The astral wind was like knives, shredding the drifting clouds.
Nine Infant's form blurred, becoming a streak of crimson lightning as it skimmed swiftly along the majestic foothills of Buzhou Mountain.
The gale whipped up the baleful aura swirling around its body. Its nine ferocious heads, each with a different appearance, swayed wildly in the howling wind, some shrieking and others growling low.
Those eighteen blood-red eyes were like ghostly flames from the netherworld, flickering with cruel and wary light as they swept again and again over the vast mountain forest below, shrouded in ancient mist, missing not the slightest movement.
Kunpeng's icy, emotionless command still seemed to coil tightly around its ears, every word crystal clear: "Observe its resonance from afar; inspect its form up close. If you discover even the slightest hint of deception... Ji Meng, destroy it!"
High above the ground, the enormous form of the ancient ferocious beast Nine Infant slowly circled, stirring the air around it.
The dense Demonic Cloud churned violently, like a boiling black sea, completely concealing its mountain-like torso and long necks covered in dark scales. Only occasionally did a heart-stirring outline show through gaps in the clouds.
Yet the nine enormous necks hanging down from the Demonic Cloud were perfectly clear. At their ends, the nine heads shared the same indifference and cruelty, their gazes piercing through the clouds to lock onto the tiny, silent courtyard below, which looked no bigger than a model.--
"Heh, it's nothing but a mortal courtyard!" The central snake head was the first to let out a cold, hissing laugh, its voice full of condescending contempt. The other eight heads turned as well, all eighteen blood pupils filled with mockery.
The stone house had weathered wind and rain, its walls mottled and covered in the marks of time. The Vegetable Plot in front was divided crookedly, its crops a mix of green and yellow, growing in disorder and showing every sign of neglect. The few Clay Jars piled in the corner were crudely made and clumsy in shape, no different from the rough stones of the wilderness. Even the low stone wall marking the boundary had long since been covered in thick moss, exuding a damp, rotten air.
At those words, the dragon head on the left abruptly raised itself. Its vicious horns glimmered faintly in the gloom as it irritably swung its long neck and spat a cloud of foul, poisonous mist from between its fangs, corroding the surrounding air. "Ji Meng must have faked his injuries to scheme for power!" it growled, its voice like muffled thunder. "Why keep watching from here? I'll tear down this eyesore of a broken courtyard right now and force him to reveal himself. Let's see how he can keep making excuses and lies!"
"Silence!" The human-faced head on the right abruptly twisted around and sternly halted the agitation of the dragon head on the left. Its pupils shrank violently in an instant, as if struck by something invisible, and even its voice carried a barely perceptible tension. "Look at that barrier... Something's wrong!"
The invisible barrier of the Safe Zone manifested within Nine Infant's spiritual perception. A pale silver radiance flowed like a ring of stars, enclosing the Small Courtyard without the slightest gap. When its spiritual sense touched it, it sank into the sea like a lump of mud! Even more terrifying was the Dao Resonance contained within the barrier—it was gentle as spring water, yet carried a rule-suppressing force that made even a demon sage tremble!
"Hmph, putting on an act and bluffing!" Nine Infant forcibly suppressed the inexplicable tremor rising in its heart. In embarrassment and fury, its nine heads no longer held back and simultaneously activated their innate divine abilities, determined to crush the eyesore of a courtyard in one strike:
Blood Pupils Pierce the Void: The nine pairs of blood pupils in the center suddenly blazed with light, like eighteen boiling springs of blood. They burst forth with destructive beams that pierced through falsehood, stabbing toward the stone house in the courtyard with a shrill roar. Yet when the Blood Light touched the seemingly thin barrier, it was like snow thrown into the blazing sun—it was decomposed and melted away in an instant, leaving not the slightest trace.
Poisonous Miasma Corrodes Spirits: The dragon head on the left opened its enormous jaws and spewed out a flood of dark-green poisonous miasma. The poison within corroded spiritual essence, spreading toward the Small Courtyard like a living thing and seeping downward. Yet this filthy poisonous cloud, powerful enough to make a Golden Immortal perish, vanished completely upon touching the silver radiance flowing through the barrier, like boiling water splashed onto snow. It gave off only a faint sizzling sound and failed to corrode even a fraction.
Demonic Sound Captures Souls: The heads on the right opened their enormous, fanged mouths in unison and let out shrill howls that struck directly at the soul! The invisible sound waves warped the air and tore apart the drifting clouds, bearing down on the Small Courtyard with the force of mountains and seas. But this terrifying demonic sound, powerful enough to scatter the souls of living beings, seemed to crash into an invisible cliff stretching between heaven and earth three zhang above the Small Courtyard. Its entire might halted abruptly and vanished into silence.
All that could be heard was a dense series of grating metallic clangs. The hard scales covering Nine Infant's entire body were rubbing against one another and trembling from the extremity of its shock!
Its boundless Demonic Qi actually faltered for an instant. This conclusion exploded like thunder in all nine of its minds at once, causing the ancient ferocious beast to waver for the first time: the power of the light curtain before it actually surpassed, by far, the supreme Great Zhou Heavenly Stars Formation it had regarded as the highest existence in its understanding!
Just as it was still suspicious and startled, the courtyard gate creaked open. Chen An walked out carrying a Clay Jar, his bare feet stepping onto the muddy ground and his trouser legs rolled up to his knees. Completely unaware of the ominous star above his head, he walked straight toward the Vegetable Plot.
"A mortal?" All nine of Nine Infant's heads froze at once.
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