The woman then tossed the purple copper coin from before high up into the air, and it transformed into a large copper bowl in a flash before descending right onto the center of the stone platform.
The bowl's surface was covered in layers of complex runes, and there was a ball of purple light within it that seemed to be concealing something, but was impossible to see into.
The woman's expression remained unchanged as she pointed a finger toward the puppets one after another, and layers of black Qi suddenly appeared over the surfaces of the wooden dolls, following which eight different sinister ghostly faces were manifested.
They roared and struggled violently from behind the wooden dolls, but seemed to be bound to the dolls and were unable to get stray far away from them.
The woman paid no heed to this, and calmly instructed, "Prepare the sacrifices!"
"Yes, Mistress!" Hei'e replied before immediately rushing into the air directly above the stone platform, then abruptly laid a hand onto his own waist.
A palm-sized black leather pouch instantly flew out of his body, then swelled to around 10 feet in size before tipping itself over above the purple copper bowl.
The pouch was opened, and crimson liquid gushed out of it toward the purple ball of light.
The crimson liquid was flowing out of the pouch like an endless waterfall, but the bowl showed no sign of being filled, as if it were a bottomless pit.
Hei-e wasn't surprised at all to see this, and he merely continued to oversee the proceedings.
After a long while, more than a ton of liquid had gushed out of the leather pouch, yet it was still flowing without any signs of subsiding.
"Alright, that should be enough. It wasn't easy to collect all this blood essence from Body Integration Stage ancient beasts, so we should conserve it where possible," the woman suddenly said.
Hei'e immediately made a grabbing motion toward the leather pouch upon seeing this, and the stream of blood immediately ceased before the pouch flew back to him in a flash.
The woman took a deep breath and made a hand seal, upon which a massive pink floral tree suddenly appeared behind her.
The tree was glittering and translucent with fist-sized pink flowers growing all over its branches, all of which were giving off an intoxicating aroma.
The woman's body blurred, and she suddenly vanished before appearing directly above the tree. Her pristine bare foot was treading light upon the flower growing at the very top of the tree, and she flipped a hand over to produce a white bone blade that was very thin and extremely sharp.
She then slowly raised an arm and extended her wrist out of her sleeve before slashing the bone blade across her wrist.
A stream of viscous silver liquid immediately tricked down from her wrist and dripped onto the top of the floral tree before vanishing into it.
A loud buzzing sound rang out, and the pink tree instantly turned silver, creating a spectacular sight to behold.
After waiting for a short while, the woman withdrew her wrist before blowing onto the self-inflicted gash, which immediately disappeared amid a flash of white light.
Only then did she cast her gaze toward the purple bowl down below, and she stowed away the bone blade before producing a black handkerchief, which she tossed up into the air.
The surrounding water barrier instantly turned inky-black to keep out all of the external light, and it was as if night had suddenly fallen.
The woman raised her foot before gently stepping down onto the top of the floral tree, and the massive tree instantly exploded into specks of silver light that shot forth through the air.
Thus, silver stars were instantly added to the "night sky", and they began to slowly revolve in a profound rhythmic manner at her behest.
It was as if another world had been established within the water barrier.
Silver light flashed through the woman's eyes, and her body blurred before expanding into a giant white projection that was several hundred feet tall. An extremely delightful voice rang out, chanting an incantation, and the surrounding stars began to accelerate in their rotation around the giant white projection, forming a series of profound starry diagrams.
At the same time, the ball of light within the copper bowl suddenly began to rise up, then take on a series of different shapes under the starry night sky.
Meanwhile, a shimmering golden disk had appeared before the woman, and she was flicking her fingers toward it at different speeds, causing balls of rainbow light to come flying out of the disk.
Her movements appeared to be very relaxed and nonchalant, but with each flick of her finger, her face would pale slightly, but the silver light in her eyes was gradually becoming brighter.
Around an hour later, a group of several tens of devilish beings began to fly toward the water barrier while riding atop devilish beasts that resembled sharks with wings.
These devilish beasts appeared to be quite clumsy and maladroit, but they were actually extremely fast and reached the water barrier in the blink of an eye.
However, these devilish beings clearly hadn't noticed the concealed water barrier at all, and they were just about to fly right past it when a loud rumbling boom rang out as the water barrier suddenly reappeared before exploding on the spot.
Powerful blue light swept forth in all directions to form a giant blue vortex, and all of the devilish guards were naturally quite alarmed by this as they hurriedly took evasive measures.
At the same time, their devilish beast steeds roared as they expelled balls of azure light, which formed azure light barriers around themselves and their riders.
Enormous waves swept past, only to be parted by these light barriers, and even though none of the devilish guards were harmed, they had naturally been greatly startled. All of them immediately drew their weapons and cast their eyes toward the vortex in a bewildered manner.
The blue vortex rapidly shrank amid an insistent rumbling noise, then vanished to reveal the woman in the white dress and the black-armored man.
The woman was currently holding the golden disk, and her face was deathly pale, but the silver light in her eyes was extremely piercing and bright. She currently wore an expression that seemed to be a mixture of incredulity, elation, and hesitation, while the black-armored man was inspecting the surrounding area in a slightly surprised manner.
The Deity Transformation Stage leader of the devilish guards swept his spiritual sense toward the duo and was immediately given a massive fright. Both the woman in white and the black-armored man possessed magic power that was completely unfathomable to him.
Thus, the leader of the guards immediately jumped off his steed with astonishment in his heart, and carefully asked, "I am Shi Shuo of the Violent Devil Race; may I ask which race you are from and whether you require my assistance with anything?"
The black-armored man appraised the group of devilish guards with a cold expression before turning to the woman with a respectful look in his eyes. "Mistress, what do you want me to do with them?"
"Seeing as they've discovered us, they can't be allowed to live," the woman replied without even looking up from her disk.
Her voice was completely emotionless, as if this group of devilish guards were only ants in her eyes.
A ruthless light appeared in the black-armored man's eyes as he gave an affirmative reply, then turned toward the Violent Devils with a bloodthirsty expression.
"Run!"
The leader of the devilish guards immediately knew that something was wrong upon hearing the conversation between the duo, and he instantly shot back while raising a hand to release a fist-sized bead. At the same time, a giant black blade appeared beneath his feet, and he combined as one with the blade before fleeing toward the cluster of coral islands as a streak of black light.
The other devilish guards were naturally very alarmed to see this, and they also immediately fled the scene.
The black-armored man cackled as he swept both arms through the air, releasing two bursts of black Qi that swept through the surrounding area.
All types of demonic insects could be seen within the black Qi, and they immediately inundated the fleeing devilish guards, following which a string of bloodcurdling howls rang out in quick succession.
He then cast his gaze toward the streak of black light, which had fled to several thousand feet away at this point, and set off in pursuit as a gust of black wind.
Moments later, a howl of anguish rang out, and he returned carrying a bloody head in one hand.
He tossed the head into the black Qi, then returned to the woman's side as a respectful expression reappeared on his face.
At this point, the bloodcurdling cries ringing out from within the black Qi had also subsided, and the black Qi flew back into the black-armored man's body.
Throughout this entire process, the woman's eyes had remained completely glued to the golden disk in her hand, and there was a hesitant look on her face.
