The three quickly passed through the gap and entered the ancient tomb. The barrier behind them immediately closed, and black mist once again enveloped the entrance.
Rong Jiaojiao turned around and looked at the tomb, asking in confusion, "How did those tomb raiders get into the tomb?"
Elder Li and Team Leader Qin exchanged a glance and said in unison, "It was intentional."
Elder Li continued, "It seems that the things in the ancient tomb absorb the essence and soul of outsiders through the curses of those artifacts."
Team Leader Qin agreed with Elder Li: "We need to be even more careful."
Rong Jiaojiao and Elder Li nodded, both of them becoming extremely alert.
The ancient tomb was pitch black, with only the luminous pearl in Qin Lianyun's hand emitting a faint light.
The air was thick with the smell of decay, mixed with a faint stench of blood.
Zi Ling suddenly perked up her ears alertly: "Master, something is coming!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a rustling sound came from the darkness, and countless dark figures surged in from all directions—they were swarms of corpse worms!
Qin Lianyun snorted coldly, and with a wave of his longsword, sword energy swept across the area, cutting the approaching corpse worms into pieces.
Elder Li also made hand seals and chanted incantations, and a golden light protected the three of them.
Rong Jiaojiao quickly took out several Flame Talismans and threw them at the swarm of corpse worms.
The scorching flames spread instantly, burning the corpse worms with a crackling sound, and a nauseating stench and burnt smell filled the air. The three of them immediately held their breath.
"These corpse worms are controlled by a curse, be careful not to get bitten!" Elder Li warned.
The three fought their way forward and finally arrived at a spacious tomb chamber.
In the center of the tomb chamber stood a huge stone coffin, its lid covered with strange runes that emanated a strong curse power, forcefully attempting to invade the souls of the three.
Qin Lianyun's expression turned solemn: "It seems this is the source of the curse."
Elder Li carefully examined the runes and said in a deep voice, "This is the ancient forbidden technique 'Soul Devouring Curse.' Once triggered, it will cause widespread death and destruction within a hundred miles."
Rong Jiaojiao gasped, "Then how do we break this?"
Elder Li's gaze fell solemnly on the runes on the stone coffin, and he said in a deep voice, "The Soul-Devouring Curse requires essence blood as a catalyst to draw the Soul-Suppressing Runes in reverse in order to break it. However, the caster must endure the backlash of the curse..."
Before he finished speaking, the stone coffin suddenly began to shake violently.
The runes on the coffin lid glowed with an eerie red light, the entire tomb began to shake, and rubble kept falling from the top, filling the air with a suffocating evil aura.
"Not good! Someone is remotely controlling a spell!" Qin Lianyun drew his longsword, its blade gleaming with a bluish light. "We must suppress it immediately!"
Rong Jiaojiao suddenly felt a pang of fear, and Zi Ling bristled and shrieked on her shoulder, "Master, be careful!"
A dark shadow suddenly appeared from behind the stone coffin.
Elder Li reacted extremely quickly, waving his longsword and creating a golden barrier in front of the three of them.
The dark figure crashed into the barrier, emitting a piercing roar.
It was an ancient corpse shrouded in black mist, its withered face and eyes glowing with a scarlet light, like a messenger from hell.
"The Tomb Guardian Corpse King!" Qin Lianyun's expression changed drastically. "This thing should have been extinct long ago!"
The ancient corpse opened its blood-red maw and spewed out a foul-smelling black mist.
Elder Li's barrier was instantly corroded and cracked, as if it would collapse at any moment.
"Step back!" Elder Li shoved Rong Jiaojiao aside and attacked at the same time as Qin Lianyun.
The sword light intertwined with golden and blue rays, temporarily forcing the black mist back.
Rong Jiaojiao staggered to her feet and suddenly noticed a familiar symbol carved on the ground behind the stone coffin—it was the "Blood Sacrifice Array" she had read about in ancient books!
