Chapter 1856: War of the Demon World

**Chapter 1827: The Myriad Spirit Beast**

The patriarchs and elders leading the other aristocratic families were accustomed to this sight. After hearing the words of the Long Family Ancestor, they each waved a hand to their disciples behind them. One person from each group emerged from the crowd, holding a palm-sized jade bottle, and quickly headed towards the Myriad Spirit Platform.

At the same time, a golden light flashed around the Long Family Ancestor's body, and with a flicker of his figure, he directly entered the light barrier enveloping the Myriad Spirit Platform. Then, at a low altitude, he formed a hand seal with one hand and shot a golden light downwards.

The golden light flashed and disappeared, sinking into the bluestone ground below, and vanished without a trace.

Immediately, the next moment, a low rumble came from the Myriad Spirit Platform, and an ancient, greenish-blue stone basin appeared near the white formation.

The basin was long and flat, about ten feet in length, its surface inscribed with faint black, strange patterns, appearing extremely ancient.

At this point, the emerging family disciples walked one after another to the stone basin, removed the lids from their jade bottles, and inverted the bottles, pouring the contents downwards.

Streams of liquids of various colors poured out from the bottles. Some were incredibly foul-smelling, some were exquisitely fragrant, while others were colorless and odorless, like clear water.

After dozens of different liquids were poured into the basin, each formed its own distinct mass, showing no sign of blending.

The Long Family Ancestor paid no attention to all this. He merely looked at the increasingly dazzling light from the formation, and then raised his head to gaze at the awe-inspiring purple-gold net high in the sky. He remained expressionless, making no movements in the air.

Outside the Myriad Spirit Platform, all the Body Integration cultivators stood up, looking towards the formation. Their expressions also became exceptionally solemn.

"Boom!" A tremendous sound erupted.

The various runes emerging from the grand formation suddenly converged, transforming into a massive light sphere several *zhang* in diameter, which slowly rotated above the formation.

However, after only a few rotations, the light sphere burst open with a muffled bang, revealing a strange beast with eight heads inside.

It had a lion's body and jiao dragon heads. Its form was exceptionally indistinct, as if it were merely a phantom, and its aura was only that of an ordinary early Void Refinement stage being. Yet, as its eight different heads swayed from side to side, sixteen sinister gazes swept across the area beneath the Myriad Spirit Platform, causing everyone who was looked at to shiver involuntarily, as if an extreme chill had swept through their bodies.

Fortunately, the next moment, the Long Family Ancestor in the air cupped his hands and slowly spoke:

"Welcome, Lord Myriad Spirit, to your descent once more. Please enjoy the true blood offerings presented by our fifty-one True Spirit aristocratic families of the human race."

The strange beast, called Myriad Spirit, raised one of its heads, glanced at the Long Family Ancestor in the air, then, without a word, its body moved, lightly floating out of the formation, and arrived above the stone basin.

Its eight heads opened wide, and the liquids in the basin shot up as eight columns, entering the beast's mouths.

In a short while, the offerings in the basin were completely consumed by the beast. Then, after a strange light shimmered across its body, its previously indistinct form suddenly became clear and seemingly solid.

After the beast cast another glance at the cultivators outside the stone platform, it let out a thunderous roar.

An astonishing aura emanated from the beast, rapidly climbing from the early Void Refinement stage to the middle stage, and then to the late stage...

In an instant, the beast's aura reached the peak of the late Body Integration stage. No, it seemed even half a step higher than that, as if one foot had already stepped into the Mahayana realm.

Han Li's originally calm and unruffled face, upon sensing the violent aura emanating from the Myriad Spirit Platform, couldn't help but narrow his eyes.

Fortunately, after reaching this level, it seemed to be the limit of the beast's potential for enhancement, and its vast aura finally stabilized and halted.

However, the eight-headed beast's next action made many family cultivators nearly gasp in terror.

Its eight heads suddenly simultaneously lifted towards the sky. With a piercing hum, each head surprisingly unleashed a bolt of greenish lightning as thick as a bowl's mouth. In a flash, they struck the purple-gold electric net high in the sky.

Even some Body Integration stage cultivators, witnessing this scene, couldn't help but change their expressions.

The Long Family Ancestor, despite being extremely close to the eight-headed beast, maintained an unchanged expression, though a muscle on his face twitched momentarily.

Several earth-shattering loud noises occurred.

Purple and green electric arcs intertwined in the air, transforming into clusters of electric light the size of carriages, which exploded one after another in the sky.

But a moment later, the electric light subsided, and the purple-gold net merely swayed slightly, then calmly returned to its original state, showing no signs of damage.

Seeing this, the eight-headed beast's eyes lost their cold gleam, and its eight large mouths slowly closed.

However, one of its greenish heads twisted its neck and suddenly fixed its gaze on the Long Family Ancestor, who was nearby. From its mouth came an extremely ancient voice:

"Hmph, you humans are quite cautious. I have descended to this place countless times, and this Myriad Thunder Sealing Grand Formation, for so many tens of thousands of years, has never once failed. However, you had best pray that this continues, for if there is ever a single oversight, allowing me to find a flaw in this seal, hehehe..."

