Chapter 54: Devouring Demonic Flames

Black flames roiled, waves of fire surged.

The black flames were eerily strange; the sudden rise in scorching heat made everything in the valley feel as if placed in a furnace, while at the same time, waves of pitch-black demonic qi gradually spread, carrying a heart-palpitating aura.

Han Li and Liu Le'er, enveloped by the black flames, endured a heat so terrifying that even the surrounding air became hazy and blurred.

The moment the demonic flames surged around her, Liu Le'er's face turned ashen with fear.

But in the next instant, she found herself within a silver flame net, and the surrounding high temperature and rolling demonic qi were drawn into the silver flames as if by a powerful magnetic force, leaving the air within several zhang cool and refreshing, which greatly calmed her.

Although Han Li had no silver flames to protect him, he faced the surging demonic flames without blinking, his expression utterly calm.

Just as the demonic flames were about to touch his body, he suddenly opened his mouth, and a suction force swept out from it.

The black demonic flames that filled the surroundings were caught by this suction and, like waves reversing, poured into his mouth as streams of black flame.

In just two or three breaths, most of the black flames had entered Han Li's belly, causing the blazing fire in the valley to immediately weaken.

This scene made the four cultivators at the Combined Movement stage nearly pop their eyes out, and they hastily stopped their spellcasting.

As a result, the black fire lotuses on the surrounding cliff surfaces blurred and returned to their original state, though the patterns seemed slightly dimmer than before.

Han Li showed no intention of stopping; he only closed his mouth after swallowing all the black flames in the valley, letting out a muffled sound like a burp, as if still unsatisfied.

How is that possible!

The Nine Heavens Demonic Flame, which can incinerate all things, was actually...

What kind of monster is this person!

Everyone, this person's abilities are truly beyond comprehension. While he is still trapped in the Earth Ghost Soul-Suppressing Grand Formation, we must not hold back any longer, or there will be endless trouble!

With that, the purple-bearded man raised his hand and offered up a bronze ancient lamp less than half a foot tall. Amidst obscure incantations, he lightly rubbed it.

With a 'puff' sound,

a pale purple flame ignited on the ancient lamp, and countless rice-grain-sized purple runes appeared on the lamp's surface, swirling rapidly.

A thick purple smoke rose from the flame, quickly expanding and condensing into a lifelike purple giant tiger the size of a pavilion. After raising its head in a silent roar, it charged straight at Han Li on all fours.

On another stone pillar, the beautiful woman chanted incantations in a fluctuating rhythm, her pupils glowing with a red light at some point.

Her purple gauze dress billowed without wind, as if a celestial maiden had descended. Her skin and muscles visibly withered, her slender fingers grew long black nails, turning into a pair of hideous claws. Her charming face melted away, and she transformed into a pink skeleton!

She swooped down lightly with astonishing speed, appearing above Han Li in a blur, and a withered claw grabbed downward.

Ripples appeared above Han Li's head, and a white bone claw the size of a small mountain emerged, its five fingers like sharp blades, grabbing at Han Li's head with a sharp wind, while rolling gray-white baleful qi swept out from the palm.

The bone claw seemed unaffected within the rolling sea of blood projection!

Han Li stood still, raised his hand without a word, and a miniature black peak flew out. Expanding in the wind, it turned into a black mountain peak and slammed heavily onto the white bone claw.

With a 'boom'!

The black mountain peak exploded beneath the bone claw, scattering into countless boulders, but the bone claw also trembled and then shattered with a 'crackling' sound.

The baleful qi dissipated, leaving only countless white bone fragments.

The pink skeleton tried to do something more, but a tidal wave of air surged from below, sending it flying backward like a willow leaf in the wind, crashing heavily into a cliff wall and scattering into a pile of bones.

At that moment, a roar like a tiger's howl rolled down!

The purple giant tiger broke through the air, opened its mouth, and spat out a purple beam of light shooting downward.

Han Li simply grabbed with one hand, and an invisible force swept through, causing the purple beam to collapse. Then he leaped, ignoring gravity, and appeared beneath the giant tiger's belly.

His arms shot out like lightning, one hand gripping the tiger's head, the other grabbing a hind leg. His arm muscles bulged like giant pincers, and no matter how the tiger struggled and twisted, it could not break free!

Just as he was about to tear the tiger apart with both hands, four black giant spears with a faint glow burst from the ground below, piercing through the layers of blood sea, stabbing toward his chest and abdomen.

With a sharp 'clang'!

The four giant spears struck as if hitting an iron wall, rebounded by a tremendous force, and retracted with a shudder.

'Gurgle'

A strange sound arose, and the earth split open, revealing a pitch-black giant spider.

Its head bore two rows of gleaming compound eyes, and its eight long legs, like steel spears, were as thick as a child's arm, with a gray flesh pouch hanging beneath its abdomen.

