When Yuan Yao and Yan Li saw the beautiful woman here, their faces drained of color in an instant.
"So it's two half-ghosts. No wonder you could walk through the restriction!"
The purple-armored general's origins were unknown, but after sizing the two women up, he had already seen through Yuan Yao and Yan Li's true nature. He promptly lost interest.
Then his gaze shifted, landing on Han Li.
In almost the same instant, Han Li felt a bone-chilling wave of spiritual sense sweep over him, as if trying to peer through him completely.
Han Li's brows furrowed slightly. He circulated the Great Development Technique within his body, immediately blocking out more than half of the other party's spiritual sense.
At the same time, he sent his own spiritual sense sweeping back at the general.
As a result, just as the purple-armored general let out another soft exclamation, Han Li's expression shifted as well.
This general's body was extraordinarily cold — it was not a flesh-and-blood body, yet neither did it contain any yin ghostly power.
After scanning the other two generals and the troop of blood-armored soldiers, Han Li found that apart from the strange beasts pulling the carriages, not one of them showed the slightest trace of life force.
"Puppets!"
The realization flashed through Han Li's mind, and the shock on his face was palpable.
Judging by the appearance of these puppets, they seemed to have already taken control of the ghosts in the Underworld River region — otherwise, how could the general have spoken as he just did?
Setting aside the blood-red armored soldiers behind the three generals, the three general puppets each possessed different auras, suggesting they had been possessed by beings of great power.
Mu Qing and the beautiful woman hadn't immediately attacked these puppets, clearly indicating that the puppets' strength was not inferior to the two women or those ghostly soldiers.
Otherwise, there would be no standoff like this — the puppets would have already been obliterated by the two women's formidable abilities.
As for Six-Limb and the Earth Blood Freak, they were nowhere to be seen. Combined with the fierce ghostly roars coming from within the mist, it seemed the two of them were still trapped inside and hadn't been able to break through and escape.
Han Li's thoughts raced rapidly as he considered all this.
"You two, come here!" Mu Qing suddenly beckoned to Han Li.
Even though Han Li was anything but willing, he had no choice but to activate his light and fly over, steeling himself.
"Junior greets the two seniors!" As soon as Han Li arrived before Mu Qing and the other woman, he cupped his fists and spoke respectfully.
"Fellow Daoist Han, wasn't Golden Spirit with you? Where is it now?" To Han Li's great surprise, Mu Qing didn't press him about their escape from the ghostly mist. Instead, she asked about the golden ape.
"This junior isn't sure either. Earlier, Brother Jin and this junior were separated when we were charged by ghosts in the mist." There was nothing to hide about this, so Han Li answered honestly.
"Separated?" Mu Qing's brows furrowed.
"Senior Mu, who are those people opposite us? Was the ghostly mist their doing?" Han Li swept a glance toward the puppet army across from them and asked slowly.
"Daoist Lan and I only just broke free from that mist. We were preparing to cast a spell to dismantle the entire restriction when these things swarmed us. We haven't had a chance to interrogate them properly yet. However, the last time we entered this place, we never saw anything like these. They must have come into the Underworld River region from outside, just as we did." Mu Qing also seemed somewhat puzzled.
"Outsiders!" Han Li's expression shifted.
"Fellow Daoist Han, you've no doubt noticed that what stands before us is an army of puppets. But they cannot be underestimated. Those three leading puppets are no ordinary beings — even if we personally engaged them, we couldn't be certain of truly destroying them." Mu Qing's voice grew heavier as she looked toward the other side.
Meanwhile, the white-haired beautiful woman didn't ask any questions of Yuan Yao and Yan Li, who had rushed back to her side. Instead, she stared at the three general puppets in the distance and asked coldly:
"I don't care what your true forms are. I'll ask you one more time — will you or will you not withdraw the restriction below?"
"Withdraw the restriction? Don't even dream of it! You outsiders dare trespass into the sacred ground of our Mayfly Clan and lay your hands on our sacred relic. The ones who broke in last time were also from your lot, weren't they? You almost succeeded too. This time, we won't let you leave this place alive." The purple-armored general's voice was cold and sinister.
"The Mayfly Clan!" The white-haired beautiful woman's expression changed dramatically. Beside her, Mu Qing's heart also skipped a beat.
Han Li, however, frowned — his mind held not a shred of information about this alien race.
"You know of our clan? Very well. If you surrender quietly, perhaps we can spare your lives. Otherwise, even if you manage to escape this time, our clan will send someone to erase you from the Spirit Realm." The purple-armored general sounded somewhat surprised, but his tone quickly turned grim.
Hearing the purple-armored general's threat, the white-haired beautiful woman and Mu Qing exchanged a glance, grave expressions appearing on their faces.
Then their lips moved slightly as they communicated through voice transmission.
The purple-armored general saw this and let out a cold laugh, making no move to stop them.
As the silent exchange continued, the white-haired beautiful woman's expression shifted between dark and light, while Mu Qing's delicate brows were tightly knit, her gaze flickering — she too seemed unable to make up her mind.
"You claim this is the sacred ground of the Mayfly Clan — but someone would have to believe that. Since when did the Mayfly Clan start cultivating yin ghostly power?" The white-haired beautiful woman countered.
"That's none of your concern! Did you really think the waters of the Underworld River surrounding this space appeared out of thin air?" The purple-armored general replied dismissively.