Chapter 197

Chapter 197: Surviving the Disaster

“Junior Brother, be careful!” Qian Qiu Yue sent a warning through voice, as the howling sound approached.

Yang Jueyu used the artifact Flowing Wind Cloud Wings, soaring into the Underground Cavern like a hawk. When he spotted Li Hui, hatred filled his eyes, and he hoarsely roared, “Li Hui, why can’t you just die quietly like an outer disciple? Ge Yuntao’s vision isn’t poor; the six juniors he selected are all difficult to deal with. Come on! If you have the ability, strike me down again! Let’s see how arrogant you can be.”

Li Hui reacted swiftly as the Yin-Yang Nine Heads immediately took to the air, opening their mouths to unleash a spray of blood light.

“Small tricks, showing off in front of the experts!” Yang Jueyu spun in mid-air, drawing countless talisman lights from his waist to envelop himself completely.

With a “boom,” he landed, transforming into a three-zhang tall swordsman who gripped his fists tightly and turned to stare at Li Hui, his eyes blazing with a dazzling red light.

“My goodness! What is this? An artifact or a talisman?” No one answered Li Hui as the swordsman’s body was covered in dark greenish-black scales.

These scales were not thin; they looked quite heavy and overlapped to form armor.

“Boom, boom, boom…” The Yin-Yang Nine Heads released the Blood Mouth Spitting Talisman, shooting out blood light, but before it could reach the swordsman, the black ripples deflected it away entirely, preventing any approach.

“Hahaha, how laughable! Do you think I’m the fool Quan Juecheng? No need to struggle; no matter what methods you use, you cannot harm me in the slightest. Prepare to die!” Yang Jueyu’s murderous intent surged as he swung his sword to strike.

Li Hui had no choice but to use the Dragon Roar Whisker Symbol, which he had just obtained to deal with Dugu Yi—he didn’t want to waste it on this scoundrel. However, this guy came on strong, towering at the Late Condense Essence stage and fully armed, meaning ordinary methods would not work against him.

“Swift!”

In this critical moment, Li Hui activated the Dragon Roar Whisker Symbol.

It felt as if he grabbed a dragon’s whisker. This symbol combined the essence of tracking talismans, and the gourd at his waist immediately responded as the sound of dragons echoed, quickly producing a colorful aura.

Yang Jueyu was startled; just that moment of surprise allowed the colorful aura to roll toward him. No, it wasn’t rolling; it was expanding toward him.

The three-zhang tall swordsman was dwarfed by the aura that reached a hundred zhang; the sounds of wind and thunder filled his ears, followed by a series of explosive cracking sounds.

“Do you have any more tricks?” Yang Jueyu was astonished, cursing in his heart, “You little brat, why don’t you use your tricks on my Master? Why are you so flustered running away, targeting only me?”

A loud “bang” echoed as a massive shockwave immobilized the swordsman.

Yang Jueyu spat out blood, quickly using the Golden Cicada Shelling Talisman to detach from the swordsman. When he reappeared, he had already distanced himself from Li Hui. He coughed out another two mouthfuls of blood, no longer daring to show off his strength, quickly summoning a magic puppet to take his place, leaving no time for threats.

An explosive sound rang out as the magic puppet, wielding a long sword, charged in, even remembering to wreak havoc as Yang Jueyu retreated.

“Condensed Essence Stage magic puppet?” Li Hui raised his hand, pulling the colorful aura forward. After a resounding boom, the magic puppet was shattered into pieces by the tremendous shockwave. He couldn’t help but feel regret: “It ran away so quickly; if it had lingered just a bit longer, I could have dealt with it on the spot.”

“Gourd, Elder Gourd, can you produce another Dragon Roar Whisker Symbol?”

The Cold Armor Emperor grumbled, “The Dragon Roar Whisker Symbol is easy to create, but where can I find that much true energy? You’ll have to leave it to fate! I am about to fall into slumber. Let’s talk about surviving first.”

“Wait, Elder, can you tell me where to find the Ten-Thousand-Year Ginseng King?”

