Hearing that, Meng Wanshu could not help covering her mouth with a soft chuckle. "You really are wicked..."
"All right, I'll go take a look."
Li Guanqi caught her hand and pressed a storage ring into it.
"There are plenty of inscribed talismans inside, including a few position-swapping talismans," he said. "Slap one on Jiuxiao. If there's an emergency, you can switch places with him. His defenses are practically impenetrable anyway."
By the lakeshore, Jiuxiao had just finished regenerating his dragon scales. Upon hearing this, he sneezed in deep indignance.
Standing atop Jiuxiao's head with its hands on its hips, Pengluo mimicked Jiuxiao's tone and squawked, "Is my life not a life?!"
"Ahem—Brother Nine said that, not me..."
Li Guanqi chuckled, retrieved several pills, and tossed them to Jiuxiao and Pengluo. "Be careful, all of you," he said softly. "According to Gu Li's inscribed talisman perception, there appear to be six of them. Their cultivation should be at the middle or late Body Integration Realm."
Meng Wanshu slipped the storage ring onto her finger, drew her Snow Shadow Sword, and concealed her aura. "Understood, I'm off," she murmured. "Take care of yourself on this side."
Li Guanqi nodded silently, and the group split into two paths.
Excitement sparkled in Pengluo's eyes. Tugging on Jiuxiao's dragon horns, it muttered, "Fight, fight!!"
"Plunder the heavenly treasures!!"
"Raid their dens!!"
Jiuxiao transformed into the likeness of a small snake, coiling around Meng Wanshu's arm, while Pengluo shrank to the size of a palm, still brandishing a little hammer in its hand...
Li Guanqi turned back around, his heart trembling slightly as he beheld the towering waterfall before him.
Treading on arcs of lightning, he slowly stepped forward and reached out to touch the cascading curtain of water.
*Bang!!*
The bone of his entire left hand was instantly shattered by the crushing impact of the descending spiritual river waterfall!
Staring at his mangled hand, a bitter grimace crept across Li Guanqi's face. *How the hell am I supposed to climb this?*
*Buzz!*
The fire seal between Li Guanqi's brows ignited with a faint flame. Though it burned slowly, it shone brilliant and clear.
*Boom!!*
The surrounding mist was blasted away, carving out a circular vacuum, and Li Guanqi's aura began to skyrocket wildly!
An overwhelming aura surged outward. Li Guanqi rarely chanted Spirit Incantation: Dichen...
Yet this time, he took the initiative to unleash Dichen's empowering might.
Immediately after, he drew one of Gu Li's spirit talismans, slapped it onto himself, and invoked the power of his lightning armor.
Not merely a single layer—this time, Li Guanqi directly stacked three layers of the spirit incantation's lightning armor upon himself!
This was the absolute limit of his ability to layer spirit incantations. After all, one rarely heard of anyone capable of stacking the power of spirit incantations at all.
Having prepared thoroughly, Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes. He exhaled a breath of turbid air laced with stray arcs of lightning.
*Boom!!*
The moment he stepped into the waterfall, his body sank under the crushing weight, and the lake water instantly rose above his chest!
The lightning armor coating his body shattered by an entire layer in barely a single breath!
Descending like ten thousand towering mountains crashing atop his head, the force sent violent tremors through Li Guanqi's sea of consciousness, throwing his mind into chaos.
Even so, he dug his hands violently into the cliffside. The five fingers of his right hand bent into a bizarre, unnatural angle, while his left fingers instantly locked onto a tiny ridge jutting from the rock!
"Ngh!"
A muffled groan tore from Li Guanqi's throat. With a slight convulsion of his throat, he forcibly swallowed the mouthful of stagnant blood surging up into his chest.
Primal energy surged through his body, his aura stacking wave upon wave like a roaring tide crashing against the shore to withstand the relentless battering of the falls.
Li Guanqi mended the damage to his five fingers. Layers of lightning armor rapidly reformed across the surface of his body, yet that horrific impact still battered him with agonizing solidity.
By now, extensive bruises spread across his neck and back.
Exerting strength through both hands, Li Guanqi swept his mind's eye over the stone wall and indeed spotted several grooves and protrusions.
It seemed this trial was not entirely impossible after all.
Using hands and feet together, Li Guanqi shoved forward with explosive force.
