However, there was no response from the black cloud. This strange occurrence caused Han Li and the others to become nervous.
Fairy Violet Spirit in particular gazed at the black cloud with icy intensity.
At that moment, Grandmaster Zenith Ying coldly laughed and clasped his hands together. After separating them, two more black fireballs appeared in his hands. Everyone’s complexion abruptly changed as they all stared at the black fireballs.
At that moment, the black cloud started to roll, and Eccentric Scarletflame’s faint, hoarse voice could be heard, “Grandmaster Zenith Yin, do you wish for me to surrender to you?”
“Of course! Since I’ve personally arrived here via possession, everyone present must either recognize me as their master or die! There will be no exceptions.” Grandmaster Zenith Yin indifferently replied, looking at the black cloud.
“Good! Good! Even with a trifling possessed body, you actually dare to take on this island lord! It seems I’ll have to test the power of your esteemed self’s devilfire!” Eccentric Scarletflame flew into a rage from humiliation and the black cloud rumbled with increasing intensity with sounds of fierce thunder ringing out.
Seeing that the talks had collapsed, the Exquisite Sound Sect and the Hidden Fiend School cultivators inwardly let out a breath of relief. Since the Eccentric was on their side, they still had a fighting chance.
After all, Eccentric Scarletflame’s Water Sunflower Devilish Art was extremely well-known in the Scattered Star Seas. It may prove to be able to subdue this Devilfire!
Fairy Violet Spirit suddenly asked, “Senior Zenith Yin, are you not afraid of the Star Palace coming to knock on your door due to your unrestrained use of the soul restriction technique? To the best of my knowledge, the two Heavenly Star Sages strictly forbid Nascent Soul experts such as yourself from using them.”
Although Grandmaster Zenith Yin was an old Nascent Soul devil, his expression slightly changed upon hearing the Star Palace and the Heavenly Star Sages being mentioned.
However, he immediately recovered his calm and coldly chuckled, “It seems this girl knows quite a bit! However, the Star Palace’s ban was only a matter of the past. Do you really believe that the Heavenly Star Sages dare to casually leave Heavenly Star City? Without them acting, the Star Palace has no way of enforcing those restrictions!”
Those words stunned Han Li and the others like lightning striking from a clear sky. Only the cultivators from the Hidden Fiend Sect showed no surprise; it seemed they already knew of this.
Fairy Violet Spirit’s heart grew sullen, but soon after, she decisively shouted in a cold voice towards the middle-aged man, “Deal with the old devil with Eccentric Scarletflame and have the others take care of the traitors. Afterwards, we will take on the old devil together!”
The middle-aged man was slightly surprised, but he immediately understood and waved his arm towards his subordinates, ordering, “Follow her instructions for the time being. If we do not strike down the old devil, none of us will survive.”
Afterwards, he stared at Grandmaster Zenith Yin with a mask of frost as Eccentric Scarletflame’s black cloud arrived above him with a blur.
The Hidden Fiend Sect’s Core Formation cultivators looked at each other before wordlessly flying towards the Exquisite Sound Sect cultivator’s side, coldly staring at the traitors.
Without the fear of facing Zenith Yin’s frightening devilfire, the Exquisite Sound Sect cultivators’ expressions greatly improved, taking out their magic tools and treasures in preparation for combat.
But Han Li, who stood at the back of the crowd, stiffly frowned.
For some unknown reason, the current circumstances gave him an extremely unpleasant feeling, as if a disaster were about to occur. Something felt wrong to him. But can Grandmaster Zenith Yin take them all on by relying on the Greater Possession Technique?
He licked his dry lips before thinking for a moment. Then, he quietly gave Crooked Soul a few orders and spat out his Green Brilliance Dagger.
Chapter 407: Betrayal
“Go!” The middle-aged man uttered in a low voice. After forming an incantation gesture with his hands, the ghost head bared its fangs and fiercely charged towards Grandmaster Zenith Yin while screaming.
That same moment, Han Li and the others shot their magic tools and treasures at the Exquisite Sound Sect traitors.
