The Taizhen Seven Cultivators and the Yin-Yang Twin Demons joined forces against the Mulan Sacred Bird, but after just a short while, they found themselves at a disadvantage once again.
The Twin Demons were faring relatively better. The Ghost Dao techniques they cultivated were extraordinarily bizarre, and the combined corpse qi and yin winds they unleashed still allowed them to barely hold their own amid the azure flames.
But the Taizhen Seven Cultivators, already severely depleted of Magical Power, finally began to crumble.
Two of the elders among them were in especially dire straits — one had a flushed crimson face with his spiritual light flickering erratically between dim and bright, while the other was pale as paper, wisps of white qi flickering unsteadily between his nose and mouth.
This was clearly the result of excessive spiritual energy consumption, to the point where they had even resorted to secret arts that burned their latent potential.
Han Li furrowed his brow, glancing at the cultivators locked in fierce battle before him, then looking toward the woman surnamed Le, who stood guard beside the ancient lamp without stepping away for even a moment.
"Keep an eye on the Soul-Wailing Beast. Don't let anything happen to it. If it's truly in danger, take it back first. Here — borrow the Spirit-Humming Bead for now. I'm going to destroy that ancient lamp." Han Li spoke in a voice so low it was nearly inaudible, his tone calm.
Then, with a flick of his hand, he tossed a blackish-gray bead behind him.
A faint white light flickered, and the bead vanished without a trace.
"Yes! Master, please be careful. That peacock's powers are truly formidable." From the empty space behind Han Li, Silver Moon's worried voice sounded.
Han Li nodded with his usual expression. Once he confirmed that no one nearby was paying attention, his figure blurred and he vanished from where he stood.
The nameless Qi Refining technique Han Li had learned from the beast race might be far inferior to Silver Moon's innate escape arts when it came to concealment and hiding. However, in terms of suppressing qi and concealing his breath, it was second to none.
He pushed the nameless technique to its absolute limit, not only compressing every wisp of his spiritual energy so that nothing leaked out, but forcibly restraining even the aura his body naturally radiated.
The people he needed to deceive now were not merely the woman surnamed Le — they included the Mulan Sacred Bird, whose cultivation was unfathomably deep.
In the distance, the woman surnamed Le saw that the withered old man and the others had been entangled by Long Han and his fellow cultivators, and a hint of anxiety crept onto her face.
Though she still remained by the ancient lamp without leaving, she turned her head and shouted several sentences in the ancient tongue toward the giant bird on the other side. A pleading expression flickered across her features.
The spirit beast bird — still spewing azure flames — paused briefly upon hearing her words.
Then it craned its neck, casting a sidelong glance at the battle where the withered old man and the others fought. A trace of contempt appeared in its avian eyes.
It immediately turned back, spewing several more mouthfuls of azure flames downward, forcing the Taizhen Seven Cultivators and their allies into yet another frantic scramble. Only then did it let out a clear cry and spread its wings to soar high into the air.
After circling once, the bird lightly shook its iridescent tail feathers in the direction of the old man.
Massive quantities of azure feathers shed from its body, then shimmered with light and transformed into hundreds of azure firebirds, each about a foot long.
These hundreds of firebirds needed no one to command them. After a burst of chirping, they spread their wings and shot toward the withered old man and his companions.
The woman surnamed Le's heart finally settled at the sight.
With the aid of these conjured spirit birds, the old man's side would surely be fine. Victory was only a matter of time!
Just as the woman's tension began to ease —
A thunderous rumble erupted from the center of the battlefield.
The woman surnamed Le looked toward it in alarm.
Han Li, who had just emerged from concealment and was cautiously approaching the woman's vicinity, also looked over in surprise at the sound.
At the center of the battlefield, another crucial confrontation was underway.
There, the Myriad Soul Formation — jointly driven by dozens of Ghost Spirit Sect disciples — had finally stopped. The ghostly mist it produced hung motionless in the air.
Blocking the path of the ghostly mist was a Void Spirit Beast conjured by several Mulan Grand Masters working in concert — a colossal stone giant that seemed to reach the heavens.
This puppet-like stone colossus, under the command of the Mulan Masters, had already crushed the other Heavenly South cultivators who had been attacking it. With no other enemies nearby, it naturally turned its attention to the Ghost Spirit Sect disciples hiding within the Myriad Soul Formation.
And the thunderous rumble just moments ago had been this stone giant, driven by the Mulan spellcasters, slamming its palm down toward the ghostly mist.
Before the palm even arrived, countless millstone-sized boulders tumbled from between its five fingers.
Even the Ghost Spirit Sect disciples inside the Myriad Soul Formation, however much faith they placed in their protective array, absolutely did not dare take those boulders head-on. They immediately howled in unison and steered the ghostly mist aside to dodge.
But after shooting several dozen zhang away, they stopped once more.
By now, the battle between Heavenly South and Mulan had reached a critical juncture — both spellcasters and cultivators understood that this was the decisive moment. And so, a Ghost Spirit Sect Elder presiding over the Myriad Soul Formation deliberated only briefly before deciding to deploy the formation's killing trump card at any cost.
Before the stone giant could close in again, a low chanting rose from within the ghostly mist — the voices of the Ghost Spirit Sect cultivators chanting in unison. A piercing, mournful scream rang out from within, and a column of blood-red light shot skyward from the mist.
Then, as if infected by contagion, the sinister dark mist suddenly turned a vivid, bloody red under the chanting.
The two Mulan Masters standing atop the stone giant's shoulders exchanged glances, both revealing expressions of shock and suspicion.
Moments later, the chanting came to an abrupt halt.
Then the blood-red mist churned violently, and dozens of escape lights in various colors burst from within, fleeing for their lives.
These were the Ghost Spirit Sect cultivators.
This development left the two Mulan spellcasters completely bewildered.