Not only did the beast's greenish head speak human words, but it also ended with a sinister chuckle.

"Regarding that, please rest assured, Lord Myriad Spirit. If one day, our True Spirit aristocratic family descendants are so negligent that they cannot even properly maintain a mere sealing formation, then their true blood being absorbed and enjoyed by Your Lordship would be a fate they brought upon themselves. However, according to the agreement between our True Spirit aristocratic family ancestors and Your Lordship, now that the tributes have been presented, it is Your Lordship's turn to cast a spell to create the Latent Spirit Tokens for us juniors and others." The Long Family Ancestor bowed slightly, replying neither humbly nor arrogantly, showing little fear.

It was no wonder. Although the beast before them was a True Spirit level entity from another realm, what had descended across realms was merely an avatar or a fragment of its consciousness. Furthermore, with the meticulously arranged sealing grand formation by the True Spirit aristocratic family ancestors, even if the beast's avatar absorbed the offerings and its cultivation greatly increased, its actual divine abilities were still largely suppressed. As a late Body Integration stage cultivator, he naturally had no need to be overly afraid.

"Hmph, since I have received your benefits, this Lord will naturally handle this small matter for you." The beast snorted coldly. As its eight heads swayed, they all began to chant simultaneously.

Amidst the chanting, runes of eight different colors spewed out from each head, intertwining in the low air.

After a short while, the runes of various colors became dense, almost completely covering the sky above the Myriad Spirit Platform, creating an astonishing spectacle.

Although the Long Family Ancestor was surrounded by runes of various colors, his expression remained exceptionally calm. Furthermore, a layer of golden light enveloped his entire body, preventing the runes from approaching him even by an inch, stopping several feet away.

Suddenly, the beast roared loudly again.

The entire void above suddenly experienced a distorted, invisible fluctuation.

The sky full of runes overlapped and converged, surprisingly transforming into countless five-colored tokens that fell straight from the sky, scattering across the entire Myriad Spirit Platform.

"Alright, a total of nine hundred and ninety-nine Latent Spirit Tokens have been created. The next time you summon this Lord's descent must be three thousand years from now." The eight-headed beast grunted a few times, speaking with a hint of weariness.

Then, with a shake of its head and a flick of its tail, the beast plunged back into the original formation.

As the grand formation's light flickered, streams of spiritual light burst forth, instantly engulfing the giant beast's form.

With another hum, the formation spun rapidly, and the eight-headed beast, just as it appeared, its body shattered into countless fragments with a muffled sound, dispersing into countless runes.

The next moment, the formation itself also faded its light and completely vanished from the Myriad Spirit Platform, as if it had never been there.

"Guards, collect all the Latent Spirit Tokens. After the families' rankings are re-determined later, their ownership will be decided." The Long Family Ancestor, his eyes slightly narrowed, stared at the bluestone ground where the formation had vanished. After a good while, he gave a cold command.

Hearing this, several golden-armored guards immediately emerged from an unknown location.

Each of them carried a silver tray. With successive ethereal grasps towards the ground, they gathered all the tokens and stacked them onto the trays, then respectfully placed them on an altar table beneath the stone platform.

"Lord Myriad Spirit has departed. Now, let us begin the ritual to worship the True Spirit ancestors of our families." The Long Family Ancestor swept his gaze over the crowd outside the stone platform, and said with a firm voice.

Hearing this, the members of the large and small families outside immediately stirred. Subsequently, people began carrying various ritual spiritual artifacts, spiritual fruits, and incense candles, setting them up on the platform.

Led by the patriarchs and elders of their respective families, all the True Spirit aristocratic family disciples began to walk onto the Myriad Spirit Platform in turns, kneeling before their worshipped True Spirit ancestors, each offering different prayers.

Some True Spirit aristocratic families with even older traditions even performed ritual ceremonies long lost to the outside world, which Han Li, observing from below, found quite intriguing.

However, after these sacrificial rituals, which took a good half day, concluded, the true highlight of the True Spirit Grand Ceremony began: the determination of the rankings of the various True Spirit aristocratic families and the reallocation of their resources and interests.

When the Long Family Ancestor reappeared on the stone platform, he tucked his hands into his sleeves, and calmly stated:

"According to ancient tradition, during this ceremony, every family has the opportunity to challenge other higher-ranked families, and to accept challenges from lower-ranked families. Each has one such opportunity. However, a challenger cannot challenge a family ranked more than five positions above their own. If several families issue challenges to the same family, the one with the higher ranking among the challengers will qualify. Of course, as per custom, the rankings among our five great families are now completely void. We must first undergo a re-ranking through successive battles before other family challenges can begin. Fairy Lin, Fellow Daoist Lin, please come up. Let's draw lots to decide the opponents for the first round."

"Heh heh, what's the point of drawing lots? Anyway, if I encounter your Long Family, I admit I can't win, so I'll definitely forfeit. However, I've recently cultivated one or two minor divine abilities, and if I meet Fairy Ye, I might have to ask for some pointers." From among the five great True Spirit families, the last family, comprised entirely of male cultivators, a lazy male voice came.

The speaker was a man wearing a dark green long robe, with loose hair and a strange silver ring tied around his head. His appearance was surprisingly delicate, like that of a woman.