Mortal: My name is Ma Liang, and I also possess a magic brush.

Ma Liang watched as his own demon beast joined forces with Jingzhe. Even with the addition of three third-tier and one fourth-tier beast, the battle situation improved slightly, but they were still being suppressed by the black-robed cultivator's attacks.

"Ha ha!"

The cultivator threw his head back and laughed wildly, "I never expected that you, a Foundation Establishment brat, would be hiding so many spirit beasts! It seems you must have quite a few good things on you! Obey and die, and I might spare your corpse!"

As soon as he finished speaking, his body shone with spiritual light, which he then directed towards the void.

A streak of dark light suddenly appeared, revealing itself to be a jet-black, shuttle-shaped magical artifact.

"go!"

The cultivator in black robes let out a low shout, and the shuttle-shaped magic weapon pierced straight at the face of one of the third-tier demonic beasts.

The monster reacted quickly, hurriedly raising its claw to block, but with a "whoosh" sound, the magic weapon pierced directly through its claw.

Fortunately, the monster dodged in time, narrowly avoiding a fatal blow.

Ma Liang's heart sank upon seeing this.

"If this continues, we'll all die sooner or later!" He gritted his teeth, his mind racing as he searched for a solution, when suddenly a lightbulb went off in his head.

"Got it!"

"Awakening of Insects! Come back!"

Upon hearing the sound, Jingzhe lashed out with its long tail, forcefully blocking a vicious attack from the black-robed cultivator. Its scales shattered and flesh flew everywhere, causing its body to convulse in pain. Yet, it still endured the excruciating agony, breaking free from the entanglement of battle and flying swiftly towards Ma Liang.

Ma Liang felt a pang of heartache upon seeing this, and a surge of tenderness welled up within him.

He approached Jingzhe and said urgently, "Jingzhe! I'm going to use the talismans from the scroll, according to the method we practiced before. Do you understand?"

Jingzhe humanely nodded the snake's head, then lowered its head and used its broad head to lift Ma Liang up.

The next moment, it swung its battered body and charged fiercely toward the direction where the black-robed cultivator was.

"Trap him!"

Ma Liang's roar, imbued with spiritual energy, pierced through the roar of battle and reached the ears of every demon beast.

Upon hearing this, the demonic beasts immediately abandoned their fighting techniques and pounced on the black-robed cultivator like madmen.

"Hmph, overestimating yourself!"

The cultivator in black robes flicked his wrist, and a long sword appeared in his hand, its blade pointing directly at the first third-tier demonic beast that pounced on him.

The demonic beast, however, seemed to have risked its life, neither dodging nor avoiding the sword strike, and took the blow head-on. Its sharp claws seized the opportunity to grab the cultivator's spiritual energy shield.

"Bang!"

The protective barrier remained motionless, but it also slowed down the cultivator's movements.

The next moment, the other demonic beasts swarmed over, grabbing and biting, and all wrapped themselves around his body.

"A mere trick, and you think you can trap me!"

The cultivator roared, and his spiritual power surged, intending to blast the demonic beasts away.

But just as the spiritual energy was about to erupt, Ma Liang moved!

He tossed the scroll into the air, and with a whoosh, it unfurled in the wind, transforming into a rolled-up cloth that hung gently overhead, resembling a strange, colorful cloud.

Immediately afterwards, with a crisp whooshing sound, countless talismans poured out from the rolled-up cloth, enveloping the black-robed cultivator below!

"The Awakening of Insects! It's now!"

Upon hearing the sound, Jingzhe immediately gathered all the remaining spiritual power in his body and directed it towards the talismans in mid-air!

In an instant, streaks of spiritual light shone on the talismans, which instantly transformed into a sky full of deadly weapons.

Fireballs, wind blades, and earth spikes rained down on the black-robed cultivator who was entangled by the demonic beast!

"not good!"

The cultivator in black robes' expression changed drastically. He roared and summoned his protective magic treasure. At the same time, he activated his spiritual power and blasted all the fearless demonic beasts away.

But just as his protective gear was completed, boom—!

Countless fireballs, wind blades, and earth spikes slammed into the protective magic treasure, causing its spiritual light to shake violently.

Even more deadly was that the cloth above his head was still continuously shaking off talismans. Jingzhe struggled to maintain his spiritual power and activated the talismans again and again, unleashing a torrent of killing moves like a rainstorm, with continuous booming sounds.

This relentless bombardment lasted for nearly fifteen minutes.

