Blue light flickered within Han Li’s eyes as he looked on with rapt focus, and the bead suddenly disappeared from within the green Qi right before his eyes.

Even with his Brightsight Spirit Eyes, he was unable to track down its location.

Han Li’s heart jolted upon seeing this, and he hurriedly released his spiritual sense to encompass an area with a radius of several tens of feet.

The last thing he wanted was for the bead to sneak up on him and unleash a surprise attack. Even though that was extremely unlikely to happen, he still had to take all the precautions he could.

Han Li turned to glance at the two women beside him, then cast his gaze toward the fierce battle that was still taking place, and his fingers reflexively tightened around his lightning beads.

Even though he’d experience countless tumultuous twists and turns during his cultivation journey, he was still extremely tense and nervous.

He knew that he would only have one chance to save these two.

If he were to fail, then this palace was going to be his final resting place, and over 1,000 years of arduous cultivation would go to waste.

This feeling of teetering on a knife’s edge between life and death was making Han Li’s heart pound in his chest.

At this moment, Mu Qing and the white-haired beauty began to attack the black spell formation.

Meanwhile, the crimson-robed figure, the Purpleblood Puppet, and the seven other metallic puppets he’d just summoned stood in front of the two women, acting as their guardians.

A sharp ghostly screech suddenly erupted from within the Yin clouds that the white-haired beauty was situated in, following which a white bony ghost claw suddenly reached out before making a grabbing motion.

Ball of egg-sized grey light erupted from between its fingers before surging violently into the air above.

As for Mu Qing, the plants that had appeared around her all disappeared into her body, and she slowly opened her mouth amid a burst of erratically flickering spiritual light to blast forth a pillar of green light.

The pillar of light was of an extremely vibrant green color, yet somehow struck the onlooker with the impression that it was quite viscous, thus creating an extremely peculiar sight to behold.

The two attacks flashed through the air, reaching the underside of the black formation in the blink of an eye.

The grey balls of light expanded and shrank sporadically while the green pillar of light struck the center of the formation in a completely soundless manner.

A ferocious light flashed through the eyes of the two Infernal Lightning Beasts upon seeing this, and they immediately injected more power into the black light formation up above.

A loud rumbling boom erupted as a gust of black winds blew out of the center of the formation.

The gust of wind was extremely fierce and as scathing as a sharp blade. Furthermore, there were specks of light shimmering within the wind, and there seemed to countless glittering particles of sand intermingled within the wind.

As the gust of wind came into contact with the pillar of green light and balls of silver light, a string of resounding explosions rang out while balls of light of different colors flashed beneath the formation.

Moments later, a burst of grey and green light rose up into the air to suppress the black light formation’s descent, thereby resulting in a temporary impasse.

As more gusts of black winds continued to surge forth, the black particles of sand created a mass of inky blackness in the wind, slowly forcing back the grey and green light.

A peculiar look flashed through Mu Qing’s eyes she flipped her hand over to produce a small section of a tree branch.

The branch was no more than three feet in length with a few soft green leaves growing from it. Even though it had clearly been detached from the tree that it once belonged to, there was still abundant spiritual Qi revolving around it, and it was showing no signs of yellowing or wilting at all.

Mu Qing tossed this branch into the air, and a ball of green light blossomed. The branch transformed into an exuberant gree tree in the blink of an eye with lush shimmering branches and leaves, as if the entire tree had been carved out of a block of exquisite green jade.

Mu Qing wore a grave expression as she chanted something, and the tree trunk swelled drastically in size while the branches elongated. Countless leaf-shaped green projections then flew forth from the tree, all of which surged upward to fuel the assault against the black light formation.

"Nicely done, Fellow Daoist Mu!" A cry of surprise and elation sounded from within the Yin winds.

"Hmph, Fellow Daoist Lan, it’s about time you put in some work as well! Don’t tell me this is the extent of your capabilities," Mu Qing replied in a cold voice.

"Hehe..." the white-haired beauty chuckled within the Yin cloud, following which all eight of the ghost monarchs let loose long howls in unison. Boundless Yin Qi surged toward the center and converged, with countless ghostly shadows weeping and cackling within the Yin Qi.

Moments later, the Yin Cloud dissipated, and a massive figure emerged in its place.

This was a gargantuan being that was around 70 to 80 feet tall, and was clad in a suit of antiquated black armor. It was wielding a huge war hammer, and the surface of the armor was covered entirely in sharp black spikes that were around a foot in length each, as well as a series of extremely profound silver patterns.

As for the war hammer, it was even more peculiar in design. It was pitch-black in color, just like the suit of the armor, but there were eight white skulls embedded onto the hammer, and all of those skulls were squirming incessantly as they let loose howls of anguish, blasting forth bursts of black Qi in the process, creating a harrowing sight to behold.

This gigantic being was none other than an enlarged version of the white-haired beauty, and the eight skulls on her war hammer had been manifested from the eight Yin Armor Ghost Monarchs.

Mu Qing’s expression changed slightly upon seeing this, but before she had a chance to raise any questions, a cold look appeared on the white-haired beauty as she hurled her war hammer into the air before making a strange hand seal.

The hammer rotated in the air, and the eight skulls screeched in unison, expelling eight bursts of green flames that swept directly upward.

