Hunyuan Immortal Sect

Chapter 474 Strange Stone Statue
After entering the interior, the three of them each cast defensive spells to protect themselves in case of any unexpected events that might occur and they were caught off guard.

After passing through the messy outer courtyard and entering the inner courtyard, a black house comes into view, covered with dense black runes.

Unlike the outside, the courtyard was not cluttered. There were no sprawling tree roots, sprawling branches, or fallen leaves scattered on the ground. Instead, it was exceptionally clean, as if someone regularly swept it.

The courtyard is paved with black stone bricks, on which black patterns are also engraved.

As they walked until they reached the black house, Wei Fan glanced back at the two men. Seeing that neither of them made any move, he reached out and pushed open the stone door of the house.

But when he pushed hard, the stone door did not budge.

"This door seems a bit strange." Wei Fan withdrew his hand and frowned.

“Now that things have come to this, there’s nothing left to worry about.” Song Xian waved his hand, and spiritual energy shot out, striking the stone gate.

Without a sound, the spiritual energy struck it, as if it had vanished into thin air.

However, the next moment, the dense black runes on the surface of the room seemed to be activated, surging and moving like fish, and the runes on the stone bricks in the inner courtyard also began to move.

Almost simultaneously, the three of them immediately stepped back, watching the moving black runes warily.

With a soft creak, the stone door of the room slid open to the sides, and a huge ball of black flame shot out from within, instantly engulfing the entire palace inside and out in raging black flames.

Dark Netherworld Fire.

Seeing the black flames approaching, Song Xian was both surprised and delighted.

Upon closer inspection, the black flame was shaped like a giant bull, which was indeed a characteristic of the Xuanming Demonic Flame.

Legend has it that the Xuanming Demon Fire was formed from the divine thoughts of a hellish demon bull, hence its black bull-like shape.

On the list of strange flames, the Xuanming Demon Flame ranks second. Under his True Eye of Observation, the Xuanming Demon Flame has an attack power of 7500 points.

Song Xian was overjoyed. He never expected that the Xuanming Demon Fire was hidden inside the palace and rooms, and for some unknown reason, it took the initiative to attack.

With a flick of his wrist, the crimson lantern treasure was in his hand. As his spiritual energy surged into it, the patterns on the lantern immediately began to rotate.

As he used the crimson lantern, Cheng Zongyuan and Wei Fan simultaneously launched an attack on the incoming giant bull flames.

Cheng Zongyuan clasped his hands together, conjuring a giant water-shaped hand, and grabbed at the giant bull.

Wei Fan then unleashed the "Mount Tai Pressing Down" technique, conjuring a small mountain that crashed down.

Before the giant water-shaped hand could even get close to the Xuanming Demon Fire, it was melted by the black flames that enveloped it. Then, a large amount of water poured down, and as a puff of smoke rose, the water was quickly evaporated.

Since the giant bull form of the flames is not a true living being, the water erosion effect has no effect on it.

As the hill crashed down, it was enveloped in black flames and visibly disintegrated within the fire.
"Fellow Daoists, hand it over to me." Song Xian hurriedly spoke up to stop them, worried that if they continued to attack, they would destroy the true form of the Xuanming Demonic Flame.

Under the attack of these two, the giant bull of strange fire had shrunk by one size.

As soon as he finished speaking, the black flames inside and outside the courtyard surged toward the crimson lantern.

Perhaps Song Xian's spiritual attack on the room activated the restriction, triggering the Xuanming Demon Fire attack. As a result, the Xuanming Demon Fire rushed out of the room and directly attacked him.

However, blocked by the wall of flames that gathered around him, his main body was directly impacting the wall, with black flames and raging fire intertwined.

However, as the crimson lantern spun rapidly, the giant black bull seemed to be summoned and involuntarily moved towards the lantern.

The black flames that enveloped the courtyard were quickly absorbed, and the Xuanming Demonic Fire itself slowly surged into the lantern.

Seeing this, Cheng Zongyuan and Wei Fan unconsciously exchanged glances, their eyes filled with complex emotions, but neither of them disturbed the other, and they both watched quietly.

Song Xian only stopped pouring spiritual energy in after the black giant bull was completely absorbed into the crimson lantern.

He tried his best to remain calm, his gaze sweeping over the two of them: "Alright, the trouble has been resolved."

Both of them nodded without showing any emotion, and neither of them asked any further questions about why the crimson lantern could absorb the black flames.