*Bang!!*
*Splash!!*
Li Guanqi was hammered straight down into the depths of the lake. He bared his teeth in pain.
The shifting turbulence of the water was simply beyond his ability to anticipate; any divine sense extended into this torrent would be torn to shreds in an instant.
With a flicker of movement, Li Guanqi emerged beside the waterfall once more. He gradually regulated his breathing until it steadied, no longer keeping his body taut, but letting it loosen slightly.
At this moment, Li Guanqi felt as though he had returned to the days of scaling the waterfall back at the Great Xia Sword Sect.
*Swish!*
Though the crushing impact of the waterfall remained just as brutal, Li Guanqi made minute adjustments to his posture with every passing fraction of an instant.
The tempestuous force raged unabated, yet Li Guanqi gradually began to scale upward!
Li Guanqi dared not breathe, switching to internal respiration, keeping his mind as still as water.
Even when the lightning armor wrapping his body shattered completely, he gritted his teeth and persevered on his own raw physical might.
*Bang!!*
An even more violent surge of water crashed down the precipice, slamming against his back. *Bang!!*
Li Guanqi's footing slipped. Digging a single hand desperately into the cliff face, his chest slammed hard against the stone.
The torrential current battered his body as Li Guanqi fought to regain his hold and climb anew.
Yet reality proved far harsher than hope.
Plunging from a cliff face over a hundred zhang high, Li Guanqi crashed violently into the lake, coughing up a mouthful of blood.
Floating in the lake, Li Guanqi felt as though every bone in his body had come apart, his internal organs entirely jarred out of place.
He could not fathom how any human strength could possibly scale such a Long River of Spiritual Mist.
Yet the weathered marks on the stone wall proved beyond doubt that many before him had succeeded!
Li Guanqi spat out a bloody froth, steadied his breath, and surged against the current once more!
***
On the other side, skulking and sneaking about, Pengluo finally caught sight of the Pan family's six experts.
Sword qi whistled through the air around the six cultivators, spells and magic treasures flashing in rapid succession. Mountains of great demon corpses were already piled high around them.
However, their energy was depleting rapidly. One of the old men flicked his longsword to repel an approaching great demon and barked in a frigid voice, "This won't do! There are too many of these great demons! If this continues, we'll be worn down to death right here!!"
"Bingcheng and Ziji are both wounded! If we drag this out any longer, it will be hard for us to get away!!"
The old man leading them had flickering eyes. Slashing out with a stroke of sword qi, he severed the great demon before him and growled, "Move!! Head deeper into the valley!"
Just then, Pengluo produced a jade bottle from somewhere, containing a single drop of Jiuxiao's true dragon essence blood.
"Hehe, trying to run?"
"Go wild, you bastards!!!!"
The moment the words left its mouth, Pengluo's figure flickered near-invisibly into the center of the group.
Its abrupt arrival startled the experts into a momentary stupor. Immediately following that, Pengluo smashed the jade vial onto the ground and bolted for dear life!
"It's that radish!! Catch it!!!"
"That's... true dragon essence blood!!!"
"Hahahaha! It really is true dragon essence blood!!"
The lead elder snatched up the drop of dragon blood, wild ecstasy spreading across his face.
Yet they were not the only ones seized by ecstasy—hundreds, thousands of rank-seven great demons throughout the Illusory Forest went mad with longing!
A single drop of true dragon essence blood was enough to purify their bloodlines countless times over, allowing them to shatter their racial limits and achieve atavistic breakthrough!
*Roar!!!!*
The earth quaked as every great demon across the entire Illusory Forest went berserk.
Having slipped away, Pengluo formed hand seals to split into several clones, which darted straight toward the dens of these great beasts.
"Raid their dens!!! Raid their dens!!!"
Hidden in a shadowy corner, Meng Wanshu narrowed her eyes as she watched the six cultivators plunge into a desperate struggle.
If she intervened now, she was confident she could instantly kill at least two of them!
However, the remaining four would inevitably surround and overwhelm her.
Suddenly, a faint dragon roar drifted into her ears, and the corners of Meng Wanshu's lips curved slightly.
Jiuxiao's intention was crystal clear: with him here, even if she was encircled, he had full confidence he could extract her safely!
Gripping her Snow Shadow Sword, cold killing intent danced within her beautiful eyes as she murmured under her breath.
"Then let's kill them!!"
Chapter 969