Li Yan took one look and guessed the origin of this thing.

The Dongmin Village where the incident happened earlier worshiped the Black Earth Mother, shrouded in mystery and unknown to outsiders.

This situation, in fact, was nothing out of the ordinary originally.

Divine State has a long history, ancient times, since the earliest ancestors, there have been various Divine beliefs, some long buried in the dust of history, while others still secretly passed down.

But clearly, the "Black Earth Mother" is a spirit monster, and it had enmity with the Earth Immortal earlier, along with the pirates causing trouble, leading to the tragedy.

In an instant, the "Black Earth Mother" had climbed up the cliff.

This thing looks exceedingly bizarre.

It lacks distinct features, only a crack opens at the top of the flesh mound.

I emits a low bellow like a cow, yet with a grating sound like metal grinding. Several tentacles suddenly plunged into the surrounding forest, uprooting several ancient trees thick as hugging trunks, tossing them aside with ease.

Li Yan watched with his eyelids twitching.

This was by no means a common mountain spirit or wild monster, its bizarre appearance and terrifying momentum far exceeded the demons of ordinary folklore, exuding an evil aura.

Black fog peeled open like a tide, exposing the massive body of the "Black Earth Mother" amidst the wind and thunder above the cliff.

Its flesh, dark and soft as decaying Tai Sui, now swelled like a small hill, several bucket-thick, black tentacles with ring-shaped suction cups flailed wildly, striking the cliff wall.

Rocks splintered, earth crumbled.

Lv San lay beside Li Yan, gripping the Bone Flute tightly, whispered, "Is that the Evil God the villagers worshipped?"

"It’s a spirit monster!"

Li Yan’s gaze locked onto its back, "Look at its back."

Within the deep folds of the flesh mound, a gaunt human silhouette clung tightly, precisely the withered old Daoist from before.

His Daoist robe soaked in filth, white hair stuck to his forehead, now no longer possessing any trace of the Earth Immortal’s ethereal aura, looking more like an attached sore.

His arms clawed tightly into the slippery skin, his knees almost swallowed by the flesh mound.

Surrounding him, eight entirely black, intricately patterned wooden stakes, deeply inserted into the "Black Earth Mother," forming the Eight Trigrams arrangement.

Those stakes were neither gold nor iron, Li Yan recognized at a glance as "Corpse Coffin Wood," mostly sourced from century-old coffins, specially used to suppress ancient fierce corpses, most effective at absorbing evil and gathering yin.

The old Daoist’s fingertips seeped lines of blood, connecting with the tops of the stakes, muttering incantations, each word deepening the stakes further into the flesh.

Visibly, beneath the originally dark flesh, countless scarlet streams flowed in reverse along the stakes, all converging into the old Daoist’s gaunt body.

"He’s... extracting its vital essence!"

Lv San’s voice was extremely low, somewhat incredulous.

He’d seen demons that extract human vital essence, but extracting an Evil God’s vital essence was a first.

The old Daoist disregarded the monster’s madness beneath him, his eyes glowed unnaturally blood red, his face filled with manic greed, cackled hoarsely, "Fortune! Fortune indeed! A century ago, I saw one of your cast-off shells."

"Searching all over Lingnan, finally waited for your weakened emergence! Absorb your Earth Yin essence fully, and I can reforge this vessel into the ’Earth Evil Corpse Immortal Path’!"

Before his voice fell, a tentacle of the "Black Earth Mother," driven mad by pain and frenzy, swept out violently, crashing towards the fleeing pirates.

One black-robed pirate slightly slow to react couldn’t dodge in time, brushed by the tentacle at his side, couldn’t even scream, flew out like a tattered sack, slammed into a protruding rock by the cliff, his body bent at a bizarre angle, slid down limply.

His mouth and nose poured out a large amount of black blood, clearly not going to survive.

The Wokou Leader glanced back, his eyes more shadowed, yet didn’t pause for a moment, shouted lowly, and the remaining few scrambled on hands and knees towards a hidden path by the cliff.

"Trying to escape!"

Li Yan would not let them go, eyes sharp, moved to pursue with Lv San.

But though the "Black Earth Mother" lost its mind, due to pain and confinement, it attacked wildly on instinct.

Two tentacles, like black pythons, struck from both sides, lifted a mass of rubble and muck, hurling it head-on.

Li Yan countered with a blade, Thunder Qi wrapping the edge, slicing off the tip of a tentacle, the foul-smelling juice spraying out, but another tentacle swept at his chest.

The two could only retreat swiftly, hearing a crunch, the boulder they hid behind earlier shattered into pieces by the tentacle, the debris showered down like rain, completely blocking the pursuit route.

With this delay, the pirate figures vanished into the shadows of the trees at the end of the path.

Li Yan cursed under his breath, his eyes scanning like lightning, seeing the last pirate in the group, due to slower legs, tripped by vines in panic, struggling to rise.

Without another word, he threw out his hand, the Soul Hook whistled forth.

Before the man could react, he was stupefied by the Soul Suppressing.

Having captured a living prisoner, Li Yan didn’t spare for close inspection.

He turned to the increasingly swollen mass of horrific flesh on the cliff, and the blood-drenched, rapidly strengthening gaunt old Daoist, felt a sudden warning in his heart.

Cannot let this Evil Dao succeed!

Whether "Black Earth Mother" is right or evil, if truly allowing this old Daoist to refine the "Earth Evil Corpse Immortal Dao Body," with this evil root combined with Earth Immortal Cultivation, it would be more troublesome than ten Wokou leaders.

Li Yan decided instantly, again took out the Hook Paper from his bosom.

"Tian Youji, Earth’s framework, Yin Bureau summons souls, living people avoid!"

A tranquil, deep darkness appeared again, without any warning, flooding in from all directions onto the cliff platform, silent, like a stealthy Iron Cavalry suddenly encircling.

Li Yan couldn’t even clearly see what kind of troops came, only felt darkness before his eyes, in the blink of an eye swallowed the entire cliff platform central "Black Earth Mother" and the gaunt old Daoist together.