Seeing that the large man possessed such confidence in the hall’s restrictions, Han Li blinked but said nothing else. Old Man Ma also felt somewhat doubtful of the bald man’s words and frowned.

Han Li smiled and suddenly said, “To tell the truth, although this matter is somewhat troublesome, there is no need to worry too much over it.”

Not daring to ignore Han Li given his previous accomplishments, the bald man hesitantly asked, “What does Brother Han mean?” Old Man Ma also looked at Han Li with astonishment.

Han Li rubbed his chin and said, “Our alliance leaders should surely know something of the Moulan spies infiltrating into the Heavenly South. They must’ve caught some in the past. So as long as this high grade cultivator was a spy, the Controlling Spirit Sect won’t be able to do much about it.

Since we all come from different alliances, most cultivators won’t think that we had deliberately framed the Controlling Spirit Sect Elder. As such, we only have to explain ourselves and deliver the information we acquired from the Moulan. Once they’ve verified this information, no trouble should come of this. I believe the Controlling Spirit Sect should’ve had their own misgivings about Elder Gu by now. Surely Fellow Daoist Gu wasn’t able to perfectly conceal everything after so many years. And even if they don’t, they should be able to find something suspicious from his past movements.”

The bald man unfurled his brow and suddenly revealed a white jade slip in his hand. He wore an odd expression and said, “Brother Han’s words are reasonable. I had also used a secret technique to record his previous words in a jade slip as well. We’ll be able to use it as evidence when the time comes.”

After hearing Han Li’s explanation and seeing the bald man’s jade slip, Old Man Ma breathed a sigh of relief. “That will do. It is a pity that Fellow Daoist Bu wasn’t able to come out and stand witness as his injuries were so severe that he had to conceal himself, but it won’t pose a problem.”

Once that was said, the three had a more detailed discussion about the matter when hisses suddenly sounded out from the silver light barrier. The three were greatly surprised by this and they glanced at each other with bewilderment.

Just as the bald man thought to take action, a huge explosion of flames ruptured from within the barrier. A green claw flew out and struck the light barrier like a bolt of lightning, causing it to fiercely tremble.

“What’s this? He still has the strength to shock the restriction.” The bald man was greatly alarmed and shouted with disbelief.

He then formed a incantation gesture and struck the barrier with a white spell seal, causing the numerous flowers of light to cease, revealing the scene inside.

The bald man and Old Man Ma felt their breaths turn cold. Han Li’s expression was also sullen. Gu Shuangpu had disappeared, only to be replaced with a half-man, half-demon serpent monster.

This monstrosity was wearing Gu Shuangpu’s clothes but its face and limb was entirely covered by green scales. Its two eyes were icily eerie and its ten fingers were razor sharp. It also had two meter-long tails that were gently tapping the floor.

The scaly face had clearly belonged to Gu Shuangpu. When it opened its mouth, its serpent tongue flickered and it uttered serpent hisses, much to the disgust and fear of those present.

When Old Man Ma clearly saw the monster’s appearance, his face turned deathly pale, and he fl.u.s.teredly shouted, “This is the Spiritfuse Technique! He had turned into one with the Twintailed Jade Serpent.”

When the bald man heard the old man, he also wore an expression of furious alarm. “Spiritfuse Technique? Isn’t that a lost secret technique? Does he not fear being banished from the cycle of reincarnation?”

Soon after, he rigidly stared at the serpentine monster as if it were a great enemy and his hastily slapped his storage pouch. In a flash of silver light, the restriction command talisman appeared in his hand.

The large man puffed a breath of spirit Qi on the medallion before tossing it into the air. But just as he began to hurriedly utter an incantation, the monster inside the barrier began to take action.

It sullenly swept its gaze past the three outside the barrier, and quickly flicked its tongue before splitting open its cheek and spitting out a purple-black liquid towards the three.

At that moment, the bald man saw this and ceased his incantation, pointing towards the command medallion instead. The medallion began to radiate with silver light and shot over ten silver spell seals at the barrier — each absorbed seal releasing a dragon’s cry. The barrier then flashed violently several times and grew thicker. And the countless silver flow within the barriers then began to condense at the top.

When the black-purple liquid struck the barrier, a small portion of the light barrier instantly turned black, and soon the color spread to nearly an area of three meters.

A malicious expression appeared on the serpent monster’s face. At that same moment, its two tails struck at the floor, launching it forward in a streak of green light and fiercely striking at the barrier with its claws. With a bang, a large hole was torn through the hardy barrier as if it were paper.

The monster was delighted by the sight of this and its body blurred as it attempted to escape. When the bald man saw this, he wore an expression of horror and spat out a white rod from his mouth, forming a curtain of light around his body.

Old Man Ma had also done the same. With a nervous expression, he spat out his ruler magic treasure and covered his body in a layer of light. The two clearly understood how fearsome was an early Nascent Soul cultivator that used the Spiritfuse Technique. Let alone its techniques, it cultivation should be on par with a mid Nascent Soul cultivator.

When the two saw the monster was about to escape, they naturally planned to fight it through a battle of attrition. They wouldn’t take the initiative to strike until it striked first. But at that moment, Han Li sighed with a helpless tone and decided to take action. With a faint blur, he closed the short distance and appeared in front of the tear in the barrier.

When the serpentine monster was just about to escape and saw Han Li blocking its way, a malicious gaze flickered from its eyes. Without a single trace or warning, it opened its mouth and spat out purple-black venom.

“Be careful! Fellow Daoist Han, quickly dodge!” The bald man and Old Man Ma both shouted in alarm. It wasn’t because of any concern from familiarity, but that they needed all the strength they could muster to fight against this monster, not to mention the looming threat of the spell warriors army.

Seemingly ignoring the two’s shouts of alarm, Han Li stared at the oncoming purple-black liquid and an odd expression flickered from his eyes. With a deliberate raise of his arm, he bent his fingers, covering them in a layer of flickering blue flames, and stretched his hand forward to grab the poison.

The two other Nascent Soul cultivators felt their heart drop at the sight of this. As for the serpentine monster, it spat out another blob of poison without any hesitation.

A nearly indistinct sneer appeared on Han Li’s face and blue light s.h.i.+ned from his eyes. An eruption of light suddenly appeared between Han Li and the monster. The brilliant light wildly flickered several times before quickly dimming.

The bald man and Old Man Ma hastily glinked and glanced over. What they saw left them in shock.

They simply saw the serpentine monster wear an expression of rapt delight just as it was about to escape the light barrier, but its body was now covered in sparkling crystal, turning into a blue ice sculpture. As for the venom, it had turned into a slim thread of ice that emerged from its mouth, spanning about a meter long.

At an unknown time, Han Li had appeared behind the monster and had placed his blue flaming hand on the back of the monster’s neck.

Han Li took his hand off of its neck and stared at the ice sculpture. “As expected, this is the first time the spiritfused monster has come to life. Although it was quite intelligent, its experience was far too shallow. There was nothing to be afraid off.” He then raised his other hand, and a dense arc of golden lightning shot out from his palm and struck the ice sculpture, swapping a slim net of golden lightning around it.

The blue radiance and the golden light fused together before promptly exploding, turning the ice sculpture into inch-sized chunks. With blue specks of light filling the air, a fist-sized black-purple object had shot out, but it was caught by the golden net. Inhuman wails soon began to scream from it.

A stern expression flickered from Han Li’s face. Han Li closed the hand that emitted the lightning and caused the net to constrict, rupturing it into golden brilliance and causing it to disappear from view.