"Attack!" the middle-aged man murmured with a solemn expression. His two hands formed a seal, and the ghost head before him let out a shriek, bared its mouth full of fangs, and viciously lunged at the Old Ancestor of Extreme Yin.
At the same time, the magic tools and magic treasures of Han Li and the others shot out as well, spraying toward the Miaoyin Sect traitors on the opposite side until they blotted out the sky.
Elder Zhao and the others beside the Old Ancestor of Extreme Yin would naturally not sit and wait for death. They likewise shot out lights of every color to meet the attack.
For a time, all manner of magic tools and magic treasures interwove together.
The Old Ancestor of Extreme Yin glanced indifferently at this scene, then took a look at the ghost head flying toward him, and a few traces of a cold smile appeared at the corners of his mouth. The two black fireballs in his hand left his fingers.
The fireballs, once free, deformed in the air, transforming into two ink-black snakes as thick as a thumb. With a whoosh, they shot like arrows into the gaping maw of the ghost head.
The middle-aged man's expression immediately changed, and he silently cried out in alarm.
Sure enough, the ghost head stopped, and its skull began to swell in turn. In the blink of an eye, with a bang, it burst apart, spraying out countless wisps of black demonic flame from within.
Seeing this, the middle-aged man's face turned somewhat pale, but he immediately drew a deep breath and revealed a trace of resolution.
He slapped the back of his head hard, and a bead the size of a thumb slowly squeezed out from between his brows, small and exquisite, pure white and crystalline, giving off wisps of white cold air.
"Brother Chi, only an extreme-yin treasure of deepest cold can restrain this old fiend's Tiandu Corpse Flame. I'll first use this Hanli Bead to draw his attention, then you find a chance to use the Kui Water Demonic Art to trap the old fiend. Only then will we have some chance of winning." As soon as the bead flew out, the middle-aged man, his expression stern, secretly transmitted his voice to Old Fiend Crimson Fire in the sky.
A muffled "Mm" came from within the dark clouds, and the middle-aged man's spirits were roused.
Without further hesitation, he opened his mouth wide, and a cloud of blood mist sprayed out, enveloping the bead within.
At once the bead spun around nimbly, and all the blood mist was sucked in clean. Then, after the white air contracted and expanded, it transformed into an enormous silver sphere about a zhang in diameter, dazzling to the eye—truly astonishing!
"Old fiend, let me show you the might of this Hanli Bead, refined from deep-sea mystic crystal!" the middle-aged man said through gritted teeth as he glared at the Old Ancestor of Extreme Yin, his face looking ferocious to the extreme.
Then, pointing a finger at the Hanli Bead, he uttered the incantation "Go!"
After the silver sphere of light trembled lightly a few times, a humming clear cry immediately rang out. In an instant it transformed into a white serpent as thick as a bowl, and it viciously pounced at the Old Ancestor of Extreme Yin.
"Oh?" A trace of surprise faintly showed on the Old Ancestor of Extreme Yin's face!
But then his expression returned to normal and he smiled with disdain. His shoulder gave a light shake, and seven or eight streams of bowl-thick black qi shot out from behind him.
This black qi was extremely nimble. After tumbling once in the air, it likewise transformed into several wolf-shaped demon beasts of different appearances, baring fangs and brandishing claws as they shot toward the white serpent.
Seeing this, the middle-aged man's brows stood on end. He gave a great shout, and his ten fingers flicked ceaselessly, striking one spell seal of every color after another onto the white serpent without interruption.
At once the serpent's eyes flashed with green light. Coiling its body, it sprayed out a huge expanse of thick white cold mist without a sound, sweeping the wolf-shaped demon beasts opposite away without a trace. And it did not stop there, continuing to surge madly toward the Old Ancestor of Extreme Yin.
Only then did the Old Ancestor of Extreme Yin truly show a trace of surprise. But without changing countenance, he gently drew a single stroke before him with one hand. With a "chi" sound, a thick wall of black light rose from the ground, blocking the white cold mist outside.
"Now, Brother Chi, strike quickly!" Seeing that the white cold mist had drawn the Old Ancestor of Extreme Yin's full attention for the moment, the middle-aged man hurriedly secretly transmitted his voice to Old Fiend Crimson Fire in the sky.
"Good!" Old Fiend Crimson Fire, from within the dark clouds, answered without the slightest hesitation.
Then a great rumbling rose above the middle-aged man's head. The dark clouds rapidly swelled a circle larger and began to churn and dance wildly, then fell downward faster than the eye could follow.
"Old Fiend Crimson Fire, you—" The middle-aged man cried out in horror, and then he was enveloped within those dark clouds stretching over a hundred zhang.
At this moment the Old Ancestor of Extreme Yin let out a burst of strange cackling laughter. A giant black hand shot out from the vast white cold air, and in an instant it was before the white serpent. It seized the serpent in its grip and squeezed it fiercely and hard. At once the white serpent's form dissolved like clouds and scattered like mist, reverting to the bead of its true body.
Only the bead kept flashing desperately within the great hand, releasing cold air, as if unwilling to submit.
At the same time, amid the rumbling of thunder and fire, the middle-aged man's roar of shock and fury rang out.
