Plop!
Plop!
Plop!
Three thuds followed in succession, as Wang Zizai, Elder Dong, and Professor Li all collapsed to the ground, unable to withstand the bell's resonance!
Blood flowed from their eyes, ears, noses, and mouths, and they curled into balls as if struck by a heavy blow.
Their lives hung by a thread.
The demon puppets in the entire underground palace seemed to hear a death knell, trembling violently.
Even more so than when they encountered Ying Chen!
Some smaller, lower-level demon puppets directly exploded with a crack, shattering into dust.
As the demon puppets exploded, a shadow, like smoke and mist, rose and was then absorbed into the ceiling of the hall.
"Twelve Yuan Chen Xuan Yin Bell?"
Upon hearing the bell's chime, Ying Chen's pupils constricted instantly as he recognized its origin.
He never expected that the Twelve Yuan Chen Xuan Yin Bell, which he had searched for in vain, would appear on its own!
However, the bell's chime seemed to be indiscriminate, attacking all objects within the underground palace hall, regardless of whether they were human or demon, friend or foe!
"Body like a Dharma Lotus!"
Ying Chen let out a soft cry, and a hazy light emanated from his body.
The light, like a lotus flower, spread outwards from Ying Chen.
In an instant, Elder Dong and the other two were enveloped.
Under the protection of the Dharma Lotus, the bell's chime could no longer affect Elder Dong and the other two.
The bleeding from their eyes, ears, noses, and mouths finally stopped, and their lives, which had been hanging by a thread, were successfully saved.
However, while Elder Dong and the other two were protected by Ying Chen, the eight departments of demon puppets in the hall had no one to protect them.
The sound of cracking was incessant.
One by one, the demon puppets exploded and shattered into dust.
As each demon puppet exploded, an aura rose into the air.
Soon, the entire hall seemed to be covered in a dense fog, obscuring vision.
Within the dense fog, faint silhouettes could be seen, wailing and struggling, desperately trying to break free.
But a powerful suction from the ceiling constantly drew the dense fog upwards.
No matter how the silhouettes struggled, it was in vain.
They were all absorbed and refined, like smoke from a furnace.
"No!"
"Zhang Daoling, I knew you had no good intentions!"
At this moment, the two large demon puppets subdued by Ying Chen suddenly emitted waves of energy.
Their outer shells began to crack!
Freed from the confinement of their shells, they could finally speak!
However, this speech was achieved through consciousness, similar to a bat's ultrasonic waves.
Ordinary humans could not hear it.
Only cultivators like Ying Chen could.
"What do you know?" Ying Chen asked, looking at the two demon puppets.
Whether it was due to the immense shock or the realization that death was imminent and they had nothing to lose, the two demon puppets grinned sinisterly at Ying Chen: "What do you think you are? How dare you ask us for information! We were forced to submit to you because we were sealed in our shells. Now that we are free, we will drag you down with us before we die!"
"Die for me!"
Boom!
The two demon puppets exerted force from within, shattering their shells along with the chime of the Twelve Yuan Chen Xuan Yin Bell.
Instantly, two massive silhouettes flew out from their shells.
One was ferocious like a demon god, the other sinister like a red ghost.
They floated in the air, their eyes filled with malice, staring intently at Ying Chen.
Suddenly, they let out a simultaneous roar and lunged towards Ying Chen!
Facing the two demon puppets freed from their seals, Ying Chen merely smirked.
"Have you forgotten what I told you? In this era of declining Dharma, cultivation declines daily. Do you think you still possess much power? Little do you know, I, who you deemed unqualified to question, am now the top combatant of this era!"
With that, Ying Chen raised his hand and grabbed at the two demon puppets.
Then, the two demon puppets let out exclamations of disbelief: "No! How is this possible?"
"Who are you? Even we have weakened so much, why do you still possess such immense power?"
"No, immortal, spare our lives, immortal, spare our lives! As long as you spare us, we will be your dogs, serving you day and night!"
The two demon puppets perfectly performed a play of "pride before humility."
One moment they were roaring that Ying Chen was unworthy to question them, the next they were begging for their lives.
However, Ying Chen gave the two demon puppets no chance to regret.
He exuded immense power from his fingertips, about to crush the two demon puppets.
But before Ying Chen could exert his strength, the Twelve Yuan Chen Xuan Yin Bell chimed again.
This chime seemed to be the last hour of the twelve hours.
The power it emitted far surpassed all previous chimes.
Buzz!
As if a storm had erupted across the heavens and earth, a terrifying and horrifying pressure instantly permeated the entire hall.
A powerful force directly shattered all the demon puppets within the hall and created a vast, sea-like vortex that sucked all the essence from the demon puppets into the ceiling!
Including the two demon puppet silhouettes in Ying Chen's hands!
"Immortal, save... us..."
The two demon puppets flew uncontrollably towards the ceiling. Their transformed silhouettes struggled, and in their final moments, they still tried to call out to Ying Chen for help.
But the power generated by the Twelve Yuan Chen Xuan Yin Bell was too immense. As soon as the two demon puppets finished speaking, they vanished instantly.
They were directly drawn into the vortex!
The vortex spun for an unknown duration.
In any case, all the demon puppets in the hall were shattered, without exception.
The souls within the demon puppets were all absorbed into it, becoming part of the vortex.
After quietly rotating for one cycle, the vortex suddenly transformed into a waterspout and surged towards the ceiling.
At the same time, twelve beams of light illuminated the ceiling.
Each beam of light was shaped like a bell, adorning the perimeter of the ceiling.
In the center of the ceiling was a massive Dharma Seal.
The Dharma Seal faintly glowed, displaying six large characters—Yang Ping Zhi Du Gong Seal!
Upon seeing these six characters, Wang Zizai was aghast: "It's the Yang Ping Zhi Du Gong Seal! Zhang Daoling's personal Dharma Seal! So the true ancestral seals claimed by Dragon Tiger Mountain throughout the generations were merely replicas!"
"No wonder the emperor bestowed another Heavenly Master's Dharma Seal upon Dragon Tiger Mountain during the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty. It seems the true seal had been lost long ago!"
"Now that the true seal has appeared, if the disciples of Dragon Tiger Mountain find out, they will likely risk their lives to come here and seize it!"
"I fear they may have the lives to come, but not to return," Ying Chen suddenly interjected, staring at the scene on the ceiling.
His tone was grave, and his expression unusually serious.
Clearly, the scene on the ceiling was not optimistic and could well signify the advent of a great disaster!