Invincibility starts when I see the BOSS health bar.

Chapter 974 This Time

Veins bulged on Ya Qingli's forehead, and cold sweat poured down her face. She gritted her teeth, letting out a beast-like whimper, and tried with all her might to suppress the terrifying power that had sprung up out of nowhere within her body and was completely out of control.

But—it was no use! It was utterly ineffective!
That power did not come from a physical attack, but from the invisible will of the figure high in the sky! It seemed to transcend the laws, ignore defenses, and directly penetrate all obstacles, forcefully injecting itself into the deepest part of her bloodline!
However, in the blink of an eye, cracks began to appear on her skin, like an overinflated doll or a fruit that was ripe to the extreme and was about to burst open completely!
"This...this is my...demon form!!!" she roared in despair and resentment.

However, before the words were finished—

Bang! ! ! !

A muffled, thunderous explosion erupted from her chest!

A thick, menacing tree root, radiating a deathly dark gray aura, pierced right through her flesh and bones, savagely thrusting out!

Using Ya Qingli's body as its soil, it frantically absorbed all her life essence and demonic power, growing, expanding, and differentiating rapidly in an almost predatory manner—

In the blink of an eye, a huge, eerie tree, exuding an ominous aura, rose from the ground and stood tall into the sky!

Its trunk is rough and cold, presenting a deathly blackish-gray color, but the countless branches that extend out are thin and withered, weak and frail, completely different from the lush and vibrant black forest that Fang Yu used to create.

This tree seems to exist solely for devouring and destroying.

Pain surged like a tidal wave, coursing through Ya Qingli's entire body.

Countless hard, iron-like gray tree branches forked and pierced through her body, suspending her in mid-air like a caged beast.

Blood trickled down the branches, gleaming darkly in the pale moonlight. She struggled, her heavy eyelids drooping, the excruciating pain threatening to tear her consciousness apart.

The first thing that caught her blurry eyes was a handsome but completely unfamiliar young man.

He had long, silvery-white hair that cascaded down like a waterfall from the heavens, swaying gently in the breeze, making him extremely eye-catching.

But what's even more unsettling are his eerie and extraordinary eyes, which seem to contain unfathomable darkness and unparalleled power, giving people an inexplicable sense of oppression just by looking into them.

Most importantly... Ya Qingli actually recognized the person in front of her!

"The Demon Capital... An envoy?!"

Ya Qingli could hardly believe her eyes; her pupils contracted sharply, filled with shock and disbelief.

She simply couldn't imagine that the demons who should have been imprisoned and confined to the deepest part of the palace were so powerful!
At this moment, he actually managed to escape from the palace and appear here, right in front of her!

How can this be? !
The imperial palace was heavily guarded, with numerous formations and countless experts, making it a veritable den of dragons and tigers.

Even if this envoy from the Demon Capital possessed extraordinary abilities, there was absolutely no way he could escape silently!

This guy...this guy!!
and many more!

Since he was able to escape the palace, didn't that confirm my terrible suspicion?!
This guy and that Diao Deyi are definitely in cahoots!

They are all demons from the Demon Capital! They are lurking among humans, plotting evil!

"Hahaha... Hahahaha! Hahahahahaha!!!"

Despite being in a desperate situation and on the verge of death, Ya Qingli suddenly burst into a sharp and unrestrained laugh, as if she had gone mad.

Her emotions fluctuated wildly, from initial extreme shock to fury upon realizing she had been attacked by demons, and then to the strangely exhilarating feeling of her suspicions being confirmed!

Ya Qingli felt as if she had finally gotten rid of a long-standing knot in her heart. Despite the intense pain all over her body, she felt a twisted sense of relief and comfort!
"As expected... they're all in cahoots!! There's a spy from your Demon Capital within the imperial court all along!!"

The laughter stopped abruptly.

Ya Qingli's eyes widened in fury as she glared at the envoy from the Demon Capital before her, almost grinding her teeth to powder, letting out a roar from deep within her throat, a mixture of pain and rage.

At that moment, she finally understood. It would be absolutely impossible for a demon messenger from outside the palace, a place with impenetrable walls, to escape without the assistance of someone of high rank and power within the palace.

