The Black Blood Blade

Hearing Han Li's confident words and seeing him take out a cyan talisman and sit down with his eyes closed, Chen Qiaojian and Zhong Weiniang also silently pulled a red and a yellow talisman treasure from their storage pouches and began to sit cross-legged, activating them as well.

Chen Qiaojian's fellow apprentice and Song Meng exchanged a bitter glance. The two of them had no personal talisman treasures of their own. Although Chen Qiaojian's fellow apprentice had a blue talisman treasure left by his Dao companion, he had just acquired it and did not understand its abilities or effects well, so he naturally would not risk using it half-prepared. As for Song Meng's gray spear talisman treasure, its power had been completely exhausted after the battle with the Ice Fiend.

Thus, the two simply stood dryly beside Han Li and the others, serving as their protectors.

At this moment, the imprisoned Yue Sovereign in the sky seemed to realize that blindly crashing about like a headless fly was not a solution. He halted his figure, floating motionless in the air, and lowered his head in contemplation.

A moment later, the Yue Sovereign suddenly raised his head. With a ferocious expression, he tore off his golden crown. His long black hair scattered loosely, blowing in the wind and covering half his face. Set against the blood light around his body, it made him appear even more eerie and mysterious.

He took a deep breath. Suddenly, he used his sharp nails to cross and slash across his wrists. A massive amount of blood gushed out, all merging into the blood light around his body. The bright red blood light abruptly dimmed, instantly shifting to a dark red hue.

The nauseating stench of blood, even from such a distance, reached Song Meng and the others. Their expressions changed slightly, but they had no recourse and could only bitterly watch as the enemy continued his spellcasting.

Seeing that the color of the surrounding blood light had finished transforming, the Yue Sovereign opened his mouth and sprayed two streams of red qi onto his wrists. With whatever spell this was, the two deep wounds immediately stopped bleeding, gradually fading from red until they disappeared. However, the Yue Sovereign's complexion was noticeably paler.

Then, a ruthless light flashed across his face. He reached into his bosom and pulled out a bare, pitch-black sword hilt. This hilt was not large, about half a foot long, but it was dull, worn, and extremely inconspicuous.

Yet the Yue Sovereign held this object with a look of extreme caution, as if this thing were not a lifeless object, but something exceedingly dangerous.

His eyes fixed on the sword hilt, he began to softly chant an incantation.

The incantation was not loud, and it was astringent and difficult to understand, but buried within that extremely slow sound was a vague, ancient aura that spread out, instantly giving one a feeling of bygone antiquity.

“What is he doing?” Song Meng, watching this scene from afar, was greatly alarmed and could not help but ask.

“I don’t know. He might be executing some powerful spell,” his fellow sect member, who also could not understand the incantation, replied with some worry.

Although neither of them knew the enemy's intent, seeing him draw blood through self-harm made it clear the Yue Sovereign was desperate and preparing to fight to the death.

Just as Song Meng and the others were feeling uneasy, the rhythm of the incantation from the Yue Sovereign's mouth quickened considerably. That ancient aura grew even denser.

A red light flashed in the Yue Sovereign’s eyes, and a shocking scene occurred.

The sword hilt suddenly erupted in a burst of black light amidst the incantation. Wrapped in the black light, it floated into the air on its own, rising to about a foot above his head before hovering motionless.

Seeing this, the Yue Sovereign grew even more cautious. His hands formed one strange hand seal after another with practiced ease, causing strands of black blood threads to emerge from the blood light around his body. As soon as these blood threads appeared, they automatically drifted rapidly toward the sword hilt.

At first, only one or two or a few strands appeared, but soon, the blood threads began to emerge by the dozen, by the score, and even by the hundreds from the blood light. They all rushed toward the sword hilt like moths to a flame.

In an instant, the sword hilt was tightly wrapped by the dense black blood threads, so thick that wind and rain could not penetrate. After a bout of squirming, they coalesced into a sizable lump of filthy blood.

The sword hilt was completely wrapped within it.

Looking closely at this filthy blood, it was black tinged with red, emitting a strange, eerie light. Upon seeing it, one felt a bizarre sensation as if their soul were being drawn into it—extremely uncanny.

Yet the Yue Sovereign, who was still forming hand seals, showed a look of delight upon witnessing this.

He was just about to scatter the hand seals and employ another method when the black blood, which had stopped squirming, suddenly erupted with dazzling black light. It began to writhe violently once more, rolling and swelling, appearing extremely unstable.

Seeing this, the delight that had just appeared on the Yue Sovereign’s face vanished, replaced by a look of terror.

He hurriedly turned his head to look around. When he turned back to look at the blood mass, the fear on his face deepened.

