Meng Li's sword drew a purple light, directly slashing towards the forbidden spiritual light.

  The brilliant light was cut off by the Dream Lili Sword with a single slash, but it remained intact after the sword passed through, as if it had not been attacked at all. The Dream Lili Sword's attack was cleverly dodged and rendered ineffective.

  Zhao Di shook his head helplessly, and indeed the restriction here was extraordinary and couldn't be broken by brute force. In terms of attack power alone, the Dream Crystal Sword combined with the Hunyuan Divine Light's slash was Zhao Di's strongest attacking method. If a Foundation Establishment cultivator were to take this hit head-on, even if they had defensive treasures protecting them, it would likely end in disaster!

  Since he couldn't get his hands on more treasures by taking a shortcut, he stopped wasting time and prepared to enter the fifth layer of difficulties for adventure!

  The general content of the first four layers has been informed by Feng Qingyun, but what will happen after the fifth layer is unknown.

  For tens of thousands of years, the monks who entered the fifth layer were extremely rare, and these precious pieces of information would not be widely spread. Even the great elder of Qianji Gate had no way of knowing about them.

  Zhao Di held up the Meng Li sword in front of him, his entire body enveloped in a layer of purple energy. With a flash of movement, he entered through an archway.

  At this time, Zhao Di was in a stone cave that was several hundred meters in size. The light inside the cave was dim, and the top of the cave hung down with sharp stalactites of varying sizes from a few feet to tens of meters. Several clusters of yellow-green phosphorescent fires flickered here and there, and when a gust of wind blew by, these fires would suddenly brighten or dim, even emitting faint wails that made the atmosphere in the cave even more eerie.

  "Hmm, the aura of darkness is extremely thick here, it's actually a very suitable place for us sisters to cultivate!" Yu Lan and Yu Ruo appeared in an instant, immediately sensing the dense dark energy surrounding them.

  Zhao took out a fist-sized moonstone, intending to illuminate the entire cave, but the light of the moonstone weakened rapidly after being taken out, and it completely lost its luster in an instant.

  "This should be where the Nether Array is set up. Except for ghost fires and yin fires, other lights cannot last long here." You Ruo looked at the dim moonstone floating in front of Zhao Di and analyzed with a furrowed brow.

  Zhao took off the black mourning hat and put it away in the storage ring along with the moonstone, using the faint light of the phosphorescent fire to slowly search for a way out in the stone cave.

  His divine consciousness was still greatly restricted and could only extend dozens of feet away.

  This small cave surprisingly has two or three connected passageways, and it's unclear where they lead. Zhao Di chose one of them to move forward and explore.

  At this time, in the fourth layer of difficulties, the last middle-aged cultivator Xiao Yihan was "standing" in a muddy and wet land, with his waist and below trapped in the mud pit. He was also exhausted and unable to climb out of the mud pit. Although the exit was only a few miles away, he had already seen the magnificent light ladder leading to the fifth layer, but at this time, the twelve hours of time had been exhausted, and the Heavenly Order in his hand emitted a faint white light, and after a moment, the white mist flashed, Xiao Yihan with a sense of regret disappeared from this place.

  The next moment, Xiao Yihan appeared in a certain sea area hundreds of miles away from Tongtian Tower. He flew for a while and came to the vicinity of Tongtian Tower, seeing that the seven-layered golden treasure tower was still rotating non-stop, he was greatly surprised in his heart.

  "The Tower of Heaven has not disappeared yet! This means that there are still cultivators inside who have not cleared the levels. I almost exhausted all my time to clear the first four levels, but the person inside is already on the fifth level? Is it really a legendary figure? How can someone with the same cultivation level as me, a well-known late-stage Golden Core cultivator for many years, be so far ahead of me?" Xiao Yihan muttered to himself, his usual arrogance nowhere to be seen. He stared blankly at the Tower of Heaven, lost in thought, before finally letting out a long sigh and leaving.

  In the fifth level of Tongtian Tower, a middle-aged man with a foolish expression and a lion-like body covered in golden fur, over three zhang long, leapt into the air, separated by more than ten zhang from a handsome young man below, and swung his paw at him.

  A gigantic claw shadow of about one zhang in size appeared in front of the young man and fiercely scratched towards his body.

  A youth's figure flashed by, leaving behind a trail of residual shadows, transforming into multiple identical youths, making it impossible to distinguish the real from the fake!

  The claw shadow grasped one of the boys with great force, and this "boy" immediately transformed into a speck of spiritual light, returning to the body of the other "boys".

  "If you were a fully transformed eighth-level demon beast, I would naturally avoid your sharp claws. However, since you're only half-transformed, although you're much more powerful than a seventh-level demon beast, you're still far from being a true eighth-level demon beast. Why should I be afraid of you?"

  Several "youths" spoke in unison, their words and expressions identical, with no discernible difference. As soon as they finished speaking, two figures appeared beside the youths, a young man and woman in their twenties, both of whom looked dull and lifeless, like corpses. The spiritual energy emanating from them was at the level of an initial-stage Qi Condensation cultivator.

  Two youths suddenly darted into the bodies of the two, and their expressions changed in an instant, revealing a ferocious gaze. The man drew out a flag with a white dragon-like creature painted on it, while the woman grasped a sharp cone that shone with threads of electricity. The two launched a fierce attack, charging towards the lion-headed monster. The "youths" also simultaneously pulled out a dazzling half-moon-shaped blade disc and slashed at the monster in unison.