The spiritual energy of the Awakening of Insects was already on the verge of depletion. Its massive body trembled slightly, and heavy breathing came from its throat. Even the luster of its scales had dimmed.

The flames finally subsided, leaving the rolled-up cloth empty; the last talisman had turned to ashes.

Ma Liang stared intently and saw that the black-robed cultivator was still clinging to life.

But at this moment, he had lost all of his previous arrogance and looked extremely disheveled.

Both legs had been blown off, and the cuts were mangled and bloody.

Both arms were reduced to half their original length, hanging limply at his sides.

His eyes were completely blinded, leaving only two empty holes oozing black blood.

His once handsome face was now blackened and covered with crisscrossing scars.

He looks worse than dead.

The cultivator made a hoarse sound in his throat, and tried to raise his remaining half-arm, as if he wanted to say something venomous and vicious.

Ma Liang simply raised his hand with a cold expression.

A screech pierced the air as the last remaining level-three flying beast flapped its wings and swooped down, its sharp claws reaching for the cultivator's head.

With a "plop" sound, blood splattered everywhere, and the cultivator fell silent.

At this point, Ma Liang was truly out of ammunition and food.

He forced himself to maintain a semblance of clarity and hastily scanned the battlefield with his remaining spiritual energy, only collecting the magic weapon of the black-robed cultivator. As for the spirit stones scattered all over the ground, he didn't even have the strength to glance at them.

Ma Liang took out a healing pill and fed it to Jingzhe. Seeing that it was curling up with weak breaths, he then put it back into his spirit beast pouch.

Then, he leaped onto the back of the third-tier flying beast.

"Walk."

The birds flapped their wings and flew swiftly towards the horizon.

In a short while, several streaks of light landed on the ravaged reef.

Several Foundation Establishment cultivators arrived, and they all looked on in surprise and doubt as they saw the fragments of magical artifacts scattered all over the ground and the spirit stones strewn everywhere.

"What a brutal battle this was!"

At this moment, a female cultivator dressed in a plain-colored Taoist robe stepped forward, sensing the lingering spiritual energy around her.

"This fluctuation of spiritual energy is the kind of trace left by a battle between at least Core Formation stage cultivators!"

The other person frowned, looking around at the uncollected spoils scattered on the ground.

"What's going on? Normally, the victor wouldn't leave the battlefield untouched!"

"In my opinion," the female cultivator in plain clothes said thoughtfully, "the victor is probably too badly injured to even clean up the battlefield."

"Then why don't we give chase?" Another cultivator with a pointed chin and monkey-like face lit up, rubbing his hands together. "If we could manage to pick off that heavily injured Core Formation cultivator, wouldn't that be an incredible opportunity?"

"Go chase after them yourself!" A burly cultivator beside him sneered, retorting without any politeness. "No matter how badly injured they are, they're still a Core Formation stage cultivator! With our cultivation levels, going up there would be like lambs to the slaughter!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he landed on the ground. A burst of spiritual energy swept across the ground, and the scattered spirit stones turned into streams of light, all of which he collected into his storage bag.

"Hey! How could you hog it all to yourself?"

The others immediately panicked and rushed forward, scrambling for the remaining magical artifacts and spirit stones on the ravaged battlefield.

Ma Liang steered the level-three flying beast, stumbling and falling all the way, until finally landing on a desolate island with sparse spiritual energy.

He found a sheltered cave in the rock wall and had the flying beasts dig it.

The bird was a magical beast skilled in flight, so it had no idea how to dig a hole. It could only clumsily peck at the rocks with its sharp beak and painstakingly dig with its claws, making pitifully slow progress.

Ma Liang leaned against the rock wall, took out a healing pill and put it in his mouth. He sat cross-legged and circulated his internal energy, trying to mobilize the remaining spiritual power to nourish his damaged meridians.

But as soon as he tried to circulate his qi, a tearing pain shot through his dantian, and a sweet taste filled his throat before he spat out another mouthful of blood.

Ma Liang endured the excruciating pain and closed his eyes to look inward.

A moment later, a bitter laugh escaped his throat, realizing that his situation had reached its most miserable point.

Activating this ancient treasure not only caused irreversible damage to the foundation of cultivation, but also caused fine cracks to appear in the dantian and qi sea, with spiritual energy rapidly dissipating from the cracks.

In addition, the fierce battle with that cultivator had just taken its toll on his already damaged internal organs and meridians.

Not only is the rate at which spiritual energy is being lost faster and faster, but even the very essence of one's own life is dissipating along with the dissipating spiritual energy.