Ghost Immortal

The corpse demon said no more and stomped its right foot hard on the ground.

"boom!"

The pile of bones beneath their feet exploded instantly, and countless fragments of bone turned into a white rain of bone that shot out in all directions.

The bone fragments whistled through the air with such force that they created countless holes in the tree trunk.

The Taoist priest with four eyebrows swayed, his peach wood sword drawing an arc in front of him, while the cinnabar talisman paper on the sword simultaneously ignited, forming a golden light shield.

The bone fragments struck the light shield with crackling sounds, causing the shield to tremble violently and dim.

Li Feng dodged and hid behind an ancient tree as thick as a man's embrace. The bone fragments flew past his Taoist robe and nailed several fist-sized holes in the tree bark.

His five senses detected the true form of the corpse demon, which had already disappeared from the spot under the cover of bone rain.

"Qiu Sheng! Behind you!"

Li Feng roared.

Qiu Sheng only had time to flick the iron whisk behind him, and the silver threads on the whisk exploded to form a silver spider web.

The next instant, the corpse demon's claws tore through the silver net, and its five black, dagger-like fingernails were only three inches away from Qiu Sheng's nape.

"clang!"

The Taoist priest with four eyebrows arrived just in time with his peach wood sword, striking the corpse demon's wrist with the side of the blade and deflecting the direction of its claw attack.

The corpse demon's claws grazed Qiu Sheng's ears, severing a few strands of hair. The corpse energy wrapped around its nails left a black burn mark on Qiu Sheng's cheek.

"Holy crap!"

Qiu Sheng screamed and scrambled to the side, the burn marks on his cheeks turning black and festering at a visible speed as the corpse poison seeped into his flesh.

He quickly pulled out a handful of glutinous rice from his pocket and pressed it onto the wound. The glutinous rice immediately hissed and burned upon contact with the corpse poison, and the grains turned black and charred at a visible speed, falling down his face in a flurry.

"This corpse poison is terrifying!" Qiu Sheng winced in pain, but his hands didn't stop moving as he grabbed another handful of glutinous rice and pressed it on.

The corpse demon was slapped away by the Four-Eyebrowed Taoist with a sword. Its body somersaulted in mid-air and landed steadily on the horizontal branch of an ancient tree.

It crouched on a branch, its posture resembling that of a giant ape, its blood-red eyes scanning back and forth between the three people.

"Old Taoist priest, your swordsmanship is not bad, but you are old."

The corpse demon tilted its head and commented.

"You're not strong enough and your reaction is too slow. If that sword strike had been faster, it could have severed my wrist. Unfortunately, you were too slow."

"Master, I'm here to help you!"

Li Feng emerged from behind the tree, lightning already fully condensed in his right palm.

The purplish-black lightning compressed into a ball of light the size of a soccer ball in his palm, with ghostly green flames flickering at the core of the ball.

Instead of releasing it immediately, he continued to compress the lightning.

Since breaking through to the third level of Qi Refining, his control over the Palm Lightning has improved significantly, allowing him to compress the lightning to a density that was previously unattainable.

"go!"

Li Feng thrust out a palm, and lightning transformed into purplish-black electric snakes, blasting towards the tree branch where the corpse demon was located.

A hint of seriousness flashed in the corpse demon's eyes.

It pushed off the tree branch with its legs, causing the entire ancient tree to sway, and used the momentum to move sideways for three zhang (approximately 10 meters), avoiding the direct attack of the lightning snake.

But Li Feng's palm strike wasn't aimed at it in the first place; it was aimed at the tree branch beneath its feet.

"Snap!"

The thick horizontal branch was struck by lightning and instantly blew into two pieces.

The ghostly fire contained within the lightning spread along the broken edge towards the tree trunk, igniting immediately upon contact with the bark. The eerie green flames left a charred mark on the trunk.

The corpse demon landed on another tree and looked down at its right leg.