“Hahaha, greedy little one, wanting to swallow an elephant. Fine, I like greedy people. The Ten-Thousand-Year Ginseng King is in an ancient tomb not far from here…”

Li Hui got the information he wanted and glanced at the unconscious true disciple of the Hongmo Sect, narrowing his pupils to feign ignorance as he summoned the Yin-Yang Nine Heads to go towards where Yang Jueyu had left the swordsman.

The swordsman was long gone, leaving only a palm-sized, dark green shell floating in the air, its edges worn and looking quite ancient.

In the center of the shell were fifteen unusual symbols. As Li Hui quickly flipped through his memory, he couldn’t help but exclaim, “Is this a witch symbol? Also known as the Primitive Shell Symbol, it is said that talismans were first drawn on spiritual shells or spiritual bones. They lack spirit motion marks, treasure light, and phenomena, and have not been recognized by heaven and earth. They required all members of the tribe to pray day and night and sacrifice livestock. Whenever someone from the tribe died, they would summon their soul to infuse it within. It took a hundred years, sometimes several hundred years, to possibly create a witch symbol. This kind of thing is far too ancient; it should have already gone extinct in the world. How did Yang Jueyu get his hands on one?”

Next, Li Hui retrieved his talisman brush, allowing the Yin-Yang Nine Heads to spit out two artifacts with cracked surfaces. After replenishing the silver snake bracelet, he successfully drew dozens of Nine Patterns Three Exotics sealing talismans.

He took out ten sealing talismans, wrapped the Primitive Shell Symbol, and stored it securely in his chain bag. He then affixed the remaining sealing talismans to Dugu Yi’s Golden Silk Ring Knife, as he didn’t trust that item one bit.

Not long after, the poison dragon eel crawled out from the nest of the Lingfan Shura Bug, swaying lazily before falling into a deep sleep. Li Hui leaned over to tap its forehead; the shrinking symbol left behind by the flower ball still worked, instantly shrinking the ten-zhang long creature down to the thickness of an arm.

A little while later, he felt the ground tremble.

A distant sound initially began very faint but quickly transformed into a massive flood, like a terrifying torrent crashing into the Purple Fortress.

“Oh my! What’s happening?” Li Hui was startled, seeing through the magical dragon eyes a flood rushing into the Purple Fortress, an army of thousands charging, the waves surging, making it beyond description.

He glanced around before finally focusing on the nest of the Lingfan Shura Bug.

These nests resembled enormous golden eggs, with only one entrance for entry and exit, slowly rotating in mid-air, even allowing the poison dragon eel to squeak in. Hiding a few people inside would definitely not be an issue.

Li Hui waved to grab Hongmo Xi, taking her with him as they soared into the air and dove into the bug nest to evade the impending disaster.

“Splash, splash, splash…” Dark red blood flowed into the Underground Cavern, forming a huge flood in an instant, then began to fill the cavern with blood.

When the flood rose close to the height of the bug nest, Li Hui stood at the entrance and saw two figures rushing into the cavern; it was Qian Qiu Yue and Hongmo Zhengfang, both looking extremely disheveled.

“Junior Brother, you picked a good spot. Although we couldn’t kill Dugu Yi, this guy has an outrageous number of survival methods. Also, there are people outside the Purple Fortress drawing in a blood sea.” Qian Qiu Yue flew straight toward him.

Li Hui let out a quiet sigh of relief as the true disciple of the Hongmo Sect, Hongmo Xi, who lay behind him, awoke. Earlier, with the energy from the Heavenly and Earthly Arrays, she sensed he was about to act. With a sudden inspiration, he inquired with the gourd about the location of the Ten-Thousand-Year Ginseng King to catch its attention; that’s how he managed to call the Yin-Yang Nine Heads to his side and narrowly escape a disaster.

“The Cold Armor Emperor is right; greed leads to destruction. Bringing this guy along was to hand him over to Hongmo Zhengfang, intending to gain some benefits from the true disciple of the Hongmo Sect. It seems that greed ought to be avoided!”

Hongmo Zhengfang entered the bug nest, her eyes lighting up as she laughed heartily, “Senior Brother Xi, have you brought magical items for Junior Brother? It seems the old man still cares for me.”

A boisterous voice erupted, “Get lost! Don’t mention that old geezer. If I hadn’t noticed this brat was on your side, I would have killed him just now!”