Chapter 187 - 163: Contract, Pressure

Chapter 187: Chapter 163: Contract, Pressure

As the roaring sound faded.

Three huge, eyeless pythons, dark as iron and covered in slick scales, slowly emerged from the dust and smoke. They crossed the fence, revealing their full bodies.

Their tails were connected to a small tree with dark red leaves and gnarled branches. Using the serpentine bodies as legs, they stirred up a cloud of dust and quickly departed with a series of metallic clangs.

Atop a tree on the edge of the summit.

The man in the profound robe stared, dumbfounded, at Little Wooden Head in the dust cloud and muttered, "This... what kind of demon is this?"

In all his experience, he had never seen anything like it.

Watching it head straight for the High-grade Spirit Field, the man in the profound robe subconsciously circulated his Spiritual Power, preparing to rush over.

But he stopped after taking just one step.

’Don’t look at what you shouldn’t see. Don’t meddle in what doesn’t concern you...’

The man glanced at the small courtyard in the distance, hesitated for a moment, and then disappeared from the summit in a few leaps.

The cautionary tale of Bai Shui was still fresh in his mind. He had no desire to provoke that person for no reason.

As he left, a question still lingered in his mind.

’Could this strange demon be the one from the rumors—the one whose advancement was interrupted by Bai Shui and Yan Shaoyuan?’

He didn’t know, nor did he dare to ask.

Meanwhile.

Little Wooden Head quickly arrived at Li Changsheng’s side. Its three bucket-thick serpentine bodies coiled protectively around him, its leafy canopy rustling with a metallic clanging.

A wave of joyous excitement transmitted into his mind.

A smile touched Li Changsheng’s eyes. He mentally soothed Little Wooden Head for a moment, then glanced at the cocoon in the Spirit Field and produced a wooden bowl with a flip of his hand.

He channeled Spiritual Power to his fingertips and sliced open his palm.

Trickles of crimson blood flowed out, dripping into the bowl.

He was going to try contracting the Senluo Flower Demon one more time. If it still refused to submit, then he would have no choice but to grit his teeth and kill it before it could finish advancing.

’I hope you know what’s good for you...’

The thought flashed through Li Changsheng’s mind.

Soon, the bowl was nearly half full of blood.

’That should be enough.’

Li Changsheng circulated his Spiritual Power to stop the bleeding. He immediately formed a hand seal for a Technique, and the Spiritual Power within him rapidly infused his Spirit Contract Veins.

Within a few breaths.

A misty, beast-shaped pattern took form—it had the head of an ox, winding dragon horns, and an insect-like carapace on its back, but lacked limbs and a tail.

Li Changsheng’s gaze fell upon the wooden bowl. The hand seal of his Technique shifted, and he uttered a low command, "Go."

A stream of dark gray spiritual light flowed from his finger, coalescing into a mottled bestial shadow that flew into the bowl.

The blood churned and quickly solidified into a gray mass branded with the beast-shaped pattern, emitting a thick, strange odor.

’It’s done.’

Li Changsheng picked up the wooden bowl and, escorted by Little Wooden Head, walked to the center of the Spirit Field.

As he drew closer,

The cocoon suddenly extended dozens of slender, root-like threads that swayed in the breeze like underwater weeds.

Li Changsheng’s gaze hardened. He stopped about three meters away, took the gray solid from the bowl, and gently tossed it toward the root-threads.

The solid fell slowly. When it was less than a meter from the cocoon,

SWISH...

Several root-threads suddenly shot out, instantly piercing the gray solid and leaving it suspended in mid-air.

Li Changsheng watched with an expectant gaze.

But after waiting for a long while, the Senluo Flower Demon still made no further moves.

’Did it fail...?’

A trace of disappointment crossed Li Changsheng’s face, but his eyes gradually grew sharp.

In the past, with Xiaohai to keep things in check, he could still tolerate it.

But once they both advanced, even Xiaohai might spiral out of control, to say nothing of this demon.

CLANG CLANG CLANG...

As if sensing his killing intent, Little Wooden Head’s branches shook, its leaves clanging loudly.

Li Changsheng glanced at the cocoon and stepped back.

The gnarled growths on Little Wooden Head’s body began to glow with specks of dark red light. The wood-grain patterns on the scales of its three bucket-thick pythons were rapidly stained a dark red, and a grim, demonic aura surged forth.

Just as Li Changsheng was about to order Little Wooden Head to attack, his expression suddenly shifted, and he looked forward.

He saw that the gray solid was now completely enveloped by a dense mass of fine root-threads.

Feeling a connection gradually deepening in his mind, Li Changsheng raised an eyebrow and stopped Little Wooden Head from acting.

「A moment later.」

With a flicker of his thoughts, Li Changsheng activated it.

HUMMM...

The cocoon trembled slightly, and a hazy, illusory layer of spiritual light arose. Then, a twisted, insect-like pattern slowly appeared on the surface of the root-threads, spreading to consume its entire body.

Inside, a faint, beast-shaped mark was slowly taking form.

Just then, the beast-shaped mark within Xiaohai suddenly glowed with a hazy gray light, and the newly formed mark from the cocoon crashed into it.

The two blended together as if they were milk and water, slowly merging into one.

The patterns from Xiaohai’s mark flared with spiritual light, writhing like insects as they crawled onto the fine root-threads and rapidly expanded.

In the outside world, the dancing root-threads on the cocoon went rigid. Specks of gray patterns appeared, swiftly expanding across the entire cocoon and its roots.

As the patterns covered it, the cocoon flickered with spiritual light. An invisible suction force appeared, and the dense Spiritual Qi filling the air began to surge violently into it.

Wisps of Spiritual Mist gathered around the cocoon, forming a vortex several meters in diameter.

HUMMM...

Standing nearby, Li Changsheng felt a humming ring through his mind.

The mental connection representing Xiaohai suddenly expanded several times over. It crashed into his mind like a great mountain, and the immense, pulsing pressure caused waves of sharp pain to erupt in his head.

This was only the second time—the first being when he contracted the vast number of Red-winged Blood Bamboo—that his mind had been unable to withstand the pressure from a contract.

Li Changsheng gripped his head with both hands, his body half-doubled over. Veins bulged on his forehead, which was beaded with sweat.

「An hour later.」

The vortex of Spiritual Qi swirling around the cocoon dispersed, revealing a cocoon covered in intricate patterns.

UGH...

Li Changsheng let out a muffled groan and collapsed onto the ground. He sat there, head bowed, panting heavily.