The imperial court has probably already been infiltrated by demons and monsters from the demon capital!

Live!
I must survive! As long as I can bring this earth-shattering secret back and expose their conspiracy, this immense merit will be enough to propel me to great heights, and I might even have a chance to enter the supreme Fengtian Prefecture!
A strong will to survive and the allure of fame and fortune caused a startling light to flash in Ya Qingli's eyes.

She began to struggle frantically, trying to break free from the cold, hard, piercing gray tree bindings.

However, she soon discovered to her horror that, unlike the towering black trees she had seen from afar before, which were fleeting and only appeared briefly, these gray trees that imprisoned her were far more resilient than she had imagined! They were like the most solid cages, locking away every bit of her strength and rendering her completely immobile!
how so? !

Ya Qingli clearly remembered that the black trees she had seen before were often easily broken and shattered shortly after they took shape. That brief existence made her subconsciously assume that the gray tree of the Demon Capital Envoy was the same.

But... she was wrong.

Big mistake!

The gray tree was exceptionally sturdy; no matter how frantically she exerted her power, she couldn't budge it an inch. Only as she struggled with all her might did a faint "crackling" sound emanate from within the gray tree, seemingly indicating that her efforts were not entirely in vain.

But this shouldn’t be the case!

Everyone else can solve it easily, so why is it so difficult for her?

Is there really such a vast difference in strength between her and those powerful individuals?

"You recognize me?" Qingyao raised an eyebrow slightly, seemingly surprised that Ya Qingli could recognize him. But this surprise lasted only a moment before turning into complete calm. He spoke slowly, his voice cold and emotionless.

"Then we can't let you stay any longer."

A seemingly casual remark, yet it was like a death sentence, leaving Ya Qingli pale with fright and her soul trembling.

Qingyao slowly raised her hand, and under Ya Qingli's terrified gaze, she clenched her fist tightly with her five fingers together.

"Thousand Rifts."

Ya Qingli's heart sank suddenly, and an extreme sense of danger instantly engulfed her.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh! !
The next moment, countless thin gray tree branches that had been piercing her body seemed to be given a violent life, bursting out from deeper within her body like cold and cruel steel spikes!

In the blink of an eye, she was pierced by more branches, becoming riddled with holes, like a cruelly destroyed and fragmented work of art, with blood gushing out like a spring, staining the surrounding gray trees red.

"Haa...haa..." Every part of her body was pierced by the terrifying gray tree branches. The excruciating pain almost overwhelmed her mind. Ya Qingli was barely breathing and had completely fallen into a state of imminent death. If it weren't for the strange life force that was growing wildly within her due to her complete demonization, forcibly keeping her alive to her last breath, she would probably have already died by now.

"The same tricks, the same methods...you..."

At this moment, Qingyao seemed to also sense Ya Qingli's unusually tenacious and almost eerie life force.

He frowned slightly, his gaze inadvertently glancing down—there, Fang Yu was staring at everything with a look of astonishment and blankness.

Qingyao's eyes flickered slightly, her expression like that of a child eager to show off their new toy to a long-lost playmate...

He changed his fist into a palm and pressed down heavily in Ya Qingli's direction!
"Burial place."

Bang! ! !
The enormous black and gray tree that imprisoned Ya Qingli suddenly cracked open!
Countless hard wood chips, carrying an unparalleled impact force, swept up Ya Qingli's mangled body like a destructive storm, plunging her madly towards the earth below!
"Ah ah ah ah ah!!"

Ya Qingli let out a shrill scream with a long, drawn-out ending. Under that unimaginable pressure, the abundant yet sinister life force that filled her entire body due to her complete demonic transformation began to frantically dissipate from her body!

Puffs of eerie, dark blue smoke billowed out of her riddled body like deflated air. In that instant, her body visibly withered and emaciated, as if all its essence had been drained away.

"No!! I don't want to die!!!"

Ya Qingli felt an overwhelming sense of panic and despair.

Amidst countless swirling, sharp, knife-like splinters of wood, she plummeted like a meteorite. Those rapidly spinning, shooting wood chips, comparable to the cruelest form of torture, transformed into a storm of countless sharp fragments, frantically scraping and cutting at her body.

