107: Time is running out

The half-formed evil spirit, charging towards Xiao Shi, had its hands rapidly swell and enlarge, transforming into massive black claws that tore through the air and exploded, fiercely striking Xiao Shi.

However, the entire black claw passed directly through Xiao Shi's body.

What it hit was merely the afterimage of Xiao Shi's high-speed movement.

At this moment, Xiao Shi had already flashed past the half-formed evil spirit, appearing behind it.

At the same time, a deep black blade light, at the instant Xiao Shi flashed past its front, ferociously slashed at the chest of this half-formed evil spirit.

Yet, it produced a clang of metal.

Sparks flew.

His slash surprisingly failed to break through the body of this half-formed evil spirit, only leaving a white mark.

"So hard!"

Xiao Shi felt as if he had slashed a hard piece of metal.

The body of an evil spirit was inherently very tough.

Moreover, it seemed to possess a certain resistance to Qi Strength.

This prevented Xiao Shi's strike from causing any substantial damage.

Xiao Shi simply put away his Qi Severing Blade.

With a fierce stomp on the ground, he transformed into a rampaging Wild Bull, and amidst a roar, the surrounding air violently exploded. With an astonishing speed, he fiercely charged into the half-formed evil spirit.

This was precisely the body-refining technique... Raging Bull Ram!

The air boomed and shattered.

Low, sharp shrieks echoed continuously.

This was the first time Xiao Shi had unleashed this body-refining technique.

The power of this body-refining technique primarily depended on the physical body's strength.

The stronger the physical body, the more astonishing its power would be.

With Xiao Shi's current powerful physical body, coupled with the terrifying speed bonus from cultivating Vajra Tendons, the Raging Bull Ram he unleashed had already reached an extremely terrifying level of power.

The half-formed evil spirit hadn't even had time to turn around.

Xiao Shi had already rammed into it from behind.

Crack!

The body of the half-formed evil spirit instantly shattered like cracked porcelain under Xiao Shi's impact, exploding into countless fragments that scattered everywhere.

Xiao Shi was not surprised by this outcome.

His physical strength after cultivating Vajra Tendons was now far superior to his Qi Strength.

It could be said that physical strength was currently his most powerful force!

Furthermore, evil spirits had a certain resistance to Qi Strength.

Using physical strength to kill them was clearly the fastest and most effective method.

At the same time.

With the death of the evil spirit.

A cloud of black mist suddenly drifted out from the many fragments of the dead evil spirit.

This black mist was not a Wandering Soul.

But it shared some similarities with Wandering Souls.

As soon as it appeared, it automatically circled around Xiao Shi.

"This is..."

Xiao Shi gazed at the black mist, lost in thought.

He had wondered before.

If he killed an evil spirit, would a Wandering Soul also appear?

He knew that evil spirits were usually formed from corpse souls, and Wandering Souls were also a type of transformation from corpse souls.

To some extent... Wandering Souls and evil spirits, though different, could be roughly categorized together.

It wasn't impossible for an evil spirit to become a Wandering Soul after being killed.

But the fact that the evil spirit formed a cloud of black mist after death... this was somewhat beyond Xiao Shi's expectations.

"Unless this evil spirit... was not formed from a corpse soul!"

A sharp glint flashed in Xiao Shi's eyes.

He had noticed earlier.

This evil spirit did not have Evil Restraining Nails on its body!

One must know.

The evil spirits they had killed around Jin Yun City were all created by Evil Restraining Nails.

But these evil spirits that appeared this time.

None of them had Evil Restraining Nails.

Clearly, they were not created by Evil Restraining Nails.

After all, creating evil spirits with Evil Restraining Nails required numerous corpses.

With most of the martial artists in Seven Stars Province having entered the Seven Stars Holy Land, the Heretical Organization had no way to obtain so many corpses.

Therefore, they adopted another method for creating evil spirits.

Xiao Shi realized that this black mist that had appeared... was very likely the key to the Heretical Organization's other method of creating evil spirits.

After a brief period of thought.

Xiao Shi tried to absorb this black mist through his wristband.

The vortex emitted by the wristband directly sucked in the black mist.

Just like accumulating Wandering Souls into the wristband.

After absorbing this black mist.

The Battle Soul in the wristband showed a slight, noticeable improvement!

"It works!"

Xiao Shi's eyes lit up.

Although he didn't know what this black mist was... the effect of accumulating it in the wristband was the same as with Wandering Souls!

Both could enhance the Battle Soul within the wristband.

This made him very happy.

He then turned his gaze to the item dropped after the evil spirit's death.

He picked it up.

This was clearly a heavenly material and earthly treasure!

Heavenly materials and earthly treasures were considered medium-grade items among Entering Martial Rank items.

Usually, only by killing martial artists in the middle and late stages of the Qi Martial Realm would it be relatively easy to drop medium-grade Qi Warrior Grade items.