Song Xian couldn't explain it either. After putting away the red lantern, he strode into the black room, which was empty and devoid of anything.

The stone slabs on the ground had been overturned. Judging from the shattered ground, this should be the place where the Xuanming Demon Fire was sealed, because the stone slabs that had been overturned and broken into pieces were engraved with dense golden runes.

As expected, the seal was activated by a spiritual attack, thus releasing the Xuanming Demonic Fire.

Behind the house is a small courtyard with a huge, ancient, verdant tree, a statue, and a stone coffin.

The ancient tree was enormous, with a trunk circumference of several meters. Its roots stretched across almost the entire backyard, and its branches and leaves were extremely lush and verdant, covering an area of ​​several dozen meters in radius like clouds.

Song Xian immediately spotted a green gourd on the giant tree, as it was the only 'fruit' that had grown on the tree.

A green gourd hangs from a branch at the top of a giant tree, hidden among layers of palm-sized green leaves, making it difficult to spot.

But he saw it at first glance, and a question immediately popped into his mind.

What kind of tree is this, and why is it so huge?

What is that gourd?

He had never seen such a large tree before, and he didn't know what kind of tree it was.

Because he was walking in the lead, when he pushed open the stone door of the house and saw the gourd growing on the giant tree in the courtyard, he didn't know why, but he subconsciously jumped up, went to the gourd, and picked it off.

Logically, he should have paid more attention to the stone coffin, which should have been the only place in the entire courtyard where treasures might be hidden.

But somehow, he focused his attention on the gourd on the giant tree.

As he picked up the gourd, he heard a snapping sound. Looking in the direction of the sound, he saw that Cheng Zongyuan and Wei Fan had already pushed open the stone coffin.

The two had already reached into the stone coffin for something when Wei Fan suddenly let out a scream.

A statue nearby had one hand on Wei Fan's shoulder. It turned out that Cheng Zongyuan and Wei Fan were standing on either side of the stone coffin, with Wei Fan standing on the left, right next to the statue.

When the three entered, their divine senses had already scanned every corner, and none of them expected the statue to attack. Wei Fan was surrounded by a circular, earthen-yellow shield, but the statue next to him reached through the shield without any hindrance and placed its hand on his shoulder.

After Wei Fan cried out in surprise, he collapsed to the ground as if he had been electrocuted.

As he fell, he seemed to want to look back one last time to see what had attacked him, so his neck was turned back and his eyes were wide open.

Cheng Zongyuan, who was opposite him, suddenly had his pupils shrink, his face filled with horror, and he retreated rapidly. He didn't even realize when the statue had made its move.

Moreover, the moment Wei Fan fell, the statue threw a punch at him.

Although Cheng Zongyuan retreated immediately, the statue was faster. In a flash, it was in front of him. The ordinary stone fist passed through the ice wall that Cheng Zongyuan had condensed, just as if it had passed through a water curtain. Without any sound, the thick ice wall shattered with a loud crash.

Before Cheng Zongyuan's astonished and horrified eyes, the fist struck his chest, piercing through his entire chest.

However, the expected scene of blood splattering did not occur. Cheng Zongyuan's body gradually became transparent, like a human form formed from water.

This is precisely his innate supernatural power: water transformation.

After it turned to water, its body twisted in an incredible way, like a snake. Its body transformed into water and flowed along the stone fist that had struck its chest, wrapping around the statue behind it and binding the statue's hands, feet and body tightly like a snake coiling around it.

At the same time, a pool of water spread out from the ground and flowed in all directions.

The statue's body was entangled by streams of water that resembled snakes, and then a layer of frost spread over its body, covering it completely in the blink of an eye.

In just an instant, the frost covering its body vanished, and the statue radiated a dazzling black light. Under the shroud of the black light, the water that coiled around it like a thick serpent evaporated.

At the same time, the statue gradually came to life, as if it were about to come alive.

Cheng Zongyuan's figure condensed from the flowing water on the ground. First, it transformed into a human shape formed from water, then returned to its original form, and then flew backward.

But the stone statue seemed to have identified him, following him like a shadow. The black light emanating from its body grew stronger and stronger, and its body gradually shed its stone form, revealing the firmness of its skin.

The stone man raised his hand, and a giant black palm condensed, pressing down from above, its radiance enveloping an area of ​​a hundred feet in radius.

Cheng Zongyuan, who was retreating rapidly, suddenly stopped. His movements slowed down visibly, as if he were in slow motion, and every tiny reaction of his body became very sluggish.

