The two ebony hammers soared into the air, but instead of smashing toward the mid-stage Demonic General again, they flew high above and slammed into each other.
"Boom!"
With a tremendous crash, the nearby mountain peaks and the very earth shook violently. Then, from the point where the two ebony hammers collided, a thick bolt of lightning struck down toward the center of the characters below.
The mid-stage Demonic General was busy dodging the characters assailing him from all directions. Hearing the loud bang and seeing the lightning bolt strike down toward the crown of his head, he let out a cold snort.
"You're also a spent force!"
He swung the Heaven-Splitting Axe in his hand, which was covered in runes, in a wide arc. Wherever the axe passed, it sent the characters flying, and his body trembled violently from the impact. For a moment, many of the scattered characters blocked the path of the descending lightning.
The mid-stage Demonic General could see the fatigue on Wei Zhongran's face. He and the other Demonic General had been besieging him together, and Wei Zhongran had to be careful every moment. The toll on his magical power, mental energy, and other aspects was immense. To try and keep him here now was nothing more than a stalling tactic.
As long as he could hold out until Mo Qing and the others returned, that would be when his real moment of danger arrived. But how could he let him get his way?
These characters falling from the sky were preventing him from making a quick escape, but after being attacked, they had also shifted position and blocked that massive lightning bolt for him.
The next moment, the massive lightning bolt struck a dozen or so characters with a "crackle." These characters were instantly obliterated, revealing a clear space above the mid-stage Demonic General's head.
The mid-stage Demonic General was an experienced fighter. Seeing this, his heart leaped with joy. This was exactly the situation he needed. His figure blurred, and in an instant, he appeared to the side of the lightning, right where a gap was spreading open.
However, before he could flash out and escape, the characters in the gap, which had already dissipated, reappeared and instantly linked together to form a curtain of light.
"Not good!"
The mid-stage Demonic General's Divine Sense had clearly felt those characters being scattered and disappearing by his attack. This light curtain had appeared silently; he had never expected that it was just another method for Wei Zhongran to activate the characters.
The mid-stage Demonic General had already calculated his escape route, so when he saw the characters disappear, his speed of escape was astonishingly fast. As a result, he only had time to raise one arm and strike the light curtain. Demonic Qi surged from his palm as he slapped the light curtain above his head.
"Dong!"
With a muffled thud, the light curtain formed by the characters bulged high, and its light dimmed rapidly. The mid-stage Demonic General was overjoyed. Just as he was about to use the Heaven-Splitting Axe in his other hand to cut another path, the massive lightning bolt in the sky erupted with a blinding blue light, making it impossible to look at directly. More characters from the surroundings, as if drawn by a magnet, swarmed over in an instant and merged into the light curtain at the dimmed gap.
The mid-stage Demonic General felt a heavy pressure on his hand. Although this force couldn't cause him much harm, and he could definitely break through if he continued to attack for another breath or so, he had already discovered that after the lightning exploded with blinding light, the characters of various colors all around and beneath him were swarming toward him like sharks that had smelled blood.
How could he dare to continue breaking through in this direction? He immediately withdrew his power, intending to retreat.
However, a sharp glint flashed in the distant Wei Zhongran's eyes. He extended a hand, formed a sword finger, and pointed sharply at the sky. A streak of green light struck the point where the dual hammers, still hovering in the air, were joined.
Almost instantly, the heads of the dual hammers pressed against each other and began to rotate rapidly in one direction. This, in turn, caused the lightning bolt below to rotate as well, immediately forming a blue pillar of wind.
As the rotating blue pillar of wind formed by the lightning spun, an incomparably strong suction force emanated from the light curtain below.
Although the mid-stage Demonic General reacted extremely quickly and was about to fly away the moment he realized it would take time to break the light curtain, it was already too late. The next moment, his hand was sucked into the blue pillar of wind, and his entire body was pulled up with it.
"Break for me!" the mid-stage Demonic General roared, his demonic qi soaring to the heavens.