But the evil spirit Xiao Shi had just killed... was an evil spirit comparable to the early stage of the Qi Martial Realm!

"Could it be..."

"Items dropped by killing evil spirits are one grade higher than items dropped by killing martial artists?"

A guess couldn't help but surface in Xiao Shi's mind.

When he killed evil spirits in the Entering Martial Realm, he already noticed that evil spirits tended to drop high-grade items.

Now, merely killing a seven-mark evil spirit comparable to the early Qi Martial Realm had actually dropped a medium-grade heavenly material and earthly treasure!

If his guess was true.

Then he would only need to kill an eight-mark evil spirit, comparable to the middle Qi Martial Realm, to perhaps drop high-grade items!

This speculation immediately made Xiao Shi's heart beat faster.

Under normal circumstances, he would need to kill martial artists at the Qi Warrior Realm Great Perfection to drop high-grade items.

And given the strength of those at the Qi Warrior Realm Great Perfection, killing them was extremely difficult.

Especially now that he had left the Seven Stars Holy Land, there was even less chance.

If killing an eight-mark evil spirit, comparable to the middle Qi Martial Realm, could drop high-grade items... then he would undoubtedly have a great opportunity to obtain high-grade items!

Xiao Shi's heart was exceptionally fervent.

He couldn't wait to find an eight-mark evil spirit to try.

Under the night sky.

His figure constantly weaved through the darkness.

Although he hadn't fully entered the Taiyin, in this state, he was not easily detected.

While searching for eight-mark evil spirits, Xiao Shi also cleared out the many evil spirits he encountered.

Once he discovered that killing evil spirits with physical strength was more effective than Taiyin Qi Strength, he became even faster at eliminating these evil spirits.

Especially with his current astonishing speed.

Often, these evil spirits hadn't even reacted.

Before they were already rammed to death by him!

As he killed these evil spirits... he was surprised to find.

After dealing with each evil spirit, a cloud of black mist would emerge from its corpse, which would then be absorbed by the wristband.

"The mysterious badge clearly only has a ten percent chance of forming a Wandering Soul after a kill, but with evil spirits, it seems to be one hundred percent!!"

Xiao Shi was very surprised by this.

He knew that this must involve some level he couldn't access.

It seemed to be related to "souls"!

He then stopped thinking about it.

By killing these evil spirits and obtaining the black mist, he continuously strengthened the Battle Soul within his wristband.

"If I keep improving it like this... I wonder if there's a chance to raise this Battle Soul above the Blood Martial Realm?"

Xiao Shi was very much looking forward to this.

At the same time.

The items dropped from killing these evil spirits also brought him great rewards.

After continuously killing several six-mark and seven-mark evil spirits, he successfully harvested several clusters of special aura.

Xiao Shi immediately used the mysterious badge to convert these special auras into Grand Yin Qi.

Although it took two clusters of special aura to convert into one cluster of Grand Yin Qi.

This was currently an important way to obtain Grand Yin Qi.

However, just one cluster of Grand Yin Qi was not enough to open a Qi Vortex; he still needed to accumulate more Grand Yin Qi.

Xiao Shi swiftly cleared out all the evil spirits he encountered.

Yet, he still couldn't find an eight-mark evil spirit comparable to the middle Qi Martial Realm.

After all, before these disciples at the initial stage of the Qi Martial Realm took action, other Qi Martial Realm disciples of various levels had already cleared out these powerful evil spirits.

What was left for them were only six-mark and seven-mark evil spirits.

Evil spirits of eight marks and above were almost nowhere to be seen.

And so.

Under the continuous clearing by everyone.

Three days later.

All the evil spirits in the entire Nan Lie Mountain were completely cleared out.

Although somewhat tired, everyone felt greatly invigorated, believing this to be a good omen. Since they could clear out the evil spirits on Nan Lie Mountain, they believed they could also clear out the evil spirits within Seven Stars Province.

At the same time, after clearing these evil spirits, Guo Chengdao immediately began to arrange rescue operations for Jin Yun City.

The situation in Jin Yun City was critical.

They had to rush there as soon as possible.

Moreover, this rescue would involve a certain degree of danger.

Although Jin Yun City was not too far from Nan Lie Mountain.

But with the entire Seven Stars Province now infested with numerous evil spirits, they would surely encounter many evil spirits on their way to Jin Yun City.

Regarding this.

Guo Chengdao decided to have three Blood Martial Realm Elders personally lead the team.

And dispatch more than eighty percent of the disciples, all to Jin Yun City.

The sect had its sect-protecting array; as long as Guo Chengdao stayed to guard it, there wouldn't be much of a problem.

But Jin Yun City required a large number of people to resist the rampage of those evil spirits.

Otherwise, it would surely be annihilated by the evil spirits.

Soon.

