Chapter 2399: Skeleton

The short sword buzzed, and the strange insect patterns on its blade seemed to come alive, scurrying around.

The elder surnamed Yu waved his arm, and the short sword transformed into a streak of crimson light, slashing directly at the iron cage.

With a crash, as soon as the crimson light touched the iron cage, a thunderous roar erupted, and countless golden arcs of electricity appeared, swirling around it.

The crimson light immediately recoiled with a whimper, then flickered and reverted to its short sword form, falling back into the elder Yu's hand.

"Evil-warding Divine Thunder!"

The elder was greatly alarmed and hastily brought the short sword closer to his eyes. He discovered several fine cracks on the object, indicating significant damage.

If Han Li were to witness this scene again, he would naturally be quite surprised.

The golden electric arcs that had just bounced off the iron cage looked somewhat similar to the divine thunder he cultivated, but upon closer inspection, there were subtle differences.

Although these golden electric arcs were equally dazzling, each flash and burst subtly revealed shimmering purplish-golden runes. Their power far surpassed the Evil-warding Divine Thunder that Han Li had already mastered.

"It really is Evil-warding Divine Thunder... No, it doesn't seem to be ordinary Evil-warding Divine Thunder. Oh, I heard long ago that True Person Tianding, in addition to mastering several types of thunder power, also seemed to possess a divine ability to refine pure thunder power, which could increase the power of ordinary thunder spells by more than ten times out of thin air." The last elder was also startled upon seeing this, but then his brow furrowed as he spoke.

"This is a huge problem. Evil-warding Divine Thunder already has a strong restraining effect on our Witch Spirit lineage, but this divine thunder, having been refined and purified, how can we possibly break through it?" The elder Yu retracted his short sword and spoke bitterly.

This seemingly unremarkable sword actually possessed several incredible powers. Its sudden and unexpected damage naturally caused him great distress.

"Don't worry, no matter how powerful the Evil-warding Divine Thunder is, without someone actively controlling it, it's just an inanimate object. At most, it will take more time to break through. What I'm worried about is that this iron cage definitely doesn't have just this one type of restriction. The subsequent restrictions might be even harder to break." The elder surnamed Wu stared at the strange spikes on the iron cage and the bloody long chain wrapped around the skeletal remains, speaking thoughtfully.

"No matter how difficult, we must open it. Otherwise, wouldn't our efforts on this trip be in vain? Very well, this time, let's see if my Netherworld Dark Water can first break through the Evil-warding Divine Thunder." The last elder's spirits lifted slightly. He opened his mouth and spat out a dusty gray gourd.

The elder pointed at the gourd with one hand in the air. Immediately, the object inverted, and after a flash of light on its surface, surging black water poured out.

This water seemed incredibly cold. The moment it flew out of the gourd, the temperature in the nearby void plummeted abruptly. At the same time, wisps of gray mist emanated from it, accompanied by a strange, decaying scent.

The elder chanted an incantation and urged it forward. The black water immediately swirled in the high air, then suddenly transformed into a blurry black flood dragon. With bared fangs and claws, it lunged directly towards the iron cage.

The surface of the iron cage thundered once more, and as countless golden runes appeared, a shimmering golden electric net instantly materialized.

A mighty roar erupted!

The black water and golden arcs immediately burst forth with astonishing light, intertwining.

Han Li stood in an exceedingly tall hall, gazing at a towering, lifelike statue on the offering table opposite him. His eyes flickered as he pondered something.

The statue was roughly human-sized. It depicted a middle-aged Daoist priest wearing a white robe and carrying a blood-red longsword on his back.

The statue's gaze was directed slightly forward. Its expression was serene, giving off an ethereal feeling, as if it did not belong to the mortal world.

On either side of the Daoist priest's statue, there were also spirit beast statues: a giant azure eagle and a silver mantis. Both were equally lifelike and appeared exceptionally ferocious.

"This must be True Person Tianding; I don't think anyone else could possess such a presence," Han Li murmured after observing for a while, then cast a glance to either side.

On the ground to either side, four two-zhang-tall blood-armored puppets lay sprawled, along with the remains of two unknown corpses.

Although the four blood-armored puppets lay still and motionless on the ground, their armor was smooth and gleaming, without a single scratch. The great hammers, massive swords, and other weapons they held were perfectly preserved, as if they could leap up at any moment.

As for the two sets of skeletal remains, one consisted of only half a torso, with four black flying swords shattered into dozens of pieces scattered around it.

The other skeletal remains had its head inexplicably missing, but near it lay a mostly shattered purple shield and a silver short ruler completely twisted into a spiral.

Both sets of skeletal remains lay between the two blood-armored puppets. Their fallen postures suggested they had died in fierce combat against these puppets.

Judging by the faint spiritual energy still lingering on the bones, these were likely two of the individuals who had fought the giant beasts in the hall on the floor below.