"Elder Li! They are using human blood sacrifice to awaken the ancient corpse!" she shouted hurriedly, while taking out three thunder talismans and holding them in her hand.
Just then, crimson flames suddenly ignited at the four corners of the tomb. Four figures dressed in black robes appeared silently in the flames. The leader sneered, "As expected of members of the Xuanmen sect, you discovered it so quickly. Too bad, too late..."
Qin Lianyun roared, "Demon Spirits! It was you again, playing tricks on me!"
Zi Ling said regretfully, "I'm sorry, Master. I don't know how they concealed their presence; I didn't notice them."
"It's okay, it's not your fault."
Rong Jiaojiao shook her head. Since they had already set up a trap, how could they let anyone find out?
Elder Li realized: "Your target is Xuanxiu. You deliberately let those tomb raiders take things out to lure Xuanxiu here."
"Your goal is not to awaken the ancient corpse, but to use our essence and soul to nourish the evil master soul."
The man in black robes let out a grating laugh: "Haha, you guessed right, but so what? Since you're here, you'll all be left as sacrifices!"
As he finished speaking, intense crimson array patterns lit up on the ground. At the same time, the people in the valley were also enveloped by the suddenly spreading crimson array patterns. Before Miao Yuhan and the others could react, they were instantly teleported into the tomb chamber.
"Oh no!" Li Nanzhou exclaimed, his longsword flashing as he drew it from its sheath. "We've fallen into a trap!"
Miao Yuhan quickly scanned her surroundings and saw the stone coffin and the man in black robes. Her expression changed drastically: "It's a blood sacrifice formation! They want to use our life essence as a sacrifice!"
The crimson array patterns glowed with an eerie light, and everyone felt their blood and energy surging within them, as if they were being forcibly drained away.
Lin Jin groaned, clutched his chest, and knelt down. Blood seeped out of his newly healed wound again.
Team Leader Qin roared in fury: "Damn it, they actually want to sacrifice so many people!"
"Stay calm!" Elder Li shouted, slashing with his longsword. Golden light spread out like an umbrella, temporarily resisting the erosion of the blood sacrifice array.
However, the array's power was too strong, and the golden light barrier was corroded at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Rong Jiaojiao gritted her teeth and took out the Soul-Suppressing Talismans, distributing them to everyone: "Place them on your Lingtai acupoint; they can temporarily resist!"
Qin Lianyun pointed his longsword directly at the black-robed leader: "Four mere peak Earth Master level demonic spirits dare to try and trap and kill so many of us? Today, you will all be annihilated!"
The black-robed leader sneered, "You think you can handle this?"
He suddenly raised his hand, and the stone coffin exploded with a deafening roar. A towering black aura shot into the sky, and the ancient corpse also burst open at that moment, condensing in mid-air into a huge ghost face with scarlet eyes looking down at everyone.
"A demonic spirit at the Celestial Master level!" Elder Li's pupils shrank sharply. "There's actually a demonic spirit at the Celestial Master level hidden here?"
The ghostly face opened its massive maw, unleashing a terrifying suction force.
The soul-suppressing talisman was burning fiercely and was about to lose its effectiveness!
A sword appeared in Rong Jiaojiao's hand, the enchanted sword she named Lingyuan Sword. She shouted, "Nine Revolutions to Subdue Demons, the sword transforms into a dragon."
Suddenly, the Lingyuan Sword burst forth with a dazzling silver light, its blade humming and vibrating as if the roar of a dragon emanated from its tip!
With a flick of her wrist, Rong Jiaojiao unleashed a sword strike that was as powerful as a rainbow. In an instant, nine silver sword energies swirled out like dragons, heading straight for the face in mid-air.
\"roar--\"
The sword energy transformed into nine silver dragons, roaring as they charged toward the enormous ghost face, instantly coiling around it and tearing at it frantically!
The ghostly face let out a shrill roar, the black energy was continuously devoured by the silver dragon, and its scarlet eyes flickered violently, clearly having suffered a great shock!
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