Chapter 1365: Curse

"You've mastered the laws of heavenly devils, which transcends beyond the laws of inner demons! You must be the Heavenly Devil Dao Ancestor!" the Devilish Monarch deduced.

Yin Ming offered no response, continuing to stand in the devilish army's path in silence.

The rotund woman's expression changed slightly upon hearing this, as did the expressions of the other three devilish Dao Ancestors, while the rest of the devilish army looked on befuddlement.

Most of the banquet attendees also had no idea what the Devilish Monarch was talking about, with only the True Lord Cang Wu's trio and several exceptionally old Great Encompassment cultivators, one of whom was Meng Po, turning to stare at Yin Ming with stunned expressions.

"Who is this Heavenly Devil Dao Ancestor, Mistress? Everyone seems to be very afraid of him," Yu Menghan asked through voice transmission.

"The Heavenly Devil Dao Ancestor is a Dao Ancestor from ancient times, said to have lived for even longer than Supreme Lord Gu Huojin. It's said that whenever he goes into seclusion, his spiritual sense would split up into countless avatars that infiltrated all of the realms, searching for suitable cultivators to contaminate their mental state in order to further his heavenly devil law powers. Those spiritual sense avatars of his are what's commonly referred to as Extrarealm Heaveny Devils," Meng Po replied.

"So all of the Extrarealm Heavenly Devils were created by him!" Yu Menghan exclaimed in a stunned manner.

Extrarealm Heavenly Devils had always been a major cause for concern for all cultivators beyond the Grand Ascension Stage as there was a chance that one would arise with each breakthrough that they made, and countless cultivators throughout history had perished to these feared entities.

"Of course, that's just a rumor, so it may not be true, but the heavenly devil law powers are extremely fearsome, able to easily infiltrate a cultivator's mind and drive them mad, following which the Heavenly Devil Dao Ancestor would feast on the power of his victims' emotions to enhance his own powers. In his quest for power, he destroyed no fewer than a thousand lower realms and even several immortal regions.

“The ruler of the Heavenly Court at the time had sent out over ten Dao Ancestors to hunt him down, and he completely faded into obscurity after that. I didn't think that he was still alive," Meng Po said as a hint of fear flashed through her eyes.

"That's not necessarily the case. Perhaps the Heavenly Devil Dao Ancestor from back then is already dead, and this is someone else who's managed to cultivate the laws of heavenly devils to the top," Yu Menghan speculated.

"That's definitely a possibility, but in any case, this is an extremely dangerous individual that we must stay far away from," Meng Po said.

......

Inside the Ubiquitous Myriad Immortal Array, Han Li was observing Meng Yuan with slightly furrowed brows.

White light was currently rippling over Meng Yuan's body, which was rapidly withering away as a series of wood-like patterns appeared over his skin.

At the same time, his robes had turned into a spruce of withered grass, and in the blink of an eye, it was as if he had transformed into a living scarecrow.

A peculiar feeling welled up in Han Li's heart upon seeing this, and he had no idea what type of law powers he was dealing with.

"It's said that the words of the gods of ancient times were like heavenly decrees, allowing them to speak anything into existence. I wonder how their powers would've compared with my laws of curses," Meng Yuan said as a ball of crimson light suddenly appeared in his left hand.

At the same time, Han Li was struck by a burst of sharp pain in the palms of the three hands on his left side.

He looked down to discover that the palms of his three hands had been pierced through, and the resulting holes were bleeding profusely.

He hurriedly channeled his immortal spiritual power to try and heal the wounds, but not only did that not work, his blood was only flowing faster.

"The show's only just getting started. Enjoy!" Meng Yuan cackled, and as soon as his voice trailed off, three huge holes suddenly appeared in Han Li's three left arms, and these wounds were also bleeding profusely.

Han Li was meticulously scouring his surroundings with his spiritual sense to see if he were being targeted by certain obscure attacks, but that did not appear to have been the case.

Could it be that he really is able to inflict injuries upon others just with curses alone?

"Where should I target next? Let's go for the shoulder..."

Han Li immediately reacted upon hearing this as a burst of radiant, white starlight erupted out of the profound acupoints on his shoulders to form a protective barrier.

However, his efforts proved to be completely futile as a hole was blown into his left shoulder.

Han Li's expression darkened slightly as he reverted back to his human form.

"I must admit that your law powers are very unique. Given my physical constitution, I shouldn't be this inept at dealing with your attacks. Would you be able to enlighten me on the nature of your powers?" Han Li asked.

"Sure, I'll tell you everything once you're dead. I'm going to target the lower abdomen next. It's going to hurt a bit more this time, so get ready!" Meng Yuan cackled, and sure enough, a hole around the same thickness as an infant's arm appeared in Han Li's lower abdomen without any warning, instantly soaking his robes with blood.

