135: The parliament set an ambush to seize the elixir

"Noisy."

Li Dong spat out two words, and he had already vanished from where he stood.

He was not aiming for those clamoring black-robed figures, but was heading straight for the contaminated Spiritual Plant on the stone platform.

Capture the ringleader first, strike the snake at its seven inches; get the treasure in hand first, then settle accounts with this bunch slowly.

"Stop him!" the leader reacted extremely quickly, shouting angrily as he slammed both hands onto the ground.

Hum—

The massive and complex "Evil Energy Vortex Formation" underground was instantly activated, and countless gray energy lines, invisible to the naked eye, shot up from the ground like an airtight fishing net, covering Li Dong from head to toe.

Li Dong's forward momentum suddenly stalled; he felt as if he had rushed into a mass of sticky glue, and every movement required several times more Spirit energy than usual.

"Hahaha! Li Dong, did you think we hadn't guarded against this move of yours?" A black-robed figure, as thin and dry as a bamboo pole and wielding a huge white Bone Scythe, walked out from the shadows. He must be the leader of this group, with a cultivation of Golden Core Early Stage, but his aura was chillingly sinister.

His eyes, deeply sunken in the shadow of his hood, flickered with a morbid fanaticism: "Welcome to the graveyard tailored for you by the Shadow Council! My name is Bone Scythe, and I will be the one to personally close your coffin lid!"

"Bone Scythe?" Li Dong stopped and looked around. Besides this newly emerged Golden Core Elder, the other five black-robed figures each occupied a position, locking him in tightly. He curled his lip, "Never heard of you. It seems that everyone of note in the Shadow Council has been killed by me, so they can only send trash like you to make up the numbers."

"You are courting death!" Elder Bone Scythe was thoroughly enraged by his contemptuous attitude; he slammed the Bone Scythe in his hand heavily onto the ground, emitting a dull thud.

"Clack! Clack, clack!"

The ground began to shake, and the soil churned in several places, as if something was about to crawl out. Immediately after, three massive skeletal monsters burst from the ground! These monsters retained the outlines of the Yao Beast they were in life, but their entire skeletons presented a pitch-black color tainted by evil energy, and two clusters of ghostly red fire burned in their empty eye sockets.

The aura of Golden Core Early Stage, three of them! And they were fearless, knowing only how to execute orders.

"Just this?" Li Dong glanced at the three bone beasts, a bit disappointed, "I thought there might be some new tricks."

Elder Bone Scythe laughed strangely in anger: "To deal with you, it's enough! Attack, tear him to pieces!"

"Roar!"

The three evil-energy bone beasts roared, taking heavy strides, and rushed toward Li Dong from three directions, carrying a stench of decay. Their speed was completely inconsistent with their massive size, shockingly fast.

"Well done."

Li Dong did not retreat but advanced, and a layer of fine black scales instantly appeared on his body surface; it was the Black Scale Armor. He couldn't be bothered to dodge and charged directly at the bone beast in front.

Bang!

A loud noise, like a speeding truck hitting a wall.

The bone beast's massive impact force only made Li Dong take half a step back, while its own hard arm bone, at the moment of contact with the Black Scale Armor, emitted an unbearable "crack" sound and split into several fissures.

Just then, the attacks of the other two bone beasts arrived. One on the left and one on the right, two huge bone claws, carrying the sound of breaking wind, fiercely grabbed toward his back and head.

Li Dong did not even turn his head, striking out with a palm in reverse.

"Get lost!"

A purple-gold Demon Suppression Seal condensed out of thin air; it was the Heavenly Pill Sky-Rending Demon Suppression Seal! The seal rotated, carrying a magnificent heavenly might that suppressed all evil, and smashed fiercely onto the head of the bone beast on the left.

Boom!

The entire head of that bone beast, along with the ghostly fire burning inside, was smashed to pieces by the seal; its massive body swayed twice, collapsed with a bang, and scattered into a pile of black broken bones.

But the attack from the other side could not be completely avoided.

Sshhh!

The bone claw grazed past his shoulder blade, leaving a series of harsh friction sounds and several white marks on the Black Scale Armor.

Li Dong frowned. These things were more troublesome than imagined. Not because of their strength, but because they had absolutely no sense of pain, and their coordination was seamless.

"It's not over yet!" Elder Bone Scythe's voice sounded again; he seemed to enjoy this process of a cat playing with a mouse, "Li Dong, do you feel it? This ancient herb garden is rejecting you! Every inch of land here is your enemy!"

Following his words, the surrounding environment changed again. The remaining ancient Restrictions in the herb garden were activated by his evil techniques, and strange runes lit up on the ground. Thick vines seemed to come alive, drilling out from underground, covered in barbs, and entangled toward Li Dong's feet. In the air, an invisible dust permeated, attempting to invade his Meridians and seal his Spirit energy.

