Chapter 1: Strange Lifeform (Part 1)

Zhen Wuji led Guo Shier and the other two to fly away from the mountain pass immediately, descending swiftly. After flying for a distance, they hovered in the air. Looking up, Zhen Wuji said, “Alright, go ahead. I’ll protect them.”
Li Ran smiled and said, “Good. Let’s see what this thing is.” A silver beam shot out abruptly.
The black object suddenly became translucent, flickering like a shadow, and the silver beam passed through it in an instant. Li Ran exclaimed in surprise, “Huh? What kind of technique is this?” The silver beam reappeared on the other side of the black object, flickered slightly, and struck it again.
The black object turned translucent once more, and the silver beam returned to Li Ran’s hand in the blink of an eye.
Not only was Li Ran surprised, but Zhen Wuji and the others below were also stunned. What kind of technique was this? It could turn solid into void, rendering attacks ineffective—truly amazing.
Li Ran stopped attacking. Instead, he approached the black object, placed his hand on it, and tapped its surface, looking puzzled. He said, “Come up. It seems safe.”
Zhen Wuji flew up with the three of them. He put away the altar and asked, “Can’t hit it?”
Li Ran replied, “Heh, it’s strange. I can’t hit it, but it’s not void… You’ll understand if you touch it.”
As soon as Guo Shier got close, he was pushed back by a ripple. The force wasn’t very strong, but he still couldn’t resist it. The Hongyu Guang couple was similarly forced to retreat. Only Zhen Wuji managed to touch the surface of the black object.
The old man said, “You can’t withstand that ripple. Give up. Let’s see how they handle it. Anyway, I think this thing is evil and dangerous. It’s better not to touch it.”
Guo Shier nodded silently. He understood too—given his strength, there was no chance. Not to mention detecting it, even touching it was impossible. It was better to stay back and watch.
Zhen Wuji murmured, “What a strange ripple…”
Suddenly, an idea struck Guo Shier. Whenever he recited the Soul Scripture silently, it would cause some strange ripples. This thing also had strange ripples. Could what caused these ripples not be from this world but something external?
Li Ran slapped the surface of the black object hard. Instead of using his Virtual Talisman Hand, he used the power of his bare palm. There was a soft thud. Then another slap—this time, his palm emitted golden talisman light. Thud! He shook his head and said, “Strange. Why is this thing so peculiar?”

Guo Shier and the others gathered around him. Zhen Wuji said, “Yes, Li Ran, do you feel that this is a life form?”
Li Ran replied, “It must be a life form, just extremely strange. I have no idea what kind of life form this is.”
Guo Shier said, “This thing’s defense is incredibly strong. It’s impossible even for me to make contact.”
Li Ran said, “Everyone, step back a bit. I’ll try again.”
Zhen Wuji protected the three of them by stepping back. Li Ran also moved back a short distance and swung his palm. Suddenly, a huge golden hand shot out from his wrist. It was a hand as large as a table, and as soon as it moved, there was a sound of wind and thunder. It slammed onto the black object with a loud noise, like slapping water, causing ripples to spread across its surface.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A series of sharp sounds. Guo Shier and the others stepped back again, a strong sense of unease penetrating their souls.
Guo Shier said, “Be careful, everyone! I feel uneasy!”
Zhen Wuji immediately summoned the altar and said, “Come up!” He too felt uneasy, but his level was so high that he couldn’t experience the soul-shaking fear that Guo Shier felt. He quickly ordered everyone to ascend the altar, as the protection of the nine-layer altar was sufficient to safeguard them.
When Li Ran swung his palm again, the surface of the black object suddenly fluctuated violently, and an identical black hand emerged, breaking away from the surface and flying forward to strike hard.
Boom!
Unprepared, Li Ran’s golden hand shattered instantly. The black hand hit him, sending him flying. Guo Shier and the others cried out in shock.
Immediately afterward, they witnessed a shocking scene.
Before Li Ran could stabilize himself, many small bulges appeared on the surface of the black object. After slight movement, countless hands flew out and swarmed at Li Ran.
An overwhelming number of hands, each as large as a table, dark and unknown in origin, rushed at him. Guo Shier shouted in horror, “Damn it! One slap sends back thousands! This would make huge profits in business!”
Suddenly, countless chains descended from above Li Ran’s head, glowing with blinding talismanic light. In an instant, they shattered the attacking black hands. His face turned pale as he cursed, “What the hell is this thing?” Now he didn’t dare to try recklessly anymore. The attacks of those phantom hands weren’t fierce enough, but if he used a more powerful attack and let this thing learn from it, he might end up in big trouble.

