Chapter 20: The Destruction of the Soul Departure Sect

As soon as Hunmie spoke, he flew toward the Sky-Tone Insect, holding a snake-shaped black staff in his hand and pointing at it. Hunjin, Hunqu, Hunshi, and Hunsan also shot toward other monstrous beasts. The four beasts at the early Diversion stage— the Flying Shadow Black Panther, the Sky-Wing White Tiger, the Blizzard Ice Silkworm, and the Dark Scent Cold Fox—immediately rushed forward to block them.
Naturally, the other disciples of the Soul Departure Sect also flew out of Skull Mountain to fight against the over a hundred beasts at the Outward Emergence stage, including the Golden Qilin.
With a flick of his snake-shaped staff, Hunmie launched an invisible spiritual attack, aiming straight at the Sky-Tone Insect’s armored head.
The Sky-Tone Insect’s signature sound wave attacks were actually a variant of spiritual attacks, a unique spell formed by combining true energy with spiritual power. When Hunmie’s spiritual attack penetrated its core, the Sky-Tone Insect immediately detected it and reflexively used its true energy to disrupt Hunmie’s attack.
“Hmph, you actually use spiritual attacks? They’re completely useless against me. You’ve met your match,” the Sky-Tone Insect laughed loudly.
Hunmie was stunned. He hadn’t expected that among the four top monstrous beasts in the Heavenly Punishment Mountains, both the Sky-Tone Insect and the Illusion Dance Butterfly were skilled in soul-related spells, rendering his own spiritual attacks ineffective.
While Hunmie was distracted, the Sky-Tone Insect suddenly unleashed “Eight Tones Cave Heaven,” sending all eight golden horns, glowing with golden auras, at him. Each of these horns possessed the power of an early Diversion stage beast, enough to shatter a cultivator with a “weak” physical body like Hunmie.
Hunmie, with his keen senses, immediately waved his snake-shaped staff. His body was enveloped in true energy, allowing him to leap aside and avoid the attacks of the eight horns. After flying a thousand meters away, his expression darkened—he realized he couldn’t defeat this Sky-Tone Insect.
On the other side, Hunjin attacked the Flying Shadow Black Panther, Hunqu attacked the Sky-Wing White Tiger, Hunshi attacked the Blizzard Ice Silkworm, and Hunsan attacked the Dark Scent Cold Fox—each battle was fierce.
Hunjin, also at the mid-Diversion stage, wielded a skull-shaped wooden staff covered in eerie black patterns. Naturally, he too used spiritual attacks, constantly targeting the Flying Shadow Black Panther’s core.
The Flying Shadow Black Panther, still at the early Diversion stage, had planned to use its speed to hold off Hunjin while waiting for other beasts to come to its aid. But no matter how fast it was, it couldn’t outpace spiritual attacks. After over a dozen rounds, the Flying Shadow Black Panther’s core was repeatedly struck by spiritual attacks, causing intense pain with each hit.

However, Hun Jin was dismayed to find that his spiritual attack, capable of knocking the Flying Shadow Black Panther into a coma, had failed—the Panther merely roared in pain and continued to fly around at high speed. After searching the Skull Mountain for all kinds of materials used in alchemy by the Li Hun Sect, the Centimeter Realm Ball had now turned into a speck of dust and arrived somewhere in Skull Mountain. “Instrument God, how is it that the Flying Shadow Black Panther, despite being subjected to so many spiritual attacks, remains so agile?” Qu Yi asked in surprise. “Hehe, it’s not just the Flying Shadow Black Panther; there’s also the Sky-Winged White Tiger. They are my slaves, with my spiritual imprint left in their souls. With just Hun Jin and Hun Qu, no matter how much they attack with their spirits, it will be useless,” said the Instrument God, resting his hands behind his back with a smile. Qu Yi looked at the Instrument God, filled with confusion once again, unable to figure out his true origin. Just an imprint left by a spiritual shackle could render the spiritual attacks of two experts at the Spirit Division stage ineffective. Indeed, while the Flying Shadow Black Panther continued to hold off Hun Jin, the Sky-Winged White Tiger was also unaffected by Hun Qu’s spiritual attacks. At this point, the Sky-Winged White Tiger fully unleashed itself and pressed hard on Hun Qu. Meanwhile, when the Blizzard Ice Silkworm fought against Hun Shi, it too was not greatly affected by spiritual attacks. It turned out that the Blizzard Ice Silkworm’s primordial spirit carried an innate icy aura that instantly froze the spiritual attacks sent by Hun Shi. After returning to its true form, the Dark Fragrant Cold Fox was only ten meters long, covered in snow-white fur, and exuded a cold aura. During battle, it emitted a strange fragrance from its body, which also had a mind-confusing effect. As a result, when Hun San attacked the Dark Fragrant Cold Fox, although it caused damage to the fox’s primordial spirit, Hun San himself gradually became sluggish, his mind nearly blurred. On the other side, the Golden Qilin led a hundred beasts to confront a thousand elite disciples of the Li Hun Sect. One to ten—seemingly, the beasts weren’t at a significant disadvantage in strength. But from the start of the battle, the mighty beasts gathered together like a blade and charged straight into the group of Li Hun Sect disciples. Especially the Golden Qilin, which was completely unaffected by their spiritual attacks. It turned out that whenever the Golden Qilin’s primordial spirit was about to be knocked unconscious by the spiritual attacks of the Li Hun Sect disciples, Qu Yi would secretly awaken it. Qu Yi was the master of the Golden Qilin and could communicate with it directly through the spirit realm.

