The opponent's occasional attacks forced the youth surnamed Bai, who had locked his Divine Sense onto this four-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bat," to immediately dodge and flee.
And the opponent, in this way, seemed to be herding him and the tide of two-winged bats, forcing him to flee deeper inside while preventing him from truly breaking out.
The opponent was clearly much stronger than him, yet never truly made a move.
This made the youth surnamed Bai increasingly uneasy, feeling as if a great disaster was imminent, yet he had no way to escape.
In just over fifty breaths of time, the youth surnamed Bai had passed through tunnel after tunnel, fighting and retreating for about six or seven li.
The youth surnamed Bai was still constantly looking for a chance to escape.
At the same time, he was constantly sensing the auras of Song Rongdao's group. While fleeing, he seemed to have sensed the aura of the cultivator surnamed Yan.
Just as he was about to turn in that direction, the four-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bat" behind him flew through the air and unleashed a sound wave that only he could hear.
The sound wave attack instantly formed a storm in the youth's mind, a piercing shriek capable of tearing through metal and silk.
As the youth desperately resisted the feeling of his head about to explode with his Divine Sense, circles of golden light patterns emerged from his waist, surrounding him.
As circles of golden patterns enveloped him and rose upwards, the youth surnamed Bai's complexion began to recover.
"A Soul-Protecting Magical Treasure!"
The four-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bat" looked at the azure belt around the youth's waist and muttered to itself, its eyes shining with a strange light.
They were not far from the final destination.
He had originally intended to capture the opponent here, but unexpectedly, this person had a magical treasure that protected his Sea of Consciousness, which was beyond his expectations.
At their level, unless one crossed two minor realms, there was only a fifty to sixty percent chance of killing an opponent. Otherwise, nothing was certain.
Who among those who could cultivate to the Golden Core stage was not a person of great opportunity, possessing numerous life-saving measures?
The youth surnamed Bai was delayed for a moment by the opponent's sound wave attack, and the surrounding swarm of two-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bats" had already formed a peculiar attack formation and charged.
In just a few breaths, cracks appeared on the youth's body, and blood spurted out.
These two-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bats" instantly formed a sixteen-point attack formation. As they opened their mouths wide, revealing rows of sharp, fine teeth, they also unleashed waves of sound.
These sound waves were not only inaudible to others, but even the youth himself couldn't hear them. They were also completely different from the sound wave attacks of the four-winged bat.
The youth could see with his naked eye that ripples, like those on the surface of water, appeared in the air around him.
The direction of these rippling attacks was not the youth in the center, but rather they shot out towards the sixteen different directions.
When the ripples spread to the adjacent points, the "Dark Spirit Demon Bats" at the sixteen positions began to beat their wings in a highly rhythmic manner.
The moment the soundless waves collided with the adjacent ones, they were enveloped by a strange, rhythmic force generated from the wings of these "Dark Spirit Demon Bats."
Then they collided again with the sound waves appearing from the adjacent positions. In just an instant, the sixteen sound waves were visibly enveloped and fused.
Almost in the blink of an eye, an illusory sphere was formed. It was a fist-sized, semi-transparent black sphere.
The surface of this sphere was covered with countless, almost transparent black spines, dense like a curled-up hedgehog.
The moment it formed, the semi-transparent, black-spined sphere immediately began to rotate rapidly, shooting towards the youth surnamed Bai like a lightning bolt.
Normally, with the youth's cultivation, although this semi-transparent, black-spined sphere formed quickly, it still took one and a half breaths from the moment the two-winged bats unleashed their sound waves to its formation.
Under normal circumstances, the youth would never have allowed enemies to form an encirclement from sixteen directions. He would have reduced them to ashes with a mere gesture.
However, under the attack of the four-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bat," with his head splitting in pain, he was forced to defend continuously. In a moment of daze, the enemy's encirclement had already formed.
The semi-transparent, black-spined sphere, spinning rapidly like a top, had already slammed into his chest.
As the spined sphere scraped past, it was sent flying by the youth's protective spirit power.
The black-spined sphere didn't even manage to pierce his high-grade spirit artifact-level profound robes, but the youth's experience was quite different.
Beneath his intact profound robes, his skin felt a searing, sharp pain. Even with his cultivation, the pain made him let out a muffled groan.
Then, it felt as if countless thorny caterpillars had crawled into his body, and his meridians were instantly filled with the sensation of steel needles stabbing about randomly.
At this moment, the semi-transparent, black-spined sphere had already flown far away, but a small patch of black spines on its surface had disappeared.
However, on the surface of the sphere where the black spines were missing, dense, ox-hair-like spines instantly grew out from within the sphere.
The black sphere also shrank slightly in an instant. By now, it had flown to one of the sixteen positions.
The two-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bats" at the sixteen positions now beat their wings even more densely.
Immediately, the black-spined sphere, as if blocked by an invisible force, spun around and once again slammed towards the youth surnamed Bai in the center.
The youth had not yet recovered from the splitting headache and the stinging pain in his body.
Immediately, the semi-transparent, black-spined sphere once again slammed into his body. As the sphere was sent flying, another small patch of black spines disappeared.
Beneath the youth's profound robes, his skin had already started to crack, and blood was seeping out.
This was the first time the youth surnamed Bai had encountered such a sound wave attack.
Although it was not as powerful as the sound wave attacks from the four-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bat," which could already attack another's Sea of Consciousness, it had managed to injure his physical body.