Two waves of hundreds of palm strikes finally ceased. Only then did Li Ran hear Guo Shier’s shout, and he couldn’t help but scold, “What kind of talk is that?”
Guo Shier chuckled twice and said, “This thing can fight back. Brother Li Ran, be careful.”
At that moment, countless strands of blood appeared again in the mountain mouth. Guo Shier couldn’t help but say, “You guys keep at it. I’ll go collect the Blood Essence Beads.”
Li Ran smiled bitterly. This young guy was definitely money-obsessed and very practical. He paid no attention to the black object, only focusing on what he could obtain. Under normal circumstances, Li Ran wouldn’t have missed these strands of blood, but with the massive black object present, he had to give up collecting them.
Guo Shier flew down from Zhen Wuji’s altar and took his own altar to sit on. The handsome old man poked his head out and said, “Hurry up! A large amount of blood strands are emerging. Collect them quickly… This thing is extremely rare. We can’t purify it to this level on our own. Collect as much as we can; we might not get another chance.”
Below the altar, the tentacles of Gu Xi Bi swayed rapidly, scooping up the blood strands from the mountain mouth. In fact, after seeing the black object’s counterattack, Guo Shier was also a bit uneasy. No one knew how the black object would react to those who tried to steal its blood strands. To be safe, he activated his Umbrella Tower Sacrificial Treasure.
Guo Shier and the handsome old man frantically collected the blood strands. Not only did they direct Gu Xi Bi’s tentacles to collect them, but they also used their own virtual talismans. Although their efficiency was far lower than Gu Xi Bi’s, it was still better than just sitting by doing nothing.
Li Ran and Zhen Wuji seemed quite helpless regarding the black object. So far, neither of them had figured out what it was.
Hong Yu Guang and his wife discussed it for a moment before saying, “Elder, we’ll go down and look for some useful materials. We can’t be of much help here.”
Zhen Wuji nodded and said, “That’s good. Go down then.”
The two waved at Li Ran and Guo Shier and flew down using their altars. Below, there were countless mutated talisman beasts, offering much more loot than staying on the mountain peak.
Li Ran asked, “Shier, are you going down too?”
Guo Shier replied, “We can collect things down there anytime. These blood strands are rare. We should get as many as we can.”
Li Ran said, “Be smart. If anything goes wrong, run away immediately.”
Guo Shier nodded and said, “No problem. I’ll be careful.”

Li Ran continued to probe. He tried countless methods, and aside from a few that triggered a counterattack from the black object, most had no effect, leaving him puzzled. Finally, at his wits’ end, he said, “Maybe this thing… simply can’t be captured by us. Zhen Wuji, do you have any idea?”
Zhen Wuji shook his head. “I can’t.”
Li Ran smiled bitterly. “This is the first time I’ve encountered something so tricky…”
After gathering the flying strands of blood, Guo Shier came over to Li Ran and said, “Brother Li Ran, don’t you have a sealed secret realm? Just capture it there and study it slowly later.”
Li Ran’s eyes lit up. “That might be a solution. Heh, let me give it a try.”
Zhen Wuji protected Guo Shier as the two flew to the side. The black object was enormous, and to capture it, they would need to use virtual talismans to invade it. Given how mysterious it was, everyone was extremely cautious.
Suddenly, Li Ran cast tens of millions of spells, which descended on the black object like a storm.
The black object emitted intense shockwaves, resisting the invasion of the virtual talismans. Li Ran smiled slightly and said, “Heh, still trying to maintain its original size… That’s impossible, heh.” With his strength surpassing that of the ninth-tier altar, a single spell cast sent out hundreds of thousands of virtual talismans.
In just over ten seconds, countless virtual talismans enveloped it, covering the entire black object with silver-white talismans. As the talismans penetrated further, the object’s massive size began to shrink.
Guo Shier exclaimed, “Amazing!”
With a loud rumbling sound, the black object continued to shrink. As more and more talismans arrived, it glowed with a dazzling silver light. In moments, it had shrunk to about ten meters tall, though the fluctuations became even more intense, as if it were resisting fiercely.