Chapter 861: Unexpected Change

The dragon's roar died down as the flood dragon's shadow shot into the sky. After briefly circling, it dove down and vanished into Han Li's back.

A blood-red light permeated through his back, and a vivid, lifelike blood-red flood dragon pattern, several inches in size, materialized, gradually sharpening from a blur to clarity.

Blood-red light pulsed around Han Li's body. Thumb-sized, exceptionally crystalline blood-red scales emerged from his cheeks to his arms. After a sharp pain in his head, a small, blood-red flood dragon horn also sprouted, as red as blood. His palms transformed as well, his fingers becoming pointed and morphing into extraordinarily sharp, hard claws.

At first glance, after his transformation, Han Li bore a slight resemblance to the demon soul trapped within the formation. However, Han Li still retained his human face, and the scales on his body were a dripping blood-red. In contrast, the demon soul had two exceptionally grotesque heads and purple scales.

Han Li activated the Spirit Descent Talisman, his true essence merging with the power of the flood dragon soul. His cultivation instantly reached the peak of the early Nascent Soul stage, just a hair's breadth away from the mid-stage.

Now, two-colored spiritual light, blue and red, emanated from his body. He gripped the Blood Demon Sword's hilt with both hands, pouring all his magic power into it.

The Blood Demon Sword trembled violently, and its blood-red glow rapidly expanded by several zhang, emitting a pungent, bloody stench.

Han Li's red horn on his forehead also glowed a dazzling, piercing red, due to the full activation of the flood dragon soul's power.

Han Li's mind was made up. Since he had trapped the demon soul within the sword formation, he absolutely could not allow the other ancient devil to rescue it. Otherwise, if the two devils merged, the trouble would be immense.

However, given the other devil's speed, it would arrive before the sword formation could fully close.

The only way was to take the initiative and destroy the demon soul immediately. With only one devil remaining, it would be no match for the group of cultivators arriving from behind.

Although using the Blood Demon Sword came with considerable repercussions, including a significant depletion of true essence, he had already planned his course of action. After fully exerting himself to kill this devil, he would immediately flee the dangerous area. He would no longer get involved in the cultivators' siege against the other devil, to avoid any accidents given his greatly diminished cultivation.

He had independently dealt with one devil, so presumably, the other cultivators would have no complaints about this.

But at this moment, the Blood Demon Sword was like a bottomless pit. In an instant, it had devoured most of Han Li's spiritual power.

The blood-red sword beam flickered unsteadily, extending and retracting, reaching a full six or seven zhang in length. The concentrated spiritual energy was so immense that even Han Li himself was secretly astonished.

Seeing this, the demon soul in the sword formation stared fixedly at the sword beam, a hint of fear gradually appearing on its face.

"Are you trying to die?" the demon soul finally roared, its two heads speaking in unison. "A human cultivator so recklessly wielding our Sacred Realm's holy artifact! Do you want to be demonized?"

Han Li let out a cold laugh and continued to inject spiritual power into the sword, completely ignoring its words.

The demon soul was instantly enraged.

It knew the opponent intended to take its life. A gloomy expression immediately covered its face. Suddenly, with a flash of blood-red light, it swiftly cut off one of its own arms.

The wound was smooth as a mirror, with not a single drop of blood flowing out, appearing utterly bizarre!

The moment the severed arm fell, it was immediately caught by its other hand. Then it opened its mouth, spat several mouthfuls of vital blood onto it, and simultaneously chanted a low, ancient incantation.

The severed arm immediately glowed, blood light pulsed, and after a series of twists and contortions, it transformed into a long sword, similar to the Blood Demon Sword.

This sword was bony and skeletal, covered in pitch-black demonic energy. With a slight swing, wisps of demonic energy shot skyward.

The demon soul held the sword horizontally before itself and began to inject its internal demonic energy into it. A black sword beam suddenly appeared on the sword and rapidly expanded.

Han Li witnessed this scene, somewhat surprised, and at the same time felt a chill in his heart regarding this devil's ruthlessness.

Although he didn't know what power this sword, created by self-mutilation, possessed, it was clearly no small feat. He dared not show the slightest contempt.

With a slight shift of thought, he immediately stopped injecting magic power, abruptly brandished the Blood Demon Sword with both hands, aimed at the demon soul in the sword formation, and fiercely slashed.

He would not give the opponent a chance to fully unleash the power of that bone sword, and immediately launched his attack.

A blood-red sword beam, over ten zhang long, silently cleaved out, menacingly pressing down into the sword formation.

Before the sword beam even arrived, the demon soul was submerged by an overwhelming bloody aura. After the space within the sword formation trembled, it even began to twist and deform, and an inexplicable low hum simultaneously echoed all around.

The demon soul was horrified. This situation clearly indicated that the sword's power was being unleashed to its maximum. If it remembered correctly, human cultivators shouldn't be able to unleash more than half the power of their demon realm's holy artifacts. Could this be related to the opponent's previous transformation?

Although this devil had experienced ancient wars, it didn't know that later human cultivators had actually researched and created such an incredible talisman as the "Spirit Descent Talisman." Naturally, it was completely bewildered by this.

However, with its life currently in peril, the devil couldn't afford to think further. It could only helplessly and hastily flick the bone sword, which had only been infused with a little magic power, upwards, as both heads simultaneously let out a loud roar.

A jet-black sword beam, nearly half the size of the blood-red one, shot out from the bone sword with a sharp whine, directly meeting the blood-red beam in the air.

Moments later, the two sword beams collided!

With a "boom," a colossal sound, like a bolt from the clear sky, reverberated from high above. The two sword beams instantly intertwined and tangled. Rings of hurricane-like energy waves erupted from the point of impact, blowing the silver-haired old man back more than ten steps before he could barely steady himself.

