Upon finishing his explanation, Hu Yue was showing inconcealable excitement despite looking at Han Li with a trace of vigilance.
Han Li squinted his eyes and spoke with slight disbelief, “Is it really so miraculous? Is it even true?”
“We have no idea as nobody we know has seen a Sevenglow Lotus before. We didn’t even believe such an item existed until today. However, it is certain that there are cultivators that will spend a great amount of spirit stones for it.” Hu Yue spoke with a chuckle.
“So it was like that!” Han Li indifferently nodded his head and shifted his attention to the flawless white skeleton lying on the floor with an interested expression.
Seeing that Han Li was unconcerned and didn’t appear interested in monopolizing the rewards, the others let out a breath of relief.
“Fellow Daoist Jian, how about you go and collect the Sevenglow Lotus? After we auction it, let’s evenly split the spirit stones. Fairy Shi, we’ll have to trouble you to look for any formation spell restrictions near the pond.” Hu Yue gave a meaningful glance at cultivator Jian and Shi Die.
After taking a thoughtful look at Han Li, they agreed.
Having felt that Han Li was far too strong, they united together with a feeling of suspicion towards Han Li.
After Jin Qing heard this, his face revealed a trace of hesitation as if he wanted to say something. But after some thought, he decided to stay silent.
At that moment, Han Li was half-crouched next to the skeleton and was carefully examining it. Hu Yue, who was carefully gazing at him, felt somewhat relieved.
After Shi Die used a few magic tools to examine the surroundings, she confirmed, “There are no restrictions near the pond. Fellow Daoist Jian may collect the lotus without obstruction.”
Upon hearing this, cultivator Jian immediately stepped forward with delight.
Hu Yue’s expression stirred as if he had thought of something and hastily warned, “Be careful. I’ve heard that the Sevenglow Lotus can’t touch any magic tools. It must be picked up by one’s own hand or else it will immediately wither!”
Cultivator Jian responded with a wave of his hand, expressing acknowledgement. At that moment, his thoughts were completely focused on the Sevenglow Lotus bud.
Standing beside the pond crafted from fine, beautiful jade, cultivator Jian bowed over the water and extended his arm towards the tri-colored flower bud with great caution.
Shi Die and the others watched his every move and couldn’t help but hold their breaths.
“Yi!” He cried out in astonishment.
“What happened?” Hu Yue and Shi Die simultaneously said the same words with worried expressions. It was unknown whether they were concerned for the flower or the flower picker.
Cultivator Jian withdrew his fingers and flexed them. He puzzlingly said said, “It is a bit strange. This flower is rather sturdy and is very difficult to pull out.”
“If you cannot pull the whole plant out, then how about just picking it!” Hu Yue faintly rolled his eyes and suggested.
“Directly picking it off? That would greatly diminish its value!” Shi Die shook her head with a face of disapproval.
“Wait, I’ll try it again with an immense strength talisman.” Cultivator Jian took out a yellow talisman and slapped it on his body. Afterwards, he rigidly grabbed the flowerbud three inches beneath the surface of the water and pulled with all his strength.
“Stop!” Han Li suddenly shouted while still looking down at the skeleton.
Hu Yue and the others felt their hearts thump and were slightly bewildered.
Cultivator Jian was startled, but seeing that he was so close to the dazzling flowerbud, his heart became stubborn, and he put force into his grip. However, the Sevenglow Lotus didn’t budge in the slightest as if it were welded in place.
This set cultivator Jian’s heart aflame with impatience and he instantly reacted by tightening his grip once more to pick off the flower.
At that moment, the flowerbud finally reacted and slightly trembled for a few moments before suddenly shrinking back from the water and disappearing without a trace.
Plop. Cultivator Jian hadn’t released his grip, and was dragged into the pond when the flower stalk shrank with immense strength, resulting in a splash of milky-white water.
As Fairy Shi was relatively nearby, a few droplets landed on her face. She immediately let out a miserable shriek.
“It’s poisonous! The water is poisonous!” The female cultivator covered her face with her hands and shouted in furious alarm. She then hastily took out a red medicine bottle from her storage pouch and flusteredly threw the fire-red medicine pill it contained into her mouth.
