The Gold Devouring Beetles Unleashed

Han Li was taken aback the moment he saw the skull. It instantly reminded him of the Ghost Spirit Sect among the Six Demonic Sects.

The disciples of the Ghost Spirit Sect also used skull-shaped magical tools when fighting enemies. However, their tools were merely lifeless objects—nothing like this black skull before him, which was so vivid and lifelike it seemed to possess a will of its own.

While Han Li was still processing his surprise, the three black banners had already shot forward.

Jian let out a loud shout and pointed into the distance. The three banners immediately sprayed out a dense net of black threads, crisscrossing into a massive fishing net that descended upon the skull opposite.

The black threads were extremely fine, glistening, and wrapped in faint black qi—clearly no ordinary objects.

The moment the skull saw the black threads shooting toward it, red light flickered in its hollow eye sockets. Then its jaw worked silently for a moment before it suddenly opened wide, and a torrent of碧绿磷火 (emerald ghost-fire) surged out from within.

As the tens of thousands of black threads made contact with this ghost-fire, it was as if they had met their natural predator—they ignited instantly and rapidly turned into wisps of green smoke.

Seeing this, Jian's expression shifted dramatically. He hastily formed a hand seal to drive the banners into another technique.

But the black skull suddenly expanded to the size of a carriage wheel. Then, with a single inhale and exhale, a gray rainbow shot out from its mouth, circled the three banners once, and swept them into the skull's gaping maw.

The skull's upper and lower jaws then clamped down with force. With a series of crisp "crack crack" sounds, it chewed the banners into pieces.

At the same time, Jian's connection to the banners was severed completely. His face turned pale.

"Demon! You dare destroy my treasure!" Jian shouted in fury and shock, but a hint of fear flashed in his eyes.

Others might not know, but he knew very well—these three black banners were also Primordial Ancient Treasures! They had seen off countless powerful enemies. Yet today, in a single exchange, they had been destroyed in that bizarre skull's mouth.

At this point, the lightning flames that Hu Yue had released were also swallowed up by another skull, without any effect whatsoever.

Hu Yue and Jian exchanged a glance. Both were secretly considering retreat.

Han Li, too, was astonished.

He now realized that this eccentric man dared to challenge a group of Core Formation cultivators alone because he indeed had something to rely on. Not only did he possess numerous treasures, but each one seemed to have formidable powers.

It looked like if he didn't lend a hand, the others might very well suffer a complete defeat.

That was not a result Han Li wanted to see.

After all, he had spent months of painstaking effort on this grand formation and had no intention of letting someone else take it all away.

Furthermore, although Han Li wanted to conceal some of his abilities from the other cultivators, he had also been wanting to test the power of those "Gold Devouring Beetles" to see if they truly lived up to their ranking on the Strange Insect Ranking.

The eccentric man before him was clearly no ordinary Core Formation cultivator—he was the perfect target for such a test.

With this in mind, Han Li turned his gaze back to the battle.

He saw Hu Yue and the others flustered as they flew wildly through the air, constantly bombarding the two pursuing skulls with low-grade spells. It was obvious that they knew ordinary treasures were useless against such demonic objects and could only fall back to avoid their attacks.

As for Jin Qing's white seal treasure, it had lost its former authority. While it was entangled with the two flying swords, white qi from the basket had unexpectedly wrapped around it. The seal was being pulled bit by bit toward the basket, and cold sweat was streaming down Jin Qing's face.

As for Shi Die, who stood beside Qu Hun—she was only at Foundation Establishment and could only watch helplessly from the sidelines, unable to help at all.

Seeing this, Han Li took a deep look at the eccentric man. Without further hesitation, he flipped his hand, and a bulging spirit beast pouch appeared in his palm.

The eccentric man seemed to possess extremely strong spiritual sense, because the moment Han Li looked at him, he keenly detected it.

He immediately turned his head and glared viciously at Han Li. A flash of murderous intent crossed his eyes as he reached into his bosom, apparently about to retrieve another treasure to deal with Han Li.

Seeing this, Han Li naturally struck first.

He lightly tossed the spirit beast pouch into the air and made a single-handed gesture. A green spell light flew out and struck the leather pouch.

The pouch's opening instantly shook, ejecting dozens of spheres toward the eccentric man.

These spheres were about a foot in size, shimmering in silver and gold. The moment they appeared, they transformed into dozens of beams of light that shot toward the eccentric man.

Seeing this, the eccentric man sneered disdainfully. With a cold laugh, he pulled out a pitch-black dharma wheel from his bosom and, without a second thought, hurled it forward.

The object howled as it expanded several times in size, then spun as it rushed toward the spheres.

