely emerald green, clad in gleaming black armor, bare-handed with inch-long razor-sharp nails, and a mouth full of yellowish fangs. It grinned ferociously at the two of them.
“A refined corpse?” The strong, foul stench of decay carried by the wind allowed Han Li to immediately recognize the monster’s true identity, sending a chill down his spine.
Judging by its appearance, this was definitely not some low-level refined corpse like an “Iron Armored Corpse.” It was most likely a special creation refined through unique methods by that Venerable Ji Yin.
With this thought, Han Li raised his hand. The Green Brilliance Sword transformed into a several-zhang-long green flood dragon and shot fiercely forward. Simultaneously, Qu Hun, standing beside him, silently flicked his fingers, and a slender blood-red light shot out in a flash—this was the Blood Spirit Drill that Qu Hun had painstakingly cultivated.
With a “thud,” the Blood Spirit Drill, though launched later, arrived first, piercing a tiny hole in the refined corpse’s chest. The corpse looked down in confusion.
Overjoyed, Han Li urged the green flood dragon forward, and it struck the monster’s body.
Green light splattered in all directions, and the monster was sent flying backward several zhang. However, it let out a low roar, quickly regained its footing, and glared at Han Li with vicious eyes.
“Not good! This monster isn’t afraid of ordinary magical treasures?” Han Li hurriedly retracted the Green Brilliance Sword, his heart sinking.
The refined corpse had taken his attack completely unscathed. Even the small hole was healing at a visible rate.
Han Li’s expression darkened. Suddenly, he pulled Qu Hun, and the two merged into a long rainbow, flying diagonally outward in an attempt to bypass the corpse and escape from the side.
It wasn’t that Han Li feared he couldn’t handle this refined corpse; rather, he was terrified that if they delayed their escape, Venerable Ji Yin would free himself and come after them. Naturally, avoiding conflict was the best option. Moreover, with a quick glance, he noticed that cultivators fleeing in other directions in the distance were being intercepted by numerous similar refined corpses. He had no idea how many Venerable Ji Yin had refined.
Feeling a sense of dread, Han Li and Qu Hun poured their full power into accelerating the rainbow light, speeding it up by another third. They were on the verge of flashing past the refined corpse.
But the monster’s eyes flashed with green light, and its figure suddenly blurred, vanishing from its original spot!
Seeing this all-too-familiar scene, Han Li reflexively swung his sword light to the side. Instantly, five claw-like black streaks shot through where he had just been, screeching sharply before dissipating more than ten zhang away.
Han Li gasped in shock and quickly swung his sword light around. Sure enough, the refined corpse was standing not far behind him, with several-inch-long black glows flickering uncertainly on its sharp claws.
Incredible speed! The monster’s current position was dozens of zhang away from its original spot—it had covered the distance in an instant!
This was almost as bizarre as Han Li’s instantaneous movement when using the Misty Step on the ground. Yet, this refined corpse could do it mid-air? How utterly unreasonable!
Han Li’s face turned ashen.
He realized there was no escaping without dealing with this refined corpse. This was likely why Venerable Ji Yin could calmly ignore their flight.
Once this became clear, Han Li steeled himself and slapped his storage pouch. Immediately, over a hundred green lights and two red lights shot out, densely surrounding him.
As the light faded, it revealed two Bloodjade Spiders and over a hundred giant green apes. Each ape stood two zhang tall with wide mouths and sharp fangs. As soon as they appeared, they raised their hands, and ten finger-thick green beams shot from their fingers, raining down on the refined corpse like a storm.
Confronted with this unavoidable, dense onslaught of attacks, the refined corpse’s eyes gleamed with ferocity. It spewed a cloud of black gas to intercept the incoming green beams while crossing its arms in front of itself, charging forward and enduring the black gas head-on.
The black gas neutralized most of the green beams before they finally struck the refined corpse, causing green smoke to rise and light to scatter upon impact. However, the monster merely bared its teeth and charged ferociously into the group of giant apes.
The sound of “crack” echoed repeatedly as several nearby apes were sliced into pieces by the black radiance from its claws. Seeing this, Han Li frowned, and Qu Hun immediately released a blood-red light towering over ten zhang high. The light condensed into a massive blood blade that viciously chopped down at the refined corpse.
With a light “snap,” the blood blade struck the monster’s head, producing a metallic sound yet failing to cut into its body. The strike seemed to enrage the corpse. It grabbed the blood blade with one hand and reached with the other, as if intent on destroying it to vent its fury.
