The azure veil was sliced apart as if it were a papier-mache structure, and the chopper continued to descend toward Mu Qing.
Mu Qing's expression changed drastically, and only then did she realize just how dangerous this chopper was.
She wanted to try and evade, but it was already too late.
The chopper manifested a series of projections during its descent, all of which disappeared in a flash.
Mu Qing's heart jolted upon seeing this, and she only had time to conjure up a suit of azure armor over her body before a series of massive shimmering silver appeared around her in all directions.
As sharp screeching sound erupted from the surfaces of these giant blades, and bursts of frosty light emanated from them to form a watertight barricade around Mu Qing, affording her no avenues for escape nor evasion.
Mu Qing's face immediately turned deathly pale upon seeing this, but she then gritted her teeth before rustling both sleeves at once, and a short black rod appeared in each of her hands.
She swung these rods through the air, and mountainous staff projections instantly appeared before her, then crashed straight toward the massive blades around her.
Mu Qing was well aware of the fact that she had already lost the initiative, and that if she were to stay rooted to the spot, she would definitely be killed.
A rapid string of clangs rang out as the staff projections were able to smash open the frosty light, opening up an escape path for Mu Qing.
However, more waves of frosty light surged forth to replenish the chink that had been inflicted by the staff projections, and it was as if there were no end to this lethal light. All of a sudden, the two black rods were sliced apart by the frosty light, and the staff projections immediately faded as a result.
Mu Qing was stunned to see this, and she immediately withdrew her hands to try and unleash other abilities, only for the frosty light around her to completely inundate her body in a flash.
The suit of green armor that she was wearing only managed to remain intact for a few moments before it was also sliced apart, and a howl of anguish rang out, followed by deathly silence.
It appeared that Mu Qing had been killed, just like that.
The white-haired beauty looked on with wide eyes and her mouth gaped open, unable to believe what she had just witnessed. She was well aware of the fact that Mu Qing was definitely no less powerful than her, yet the crimson-armored puppet had managed to kill her in what seemed like the blink of an eye.
At this moment, the puppet pointed a finger toward the frosty light, and the light converged to form the silver chopper again.
Beneath the chopper, Mu Qing's body had been sliced into countless pieces, and her remains were hovering in mid-air. Strangely enough, the pieces of her body weren't shedding so much as a single drop of blood, as if she didn't even possess a body of flesh and blood.
The crimson-armored puppet merely took a brief glance at her remains before paying them no further heed.
It had already identified that Mu Qing possessed a wood spirit body, so it wasn't strange at all that she didn't bleed like normal living beings.
The puppet let loose a sinister chuckle as it cast an incantation seal with one hand, and the chopper immediately flew forth again, heading for the Purpleblood Puppet this time.
With the puppet's massive body, it was an ideal target.
The crimson-armored puppet had originally intended to strike only after the demon monarchs had expended all of their magic power, but Liu Zu had descended into the pond, and he knew of a method to sever spirit veins.
This made the crimson-armored puppet a lot more flustered and concerned.
If the connection between this pond and the spirit vein really were severed, he'd still be dealt a severe punishment even if he managed to kill these intruders.
That was why it was unable to wait any longer.
However, much to its surprise, Mu Qing had been extremely alert and set up countless invisible spirit threads in the nearby area, thereby allowing her to detect the puppet's location.
However, that didn't matter to the puppet anyway.
He possessed the insanely powerful Five Dragon Chopper and he had the Infernal Lightning Beasts on his side, while his enemies had already expended a lot of their spiritual power in the preceding battle. With so many factors in its favor, it would be a simple task for it to kill all of the intruders.
The crimson-robed figure stood atop the Purpleblood Puppet's shoulder, and a hint of fear flashed through his eyes at the sight of the oncoming silver chopper. He immediately pointed a finger toward the chopper, and the massive crimson ball before him tremored, then shot forth at a streak of crimson light.
Almost at the exact same moment, the Purpleblood Puppet beneath his feet began to rapidly shrink amid flashes of purple light, reverting back down to the size of a normal human being in the blink of an eye. Immediately thereafter, its six eyes flashed in unison, and six pillars of crimson light erupted from within its pupils, hurtling forth in hot pursuit behind the crimson ball.
The crimson-robed figure descended beside the Purpleblood Puppet just as the silver streak of light plunged soundlessly into the crimson ball, and this was quite a welcoming sight to him.
This crimson ball was not something that was manifested by normal blood essence. Instead, it was something that he'd refined from the Myriad Year Impure Qi that he'd collected, and it specialized in corrupting all types of treasures with a 100% success rate to date.
The silver chopper was indeed quite powerful, but there was no way that it would remain completely unaffected by this crimson ball.
Just as these thoughts were flashing through the crimson-robed figure's mind, a loud explosion erupted, and the smile on his face immediately stiffened.
The crimson ball had been punctured by boundless silver light in a flash before exploding into a cloud of repugnant blood mist.
The mist only drifted in the air for a few moments before it dissipated as putrid black Qi.
At this moment, the silver streak of light that was the Five Dragon Chopper crashed into the six pillars of crimson light.
As soon as the two opposing forces made contact with one another, the silver light wavered slightly, and it was slowed down a little for the first time.
The six pillars of light struck it one after another, causing the silver streak of light to tremor as it reverted back to its original chopper form.