These were the so-called "Spiritual traps."

"Interesting." Li Dong, while dealing with the remaining two bone beasts and the harassing attacks of the five black-robed figures, felt the changes around him.

These traps indeed caused him considerable trouble. The vines were tough, and the dust also had the effect of slowing down Spirit energy. The five elite Shadow Council members were even more insidious; their weapons were all poisoned, and they did not confront him head-on, but circled him like flies, occasionally stabbing from tricky angles, coordinating with the bone beasts and traps to constantly consume his energy.

However, at the moment Li Dong was bound by the power of these traps, his Spiritual Resonance caught a trace of an extremely faint anomaly.

These ancient Restrictions... are they resisting?

Yes, although they were forcibly driven by evil energy, deep within that filthy power, there still remained a trace of pure will that belonged to the herb garden itself. It was repelling the evil energy, and also... repelling him, an outsider. But compared to the evil energy, its repulsion toward him was much weaker.

This left room for maneuvering.

Li Dong's gaze crossed the heavy obstacles and once again cast toward the stone platform in the distance.

This time, he saw it more clearly.

On the stone platform, besides that contaminated "nine nether soul-suppressing grass" companion spiritual object, next to it, there was a completely different Spirit Medicine. That Spirit Medicine emitted a faint golden light throughout its body, its leaves resembling flames, filled with an aura of extreme Yang and extreme rigidity.

hao yang cleansing spirit flower!

The extreme Yang spiritual object that Wei Zheng mentioned, which grows on Red Flame Mountain! How could it be here?

Moreover, it was also shrouded by an evil Formation, and its golden light was being constantly extracted by the Formation, converted into nutrients to nourish that mutated evil grass.

"See that? Li Dong!" Elder Bone Scythe seemed very satisfied with the change in Li Dong's expression and laughed wildly, "Surprised? This 'hao yang cleansing spirit flower' was specially 'invited' for you from Red Flame Mountain! Not just it, but the other main ingredients needed to refine the 'Qian Yuan Cleansing Spirit Pill' have either been destroyed by us, or transferred to a place you will never find!"

"This flower, and that mutated 'nine nether blood soul grass', are the final 'surprise' we left for you! They will become the perfect trigger to pollute the Dragon veins! And you, you can only watch helplessly!"

So that's it.

Li Dong instantly understood all the connections. This scum from the Shadow Council not only wanted to snatch the medicine, but also wanted to use these Spirit Medicines that were supposed to save the world to conversely cause greater destruction.

What a move to draw the firewood from under the cauldron!

Just then, his Perfect Dao Body suddenly sent a palpitation.

This feeling was exactly the same as when he sensed the spiritual mark left by Ying Mei in the palace side hall earlier.

His Spiritual Domain suddenly probed deep into the underground, passing through the "Evil Energy Vortex Formation" and through the thick rock layers. Deep in the earth's veins of the herb garden, he "saw" a remnant of power. It was a piece of Forbidden Power that was ancient, chaotic, and filled with a destructive aura, originating from the same source as the power in the "Vortex Trap Zone."

This power was like the root system of a plant, infiltrating the land of this herb garden in threads, slowly and firmly nourishing all the evil on the ground.

So this was the root cause!

This entire herb garden had been transformed by them into a small "evil energy cultivation base"!

"You really talk too much."

Li Dong suddenly spoke, his voice not loud, but clearly transmitted to everyone's ears.

His eyes changed.

The ease and the trace of playful relaxation from before were gone. In their place was a bone-chilling coldness and undisguised murderous intent.

Cannot continue to drag this out with them.

For every extra second delayed, the Spirituality of that "hao yang cleansing spirit flower" would be devoured one part more, and the pollution of this land by the Forbidden Power underground would deepen by one part.

Must fight a quick battle to force a quick decision!

"Bone Scythe, is it?" Li Dong looked at the Golden Core Elder in the distance and slowly raised his right hand, "Do you people in the Shadow Council all like to state your plans before you die? What kind of strange tradition is this?"

Elder Bone Scythe's heart suddenly skipped a beat, and an ominous premonition surged into his mind.

"You... what do you want to do?"

"What do I want to do?" Li Dong smiled, but that smile had not a trace of warmth, "I originally just wanted to play with you, but since you are so eager to court death, I don't mind... sending you on your way."

"Today, let me show you what true power is."

The moment his voice fell, the Spirit energy within his body was no longer a trickle, but like a flood breaking through a dam, exploding with a roar! The power of the Purple Firmament Divine Lightning and the might of the Heavenly Pill Sky-Rending Demon Suppression Seal began to intersect and undergo Fusion in his palm in an unprecedented way.