"Old fiend! Crimson Fire! You two are villainous partners in crime—you were in league all along!" His voice was full of endless regret and venom.
"Hmph! It's only that you were too stupid. Have a good play with Crimson Fire first! I'll finish off the others, and then come back to reminisce about our master-disciple bond!" As this faint voice fell, the black giant hand's radiance retracted, revealing the Old Ancestor of Extreme Yin's figure.
He coldly glanced at the dark clouds, then took a look at the Hanli Bead in his hand. Without the slightest hesitation, he opened his mouth and sprayed, and a wisp of faint black qi wrapped the bead within.
The bead was immediately defiled, its radiance greatly dimmed, and it darkened.
Seeing this scene, a trace of self-satisfaction appeared on the Old Ancestor of Extreme Yin's sinister, cold face. Then, with a flip of his palm, the bead vanished without a trace.
From Old Fiend Crimson Fire's sudden turning of his coat to the Old Ancestor of Extreme Yin taking away the Hanli Bead—long as it sounds to tell, it was only the blink of an eye. But it had already left the cultivator surnamed Meng and the others, who had been holding the upper hand, gaping dumbfounded.
In Fairy Violet Spirit's beautiful eyes, there was even an expression of disbelief!
But most people immediately realized something. After exchanging a glance, they immediately withdrew the magic treasures that had been pressing Elder Zhao and the others until they could barely breathe, and fled in all directions without a word.
They were certainly no fools. Faced with the current situation, resisting head-on would mean death without even a whole corpse.
If they fled in all directions, then each would leave their fate to heaven! The fastest to flee were naturally the several Core Formation cultivators.
But what was surprising was that Fairy Violet Spirit, Madam Fan, and Zhuo Ruting, those three female cultivators, not knowing what secret technique they used, actually jointly drove a single magic treasure like a stone stele, transforming into a streak of three-colored radiance whose speed was not the slightest bit inferior to those Core Formation cultivators.
However, when it came to the fastest movement, it was naturally Han Li and Qu Hu, who had long prepared to turn tail and bolt.
Almost at the very moment Old Fiend Crimson Fire had ambushed the middle-aged man, Han Li and Qu Hu withdrew their magic treasures and, without another word, transformed into one yellow and one green long rainbow, fleeing one step ahead.
By the time the other cultivators had recovered and flown up, Han Li, his face already gloomy, had flown a distance of thirty to forty zhang, and he turned his head to glance back at the situation behind.
What met his eyes left Han Li greatly taken aback!!
The Core Formation cultivators of the Hidden Fiend Sect had not all fled. Instead, the four cultivators who had appeared together with the middle-aged man joined hands in a frenzied assault on Old Fiend Crimson Fire and the Old Ancestor of Extreme Yin. Their faces showed a madness that sent chills down one's spine, an utterly desperate manner of attacking without defending at all.
And those two fiends really were for a time assailed so fiercely that they were thrown into disarray and could not break free.
Seeing this, great joy rose in Han Li's heart!
"Good! Good! Who would have thought that these few were all Fiend-Core incarnations. Then this patriarch shall grant you your wish!"
But this attack seemed to have truly enraged the Old Ancestor of Extreme Yin as well. His voice, laughing in extreme anger, suddenly rang out, and then one of the four immediately let out a miserable scream, after which black flames burned fiercely over his body, transforming him into nothing in the blink of an eye.
A chill rose in Han Li's heart. He dared not watch any longer and hastily turned back, madly urging on his Lvhong Sword.
Still, he could not help glancing at Qu Hu with a strange look.
Hearing the words "Fiend Core" and "incarnation," that hazy layer of window paper in his heart had finally been thoroughly pierced through.
He had originally suspected that the Grand Yin Art that Wu Chou cultivated was connected to the Grand Yin Sutra mentioned in the jade slip obtained from the Yue Emperor.
Now, hearing the Old Ancestor of Extreme Yin speak the words "Fiend Core" and "incarnation," his conjecture was truly confirmed.
As for the two being one in the Heavenly South and the other in the Scattered Star Seas, it was presumably also a connection formed through an ancient teleportation formation—and most likely the very one by which he himself had come.
Thinking about it now, the five-colored skeletal remains beside that ancient teleportation formation really had been a great problem!
Moreover, although he had long felt that something was wrong, that Old Fiend Crimson Fire would turn coat in the very midst of battle was truly unexpected,
to the point that his first strike after reaching Core Formation was just as wretched as back in the Foundation Establishment stage. Once again he could only flee for his life.
This made Han Li's heart turn bitter, and he was truly depressed beyond words!
But he felt this scene was so similar to what had happened when they hunted the "Yingli Beast."
Clearly the two opposing sides should have fought with all their strength, yet in the result, one side suddenly turned its face and defected, slaughtering its own companions instead.
It made him unable to help recalling that plaque carved with a ferocious ghost head.
He felt that everything seemed as if it should have some connection with this!
But Han Li could only think this far for now. Because two more miserable screams faintly came from behind, which made his heart tighten.
Whether he could escape now depended only on the hope that the Old Ancestor of Extreme Yin was overconfident and really had not arranged any backup plan.