Chapter 331

Chapter 331: Transforming the Golden Silk Ring Knife

The Male Fox asked the Female Fox, "How can we escape underground? Do you have a method?"

"With your high cultivation, if you don’t have any escape techniques, then just forcefully chop through the mountain! It’s just a small bug; can it really hold us back?"

"Very well. That brat nearly destroyed my ghostly treasures; this is rather strange. Even if he drilled into this big mountain, I will blast it to pieces! I won’t rest until I capture that brat."

Next, the two Ghost Foxes unleashed their ghostly treasures, hammering down from the mountain peak with a thunderous sound, causing the mountain to shake and crack without breaking.

"This mountain is surprisingly tough?"

"Doesn’t matter, attack again." The Male and Female Fox grew determined and repeatedly blasted down with dark light, failing to notice the faint, hazy mist rising around them, carrying a hint of sorrow and deep demonic intent.

Li Hui fell deep into the mountain, where the Yin-Yang Nine Heads transformed into a formation, black and white spinning, flipping the Yin-Yang to resist the Azure Sky Rock Worms as they "banged" against the barrier.

The heart of this mountain was hollow. Li Hui didn’t choose this place randomly; he sensed through his Ideal Body that a large number of Azure Sky Rock Worms resided within. After entering, the way the rock worms treated him indicated that he found the right spot—this clearly hid a nest of rock worms.

With the Cloud-Brush Dragon Claw Technique, he relied on the Nine-Yin Nine-Yang Flying Heads Ground Burial Great Array as a shield while he crazily collected the rock worms. As the rock mountain shook, even more worms surged forth.

"Collect, collect, collect!" Li Hui felt good. Outside, the two Ghost Foxes applied pressure, which indeed gave him a headache, but it didn’t dampen his excitement at the harvest.

The more rock worms he gathered, the greater the power and potential of the Azure Sky Jade Symbol Sword. He wasn’t just walking into a trap; he aimed to transform the Golden Silk Ring Knife. He wanted to force out the foundation left by the leader of the Jade Symbol Sect so he could completely seize ownership of this artifact.

If he didn’t seize it completely, using it wouldn’t feel secure!

At this moment, backed by the Yin-Yang Nine Heads and the power of the Nine-Yin Nine-Yang Flying Heads Ground Burial Great Array, Li Hui repelled wave after wave of Azure Sky Rock Worms. Even an ordinary practitioner at the Bosa stage would find it difficult to break through the formation, let alone these tiny bugs. As long as the worms crashed against the black-and-white barrier without success, they would suddenly halt or slow down, and no matter how formidable they were, they could not escape Li Hui’s claws.

Li Hui felt pleased, estimating he had captured around five thousand Azure Sky Rock Worms, so he simply sat down to focus on grinding ink.

He crushed the dragon blood bone fragments that had lost their dragon energy into shreds, mixing them into the Dragon Roost Treasure Ink. Then he took pieces of Xumi Bamboo and used tiny bits of blazing bear fire to burn them into charcoal gray, also adding them into the ink mixture.

His good mood gradually faded, and he felt the pain as he worked with the fragments of artifacts. Creating talismans from the Azure Sky Rock Worms was no easy task. Although the success rate for creating talismans had risen to around fifty to sixty percent now, the talismans he would draw next felt quite unfamiliar, and he was bound to face difficulties.

"Using the Azure Sky Rock Worms as a blank talisman base can be rewritten repeatedly even if it doesn’t succeed, but the consumption of rock worms that undergo ink immersion is still unimaginably high. Just think of how much wealth the silver snake bracelet saved me!" Li Hui felt a headache coming on. However, the pressing situation left him no choice.

He steeled his resolve and continued grinding the ink, needing to add dozens of precious media to blend; missing even one would not do. With the mountain trembling, the attacks from the Azure Sky Rock Worms never halted.

He began crafting the talisman and tried various methods, finally succeeding on the ninth attempt. After that, he gradually pushed the crafting further, with an impressive and fierce aura.

