An intrigued expression appeared on Huang Jinnan’s face.

A golden lotus rapidly formed over his splayed hand. Each and every petal seemed to be branded with the profound truths of metal power.

WHOOSH!

The golden lotus spun, emanating dazzling golden light that was divine and pure.

Tens of thousands of golden strings shot out of each petal of the golden lotus, along with an aura that could eliminate all that was foul and evil.

The female Demon ghoul seemed to be burned by the divine light as she let out pained cries, her long, knotted hair scattering and fluttering in the air.

As ghostly pale flames started burning in the ghoul’s hollow eyes, intense tainted energies suddenly poured towards her from all directions.

Everyone in the courtyard, including Nie Tian, started to suffer from the increased amount of tainted energies around them.

Apparently, this ghoul was different from the ones they had encountered before.

None of the ghouls or evil spirits they had met in the Bloody Grave Mountain Range could summon tainted energies from their surroundings, but this ghoul could.

Multicolored tainted energies rapidly converged on the ghoul, forming what seemed to be a colorful robe.

Like steel needles, the golden strings unleashed by Huang Jinnan’s golden lotus shot directly into it, but failed to penetrate it.

The faint golden flames burning all over her were also put out in an instant.

Then, as she flung her bony left arm, a streak of pale light shot across the air.

BOOM!

The golden lotus suffered a strong blow. Its petals even fell off and exploded.

After the explosion, the petals turned into clusters of golden flames that were filled with dazzling divine symbols.

“Astral Metal Spell Formation!” As soon as Huagn Jinnan exclaimed these words, the divine symbols wreathed in golden flames formed a profound spell formation that emanated waves of holy power.

The ghoul was instantly trapped within the spell formation.

At the same time, the spell formation kept the tainted energies that were converging from all directions from fusing into her.

Like golden butterflies, clusters of flames flew out of the spell formation to strike the ghoul, as if they were alive.

The multicolored robe of tainted energies on the ghoul gradually fell apart, revealing her fluffy white hair again.

“Brother Huang!” At this moment, the other Qi warriors also rushed to Huang Jinnan’s location, attracting more ghouls as they did.

Many of the ghouls that couldn’t fly were finished with their friends’ remains. They sniffed out their flesh auras, and thus rushed over from different directions.

“You just deal with the ghouls converging on us,” Huang Jinnan said with a calm expression. “I’ll take care of this special ghoul myself.”

As golden light interwove in his eyes, even more golden flames flew out of the Astral Metal Spell Formation.

Soon, the multicolored robe of tainted energies on the female Demon ghoul was completely burned away, and she herself was charred.

The tainted energies that had converged on her gradually scattered and vanished, along with the ghoul’s unique toxins and corpse aura.

“Come back!” Huang Jinnan made a grabbing motion in the air, and the golden flames and the divine symbols rapidly came together, retaking the form of a golden lotus, which was holy and pure, and gave off divine light.

After the golden lotus disappeared in his palm, he leapt to the dead ghoul with just one step.

Even though Nie Tian didn’t join this battle personally, he paid close attention to Huang Jinnan’s various secret magics, and the unusual power flowing within the ghoul.

He realized that the golden lotus might be another Spirit Channeling grade treasure in Huang Jinnan’s possession.

Unlike his long golden spear, that golden lotus could establish a spell formation and wield divine power that had the effect of purging vile things.

The special ghoul that could summon tainted energies had only put up a brief fight before being burned to the death by the golden flames.

As soon as the ghoul died, the tainted energies that had poured into the courtyard from all directions dissipated, relieving the heightened pressure on Nie Tian and the others.

“No matter how powerful you were when you were alive, as long as you can’t use any of your bloodline power, there’s no way you can match me in battle.” Muttering these words, Huang Jinnan summoned his long golden spear again and split the charred ghoul with it.

There turned out to be nothing special with her shriveled body.

Huang Jinnan soon lost interest in her. Turning to look at Nie Tian, he said, “I’m gonna go down the well to take a look.”

Nie Tian nodded. “Be careful.”

“I’ll be fine,” Huang Jinnan said with a confident smile.

Wisps of golden aura rose flew out of him to wreath and protect him from all that was vile, giving him the look of a divine statue bathed in golden light.

