Chapter 407: Betrayal
“Go!” The middle-aged man uttered in a low voice. After forming an incantation gesture with his hands, the ghost head bared its fangs and fiercely charged towards Grandmaster Zenith Yin while screaming.
That same moment, Han Li and the others shot their magic tools and treasures at the Exquisite Sound Sect traitors.
Naturally, those at Grandmaster Zenith Yin’s side hadn’t resigned themselves to death and unleashed their own barrage of brilliant light. In the next moment, all kinds of magic tools and treasures intertwined with one another.
Zenith Yin indifferently glanced at the scene before turning towards the ghost head flying at him, revealing a cold smile.
He shot the two black fireballs in his hand towards it. After leaving his hands, the fireballs underwent a series of transformations until becoming inky snakes as thick as a thumb. Then with a woosh, they pierced into the ghost head’s mouth like an arrow.
The middle-aged man’s face suddenly paled, and he inwardly cried out in alarm.
The ghost head suddenly stopped and it began to swell before suddenly rupturing, releasing countless threads of black flame.
After the middle-aged man saw this, his complexion somewhat paled, but he immediately took in a deep breath and wore a resolute expression.
He slapped the back of his head with all his strength and a thumb-sized bead slowly emerged from his forehead. The bead was made of an exquisite pure white crystal and released a cold white aura.
After the bead fully emerged, the middle-aged man secretly transmitted his voice to Eccentric Scarletflame with a solemn expression, “Brother Scarlet, the old devil’s Heavenwide Corpsefire can only be restrained by the cold of an extreme Yin magic treasure. I’ll use the Dark Cold Bead to capture his attention while you find an opportunity to trap the old devil using your Water Sunflower Devilish Arts. This way, we’ll have a greater chance of victory.”
With a muffled grunt coming from the black cloud in response, the middle-aged man’s spirits were roused.
Without any hesitation, he opened his mouth and sprayed a mist of blood onto the bead, which began to spin and absorb the entirety of the blood mist. Its white aura contracted and expanded before transforming it into a huge, three-meter-wide silver sphere that shined with blinding light.
“OId Devil, I’ll show you the ferocity of my Dark Cold Bead that I refined from profound deep sea crystal!” The middle-aged man gazed at Grandmaster Zenith Yin with a malicious expression and grit his teeth.
Soon after, he pointed his hand towards the Dark Cold Bead and shouted, “Swiftly!” The silver light sphere swayed several times and released a clear hum before transforming into a white python with the thickness of a bowl. The python then fiercely pounced towards Grandmaster Zenith Yin.
“Yi!” Grandmaster Zenith Yin revealed slight astonishment! But soon after, his disdainful smile reappeared on his face. With a slight tremble of his shoulders, eight bowl-thick wisps of black Qi emerged from behind him.
The wisps of black Qi were extremely agile. As they floated in the air, they transformed into wolf type demonic beasts and charged towards the white python with bared fangs and claws.
The middle-aged man watched this with raised eyebrows and then loudly shouted as he continuously moved his hands. Streaks of multi-colored incantation seals flew from his hands and landed on the body of the white python.
The python’s eyes suddenly flashed with green light. It coiled its body and silently spouted out a thick white mist of ice, causing the the black mist wolves to disappear without a trace. Afterwards, the mist relentlessly continued to approach Grandmaster Zenith Yin.
Grandmaster Zenith Yin finally revealed some surprise. Still, he merely waved a hand in front of his body and summoned a thick black wall of light from the ground with a boom, blocking the white mist.
Seeing that the cold white mist had completely occupied Grandmaster Zenith Yin’s attention, the middle-aged man hastily sent a voice transmission towards Eccentric Scarletflame, “Brother Scarlet, act now!”
“Alright!” Eccentric Scarletflame responded without any hesitation.
A short moment after the middle-aged man’s roar, the black cloud quickly swelled and started to wildly roll before releasing deafening thunderclaps, bolts of lightning bursting underneath it.
“Eccentric Scarletflame, you...” The middle-aged man yelled out with an aghast expression before being enveloped in a hundred meters of inescapable black clouds.
At that moment, Eccentric Scarletflame cackled strangely. A huge black hand suddenly shot out from the cold white mist and grabbed ahold of the white python, causing it to disperse and return back into the form of a bead.
However, it still did its utmost to flicker without end while inside the large hand’s grasp as if it were unwilling to give up.
