282: Chapter 282 Dragon Beast Illusion

The viscous blood water submerged his knees, and every step forward required a significant amount of effort.

Ye Tian carried the Dragon Ape on his back, trekking with difficulty, while the Evil Qi in the air constantly eroded his protective True Qi.

If this continued, even with the protection of the chaos bead, he feared he would fall into madness.

"Little Dragon, hold on, we are almost at the opposite shore."

The Dragon Ape barely lifted its eyelids, emitting a vague whimper from its throat. The blood-colored mark on its right claw flickered slightly, seemingly both repelling and yearning for the surrounding Evil Qi.

Suddenly, Ye Tian's footsteps halted, his muscles instantly tensing.

Not far ahead, the blood water rippled silently, as if something was approaching rapidly beneath the surface!

It was not a floating corpse; the speed and trajectory of the ripples clearly indicated a living creature!

"Something is wrong!"

Ye Tian shouted lowly, shielding the Dragon Ape behind him while holding the liuguang sword horizontally across his chest.

"Splash!"

Just three zhang ahead, the blood water suddenly exploded!

Several dark red, semi-transparent figures lunged out, attacking Ye Tian directly!

These figures had no fixed form, coalesced from blood water and Evil Qi, vaguely resembling twisted human or beast silhouettes, with two flickering scarlet ghost fires where their eyes should be!

They were Blood Fiend Wraiths!

These were strange entities born from the combination of the remnant Souls of fallen powerhouses and endless Evil Qi within the Dragon Slaying Abyss. They existed between energy and spirit forms; physical attacks had little effect, yet they could directly attack the Divine Soul and trigger a backlash of the Evil Qi within the target's body!

"Roar!"

Although the Dragon Ape was severely injured, its instinctual reaction as a Yao Beast against such spiritual threats remained. It struggled to open its mouth and spat out a small wisp of pale white flame.

The flame scorched the Wraith charging at the front, emitting a "hissing" sound. The Wraith then let out a shrill screech, its form fading significantly, but it did not dissipate. Instead, it lunged even more frantically, its screech causing a sharp pain in Ye Tian's head.

Ye Tian's eyes hardened; physical sword strikes would likely be ineffective.

He focused his Divine Sense while simultaneously drawing upon the Sword Intent within the ancient sword pill, infusing it into the liuguang sword.

The light on the sword blade turned dark gold, and he thrust out several times towards the lunging Wraiths!

"Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!"

Wherever the sword light passed, the figures of the Wraiths were eroded by the Sword Intent, emitting even more shrill screams before turning into a few wisps of even more violent Evil Qi, dispersing into the air.

However, eliminating these few Wraiths consumed a significant amount of Ye Tian's mental energy and True Qi, causing his already pale face to turn even paler.

"This damn place is indeed dangerous." Ye Tian's heart sank.

They had only just left the shallow beach of the blood lake and already encountered such things.

The lake was vast; who knew how many more were hidden within?

Moreover, although the Evil Qi dissipated after the Wraiths were destroyed could be indirectly utilized by the blood fiend crystal, direct contact posed an even greater impact on the mind.

He dared not linger and quickened his pace, trekking towards the opposite shore.

Along the way, they encountered three more Wraith attacks, with the numbers increasing each time. Once, more than a dozen appeared simultaneously. Among them, one was significantly larger with denser Evil Qi, and it could even briefly resist the erosion of the ancient sword pill's Sword Intent, causing Ye Tian considerable trouble. His arm was clawed, leaving several wounds that seeped with black Qi, and the Evil Qi crazily burrowed into his body.

He had no choice but to use the chaos bead again to suppress it.

By the time they finally stepped onto the opposite shore, Ye Tian was panting, having added new injuries, and the suppressed Evil Qi within his body began to stir, with most of his True Qi consumed.

The Dragon Ape's condition was even worse, its breath weak, drifting between consciousness and unconsciousness.

The scene on the opposite shore was even more shocking than it appeared from a distance.

The white skeletons of some giant creature were half-buried in black rocks and dark red crystals, stretching for hundreds of zhang, with remnants of long-rusted weapons still stuck in some of the bones.

In the center surrounded by the skeletons, one could see a collapsed architectural ruin, with the broken walls and ruins covered in marks left by battles.

The fragment was pointing directly towards the center of those ruins.

Ye Tian supported the Dragon Ape and carefully made his way through.

The dead, silent Evil Qi in the air was heavier, and there was an additional sense of heavy pressure.

Just as they approached a half-collapsed archway at the edge of the ruins, the dark red patterns on the open ground of the ruins behind the archway suddenly lit up with an eerie red light simultaneously!

A Formation covering a range of several tens of zhang was triggered!