In the split second between taking out the medicine pill and swallowing it, Hu Yue and Jin Qing saw her face decay with yellow blisters all over, causing their breaths to turn ice-cold.
Even Han Li’s expression changed upon seeing this.
If just a few drops caused Fairy Shi’s face to become like this, then what about cultivator Jian who fell into the water?
With that thought, they turned their gazes towards the milky-white pond.
Ever since he had fallen into the pond, there had been no other disturbance, no miserable screams or desperate calls for help. Fear began to blossom in their hearts.
At that moment, Shi Die finally stopped groaning and tore off a corner of her robe and tightly wound it around her face. With a light sigh, she looked at the water with a gaze of bitter resentment.
Pop. Pop. A series of bubbles popped on the surface of the pond. Soon after, a completely decayed corpse floated to the surface.
Everyone’s face had turned green. From the clothes on the corpse, it was obviously cultivator Jian.
In just a few moments, he had turned into a wet skeleton with empty eye sockets. Upon seeing that his eyes had turned into empty sockets, they felt chill downs their spines.
“How did this happen? Was thousand year stone milk supposed to be this poisonous?” Hu Yue muttered to himself with disbelief.
“Thousand year stone milk isn’t poisonous. But it may as well be if poison was placed within it.” Han Li stood and slowly said with a light breath.
“Fellow Daoist Han! Could it be that your shout to stop was because you knew the water was poisonous?” Shi Die icily asked with a slightly hoarse voice.
“I didn’t know whether or not it was poisonous. However, I did find out that the Sevenflow Lotus isn’t something that should be plucked. Look at the right hand of that corpse!” Han Li calmly said, lightly tapping the skeleton with the tip of his foot.
Hu Yue and the others attentively examined the hand and revealed baffled expressions.
The bones of the right hand were partially black, and the forefinger’s tip had been shattered. It was jagged, like it had been bitten off by something.
Seeing that nobody was doubting him, Han Li didn’t bother further explaining and looked at the water with an icy gaze.
At the center of the white pond, the “Sevenglow Lotus” had reemerged at an unknown time. It still released its beautiful glow, but now, Hu Yue and the others gazed at it as if it were a scorpion.
Han Li wordlessly opened his hand with five fireballs floating above his fingertips. With a flick of his fingers, the fireballs lined up in the form of a word and shot towards the Sevenglow Lotus.
Jin Qing and the others were startled but didn’t stop Han Li due to the previous occurrence.
The Sevenglow Lotus swayed from the impact of the fireball’s and suddenly withdrew from the pond. Something flew out of the water as a blur, shooting straight towards Han Li like an arrow.
Chapter 424: Demon Serpent
While everyone cried out in alarm upon seeing the shadow piercing toward him, Han Li raised his hand and tossed out his Green Brilliance Dagger he had prepared and struck the shadow.
The black shadow was pushed back to the pondside and hissed with an icy gaze.
Shockingly, the shadow turned out to be a meter long, jet-b
lack serpent with a flesh horn.
A scarlet tongue hissed from its mouth, and it had a tri-colored flower bud on the top half of its flesh horn. It appeared rather ridiculous, as if a small flower were growing out of its head.
As for the rainbow radiance, it was a seven colored demon Qi that was formed from wisps coming out of the serpent’s mouth.
It appeared exactly the same as a true rainbow so it was no surprise that it had deceived all of them.
After seeing the black shadow’s true appearance, Hu Yue blankly stared at it, saying,“Crested Demon Serpent? It transformed the crest of its head into a Sevenglow Lotus!”
After clearly seeing this serpent’s true appearance, Shi Die's eyes coldly glinted, and she wordlessly raised her hand, releasing a purple folded scarf. This item released several explosive sounds as it shot towards the demon serpent.
“Careful! This serpent is extremely venomous. You aren’t its match!” Jin Qing abruptly said this before releasing his large, white block stamp to join the scarf as a streak of white streak of light.