A series of "bang bang" sounds rang out. The moment the spheres made contact with the massive black wheel, they shattered into tiny specks of silver and gold light, as if they had been smashed to pieces.

"Ha, ha..." the eccentric man began to laugh wildly. He then pointed at the wheel, intending to send it flying toward Han Li.

But at that moment, a low buzzing sound suddenly arose. It grew louder and louder, becoming piercing and sharp. Everyone present was stunned and turned to look. The eccentric man, too, restrained his wild laughter, a look of shock flashing across his face.

The shattered remnants of the spheres had come to life. They transformed into several thousand thumb-sized silver and gold beetles, densely covering the area around the dharma wheel. The buzzing sound was the fluttering of their wings, and it was a terrifying thing to hear.

Han Li gave the eccentric man no time to recover. He flicked his divine sense, and instantly, all the Gold Devouring Beetles charged recklessly at the dharma wheel, painting it in gold and silver.

"Courting death!"

The eccentric man snapped out of his daze and quickly formed hand seals. The dharma wheel released waves of black mist and began to spin rapidly, trying to destroy these strange insects.

But what left the eccentric man dumbfounded was that the moment the black mist was released, the beetles swarmed forward, devoured it in a few bites, and left not a single trace behind.

As for the wheel's high-speed rotation—while it did fling some beetles away, even more immediately reattached themselves, seemingly unafraid of the wheel's sharp cutting edge.

Seeing this, the eccentric man's face showed alarm, while Han Li's heart swelled with delight.

In the blink of an eye, the dharma wheel visibly shrank from large to small, then from small to nothing, until the Gold Devouring Beetles had consumed it entirely. The buzzing sound rose once more.

The eccentric man's face turned slightly green.

Han Li did not stand on ceremony. With a point of his finger, the beetles transformed into a brilliant cloud of gold and silver vapor, surging toward the eccentric man.

Having already witnessed the power of these beetles, the eccentric man's face showed panic. He hurriedly waved his hand toward the two black skulls that had been chasing Hu Yue and Jian until they were drenched in sweat. The two demonic objects halted in their pursuit, flickered a few times, and flew back to stand protectively in front of the eccentric man, their forms even more grotesque than before.

Hu Yue and Jian, who had been given a moment to catch their breath, finally exhaled deeply and stopped at a safe distance, watching with some astonishment.

Still not fully reassured, the eccentric man's hand flickered, and a small, several-inch-long dagger appeared.

After a brief hesitation, a cruel expression crossed his face. Without hesitation, he raised the blade and brought it down, severing two of his own fingers.

The two skulls immediately flew over, each devouring one finger. Then they let out strange wailing sounds, as if greatly pleased.

The eccentric man's eyes glared wide. He then opened his mouth, and two streaks of black light shot into the skulls' forehead bones.

At once, the two black skulls began to writhe in painful groans, their forms starting to mutate.

With two "puff" sounds, goat-like horns sprouted from the tops of their heads. Then the fangs in their mouths extended several inches, appearing extremely sharp. Within a few breaths, their disheveled hair turned a blood-red color, and the skulls had fully transformed into ghost heads.

"Go," the eccentric man said, feeling somewhat relieved. Enduring the sharp pain from his severed fingers, he pointed at the approaching swarm of insects.

A strange green light flickered in his eyes. The ghost heads obediently transformed into two streaks of black light, letting out long, piercing howls as they flew toward the swarm.

The moment the Gold Devouring Beetles saw the ghost heads flying at them, Han Li directed them to split into two groups, each charging fiercely at one of the heads.

The skull, now transformed into a ghost head, opened its mouth wide. A stream of green ghost-fire, several times thicker than before, spewed forth and struck the leading group of beetles head-on, sending them into chaos and blasting them back several dozen feet.

The swarm fell into disarray.

A flicker of joy appeared on the eccentric man's face. But this joy lasted only a brief moment before vanishing without a trace.

Because the beetles that had been struck by the ghost-fire, after tumbling through the air a dozen times, simply righted themselves and took flight again, showing no sign of damage at all.

The eccentric man's face was now filled with disbelief.

This ghost-fire that the ghost heads spewed was碧渊鬼火 (Abyss Ghost-Fire), which was three times more potent than a cultivator's own flame—how could it not even burn a few insects to death?

However, although the ghost heads could do nothing to the Gold Devouring Beetles, the beetles were also temporarily unable to break through the ghost heads' fire, resulting in a stalemate.

The eccentric man's brow furrowed deeply. He began to think of other tactics.

But then, suddenly, a buzzing sound several times louder than before arose in the distance.

The eccentric man could not help but lift his head to look. His face instantly turned deathly pale, drained of all color.