Chapter 1038: Reverse Backlash

Under countless beams of light, the old demon's furious roar erupted from within the black mist. The demonic energy rapidly melted away, revealing the bloody Nascent Soul and the Ghost Luo Banner.

At this moment, both were tightly bound by countless green threads of light. Despite flashing green light wildly and surging with blood flames, they could not break free. They had been forcibly captured.

With a flash of a silver arc, Han Li used his Lightning Escape Art to appear before the old demon's Nascent Soul. After a slight smile, he beckoned towards the distance.

Space rippled above his head, and a small azure cauldron appeared out of thin air. After a single rotation, it landed in his hand.

Lightly holding the small cauldron, Han Li calmly looked at Old Demon Qian's captured Nascent Soul.

The Nascent Soul's face was already filled with terror. Seeing Han Li look at it with ill intent, its heart sank, and then its ferocity surged. It gritted its teeth, bit off the tip of its tongue, and was about to spit out something.

Han Li's gaze suddenly turned cold.

With two soft 'pffft' sounds, a golden and a silver talisman appeared on the Nascent Soul's body, instantly solidifying its internal spiritual power. It could no longer circulate any energy, and the vicious secret technique it was about to spit out naturally dissolved away.

At this moment, a silver light flashed, and a yellow-robed cultivator emerged from behind the old demon's Nascent Soul. It was the other middle-aged cultivator who had teamed up with Han Li.

He had appeared there silently, at some unknown point.

Only then did his expression relax, a faint, ambiguous smile appearing on his face.

This pale-faced and expressionless cultivator was, of course, the humanoid puppet he had spent a great deal of effort to refine.

When setting up the ambush, Han Li had instructed the humanoid puppet to lie in wait near the hall's entrance. If Old Demon Qian proved exceptionally cunning and attempted to flee without a fight, he would undoubtedly take this route. Furthermore, as puppets are not living beings, their ability to conceal their aura is simply flawless.

Unless one saw it with their own eyes, its presence would be utterly undetectable.

Thus, when Old Demon Qian attempted to flee midway, the lurking humanoid puppet launched a surprise attack with its Thunderfire Bow and Golden Thunderwood arrows, forcing him back.

However, because the old demon's Nascent Soul had to be captured alive, after shattering the Blood Demon Orb with the Demon Marrow Flying Blade (refined from demon marrow drills and other rare materials), Han Li immediately used the Evil-Averting Divine Thunder to repel the demonic Nascent Soul. This forced it to flee in a panic, allowing the puppet to silently approach it unnoticed. Then, the puppet used the demon eye, refined from Dazzling Crystal, to cast an illusion.

Having witnessed the terrifying power of Dazzling Crystal, Han Li was confident that even if the old demon's divine sense was extremely powerful, it would be enough to momentarily disorient it.

As he had expected, with the old demon disoriented, he calmly brought out the Sky-Void Cauldron and easily sealed the Nascent Soul.

Recalling this, Han Li glanced at the small cauldron in his hand. Since he had only cultivated the first layer of the "Treasury Opening Art," he could currently only control some spiritual light emanating from it. To truly open the cauldron's lid, he would need to reach the late Nascent Soul stage.

“Fellow Daoist Han, how should we deal with these demon spawns?”

Just as Han Li was contemplating with satisfaction, footsteps sounded from behind him. Ling, with one hand, released a cloud of black and white mist, trapping five shrunken, pale white skeletons, about a foot in size, and pulled them along as she approached.

The moment the old demon's Nascent Soul was subdued, its demonic avatars instantly lost control. They fell to the ground motionless and were subsequently confined by the ugly woman's spell.

“These five demon spawns…”

Han Li glanced at the lifeless demon spawns. Just as he was about to speak, the five black skull heads that were tightly biting the old demon's Nascent Soul unexpectedly loosened their jaws and turned simultaneously, facing the five humanoid skeletons nearby. From their mouths came a piercing shriek.

This shriek was not only exceptionally noisy but also caused one's qi and blood to churn, unsettling one's mind.

Trapped within the black and white mist, the five previously docile skeletons immediately reacted. Their eyes suddenly flashed with blood-red light, filled with a bloodthirsty and violent intent.

Each opened its mouth, and five streams of deep green demonic flames struck the same point on the black and white mist.

With a 'boom,' the ugly woman was caught off guard, and the black and white mist formation was unexpectedly shattered.

Five streams of white mist instantly shot out, rushing towards the black skull heads, seemingly intent on converging.

However, seeing this, Han Li would not allow these demon spawns to succeed so easily. He let out a cold snort and gently shook the small cauldron in his hand.

The green light surged, instantly forming a barrier that isolated the five streams of white mist.

Simultaneously, with another movement of his divine sense, a portion of the light suddenly rolled over, surprisingly trapping the five streams of white mist in a different spot, revealing the five foot-sized skeletons once more.

These demon spawns seemed to be in a frenzy.

Although tightly bound by dense green threads, their limbs struggled relentlessly, and green phosphorescent flames continuously erupted from their mouths, striking the threads on their bodies, as if trying to burn them away to escape.

“No… you… quickly release them!”

Upon witnessing this scene, the old demon's Nascent Soul showed a trace of fear on its face. It suddenly shrieked at the top of its lungs, appearing utterly terrified…

Han Li's cold gaze swept over it; he felt a little strange but certainly wouldn't heed the other's words or actions.

