Although Zhao Gongming had once fought Nine Li, he had never experienced the might of the Seventy Transformations of Forest and Wood. Now his eyes widened, his heart filled with shock.
Then...
"Mmph!" Nine Li swallowed him whole. Without their master's control, the twenty-four Dinghai Pearls outside fell toward the ground.
Humm~ Gungun, seated on a stone stool, raised its paw. An invisible force surged out, drawing all the Dinghai Pearls over to hover above its palm.
Seeing that Gungun had successfully seized the Dinghai Pearls, Nine Li opened his mouth and spat Zhao Gongming back out.
Pfft! A streak of radiant light shot from Nine Li's mouth and took the form of Zhao Gongming. He staggered backward for quite a distance before finally regaining his footing. Then, watching a flash of divine light turn Nine Li from a giant kun back into a Witch-Human, he snapped angrily, "Nine Li, this is outrageous!"
As he spoke, Zhao Gongming took out the Dragon-Binding Rope and lashed it at Nine Li, intending to truss him up tightly.
Nine Li was quite wary of the twenty-four Dinghai Pearls, but he had no fear whatsoever of the Dragon-Binding Rope. He raised his hand, caught it outright, and yanked hard.
"Ah!" Zhao Gongming could not match his strength, and Nine Li forcibly snatched the Dragon-Binding Rope away.
"Zhao Gongming, you lost. Do you concede?" Nine Li asked, holding the Dragon-Binding Rope.
Zhao Gongming clenched his fists. He looked at the Dragon-Binding Rope in Nine Li's hand, then at the Dinghai Pearls held by Gungun, who sat on the stone stool in Xiong Ba's guise. His face burned with shame and anger. After a moment, he swept his sleeve and turned into a streak of divine light, soaring into the sky as he shouted, "Nine Li,