It bore a resemblance to Mo Sha.
Only, it lacked that overwhelming, sky-scorching baleful aura, appearing far more profound and deep instead.
"Strike!"
Li Fan shouted in his heart. His hands never paused for an instant as he fully activated the modified Profound Heaven Spirit-Sealing Formation.
A profound power instantly enveloped Mo Shi.
Having already sensed the presence of Lin Ling and Tianyang, Mo Shi was just about to launch an attack when its body abruptly stiffened.
Then, like water, its form rippled faintly.
In an instant, as though veiled beneath a sheet of white cloth, its color faded ever so slightly.
Just as Mo Shi was affected by the formation, their attacks arrived.
Although Tianyang possessed only a Soul Formation cultivation, his combat instincts surpassed Lin Ling's by a margin.
Flames woven of red and black coalesced into a colossal fist, slamming heavily into Mo Shi.
It stirred only faint ripples.
Lin Ling's myriad green ribbons, darting like flying swords, followed immediately behind.
They seemed poised to pierce Mo Shi with ten thousand arrows on the spot.
Faced with their ferocious assault, Mo Shi merely cast a cold glance at them.
It neither dodged nor parried.
"Run!" The instant Mo Shi looked at the pair, Li Fan, who was observing the battle from the outside through a shared perspective, sensed danger and shouted a warning.
At the same time, he drove the formation to unleash another wave of suppression upon Mo Shi.
Both Lin Ling and Tianyang trusted Li Fan implicitly.
The moment they received the warning, they each fled.
And right after they escaped, without the slightest warning, space shattered.
It turned into void sinkholes filled with the black aura of destruction, just like the surrounding area.
"Dodge!"
Calm and unhurried, Li Fan commanded steadily.
His premonition had been correct.
After taking the combined strike of the two head-on and retaliating, Mo Shi's form squirmed and burrowed into an adjacent void sinkhole.
The next moment, from the countless cavities within this sprawling underground space, pitch-black tentacles thrust out simultaneously.
They lashed out wildly in an indiscriminate assault against everything that could possibly exist around them.
Like a surging tsunami, the spirit-sealing formation binding this space suffered immense shocks.
It teetered on the brink of collapse.
Fortunately, the Terminal Dissociation Disc analyzed the weak points appearing in the formation in real time.
Li Fan then swiftly moved to mend and reinforce them.
Though perils arose one after another, the formation remained unbroken throughout.
Within the formation, however, Lin Ling and Tianyang, who were grappling with Mo Shi, were not having an easy time.
Even with Li Fan's advance warnings, this wide-range killing technique left them with almost nowhere to hide.
They could only shuttle back and forth constantly, minimizing the frequency of hits taken.
Those black tentacles also possessed the power to shatter space.
Even Tianyang's sturdy puppet body vanished instantly wherever it was struck.
In just the blink of an eye, the surface of Tianyang's body had become mangled and battered.
While striving to evade, Tianyang retrieved a round black stone.
With a gentle squeeze, the black stone melted into a glob of liquid that seeped into the holes across his body, mending his injuries.
On Lin Ling's side, the pressure was far less severe.
After all, she was also at the Dao Integration level, and this body was not her true form—merely a manifestation of energy.
Even when struck by the black tentacles and torn apart, green light would flicker, and Lin Ling would quickly restore herself to her original state.
Even after regenerating dozens of times in this manner, her aura showed neither fluctuation nor decline.
"Hold on. I have severed its connection to heaven and earth with the formation; a technique on such a massive scale certainly cannot last long."
"Wear it down to death!" Li Fan said coldly.
Yet Mo Shi's endurance somewhat exceeded Li Fan's expectations.
Within the underground space, black energy ran rampant, churning violently.
It annihilated everything within its reach.
The commotion was terrifying. Had Li Fan not made preparations beforehand and layered the concealment of the Earth Vein Ancient Tree over it, even buried deep beneath the earth, the cultivators of Qiling Province would likely have noticed something amiss.
And had Li Fan not always been prudent, preparing ample supplies for Lin Ling and Tianyang, they might have failed to endure even this first hurdle and suffered immediate defeat.
"As expected of one bearing the Mo name—it is far stronger than Crimson Flame." Li Fan could not help feeling secretly astounded.
Yet during this stalemate, Li Fan, observing calmly from the sidelines, also noticed a few clues.
It seemed that because Mo Shi possessed the celestial duty of mending underground sinkholes, it could not exert its full power.
Therefore, after the tentacles whipped through, the affected normal space around them merely trembled for a brief moment before returning to normal.
"If it had no restraints on its attacks, it could definitely turn this entire place into a void with ease."
"Yet doing so directly contradicts the celestial duty it was born with. Thus, even when its life is threatened, it cannot unleash its full might."
Li Fan thought to himself.
"From another angle, this also illustrates how terrifying Mo Sha is."
"Aside from its astonishing inherent strength, Mo Sha's duty is to destroy everything. That is why it acts without the slightest restraint..."
While Li Fan was deep in thought, Mo Shi, seeing that its attacks were failing to yield results, finally stopped.
Without giving Lin Ling and Tianyang a chance to catch their breath, it shifted its attack pattern in a split second.
The dark tentacles reaching out from the void sinkholes snapped off, subsequently condensing into individual, smaller Mo Shi entities.
Flickering through the air, they steadily closed in on Lin Ling and Tianyang.
They formed a colossal encirclement, relentlessly contracting toward the center.
"Break out!" Li Fan made his judgment at once.
Lin Ling and Tianyang exchanged a glance, after which Lin Ling dissolved into a layer of green light that enveloped Tianyang's body.
The light erupted violently as they charged toward the swiftly approaching black silhouettes.
Black and green light collided.
There was no earth-shaking roar of an explosion.
There was only the green radiance dimming rapidly, like a candle flame flickering in the wind, threatening to extinguish at any moment.
Meanwhile, the black encirclement stood like a coastal reef standing firm against the tide, swaying only ever so slightly.
Unbreakable.
Countless black stones encroached upon the remaining room Lin Ling and Tianyang had to maneuver.
Seeing that they were slowly being driven into a corner, Lin Ling, having virtually no combat experience, was the first to panic.
Her momentum plummeted, and for a time she fell into despair.
She abandoned all resistance, waiting in place for death.
"Tianyang throughout his life..."
Right then, Tianyang, who had remained silent ever since waking in this lifetime, finally spoke.
A restless red glow surged within his eyes. He looked at Mo Shi nearby without the slightest trace of fear.
"...has never been inferior to anyone!"
Amidst an oddly strained, furious roar, an immense surge of energy erupted from within Tianyang's body.
His puppet frame expanded hundreds of times in an instant, sweeping Lin Ling along as he charged toward Mo Shi!
Even if it was merely a moth flying into a flame, an egg striking a stone;
even if his body would be dissolved into the void the moment it made contact with Mo Shi's line of defense;
Tianyang showed not the slightest hesitation.
With resolute finality, he launched a death charge!
And Lin Ling seemed infected by Tianyang's conviction as well, unleashing a powerful green vitality like never before.
It guarded Tianyang's core, resisting the encroachment of Mo Shi.
Chapter 836