Chapter 14: The Azure Sun Shield

On the side of the monsters, without much conversation, they immediately attacked Xia Han.
The Sky Sound Insect rushed straight at Xia Han. Its body transformed back from human form to its true form—a hundred-meter-wide “beetle” hovering in the air, its entire body glowing with dark gold light, which was terrifying to behold.
Especially around the edges of its shell, there seemed to be eight hollows. Whenever the Sky Sound Insect moved slightly, long, deafening sounds emanated from those eight holes.
It was named the Sky Sound Insect precisely because it could continuously emit such sounds.
Xia Han held a yellow-long spear. At first, he thought of piercing through the Sky Sound Insect’s body, but when he saw it transform back to its massive form, covering the sky and earth with its hundred-meter-wide body, he was terrified and immediately retreated out of its attack range.
As soon as the two leaders clashed, the Sky Sound Insect took the upper hand.
The Flying Shadow Black Panther and the Sky Winged White Tiger, both early-stage distracted monsters, each chose an early-stage distracted guard team member and charged at them immediately.
A terrifying twenty-meter-long black panther suddenly appeared, its eyes flashing with cold light, enough to chill one’s soul at a glance. This panther was extremely agile, moving swiftly on all four legs. With full force, it rushed like a black streak at the distracted team member.
That team member was stunned, not expecting the monsters of the Heavenly Punishment Mountains to use their most powerful forms right from the start, aiming to kill humans in one strike.
This team member also held a yellow-long spear and tried hard to defend himself.
On the other side, a white tiger with fifty-meter-wide wings appeared dramatically. With a slight flap of its wings, its twenty-meter-long body was lifted effortlessly like a fly, then it quickly rushed toward another distracted team member.
That team member also held a yellow-long spear and had just flown into the air, ready to pierce the sky-winged white tiger in human form. But the tiger transformed back to its true form, and the team member, in panic, immediately retreated to avoid its attack.
That team member also struggled to defend himself.
The more than fifty other monsters surrounded the last distracted team member brought by Xia Han.
Among these fifty monsters, there were ten in the late-stage out-of-body state. Attacking together, the distracted team member had no chance to counterattack and could only defend.

The member in the early Diversion stage also reacted slowly. At his speed, if he started to flee, surely those monsters in the Outward Emergence stage wouldn’t be able to catch up. But the pride of a strong person in the early Diversion stage made this member want to fight head-on, resulting in him being surrounded by over fifty monsters.

In an instant, battles broke out in the air and on the mountains, with energy exploding violently.

Naturally, neither side in the battle realized that among the dust rising from the ground was a Dimension Ball.

Inside the Dimension Ball, Qu Yi could see the situation of both fighting sides.

“Instrument God, the people from Cangyang Valley have indeed arrived. It’s only been a few months since I killed Yang Tianqi, yet four strong individuals in the Diversion stage have come. I guess there are other strong ones in the Diversion stage somewhere else in the Heavenly Punishment Mountains,” Qu Yi said calmly.

“Hehe, Qu Yi, haven’t you noticed those over fifty monsters? Think about it—how did these monsters gather so quickly? And why did they all come here at the same time?” the Instrument God asked with a faint smile.

Qu Yi pondered for a moment before suddenly realizing, “Instrument God, I get it. Recently, Wuqing and the others didn’t encounter any monsters in the Outward Emergence stage, but this time there are fifty such monsters. It seems these monsters have long been gathered in one place. It’s certain that the monsters in the Heavenly Punishment Mountains are planning something.”

The Instrument God nodded.

Once he understood, Qu Yi immediately smiled. “Hehe, it seems the monsters in the Heavenly Punishment Mountains also intend to attack the three magic cultivation sects and the three immortal cultivation sects, just like the cultivators from Tianfeng Star. If that’s the case, I’ll follow these monsters and join them in dealing with those cultivation sects.”

Obviously, Qu Yi wanted to use the same tactics again.

Soon, Qu Yi called over the Golden Qilin and said with a smirk, “Golden Qilin, in the Heavenly Punishment Mountains, which monster do you belong to?”

Seeing Qu Yi’s gaze, the Golden Qilin felt uneasy and quickly replied, “Master, among the four top-tier monsters in the Heavenly Punishment Mountains, I am under the command of the Heavenly Sound Worm.”

Hearing this, Qu Yi’s eyes widened in delight as he said, “Golden Qilin, now you can be really useful.”

The Golden Qilin grew uneasy, staring at Qu Yi in anticipation of further instructions, but found that Qu Yi had already closed his eyes in deep thought. With no choice, it mustered up courage and went back to practicing wrestling.

At that moment, the Dimension Ball was carried by the strong wind caused by the battle between the two sides and flew in another direction. After about ten miles, it landed in an ice pond and then sank to the bottom.