Thus, with its 50-meter-long body protected by dragon scales and its soul aided secretly by Qu Yi, the Golden Qilin was nothing short of a killing god descended to earth. With a mere flick of its dragon head, rows of disciples from the Li Hun Sect were shattered; with a slight kick of its feet, more of them had their flesh torn apart. The Golden Qilin cleared the way ahead, while the beasts behind waited to strike, causing those disciples of the Li Hun Sect to wither away rapidly. Faced with such ferocious aggression from the Golden Qilin, the remaining two hundred-plus disciples completely lost confidence and immediately retreated into the interior of Skull Mountain, heading into various passages.

The Golden Qilin reached the “mouth” part of Skull Mountain and stopped, then shouted, “All my beast brothers, go help the Bug King attack those five bastards. I’ll go after the remaining members of the Li Hun Sect alone.” “Yes!” Hundreds of beasts immediately turned around to assist the five beasts at the Divination Stage of the Tian Yin Bug.

Meanwhile, the Golden Qilin transformed into human form and flew into Skull Mountain, entering a passage to chase after those fleeing disciples of the Li Hun Sect.

……

Hun San fought against Dark Fragrant Cold Fox, gradually realizing that his consciousness was becoming blurred. At that moment, the hundreds of beasts flew over, and he understood clearly that if he didn’t launch a decisive attack soon, the Li Hun Sect would face certain death.

“Activate the Soul Flame! Gather the soul and explode!” Suddenly, Hun San glanced at the other four strong members of the Li Hun Sect and let out a tragic cry. “No!” Hun Mie, Hun Jin, Hun Qu, and Hun Shi all shouted in panic. But it was too late—Hun San’s entire body suddenly exploded.

After the explosion, his entire soul transformed into a thousand powerful spiritual attacks, each one possessing the strength of a late-stage Outward Journeyer. The hundreds of beasts that had just arrived were instantly hit by these attacks, falling from the sky and raising huge clouds of dust. Dark Fragrant Cold Fox, bearing the brunt of the attacks, was also knocked unconscious.

By sacrificing himself, Hun San eliminated those beasts at the Outward Journeyer stage, rendering all the beasts unconscious immediately. However, his sacrifice did not solve the fundamental problem—the Blizzard Ice Silkworm continued to attack Hun Shi, the Heavenly Wing White Tiger pressed down on Hun Qu, the Flying Shadow Black Panther kept holding back Hun Jin, and the Tian Yin Bug continued to fight Hun Mie.

Suddenly, the nearly ten-meter-long Blizzard Ice Silkworm, after unleashing a wave of ice magic, shot out ten thousand white threads, forming a cocoon that enveloped Hun Shi.

Click, click—the Blizzard Ice Silkworm was actually inside the cocoon, instantly devouring souls.
“No!” Hunmie, Hunjin, and Hunqu all screamed in terror.
In just a moment, two of the five powerful cultivators at the Spirit Departure Sect’s Divine Spirit stage were dead, and the remaining three felt an overwhelming sense of impending doom.
As Hunqu was distracted, the Sky-Winged White Tiger beside him immediately flapped its wings, creating a swirling vortex. This vortex sucked Hunqu in and spun him around inside.
When the vortex dissipated, Hunqu emerged, but he was completely unconscious.
Without hesitation, the Sky-Winged White Tiger opened its mouth wide and swallowed Hunqu whole.
Now, both the Blizzard Ice Silkworm and the Sky-Winged White Tiger had defeated their opponents and could go help the Flying Shadow Black Panther and the Heavenly Sound Insect.
Hunmie and Hunjin immediately realized the danger and tried to communicate mentally to escape together.
But it seemed the Heavenly Sound Insect and the Flying Shadow Black Panther had guessed their plans, intensifying their attacks and turning the sky into a storm of energy, forcing the two to defend themselves desperately—leaving no chance for them to teleport away.
The Blizzard Ice Silkworm and the Sky-Winged White Tiger flew near the Flying Shadow Black Panther. One emitted freezing cold air, while the other sent violent winds, trapping Hunjin so he could do nothing but brace himself.
Hunjin’s eyes turned icy as he suddenly shouted, “Senior brother, the Spirit Departure Sect relies on you!”
As soon as he spoke, Hunjin exploded, releasing over 2,000 waves of spiritual attacks aimed at the Blizzard Ice Silkworm, the Sky-Winged White Tiger, and the Flying Shadow Black Panther. Indeed, these three beasts couldn’t withstand such a sudden onslaught of spiritual attacks. Their core spirits were shaken, causing them to fall into agony and collapse to the ground.
Seeing the three beasts fall, the Heavenly Sound Insect was shocked, causing a slight delay in her actions. Hunmie, seeing this, seized the opportunity and flew away immediately.
Only then did the Heavenly Sound Insect react and fly after him, determined to track down Hunmie and kill the last remaining strongman of the Spirit Departure Sect before she could feel at ease.
At the foot of Skull Mountain, there lay hundreds of various beasts, all at or above the Out-of-Body stage.
Suddenly, a Golden Qilin flew out from inside Skull Mountain, with Qu Yi sitting on its back.
“Hahaha! Heaven truly favors me! These beasts are all unconscious—then I’ll just take them all,” Qu Yi exclaimed joyfully.