Thus, the Yin flames and green leaf projections stacked on top of one another, encompassing the entire black formation up above, thereby completely halting its momentum again.

However, the two Infernal Lightning Beasts weren’t flustered in the slightest upon seeing this. Both of the merely let loose a few sharp cries toward the air above them, upon which their bodies further expanded slightly before they raised their hands up high above their heads.

Countless silver threads appeared again amid a string of thunderclaps. The silver threads rang along their arms, transforming into massive bolts of lightning that hurtled upward before disappearing into the black light formation.

All of a sudden, a loud rumbling sound erupted from within the formation, and it suddenly swelled to almost twice its original size. At the same time, the sand particles within the black winds multiplied by severalfold, and the formation was able to firmly wrest back the upper hand again.

The white-haired beauty and Mu Qing were stunned to see this, and they hurriedly unleashed mroe abilities.

One of them expelled a mouthful of blood essence while the other raised her head and let loose a long cry of fury. Their magic powers received a boost as a result, thereby allowing them further enhance the powers of the treasures they’d unleashed.

Thus, leaf projection and Yin flames were both bolstered significantly, yet the two demon monarchs were still unable to completely halt the formation’s descent.

Both of their expressions changed drastically upon seeing this.

It appeared that this restriction really was too powerful for them to handle.

Mu Qing took a deep breath before turning to the Purpleblood Puppet as she yelled, "Lend us your assistance, Fellow Daoist Di Xue. If this thing falls on us, we’ll be in big trouble!"The crimson-robed figure standing atop the Purpleblood Puppet didn’t say anything in response, but the seven metallic puppets he had summoned suddenly flew forth as seven streaks of light, hurtling directly toward the two Infernal Lightning Beasts.

The black light formation was indeed quite powerful, but its powers would be severely hampered if the two beasts weren’t directly controlling it.

As such, the seven puppets didn’t have to engage the two beasts in a direct battle; all they had to do was distract the two beasts, thereby preventing them from being able to focus wholeheartedly on the formation.

As the seven streaks of light sped toward the two Infernal Lightning Beasts, a cold light flashed through the beasts’ eyes, and they switched to an alternate hand seal.

All of a sudden, a massive black hole with a diameter of around 100 feet appeared behind them.

The two Infernal Lightning Beasts swayed, and their bodies instantly blurred as they vacated themselves from the area encompassed by the black hole. Immediately thereafter, a rumbling boom rang out from the center of the black hole, following which a vast expanse of black light shot forth like lightning, sweeping up all of the oncoming puppets.

An astonishing turn of events then unfolded.

All seven puppets abruptly disappeared within the swath of black light, then reappeared at the right in front of the black hole before being drawn in and disappearing in a flash.

The demon monarchs all drew sharp breaths upon seeing this.

The two Infernal Lightning Beasts let loose a few triumphant snarls before making quickly making a hand seal, and the black hole blurred before also vanishing on the spot.

A thunderous roar of rage immediately escaped the crimson-robed figure’s mouth, clearly indicating that he had been extremely infuriated by the inexplicable loss of those seven puppets.

He immediately laid a hand on the back of his own head, and crimson Qi surged forth before forming a massive crimson ball right before him.

The crimson-robed figure swept an arm through the air, seemingly to attack the Infernal Lightning Beast with this crimson ball, but right at this moment, Mu Qing abruptly turned toward a certain direction as she yelled, "Who goes there? Show yourself!"

Before the words had even left her mouth, she had already swept a sleeve through the air toward that direction, sending a plume of azure threads hurtling forth striking what appeared to be empty air.

A faint cry of surprise suddenly sounded, following which a ball of green Qi abruptly exploded.

The azure threads instantly punctured the green Qi, but didn’t manage to strike anything of substance.

In the next instant, extremely feeble spatial fluctuations erupted in the air above Mu Qing, and a translucent bead emerged.

As soon as the object appeared, it began to emanate scintillating light, forcing everyone to shield their eyes in order to avoid being blinded.

A crisp crack sounded, and the bead suddenly transformed into two humanoid figures, one of which was white while the other was crimson.

The crimson humanoid figure immediately raised a hand, sending a streak of silver light flying through the air before striking down toward Mu Qing like lightning.

There was a silver chopper with a smooth mirror-like finish within the streak of silver light; it was none other than the Five Dragon Chopper!

As for the faint humanoid figure, it was naturally none other than the crimson-armored puppet.

Due to the flash of piercing white light that had appeared overhead, Mu Qing was forced to close her eyes, but she had already released her spiritual sense, so she could clearly "see" everything in a radius of several tens of feet around her.

As such, she was able to react in a calm manner as she pointed a finger toward the descending silver chopper.

Azure light instantly flashed near the chopper as countless azure threads appeared out of thin air before intertwining with one another. Some of them surrounded the silver chopper in a watertight barrier while the rest of those threads formed a thin azure veil that hung above her.

Mu Qing had prepared countless spirit threads of this nature prior to entering this palace in preparation for any surprise attacks that may be thrown at her, which was why she appeared to be quite well prepared.

However, the Five Dragon Chopper was far more powerful than she could imagine.

The barrier of azure threads around the chopper was sliced through with ease before it descended onto the azure veil without any pause.