"To control so many soul bats, this person's Soul Cultivation Realm must be incredibly powerful. Could Xi Ying have encountered danger?" Yuan Ming wondered to himself, an idea suddenly surfacing in his mind.
Where exactly are you, Xi Ying?
He didn't linger any longer and continued to flee into the distance.
At that moment, several Blood Bats appeared ahead, swooping toward him.
Yuan Ming cursed silently and hastily used the Wind Swift Skill to dodge to the side, avoiding the attacks of several Blood Bats.
But these Blood Bats, like leeches that had latched onto fresh blood, pursued him closely as if they were embedded in his very bones.
The speed of the Blood Bats was extremely fast. Even though Yuan Ming used the Shadowless Step and accelerated with a white Jade Belt, he was still unable to shake them off; instead, the distance between them grew even smaller.
His expression turned grim. Those controlled by the Blood Bats would completely lose themselves, and at that time, let alone escaping from Biluo Cave, it was highly likely he would die here!
Yuan Ming couldn't afford to hold back any longer and quickly took out an Earth Travel Talisman, activating it. His figure, enveloped in a yellow glow, vanished into the ground in a flash.
To his surprise, the Blood Bats also burrowed into the ground, their pursuit speed undiminished.
Yuan Ming had no time to ponder; he could only push himself to the limit to continue tunneling forward.
Although the Earth Travel Talisman allowed for movement underground, the speed was not fast. In the blink of an eye, a few Blood Bats caught up and entered his body.
A cold sensation merged with Yuan Ming's body and quickly entered his Sea of Consciousness, eroding his Divine Soul.
His body suddenly stiffened, and blood-red light began to emerge in his eyes.
However, after all, he was also a Soul Cultivator, with a powerful Divine Soul that allowed him to maintain his rationality.
Due to the backlash from the Fur Cloak Skill, his Divine Soul had already endured numerous similar attacks. Now, with a rapid turn of thoughts in his mind, he started to run the Moonlight Technique.
A moon of Ming Yue rose in his Sea of Consciousness, casting rays of white light. Wherever the light passed, the cold sensation that had invaded his Sea of Consciousness melted away and vanished.
The blood color dissipated from Yuan Ming's eyes and his body regained its ability to move. He breathed a sigh of relief, and a certain thought in his heart grew stronger, causing him a shiver of fear.
Biluo Cave had been collecting the Divine Souls of common people for many years, coupled with the emphasis on the Great Elder's immense power, it was undoubtedly the Great Elder who owned the soul bats.
This person's methods were truly dreadful, silently releasing so many Divine Soul Transformations to attach to living people, turning those possessed into puppet-like beings who attacked without consciousness, seemingly forgetting pain and not fearing death.
Such overbearing methods from a Core Formation Stage Soul Cultivator!
Fortunately, Soul Cultivators have difficulty in their practice and can often perish from backlash if they are not careful. Therefore, compared to Magic Practitioners and Body Cultivation Cultivators, they are extremely rare.
The Dawn Alliance was tasked with attacking Biluo Cave, and they kept insisting on punishing the primary evil. Could the employer have a grudge against the Great Elder, or were they wary of him?
"Could it be the Fisherman?" He suddenly thought of this possibility.
Fearing that Blood Bats were everywhere outside, he didn't immediately emerge from the ground. Instead, he continued to control the two soul crows outside to observe the situation and find a way to escape.
The Great Cave Master had been injured and captured, but the situation that seemed secure because of the appearance of these strange Blood Bats had become chaotic. Ou Ji and Xue Zhan were injured and had no solution to this situation; they could only try their best to stabilize it.
Just then, a Blood Shadow shot out from the nearby void, moving incredibly fast towards Ou Ji and Xue Zhan. It was a Blood-colored Banner with images of ferocious and ghastly ghosts painted on it.
"Ten Thousand Ghost Banner!"
Both Ou Ji and Xue Zhan dodged to the left and right as if avoiding a deadly poison.
The direction of the Blood-colored Banner shifted, heading straight for Xue Zhan.
Shrieks of ghosts resonated loudy as endless Blood Clouds gushed from within the Blood-colored Banner, forming a tumultuous wave of blood rushing at Xue Zhan. Within the wave, countless gruesome Evil Ghosts appeared, gnashing their teeth and clawing ferociously within the Blood Clouds.
Despite his heavy injuries, Xue Zhan reacted extremely quickly, his arm swiping back as he slashed a saber in the air.
A saber light, dozens of feet long, shot out, striking the Blood Clouds and ghostly images, instantly splitting them in two.
But, almost immediately, the Blood Clouds and ghostly images merged back together, seemingly unharmed, and continued to surge towards Xue Zhan, quickly engulfing most of the area around him.
Xue Zhan roared, and the Blood Light on his saber surged as he launched nine smaller saber lights, cutting through the approaching Blood Clouds once again.
With another sweep of his hand, more than twenty purple talismans appeared out of thin air, each emitting a strong aura of thunder and lightning.
Xue Zhan formed a hand seal and activated all the talismans at once. Dozens of bolts of purple lightning, thick as bowls, appeared, resembling a forest of Thunder, tearing apart all the Blood Clouds and ghostly images, striking towards the Banner deep within the Blood Clouds.
Blinding Lei Guang engulfed everything, quickly dissipating afterwards. Love this story? Show your support on *.
A tattered Banner tumbled out, falling toward the ground below.
Xue Zhan's lips formed a smug smile. His cultivation was only slightly lower, and he had sustained serious injuries, so if Chen Cangqiong were to take action against them, he would undoubtedly target him first. Fortunately, he had made ample preparations.
However, just at that moment, things took an unexpected turn!