  At the same time, Zhao Di was in a stone cave, commanding his puppets and the Dreamy Sword to fight against a tiger-headed evil spirit that exceeded three zhang in size.

  A puppet grasping a golden long knife swung the top-grade spiritual tool in its hand at the evil spirit, and under the flash of golden light, a golden light blade about one foot long slashed at the evil spirit.

  The evil spirit did not dodge or evade, allowing the light blade to easily pierce its dark gray body. However, no blood flowed from its wound, but instead a large amount of dark gray gas emerged and recondensed at the site, restoring its body to its original state in an instant.

  This evil spirit is formed by the condensation of yin energy and has no fear of physical attacks such as knife cuts or sword slashes. The yin energy in this place is extremely heavy, even if it is injured, the evil spirit can quickly replenish a large amount of yin energy to restore its body.

  The evil spirit let out a loud roar, its huge mouth wide open, ignoring the puppet's attack and charging straight at Zhao Di, wanting to swallow him whole in one gulp. In mid-air, the evil spirit continued to swing its claws from time to time, with waves of dark gray claw shadows attacking Zhao Di.

  Zhao Di swung the Meng Li sword to meet the claw shadow, and a series of purple sword lights flashed out. The dark gray claw shadow was struck by the purple light and instantly dissipated into a faint yin energy. The Meng Li sword did not change direction, wrapped in a layer of Hunyuan divine light, and welcomed the evil spirit that pounced from mid-air.

  The evil spirit's intelligence was extremely low and didn't know the severity of the purple sword, yet it continued to pounce on Zhao Di without any regard.

  In mid-air, the purple sword easily split the evil spirit in two. The latter was about to summon the yin energy inside its body to re-condense and restore its body, but found that a faint layer of light at the wound made the yin energy extremely fearful, unable to gather or disperse for a while. At the same time, Zhao Di's puppets also launched dense attacks on both halves of the evil spirit's body, making it impossible for the evil spirit's body to recover, with thousands of holes all over its body.

  A crisp "pa" sound, and with another slash of the Dream Crystal Sword, the evil spirit's dark energy dissipated, transforming into a green transparent crystal stone the size of a walnut, which fell to the ground.

  "Another Soul Crystal!" You Ruo exclaimed with delight.

  Zhaodi pointed his hand at the green crystal stone, and it flew into his hand on its own. After a brief examination with both eyes, he put it away in his storage ring.

  This is already his fourth Soul Crystal harvested in the large and small stone caves of this fifth layer.

  This evil spirit, the cultivators of the Ghost Gate sect have a special name for it, called Curseling. It is made by using the soul, flesh and blood of at least a Foundation Establishment stage demonic beast or human cultivator, along with some auxiliary materials, and then using curse techniques to hold its body together. After that, the Curseling must still cultivate in a place with extremely heavy yin energy for a period of time before it can give birth to a Soul Crystal, and use the Soul Crystal to gather yin energy and condense into a physical form. The Soul Crystal inside its body is the core of the Curseling, equivalent to the inner dan of a demonic beast.

  This soul crystal is also a very useful treasure for the Ghost Sect, because the cursed spirit can only exert its power in places with extremely heavy yin energy. Moreover, the cursed spirit itself cannot recognize its master and cannot be controlled by cultivators, so the purpose of the cursed spirit itself is not great. Most of the time, the Ghost Sect cultivators go to great lengths to refine the cursed spirit, mainly to obtain the soul crystal. The soul crystal contains sufficient soul power, which is a necessary item for the Ghost Sect cultivators to cast certain spells and secrets, and it is also one of the essential materials for making some nether treasures.

  On this road, Zhao Di encountered several vengeful spirits one after another. Although they were all at the level of initial Qi condensation, due to the extremely heavy yin energy in this place, their strength greatly increased, and they were almost immune to sword-type attacks, making them difficult to deal with. However, the Dream Crystal Sword in Zhao Di's hand was made from top-quality Buddhist Seven Treasures, which naturally contained powerful Buddhist power that could suppress evil spirits like vengeful ghosts. Even if Zhao Di didn't know how to use it, the purple sword light emitted by the Dream Crystal Sword was still the bane of vengeful spirits.

  The cursed spirit struck by Zhao Di's sword light could not recover its body for a moment, and Zhao Di could use this interval to launch a fierce attack with the puppet, just like the scene earlier, striking down the cursed spirit's entire body of yin energy, causing it to lose all its vitality, leaving behind only a soul crystal.

  Zhao Di had been struggling in the gloomy fifth layer for several hours, traversing dozens of miles through the winding passages and stone caves, yet still couldn't find a way out.

  He felt the surrounding yin energy getting heavier and heavier, and he actually needed to constantly use his sword light to cut open a path in order to continue moving forward.

  "Hmm, finally someone has arrived at this place! It's been many years since I've savored the fresh taste of flesh and blood." Two thick voices rose up, speaking in unison.

  "Jiuling Wang!" Zhao Di's heart skipped a beat, as it was said that only Jiuling Wang, who was equivalent to a Yuan Ying period cultivator, possessed high spiritual intelligence and could speak!

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