Chapter 553: Dark Scheme

A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality, Volume 4: Winds Rise Overseas

After another twenty-odd days, the enclosure became perfectly still. The violent thunder and strong winds had vanished without a trace, revealing a pair of silver-white feathered wings.

The wings were primarily composed of the bones of a Thunder Roc, with materials from other spiritual birds forming the flesh and blood, and the power of wind and thunder transformed into feathers.

Thus, a pair of Wind-Thunder Wings was formed!

At present, the spiritual wings appeared to be complete.

However, in reality, the power of wind and thunder on each long feather had only just taken shape and was not yet truly stable.

Therefore, the three demon beasts, led by Feng Xi, despite having clearly consumed most of their magic power, still gritted their teeth and continued to infuse wind and thunder spiritual energy into the light barrier, fearing that all their previous efforts would go to waste.

As Feng Xi did this, he felt a little frustrated.

He had originally thought that specifically exchanging three drops of spiritual liquid from other demon cultivators would be sufficient to prevent excessive magic power depletion.

But to his surprise, the actual refining of these Wind-Thunder Wings consumed far more spiritual energy than anticipated.

Fortunately, judging by the current situation, even at the cost of some vital essence, they could barely hold on until the end.

Otherwise, if the treasure refining truly failed for this reason, there would be no way to undo it.

Just as this Level 9 demon cultivator silently sighed with relief, he suddenly felt a faint, unusual spiritual energy fluctuation appear in the refining room.

Although it was very brief and somewhat faint, it was extremely pure.

Feng Xi's expression changed slightly. His icy gaze swept across the room and finally landed on Han Li, his face turning grim.

Han Li's expression changed drastically, and he forced a smile at him.

But the demon beast stared at him with an icy gaze, utterly expressionless.

"Hand it over!" the demon beast said blankly.

"What do you want, Senior?"

Han Li's expression became even more forced. An unnatural look appeared on his face, and he quietly slipped one hand into his sleeve.

Feng Xi's eyes narrowed, a glint of cold light flashing in his pupils.

Suddenly, without a word, he raised a finger. A dazzling white light appeared at its tip, flashing on and off.

Han Li, standing within the formation, was first stunned by this sight. But immediately, he let out a scream and fell backward to the ground.

His limbs twitched uncontrollably. His face turned dark purple and was contorted in unbearable pain.

"Hmph! You refuse a toast, so you'll drink a forfeit!" A grim expression flashed across Feng Xi's face as he coldly looked at a small bottle that had fallen from Han Li's sleeve. An unusual expression appeared on his face, and with a single grab, the small bottle instantly flew into his hand.

"The Wind Spirit Force outbreak doesn't feel good, does it?" the Wind-Splitting Beast said impolitely, glancing at Han Li. "A moment ago, you appeared to have little spiritual energy left, but now your magic power has recovered quite a bit. It seems there must be some spiritual medicine in that bottle. Daoist Li, are you planning to recover your spiritual energy and seize the opportunity to escape while our magic power is greatly depleted?"

At this moment, Han Li, who had just managed to stand up because the demon beast had stopped casting spells, heard these words. His face instantly turned bloodless, looking as if his scheme had been exposed. "You have a bit of cunning," Feng Xi said, looking at the small bottle, casually tossing it in his hand, and murmuring, "I'd like to see what's in that bottle. Aside from Ten-Thousand-Year Spiritual Liquid, I've never heard of anything else that can instantly replenish spiritual energy."

"I haven't heard of this either," the Poisonous Flood Dragon, standing opposite, also spoke with curiosity. "However, perhaps we could use it right now."

At this time, he and the Turtle Demon were still continuously channeling various incantations into the bone wings to accelerate the solidification process of the wind and thunder energy. Although he seemed stronger than the Turtle Demon, his magic power was also significantly depleted. He was merely struggling to hold on.

Feng Xi paused upon hearing this, but then, with a thought, he opened the bottle cap.

A trace of pure spiritual energy wafted from it!

The demon beast first glanced into the bottle, then lightly sniffed it with its pointed nose, and an odd expression appeared on its face.

"What is it, after all?" This time, it was the Turtle Demon who impatiently pressed the question.

"You tell us!" Feng Xi glanced at Han Li and said indifferently.

"It's spiritual liquid diluted with one drop of Ten-Thousand-Year Spiritual Liquid," Han Li said somewhat unwillingly, dejected.

"What? This is also Ten-Thousand-Year Spiritual Liquid?" Upon hearing this, the Turtle Demon immediately brightened with surprise and exclaimed.

Among the three demon beasts, he had the lowest magic power. He truly had no confidence in lasting until the end, hence his overt joy.

"Hmph, there must be other things mixed in it," Feng Xi said, a flicker of doubt in his eyes, as he carefully examined the half-empty bottle of liquid. "The color is slightly light green, and there's a bit too much wood spiritual energy."

"I mixed in some aged spiritual herbs," Han Li gave a wry smile, surprisingly answering very honestly. "And since my cultivation method is wood-attribute, it's naturally better to have more wood spiritual energy."