From Fang Yu's perspective, the health bar above Ya Qingli's head, representing her life points, was rapidly decreasing at an almost frantic pace, teetering on the brink of death!

So strong! So strong! So incredibly strong!!

Fang Yu's eyes widened involuntarily, his mouth slightly agape, his heart filled with shock.

The dense, rain-like, and razor-sharp wood chips transformed into a deadly storm of hidden weapons, mercilessly cutting and destroying everything in its path! Before Ya Qingli's body had even fully landed, she endured an extreme torture comparable to being sliced ​​to pieces in mid-air, almost being subjected to the death by a thousand cuts, her flesh and bones separated!
Boom! ! ! !
Finally, Ya Qingli's mangled body crashed heavily to the ground with a deafening thud. The ground trembled violently, and the surrounding houses shook and collapsed like building blocks, kicking up clouds of dust.

Fang Yu suddenly looked up at the sky and saw a figure like a falling meteor, rushing towards Ya Qingli in the crater at an astonishing speed!

Fang Yu subconsciously wanted to get closer to take a look.

But before he could take a few steps—

boom! ! !
Another deafening explosion! An invisible yet powerful shockwave suddenly spread out from the center of the pit! The debris and broken walls around Fang Yu were instantly blown away and swept away by this shockwave. Only Fang Yu himself remained unmoved thanks to his strong physique. He even ran forward against this powerful shockwave.

Beyond the crumbling ruins of the houses, his gaze eagerly fell upon the massive impact crater.

In the swirling dust, he spotted that figure at first glance.

A familiar yet somewhat strange and distant feeling welled up in Fang Yu's heart, making his emotions so agitated and turbulent.

At that moment, the noisy world around him seemed to blur and fade into the background, like a faded painting. Between heaven and earth, it seemed that only he and the figure in the pit in front of him remained.

That familiar silhouette, and that flowing, silvery-white hair…

Fang Yu's body trembled slightly involuntarily.

The complex emotions that surged up at that moment were a mix of indescribable feelings of感慨 and excitement.

Fang Yu had imagined and rehearsed the scene of reuniting with the person in front of him countless times, but... he never thought that it would be in such a chaotic situation today, at such an unexpected moment, so suddenly, and so... so exciting and overwhelming.

Fang Yu's throat bobbed with difficulty, his voice trembling noticeably as he hesitantly and tentatively called out.

"Qing... Brother?"

His words had just fallen.

Ahead, the figure with its back to him trembled slightly, as if touched by the call.

Then, he slowly turned around, a gentle, reassuring smile on his face, and looked at Fang Yu.

"it's me."

There are only two words.

But Fang Yu was so excited that he could hardly speak! He quickly approached, even ignoring Ya Qingli, who was lying at the feet of the other party with her limbs broken, only her torso and head remaining, barely alive, and went straight to Qing Yao.

Fang Yu excitedly looked Qing Yao up and down, noticing the change in his appearance.

It can be said that, apart from her striking silver-white long hair, Qingyao's other physical characteristics are almost identical to the human skin image of "Li Shidao" that she disguised herself as in Tianyuan Town.

Perhaps because it had just used a lot of power, some subtle features of the demon's true form were faintly revealed on the surface of its body, but its overall appearance was still basically consistent with the "Li Shidao" in Fang Yu's memory.

"Brother Qing, why do you look like this?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, Fang Yu regretted them.

After such a long time apart and through so many twists and turns, the first question we asked each other was such a trivial and silly one.

There were clearly more important questions to ask, more things to understand that urgently needed to be discussed, but once I opened my mouth…

"Oh? You don't like it?"

Qingyao simply smiled, seemingly unconcerned.

He was already extremely skilled in the art of human disguise; back in Tianyuan Town, he could create incredibly realistic human skin shells. Now, his abilities in this area are even more refined, making it effortless for him to change his appearance.

His choice to maintain his current appearance, which is similar to "Li Shidao," is naturally driven by a hidden agenda.

She wanted Fang Yu to recognize her immediately when they met again, so that she could feel that familiar closeness.

"No! I think it's great, it's really handsome!"

Fang Yu quickly agreed. As far as he was concerned, he wouldn't have any objections no matter what Qing Ge became. He was just a little surprised and curious.

(End of this chapter)