Chapter 2273: Battle with the Worm Mother (Part 2)

"What powerful physical strength! I wonder who is stronger, compared to Ming Er." The eerie voice suddenly became surprised.

At that moment, Han Li focused his gaze downwards. He saw a strange, longhorn beetle-like monster on the water's surface, crystalline and clear as if formed from condensed liquid. It was over a dozen zhang long, and its entire body was covered in eyeballs of various sizes, causing an involuntary shiver of dread in anyone who looked at it.

The eerie voice had emanated from this monster's mouth. Its two incredibly long antennae touched, and a continuous roar erupted between them, accompanied by flashes of twisted, rapidly flickering grayish-white electric arcs. This was precisely the malevolent lightning that had almost severely injured Han Li earlier!

Han Li's expression was grave as he watched the monster and the grayish-white electric arcs above its head. After a few rapid thoughts, he suddenly looked towards Baohua. At that moment, Baohua was rapidly forming hand seals. The Heaven-Sustaining Pillar, formed from the Earth Emperor Nail under her command, was fiercely battling the enormous claw in the sky.

Although the giant claw was raging ferociously, its owner remained hidden within the swirling gray clouds high above, not revealing their form in the slightest. With a single fleshy claw, it was fighting against a colossal pillar conjured from a Profound Heaven Treasure, and was even subtly gaining the upper hand. The moment Han Li saw the giant claw, his mind involuntarily recalled the broken weapon fragments he had previously seen in the Formation Eye Hall. Apart from the vast difference in size, everything else was identical. It seemed those items were most likely the handiwork of this giant claw. Where the yellow giant pillar stirred, the void trembled, and strong winds arose. Where the giant claw slashed, crystalline white marks appeared out of thin air. For a time, the two were locked in an inseparable struggle. However, judging by Baohua's increasingly pale face, it was clear that activating the Earth Emperor Nail to this extent exceeded her capacity. While she didn't seem to be losing ground significantly yet, she clearly couldn't sustain it for long.

"Brother Crab, this fellow here, I'll leave him to you. I'm going over there to help Baohua deal with that other one first," Han Li said suddenly, his expression changing several times, as he issued an instruction towards a spot behind him.

"Since you put it that way, leave it to me. While this insect's divine sense secret techniques and malevolent lightning arts are formidable, they won't have much effect on me," a voice rumbled in the void. With a thunderclap in the void, Crab Daoist appeared behind Han Li, enveloped in silver arcs, and spoke calmly. This pseudo-immortal puppet, having received some unknown instruction from Han Li, had quietly vanished at the very beginning of Han Li's group's battle, only now suddenly reappearing from the void in response.

The instant Crab Daoist appeared, he rolled on the ground. With a thunderous boom, a golden giant crab, radiating lightning, materialized in the air. It was a thousand acres in size, and its two massive pincers suddenly rose. Thunder roared! Dense thunderballs rapidly condensed and rained down like a torrent onto the transparent monster below. These thunderballs were clearly different from ordinary electric arcs; not only was each one astonishingly large, but countless silver-white runes faintly flickered within the electric light on their surfaces.

Seeing this, the monster seemed to fly into a rage. After a strange cry from its mouth, its two long antennae suddenly trembled, and countless grayish-white electric arcs burst forth, transforming into countless streaks of light that pierced towards those thunderballs and collided with them. For a moment, the two types of lightning exploded along a dividing interface, their power seemingly evenly matched. Gray electric light and silver electric arcs intertwined, causing the entire void to faintly glow with heat amid the vibrations.

The golden giant crab's body was astonishingly large, yet its several lower limbs moved swiftly, allowing its form to blur and roam erratically through the sky, continuously unleashing thunderballs without ever directly engaging its opponent. The transparent giant insect's form was similarly ghostly, flickering in and out of sight. As it darted, grayish-white electric arcs continuously shot forth, smashing those thunderballs one by one. As for its most proficient divine sense secret techniques, they had already been unleashed, but they were utterly useless against a puppet, showing no effect whatsoever.

On the other side, Han Li brought forth his verdant longsword. After a long roar, his Three-Headed Six-Armed Aspect reappeared, and immense sword lights transformed into a giant sword-mountain shadow, directly slashing towards the enormous claw. Seeing this, Baohua's spirits lifted. After uttering a clear cry, the top of her head suddenly split open, and a giant pink flower carrying a small pink figure surged out. The small figure opened its mouth and spat out a pink halo. This halo expanded against the wind, transforming into a crystalline giant ring that pressed directly towards the swirling gray qi high in the sky. The owner of the giant claw must have been hidden within that qi all along. With Han Li's assistance, she finally allowed her perfected Nascent Soul to emerge and attack the giant claw's owner directly.

Beneath the water's surface, in an abyss nearly ten thousand zhang deep that one could not see the bottom of, an ancient-looking old man and a black-robed woman were staring blankly at an object below, their faces filled with shock and horror. An object lay quietly on the seafloor at the deepest part of the abyss. It was entirely pure white like jade, tens of thousands of zhang long, and was in fact an incredibly colossal insect skeleton. Although the skeleton lay motionless, its surface was enveloped in a faint grayish-white halo, vaguely emanating a terrifying, unfathomable aura. This aura was extremely similar to the aura of the little girl they had seen earlier, but with subtle differences.