At the same time, the middle-aged man’s furious roar could be heard among the clangs of thunder, “Old Devil, Scarletflame! You bastards were working together!” His voice was filled with bitter resentment and regret.
“Humph! It was just that you were too stupid. Play with Scarletflame for now! I will take care of the others first before coming back to chat with you about the matters between a master and his disciple!” After indifferently speaking those words, the large black hand faded away to reveal Grandmaster Zenith Yin.
After giving a cold glance to the black cloud, he brought his gaze towards the Dark Cold Bead in his hand, opened his mouth, and spat a dull mist of black Qi over it. The stained bead immediately lost its brilliance and darkened.
Grandmaster Zenith Yin appeared content, and with a flip of his hand, the bead disappeared without a trace.
Despite the long description, Eccentric Scarletflame’s sudden betrayal and Grandmaster Zenith Yin’s disposal of the Dark Cold Bead had occurred in only the blink of an eye. However, these events had left the others dumbstruck even as they were on the verge of victory.
Fairy Violet Spirit revealed an even greater appearance of incredulity!
A majority of the cultivators immediately realized something. After exchanging a mutual glance, they immediately put away the magic treasures and tools they were using to suppress the traitors and scattered, fleeing without a word.
They weren’t idiots. Under the current circumstances, they would surely die without having their corpses intact. They scattered in every direction and left themselves to the mercy of fate. The quickest ones were obviously the Core Formation cultivators.
What was most astonishing was that Fairy Violet Spirit, Lady Fan, and Zhuo Ruting had made use of an unknown secret technique. Jointly making use of a stone tablet magic tool to turn themselves into a streak of tri-colored light no slower than the Core Formation cultivators.
As for the quickest among them, it was naturally the two that had slipped away first, Han Li and Crooked Soul. As soon as Eccentric Scarletflame betrayed the middle-aged man, Han Li and Crooked Soul had retrieved their magic treasures and wordlessly fled as streaks of green and yellow light.
Just as the other cultivators had thought to flee, Han Li had already fled over a hundred meters away. But when he turned his head to see what had resulted, Han Li was amazed and rejoiced at the sight.
Not all of the Hidden Fiend Sect’s Core Formation cultivators had fled. The four that had appeared with the middle-aged man had joined hands in a violent assault against Eccentric Scarletflame and Grandmaster Zenith Yin. With expressions of heart-chilling fury, they attacked without any intention of preserving their own lives, leaving the two devils flustered and unable to free themselves.
“Good! Good! I didn’t think that those people were actually your Fiend Core Doppelgangers. I will be sure to make them whole once more!”
This attack seemed to have greatly angered Grandmaster Zenith Yin and he abruptly laughed from rage. Suddenly, one of the four Core formation cultivators let out a miserable wail before he combusted into a ball of raging black fire and turned to ash.
Han Li felt his heart tremble and no longer dared to look, focusing instead on speeding forward on his Green Brilliance Dagger.
But still, he couldn’t help but look at Crooked Soul with a strange expression. After hearing the words, ‘Fiend Core’ and ‘Doppelganger’, the doubts clouding his mind had finally been cleared up.
He had originally suspected the Wu Chou’s “Great Profound Ying Technique” had some relationship with the “Profound Yin Scripture” contained inside the Emperor of Yue’s jade slip. Now, his suspicions had finally been confirmed.
As for why they were present in both the Heavenly South Region and the Scattered Star Seas, he reckoned they had been transported by an ancient transportation formation, most likely through the very one he had used.
Now that he thought about it, the rainbow skeleton beside the ancient transportation formation raised a huge question.
As for his earlier premonitions, Eccentric Scarletflame’s betrayal during the battle was far beyond what he had expected. His first fight after achieving Core Formation had ended up just like the difficult situations he had found himself in while he was in Foundation Establishment, leaving him with no choice but to flee for his life as before.
Feeling great bitterness in his heart, Han Li became beyond gloomy. However, he found this situation to be quite similar to when he had killed the Infant Carp Beast. It should’ve been a close battle between both sides, but in the end, traitors had appeared and ended up massacring their former allies.
With that in mind, he couldn’t help but recall the medallion engraved in the shape of a sinister ghost head. He felt that everything seemed to have a relation to it.
That was all that came to Han Li’s mind before his thoughts were interrupted by two wretched screams behind him, causing his heart to tense up.
As of current, he could only hope that Grandmaster Zenith Yin’s great arrogance would somehow allow him to escape as he hadn’t set up any contingency plans beforehand.