Witnessing this, Han Li, instead of panicking, revealed a pleased expression!
Under Qu Hun’s hand seal, the blood blade suddenly transformed into purple flames, instantly engulfing the refined corpse in a fierce blaze. The corpse screeched in alarm, frantically patting at the flames with its hands, appearing utterly flustered.
However, the monster soon realized that although the purple flames were hard to extinguish, they caused no real harm. It could simply ignore them. Delighted, it immediately began searching for the culprit.
But as it raised its head, two pure white webs silently descended, enveloping it completely—the massive spider webs spat by the Bloodjade Spiders.
Terrified, the refined corpse struggled desperately. At the same time, the purple flames coalesced into a purple fire snake as thick as a bowl, tightly coiling around its body.
Thus, bound by both the spider webs and the fire snake, the monster was temporarily immobilized.
Seeing this, Han Li didn’t hesitate. He transformed into a long rainbow again, stored away his spirit beasts and puppets, and immediately fled into the distance with Qu Hun without looking back.
If he hadn’t misheard, a third scream had just echoed from Venerable Ji Yin’s direction. If they didn’t seize this chance to escape now, they would truly be captured by that old demon and enslaved.
Han Li and Qu Hun joined forces to flee over a hundred li in one breath, changing direction multiple times along the way before finally finding an unnamed small island.
They immediately landed on the island, burrowed more than ten zhang deep into the earth, took out the light veil that concealed their auras to cover themselves, and began reciting the unnamed chant.
Even after all this, Han Li felt uneasy, unsure if they could evade the two old demons’ spiritual sense. After all, the spiritual sense of a Nascent Soul cultivator was far beyond that of ordinary cultivators.
Poor Han Li had no idea that, over a hundred li away, Venerable Ji Yin stood leisurely in place, showing no intention of pursuing them further. Beside him stood a red-robed, purple-faced burly man and over a dozen emerald-green refined corpses.
Before Venerable Ji Yin and the vulture-faced old man, the middle-aged man floated unconscious in the air, several strange long needles emitting blue light piercing his body.
As for Elder Zhao and the others, they stood trembling behind the two, not daring to even breathe heavily, all traces of the arrogance typical of Core Formation cultivators gone.
“Who would have thought that girl Zi Ling still managed to escape! I originally intended to capture her and present her to Fellow Daoist Chihuo. It seems we’ll have to find another opportunity later!” Venerable Ji Yin said calmly.
“Venerable Wu, you are too kind. Although girl Zi Ling offered ten excellent cauldrons as payment for my help, what I truly had my eye on was her herself. However, I noticed your grandson seems quite interested in her as well, so I’ll yield her to him!” The purple-faced man laughed heartily.
“Then I thank you, Fellow Daoist Chi! Upon returning, I will send twenty female cultivators with good foundations to Yuan Gu Island as compensation. Speaking of which, your master is considered a senior to us. Please convey my regards to him!” A rare smile appeared on Venerable Ji Yin’s face upon hearing this.
“This junior hasn’t seen my master for a long time either, but if I do, I will certainly pass on your message!” Chihuo Laogui replied extremely politely. But then, his eyes shifting, he added, “However, since girl Zi Ling escaped this time, she will likely seek help from the Star Palace. Could that cause any trouble?” Chihuo showed a hint of concern.
“The Star Palace? Heh! There’s no need to worry about that,” Venerable Ji Yin dismissed with a cold laugh.
“From what I know, several elders of the Heavenly Star Palace are in seclusion and won’t bother with such trivial matters. And those two old freaks, the Heavenly Star Sages, for no reason cultivated the Yuan Magnetic Divine Light, which resulted in them being able to leave Heavenly Star City only on fixed days each year for half a month; otherwise, their cultivation would regress significantly. It seems that for the next trip to the Virtual Sky Palace, our side has two less major enemies.” Venerable Ji Yin continued with a tone of schadenfreude.
My master has also mentioned this to me. As long as the Heavenly Star Sages remain in Heavenly Star City, with the aid of that Yuan Magnetic Mountain, they are practically invincible in this realm. Moreover, once they truly master the Yuan Magnetic Divine Light, they will no longer be confined to Heavenly Star City. At that time, the Chaotic Star Sea will once again be under their rule!” Chihuo’s lips twitched as he spoke with evident worry.
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