Facing the menacingly charging four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat, Xing Ming had a feeling that his opponent wanted to force him into the tunnel behind him.
His Divine Sense, probing the tunnel behind him, was suddenly blocked by a membrane. The membrane was very faint; even with Xing Ming's cultivation, he had almost overlooked it.
This was different from all the previous tunnels.
According to the habit formed along the way, the identical corridors, one after another, would lower a person's vigilance through repetitive inertia, and their perception would also grow fatigued.
"There really is a problem!"
Xing Ming immediately confirmed his thoughts.
Seeing his opponent suddenly stop, the four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat immediately opened its mouth and sent out a sound wave attack.
Following that, with a sharp screech, sixteen of the two-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats that had slowed down shot out from behind it.
They quickly formed a sixteen-point formation and closed in on the tunnel entrance. Xing Ming had a massive headache dealing with this kind of sixteen-point attack.
Those black, spiked spheres were not particularly powerful on their own, but with a four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat assisting from the side, they became terrifyingly effective.
He had already suffered several times from the spiked black spheres.
Xing Ming immediately circulated his Divine Sense, forming it into invisible shields to block the attack.
Seeing that strange formation closing in on him again, he knew that in the next moment, a semi-transparent, black, spiked sphere would come at him, followed by more.
At the thought of this, the wounds on his body began to throb with a dull pain again.
With a flick of his sleeve, a pale yellow ruler once again appeared in his hand. At the same time, his Divine Sense clashed with the four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat's sound wave attack.
The moment the pale yellow ruler appeared, a black spiked sphere had already swirled swiftly to his shoulder. Xing Ming infused the ruler with Spirit Power and slapped it out.
With his Spirit Power, a single strike could completely shatter the black spiked sphere.
But just as his ruler slapped out, the space above his head rippled, and two sharp claws appeared there.
As soon as the claws appeared, a ball of red light condensed beneath them in an instant, and then descended upon his head.
At this moment, the attack in Xing Ming's Divine Sense had already vanished.
His other hand shot up like lightning, and a sword-like stream of Spiritual Energy shot out from his palm, colliding squarely with the ball of red light.
With a loud "boom," Xing Ming's body swayed, and the ruler he had slapped out with his other hand was knocked slightly off course.
Although the black spiked sphere was sent flying, it grazed past his back. At the same time, another black spiked sphere appeared near his calf, spinning as it struck.
Just as Xing Ming was about to kick it away with a leg infused with Spirit Power, his mind tightened as an invisible sound wave once again swept down from above.
Xing Ming had no choice but to twist his waist and take a step. While barely dodging the black spiked sphere at his calf, his Divine Sense instantly transformed into a shield and a long spike.
While blocking the sound wave attack, the Divine Sense spike stabbed fiercely at the space above.
In a flash of lightning, the black spiked sphere that had spun past his back executed a sharp turn and once again crashed towards Xing Ming's chest.
At the same time, a third black spiked sphere appeared near Xing Ming's head, spinning rapidly as it aimed for his temple.
Xing Ming's shoulder twitched, and a powerful surge of Spirit Power erupted from his Jianjing acupoint, shooting towards the black spiked sphere.
Simultaneously, he hollowed his chest, turned sideways, and stepped to dodge the attack on his chest. But the block and strike from his Divine Sense were still carried out without a moment's hesitation.
He was not one to just take a beating. In just a short breath, the two sides had exchanged several lightning-fast attacks. Xing Ming had to retreat a little while maneuvering, but he was now even closer to the tunnel entrance.
The opponent's attack this time was so relentless, Xing Ming knew even more how extremely dangerous this tunnel was. "They're trying to force me in!"
He had already figured out the opponent's final intention. Xing Ming immediately wanted to break out.
But behind him, dozens more two-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats had completely surrounded him.
In that instant, one of the Dark Spirit Demon Bats suddenly performed a strange flight maneuver in the air. Then, several others followed, mimicking the same flight pattern.
During their flight, they spat out extremely fine black threads from their mouths, which shot towards Xing Ming in the blink of an eye.
After spitting out the black threads, the Dark Spirit Demon Bats immediately fell from the sky, their bodies splitting open with horrifying wounds.
They shrieked mournfully, their bodies writhing and struggling on the ground, a sight that sent a chill through Xing Ming's heart.
This was clearly a suicide attack!
In an instant, the surroundings were filled with black threads coming from all directions. This was the first time Xing Ming had ever seen such an attack.
Being an extremely cautious person, he did not try to block them head-on. With a pinch of a hand seal, balls of fire flew from his hand, striking at the black threads.
These Dark Spirit Demon Bats' attacks had always been very strange; how could Xing Ming dare to let them get close?
The moment the two sides made contact, Xing Ming saw his fireballs suddenly explode.
"Spirit Power cannot coalesce, a method to disperse Spirit Power!"
The fact that Xing Ming was more experienced than the female cultivator surnamed Yang was demonstrated in that instant.
He immediately saw the function of these black threads.
Before he could react, a malevolent wind rushed up from behind him.
The Divine Sense spike he had just thrust out had also been blocked by that four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat. All of this happened in an instant.
The four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat had not expected this old man to be so difficult to deal with. It had originally thought that one siege would be enough to force him into the tunnel.