Naturally, those at Grandmaster Zenith Yin’s side hadn’t resigned themselves to death and unleashed their own barrage of brilliant light. In the next moment, all kinds of magic tools and treasures intertwined with one another.
Zenith Yin indifferently glanced at the scene before turning towards the ghost head flying at him, revealing a cold smile.
He shot the two black fireballs in his hand towards it. After leaving his hands, the fireballs underwent a series of transformations until becoming inky snakes as thick as a thumb. Then with a woosh, they pierced into the ghost head’s mouth like an arrow.
The middle-aged man’s face suddenly paled, and he inwardly cried out in alarm.
The ghost head suddenly stopped and it began to swell before suddenly rupturing, releasing countless threads of black flame.
After the middle-aged man saw this, his complexion somewhat paled, but he immediately took in a deep breath and wore a resolute expression.
He slapped the back of his head with all his strength and a thumb-sized bead slowly emerged from his forehead. The bead was made of an exquisite pure white crystal and released a cold white aura.
After the bead fully emerged, the middle-aged man secretly transmitted his voice to Eccentric Scarletflame with a solemn expression, “Brother Scarlet, the old devil’s Heavenwide Corpsefire can only be restrained by the cold of an extreme Yin magic treasure. I’ll use the Dark Cold Bead to capture his attention while you find an opportunity to trap the old devil using your Water Sunflower Devilish Arts. This way, we’ll have a greater chance of victory.”
With a muffled grunt coming from the black cloud in response, the middle-aged man’s spirits were roused.
Without any hesitation, he opened his mouth and sprayed a mist of blood onto the bead, which began to spin and absorb the entirety of the blood mist. Its white aura contracted and expanded before transforming it into a huge, three-meter-wide silver sphere that shined with blinding light.
“OId Devil, I’ll show you the ferocity of my Dark Cold Bead that I refined from profound deep sea crystal!” The middle-aged man gazed at Grandmaster Zenith Yin with a malicious expression and grit his teeth.
Soon after, he pointed his hand towards the Dark Cold Bead and shouted, “Swiftly!” The silver light sphere swayed several times and released a clear hum before transforming into a white python with the thickness of a bowl. The python then fiercely pounced towards Grandmaster Zenith Yin.
“Yi!” Grandmaster Zenith Yin revealed slight astonishment! But soon after, his disdainful smile reappeared on his face. With a slight tremble of his shoulders, eight bowl-thick wisps of black Qi emerged from behind him.
The wisps of black Qi were extremely agile. As they floated in the air, they transformed into wolf type demonic beasts and charged towards the white python with bared fangs and claws.
The middle-aged man watched this with raised eyebrows and then loudly shouted as he continuously moved his hands. Streaks of multi-colored incantation seals flew from his hands and landed on the body of the white python.
The python’s eyes suddenly flashed with green light. It coiled its body and silently spouted out a thick white mist of ice, causing the the black mist wolves to disappear without a trace. Afterwards, the mist relentlessly continued to approach Grandmaster Zenith Yin.
Grandmaster Zenith Yin finally revealed some surprise. Still, he merely waved a hand in front of his body and summoned a thick black wall of light from the ground with a boom, blocking the white mist.
Seeing that the cold white mist had completely occupied Grandmaster Zenith Yin’s attention, the middle-aged man hastily
sent a voice transmission towards Eccentric Scarletflame, “Brother Scarlet, act now!”
“Alright!” Eccentric Scarletflame responded without any hesitation.
A short moment after the middle-aged man’s roar, the black cloud quickly swelled and started to wildly roll before releasing deafening thunderclaps, bolts of lightning bursting underneath it.
“Eccentric Scarletflame, you...” The middle-aged man yelled out with an aghast expression before being enveloped in a hundred meters of inescapable black clouds.
At that moment, Eccentric Scarletflame cackled strangely. A huge black hand suddenly shot out from the cold white mist and grabbed ahold of the white python, causing it to disperse and return back into the form of a bead.
However, it still did its utmost to flicker without end while inside the large hand’s grasp as if it were unwilling to give up.