And from the sixteen directions around him, a continuous stream of two-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bats" came to replace the fallen, so although the semi-transparent black sphere was constantly shrinking, new ones were also being formed.
Gazing at the several more black-spined spheres that had instantly appeared, the youth surnamed Bai was greatly alarmed.
With a muffled groan, he suddenly revealed his true form.
It was a gigantic Green Cloud Sparrow. Though its body was enormous, its speed was incredibly fast.
Before the surrounding "Dark Spirit Demon Bats" could react, with a single beat of its wings, it sent a swarm of them tumbling and scattering.
In an instant, it transformed into a wisp of azure smoke and flew out of the encirclement.
Only after he had flown away and disappeared into the tunnel did the four-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bat" finally appear where he had just been standing, a strange smile playing on its lips.
Then, with a flicker of its form, it too disappeared.
The Green Cloud Sparrow, the transformed youth, sped through the tunnel.
Suddenly, another forked tunnel appeared ahead. He flew into it without hesitation, but just half a breath after entering, his body came to a sudden halt.
Beating his wings desperately, a look of horror appeared in his eyes. He suddenly turned around and flew back the way he came.
But to his dismay, no matter how much he surged the spirit power in his body, his body was still uncontrollably being pulled backward, bit by bit.
Piercing shrieks came from his mouth.
And at this moment, at the entrance of this tunnel, a dense black swarm of "Dark Spirit Demon Bats" had already appeared, led by the very same four-winged bat that had been hunting him all along.
This time, he did not hesitate and with a flash, he was beside the Green Cloud Sparrow.
The two-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bats" behind him, however, did not enter this tunnel this time, but hovered at its entrance.
Watching the Green Cloud Sparrow desperately trying to fly away, the four-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bat" that had entered the tunnel seemed completely unaffected. He sneered.
"Run? Where can you possibly run to?"
As he spoke, while hovering in the air, a pair of sharp claws glowing with a dark light grabbed for the Green Cloud Sparrow's massive head.
At this moment, only one sound repeated endlessly in the Green Cloud Sparrow's mind.
"Come, come, come!"
The voice was getting louder and louder, shaking his entire Sea of Consciousness. His own consciousness was also rapidly disappearing.
The scenes from before were rapidly fading from his mind. His body was being pulled backward by an invisible force.
Just then, the four-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bat's" claws had already struck out from the air.
They latched onto his head without any resistance, then pinned his physical body firmly in the air.
In the next moment, something even stranger happened. The Green Cloud Sparrow's large eyes suddenly bulged, followed by an expression of extreme pain on its face.
This expression lasted for less than three breaths.
With a bang, a large hole suddenly exploded in its abdomen, and then a pale yellow, bean-sized object flew out.
On it, a small Green Cloud Sparrow with a dazed look in its eyes appeared, almost identical to the giant one outside. It was the demonic core cultivated by the Green Cloud Sparrow.
Along with the demonic core, a ball of essence blood the size of a fingernail also flew out. The two, one after the other, flew rapidly towards the end of the tunnel.
Only then did the small Green Cloud Sparrow within the demonic core suddenly come to its senses!
"Fellow Daoist, Fellow Daoist, please don't kill me, I have great treasures..."
As he screamed, he tried to control his demonic core to fly back towards the other end of the tunnel.
But his clarity lasted for less than half a breath before his entire mind was once again filled with the phrase "Come, come, come!"
Though it was just a simple word, it seemed to possess an endless demonic power.
Just like that, even the demonic core, which held the essence of the youth surnamed Bai's entire life's cultivation, lost all its abilities and once again flew rapidly towards the end of the tunnel, along with the drop of essence blood the size of a fingernail that had already disappeared...
In just a moment, a very faint vibration sounded from the end of the tunnel, followed by a return to silence.
The four-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bat" held the Green Cloud Sparrow's massive body firmly all this while, gently flapping its two pairs of thin, fleshy wings, quietly watching everything.
And from the large hole in the abdomen of the Green Cloud Sparrow beneath its claws, not another drop of blood flowed out.
Only when the vibration came from the distance did the pair of green eyes of the four-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bat" suddenly flare with a bright light, which then returned to normal.
"Well, although its effect isn't very significant, with our current strength, it's just right for dealing with cultivators like this.
"If we kill all eight of these Golden Core cultivators, we can probably last for another fifty years."
After thinking this, he extended a wing. With a shake of his spirit power, three storage pouches fell from the Green Cloud Sparrow's body.
With a sweep of his Divine Sense, the restrictions on them exploded one after another. As ownerless items, the restrictions were very easy to open.
Upon seeing that the azure belt was among them, he nodded in satisfaction.
After the youth surnamed Bai had revealed his true form, his treasures were naturally in his storage pouches.
That azure belt was a rare "Soul-Protecting Magical Treasure" that could counter his sound wave attacks and was extremely precious.
This type of defensive magical treasure was basically a one-time use item. He didn't know how many times the Green Cloud Sparrow had used the azure belt, but the power within it had not been completely depleted.
This four-winged "Dark Spirit Demon Bat" found this item extremely useful and had checked for its existence first thing.
Then, he quickly scanned the rest with his Divine Sense. Although the spirit stones and medicinal pills in the storage pouches were also things he needed, now was not the time for a detailed inventory.
After a brief inspection, he put the three storage pouches away directly.
(End of chapter)