Xue Zhan suddenly felt a severe pain in his lower abdomen. A bloodstained hand pierced through his Dantian, grasping a water-blue Gold Core.
Xue Zhan's strength rapidly drained from his body, yet his eyes remained wide open, his face full of disbelief.
His Blood Spirit Saber had long since been enlightened. As long as someone came within thirty feet of him, it would immediately sound an alarm. How could he have been ambushed?
Suddenly, countless cracks appeared in Xue Zhan's field of vision, and in the next moment, they shattered thunderously, revealing an entirely new scene.
A green-robed youth stood silently before him, his palm piercing through his body. The Ten Thousand Ghost Banner wasn't destroyed by the power of thunder and lightning, and at this moment, it tightly wrapped around the Blood Spirit Saber, rendering it immobile. A vast expanse of Blood Cloud enveloped the two, barring Ou Ji from getting closer.
"So it was an illusion," said Xue Zhan with difficulty, a self-mocking smile on his lips.
The green-robed youth crushed the Golden Core in a single grip, and Xue Zhan's vision was engulfed by endless darkness.
"Who gave you the guts to run wild in my Biluo Cave?" the youth sneered as he withdrew his hand.
He retrieved Xue Zhan's corpse and the Blood Spirit Saber, then his gaze shifted, looking towards Ou Ji not far away.
Ou Ji's heart chilled, and he turned to flee into the distance.
"Too late." The green-robed youth formed a hand gesture, and the Blood Cloud around him surged tumultuously, instantly transforming into a blood-colored Long Dragon measuring over a dozen feet long, chasing after Ou Ji with gnashing fangs and claws.
The Blood Dragon moved with incredible speed, rapidly closing the distance between it and Ou Ji.
Ou Ji reached for a Jade Pendant with one hand and crushed it. A surge of white light immediately enveloped him, and then his figure abruptly turned into a beam of white light, speeding away into the distance at an even faster rate.
A sinister smile appeared at the corner of the youth's mouth as he made another hand gesture.
The Blood Dragon's body abruptly swelled, its speed increasing severalfold as it instantly caught up with Ou Ji and engulfed his form. Then, the figure of Ou Ji suddenly stalled and plummeted towards the ground, smashing heavily onto the terrain.
A loud "bang" echoed as the Blood Dragon's body exploded, reverting into a large Blood Cloud that spread in all directions, covering a radius of several dozen feet and continuing to expand.
This place was near Qingluo Square, where the Female Array Master and many Dawn Members were gathered. They were immediately engulfed by the Blood Cloud, falling to the ground with cries of agony.
Shadows floated up from their bodies, which were their Divine Souls, devoured by the Blood Cloud.
The overwhelming Blood Cloud surged towards them, threatening to engulf the Female Array Master as well.
Seeing this, she showed no fear, stomped her foot, and a Silver Formation immediately appeared around her transparent shoes, radiating intense light.
Just as the Female Array Master's figure was about to disappear, a bat struck her body like a bolt of lightning.
The Silver Formation's light shattered, the transmission complete, and the Female Array Master vanished without a trace.
"A small movement charm?" The youth raised his eyebrows in surprise but remained unbothered, about to activate the Ten Thousand Ghost Banner again.
Silver light flashed above his head, and a silver small bell appeared out of nowhere, accompanied by a hunched elder, another Core Formation Stage cultivator.
The elder shouted, slapped the bell, and the silver small bell immediately increased in size several times over, ringing rapidly with "clang clang clang."
Silver ripples enveloped downwards, instantly submerging the green-robed youth's body.
The green-robed youth froze, his eyes filling with confusion.
A ripple in the void beside him heralded the arrival of two more figures, a red-robed man and a woman in a green dress, both prominent Core Formation Stage beings as well.
Three Core Formation Stage cultivators!
One wielded a Fiery Red Flying Fork and the other a green Flying Sword, both attacking the green-robed youth's body as fast as lightning.
The defenseless green-robed youth was cut into three pieces, his blood splattering in all directions.
The trio looked excited, but their smiles quickly froze on their faces.
The youth's blood turned into streaks of light and vanished as his figure reemerged from a white light that flashed in the void a dozen feet away.
"More illusions! Be careful, Chen Cangqiong's Soul Cultivation Realm must have progressed a lot, easily pulling us into an illusion," warned the hunched elder, retreating several feet back, his expression extremely solemn.
"Impossible, we all have Forbidden God Talismans; how could we still be affected by illusions?" the red-robed man and the woman in the green dress retreated to the elder's side, speaking in disbelief.
All three were reinforcements hired at a high price by the Dawn Alliance to deal specifically with Chen Cangqiong and had made thorough preparations, the Forbidden God Talisman being one of them.
This talisman had only one function: to open a special barrier around the user, preventing the approach of Divine Power.
For a Soul Cultivator to cast an illusion on someone, it's essential to touch them with Divine Soul Power. Chen Cangqiong's Divine Power might be stronger than all three of them, but it was definitely incapable of breaking through the barrier of the Forbidden God Talisman.
"This person has mysterious divine skills, proceed with caution." The hunched elder too was puzzled, speaking slowly.
A black tunneling light shot from the distance, landing beside the trio to reveal Ou Ji's figure.
He had escaped the Blood Cloud's confinement, but his complexion was pale as paper, clearly having suffered a severe drain on his Primordial Qi.
"To deal with me, did you really think that having more Core Formation Stage cultivators would assure your success?" The green-robed youth looked around at the four of them, unconcerned, and spoke slowly.
The Blood Cloud on the ground flew back, surrounding him once more, churning and swirling, making his figure appear and disappear intermittently. With a wave of his hand, dozens of bats flew around him, darting back and forth, adding a layer of eeriness to the scene.