But then, a resolute expression crossed his face. With a low growl, he spat out a few heavy incantation syllables. Then, he fiercely bit his own tongue, spraying a mouthful of filthy blood, along with a small piece of his tongue tip, directly onto the constantly deforming blood mass.

The black blood mass absorbed these foreign elements, immediately ceasing its deformation. The dazzling light also dimmed.

Seeing this, the Yue Sovereign, still not reassured, rapidly formed over a dozen hand seals as fast as a windmill, throwing them all onto the mass. With this, the last bit of light on the blood mass also dissipated.

Only then did the Yue Sovereign heave a great sigh of relief. After spitting out that mouthful of essence blood, his face had suddenly aged by over a decade, looking haggard beyond compare.

But he paid no attention to anything else now. With a casual wave, a considerable portion of the blood light on his body pounced onto the blood mass. At the same time, his low voice sounded again, though his speech was somewhat slurred due to the missing tongue tip.

Then, the black blood mass, covered in an outer layer of blood light, gradually began to deform and elongate. After his final incantation ended, it revealed the pitch-black sword hilt once more, having transformed into a true long blade whose blade was composed of black blood, exuding astonishing blood energy.

Seeing this blade, a fanatical look appeared on the Yue Sovereign’s face.

Without further hesitation, he reached out, grabbed the hilt, and held it in his hand. He casually swung it a few times, showing no apparent power, yet he wore a look of immense satisfaction.

Taking a deep look at the blade, the Yue Sovereign let out a spirited, long howl, full of vigor. Then, he transformed himself and the blade into a massive ball of blood light and charged downward toward the bamboo grove, causing Song Meng and the others, who had been watching closely, to become extremely tense.

At that moment, Han Li, who had been sitting with his eyes closed, opened them. His gaze was cold as he stared at the blood mass descending from above.

Earlier, even though he had been channeling the talisman treasure in his hand, Han Li, relying on his powerful divine sense, had been fully aware of the opponent's every move.

However, the moment that black blood blade took shape, the strand of divine sense Han Li had been circulating nearby was forcibly pulled toward the black blood blade, showing signs of being completely devoured. This greatly alarmed Han Li. He hurriedly withdrew his divine sense, pulling it back with all his might. Fortunately, this absorbing force was merely a property of the blade itself, not directed by the Yue Sovereign. So, he managed to escape easily and quickly return the divine sense to his own body.

Even so, it had sent a cold sweat down Han Li’s back. If his divine sense had truly been absorbed by this evil blade, he had no idea what terrible consequences might follow!

Though Han Li now knew the blade's fearsome power, he was even more confident in this hastily arranged “Reversed Five Elements Grand Formation.”

After all, that Core Formation cultivator, Lei Wanhe, had said that even breaking the original, unimproved “Reversed Five Elements Formation” was no easy task. Now, with this set of new, more powerful formation tools, although it was not fully deployed, he absolutely did not believe an enemy at the Foundation Establishment stage could break this formation in a short time.

Therefore, even though his eyes were open, he remained completely calm inside.

Just as these thoughts were turning in Han Li’s mind, the blood light around the Yue Sovereign had already collided with the five-colored radiance. An immense creaking pressure sound was heard. The radiance easily held him at bay.

But the Yue Sovereign, already prepared for this, revealed a sinister smile. He clenched the black blood blade tightly with both hands and viciously swung it down at the radiance.

A sharp howl came from the blade. Then, a skyward black flash erupted. The blade had unleashed an astonishing black blade light over ten zhang long. With a tearing sound, the radiance was truly split open into a large section, revealing a passage about a zhang wide.

Seeing this, the Yue Sovereign was overjoyed. Without any hesitation, he flashed and charged right in. At the same time, the black light in his hands flashed incessantly, and he had actually charged straight into the radiance.

“Ah! What do we do now?” Song Meng exclaimed in panic.

The other person, though silent, was equally anxious, his face full of worry.

“Don’t panic. That radiance was only the first layer of defense. My grand formation is not so easily broken,” Han Li's faint voice sounded in their ears at that moment. This immediately brought a look of joy and calm to their faces.

Nevertheless, they were also quite astonished. This Junior Fellow Apprentice Han, even while activating a talisman treasure, had the spare energy to transmit sound. He was truly formidable!

At this point, the Yue Sovereign had already broken through over ten zhang of the radiance layer in a few strokes, clearly seeing the Yellow Maple Valley group below, including Han Li and the others driving their talisman treasures.

A dark, sinister smile spread across his face. With a flash, he first appeared a few zhang above Han Li’s head. Lightly swinging the black blood blade in his hand, a blade light over ten zhang long came chopping down toward his head.