Qing Xuanzi formed hand seals, and three Heavenly Thunder Talismans darted through the illusory spirits like lightning. Each explosion unleashed a burst of lightning, yielding a large number of Soul Pearls.
Zi Ling darted through the sea of mist like a bolt of lightning, her Eye of Truth locking onto the core of the Illusionary Spirit. Wherever the lightning pillar from her mouth reached, gray soul beads fell like rain, only to be caught and retrieved by her lightning net.
The small golden plate was at Rong Jiaojiao's feet, its golden light surging. Occasionally, a fish that slipped through the net would approach, but upon touching the light barrier, it would turn into ashes, leaving not even a soul pearl behind.
“Xiao Jin’s power is increasing!” Rong Jiaojiao watched the phantom spirits outside the light barrier being annihilated one after another, and found that the soul beads touched by the golden light were beginning to fly towards Xiao Jin on their own, condensing into a faint golden mist above its head.
Qing Xuanzi's eyes sharpened, and the Heavenly Thunder Talisman in his hand suddenly turned towards Xiao Jin's body. The golden lightning and Xiao Jin's light complemented each other, and the originally endless illusory spirit group began to show signs of dissipation.
"Master, they are afraid of the power of the fusion of gold and lightning!" Rong Jiaojiao suddenly had a flash of inspiration and took out several lightning-attracting talismans, throwing them at Qing Xuanzi.
Qing Xuanzi understood immediately and threw out the Heavenly Thunder Talisman and the Lightning-Attracting Talisman at the same time. The runes merged in the air to form a huge golden lightning net, which roared and covered the depths of the sea of mist.
The entire fog trembled violently, and countless phantom spirits let out terrified screams, turning into gray mist that was absorbed by the lightning net.
Purple Spirit Net followed behind, returning with a bag full of Soul Pearls.
Just when everyone thought the situation was settled, a deep roar came from the depths of the thick fog, and the entire space began to distort.
A huge black soul bead slowly rose up, its surface wrapped with countless tiny gray soul beads, resembling a monster covered in eyes.
Qing Xuanzi's expression changed drastically: "This is bad! This is the mother of the Soul-Devouring Illusionary Spirit. Once it takes shape, we will be powerless to fight it!"
Rong Jiaojiao took a deep breath, and the golden light of the small secret realm suddenly surged, enveloping her entire body.
She felt the spiritual power and divine soul power within her body begin to resonate, and mysterious patterns appeared in her sea of consciousness.
"Master, Ziling, Xiaojin! Let's concentrate our efforts on attacking its core! Yueling, protect everyone with all your might!"
Zi Ling's Eye of Truth almost solidified, Qing Xuanzi poured all his spiritual power into the flying sword, and Xiao Jin gathered all the golden light into a pillar of light.
Under Rong Jiaojiao's guidance, the three forces merged with the mysterious power erupting within her, transforming into a dazzling golden beam that shot towards the black soul bead.
"boom--"
Amidst the deafening explosion, the black mist receded like a tide. Exhausted, the group landed on their flying swords, only to find the sea filled with shimmering soul beads floating about.
Qing Xuanzi immediately cast a spell and retrieved them all.
Although the fog had not dissipated in this area, and Soul-Devouring Illusions were still lingering in the distance, they did not approach any further.
Rong Jiaojiao asked, "Master, there must be even stronger Soul-Devouring Illusions inside. What should we do now?"
Qing Xuanzi said, "That's inevitable. Let's retreat first and take a detour in another direction."
He counted on his fingers, then said, "Let's go, this is where we just came in."
However, Rong Jiaojiao felt that direction was dangerous. She told Qing Xuanzi about it, and Qing Xuanzi frowned upon hearing this. He then made another calculation with his fingers, but the divination results were flickering and he could not determine whether it was auspicious or inauspicious.
“Strange…” he murmured, “The secrets of the Mist Sea have been disturbed.”
Rong Jiaojiao's silver eyes flickered slightly. Suddenly, a fluctuation came from the small secret realm in her sea of consciousness. She looked up sharply: "No! Master, that's not the way we came in!"
Before the words were even finished, the fog in the distance suddenly surged and transformed into a giant ghost face, grinning as it devoured them!
"It's an illusion!" Zi Ling's Eye of Truth shone brightly, instantly seeing through the illusion, but it was too late. The ghostly face opened its mouth and inhaled, and everyone felt the world spin, the surrounding scenery suddenly changing—
They were standing on a blood-red wasteland, with a blood moon hanging in the sky, the ground covered with white bones, and faint, mournful cries echoing in the distance.
"Damn it, we've been dragged into the deepest illusion of the Soul-Eating Illusion!"
Qing Xuanzi's expression turned solemn. "This level of illusion is beyond what ordinary Soul-Devouring Illusionary Spirits can create..."
Rong Jiaojiao gripped the Lingyuan Sword tightly and whispered, "Master, my precognitive abilities are completely ineffective here."
Moon Spirit's voice rang in her mind: "Master, there's something strange about this illusion; it seems someone is controlling it!"
Just then, the bones on the ground suddenly trembled and cracked, and they spontaneously pieced themselves together into skeletons, holding broken weapons, and staggering toward them.
"Charge out first!" Qing Xuanzi waved his sleeve, and several sword lights slashed out, shattering the skeletons in the front row.
However, those shattered bones reassembled themselves after falling to the ground, as if they were immortal.
Zi Ling spewed out lightning, and Xiao Jin's golden light swept across, but the skeletons continued to surge in.
Rong Jiaojiao suddenly sensed something amiss, her silver eyes locking onto the shadows beneath the blood moon in the distance: "Master, there's someone there!"
A figure slowly appeared.
It was an old man in black robes, his face gaunt and emaciated, covered with blood-red lines. His eyes glowed with an eerie green light, and he held a white bone scepter in his hand, the top of which was inlaid with a black soul bead—the very core of the mother body they had previously destroyed!
"Hehehe..." The old man chuckled sinisterly, "I never expected that a few juniors could force this old man to take action personally."
Qing Xuanzi's pupils shrank: "Who are you, and why are you here?"
The old man chuckled for a while before saying, "Considering that you are about to help me return to the mortal world, I will let you die knowing why."
The old man's withered fingers gently caressed the white bone scepter, and eerie ripples appeared in his eerie green eyes. His voice was low and sinister: "I am the Seventh Elder of the Blood Fiend Sect—the Yin Bone True Man. Three hundred years ago, I was forced into this sea of mist by you so-called righteous people, but I discovered an immense opportunity here!"
He suddenly ripped open his black robe, revealing his withered chest—where a pulsating black bead, its surface covered with blood-red patterns, was embedded.
With each thud, the surrounding bones trembled.
"Do you see that?" Yin Gu Zhenren laughed maniacally, his voice filled with endless madness and triumph. "I have long since transcended life and death, and have become one with this sea of mist!"
Qing Xuanzi's expression changed drastically, and he said in a deep voice, "You actually turned yourself into a puppet!"
"Puppet?" The old man suddenly roared in fury, slamming his scepter heavily onto the ground, causing the entire space to tremble. "It was you hypocrites who forced this upon us!"
The blood moon suddenly swelled, reflecting the twisted blood-red patterns on his face. "Today, I will use your flesh and blood to help me complete my final transformation!"
"At that time, I will be immortal and indestructible. I will go back and kill all of you hypocritical so-called righteous cultivators."
Countless white bones suddenly flew up and formed a hundred-foot-tall skeleton puppet in the air.
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