Chapter 1662: Criminal Beast

As soon as the golden light on his body began to flicker, a cry emerged from his sleeve, filled with excitement and agitation.

Han Li was startled, his expression instantly turning extremely strange. After his eyes flickered a few times, he decisively flicked his sleeve.

A strange whistling sound, like "wuwu," emanated.

A black circular ring flew out from his sleeve. After a single hover, a dark light immediately shot out from the ring.

As the light faded, a small, dark monkey appeared before Han Li.

It was the Soul-Devouring Beast.

However, at this moment, the Soul-Devourer was clearly different from its usual self. Without waiting for Han Li to prompt it with his spiritual sense, it let out a sudden roar. Black light circulated across its body, and its form rapidly swelled, transforming into a black giant ape over thirty feet tall.

The Soul-Devourer's eyes were blood-red. It pounded its chest with its two enormous fists. Its dark fur bristled, its fangs bared, and strange horns protruded from its head, transforming it into a three-eyed giant demon.

This demon had three black bone spurs on its back, which were ominous and terrifying.

"Execution Beast!"

A terrified scream suddenly echoed from the strange face in the void. The black-robed figures, a foot tall and filling the sky, instantly transformed into masses of black mist and vanished without a trace.

Han Li blinked, surprised and somewhat confused.

At this moment, the giant demon transformed from the Soul-Devouring Beast seemed to have lost its mind. After letting out a deep, eerie roar, its third demonic eye suddenly flickered. A blood-red beam of light shot out, disappearing in a flash.

A strange "tseng qiang" sound made Han Li jump as something unexpected occurred.

The blood-red light beam shot out from somewhere tens of feet away. But as soon as it appeared, with a clear clang, it transformed into a blood-red chain.

The chain strangely flickered in the void, forming a large loop that instantly bound an invisible object.

Immediately, the entire chain began to rumble loudly, and streaks of blood-red electric arcs appeared on its surface.

Instantly, agonizing screams emanated from the end of the chain. Amidst the flashing blood-red arcs, a mass of black mist several feet in diameter appeared.

The blood-red chain seemed to have found something delicious. In an instant, it coiled around the black mist seven or eight times, binding it tightly.

Amidst the rumbling, the blood-red arcs intensified, becoming even more astonishing.

The black mist seemed to be extremely afraid of these electric arcs. Not only did it scream continuously, but it also transformed into over a dozen different forms within a few breaths, desperately trying to break free.

Among these forms were surprisingly the black-robed figures and the Ink Kylin.

However, all these efforts clearly failed. Regardless of the form, they were instantly shattered by the blood-red electric arcs, once again disintegrating into masses of black mist.

The blood chain, like maggots clinging to bone, tightly bound the black mist of the invisible entity, preventing it from escaping even an inch. This caused the black mist, in addition to its screams, to occasionally intersperse with furious roars from the strange face.

Just then, the giant demon formed by the Soul-Devourer made another move. A furry hand suddenly grabbed at the void behind it.

One of the three black bone spurs on its back suddenly vanished without any warning.

But the next moment, a dark light flashed in the Soul-Devourer's hand, and the bone spur eerily reappeared, firmly clutched by its five fingers.

A low incantation, one Han Li had never heard before, emanated from the Soul-Devourer's large mouth. The previously dark bone spear suddenly glowed with rows of golden characters, shining brilliantly and appearing extraordinarily mysterious.

The bone spear then began to vibrate on its own, emitting a buzzing sound that grew progressively louder.

Simultaneously, a layer of golden ripples spread backward from the spear tip, erupting into dazzling golden light. At the same time, some golden runes, similar to the characters on the spear, also appeared near it, floating erratically.

The moment these runes appeared, a soul-piercing malevolent aura shot up from the bone spear.

"Golden Seal Script!" "Divine Spear of Heavenly Punishment!"

Two distinctly different voices simultaneously escaped from Han Li and the black mist.

However, Han Li's face was filled with horror, while the voice from the black mist was one of extreme terror.

Han Li's thoughts raced. Before he could understand what was happening, the mass of black mist, trapped by the blood chain in the distance, began to undergo another transformation after its scream.

Within the black mist, dark light suddenly swirled erratically. Its volume rapidly shrunk, then just as quickly expanded.

With a dull "bang" sound,

the black mist actually exploded on its own. A pitch-black halo emerged within the blood chain, forcefully expanding it.

Seizing this opportunity, loud "pupu" sounds erupted, and countless black lights shot out and escaped from the blood chain.

It turned out that the strange face, seeing the unfavorable situation, did not hesitate to self-detonate most of itself, allowing a small portion of the black mist to escape.

However, an incredible scene immediately unfolded again.

The blood chain emitted a dull thud, then blurred for a moment, instantly transforming into dozens of blood threads that also shot out. In a mere flicker, each blood thread pierced through a black light as if teleporting.

After a mournful cry, these black lights trembled and reverted to masses of black mist, simultaneously fixed in mid-air, unable to move even slightly.

All the blood threads, with a flash of spiritual light, pulled back, forcefully reassembling all the black mist. Then, as the dozens of blood threads solidified, they once again transformed into the thick blood chain, binding the black mist, which was now nearly half its original size.

