Though startled by the opponent's bizarre transformation, Han Li quickly glanced behind him, a cold smile creeping onto his face.
The gray ghost shadow back there had already been devoured more than half. Only about a third of its ragged remains were left, clinging to life by a thread.
Even if he let it escape now, it would be gravely weakened—far too damaged to take part in any further fighting.
These Gold Devouring Beetles truly lived up to their ranking on the Strange Insects List. They devoured not only spiritual energy but spirits, ghosts, and fierce souls alike—all without the slightest discrimination. Utterly ferocious, though their feeding was a touch on the slow side.
While Han Li was still mulling this over, the tiger demon across from him—its human-faced tiger head having gone blank for a brief moment—suddenly lit up with the look of someone awakening from a deep dream.
It looked at Han Li in front of it, glanced at the other ghost shadow behind Han Li, and finally cast its gaze upon its own body. Then it let out a rasping, ear-splitting cackle—"Ga ga ga!"
The laughter started low, then grew louder and louder, swelling without cease as though it would never end. The sheer force of it sent the surrounding ghostly mist roiling and churning.
At first Han Li paid it little mind, watching the tiger demon's antics with cold detachment. But after a short while, his expression began to pale and a grave look settled over his features.
The tiger demon's eerie laughter not only failed to taper off as he had expected—it grew more powerful with every passing moment, its tone more resonant and thick.
Even with the Great Development Technique reinforcing his mind and soul, he felt the sensation of standing alone on a desolate plain while ten thousand thunders roared in both ears, threatening to overwhelm his senses.
This was bad!
Just as Han Li was carefully watching the creature across from him, something suddenly struck him, and his face changed dramatically.
He whipped his head around, his heart going cold.
The gray ghost shadow behind him had vanished without a trace.
And the ten thousand or so Gold Devouring Beetles lay scattered across the ground, listless and drained. Occasionally one would feebly flutter a wing, but none of them showed the slightest spirit they'd had when devouring the ghost moments ago.
Frustrated, Han Li hurriedly produced several spirit beast pouches and swept the half-dead beetles into them as fast as he could.
Then, enduring the ear-splitting laughter as best he could, he lifted his head and cast a quick glance at another area of combat.
What he saw surprised him briefly, then put him at ease.
Fairy Zi Ling and the black-robed man were locked in a fierce battle with a horde of ghosts and monsters. The black-robed man, having lost the power of his magical treasures, was far superior in cultivation to these evil spirits, but due to the nature of his technique, he couldn't gain any decisive advantage.
As for Fairy Zi Ling, there was even less to say—she was using a rectangular stone stele to shelter herself inside a barrier of light, focusing solely on self-preservation.
Neither of them seemed to be affected in the slightest by the eerie laughter.
That struck Han Li as peculiar.
But after a moment's thought, he understood the reason.
Clearly, the spirit-bound two-headed creature had restricted the power of its laughter to a small area, which was why it concentrated such terrifying force. Even the Gold Devouring Beetles, whose bodies could withstand even magical treasures, couldn't take it and had been shaken off the ghost shadow in droves.
On one hand, that was because the spirit insects hadn't finished evolving yet. On the other hand, it spoke volumes about the sheer power of the laughter.
If not for the Great Development Technique's miraculous effect of calming the spirit and stabilizing the soul, he probably would have gone limp and surrendered without a fight during that bout of laughter!
The more he thought about it, the more alarmed he became. Han Li was now certain that the monster before him, even if it hadn't reached the Nascent Soul stage, was absolutely no weaker—and likely stronger—than a cultivator at the late Core Formation stage.
Could this be what they called a Ghost King? Han Li couldn't help but wonder.
Just then, the monster across from him—having watched Han Li standing calmly and unmoved through the laughter—finally stopped. All four of its sinister eyes locked onto him at once.
The intensity of that gaze made Han Li's skin crawl, but he narrowed his eyes and met the creature's stare head-on.
It was at that moment that the tattered gray ghost shadow darted out from behind the monster, shooting straight toward the two-headed creature without a moment's hesitation.
Han Li froze, his eyes flickering with uncertainty.
The ghost shadow was already in this state—why had it come back instead of fleeing far away? What was the meaning of this?
While Han Li was puzzling over it, something utterly unexpected happened.
A strange light flashed in the twin-headed tiger demon's eyes. It reached out, seized the gray ghost shadow in one claw, then opened the black tiger head's massive maw and, in a few quick bites, swallowed the entire ghost shadow whole.
Han Li stared at the scene, utterly astonished.
But what happened next immediately cleared up all his doubts.