Chapter 497
So, Fu Shaoping said to Nangong Wan: "Wan'er, let's perform the spiritual barrier technique together. This is our only chance." Nangong Wan nodded. The two of them stood together, holding their hands tightly, and merged their spiritual powers. They closed their eyes, concentrated their minds, and chanted the spell at the same time: "The power of the spirit, gather into a screen, block everything, and the barrier is established!"
A huge spiritual barrier slowly rose up and flew towards the direction of the blood moon. This spiritual barrier emitted a soft light, which contained the hope of the two of them. When the spiritual barrier came into contact with the light of the blood moon, the two sides began to stalemate. The light of the blood moon continued to impact the spiritual barrier, trying to penetrate it, while the spiritual barrier tried hard to resist.
Fu Shaoping took this opportunity to cast his natal talisman seal. This was his most valuable spell, and once cast, it would consume a lot of his spiritual power, but at this moment he could no longer care about that. He took out a talisman emitting golden light from his arms. This talisman was given to him by his master when he graduated, and he had never been willing to use it.
He placed the talisman between his hands, chanting an ancient and mysterious spell, with beads of sweat rolling down his forehead. As the spell was chanted, the light on the talisman became stronger and stronger, and finally formed a huge golden rune. Fu Shaoping shouted: "The natal talisman seal, destroy the enemy!" The natal talisman seal flew towards the Blood Moon Shadow Soul-killing Formation. The killing formation felt the threat and divided some of its power to resist the natal talisman seal.
At the moment when the power of the killing array was dispersed, Fu Shaoping shouted to Nangong Wan: "Wan'er, now is the time to attack the rune core of the killing array with all our strength!" Nangong Wan nodded, and the two of them gathered all their remaining spiritual power together to form a huge spiritual power beam. Fu Shaoping shouted: "Go!" The spiritual power beam shot towards the rune core of the killing array.
This beam of light hit the core of the killing array accurately. With a shocking cracking sound, a huge crack appeared in the rune core of the Blood Moon Shadow Soul-Destroying Array. As the crack appeared, the runes in the killing array began to become disordered, and the light of the blood moon could no longer replenish its power.
Fu Shaoping and Nangong Wan were overjoyed when they saw this. They knew this was their only chance, so they mustered up their last bit of courage and launched their strongest attack.
Fu Shaoping once again used the Star Scimitar, a mysterious weapon he had obtained during an adventure. He held the scimitar with both hands and injected his remaining spiritual power into it. The scimitar instantly emitted dazzling starlight, and Fu Shaoping shouted: "The power of the stars, slay demons and exorcise monsters!" He rushed towards the female ghosts, and wherever the scimitar went, the female ghosts' bodies were easily pierced, and they let out bursts of shrill screams.
The Dragon God also spewed out flames again, which were more fierce than before, surrounding the female ghosts. The female ghosts struggled in the flames, and their bodies were gradually devoured by the flames.
Nangong Wan held a sword in her hand, which was a legacy of her family. She injected her spiritual power into the sword, and it emitted a cold light. She rushed towards the female ghosts, shouting, "Evil ghosts, die!" Wherever the sword went, the female ghosts' bodies were easily pierced, just like piercing a layer of thin paper.
With their concerted efforts, all 32 female ghosts were eventually killed. The blood moon gradually returned to normal, and the oppressive and terrifying atmosphere dissipated.
Fu Shaoping and Nangong Wan were exhausted at this time, and their spiritual power was almost exhausted. They supported each other, looking at each other's miserable appearance, but their hearts were filled with joy of surviving the disaster. Fu Shaoping said to Nangong Wan: "Wan'er, we finally survived." Nangong Wan nodded, with tears in her eyes, and said: "Yes, Shaoping, we survived."
Although they knew that the road of exploration ahead was still long and dangers were still everywhere, at this moment, they just wanted to have a good rest and enjoy this hard-earned victory.
Fu Shaoping and Nangong Wan had just recovered from the life-and-death battle with thirty-two female ghosts, and were exhausted and supporting each other. Suddenly, Nangong Wan seemed to realize something, her eyes widened, she looked around in panic and said, "Shaoping, have you noticed that the rest of the family is missing?"