The pant leg had been burned off by the aftershocks of the lightning, revealing the bluish-black skin underneath.

It stretched out its left hand, traced a circle around the edge of the burn with its fingernail, and ripped off the piece of flesh stained with will-o'-the-wisp, then casually tossed it under the tree.

The flesh fell to the ground, and eerie green flames still flickered on it. In just a few breaths, the entire piece of flesh was burned to ashes.

"That's ruthless." Li Feng's eyes twitched.

The corpse demon showed no sign of pain; instead, its blood-red eyes became even more excited.

It licked the blood off its lips, stared at Li Feng, and said, "The Netherworld Ghost Fire lives up to its name. I only touched it a little bit, and I had to have a piece of my flesh cut off."

"Little Taoist, if you were to cultivate your skills to the Nascent Soul stage, all the evil spirits in the world would have to avoid you. It's a pity you won't live to see that day."

Before it could finish speaking, it vanished again.

This time it's even faster than before!

Li Feng's five senses detected a dark shadow attacking from the left. He instinctively dodged to the right, but the corpse demon was too fast.

His shoulder had barely turned three inches when the corpse demon's claws were already gripping his chest.

"Sizzle!"

The Taoist robe was torn open in five places at the chest, and the protective talisman inside shattered instantly, turning into golden light that blocked most of the force of the claw.

However, the corpse demon's claw strength was too astonishing, and the remaining force was transmitted to Li Feng's chest through the golden light.

The shock sent him flying backward, his back slamming into an ancient tree three zhang away.

"puff!!"

Li Feng spat out a mouthful of blood, his chest burning with pain.

He looked down and saw that there were no direct wounds on his chest, but there were five bluish-purple bruises on his skin. The skin around the bruises was slightly black, which was obviously the residual corpse poison seeping into the flesh.

"Junior brother!" Qiu Sheng rushed over, dragging his iron whisk, and stood in front of Li Feng.

The corpse demon did not give chase, but landed back on the tree branch, looking down at the three of them.

It stretched out its right hand, with bits of Li Feng's Taoist robe and a few faint streaks of blood still remaining on its five fingernails.

The monster brought its fingernail to its nose and sniffed it, its eyes gleaming with even greater excitement.

"No, your spiritual root is more than nine inches!"

The corpse demon's voice was deep and incredulous as it said, "I have seen countless cultivators in my lifetime, and I know exactly what the blood of a nine-inch spiritual root smells like. Your blood is purer than a nine-inch spiritual root, and your spiritual energy fluctuations are stronger. You have a ten-inch spiritual root! A legendary heavenly-grade spiritual root!"

Upon hearing this, even the Four-Eyebrowed Taoist priest turned around in shock to look at Li Feng.

Li Feng's heart skipped a beat.

He had been using the Breath Concealment Technique to suppress his spiritual root to about eight inches, a level that even the Four-Eyebrowed Daoist could only detect.

But the corpse demon is not a living person; it does not rely on spiritual power to perceive, but rather on directly smelling the spiritual energy in the blood.

The blood that seeped out from that claw attack was enough for the corpse demon to discern the true grade of his spiritual root.

"A ten-inch spiritual root, no wonder it can control the Netherworld Ghost Fire." The corpse demon stood up from the tree branch, a greedy expression on its face.

"By draining your blood and devouring your spiritual root, I can directly break through to the Foundation Establishment stage, and even reach the threshold of the Golden Core stage!"

It stopped talking and formed a strange hand seal in front of its chest.

This hand gesture is definitely not an instinctive action of a demon, but rather some extremely ancient cultivation method.

Prince Jingnan was a member of the royal family during his lifetime, and his palace housed countless Taoist masters. Even though he did not practice Taoism, he had witnessed countless profound magical arts through his daily life.

As soon as the hand seal was formed, a thick, inky black-red corpse aura surged from the corpse demon's body.

The corpse energy condensed behind it, forming a phantom three zhang tall.