Inside the Dimensional Ball, Qu Yi went to where Wu Yuan and Jin Qilin were wrestling. He kicked Jin Qilin into the air and shouted, “Jin Qilin, go do some work for me.” Jin Qilin stood up from the ground, blinked, and asked, “Master, what work should I do?” Qu Yi smiled and said, “Jin Qilin, I’ll send you out of the Dimensional Ball, and then you’ll go help Tianyin Bug to kill those four cultivators at the Divination stage.” Without waiting for Jin Qilin to ask further questions, Qu Yi used his spiritual awareness, and Jin Qilin’s body disappeared inside the Dimensional Ball. Jin Qilin landed at the bottom of the ice pond, immediately emerged from it, sensed the location of the battle outside, and teleported there right away. “Bug King, Jin Qilin is late! I’m going to kill these humans who entered the Heavenly Punishment Mountains!” As soon as Jin Qilin appeared, he shouted loudly. Then, with a roar, massive amounts of earth rose from the ground; all the metals were refined and turned into a thousand swords. With a spray of his blood and the release of his vital energy, those thousand swords transformed into a thousand magic swords, all aimed at the cultivator at the early Divination stage who was surrounded by various monsters. That cultivator, who was already struggling hard to fend off more than fifty monsters, suddenly saw endless yellow dust rising in the air, followed by a thousand magic swords attacking in an instant, and became terrified. “Earth Element vortex!” Realizing he could no longer block those thousand magic swords, the cultivator suddenly shouted, and a yellow vortex formed around him, blocking all the magical attacks. However, this cultivator quickly exhausted his vital energy. As if aware of this, Jin Qilin immediately rushed at him, using his powerful golden scales to withstand the intense energy explosions, while his dragon head bit down and swallowed the cultivator whole. With just one move, Jin Qilin killed one of the cultivators at the early Divination stage. This caused the more than fifty monsters at the Outward Manifestation stage to be released, and they immediately went to assist Feiyin Black Panther and Tianyi White Tiger. Feiyin Black Panther and Tianyi White Tiger had already been fighting against two cultivators at the early Divination stage, and with the help of these monsters at the Outward Manifestation stage, they took advantage of the panic-induced weaknesses in those two cultivators and shattered them in one strike. As a result, all three cultivators led by Xia Han died. Seeing that his subordinates had defeated their opponents, Tianyin Bug grew confident. Suddenly, eight of its shells emitted shrill sounds.

As that shrill sound rang out, eight golden circles of true energy appeared in the air. Each of these circles originated from a finger-sized circle that then branched into countless smaller circles, growing larger and larger, resembling eight giant golden horns. These eight circles of sound struck Xia Han at the same time, breaking through his “Thick Earth Suffocation” spell and forcing him to spit blood. Immediately, the Flying Shadow Black Panther and Sky-Winged White Tiger flew over to continue attacking Xia Han, not giving him a chance to catch his breath. The Golden Qilin and the demons in the Outward Emergence stage naturally didn’t fall behind either; they joined in, each casting their spells to attack Xia Han simultaneously. Golden Sword Skyfall, Wood Wind Surge, Water Romance Heaven, Fire Driving Sphere, Earth Blade Starbreaker… Spells capable of destroying mountains all covered Xia Han, their energies colliding violently and creating spatial cracks. Having been struck by the sound circles, Xia Han’s body was severely damaged, making it difficult for his true energy to function properly. Yet under the combined attacks of over fifty demons, he had no choice but to muster his true energy for defense. “Cangyang Shield!” In desperation, Xia Han immediately used his life-saving technique. A golden shield formed across the entire realm, with earth dragons made of earth true energy flowing across it, shattering each incoming spell with a single swipe. There was such a powerful defensive spell? The Heavenly Sound Worm, Flying Shadow Black Panther, Sky-Winged White Tiger, and Golden Qilin all stared in disbelief. At that moment, Qu Yi immediately gave an order to the Golden Qilin: “Golden Qilin, what are you waiting for? Keep attacking!” As a demonic pet, Qu Yi could communicate directly with the Golden Qilin. Hearing this, the Golden Qilin snapped out of its daze and shouted, “I don’t care if you’re strong or not—today, I’m going to kill you!” With that, it rushed forward and slammed into Xia Han. The Heavenly Sound Worm, watching from the side, nodded in approval, thinking the Golden Qilin had performed perfectly. In an instant, all the demons realized it was another coordinated attack. Once again, Xia Han faced over fifty spells, including one in the Mid-Diversion stage, two in the Early-Diversion stage, and over fifty in the Outward Emergence stage. With no way to escape, he could only resist. Boom! Xia Han used the Cangyang Shield once more to block them perfectly, but his true energy was nearly exhausted. Just then, the Heavenly Sound Worm suddenly appeared beside Xia Han as if cutting through space, opened its mouth, and swallowed him whole.

The entire Xia Han team has died.