"Bang!"
The violently churning demonic qi around his body exploded, sending the gathering characters of various colors flying in all directions. Many of the characters were blasted to pieces as they tumbled through the air.
At the same time, the Heaven-Splitting Axe in the mid-stage Demonic General's other hand, which had been aimed at the light curtain, flew from his grasp and transformed into a monstrous black beast. The beast's body was like a long flood dragon, but it was covered in sharp spikes. Its head resembled that of a black-armored longhorn beetle, and its scythe-like giant teeth on either side of its lips gnashed toward the rapidly rotating pillar of lightning. It intended to sever the rotating pillar of lightning directly.
A portly figure also appeared in an instant next to the whirlwind of light, seemingly oblivious to the attack of the black monster.
Wei Zhongran's long robe billowed around him, giving him a majestic and powerful aura. A series of crisp sounds, like stir-frying beans, erupted from his joints.
"Heh!"
He exhaled sharply. A small golden drum suddenly appeared in front of him. At the same time, he held a drumstick in his hand and, quick as lightning, struck the surface of the drum.
With his loud shout, the drumstick struck down heavily, but strangely, not a single sound was heard.
However, the mid-stage Demonic General, who was in the middle of casting a technique, shuddered violently as if struck by lightning. He felt his internal organs suddenly contract, as if they had been seized and yanked forcefully. He couldn't help but let out a muffled groan, and the hand seal he was forming faltered. The monstrous beast, which had just managed to bite down on the rotating pillar of lightning, also paused and stopped in mid-air.
Wei Zhongran quickly raised the drumstick again and struck down fiercely once more.
Although it was only two strikes, the veins on Wei Zhongran's forehead bulged prominently. Even with his abundant magical power, it was clearly an extremely strenuous effort.
The mid-stage Demonic General had not yet recovered from the first blow. With Wei Zhongran's second strike, his head felt as if it were splitting apart. He couldn't help but let out a low roar, his muscles bulging. His face twisted in agony!
Wei Zhongran raised his arm for a third time, but now his body was also trembling violently, his arm feeling as heavy as a thousand jin. Blood was already trickling from the corner of his mouth. However, at this moment, his eyes had lost all their usual gentleness and had become incomparably ferocious.
If Li Yan and his other disciples were to see this, they would never believe that this was their usually gentle and kind Master.
Another heavy strike of the drumstick fell.
With a "hiss," Wei Zhongran's own long robe disintegrated into countless fragments, leaving only a set of tight-fitting underclothes.
"Bang!"
With the third fall of the drumstick, the mid-stage Demonic General's proud and powerful physical body instantly disintegrated. His heart, liver, intestines, and other organs, along with countless fragments of flesh and bone, exploded into a mist of blood in the air.
Then, a streak of golden light flashed and fled into the distance. With another flash, it disappeared into the void. It was a two-inch-tall Nascent Soul figurine, looking exactly like the mid-stage Demonic General. But at this moment, tears of blood were flowing from the Nascent Soul figurine's eyes, and it could no longer see. Cracks had also appeared on its body, and its aura flickered between strong and weak, extremely unstable.
Seeing the opponent's Nascent Soul figurine disappear into the void, Wei Zhongran surprisingly did not give chase. Instead, he sat down in the void, clutching the small drum to his chest, his own chest heaving violently. He looked like a weary, fat merchant guarding a small golden drum, gasping for breath, too exhausted to move.
But in the next instant, a miserable scream came from a point in the void a thousand zhang away. The voice was clearly that of the mid-stage Demonic General.
Immediately, Wei Zhongran raised his head. The ferocious look in his eyes was gone, replaced by a gentle expression. All around him, numerous characters were still flying about. Beyond these characters, twenty-four "Gate" characters suddenly flashed into existence, linked one after another, sealing off all exits within a thousand zhang, above and below, left and right.
From one of these "Gate" characters, blood was spurting out.
"I told you to stay since you came. You still thought you could run!" Wei Zhongran said in a low voice.