As for Han Li, relying on his profound cultivation nearing the mid-Nascent Soul stage, he only swayed a few times, took a small half-step back, and then stood still.

The demon soul, however, treated the energy waves as if they were nothing. It didn't move an inch, merely watching the sky with a hint of tension on its face.

A scene that astonished both Han Li and the demon soul appeared. As soon as the energy waves passed, a dull, jet-black, fist-sized sphere strangely materialized amidst the intertwining sword beams, and rapidly grew larger, twisting and elongating.

In the blink of an eye, a dark, irregular object, four to five zhang long and several feet wide, suddenly appeared above the sword formation.

Han Li was stunned and hadn't yet understood what was happening when large swathes of five-colored radiant light flashed out from this elongated object, pouring forth in a fleeting gush.

Because the distance was too short and the radiant light was too fast, neither the demon soul nor Han Li, who stood at the edge of the sword formation, had any time to guard themselves and were enveloped by the radiant light. Then, under a tremendous suction force, they were swept directly upward into the air. The old man who had retreated over ten steps away was fortunate enough not to be enveloped.

"Oh no! This is a spatial rift!"

In a flash, Han Li realized what was happening. Instantly alarmed, he intended to forcibly break through the radiant light.

But as soon as he tried to circulate his magic power, Han Li's face instantly went pale. All his spiritual power vanished from his body without a trace; he couldn't even summon a shred of it.

Han Li broke out in a cold sweat. Seeing that he was about to be swallowed by the spatial rift, in his panic, he could only frantically summon the Green Bamboo Bee Cloud Swords forming the array below with his divine sense. The demon soul, also being sucked into the radiant light, seemed to be facing the same predicament as Han Li, its face filled with terror.

The radiant light flashed. Han Li and the demon soul, without any resistance, were swallowed into the black spatial rift. Below, a series of clear cries rang out, and hundreds of golden sword lights simultaneously appeared all around. They then transformed into several-foot-long golden-red beams, shooting into the rift.

At the same time, an enraged shriek came from afar, growing closer. Then, a mass of black demonic flames in the distance flickered several times, seemingly teleporting to appear near the spatial rift. The demonic flames vanished in a flash, revealing a colossal, demon-god-like figure: it was precisely the other ancient devil that had occupied a demonic body.

This devil saw the demon soul being swept into the spatial rift and was immediately filled with shock and fury, yet dared not step into the range covered by the radiant light. However, it happened to see Han Li's last few Green Bamboo Bee Cloud Swords flying towards the rift. Without thinking, it extended one hand and snatched at these flying swords in the air.

Instantly, a massive demonic claw materialized out of thin air above these flying swords and swept towards them.

As a result, most of the flying swords let out clear cries and, with extreme intelligence, immediately dodged and bypassed the claw, shooting into the rift. Only two golden lights were too slow to dodge and were caught by the demonic claw, unable to move an inch.

And just then, a whistling purple fireball flew in from an unknown location. After a flash, it too flew into the rift.

The tall ancient devil was slightly startled. Just as it was about to make another move, the spatial rift in the air suddenly swayed a few times, rapidly shrinking and closing, and in the blink of an eye, vanished without a trace.

Instantly, only the remaining devil and the stunned silver-haired old man not far away remained at the site.

The ancient devil stared blankly at the spot where the spatial rift had vanished, its expression a mix of shock and uncertainty. Then it abruptly turned its head to glare at the old man, a savage expression appearing on its grotesque face.

The silver-haired old man was startled and hastily raised his hand, releasing a yellow flying sword to protect his entire body. He then slowly retreated, secretly cursing his bad luck. But as his gaze subconsciously shifted left and right, an expression of pleasant surprise appeared on his face.

"Oh! Isn't that Fellow Daoist Cheng?" a calm voice suddenly came from a distance. "What exactly happened here? And what kind of demonic creature is this?" A team of green-robed cultivators appeared over a hundred zhang away.

The leading green-robed old man, seeing the colossal ancient devil with two heads and six arms, couldn't help but show surprise on his face.

This person was none other than Dongmen Tu, the Grand Elder of the Spirit Control Sect. The three people behind him were the surviving three from the Five-Element Spirit Infants.

"Indeed, this old man has the same question!" Almost simultaneously, a grim voice came from another direction. Then over a dozen streaks of spiritual light also flew over, everyone clad in black robes, looking like disciples of the Ghost Spirit Sect. The one leading them and speaking was Elder Zhong of the Ghost Spirit Sect.

Both teams of cultivators had witnessed the final moments of the spatial rift's disappearance, and each one was utterly astonished.

"This is a long story," the silver-haired old man said with a bitter laugh, forcing himself to speak with renewed vigor. "Let's deal with this demon first. But all fellow daoists must be extremely careful: this devil is incredibly formidable; a moment of carelessness could mean death."

Dongmen Tu and Elder Zhong exchanged puzzled glances. Without speaking, they immediately, with utmost caution, led the cultivators behind them to draw closer, surrounding the several-zhang-tall demonic creature from a distance.

The demon soul's two massive grotesque heads slowly rotated, surveying the human cultivators around it.

The corner of one face's mouth twitched, revealing intense killing intent. The other face, however, revealed a half-smile, with a flash of mockery in its eyes.

It said nothing. Its four arms lightly waved in the air, and four enormous, pitch-black light blades simultaneously materialized in its hands. With a slight tremble, a piercing screech emanated from each giant blade.

The silver-haired old man's face immediately turned extremely grim upon seeing this unusually familiar scene.