The demon serpent watched the two items attack it with an ice-cold gaze, and then opened it’s mouth and spouted out a bright rainbow pearl. The pearl released a gorgeous radiance that blocked the large stamp and purple scarf, forcing them to a complete stop.
At that moment, Hu Yue finally woke from his disappointment at the loss of the treasure. After a moment of hesitation, he threw out two flying knives and entered the battle.
Suddenly, three streaks of white light and a streak of purple brilliance were intertwined with the rainbow light.
The serpent was completely fearless! After a few strange croaks, it spouted out several colorful clouds. The clouds made the magic treasures dim until they were nearly dark immediately after they made contact.
“How can this fiend be so powerful? Could it be a mutated demon?” Jin Qing was aghast at the sight.
But as soon as he finished talking, a red radiance was fiercely shot out, piercing through the colorful cloud in an instant and striking the demon serpent’s flesh horn.
A thumb-sized bloody hole was left behind by the strike.
The demon released a strange shout and painfully slammed into the limestone floor. Soon after, its body coiled, and it shot towards the pond in a blur.
But at that moment, a group of emerald flying swords flew down from above, nailing the serpent’s head to the limestone floor faster than lightning. The serpent then flusteredly thrashed around but wasn’t able to move away in the slightest.
This was the result of the sudden actions by Han Li and Crooked Soul.
In addition to Crooked Soul’s use of a Blood Spirit Drill, Han Li used the Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords to hold it down. He had made sure to restrain his swords’ divine devilbane lightning to prevent the others from realizing that his swords had been refined from Heaven Lightning Bamboo.
Jin Qing and the others felt relief when they saw Han Li had successfully restrained the demon serpent.
After some slight discussion, Shi Die and the others decided to put away their magic treasures once they were released by the rainbow demon pearl’s pressure.
Afterwards, the party gathered around the demon serpent.
“This really is a Crested Demon Serpent, but it appears that someone grafted a Sevenglow Lotus’ likeness on it. It absolutely doesn’t have the capability to do such a thing innately.” Hu Yue revealed a puzzled expression as he watched the demon serpent struggling to free itself from the small swords.
“Obviously, this Sevenglow Lotus was some kind of ingenious trap. It is entirely possible that dead fellow over there had fallen for it; even we fell for it.” Jin Qing agreed with a bitter smile.
Han Li silently stood at the side as he examined the demon serpent before turning his gaze back to the right hand of the skeleton.
He couldn’t help but imagine someone excitedly attempting to pick the Sevenglow Lotus, as the demon serpent then flew out of the water and bit off his finger. Soon after, he was torn apart by the poison.
Han Li felt his heart coldly tremble as turned to look at the small arrow in the skeleton’s head. It had clearly been placed by someone who came later; whoever set this trap was truly quite the schemer.
Slice. The Crested Demon Serpent’s head was separated from its body with a cold flash of light. Shi Die coldly glanced at it from the side with a dagger in her hand.
Han Li slightly frowned.
Han Li knew that she detested this serpent because it had ruined her face, it was said that a woman’s appearance was just as precious as her own life. Even if the Crested Demon Serpent wasn’t the main culprit behind her ruined face, it was definitely one of the main causes.
Han Li lightly shook his head and raised his hand, returning his small swords back into his body.
Afterwards, his gaze fell back down to the arrow in the skeleton.
This arrow appeared to be the same emerald-green as Han Li’s own Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords at first glance, but further inspection proved otherwise.
Han Li’s flying swords were bright and shining while the arrow faintly carried a dark Qi, as if it had been tainted or refined with evil arts.
“Fellow Daoist Han, will we go and explore any other areas? Perhaps we will discover something.” Having seen Han Li continue to study the skeleton, Hu Yue couldn’t help but ask this. It seemed he truly didn’t want to go back empty handed!
“Please don’t hesitate to continue exploring, Crooked Soul and I will remain in the main hall.” Han Li said with a calm expression.
Hu Yue revealed slight surprise. After looking at the bones along with the emerald-green arrow, he revealed slight hesitation and ultimately didn’t move.