WHOOSH!

He plunged into the well.

“What exactly lies at the bottom of this well?” Yin Yanan asked curiously.

“Where does the grimy blood come from?” Mu Biqiong chimed in with a thoughtful expression. “Was that ghoul different because it drank the grimy blood from this well?”

Xie Wanting joined the conversation by saying with a disgusted look on her face, “Whether the grimy blood is helpful to ghouls or not, it surely won’t be helpful to us. So even if some rare treasure is lying at the bottom of this well, it won’t suit us human cultivators. I’m afraid only Demons or those who practice vile incantations will be able to make use of it.”

Moments later, Huang Jinnan flew out of the well, wreathed in golden light.

Clutching a pearl in his glove-wearing left hand, Huang Jinnan said to Nie Tian, “This is it, a Filthy Blood Pearl.”

The pearl exuded a dark-black bloody aura, as if it could absorb all kinds of foul energies.

Nie Tian instinctively detested the aura it exuded, as if his bloodline aura found it repulsive.

“There’s a Demon corpse at the bottom of the well. From the look of it, he must have been at a high grade when he was alive. After he died, his residual Blood Essence crystallized. For hundreds of thousands of years, it channeled tainted energies from its surroundings, and eventually formed this Filthy Blood Pearl.

“The tainted energies within it are several hundred times more powerful than the ones gathered around you now. If some living beings let it have one touch of their blood, they’ll die miserably shortly afterwards.

“It’s even more effective on powerful high-tier outsiders. Once their Blood Essence is poisoned by it, they’ll die even quicker deaths. Even if they fight it with their vigorous flesh power and profound bloodline magics, the Filthy Blood Pearl will be able to neutralize them without effort.

“I bet I can turn it into a powerful weapon against outsider experts after taking it back to my sect and spending some time refining it.”

With these words, Huang Jinnan put the Filthy Blood Pearl away without asking for the others’ opinions.

Since it was him who had discovered this well and killed the ghoul guarding it, Nie Tian and the girls didn’t say anything about him taking the Filthy Blood Pearl.

Then, Huang Jinnan added, “The reason why that ghoul was able to summon tainted energies from her surroundings is probably because she drank water from this well that carries faint power exuded from the Filthy Blood Pearl. Combined with her corpse aura, it gave her exceptional battle prowess, and additional fighting means.”

As they spoke, the battle taking place around the courtyard also reached its end.

After killing all of the incoming ghouls, the Qi warriors once again gathered by Huang Jinnan’s side. However, instead of taking the Filthy Blood Pearl out to show it to them, he only briefly explained that he had obtained it from within the well.

None of them objected to him taking it either.

“This is it for this place. Let’s find another place to explore.” With these words, Huang Jinnan took the initiative to get onto his golden chariot and fly out of the courtyard.

The others followed him closely.

Golden light shone in Huang Jinnan’s pupils as he scanned his surroundings unceasingly. Before long, he seemed to find something, as he instantly changed directions and flew off on his golden chariot.

A quarter hour later, a few Bonebrutes and seven human cultivators entered their sight.

They were engaged in a fierce battle with evil spirits on top of a stone pavilion that was close to a hundred meters high.

The Bonebrutes and the human cultivators seemed to be teaming up against the evil spirits, who were their common enemy.

After taking a glance at them from afar, Nie Tian said with a cold smile at the corner of his mouth, “I can’t believe he’s here.”

Taken aback, Yin Yanan asked, “Who?”

Killing intent instantly filled Nie Tian’s eyes. “Xing Bo from the Thousandsword Mountain Sect in the Domain of Heaven Python! He killed a respected senior of mine and imprisoned one of my good friends. Not just that, he even colluded with Bonebrutes and provided them with countless human corpses so that they could establish more burial grounds. Later, when his deeds were brought to light, he fled the Domain of Heaven Python with the Bonebrutes’ help.”

“He gave the remains of his own kind to Bonebrutes in order to facilitate their invasions of other domains?” Yin Yanan said with an icy expression. “Then he deserves to die.”

“I agree!” Nie Tian said with great determination. “No one will be able to save him this time!”