The crimson-robed figure's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly made a hand seal.
The pillars of crimson light then immediately converged to form a massive crimson sword, which clashed with the Five Dragon Chopper.
The chopper was incredibly sharp, but it was unable to immediately slice the crimson sword in half, and its progress was temporarily stalled as a result.
A vicious light flashed through the crimson-armored puppet's eyes upon seeing this, and it recited a mantra in its mind.
Brilliant silver light immediately erupted from the Five Dragon Chopper as boundless frosty light erupted forth again.
In the end, the crimson sword was sliced into several segments by the frosty light before disintegrating into a ball of crimson light.
The crimson-robed figure in the figure hurriedly opened his mouth to expel a mouthful of blood essence upon seeing this.
The blood essence then transformed into several crimson runes that swayed in front of him before abruptly disappeared without a trace.
In the next instant, crimson light flashed erratically in the distance before converging again to form another crimson flying sword.
The flying sword emitted a faint ringing sound as it clashed with the Five Dragon Chopper again, not allowing the fearsome treasure to continue down its intended route.
After witnessing Mu Qing's spontaneous death, the white-haired beauty had become quite fearful of the Five Dragon Chopper, but she was ecstatic to see the crimson-robed figure's flying sword keeping it at bay.
Thus, she turned her attention away from the black formation descending from above and hurriedly flipped her hand over to produce a black leather pouch, which she tossed up into the air.
The pouch gently tipped itself over, and a burst of grey Yin Qi gushed forth from within in a frenzy. Over 100 Yin Armor Profound Ghosts appeared within the Yin Qi, but these ones were far more imposing in stature than the normal ghostly soldiers she'd refined.
She had kept this ghostly army up his sleeve this entire time as a trump card of sorts.
The white-haired beauty then let loose a sharp screech before pointing a finger at the crimson-armored puppet in the distance.
All of the ghostly soldiers immediately heeded her call, brandishing their weapons as they rushed toward the puppet atop gusts of Yin winds.
The crimson-armored puppet merely chuckled coldly upon seeing this.
It turned to the ghostly being beside it, which had the head of a horse and the body of a human, and asked, "Can I count on you to take care of those things?"
"Rest assured, Master, I'll eradicate these low-grade ghostly beings with ease." The horse-headed ghostly being's body was remarkably translucent, and it gave a respectful bow in response to the puppet's question.
The puppet nodded, and the ghosty being's body flashed with glazed light before it flew through the air as a five-colored streak of light.
Moments later, it plunged headfirst into the gusts of Yin winds before manifesting a pair of long sabers out of thin air to battle the ghostly soldiers around it.
The crimson-armored puppet paid no heed to that battle as it began to chant something, and unleashed the powers of the Five Dragon Chopper at the expense of its spiritual sense.
The silver streak of light immediately let loose a crisp ringing sound as it clashed with the crimson sword before splitting up into five streaks of light of different colors.
One of those streaks of light continued to clash with the crimson sword while the other four split up with two of them hurtling toward the crimson-robed figure while the other two sped toward the white-haired beauty.
The white-haired beauty's expression changed slightly, and she looked up at the descending black formation up above, then at the crimson-robed figure and the Purpleblood Puppet, and an indecisive look appeared on her face.
There was clearly no hope for victory in such a situation, and she couldn't help but consider a retreat.
However, right at this moment, a long cry erupted from below the golden light formation over the green pond, following which the surface of the formation rippled, causing the nearby ground to tremor slightly.
The crimson-robed figure's cold voice suddenly sounded in her ears. "Fellow Daoist Liu Zu is about to back soon."
The white-haired beauty faltered slightly, and she hesitated for a moment longer while the two streaks of light sped toward her at an alarming rate.
In the end, she could only heave a resigned sigh as the projection of the disheveled ghost appeared behind her again. She then made a grabbing motion with both hands, and the massive black ghost's huge hands reached out toward the oncoming streaks of light.
At the same time, the white-haired beauty summoned a small white bone flag before sweeping it through the air, sending forth a burst of grey light that also sped toward the two opposing streaks of light.
On the other end, even with the crimson-robed figure and the Purpleblood Puppet combining their powers, they were still engaged in an arduous battle against the two streaks of light that had flown toward them.
Right at this moment, a sense of foreboding welled up in the white-haired beauty's heart, and she suddenly turned toward a certain corner of the palace, following which the veins on her forehead immediately bulged with fury.
In the corner of the palace where Yuan Yao and Yan Li were standing, a young man had appeared beside them. He had his hands placed on the shoulders of the two women, and countless thin arcs of golden lightning were flowing from his palms into their bodies.
The young man was naturally none other than Han Li, and the two women were trembling uncontrollably with expressions of agony on their faces as crimson threads were expelled from their body one after another.
"Don't you dare!" the white-haired beauty yelled with shock and fury in her voice.
However, Han Li completely disregarded her rage, merely intensifying the power of the arcs of golden lightning flowing into the bodies of the two women instead. After all of the crimson threads were forced out of their bodies, the Divine Devilbane Lightning disappeared, and the two women slumped over, having fallen unconscious from the excruciating pain they had just endured.
Azure light flashed from Han Li's body, sweeping up the two women before he hurtled directly toward the exit of the hall as a streak of azure light.
