Immediately, before Li Hai could reply, the Dao Essence suddenly let out a sinister laugh:
"Fortunately, fortunately, Master did not underestimate the enemy this time and didn't just send me alone."
As soon as he finished speaking, the ground beneath them suddenly shook violently.
Boom ~ Boom ~ Boom ~
Accompanied by enormous sounds and tremors, the ground beneath Li Hai's feet instantly cracked open into deep, hideous, and thick ravines.
But Li Hai reacted very quickly; seeing that the situation was not right, he first used his whip as a Dao, slicing off the Dao Essence's already nearly half-severed neck with one 'slice,' revealing a Strong One's Shard.
Then, he swiftly flickered his body, retreating abruptly to the top of a ruined building a hundred zhang away.
Once there, he lowered his head to observe the continuously shaking ground.
Then Li Hai saw that from between the cracks and ravines in the ground, countless dense, eerie green vines inexplicably emerged.
The surfaces of these vines, whether thick or thin, were all covered with an uncountable number of pale white flowers.
And in the core of each flower, a pitch-black eyeball gurgled out, staring fixedly at Li Hai, who stood high on the ruins.
Whoosh—
In an instant, under the gaze of thousands of black eyeballs, Li Hai suddenly felt his Essence Qi begin to inexplicably weaken, and the rate of decline was extremely rapid, as if thousands of mouths had burrowed into his body and were devouring it greedily.
However, Li Hai was not anxious, and he instantly understood the cause of his abnormal state—it was these vines that had emerged from underground, covered with a multitude of eyeballs.
Character Name: Unknown
Rank: Spirit Monster → Green Rank, Bloodline Divine Power → High Grade
Skills Possessed: "Abnormal Monster Life Source," "Void Thorn Eye," "Harmful Plant Poison Blood," "Root Node Stationed Ground"
Trait Entries: 【Strong Soul Level 2】 【Iron Body Level 1】 【Physical Strength Level 3】 【Self-Healing Level 3】 【Pupil Technique Level 3】 【Toxicity Level 3】 【Nutrient Absorption Level 3】
Strong One's Shard: None
This was an extremely rare Spirit Monster with a Bloodline Divine Power, completely breaking Li Hai's original mindset that only humans could possess Divine Abilities.
At the same time, the reason for Li Hai's rapid decline in Essence Qi was precisely due to the vine monster's Bloodline Divine Power—"Void Thorn Eye."
This Divine Ability could rapidly and inexplicably seize the enemy's Essence Qi from a long distance to use for itself, and the enemy whose life force was taken would quickly weaken and lose combat power, even eventually dying from physical decay and exhaustion.
Li Hai only understood all of this after learning all of the vine monster's skills.
And his method for resolving his current predicament was also very simple: he opened the Guiyou Cave Heaven portal at his chest, directly opening the gate and releasing water, allowing streams of water to immerse his body, and then activating the "Northern Du Reversal of Fate Profound Skill."
Under the miraculous ability of this wondrous skill, all of his lost Essence Qi was immediately replenished.
The rapidly expanding sense of fatigue that threatened to fill his body and mind also immediately vanished.
But just then, from the crisscrossing cracks and ravines all around Li Hai, hundreds of strange creatures with frog faces, turtle bodies, and human limbs suddenly leaped out.
As soon as these monsters, seemingly crossbred from frogs, turtles, and humans, appeared, they all raised their heads, opened their mouths wide, and spewed out large quantities of thick black mist.
And as soon as this black mist was sprayed from the monsters' mouths, it rapidly spread and enveloped all directions, like black ink dropped into a large basin of clear water.
Naturally, Li Hai was also surrounded and covered by it.
However, in the instant before he was enveloped by this vast expanse of black mist, he also clearly saw the personal interface of these monsters—
Character Name: Unknown
Rank: Yao Beast → Intermediate
Skills Possessed: "Demonic Form Beast Aspect," "Concealing Divine Mist," "Poisonous Sticky Demonic Body"
Trait Entries: 【Strong Soul Level 1】 【Physical Strength Level 1】 【Self-Healing Level 2】 【Toxicity Level 2】
Strong One's Shard: None
"It's actually a group of Yao Beasts."
Feeling his spiritual perception severely obscured by the black mist, Li Hai couldn't help but sneer coldly:
"So that's it, so these black mists can indeed blind one's perception. Heh, but... raising Spirit Monsters and raising Yao Beasts, Old Ghost Lang, you're really busy, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am quite busy."
A faint voice came from within the black mist, "So... you who have disturbed my busy life, can you please just die now?"
This, surprisingly, was Lang Yun-sheng's voice.
And as soon as his voice fell, four Dao Essences, all shimmering with silver light, suddenly rushed out from within the surrounding black mist. Each of them wielded dual Dao and carried layers of chilling Dao waves, all striking at Li Hai.
But facing such a perilous encirclement, Li Hai threw his head back and laughed loudly:
"Good, good, good! Four shards, this is truly excellent!"
Amidst his laughter, he instantly wildly swung the twin whips in his hands, furiously brandishing thousands of crimson whip shadows, and dragging along thousands of layers of true void Qi blades, near or far, from the ends of those whip shadows, crashing down layer upon layer onto himself and the four Dao Essences within a hundred zhang radius.
In an instant, this vast area suffered an intense bombardment akin to a missile swarm.
Boom boom boom boom boom!!!
And amidst this continuous bombardment, countless shimmering silver Dao lights and blood-red whip shadows constantly flickered and appeared, clashing and slicing each other, continuously destroying various houses, and continuously tearing apart various living beings.
Thus, many hidden bandits, frog-faced turtle-shelled Yao Beasts, and those strange vines emerging from the ground were all blasted and cut into large piles of bloody ash and flesh by the aftermath of the battle between Li Hai and the four Dao Essences.
Not much time passed, and the originally dense and swirling layers of Dao light became fewer and fewer, eventually disappearing completely.
Clearly, the four Dao Essences had all been slain by Li Hai in the vast black mist, one by one.
"Amazing, truly amazing."
Lang Yun-sheng's voice sounded again, "I never thought you, so young, could reach the realm of routing a thousand armies. This is an unprecedented feat within Great Jing."
As the voice ended, what slowly floated out from the black mist... was surprisingly not Lang Yun-sheng's familiar face.
Instead, it was a child wearing a black robe with a pale face, appearing to be only about ten years old.
"You are not Lang Yun-sheng."
Li Hai was not in a hurry to act. He observed the boy slowly floating closer, whose personal interface information he couldn't see at all, and said indifferently, "Who exactly are you?"
"I am Lang Yun-sheng."
The child bared his teeth and smiled, "It's just that this body... is not my true body."
"I think I understand."
Smelling the strong salty scent emanating from the other party, Li Hai frowned and said coldly, "This Clone of yours was made from the children sacrificed by the Yu Family Village of Li Lake, wasn't it?"
"Oh, you guessed correctly."
Lang Yun-sheng (Clone) clapped his small hands in congratulation, then slowly said in an old voice that didn't match his body's age, "Pickled children are indeed a main ingredient for making Dharma puppets, and also a refining material for many Qimen Arts."