A gigantic figure dressed in a dragon robe and wearing a crown, with an indistinct face, exuded a suffocating aura.

"Dragon energy!" the Four-Eyebrowed Taoist priest exclaimed.

The Corpse Demon is of royal blood and inherently possesses a wisp of true dragon energy.

This wisp of dragon energy was merely a symbol of bloodline in its previous life, possessing no real power.

But after death, it transformed into a demon, and this wisp of dragon energy, nourished by the corpse energy and resentment, became its most terrifying weapon.

The dragon's aura represents the supreme authority of the emperor on earth.

When an emperor is angry, the heavens and earth change color; how much more so when it comes to the Taoist arts that borrow the power of heaven and earth?

"I knelt before the dragon robe my whole life in life, and now I can finally wear it in death."

As the corpse demon raised both hands, the phantom of the dragon robe behind it simultaneously raised its right hand, and the huge palm slammed down on the three of them.

Before the palm even arrived, the force of the palm had already pressed a deep dent into the ground, causing the soil beneath the three people's feet to crack and sink more than three inches into the ground.

"Get out of the way!"

With a shout, Four-Eyebrowed Taoist grabbed Qiu Sheng by the back of his collar with his left hand and Li Feng's arm with his right, rolling to the side with all his might.

As soon as the three rolled out, the illusory figure in the dragon robe slapped the spot where they had just been standing.

"Boom!"

The entire open space trembled violently, and soil and gravel shot into the sky like a volcanic eruption, leaving a huge palm print on the ground that was more than ten feet in diameter and three feet deep.

The soil around the palm print was scorched black by the dragon's energy, emitting a pungent, sulfurous smell.

Qiu Sheng was jolted up from the ground and then fell back down. His ears were ringing and he couldn't hear anything.

"Can you hear me, Master?"

He opened his mouth and shouted a few times, only to find that he couldn't even hear his own voice, and a look of horror appeared on his face.

Master Si Mei got up from the ground, a trickle of blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.

The palm strike didn't directly hit them, but the dragon energy within the palm wind had already damaged his internal organs.

He glanced at Qiu Sheng and Li Feng. Qiu Sheng's ears were bleeding, and Li Feng's chest was heaving violently, clearly indicating that he had also been shaken.

"We can't let it continue to drive the dragon's energy."

Master Si Mei bit the tip of his tongue, using the intense pain to keep himself awake, and then pulled out a palm-sized Bagua mirror from his robes.

"Li Feng, you used Netherworld Ghost Fire to burn its true form, but I will use the Bagua Mirror to shatter its illusory dragon aura!"

He frantically poured his spiritual power into the Bagua mirror, and the Bagua patterns on the mirror surface lit up one by one.

The eight trigrams detached from the mirror and rotated in the air, forming a huge trigram light array.

A golden beam of light shot out from the light array, illuminating the chest of the dragon-robed phantom.

The phantom of the dragon robe was illuminated by the beam of light from the Bagua mirror, and a hissing burning sound immediately came from its chest. A charred hole appeared on the golden dragon robe that kept expanding.

However, the phantom of the dragon robe was too large, and the beam of light from the Bagua mirror was only as thick as a bowl. It was like trying to prick an elephant with an embroidery needle; although it could create a wound, it was far from fatal.

"It's as easy as an ant trying to shake a tree!"

The corpse demon sneered and pressed its right hand down.

The phantom in the dragon robe swept his left hand across, striking the Bagua light array with a palm.

The golden light array trembled violently, three of the eight trigrams shattered on the spot, and the remaining five were also on the verge of collapse.

As if struck by a heavy blow, the Taoist priest with four eyebrows was sent flying backward, his back slamming into an ancient tree, spitting out a mouthful of blood.

The Bagua mirror flew out of his hand and landed on the ground with a clatter, its surface cracking with several fine lines.

"Master!" Qiu Sheng and Li Feng called out at the same time.