Fu Shaoping's heart tightened when he heard this, and he also began to carefully check the surrounding environment. When he was fighting just now, all his attention was focused on those female ghosts and how to save his life, and he didn't pay attention to the whereabouts of other family members. At this time, there was silence around, and there was no sign of any family members except the two of them.
Nangong Wan's heart was filled with worry and fear, and the faces of her family members kept appearing in her mind. She murmured to herself: "How could they suddenly disappear? Could they have been killed by those female ghosts during the battle..." She didn't dare to think about it anymore, and her body trembled slightly.
Fu Shaoping frowned, trying to calm himself down and analyze the situation. He said, "Wan'er, don't panic. We didn't see any signs of the female ghost taking them away or hurting them during the battle just now. Maybe they encountered something before the battle started and were forced to leave here."
Nangong Wan bit her lip, her eyes full of anxiety: "But why didn't they inform us? If they were in danger, we should face it together."
Fu Shaoping was also very conflicted. He knew that the current situation was very difficult. He thought to himself, "The elders in the family have rich experience and powerful magic. If they were not in an extremely dangerous situation, they would not abandon us. Could it be that a more powerful enemy appeared, and they deliberately led the enemy away in order to protect us?"
Nangong Wan looked at Fu Shaoping lost in thought, and she felt even more uneasy. She began to look around for clues that might have been left by family members. She squatted down and carefully examined the traces on the ground. Suddenly, she found some strange footprints. These footprints did not look like those of family members. The footprints were large and had strange shapes, as if they were left by some huge monster.
She hurriedly called Fu Shaoping over: "Shaoping, look at these footprints, what left them? Could it be that this thing has captured our family members?"
Fu Shaoping looked at the footprints, his face becoming serious. He squatted down and carefully studied the depth and direction of the footprints. He said, "Judging from the size and depth of the footprints, this thing is huge and very powerful. The direction of the footprints is in that direction." He pointed to a dark forest in the distance.
Nangong Wan looked in the direction he pointed. The forest looked eerie and filled with a mysterious atmosphere. She took a deep breath and said, "Shaoping, no matter what, we have to go and take a look. Family members may be there, and we can't just ignore them."
Fu Shaoping nodded, he knew Nangong Wan was right. Although they had just experienced a fierce battle and their spiritual power was almost gone, they could not just watch their family members fall into danger.
So, the two of them encouraged each other, dragged their tired bodies, and slowly walked towards the dark forest. With every step they took, their worries increased, not knowing what kind of danger was waiting for them in the forest.
Fu Shaoping and Nangong Wan walked cautiously towards the dark woods. As soon as they stepped into the woods, a foul smell hit them in the face, making them cover their mouths and noses. The surrounding trees grew in strange shapes, with branches twisted like devil's claws, and the leaves appeared a strange black in the weak light. Suddenly, Nangong Wan grabbed Fu Shaoping's arm in horror, pointing forward with trembling fingers. Fu Shaoping looked in the direction she pointed, and saw a huge "tree" appear in front of them. This is not an ordinary tree at all, but a human bone tree skeleton made up of countless human bones. Those bones are intertwined to form the shape of tree trunks and branches, and some dried blood remains in the gaps.
The human bone tree skeleton was wrapped with green vines, which seemed to have life, slowly wriggling and making a slight "hissing" sound. The most horrifying thing was that the top of the human bone tree skeleton had a tricolor flower. The petals of the tricolor flower were red, blue, and purple, and each petal seemed to be flowing with blood, emitting a dizzying light.
Nangong Wan's voice trembled a little: "Shaoping, what...what is this? How can such a terrifying thing exist?"
Fu Shaoping's face was also very ugly. He had never seen such a strange thing. He whispered: "I don't know, but this thing must be very dangerous. We must be careful and don't get close to it easily."