The range of body movements, head tilts, and even the twitching of the muscles around the eyes have all become very slow.

The space, spanning over a hundred feet and shrouded in dark light, was bound by an invisible force, as if even space itself had frozen in time.

The black giant hand slowly pressed down. Although the speed was not fast, it seemed very swift compared to Cheng Zongyuan's slow movements.

Without any sound of intertwining, the black giant palm had not even touched the circular water-light shield that Cheng Zongyuan had condensed around him when it visibly twisted and deformed. The moment the black giant palm touched the circular water-light shield, it shattered with a bang.

Cheng Zongyuan's features were contorted in rage, and his body swayed violently under the invisible pressure, like a wooden stake swinging in a gale.

Just like the circular water-like shield that formed around him, his entire body shattered the moment the giant black palm touched him, but there were no severed limbs or splattered blood.

His body dissolved into a pool of water, flowing in all directions. However, because the entire space was shrouded in dark light, the water remained locked in that area and did not disperse.

The giant black hand continued to press down, fixing the pool of water in place.

Just then, a huge, eerie green sphere shot out from the side and crashed into the stone man.

It was Song Xian who made the move. The fight between the stone man and Cheng Zongyuan seemed long, but it was actually very short.

Song Xian was picking the green gourd from the top of the giant tree when he saw Wei Fan suddenly fall to the ground and the stone man attack Cheng Yufan. Not knowing what was going on, he quickly retreated into the house.

As the stone figure gradually revived, its body regained vitality and transformed into a human form, Cheng Zongyuan was almost powerless to fight back against its attacks. After a slight hesitation, he unleashed the Taiyin Netherfire.

At this point, the two were in the same boat; if Cheng Zongyuan were killed, the stone man's next target would be him.

The enormous, eerie green sphere suddenly stopped before it even got close to the stone man, as if it had encountered some kind of obstacle.

The space shrouded in the dark light seemed to be surrounded by an invisible barrier. The next moment, the area shrouded in the dark light became visibly chaotic, like a shattered mirror, and the spatial barrier collapsed.

The stone man turned to look at Song Xian. Although his face had returned to a human-like shape with tight skin, his eyes were still those of a stone man, devoid of any life.

But it was precisely these expressionless stone eyes that sent a chill down Song Xian's spine, and a strong sense of crisis, which he didn't know where it came from, instantly enveloped him.

This stone man is extremely powerful, and he is no match for him. At this moment, this thought suddenly flashed through his mind.

The stone figure emitted no spiritual energy fluctuations, and its attacks yielded no data in his True Observation Eyes, only a blur of... ???
Song Xian instinctively sensed the danger and immediately retreated. At the same time, the Taiyin Netherfire shot back rapidly and entered his body.

The Taiyin Netherfire is formed by the fusion of three different flames: the White Bone Extreme Flame, the Xuanluo Yin Flame, and the Qianyou Extreme Flame. Losing it would be an unacceptable loss for him.

He originally intended to use the Yin Fire to attack the stone man, but that one eye contact made him fearful.

He wasn't confident and didn't dare to take the risk.

If the Yin Netherfire fails to kill the stone man and is instead destroyed by it, then it will be a huge loss.

As the invisible spatial barrier shrouded in dark light shattered, the pool of water that Cheng Zongyuan had transformed into quickly dispersed in all directions. Then, the various streams of water coalesced and transformed into several figures resembling Cheng Zongyuan, scattering and fleeing.

One of them, Cheng Zongyuan, went straight towards Wei Fan, who was lying on the ground, as if he wanted to take him away.

Before it could touch Wei Fan, the stone man dodged and punched through the body of 'Cheng Zongyuan', turning his body into a puddle of water.

.........

Song Xian retreated rapidly and quickly escaped the black palace, heading back the way he came.

Cheng Zongyuan and Wei Fan found something in the stone coffin, but he didn't see it clearly. He didn't care what treasures were in the stone coffin at the moment; he just wanted to leave this place and get away from the stone man to avoid being targeted by him.

Although the stone man had no spiritual energy aura, judging from the strength it had just displayed, it was definitely no less than a Golden Core cultivator.

He had already obtained the Xuanming Demon Fire in the hall, which made his trip worthwhile. There was no need for him to risk his life to fight the stone man for the contents of the stone coffin.

He flew at full speed until he arrived at the spinning black hole in space, and without the slightest hesitation, he went straight into the inner room.

(End of this chapter)