At the same time, the middle-aged man’s furious roar could be heard among the clangs of thunder, “Old Devil, Scarletflame! You bastards were working together!” His voice was filled with bitter resentment and regret.
“Humph! It was just that you were too stupid. Play with Scarletflame for now! I will take care of the others first before coming back to chat with you about the matters between a master and his disciple!” After indifferently speaking those words, the large black hand faded away to reveal Grandmaster Zenith Yin.
After giving a cold glance to the black cloud, he brought his gaze towards the Dark Cold Bead in his hand, opened his mouth, and spat a dull mist of black Qi over it. The stained bead immediately lost its brilliance and darkened.
Grandmaster Zenith Yin appeared content, and with a flip of his hand, the bead disappeared without a trace.
Despite the long description, Eccentric Scarletflame’s sudden betrayal and Grandmaster Zenith Yin’s disposal of the Dark Cold Bead had occurred in only the blink of an eye. However, these events had left the others dumbstruck even as they were on the verge of victory.
Fairy Violet Spirit revealed an even greater appearance of incredulity!
A majority of the cultivators immediately realized something. After exchanging a mutual glance, they immediately put away the magic treasures and tools they were using to suppress the traitors and scattered, fleeing without a word.
They weren’t idiots. Under the current circumstances, they would surely die without having their corpses intact. They scattered in every direction and left themselves to the mercy of fate. The quickest ones were obviously the Core Formation cultivators.
What was most astonishing was that Fairy Violet Spirit, Lady Fan, and Zhuo Ruting had made use of an unknown secret technique. Jointly making use of a stone tablet magic tool to turn themselves into a streak of tri-colored light no slower than the Core Formation cultivators.
As for the quickest among them, it was naturally the two that had slipped away first, Han Li and Crooked Soul. As soon as Eccentric Scarletflame betrayed the middle-aged man, Han Li and Crooked Soul had retrieved their magic treasures and wordlessly fled as streaks of green and yellow light.
Just as the other cultivators had thought to flee, Han Li had already fled over a hundred meters away. But when he turned his head to see what had resulted, Han Li was amazed and rejoiced at the sight.
Not all of the Hidden Fiend Sect’s Core Formation cultivators had fled. The four that had appeared with the middle-aged man had joined hands in a violent assault against Eccentric Scarletflame and Grandmaster Zenith Yin. With expressions of heart-chilling fury, they attacked without any intention of preserving their own lives, leaving the two devils flustered and unable to free themselves.
“Good! Good! I didn’t think that those people were actually your Fiend Core Doppelgangers. I will be sure to make them whole once more!”
This attack seemed to have greatly angered Grandmaster Zenith Yin and he abruptly laughed from rage. Suddenly, one of the four Core formation cultivators let out a miserable wail before he combusted into a ball of raging black fire and turned to ash.
Han Li felt his heart tremble and no longer dared to look, focusing instead on speeding forward on his Green Brilliance Dagger.
But still, he couldn’t help but look at Crooked Soul with a strange expression. After hearing the words, ‘Fiend Core’ and ‘Doppelganger’, the doubts clouding his mind had finally been cleared up.
He had originally suspected the Wu Chou’s “Great Profound Ying Technique” had some relationship with the “Profound Yin Scripture” contained inside the Emperor of Yue’s jade slip. Now, his suspicions had finally been confirmed.
As for why they were present in both the Heavenly South Region and the Scattered Star Seas, he reckoned they had been transported by an ancient transportation formation, most likely through the very one he had used.
Now that he thought about it, the rainbow skeleton beside the ancient transportation formation raised a huge question.
As for his earlier premonitions, Eccentric Scarletflame’s betrayal during the battle was far beyond what he had expected. His first fight after achieving Core Formation had ended up just like the difficult situations he had found himself in while he was in Foundation Establishment, leaving him with no choice but to flee for his life as before.
Feeling great bitterness in his heart, Han Li became beyond gloomy. However, he found this situation to be quite similar to when he had killed the Infant Carp Beast. It should’ve been a close battle between both sides, but in the end, traitors had appeared and ended up massacring their former allies.
