Hearing this, the Demon Soul — contrary to Han Li's expectations — did not fly into a rage. Instead, its pair of silver-white eyes narrowed abruptly. Its gaze swept several times over the sword shadows hovering before Han Li, the purple firebird, and the Blood Demon Sword, gradually turning frigid.
Han Li said nothing, staring back with cold composure. Behind his back, the Wind Thunder Wings slowly materialized as magical power began to circulate furiously through his body.
Just then, a tremendous explosion boomed from the distance, and both Han Li and the Demon Soul reflexively glanced over.
Over there, flashes of light flickered as several spheres of different colors burst through a black barrier. The barrier collapsed in the blink of an eye, revealing the original forms of three demonically corrupted treasures — a ring, a small sword, and a magic flag — though their demonic glow had dimmed considerably, as if they had sustained serious damage.
While the Demon Soul had been wholly focused on dealing with Han Li, it had momentarily overlooked the silver-haired elder and the other two.
Though all three were merely early-stage Nascent Soul cultivators, each had survived countless battles. Somehow, they had employed some secret technique and, in the span of mere moments, joined forces to shatter the restrictions binding their treasures.
But having just witnessed the Demon Soul's eerie, ghostlike movements, they were far too shaken to approach Han Li of their own accord. Instead, they directed their treasures to attack from a distance, hoping to provide some measure of distraction.
All three understood clearly: Han Li was the main force against this demon. Should he fall, none of them would fare any better.
That they could now lend a hand made Han Li secretly delighted. If they could buy him the time to set up his sword formation, all the better.
With that thought, he glanced at the Demon Soul across from him.
The Demon Soul eyed the incoming treasures, then looked back at Han Li. The eyes in its fierce ghost head shifted, and it let out a sinister, chilling laugh before its body blurred.
After a trail of afterimages, the demon vanished from where it stood.
Han Li's expression tightened. He immediately swept the area with his spiritual sense, and his face changed sharply.
"Look out — be careful!" Han Li shouted. Without waiting to say more, he activated his spiritual sense, and the scattered giant turtle puppets raised their necks in unison, firing thick blue beams of light — all aimed at the area around the silver-haired elder.
The silver-haired elder, True Master Tianjing, and the third companion were all seasoned veterans. With just Han Li's brief warning, combined with what they had already seen of the demon soul's ghostly evasion, they instantly understood: the creature had abandoned Han Li and was suddenly hurtling toward them.
Horror gripped their hearts, and all they could do was curse silently.
The Demon Soul had concluded that with the many tricks Han Li had displayed — especially after producing the Blood Demon Sword — it could not possibly finish him off anytime soon. Now, with the silver-haired elder and his companions harassing it from the flank, things had grown even more troublesome. So it abruptly changed tactics, deciding to eliminate the other nuisances first before dealing with the isolated Han Li.
More than a dozen thick beams of light detonated around the three Nascent Soul cultivators, unleashing waves of bone-chilling cold that radiated in all directions.
The black shadow flickered, and the Demon Soul materialized — barely a dozen zhang from True Master Tianjing and the others.
Despite bracing themselves, the silver-haired elder and his companions still blanched at the sheer speed of the demon's movement.
Fortunately, the three seemed to have drilled their coordination extensively. Senior Brother Cheng and the other elder raised their hands simultaneously — one releasing a broad shower of talismans, the other flinging a fiery red fox from his sleeve. True Master Tianjing formed hand seals, and the two fierce ghost puppets behind him surged forward together with the fire fox, charging out from the protective barrier under the cover of the talismans.
The moment the talismans cleared the barrier, they transformed into a vast expanse of crackling fire clouds that resounded in an unbroken roar. The fire fox leaped into the air and merged seamlessly into the flames, vanishing without a trace.
It was, in fact, a rare spirit beast, skilled in fire escape techniques.
The Demon Soul watched the two imposing fierce ghost puppets charge toward it, its expression utterly blank. Four hands rubbed together in pairs.
A piercing shriek erupted from between its palms, followed by a series of sharp hissing sounds as two dazzling orbs of dark light materialized in the space between them.
The four hands then closed their fingers and tore, splitting the two dark orbs into four portions. Each hand seized one, and with a flick of its arms — Black light blazed forth, and four strange blades of dark radiance materialized in its grasp.
The blades were not particularly long — roughly two feet — and curved from tip to base, like ox-horn daggers. But what was truly bizarre was that the entire length of each blade vibrated ceaselessly, causing the surrounding space itself to warp and distort, while an ear-piercing hum never relented. It was nothing short of incredible!
What no one noticed, however, was that in the instant the strange black blades took shape, the human-faced head behind the fierce ghost head twitched in a spasm of pain, and its complexion drained to a deathly pallor — as though a significant portion of its vital blood had been siphoned away. Meanwhile, the fierce ghost head in front grew ever more savage. With the four eerie blades brandished, the demon shot forward with a whoosh, hurtling like a bolt from a powerful crossbow toward the pale cyan fierce ghost puppet.
That puppet, of course, knew nothing of fear. Without the slightest hesitation, it opened its mouth and sprayed a torrent of gray yin qi that billowed outward in a rolling wave. Simultaneously, both its hands rose, flashing with cyan light, and ten frost threads shot from its fingertips, vanishing into the yin qi in a flash.
The other crimson puppet, after releasing its own spray of yin qi, flickered with red light as a streak of scarlet radiance shot from its hands.
At that moment, the fire clouds overhead also rolled downward, sweeping toward the Demon Soul.