Zhang Ling naturally understood what was happening; clearly, there was a restriction ahead blocking his path.
Then, he returned to the statue and slowly flew towards it. This strange statue was the only thing standing here, so it seemed to be the key, possibly the formation eye of the restriction ahead.
He wanted to see what was strange about this statue.
As he approached, when he was within ten zhang of the statue, the pitch-black worm statue lit up with a layer of red light.
Zhang Ling knew he had triggered some kind of restriction, but he didn't panic. Instead, he stood there and carefully observed.
After a few breaths, the statue actually came to life, transforming into a black worm emitting a blood-colored spiritual light, making strange 'gu gu' sounds.
A scan with his divine sense slightly surprised Zhang Ling. He sensed spiritual power fluctuations from this revived worm that were no weaker than those of a fifth-order demon beast.
As soon as the black worm came to life, it locked onto his location. The blood-red spiritual light on its body swelled and contracted, and it instantly grew by a third, transforming into a black shadow over ten zhang long. It opened its mouth and sprayed out a cloud of emerald-green mist.
Zhang Ling felt a fishy wind assaulting him. He had no intention of dodging. He gently waved the flying sword in his hand a few times, and a piece of cyan sword light appeared beside him. The sword light trembled and crashed forward.
In a burst of sword sounds, the emerald-green mist was instantly pulverized. Numerous sword lights fell on the black worm without obstruction, resulting in a series of clanging sounds, as if striking a hard material.
The black worm was enraged by this attack. It twisted its body, and its giant tail swung heavily towards him.
A thick tail smashed heavily in mid-air, creating a booming sound.
Zhang Ling swayed slightly and moved five or six zhang to the side, dodging the attack. Then, he waved his left arm a few times, and three or four cyan-black vines suddenly shot out from his left hand, turning into thick vines that wrapped around the attacking tail of the giant snake.
With a flash of spiritual light in his hand, he vigorously pulled, and this giant worm was directly staggered by him.
But after twisting a few times, the worm broke free from the vines. Zhang Ling only felt the force in his hand disappear, and the worm had already broken free.
Then, the worm quickly coiled in the air like a giant python, and the blood-red spiritual light on its body instantly turned pitch black, transforming into black spiritual light threads that gathered at its tail.
The monster hissed, and its tail shook rapidly, creating 'chi chi chi' bursting sounds. Zhang Ling's pupils shrank, and he saw black light thorns about an inch long floating before him.
The worm instantly launched hundreds of attacks. Numerous black light thorns shot out like sharp arrows.
Zhang Ling naturally wasn't afraid. He simply urged the sword technique in his hand, and instantly, fifty or sixty cyan sword lights formed around him, protecting him.
Hundreds of black thorns attacked, but they were all blocked by his sword lights. At the same time, the worm circled around, raising its upper body. In the blood-red spiritual light, most of the worm's body became several times thicker, and it flew to the top of Zhang Ling's head. Its sharp mouth full of teeth looked like a black hole, wanting to swallow him.
Zhang Ling quickly cast spells with both hands, and instantly, a Xuan light shield about ten zhang in size appeared above his head, colliding with the sharp teeth, creating a loud noise. But it blocked the attack.
At the same time, his figure fell downwards, escaping the attack of the black light, and directly drilled out from below where it was not impacted.
Zhang Ling flashed to the back of the worm, and with a flick of his hand, he threw a purple light ball that quickly struck the unprepared demon worm.
With a muffled 'poof' sound, the purple light ball didn't cause any damage to the worm. Instead, it stuck to it like a puddle of mud, instantly extending into a purple net that directly trapped the worm.
The worm roared, and the blood light on its body shone brightly, secreting a layer of emerald-green mucus.
Zhang Ling immediately felt traces of corrosion on the purple net, but under the full control of this magic weapon, the purple net continued to tighten, no matter how the worm struggled, it couldn't break free.
At the same time, three cyan flying swords appeared beside him. The cyan light flashed, turning into three light swords that quickly merged together. After a few breaths, the three cyan flying swords combined into a giant sword more than two zhang wide.
Zhang Ling pointed expressionlessly with one hand, and the giant sword slashed at the worm with a whistling sound.
The worm's body also emitted black light more than ten zhang high, enveloping its whole body, seemingly wanting to defend. But in the sword light, there was a crisp sound, directly breaking through the black light on the worm's body and slashing at the worm's head.
But the imagined scene of the worm's head splitting open didn't happen. Instead, the worm's body quickly shrank, turning into a black light that directly shattered the purple net that bound it.
Zhang Ling couldn't help but frown, but the black light didn't attack him. Instead, it landed straight in the previous position, transforming back into the worm statue.
The difference was that the statue had now turned gray-white, no longer pitch black.
Seeing this scene, Zhang Ling knew he had won. Now that his cultivation had reached the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm, compared to the early stage, not only had his spiritual power increased, but the power of using magic weapons had also increased a lot.
He had easily defeated a fifth-order demon beast with only a small portion of his strength. Even without the power of the formation, he could defeat one or two sixth-order demon beasts.
At this moment, black light flashed above the statue's head, revealing a round black bead. Zhang Ling recognized it at a glance as a fifth-order demon core. He flew to the front of the statue, grabbed the demon core, carefully looked at it, and put it into his storage bag after finding nothing unusual. This demon core was clearly some kind of reward.
Then, he looked at the statue that had turned gray-white. He also remembered the several demon beast statues he had seen in the treasure cave of Ten Thousand Demon City.
The worm statue in front of him seemed to be the same type of thing as those statues. It seemed to be a puppet refined by some secret method.
With a thought, a giant spiritual light hand appeared again next to the statue. The hand grabbed the statue, and with a wave of the magic formula in his hand, he wanted to directly put the statue into the storage bag.
But to his disappointment, the statue didn't move at all, as if it was stuck to the ground and couldn't be shaken at all.
Zhang Ling shook his head and didn't try again. He had expected this result. Then, he turned into a遁光 and headed towards the center of Hundred Spirits Lake, passing over the statue.
This time, there was no more obstruction.
...
