How could this be? She had just seen a boy of about ten years old inside, but now it was different. This was no boy at all, but a woman's corpse, already beginning to decay, with waves of putrid odor wafting within the sphere.
Long hair clung stickily, floating in mid-air. Ye Huohuo could even see oily pus dripping from the tips of the hair, which she presumed was corpse oil.
Ye Huohuo had seen her share of gruesome sights, but upon glancing at the female corpse within, she almost threw up.
She recoiled violently, instinctively loosening her grip on the sphere. The outer skin of the sphere seemed to be alive. As Ye Huohuo let go, the opening she had torn was slowly sealing itself up.
It happened so quickly that by the time Ye Huohuo reacted and tried to tear it open again, it had already healed. It took no more than three seconds.
“What, what is this thing? It seems alive?” Ye Huohuo furrowed her brow, barely believing her eyes. She considered herself knowledgeable, but she couldn't figure out what this sphere was.
“It’s not surprising you wouldn’t know. This thing hasn’t appeared in nearly a hundred years. How old are you, how could you have seen it?” Fang Fang, standing beside her, adopted an air of profound wisdom.
Ye Huohuo suspected that if she had a beard at that moment, she would definitely be stroking it while speaking.
“There’s no time for storytelling. Quickly, tell me how to open this thing. We need to drag the corpse out and take it out. If we’re slow, none of us will be able to leave!” Ye Huohuo had no intention of being trapped in this formation forever.
Fang Fang clearly didn’t want to either. “I’ll do it!”
As she spoke, she took out a small dagger, about an inch long, from her embrace. Ye Huohuo knew a thing or two, and although she didn’t know the name of the dagger, she could tell it was no ordinary item. The faint purple glow surrounding it was far from simple.
In the Xuanmen sect, there was an unwritten standard for magical artifacts. Those emitting golden light were mostly high-grade artifacts, while those surrounded by dark energy were mostly ghost or demon artifacts. Those emitting a faint purple glow, like the one Fang Fang held, were even more precious, known as celestial grade.
Ye Huohuo had already suffered enough from the corpse qi emanating from the sphere. This time, she learned her lesson. Seeing Fang Fang about to cut open the sphere, she took two steps back, her eyes fixed on Fang Fang’s dagger.
She thought to herself that if she had the chance, she’d acquire such an artifact, but alas, artifacts were easy to obtain, while celestial grade items were rare.
Ye Huohuo was lost in thought when a purple light flashed, like a bolt of lightning in the dark night, disappearing without a trace in an instant.
But with just that one flash, the sphere, which Ye Huohuo had almost broken her teeth trying to pry open, was cut with a large opening of over a meter by this streak of purple light.
Moreover, the edge of the rupture faintly shimmered with a purple glow. The opening of the sphere tried to seal itself up like before, but the purple light at the edges acted like a growth inhibitor. Just as the edges were about to seal, the purple light flashed, and the area that was about to adhere cracked open again.
“It… it won’t grow back?” Ye Huohuo’s eyes widened, her expression like that of Granny Liu entering the Grand View Garden. She was practically drooling at the sight of the small dagger in Fang Fang’s hand.
“Don’t even think about it. It took me several hundred years to get my hands on it!” Fang Fang, sensing her thoughts, quickly put the dagger back into her embrace.
Ye Huohuo awkwardly cleared her throat. “How could I? You misunderstand. How could I covet your belongings? I was just looking!
I’ll go in and get the corpse out. You hold this opening for me.”
Ye Huohuo crawled into the large sphere. The smell inside was still so nauseating that it made one want to vomit, but to break the formation, she had no choice. She braced herself and walked to the female corpse.
She took off her jacket, loosely wrapped the upper body of the female corpse, used the sleeves as ropes, and dragged the corpse out of the opening in the sphere.
As soon as she emerged, Ye Huohuo took deep breaths of air. “I almost suffocated!”
Ye Huohuo and Fang Fang didn’t dare to delay any further. They dragged the corpse and quickly rendezvoused with A Cheng and the others below.
A Cheng and his subordinates carried large sacks. Two of them contained the heads taken from the Tianji Palace earlier, and the remaining one was just right for fitting this female corpse.
The group of eight hurried downstairs.
A Cheng and some of his subordinates were injured, and not lightly. They ignored their pain and ran downstairs with all their might.
With just one minute to spare, they finally rushed out of the Tianshu Palace building.
The light gate on the protective shield was located near the Tianshu Palace building. It would take less than half a minute to run there.
Ye Huohuo finally breathed a sigh of relief. She told A Cheng and the others to go ahead, while she covered the rear. She would not abandon anyone; that was her consistent style.
As the light gate drew closer, A Cheng, carrying the female corpse, was running at the forefront. He was only a dozen steps away from exiting through the light gate. They could already see the location of the light circle on the hillside, and even the shadow of the Taoist standing in the middle of the light circle.
The shadow was in exactly the same posture as Ye Huohuo, meticulously carrying out the task assigned to him by Ye Huoyan.
At this critical juncture, Ye Huohuo was horrified to see the skeleton man she had just pierced with her shadow blade slowly stand up, walk towards the light circle, raise his armless arms, and smash down at the shadow within the light circle…
It was over!
Everyone’s hearts sank!