With a "swoosh," the bone spear in the Soul-Devourer's hand transformed into a golden crystal light and shot out.

Its speed was not particularly fast, but the trapped black mist couldn't evade it at all. After a series of struggles, a strange face actually emerged from within.

Unlike the previous white strange face, this face had two horns on its head, five colors on its surface, and its entire body was enveloped in a fiercely burning blood-red flame. Within its dark eye sockets, two silver lights rapidly spun, causing dizziness upon sight.

If the previous strange face had some resemblance to an ordinary human, the face before him was completely a demonic visage Han Li had never seen before.

"Please spare my life, Immortal! Quickly stop the Execution Beast! My true form is a split soul of the Outerworld Demon Lord. I am willing to surrender to you and become your demonic slave, Immortal!" The demonic face exclaimed frantically, as if clutching at a last straw.

"Outerworld Demon Lord?" Han Li was startled and his heart pounded with a sudden idea. However, glancing at the Soul-Devourer, now a giant demon, he felt a bit helpless.

The Soul-Devourer had completely severed its spiritual connection with him. Its actions from earlier until now seemed to be entirely unconscious. How could he control this beast's movements?

As a result, the golden crystal light, amidst the demonic face's despair, flashed through it.

A thumb-sized hole instantly appeared between the demonic face's eyebrows, and dazzling golden light surged wildly from within.

In an instant, the golden light enveloped the demonic face, freezing its expression as if it had turned to stone.

With a crisp crack, the demonic face shattered piece by piece from the golden hole outwards, transforming into countless five-colored fragments that floated motionless in the black mist.

The Soul-Devourer's eyes flashed with unusual light. With a snort of its large nose, a shimmering yellow glow sprayed forth.

As the yellow light flickered, it easily swept up the black mist and the demonic face fragments. After a single swirl, it flew back and was completely swallowed by the Soul-Devourer, whose mouth opened wide.

After a low hum, the blood chain rapidly vanished into the void.

As for the bone spear that had been shot out, it reappeared on the Soul-Devourer's back in a mere flash. However, the Golden Seal Script on its surface was gone, and the dark light it emitted was exceptionally dim, almost imperceptible.

"Thud."

To Han Li's utter surprise, the Soul-Devourer, moments after devouring the demonic face, retracted the blood-red light from its eyes, revealing a bewildered expression. It then blinked a few times before collapsing to the ground, unconscious.

A layer of black light instantly circulated over its giant body, and it reverted to its original size of about a foot, transforming back into the form of a small black monkey.

At the same time, Han Li's spiritual connection with the beast, which had been lost, instantly returned to normal.

Han Li was startled, but immediately swept his spiritual sense over the small monkey, which startled him again.

At this moment, the Soul-Devouring Beast's physical strength and spiritual sense were both completely depleted, as if it had just fought a powerful enemy for three days and three nights.

Han Li's expression fluctuated between grim and uncertain, his mind a complete muddle.

Both the Soul-Devouring Beast's strange transformation and the fact that the strange face was an incarnation of the Outerworld Demon Lord left him deeply puzzled.

The demonic face's apparent recognition of the Soul-Devourer and its address as "Execution Beast" left Han Li even more bewildered, as if lost in a fog.

However, he also knew this was not the time to seek answers.

Because at that very moment, the surroundings began to shake violently. The black void started to shatter inch by inch, and a flash of white light shot into the space.

Han Li quickly scanned his surroundings but found no trace of the so-called True Scale Origin. Frowning, he flicked his sleeve, instantly retrieving the Soul-Devouring Beast into it.

At the same time, his form blurred, and he vanished from his spot.

The next moment, a hundred feet high in the air, a spatial fluctuation appeared, and Han Li materialized, enveloped in a ball of green light.

Below him was an enormous grayish-white stone face, hundreds of feet in size. It was now broken and incomplete, with a void inside, rapidly weathering and collapsing.

After a quick glance around, Han Li's eyes immediately narrowed.

He saw that in a certain spot below, Xianxian, who had been unable to move, was now gracefully standing in mid-air. Several glistening white flying daggers floated before her, and she was looking up at the sky with a surprised expression.

Not far from her, the man surnamed Gui, who had previously fallen to the ground, was also standing with his hands clasped behind his back. Above his head, a silver flood dragon illusion flickered in and out of view.

The two were actually in a standoff.

"Brother Han, did you… kill that Cave Spirit?" the Crystal Race woman asked slowly, taking a deep breath.

The man surnamed Gui also looked at Han Li with a somber gaze, appearing somewhat startled and uncertain.

"What? Is it so hard for you two fellow daoists to believe that I killed that thing?" Han Li replied calmly, without a change in his expression.

"Of course not, it's just that Brother Han's divine abilities are truly astonishing to have slain this creature so quickly. It's truly beyond my expectations," Xianxian said with a fleeting look of surprise on her face, then smiled charmingly.

Han Li smiled faintly, offering no further explanation.

But at this moment, the man surnamed Gui spoke coldly:

"Since fellow daoist has slain the Cave Spirit, what about the True Scale Origin? Has it already fallen into your hands?"