However, the next moment, his expression also changed.

The five black skull heads suddenly stopped their shrieking, and at the same time,

With a 'thump,' they surprisingly bit onto the old demon's Nascent Soul again.

But this time, the skull heads were not merely biting; they were chewing loudly, truly devouring the old demon's Nascent Soul.

“Demonic backlash!” Startled, Han Li instantly understood what had happened.

It was clear that with the old demon's magical power greatly diminished and its divine abilities now suppressed, the five demon spawns, who had originally obeyed, finally unleashed their ferocity, causing their primordial spirits to turn against their master.

But Han Li would not allow the old demon's Nascent Soul to be devoured like this. Without hesitation, he quickly patted the small cauldron in his hand.

A clear hum emanated from the cauldron, and countless green threads shot out from the surrounding light. They instantly bound the skull heads tightly, forcefully pulling them away from the Nascent Soul's body.

The skull heads bit wildly, looking utterly deranged—a sight that secretly made one's heart tremble!

Han Li, however, did not look at the black skull heads. Instead, he focused intently on the old demon's Nascent Soul, feeling a slight relief in his heart.

Although the Nascent Soul's body had shrunk by more than half in a short time, becoming extremely weak, to him, as long as its divine sense had not dissipated, it was inconsequential.

Taking a deep breath, Han Li reached out and took the Ghost Luo Banner from beside the Nascent Soul. He glanced at it briefly before putting it into his storage pouch. Then, he swept his gaze and looked towards a certain spot in the distance.

The humanoid puppet's figure flickered. After a few movements, it picked up a dark leather bag from the distance, flew back, and handed it to Han Li.

That was, of course, Old Demon Qian's storage pouch, which had fallen out when the Blood Demon Orb exploded.

Han Li was not in a hurry to examine the contents. Instead, he turned to the ugly woman and said,

“Fellow Daoist Gui, please watch these five demon spawns for now. I'll go and deal with this Nascent Soul.”

He preferred not to have anyone watching while he extracted the soul.

“Fellow Daoist, please go ahead; you can leave this place to me,” Ling said calmly. She opened her mouth and exhaled a large cloud of black and white mist, enveloping both the skull heads and the five skeletons.

She took over Han Li's confinement.

Han Li nodded. With one hand, he made a grabbing motion in the void amidst the light, and an azure giant hand appeared, grasping both the blood-red Nascent Soul and the five skull heads.

A streak of azure light flew away, disappearing into the nearby Arctic Primordial Light.

The humanoid puppet, however, remained dutifully still in place.

As soon as Ling saw Han Li disappear, her gaze repeatedly scrutinized the puppet. After a long while, a hint of surprise appeared on her face.

If she hadn't personally witnessed Han Li summon this item from his storage pouch, she would have found it incredibly difficult to believe that the figure before her was merely a puppet.

Time passed gradually. A full quarter of an hour later, a ripple appeared in the Arctic Primordial Light, and Han Li emerged from the parting silver threads of light, his face expressionless. The old demon's Nascent Soul, however, was nowhere to be seen.

Ling showed no surprise. Instead, as soon as Han Li approached, she pointed to the five still-confined skeletons and asked,

“How should we handle the true bodies of these five demon spawns? As far as I know, once such demons are refined, it's difficult to make them completely disappear from this world unless they are slowly refined with ultimate Yang fire.”

“Refine them? There's no need for that. I have another use for these five demon spawns. For now, let's seal them,” Han Li calmly said after a brief moment of thought.

“Alright, that's fine. It's naturally up to you, fellow Daoist,” Ling replied, a little surprised but readily agreeing.

Han Li flicked his sleeve, and dense arrays of talismans shot out, covering the skeletons and black skull heads in the blink of an eye, encasing them in light spheres of various colors.

He rubbed his hands together, and his ten fingers flickered, sending out streaks of golden arcs. These arcs exploded midway into fine golden threads, which wrapped layer upon layer around the light spheres.

Ling, seeing this scene, also felt a little surprised.

Under the flashing golden light, ten massive golden orbs appeared before her eyes.

Han Li formed hand seals, and over ten incantations struck the golden orbs, causing them to shrink rapidly, their light flickering.

In the blink of an eye, they transformed into fist-sized orbs.

Looking at these sparkling golden beads, Han Li frowned in thought. Then, he opened his mouth and spat out an object shimmering with seven-colored Buddhist light.

Within the Buddhist light was a treasure resembling a bubble: the Vajra Hood that Han Li had been nurturing within his body!

Han Li pointed his single hand slightly at the Vajra Hood. As the seven-colored light swirled, it absorbed the golden beads into the hood.

With this Buddhist treasure and the Evil-Averting Divine Thunder suppressing them, even if these demon spawns were extremely ferocious, they should not be able to escape.

Only then did Han Li feel relieved enough to take out a jade box from his storage pouch, place the Vajra Hood inside, and carefully put it away.

“Let's go!” Han Li glanced towards the hall's entrance, and with narrowed eyes, asked Ling, “Fellow Daoist, do you know of any hidden places in this mountain? We'll hide for a few days and then leave when the sealed rift returns to normal.”

“A hidden place? This one does indeed know of a spot I discovered by chance. No one else knows about it,” Ling replied without hesitation, her spirits lifted.