At this moment, he was drenched in sweat, and his magical power was almost completely depleted. But he still extended his Divine Sense into that "Gate" character. After a few breaths, he finally let out a long sigh of relief.
"Pfft!"
Along with the sigh, he spat out a mouthful of blood.
Relying on these characters alone was not enough to keep the opponent. That was why he had to first severely injure him at all costs, trapping his physical body first, and then injuring his Nascent Soul at the cost of his own injury.
In the end, even if the opponent's Nascent Soul could instantly move a thousand li, it had first plunged headfirst into the "Gate" characters that he had already secretly set up to firmly surround the space above and below. This character-based technique, even when cast by Wei Zhongran's divine ability, could normally only trap an initial-stage Nascent Soul cultivator for a short time. But against a heavily wounded Nascent Soul, it was more than enough…
Li Yan, who was in pursuit, suddenly felt a slight tremor from the earth below.
'Senior Brother Mo has activated the Sect-Protecting Grand Formation. He intends to trap all these people here!'
He was too far away now, and his Divine Sense could no longer perceive the situation on the five peaks. However, he imagined that the five peaks had also activated their respective peak formations, enveloping the low-level disciples within. With the Sect-Protecting Grand Formation covering the area outside the five main peaks, these foreign enemies would be caught in an "interlayer." They could only hide outside the five peaks of the Malevolent Spirit Sect. But no matter how well you hide, once Mo Qing and the others recovered, they would use their Divine Sense to scan every inch of the area.
The demon cultivator ahead seemed to have sensed the activation of the grand formation as well, and his speed abruptly increased.
A thought stirred in Li Yan's mind. Once the Malevolent Spirit Sect's Sect-Protecting Grand Formation was activated, not even a Spirit Transformation cultivator could easily break it. These Nascent Soul stage enemies would be completely unable to get out without breaking the formation's restrictions. Moreover, with him and the others in hot pursuit, they wouldn't be given time to break it.
'Why are they fleeing so desperately? Their teleportation plate was destroyed by Martial Uncle Gu. Could they have another one? But if they did, they could have used it during their escape. Why haven't I seen them use it?'
Li Yan didn't quite understand the opponent's actions. After sensing the activation of the grand formation, they didn't turn back for a desperate fight to kill him and then find time to break the formation.
After thinking for a moment, Li Yan still decided against using "Phoenix Soars to the Heavens." Once used, his speed would more than double, but his magical power consumption would also increase exponentially. There wasn't much of the "Rongsun" liquid left, and Li Yan didn't want to waste it. However, he still urged his magical power, slightly increasing his speed.
The demon cultivator was stepping on a brown feather, which should have been refined from a wind-attribute material. His speed was also incredibly fast. The moment Li Yan sped up, the opponent's speed also increased sharply. It was clear that he too was burning through his magical power.
This demon cultivator knew that Li Yan was a poison cultivator. Once entangled by him, it would be very troublesome. He would certainly not let Li Yan get close.
And so, the two flew at high speed, soon covering another seven thousand li. The mountains here were overlapping, and the forests were dense.
The flying demon cultivator was suddenly thrown back by a powerful force. An invisible barrier had abruptly appeared in front of him. At the same time, a bright light flashed across the sky, and several arcs of electricity struck the demon cultivator's body with a "crackle." With the demonic qi swirling around him, he completely dissipated the electric arcs.
This wave of attacks did not injure the Demonic General, but he knew that if he forcibly attacked the grand formation, the subsequent counterattack from the formation would be even more intense.
Li Yan, who was following closely behind, had a sharp glint in his eyes. He knew they had reached the edge of the Sect-Protecting Grand Formation. With his magical power surging, he closed in.
The demon cultivator, who had just stabilized himself after being repelled, turned to look at Li Yan, his face surprisingly devoid of panic.
The moment Li Yan approached, a light flashed in the demon cultivator's hand, and a small gray stone block suddenly appeared.