Han Li narrowed his eyes slightly and saw that the flesh pouch was none other than the hunchbacked old man, and that this spider seemed to have grown out of the bulge on his back, an utterly bizarre sight.

As soon as the pitch-black spider appeared, it crossed its two sharp front legs and raised them upward again, a bloody red light glowing on them, looking like a pair of red-hot giant scissors heading straight for his neck.

But this time, Han Li gave it no chance. Gripping the purple giant tiger tightly with both hands, he leaped down with the force of immense gravity, and mid-descent, he swung his right foot in a sweeping kick.

With a thunderous crash!

The spider's two front legs shattered into pieces, and its body, driven by a tremendous force, flew sideways and slammed heavily into the stone wall on one side, buried under falling boulders.

As soon as Han Li landed, he exerted force with both arms and tore the purple giant tiger in two.

Something unexpected happened!

The torn purple giant tiger, though its form scattered, did not dissipate its energy. Instead, it transformed into a vast cloud of purple mist that rolled over and enveloped Han Li.

The purple mist emitted a strange, rich fragrance that possessed an eerie power to captivate the soul and erode a cultivator's mind.

"Brother!" Liu Le'er, watching from afar, couldn't help but cry out in alarm.

"Heh heh, what use is a strong physical body? Under Elder Lu's Soul-Eating Ghost Mist, you'll..." Not far away, the skeleton reassembled into a pink skeleton, trembling as it stood up, letting out a sneer.

But before it could finish, a heart-wrenching roar came from the top of a stone pillar above.

The purple-bearded man had tumbled down from the stone pillar, writhing in agony on the ground, while the ancient purple-bronze lamp rolled to the side.

The mist formed by the purple giant tiger trembled and dissipated, revealing Han Li's figure. With a casual wave of his hand, the ancient purple-bronze lamp blurred and flew into his grasp. After a brief inspection, he nonchalantly stored it in his储物袋.

At the same time, with a flash of crystalline light, a slender crystal thread shot out from the purple-bearded man's head, curled back, and re-entered his brow.

Then, turning his gaze, he said calmly toward the tall archway on the left:

"What, still haven't found a chance to ambush?"

As his words fell, a figure flashed out from behind the archway and swiftly retreated into the distance—it was the one-eyed giant who had yet to make a move.

Now, he was covered in a bone armor studded with spikes, holding a single-handed, blood-red crystal axe that radiated formidable power, clearly a top-grade magic treasure of no small might.

But after steadying himself, the man only looked at Han Li warily, with no intention of charging into battle.

He had just witnessed Han Li, in almost a single exchange, beat three Body Integration cultivators into utter helplessness, and from start to finish, he felt there was no opening to strike.

This feeling of powerlessness against an opponent was something he hadn't experienced in countless years.

Seeing him appear, Han Li withdrew his gaze, turned, and unhurriedly walked toward a ghost archway ahead, lifting his legs as if nothing had happened.

From the changes in the folds of his robe, it was clear that the gravity of the blood sea禁制 still pressed heavily on him, but though his pace was slow, he did not seem to be struggling much.

Reaching the archway, he examined its pillars, then suddenly bent down, wrapped his arms around one pillar, and with a sudden burst of strength from his waist and arms, he heaved upward.

The entire ground shook with a rumble, and the giant ghost head on the archway seemed to show a flicker of human-like terror in its eyes!

The whole archway swayed, rising higher and higher, until it was finally pulled out of the ground by him.

Once free of the earth, the giant ghost head let out a mournful cry, and then the entire archway flashed with black light, suddenly shrinking into a black token that fell into his hand. Meanwhile, the blood sea illusion covering several hundred zhang in radius churned violently and shrank considerably.

Han Li put away the token and walked toward another archway...

By now, the hunchbacked old man and the purple-bearded man had gotten up, and the beautiful woman who had transformed into a pink skeleton had also returned to her original form.

The four Heavenly Ghost Sect Body Integration cultivators stood in four corners of the valley, watching helplessly as Han Li collected the ghost archways that formed the Earth Ghost Soul-Suppressing Formation one by one. Their faces were filled with complex emotions, but none of them made a move to stop him.

Everyone remained silent, as if waiting for something.

Half an incense stick later, as Han Li put away the last black token, he suddenly raised an eyebrow, a hint of surprise flashing across his face.

"Finally here."

He muttered to himself, then suddenly opened his mouth and spat outward.

With a whoosh!

A vast expanse of black flame rolled out—it was precisely the demonic flames he had inhaled earlier.

These demonic flames soared into the sky, gathered in the air, and condensed into four cartwheel-sized fire clouds, which twisted and deformed, instantly transforming into four several-zhang-long black fire pythons that lunged at the one-eyed giant and the other three.

The four were greatly alarmed and hastily summoned several defensive treasures of various types, conjuring layers of protective shields around themselves.