This talisman was called the Five Energies Returning Sword Talisman, which required at least nine patterns and three exotics; only after three sword ridge patterns appeared on the back of the talisman could it be truly effective. Even with Li Hui’s skills, he could only reach this level.

The Five Energies referred to the essence of the five internal organs, and here they could add substance to the Golden Silk Ring Knife, harmonizing with its original talisman formation. Of course, the main talisman formation was not as simple as harmonizing; it required forcibly breaking apart and reorganizing it to allow the Azure Sky Rock Worms to insert into it, thus cultivating sword energy.

Fortunately, the materials he used were nothing to scoff at, greatly improving the success rate.

After moving from unfamiliarity to proficiency, he began to accelerate rapidly, functioning at thirty times the time flow.

The Male Fox and Female Fox had paused their chopping midway as the mountain tremors suddenly came to a halt, leaving Li Hui feeling very puzzled!

In fact, the demon they had slain earlier was the son of the outer domain demon. After they dealt with the young one, the demon’s mother had stealthily arrived, and in an instant, the demonic power erupted, catching them off guard.

About two incense sticks later, the Golden Silk Ring Knife crackled with sound, creating a terrifying shockwave that knocked all the Azure Sky Rock Worms to the ground. The Yin-Yang Nine Heads suppressed inward, protecting its master from disaster as the makeshift Nine-Yin Nine-Yang Flying Heads Ground Burial Great Array crumbled in an instant.

Li Hui wiped away his cold sweat. He had anticipated backlash from the Golden Silk Ring Knife, so he had been one hundred times more cautious. However, he hadn’t expected the backlash to be this fierce.

This actually saved him the trouble of capturing more Azure Sky Rock Worms.

He withdrew the Yin-Yang Nine Heads, leaving the Golden Silk Ring Knife in place; he couldn’t touch it now as the backlash had just begun. He needed to find more Azure Sky Rock Worms to refine talismans to send in, only then could he control the secondary backlash.

Speeding along the stone cave, he made a large circuit and finally caught the mother worms while also gathering ten pieces of golden ore the size of water buffaloes.

"Turns out these Azure Sky Rock Worms love to eat Geng Gold; no wonder they became so sharp and cunning. I’ve stockpiled quite a bit here. They are not dead talismans, but living talismans that require continuous cultivation, and knowing what to eat will solve everything." Li Hui ran back to continue crafting talismans. Each time he successfully completed five hundred Five Energies Returning Sword Talismans, he immediately formed hand seals and tossed them toward the Golden Silk Ring Knife, watching as ripples surged across the knife’s surface, welcoming everything.

About two incense sticks later, the stone mountain trembled again.

The Female Fox cursed, "You worthless thing, how dare you use me as a shield! Speak up, how many fox spirits did you raise outside? Why are you in such a hurry to send me back? If it weren’t for my orders to capture Li the little ghost, I would have torn you apart!"

"Oh my lady, we are deeply in love; how could I use you as a shield? Look at my ears and see clearly the deep marks of demonic energy? I almost flipped over in the ditch, and my breath is still weak and unsteady. If I hadn’t been alert and made a decisive move to have you block that wave of attacks, could we have killed the demon? If she had managed to escape, what could we have captured?"

"Wrong is wrong; stop making excuses. You have sixty moments to deal with this stone mountain. Last time you secretly collected over a dozen black lotus seeds from the Demon Fury Black Lotus, did you think you could cover it up?"

"Ah! My lady is sharp; how did you know that?" The Male Fox had no choice but to obediently take out three black lotus seeds and spit them out.

"Bang, bang, bang…" The seeds ignited strange explosions, and dark flames soared outward like black lotuses. Although the sounds were not loud, the stone mountain cracked, and rock layers turned to dust and scattered.

Such a method made Li Hui’s heart race. When the stone fissures reached the mountain’s belly, he performed his Ideal Body and shot out of the mountain belly, unleashing a stunning blade of light hundreds of zhang away.

"Crack!" The two Ghost Foxes were stunned as the Male Fox’s body shattered into pieces, infuriating the Female Fox, but when she turned back to search for him, there was no trace of the little brat; he had already escaped by the skin of his teeth.