However, after Han Li had carefully examined the two sets of skeletal remains several times without finding any other remaining magic tools or treasures, his figure flickered, vanishing without a trace from his original spot and reappearing behind True Person Tianding's statue.

There, a small, damaged spell formation was prominently visible. At its center was a milky-white stone platform about a zhang in diameter, its surface featuring several variously shaped grooves, seemingly once inlaid with certain objects, but now empty, as if they had long since been removed.

At the edge of the formation, two other sets of skeletal remains lay side by side, heads uplifted. One had its silver armor shattered into countless pieces, and its skeleton was pierced directly through the dantian by an opponent's bony hand.

The other was clad in a green robe, but the bones encased within it had turned jet-black, seemingly poisoned by some strange substance, causing instant death.

This time, after merely glancing at the two sets of skeletal remains, Han Li made a grabbing motion in the air with one hand. Immediately, with a "thud-thud" sound, four storage bracelets of different colors simultaneously flew out from the two skeletons and accurately landed in his hand.

After Han Li quickly scanned the contents of the storage bracelets with his spiritual sense, he calmly put them away and began to examine the damaged formation.

"Teleportation formation."

Han Li examined it and immediately discovered its original teleportation function. However, it was a one-time use formation and had been completely destroyed. Even with his profound knowledge of formations, repairing it would not be a quick task.

After circling the formation several times, Han Li's sword-like eyebrows suddenly twitched, and he stopped at a dark red mark on the formation. He made a grabbing motion at it with one hand in the air, and immediately a tiny, extremely faint ball of crimson light flew out from it, so dim that it seemed it could vanish at any moment.

Han Li flipped his hand, and the small bottle containing the Ice Soul essence blood reappeared.

With a "pop," before he could even perform any spell, the small ball of crimson light, the moment the small bottle appeared, instantly flew over and vanished into the bottle in a flash.

The flickering crimson light within the small bottle immediately became a few shades stronger than before.

"Indeed, it's the remaining essence blood of Fellow Daoist Ice Soul. It seems he must have stayed here and then teleported away using this formation," Han Li murmured. When his gaze fell upon the damaged formation once more, a faint smile appeared on his face.

He shook his sleeve, and a series of formation flags, disks, and other array-setting tools flew out, along with over a dozen fist-sized crystals of various colors. Without exception, all of them floated around the formation.

Han Li's expression hardened, and he pointed a finger into the air.

With a "whoosh," a slender, several-feet-long azure light shot out from his fingertip and rapidly began repairing the missing spiritual runes at the damaged parts of the formation.

Although it was impossible to restore it to its original, perfectly identical state, Han Li's mastery of formations was sufficient to restore it to 70-80% functionality, which would be enough to reactivate its teleportation power.

A day later, an astonishing fluctuation erupted above the blood lake. A black monster with a deer's head, a human body, clad in dark scales, and wielding a massive silver blade suddenly flashed into existence amidst the fluctuations. It raised its weapon and brought it down fiercely towards the area below.

A piercing shriek instantly reverberated throughout the grotto-heaven!

Wisps of gray mist appeared out of thin air on the surface of the silver blade, and clusters of faint green light spheres materialized beneath the blade.

After the great blade flashed past, the nearby void immediately twisted and blurred, as if about to be cleaved open.

Another earth-shattering roar.

A cluster of green light, like a scorching sun, erupted where the great blade struck, growing larger and larger amidst its turbulent flashes.

An astonishing aura of destruction immediately swept wildly in all directions, compressing the blood lake below to create a huge empty space about a li in diameter, revealing its bottom covered with countless white skeletal remains.

With a "boom!"

After a colossal silver arc, as thick as a water vat, flashed through the air, dark clouds suddenly rolled in, followed by a dense torrent of bloody rain that poured down, engulfing the entire blood lake.

When the green light of the "scorching sun" retracted and finally disappeared into thin air with a rolling motion, the scene below became clear amidst the bloody rain.

The Three Witch Spirit Sages were now distinctly visible, hovering in mid-air at three different positions, each holding a foot-tall statue identical to the deer-headed, human-bodied monster.

The enormous iron cage, encircled by the three, now had a gash over ten zhang long in its top.

"Haha, excellent! Our considerable effort wasn't in vain; we've finally broken through this cage. What are you two fellow Daoists waiting for? Let's go in together," the elder Yu exclaimed with a hearty laugh upon seeing this.

He then put away the statue in his hand and transformed into a green rainbow, shooting directly towards the opening in the iron cage.

The other two elders also looked excited. Their escape lights flared, and they too vanished into the iron cage in a flash.

As for the deer-headed, human-bodied monster, after unleashing its attack, it remained quietly suspended directly above the iron cage, unmoving.

When the three elders' escape lights faded and their figures reappeared, they were prominently positioned over ten zhang above the centaur-like skeleton, their faces filled with delight as they once again meticulously examined the entity, still bound by crimson chains.