When Jin Qing and Shi Die saw this, they also silently stayed in the main hall.
After all, who knows what other dangers lay in wait in the cave residence, given the initial encounter? It was obviously safer to stay together.
Furthermore, they were able to guess that the arrow was unordinary. Why else would the mysterious Han Li continue to unceasingly examine it?
“Fellow Daoist Han, would you say that rather than being an ancient cultivator ruin, this place was actually an elaborate trap?” Jin Qing suddenly asked in a low voice.
“Impossible, this place is definitely an ancient cultivator ruin. Otherwise, wouldn’t it be too much of a coincidence that you found this place from the pearls? However, this place had already been discovered by someone else, and they had long placed down traps inside.” Han Li shook his head.
“If what you say is true, then are there no treasures left here?” Shi Die spoke with an icy voice.
Han Li revealed an expression of slight regret, but remained silent in tacit approval.
Jin Qing and Hu Yue then looked at each other with changed expressions.
Hu Yue’s face was more notable between the two. Not only did this trip end with no benefits, but of the two that he had invited, one had met an untimely end while the other had their face ruined. This treasure hunt ended up being a complete disaster!
During their moment of absolute silence, the pond released a faint groan.
The cultivators hurriedly turned their gaze towards the pond in alarm.
Cultivator Jian’s body, who should’ve already been dead for quite some time, slowly climbed out of the pond and let out an occasional groan from his skeleton mouth.
At that moment, the cultivators were dumbstruck and were looking at each other in dismay.
Since they were cultivators, it wasn’t particularly frightening for a malicious spirit or other evil entity to appear. They could just make short work of them. However, this was the body of a companion that had entered the cave with them not long ago. Could it be that he had a secret technique that allowed his primal soul to persist after his body was destroyed?
As it was unclear whether the corpse was currently possessed by its owner or a ghost, Hu Yue and the others were hesitant to act.
The corpse of
cultivator Jian still continued to slowly climb out of the pond and approach them.
Hu Yue saw that something was amiss and hastily yelled, “Regardless of whether you are man or ghost, don’t come any closer or else our hands will be forced!” He flung out his sleeves, throwing his flying daggers out to revolve around its body.
Jin Qing and Shi Die were also vigilant and rigidly stared at the corpse.
Just as Hu Yue finished speaking, cultivator Jian’s body stopped and remained motionless. Hu Yue and the others involuntarily let out a sigh of relief in response.
But as Han Li detachedly watched on, he felt that something was very wrong and instinctively took out an item with a flip of his hand.
In the very next moment, a sudden and abrupt change occurred.
Cultivator Jian’s body suddenly kicked off the ground and fiercely pounced towards the group.
Hu Yue and Jin Qing’s expressions paled, and they instantly released their magic treasures. The two streaks of white radiance and the streak of white light struck cultivator Jian and cleanly destroyed the skeleton with a single blow.
But suddenly, Hu Yue felt a light wind gently blowing past him. With a chill running down his back, he turned his head to see a skeleton hand emerging from his abdomen, tightly grasping a bean-sized, sparkling blue core in its fingers.
Chapter 425: Congealed Yang Birds
Eyes wide in disbelief, Hu Yue stared at the skeletal hand protruding from his abdomen.
With an audible crack, the blue core was crushed into a fine powder, which trickled from the hand.
Hu Yue let out a muffled groan and weakly fell to the floor after the skeletal hand withdrew from his body. The hole left behind bled profusely, quickly filling the hall with a bloody stench.
Although he was somehow still alive for the time being, he was clearly on death’s door.
The sound of Jin Qing’s and Shi Die’s cries of alarm along with the sound of his magic treasure shattering rang in Hu Yue’s mind as all of his life experiences flashed through his mind.
His impoverished life during childhood and the joy his entire family revealed upon discovering his spiritual roots; the moment of helplessness he felt when the Senior Martial Sister he admired married someone else; his ecstasy at successful Core Formation, and his wholehearted grand ambition of one day forming a Nascent Soul; as all these memories flowed through his mind, his limbs gradually grew colder and more distant...
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