With that in mind, he couldn’t help but recall the medallion engraved in the shape of a sinister ghost head. He felt that everything seemed to have a relation to it.
That was all that came to Han Li’s mind before his thoughts were interrupted by two wretched screams behind him, causing his heart to tense up.
As of current, he could only hope that Grandmaster Zenith Yin’s great arrogance would somehow allow him to escape as he hadn’t set up any contingency plans beforehand.
Touché.
Chapter 408: Demon Corpse
Just as Han Li was lost in thought, his expression changed, and he stopped in the sky with Crooked Soul.
The originally empty area ahead of him had suddenly become vaguely distorted. With a hum, a human-like demon climbed out of the distortion and smiled at them, revealing its vicious, rotten teeth.
“What!?” Han Li couldn’t help but shout upon seeing this.
Its body was dark green and covered in shiny, black armor. While it was unarmed, it had extremely sharp, inch-long fingernails.
‘A refined corpse?’ The strong, putrid smell of a corpse came from the demon, allowing Han Li to recognize its true identity, much to his dismay.
From its appearance, it couldn’t possibly be the low grade “Armored Corpse”. It was most likely a corpse refined by Grandmaster Zenith Yin using some extraordinary method.
With that it mind, Han Li waved his hand, causing his Green Brilliance Dagger to transform into a ten meter long flood dragon and fiercely charge forward. At the same time, Crooked Soul silently raised his finger and shot out a fine beam of bloody light that faded away in the blink of an eye, a Blood Spirit Drill that Crooked Soul had arduously refined..
With the sound of a splatter, the Blood Spirit Drill pierced through the refined corpse’s lower chest and left a small hole, causing the refined corpse to look down at it in surprise.
Han Li rejoiced and willed the green flood dragon to follow through.
The flood dragon scattered into green brilliance, throwing the refined corpse back by ten meters. The corpse then let out a low roar and immediately stood up, glancing at Han Li with an ominous glint.
‘Not good! This refined corpse isn’t affected by the attacks of common magic treasures?” Han Li hastily recalled his Green Brilliance Dagger with a sunken heart.
The corpse was completely unaffected by Han Li’s strike. Even the small wound it received from the Blood Spirit Drill was healing at a visible rate.
>
Han Li’s expression darkened and he joined together with Crooked Soul, flying out in a single streak of light, wanting to slip past the side of the corpse.
Han Li wasn’t scared of any danger the refined corpse may pose to him, but the time it would take away would allow Grandmaster Zenith Yin to catch up to him. Han Li stole a glance behind him afterwards. He saw that the other fleeing cultivators were also blocked by a greatnumber of refined corpses.
As Han Li’s heart trembled, he and Crooked Soul propelled their streak of light using the entirety of their power, soon passing the refined corpse.
The eyes of the corpse then flashed with green light, and its body suddenly blurred, disappearing from sight!
Seeing this incredibly familiar scene, Han Li suddenly dodged to the side out of reflex, dodging a five clawed streak of black swordlight. The attack whistled past him until it dispersed about forty meters away.
Han Li inhaled a breath of cold air and turned his head away from the swordlight. As expected, the refined corpse was standing not far behind him with two sharp claws, extended by several inches of black light.
What speed! The corpse had traveled no less than a hundred meters from its original location in a mere instant!
That was nearly as fast and stealthy as Han Li’s own movements when he used the Shifting Smoke Steps on land! The demon had even used it in the air! That was truly beyond reason.
Han Li’s complexion grew ashen.
He knew that he would no longer be able to escape from the refined corpse. Was this the reason why Grandmaster Zenith Yin had so calmly ignored them as they fled?
Now knowing this, Han Li’s expression grew harsh and he patted his storage pouch. In an instant, a hundred azure lights along with two red lights flew out, densely surrounding him.
After the lights faded away, two Bloodjade Spiders and over a hundred of huge, six-meter-tall azure apes were revealed. The huge apes raised their arms as soon as they appeared and shot out ten beams of azure light from their fingers towards the refined corpse, encompassing the sky in light beams.
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 222