Han Li's complexion paled slightly as he stumbled back a couple of steps, and he attempted to raise his mangled left arm, only to discover that it had become as heavy as lead.

"There's no need to put on an act, Fellow Daoist Han. I can tell that these injuries are not enough to make you stumble. Not to worry, there's a lot more left to come," Meng Yuan sneered.

"I wasn't putting on an act, I was just employing a minor distraction," Han Li said with a smile as he made a hand seal with his right hand, which was concealed up his sleeve, and two streaks of golden swordlight suddenly appeared behind Meng Yuan without any warning before racing toward the back of his head and chest at an incredible speed.

However, they were stopped in their tracks by Zi Shan and Dong Lihu, who had swooped in to protect Meng Yuan.

"So my assessment was correct. Even though I've sustained such severe injuries, those who have chosen to protect you rather than continue to attack me, so it must be the case that you cannot move while using your law powers. In that case, why didn't you use your law powers outside the array? Wouldn't that have all but guaranteed your victory?" Han Li asked.

This time, Meng Yuan was happy to give an answer.

"The Ubiquitous Myriad Immortal Array isolates the space encompassed within it, so I'm unable to use my law powers on you from the outside. Otherwise, how do you think this array was able to trap you?"

"I see," Han Li mused with a nod as a hint of killing intent surfaced in his eyes.

All of a sudden, all of his seventy-two Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords began hurtling toward Meng Yuan's trio at once.

Zi Shan and Dong Lihu positioned themselves in front of and behind Meng Yuan as the former conjured up a fiery, purple barrier, while the latter produced a golden light barrier, and the two combined to form a huge, spherical light barrier that encompassed the three of them within.

The seventy-two Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords rained down upon the spherical light barrier, unleashing a torrential barrage of attacks upon it, but were unable to pierce their way through.

"Meng Yuan, cut the chit-chat and kill him already!" Dong Lihu snapped.

"You do it if it's so easy!" Meng Yuan countered as he continued to channel his law powers, and in the next instant, Han Li felt a burst of searing pain in his chest, and another hole was torn in his body right beside his heart.

Cold sweat began to bead up on Han Li's forehead as he discovered that the entire left half of his body was beginning to go numb, and it wasn't the type of numbness that would result from excessive blood loss. Instead, his muscles, sinews, and bones had been sealed away, leaving him unable to even channel his immortal spiritual power and starpower.

It was as if... he were slowly transforming into a scarecrow.

This is not good...

All of a sudden, the seventy-two Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords reverted back into their childlike form at Han Li's behest, then adopted a certain formation, and an almighty heavenly gate took shape high up in the sky.

"Hurry up, Meng Yuan! He must already be catching on to the fact that something's not right!" Zi Shan urged.

"All I need to do is drive one more needle into his dantian and he'll be completely powerless to resist," Meng Yuan assured, and at the same time, he was proceeding with the utmost caution.

His curse law powers was one of the laws that went most against the Heavenly Dao, and not only was it exceedingly difficult to use, it made him much more susceptible to assimilation from the Heavenly Dao than other Dao Ancestors.

As he was speaking, a transparent needle that was invisible to the naked eye was slowly being driven into his body slightly below his lower abdomen, and it was inching its way toward his dantian.

At the same time, Han Li also began to feel a hint of barely detectable pain in his dantian.

Right at this moment, the heavenly gate up above sprang open, and a massive lightning sword projection formed by hundreds of golden lightning dragons came crashing down upon Meng Yuan.

Dong Lihu looked up to discover that the sword projection was aimed precisely at the seam between the light barriers that he and Zi Shan had conjured up.

That was the most vulnerable part of the spherical light barrier, and it was clearly not going to be able to withstand the falling sword projection.

With that in mind, he withdrew his half of the spherical light barrier and sprang up into the air as several mountain projections appeared in his hand as he threw an almighty punch.

His fist was imbued with the power of several vastly renowned mountains, and as soon it crashed into the sword projection, the latter instantly exploded without being able to pose any resistance.

A hint of triumph flashed through Dong Lihu's eyes upon seeing this, but his expression then instantly swiveled as he hurriedly swung around in alarm.

That sword projection had been nothing more than a distraction, and it had actually disintegrated on its own, so Dong Lihu's punch had only struck empty air.

At this point, Zi Shan had also realized that something was amiss, but it was already too late.

There was an Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword concealed within the scattered sword projection, and it had already reached Meng Yuan.

At this point, the transparent needle was only an inch away from piercing into Meng Yuan's dantian...