The many disciples who were about to head to Jin Yun City gathered after being summoned.

Xiao Shi was also among them.

The three Blood Martial Realm Elders responsible for leading the team, after a period of rest, had all recovered to their optimal state.

"Depart!"

With the command from the three Elders.

Everyone followed suit, beginning their advance towards Jin Yun City.

Although they had anticipated a large number of evil spirits outside... when they walked out of Nan Lie Mountain.

They were still stunned by a dense, seemingly endless expanse of evil spirits.

"Heavens... Good heavens!!"

"This is... too many!!"

Everyone had thought the evil spirits on Nan Lie Mountain were already numerous.

But compared to the evil spirits they saw now... there was simply no comparison!

Even the three Blood Martial Realm Elders, upon seeing the scene before them, had their eyes widen and their faces turn blank.

They also hadn't expected the evil spirits to have multiplied to such an extent.

Looking out... it was simply an ocean of evil spirits!

To push through so many evil spirits all the way to Jin Yun City, even with their numbers and strength, they would surely suffer heavy losses!

Many people, upon seeing this scene, already felt their legs turn to jelly.

The three Blood Martial Realm Elders exchanged glances, their faces etched with solemnity.

"We thought we wouldn't need it, but who knew... we'd have to use it right after setting off."

One of the Elders sighed.

He directly took out a tiger talisman.

He pressed his palms together, sandwiching the tiger talisman between them, and with the infusion of his internal power.

Whoosh!

The tiger talisman in his hand instantly melted, transforming into a fiery red energy that resembled flames. This energy spread out with extreme speed.

It not only enveloped his body but also covered and wrapped around the bodies of all nearby Red Tiger Sect disciples.

If one were to observe from the outside at this moment, they would clearly see... that the crimson energy enveloping everyone's bodies had actually converged to form an enormous Crimson Tiger!

The entire Crimson Tiger was about five meters tall, and its body length reached over ten meters.

The three Blood Martial Realm Elders were positioned at the tiger's head.

The others were located within the tiger's body.

"Inject all your Qi Strength into the tiger's body!"

One of the Elders said in a deep voice.

Upon hearing this, everyone complied.

They injected their respective Qi Strength into the body of this Crimson Tiger.

Boom!

With the infusion of numerous Qi Strengths.

The entire Crimson Tiger's aura grew even stronger, and the energy fluctuations on its body became more intense.

Under the control of the Elder who had taken out the tiger talisman, the Crimson Tiger moved its four limbs, transforming into a crimson lightning bolt, and instantly dashed forward.

As it passed, the many evil spirits around it all exploded.

They were utterly unable to obstruct the Crimson Tiger's advance.

Even some powerful adult evil spirits... that stood before the Crimson Tiger were directly sent flying by its charge.

The entire Crimson Tiger maintained its super-high speed, continuously advancing towards Jin Yun City.

Everyone within the Crimson Tiger's body felt the tiger's swift dash with awe and excitement.

They had not expected the sect to possess such a powerful method.

It was just that the consumption of Qi Strength... was quite enormous.

Their internal Qi Strength was constantly draining as the Crimson Tiger sped forward.

It wouldn't be long.

Before their internal Qi Strength would be completely exhausted.

However, as long as they could safely reach Jin Yun City, even if their Qi Strength was depleted, it would be worth it... At the same time.

On a plain and hilly area in Seven Stars Province, scattered small groves of trees could occasionally be seen, like sparse embellishments on a gray-black carpet.

At the top of one such hill.

A figure cloaked in a black robe and a tall figure in black armor, with black smoke swirling around his armor, stood side by side, overlooking the vast multitude of evil spirits below.

"Well done."

The tall figure in black armor praised, his eyes beneath his helmet as deep as a black abyss.

"As long as you're satisfied," the Heretical Organization member in the black robe said in a low, hoarse voice. "To think... we two parties would actually have a day of cooperation."

The tall figure in black armor heard this and said indifferently.

"In this world, there are no eternal enemies."

The Heretical Organization member grinned.

"I hope we'll have more opportunities to cooperate in the future."

After speaking.

His body flowed to the ground like sand, disappearing into thin air.

The tall figure in black armor's gaze still overlooked the area below, and he murmured softly.

"Next time? There won't be a next time..."

At the same time.

A figure swiftly arrived from a distance, coming directly behind the tall figure in black armor, kneeling on one knee, and bowing.

"Greetings, my lord!"

The tall figure in black armor did not turn around.

He merely said indifferently.

"I heard your losses were significant this time?"

"Yes..."

The figure below spoke in a heavy voice.

"Seven Stars Province will soon be annihilated, you don't have much time left."

The figure below trembled upon hearing this.

"Your subordinate... understands."

Just then, a ray of sunlight shone down, illuminating the figure below, revealing his face in the sunlight.

It was none other than... the Palace Master of Flying Origin Palace!