Unexpectedly, the old man's series of defensive counterattacks were not only fluid but also extremely sharp, completely unaffected by it.
Instead, its own Sea of Consciousness had suffered some tremors, which made the four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat furious.
A pair of knife-like black wings flashed and slashed towards the back of Xing Ming's neck.
At this moment, more than ten additional black threads had appeared around Xing Ming, and the three black spiked spheres, swift as lightning, once again attacked his legs, chest, and back.
In that instant, if one were to look down from the sky, they would see that Xing Ming was surrounded on three sides, with only one direction to retreat.
Seeing no escape, Xing Ming erupted with a dazzling light. He had deployed an extremely strong protective Spirit Power, firmly rooting himself to the spot.
At the same time, the ruler in his hand transformed into a silk ribbon, whipping and coiling as it swept towards the four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat behind him.
However, this method of integrating offense and defense was naturally the most draining on Spirit Power.
The four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat behind him was his biggest obstacle to breaking out. As long as he could repel it, Xing Ming could afford to take a few hits from those spiked black spheres and still charge out of here.
At the same time, he also felt that the black threads were only meant to disperse his Spirit Power.
His own Spirit Power was extremely abundant. If he expended a bit more, he could temporarily disregard them.
If he wanted to launch a full-powered attack on the four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat behind him, he would inevitably be unable to dodge the intersecting black threads.
Just as Xing Ming's ruler, transformed into a ribbon, collided with the slashing pair of wings, his protective Spirit Power was pierced by more than ten black threads.
Xing Ming's smoothly flowing Spirit Power suddenly faltered slightly. He immediately knew he had misjudged.
Just a dozen or so black threads had already diverted his gushing Spirit Power in several directions.
In that slight pause, the force of the sweeping ribbon had already dispersed. He had no choice but to immediately channel most of his body's Spirit Power madly into the ribbon to counter the sustained attack from this equally powerful expert.
With that, the protective Spirit Power around his body was instantly reduced by more than half. The three black spiked spheres arrived in a flash, spinning as they struck several places on Xing Ming's body, touching and then leaving.
The black spikes on the spheres were now a good portion shorter. A piercing pain shot through him, causing Xing Ming to let out a muffled grunt. He could no longer withstand the attack from the four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat behind him.
His feet, firmly planted on the ground, had no choice but to take a staggering step back, using the momentum to shed the force of the opponent's wing-slash. The direction of his backward step was precisely that of the tunnel.
All of this happened in a flash of lightning. By the time Xing Ming realized he was rapidly retreating in excruciating pain, he had already stepped one foot into the tunnel.
And a voice immediately entered his ears.
"Come, come, come!"
Xing Ming, who had been perfectly lucid, instantly found his consciousness uncontrollably drifting into a state of confusion.
Seeing this, the four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat was overjoyed. It was just about to exert more force to completely knock the opponent into the tunnel.
But at that very moment, a cold shout rang out.
"Senior Brother, wake up!"
Then, Xing Ming felt a tightening around his waist. A black rope formed from Spirit Power shot across the void and wrapped directly around his body.
With a sharp pull, it actually dragged him out of the tunnel.
At this cold shout, Xing Ming was also jolted out of his confusion and became lucid again.
Though he was still in mid-air, a cold sweat had broken out on him. A moment ago, he had sunk into a state of chaos without even realizing it.
For any cultivator, this was fatal.
"Who is it?"
At the same time, a furious roar echoed through the space, filled with boundless rage.
The four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat had seen its prey lose consciousness, but in the blink of an eye, everything had reverted to how it was before.
Someone had actually managed to pull back the cultivator who was already halfway into the tunnel.
It had been just one step away from easily slaying its enemy, not only to feast on its flesh but also to obtain a considerable amount of medicinal pills and spirit stones.
They were desperately lacking everything here. Seeing its success turn to failure, its anger naturally soared to the heavens.
In its rage, its Divine Sense immediately swept to a very faint human figure that had abruptly appeared in the air, its features quite blurry.
Facing the direction where the blurry figure appeared, it immediately opened its mouth to launch a sound wave attack.
At the same time, the two-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bats below also reacted, and with a beat of their wings, they prepared to besiege it.
But at that moment, a somewhat weak voice sounded in their ears.
"Old Third, stop! All of you, stop!"
The surrounding Dark Spirit Demon Bats were all stunned. They immediately froze in mid-air and looked towards the source of the voice.
The next moment, the four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat that was attacking Xing Ming flared with even more overwhelming rage and shouted sternly.
"You brat, release my Big Brother!"
Because it saw that the faint figure was rapidly solidifying. It had already pulled the old man to its side and set him down.
At the same time, in front of it, a four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat was also bound by a rope of Spirit Power, suspended in mid-air.
There was a bloody hole right between its brows. It was clear at a glance that it had been severely wounded. The weak voice just now had come from this very person.
Hearing this, Li Yan gave the other party a faint glance. If shouting was useful, there would be no need for life-and-death battles.
"En... enough, Old Third! I have already reached an agreement with Fellow Daoist Zhang. I will be fine. You are not to act!"
This time, before Li Yan could speak, the four-winged Dark Spirit Demon Bat he had captured immediately spoke up. Although its voice was weak, its tone was extremely stern.
Li Yan was very satisfied with this.