Chapter 486

Chapter 486: Sealing the Demon and Gathering Fire

Under the dark moon, ghostly shadows surrounded the eighty-one altars, with deep blue flames rising from their tops, lighting up and extinguishing batches of ghosts only for new ones to come. For three days and nights, the ghostly creatures charged at the altars in endless waves.

There were even more ghostly beings in the mountains as a ghost theater troupe arrived, performing lively music and dances, just missing a ghost king to oversee the festivities. This scene infuriated the Giant Armored Tribe, and two teams received orders to race across the vast grasslands to respond; two hours ago, they entered the mountains to engage in battle, routing the ghost theater troupe in disarray.

At this moment, Li Hui hid in a burrow, eating while drawing. He munched on Sunset Fruits, crunching them with gusto, while sketching grass leaves, having piled them three inches thick with symbols and talisman formations.

Xiuqiu complained, "You even use me for sketches; do you need to be so extravagant?"

"Ah! Don’t shout. I’m almost finished!" Li Hui exclaimed. In a short while, he had devoured over thirty Sunset Fruits. Reaching for the table, he realized that the last fruit he just ate had indeed been his final one.

“You’ve mentioned that many times already,” Xiuqiu sighed. "How unfortunate I am! You said you’d finish several hours ago, and here we are still in the same place."

Five hours passed, and immersed in his study, Li Hui felt time flew by. Finally, he straightened up and expressed a satisfied exclamation: "Excellent, hard work truly pays off!"

"Not good! This isn’t feasible; it’s too dangerous," the talisman brush floated up, trembling as it shook its brush tip.

"I can do it! Listen, moving things with the Legal form has its limits; the more items we have, the slower we go. We need to attract more ghosts. Only amidst sufficient chaos can I push forward with the little garden. To be honest, I’m not confident about using this thing to slip into the cave; I might not even make it inside. But as long as I do get in, I’ll smash the little garden toward the Fire Demon, needing to lay down the talisman formation to bind it. This formation won’t be hard to set up; what’s challenging is what follows."

"Exactly! The follow-up is the real danger!"

Xiuqiu added, "If the little garden breaks, the formation will try to siphon the time force from the roots of those plants toward the Fire Demon. But if even one beam of time force hits you, you’ll freeze in place. At that moment, we’ll need the Dragon Roar Whisker Symbol to pull you back. What if the preset Dragon Roar Whisker Symbol doesn’t work? The Fire Demon will definitely escape its restraints before you do. Besides, from your description, that Fire Demon has powerful spirit fire and divine fire that are not easy to handle."

"True, I need to design several self-rescue measures; I can’t have such a naive outlook," Li Hui redoubled his focus, continuing to refine his plans until two days later when he finalized every detail and was ready to launch the operation.

The wind howled, and ghosts howled…

The nearby mountains were in complete chaos, as ghostly beings from a five-thousand-mile radius were drawn in.

The Giant Armored Tribe knew someone was causing trouble, but despite their thorough searches, they couldn’t find a single clue. They sought guidance from Changsheng Tian, receiving vague hints that seemed distorted and interfered with by some unseen force.

Amidst the chaos, the silver snake Legal form advanced with the reduced-size little garden, moving very slowly. Flames flickered down from the altars multiple times, far stronger than they had been days ago. If it hadn’t been for Xiuqiu, who was secretly guiding the ghosts where they needed to go, Li Hui would have struggled to reach the cave’s entrance.

The silver snake Legal form employed Fire Escape, feeling exceptionally heavy.

"Enter now; success or failure depends on this moment," Li Hui strengthened his resolve and suddenly passed through the stone wall.

He faced the flames, and immediately the little garden expanded, reaching twenty zhang in length and width. The flames were fierce and caused the little garden to break apart, stones and soil flying everywhere while dazzling light erupted. At the same time, countless ripples danced, startling the Fire Demon into a retreat.

Want to escape? Too late!

Within a three-mile radius, everything froze in place; beyond three miles, things shook from the impact. The contrast between motion and stillness created an eerie scene.

The silver snake Legal form quickly fled, barely escaping the area of stillness before the time force seeped into the ground.

Several talisman flags shot off into the distance; they were Li Hui’s backups. He didn’t want things to be overly complicated. He needed to quickly gather the time force to enhance its suppression. The Dou Rate Divine Fire, soaring and formless, who knew what kind of talents it gained after becoming a demon? It might not be easy to trap the Fire Demon, as demons represent anomalies.

Soon, the time force began to settle and concentrate, with most of the things within three miles returning to normal. The Fire Demon’s flames surged dramatically, but unexpectedly, a multitude of dazzling treasure talismans rose nearby, stirring up the settled time force once more.

Li Hui had spent days diligently studying and discovered some characteristics of the time force. They originally should have belonged to a unified entity, but some high-level demon cultivator had forcibly divided and entwined them around the roots and stems of the plants, seemingly sealing them to prevent the time force from coalescing.

What transformation would the time force undergo after concentration? That remained unclear. However, they had differentiated for too long within the little garden, making it difficult for them to recombine. They could be used yet again.

Next, every time the time force settled, a treasure talisman would rise, repeatedly stirring the scattered time force toward the center. The Fire Demon proved to be extraordinary, even struggling in these circumstances and almost breaking free. Nevertheless, Li Hui had prepared thoroughly.

Two hours later, everything within five zhang of the Fire Demon was completely frozen.

"Hahaha, it worked!" Li Hui felt immensely pleased. Forgetting the Fire Demon’s true body, simply wearing the various spirit fires and divine fires as decorations amounted to dozens of types.

As the time force further condensed, there were no issues in the air. In fact, at that moment, if an outside force pulled the Fire Demon, it would immediately revert to normal. Li Hui wasn’t going to complicate matters for himself; he needed to weaken the Fire Demon’s power through talisman-making.

The silver snake Legal form tilted its head and spat out a jade token.

This jade token was red-black, crafted from the Jade Heart of black resin, rapidly growing to the size of a door panel. Depicted upon it were tens of thousands of talisman characters, gleaming like treasures, radiating light abundantly.

"Capture!"

The stormy clouds, like hooks, tugged at the Fire Demon’s adornments.

The adornments were about to take form, resembling small Fire Demons, equally fiery and volatile, poised to explode with destructive fury.

"Gather!"

In the critical moment, Li Hui pressed the demonized adornments onto the jade token.

The jade token glowed brightly, the talisman characters flickering and shining, managing to swallow the demonized spirit fires and divine fires, leaving only ripples that indicated their former existence.

"That was close!" After a wave of relief, Li Hui grew more cautious, preparing to act: "I can’t remove the boots, but I can cut off its golden fire hair and the ring on its finger."

In no time, the Fire Demon was nearing its transformation into a monk. Moreover, with the ring on its finger pressed onto the jade token, it unleashed thousands of spirit fires and treasure flames. Turns out, this ring served as a container for flames.

Cracks sprawled across the jade token’s surface, all the talisman characters shattered in an instant. As the edges and corners broke away, a brand-new jade token was revealed.

This jade token measured two feet long, one foot wide, and was palm-thick, appearing in a dark green-black color, with intricate talisman characters carved upon it. Golden flames suddenly erupted, transforming into various symbols in the air.

"Excellent! With this jade token, I can truly suppress the Fire Demon."