Feng Xi frowned upon hearing this. Just as he wanted to ask for more details, the Turtle Demon loudly clamored.

"Brother Feng, quickly throw the spiritual liquid over, let me have a drink first. You know, although we can barely hold on, this is overdrawing our vital essence, and our cultivation will regress afterward. I must replenish some spiritual energy." The Turtle Demon seemed anxious, as if afraid Feng Xi would disagree.

"Of course I know that, but this spiritual liquid...?" The humanoid Wind-Splitting Beast still hesitated.

"Brother Feng! Even from this distance, I can sense the pure spiritual energy in the bottle. It's indeed Ten-Thousand-Year Spiritual Liquid," the Poisonous Flood Dragon was silent for a moment, then also spoke. "Even if there's been some trickery with this spiritual liquid, do you and I still care about poisons? Furthermore, my true form is a Poisonous Flood Dragon that devours all poisons under heaven. If there's truly poison in the bottle, it won't escape my notice."

It seemed he also didn't want to continue depleting his vital essence.

"Hehe! I almost forgot Brother Poisonous Flood Dragon's talent for identifying poisons. Since that's the case, and I'm also a bit low on magic power, let's split the liquid in the bottle equally among the three of us," Feng Xi chuckled at these words, then said with a slight shift in his eyes. "This way, once this treasure is successfully refined, none of us will lose much true essence." Then he tilted his head back and first drank a little more than a third of the spiritual liquid before grinning and tossing it to the Poisonous Flood Dragon.

As a Level 9 demon beast, he certainly wouldn't fear any poisons or the like. However, the spiritual energy contained in the liquid was genuine, and he naturally didn't want to miss out on it.

The Poisonous Flood Dragon took the small bottle without saying much. He also drank half of the remaining liquid, then threw the bottle to the Turtle Demon.

The Turtle Demon eagerly drank the spiritual liquid in one gulp, then casually tossed the small bottle away.

Not long after, all three felt faint traces of magic power recovering. They all simultaneously let out a sigh of relief. Feng Xi's last remaining doubts vanished completely.

But at this moment, the Poisonous Flood Dragon's eyes flashed fiercely as he transmitted a message to Feng Xi:

"The treasure refining has reached this point, and this human cultivator isn't of much use anymore, is he? Let me deal with him. Having a human waiting around is extremely annoying!"

As soon as the demon beast finished speaking, he cast a chilling gaze at Han Li, with a subtle but sharp killing intent in his eyes.

"Don't touch him for now!" Feng Xi's gaze also casually swept over Han Li, then he said indifferently. "Although in the coming days, wood spiritual energy theoretically won't be needed, it's better to be cautious. After the spiritual wings are complete, we can deal with him then."

"Alright then. Let this human live for a few more days!" The Poisonous Flood Dragon's tone was somewhat dissatisfied, but he eventually agreed patiently.

Han Li only saw the two demon beasts' lips move slightly and naturally couldn't know the exact content of their conversation.

However, seeing them eye him with ill intentions, he vaguely guessed a few things in his heart, and a chill immediately ran down his spine.

He thought with a grim expression, then suddenly, without a word, sat down cross-legged on the spot and slowly closed his eyes, appearing to be resigned to his fate.

The three demon beasts were startled by this, but they didn't pay any attention to Han Li's actions and refocused their attention on the spiritual wings in the air.

In reality, Han Li's heart was pounding.

He was slowly mobilizing the Green Bamboo Bee Cloud Swords within his body, emitting faint golden electric arcs, thin as silk, internally, controlling them to prevent them from bursting. Then, like a golden silkworm spinning its cocoon, he used dense strands of Evil-Dispelling Divine Lightning's golden threads to envelop the Wind Spirit Force planted by the old demon within his body, layer by layer.

This Wind Spirit Force, naturally, could not be refined by Han Li's current cultivation, nor could it be completely purged by the Evil-Dispelling Divine Lightning.

However, to temporarily trap it and prevent its outbreak, Han Li, relying on his experience of binding the Qianlan Ice Bead, still had some confidence.

At this moment, the Turtle Demon, having recovered a small portion of his spiritual energy, was continuing to inject spiritual energy into the light barrier with great ease. He glanced at the Poisonous Flood Dragon, seemingly recalling something, and was about to speak.

But just as his mouth slightly parted, his expression suddenly changed, and a strange look appeared in his eyes.

The Turtle Demon's incantations stopped, and he toppled headfirst to the ground, his mouth gaping wide, but no sound came out.

An astonishing scene unfolded.

The demon beast's abdomen swelled grotesquely in an instant.

Next, its head and limbs also bulged and deformed in quick succession, as if a malevolent spirit had suddenly been born inside its body, on the verge of tearing through its skin and escaping.

The Poisonous Flood Dragon and Feng Xi, standing nearby, saw this scene, and their faces instantly changed drastically.

They simultaneously thought of the diluted spiritual liquid in Han Li's small bottle.