However, as they were talking, the skeleton of the human bone tree seemed to sense their presence. The green vines wrapped around the bones suddenly twisted violently and spread rapidly towards them. Wherever the green vines went, the grass on the ground withered quickly, as if its vitality had been drained.
Fu Shaoping hurriedly cast a small defensive spell. He quickly formed seals with his hands and chanted an incantation: "Spirit shield, protect me." A faint spiritual shield appeared in front of them.
When the green vines touched the shield, there was a "sizzling" sound, just like a red-hot iron touching ice. The green vines continued to wrap around the shield, trying to break through its defense.
Nangong Wan saw this and drew her sword from her waist. She injected her spiritual power into the sword, and it emitted a cold light. She said to Fu Shaoping, "Shaoping, we can't just sit there and wait for death. I will attack these green vines, and you can find a way to deal with the human bone tree skeleton."
Fu Shaoping nodded, and he began to concentrate on observing the structure of the human bone tree skeleton, trying to find its weakness. He found that there seemed to be a core emitting a faint glow at the root of the human bone tree skeleton, perhaps that was its key.
Nangong Wan swung his sword and chopped at the green vines, and the sword easily cut off several of them. However, more green vines surged up, as if endless. The green vines began to change their strategy, and they no longer blindly attacked the shield, but instead entangled Nangong Wan's hands and feet.
Nangong Wan dodged Qingteng's attack flexibly, her body like a dancing butterfly. While dodging, she continued to swing her sword, shouting: "See what you can do to me!"
Fu Shaoping had already found a way to deal with the human bone tree skeleton. He took out a talisman paper from his arms, which was a talisman paper specially used to break the evil power. He stuck the talisman paper on a spiritual arrow, then drew the bow and put the arrow on it, chanting a spell: "The power to break evil, penetrate evil." The spiritual arrow shot towards the core of the root of the human bone tree skeleton.
The spiritual arrow streaked across the air with a dazzling light, accurately hitting the core. With a sharp cry, the human bone tree skeleton shook violently. The green vines wrapped around it seemed to have lost control and stopped attacking Nangong Wan and the shield.
However, the human bone tree skeleton was not easily defeated. The tricolor flower on its head suddenly flashed with a strong light, and the light seemed to contain a powerful force. This force swept towards Fu Shaoping and Nangong Wan like a surging tide.
Fu Shaoping hurriedly cast a rebound spell. He quickly formed seals with his hands and shouted, "Return the rebound force to the enemy." A spiritual barrier appeared in front of them and rebounded the power of the tricolor flower back.
The power of the tricolor flower was rebounded and hit the human bone tree skeleton itself. The human bone tree skeleton was hit by its own power and cracks began to appear. The cracks quickly spread from the roots to the trunk and branches, and finally the entire human bone tree skeleton collapsed with a "boom".
The green vines also withered as the human bone tree skeleton collapsed. The light of the tricolor flowers gradually dimmed, and finally fell to the ground, turning into a pool of black liquid.
Before Fu Shaoping and Nangong Wan could recover from the thrilling experience, a roar suddenly sounded from the deep mountains. The roar was deafening, like a roar from the depths of hell, causing their eardrums to sting.
Along with the roar, a series of "crackling" sounds echoed in the woods. They were horrified to find that the ground began to shake violently, the soil was turned up, and bones came out from the ground one after another. These bones seemed to be pulled by an invisible force and quickly combined together.
First, the bones were connected to form the skeleton of the human bone tree. The skeleton was constantly growing and improving, and each bone was accurately embedded in the right position. Then, the surrounding vines seemed to be summoned and entangled towards the skeleton, like green snakes crawling on the skeleton, and soon wrapped the skeleton tightly, forming the terrifying appearance of green vines that they had seen before.
Nangong Wan tightly grasped Fu Shaoping's arm, crying, "Shaoping, what is going on? Why do these horrible things keep appearing?"
Fu Shaoping's forehead was also covered with cold sweat. He tried to calm himself down and said, "I don't know either, but it seems that these human bone tree skeletons are controlled by some evil force. We must find a way to find the root cause, otherwise we will be constantly attacked by these things."
(End of this chapter)