The red light soared into the sky, forming an inverted bowl-shaped barrier, instantly enveloping Ye Tian and the Dragon Ape!

At the same time, the ground at the center of the Formation split open, and a surge of dense dark gold Evil Qi gushed out, rapidly coalescing in the air into a Dragon Beast phantom! It was about the same size as the previous Bat King, composed entirely of dark gold Evil Qi, resembling a lizard with bone spurs on its back and a single horn on its head!

Although this phantom was blurry, the pressure it emitted had clearly reached the Peak of the Early Stage of the Sea Transformation Realm, stronger than the Bat King in its prime!

Two dark gold Soul flames burned within its hollow eye sockets, locking firmly onto the uninvited guests who had intruded into the Formation.

"A Formation? A protective Restriction? Or... a trap?"

Ye Tian's heart shook violently.

This was definitely not naturally formed!

Was it a protective measure left over from ancient times, or laid down by a later arrival?

But there was no time to think, as the Dragon Beast phantom had already let out a silent roar and lunged towards them!

"Little Dragon, get out of the way!"

Ye Tian shoved the Dragon Ape behind a huge rib bone nearby, then roared, injecting his remaining True Qi into the liuguang sword, and once again unleashed "Ancient Sword · Void Breaker" to meet the lunging Dragon Beast phantom!

He knew that when facing such a thing coalesced from Evil Qi, one side had to fall for it to end!

"Boom!"

The dark gold sword radiance collided with the Dragon Beast's sharp claws!

The violent impact exploded within the Formation's barrier, causing the ground to crack and rubble to fly everywhere.

Ye Tian only felt a surge of energy mixed with monstrous Evil Qi and Dragon Might slam heavily onto his sword, passing through to his body!

"Pfft!"

Ye Tian immediately spat out a mouthful of blood and flew backward, crashing into the light wall at the edge of the Formation's barrier, bouncing back, and falling to the ground, his vision going black.

The cracks on the liuguang sword widened, and its spiritual light dimmed.

His chest hurt terribly, and he didn't know how many ribs were broken.

The Dragon Beast phantom was also knocked back several zhang, its form fading slightly, but the Soul flames in its eyes burned even more fiercely, clearly completely enraged.

"Master!"

The Dragon Ape saw this scene from behind the rib bone, its eyes splitting with anger, struggling to climb up, but its injuries were too severe, and it fell back to the ground just as it stood up.

The Evil Qi Dragon Beast phantom adjusted its form and lunged again. This time, it opened its huge mouth, and a breath of dark gold Evil Qi spewed out, carrying an aura of destruction, enveloping the fallen and immobile Ye Tian!

Life and death hung by a thread!

Ye Tian could even smell the scent of death contained within that breath.

He struggled to raise his hand, but felt his arms as heavy as iron.

Was he going to die here?

Suddenly, the fragment in Ye Tian's embrace and the ancient sword pill both erupted with light simultaneously!

The moment the Dragon Beast's breath touched this light, it actually faltered slightly, its power sharply reduced!

At the same time, the Sword Intent fragments regarding "Gu Hong" in Ye Tian's mind danced frantically, creating a confrontation with the Evil Qi of the Dragon Beast phantom!

Ye Tian instantly understood what was happening.

The core of this Dragon Beast phantom's power was a product of ancient Dragon Slaying Evil Qi mixed with some kind of Battle Intent and Sword Intent!

And the Sword Intent of "Gu Hong" had very likely battled the source of this Dragon Slaying Evil Qi, and might even be one of the existences that killed or sealed it!

Therefore, they were of the same Origin, yet mutually restraining!

"Roar!"

The Dragon Beast seemed extremely wary of the aura from the fragment and the ancient sword pill, letting out an angry roar, its lunging movement hesitating.

How rich was Ye Tian's combat experience; he immediately drove the last trace of True Qi in his Dantian and the Origin of the ancient sword pill, merging it into the "Gu Hong" Sword Intent, using his finger as a sword, and pointed it into the air at the core of the Dragon Beast phantom!

"Break!"

The Dragon Beast phantom immediately let out an earth-shattering, painful hiss, its body trembling violently, and the core mass of Evil Qi in its chest frantically dissipated.

The Soul flames in its hollow eye sockets "stared" fixedly at Ye Tian for a moment, as if wanting to brand him, then it let out a roar of unwillingness, and its entire body collapsed with a bang, turning into light dots across the sky. Most were absorbed by the Formation, while a small portion turned into Evil Qi energy and dissipated into the air.

As the Dragon Beast phantom dissipated, the dark red Formation barrier that had enveloped them also flickered a few times, slowly dimming and disappearing.

The glowing patterns on the ground also faded back into hiding.