"Is this the true body of the Mother of Mantis?" After observing carefully from high up in the abyss for a while, the black-robed woman murmured, somewhat hesitantly.

"It should be correct! Apart from that insect queen, I truly can't imagine what other remains would retain such a terrifying aura. The shed husk we saw earlier can't even compare to this," the ancient-looking old man replied slowly, taking a deep breath.

"The true body of the Mother of Mantis has already passed away. From the traces on the skeleton, it seems to have happened a long time ago! This is truly ridiculous. What about the one who appeared earlier? Could it be that its primordial spirit has reached the True Immortal realm, allowing it to roam freely for thousands of miles without a physical body, achieving eternal life?" the black-robed woman said with a few dry laughs.

"I don't know that either, old man. But in any case, it should be a fortunate thing for us. We've completed our mission without even having to act. As for why its primordial spirit is still so lively, it's most likely connected to this skeleton," the ancient-looking old man replied with a wry smile.

"Oh, that's certainly very possible, now that you mention it. I've heard that some ancient secret techniques allow one to condense all their essence into a certain part of the body. If the Mother of Mantis made similar arrangements before passing away, then its primordial spirit might indeed survive for a while longer. In that case, let me completely destroy this as well," the black-robed woman said, seemingly enlightened, but then a fierce look appeared on her face as she spoke viciously.

As soon as she finished speaking, the woman made a grasping motion in the air with one hand. A black light flashed, and an ink-black short spear appeared.

"Wait!" The old man suddenly recalled something, his expression changing, and he hastily tried to stop her, but it was too late.

The black short spear rumbled, transforming into a black bolt of lightning that directly cleaved down towards the colossal remains. With a "bang," the black lightning struck the skeleton's head, instantly shattering into countless fine electric threads that ricocheted and exploded, creating an astonishing display of power! But when all the black electric arcs flashed and vanished, the skeleton's head remained perfectly intact, without even a single mark.

"This is impossible! Even if my Celestial Mechanism Spear isn't a Profound Heaven Treasure, ordinary top-tier artifacts would be as fragile as paper under its power!" the black-robed woman exclaimed, her face losing color upon seeing this.

Just then, the halo shrouding the skeleton suddenly blazed with light, and at the same time, countless gold and silver runes surged out from the bones, swirling around the entire skeleton.

"No, something's wrong with this skeleton!" the ancient-looking old man exclaimed, his face drastically changing. With a loud shout, he immediately tossed the Myriad Beast Token, which he had been clutching tightly, in front of him. It instantly transformed into a shimmering, hazy jade gate that stood tall in the void. The old man then quickly formed a hand seal with one hand. Immediately, a myriad of beasts roared in unison, and as the gate opened, countless monstrous phantom images surged out densely from within.

On the other side, the black-robed woman's heart likewise trembled. She suddenly raised both hands, and behind her appeared the phantom image of a nine-headed monster snake, its body pitch black and its tongues purplish-black. Then, simultaneously opening its mouths, vast purple demonic flames rolled towards the skeleton. Wherever these purple demonic flames passed, there was a foul, pungent odor, and the nearby void instantly turned faint black, as if directly tainted by the demonic flames.

Since the black-robed woman's artifact couldn't destroy the skeleton, she simply changed her cultivation technique, unleashing another hidden ultimate ability: the "Yellow Spring Defiling Flames." These flames were refined from the eighty-one most poisonous defiling auras from several realms. An ordinary person, let alone touching a trace, would instantly die if they merely sniffed them from a hundred miles away. As for living beings directly engulfed by these defiling flames, it was said that not only would their physical bodies dissolve into foul water, but their primordial spirits and souls would also be defiled, directly erasing their qualification for reincarnation and preventing them from ever entering the Yellow Spring Gate. The black-robed woman had always considered these flames her greatest reliance, but unfortunately, the Yellow Spring Defiling Flames were consumable, decreasing with each use. She would never consider using them unless it was a matter of life and death. This was also because the skeleton was truly too bizarre, and the woman had already witnessed the power of the Mother of Mantis earlier with the little girl.

Just as the rolling purple flames and countless beast phantoms were about to completely engulf the skeleton below, the previously motionless, bone-white skeleton's jaw suddenly moved, letting out a cackling laugh. At the same time, its two arms suddenly moved, and an invisible, immense power surged forth. Whether it was the demonic flames or the beast phantoms, as soon as they approached within several zhang of the skeleton, they inexplicably stopped, unable to advance even an inch, as if encountering an indestructible, transparent wall. Despite the beast phantoms self-destructing and the defiling flames surging and swirling wildly, they simply could not get close to the skeleton. Instead, a sinister laughter continuously emanated from the skeleton, and with a push from its two hands, the entire skeleton shakily rose to its feet.