~Glub~glub~
The sound of bubbles could be heard coming from the invader's figure as it started to shrink in front of everyone's eyes.
With each passing second, it's size reduced by a percent and in just a minute, it had reduced its size by over half. But this was the point where it stopped and something else had taken its place.
~HISS~
A sizzling sound was heard as a new beast was revealed.
The rabbit beast that was thrown in it reappeared, but its form had greatly shaped. No longer was it its previous size, instead it was ten times as big and was about the size of a dog.
The horns on its head had multiplied to six and went back to its neck in a straight line. Its spine protruded from its skin that had turned coal black. Its fur had all disappeared and the slimy black layer had replaced it.
Its feet were longer than before and were tipped with sharp, hooked claws. Its front incisor teeth had tuned into a set of fangs and its eyes were now an eerie black with no pupils in them.
~SCREECH~
The rabbit beast let out a screeching sound, that was almost on the same level as that of the avatar's figure, but it didn't affect the elders as much as before.
The spirit Qi fluctuation coming from it were at the peak of the Qi refining realm and showed that it had grown a lot than before. When Little Shrubby got it, the rabbit beast was at the early stage of the Qi refining realm and was very weak.
Lin Mu had especially told him to get a spirit beast and not just any normal beast in the body tempering realm since he was unsure if a beast at that level will even be able to bear the invader.
Lin Mu could see that this figure of invader was far more powerful than the ones he had seen before, though still weaker than the one that had taken over the Great Slumber bear back then.
It was from that Lin Wu knew just how strong the Invader's power was since the Great Slumber bear's original cultivation base was very likely to be at the Dao Shell realm or even the Dao Treading realm.
It being able to weaken the Great Slumber bear to the Core condensation realm was plenty proof of the invader's power. Since this invader's figure had been able to take over the Horse Manticore, Lin Mu placed it at the same level as the one that had controlled the Blight Dust beast.
As soon as the infected Rabbit beast let out a cry of anger, it pressed its legs into the ground, ready to jump away.
"HUMPH!" But Elder Sunsen didn't give it a chance.
He directly let the teapot fall again and it covered the rabbit again.
"Flip!" he said as the teapot turned mid air and the lid of the teapot slammed shut.
~phew~
"There we go." Jing Luo said as everyone took breaths of relief.
~clang~
~DENG~
The sound of movement could be heard coming from the teapot as the rabbit beast kept on hopping inside. It tried to bash its way out of the teapot, but was unable to muster enough strength.
"It won't be able to break it at the current power." Elder Sunsen said with a nod.
"That's good. As long as it stays inside the host beast, we won't have to worry about it escaping." Lin Mu stated.
"Ugh!" While they were talking, the elder who had his hand hurt by the invader grunted in pain.
They all looked towards the man and saw his hand that had turned black. All five of his right hand's fingers had turned black, while half of his palm was black as well. Then, from the parts that had turned black, small tendrils extend further up his arm, before stopping at the elbow.
"That thing tainted you." Elder Sunsen said.
"How do you feel?" The second High elder questioned.
"My arm feels like it is burning and I can't control it at all. I don't sense my meridians there either and my spirit Qi is being slowly drained into my hand." The elder answered.
"We need to cut it." Lin Mu decisively said.
"What? NO!" The elder replied, not wanting to lose a limb.
"We have to do it or the Invader will take over your body as well. Though that is… if you survive the process." Lin Mu explained.
Hearing this the elder got stressed and didn't know what to do.
"Do it! Cut it off. We can't take the risk of taking it directly to the sect and then let it spread to others." Elder Sunsen ordered.
The nascent soul realm elder deliberated before he finally agreed.
"Do it for me." The elder requested.
"Very well." Lin Mu agreed right away.
The time was short and there were a lot of more important things they needed to attend to in this time.
~SHING~
~THUD~
Lin Mu simply waved his hand and the short sword came flying out.
"ARGH!" The Nascent soul realm elder cried in pain but still held on with gritted teeth.
The short sword cleanly cut through the skin and bone, leaving the least possible gap between normal hand and infected hand.
The hand that was cut off fell to the ground and started to twitch a lot.
"Burn it!" Lin Mu ordered.
~SHUA~
Little Shrubby spat out a ball of fire, that quickly turned the hand into a pile of ashes.
The elder who had his hand cut off, ate a few healing pills and hoped that he would be healed after a bit. Thankfully, the bleeding had stopped almost instantly. While the man did care for his lost limb, he also knew that not all was lost, since he would be able to regrow the arm with the help of some alchemical pills.
"We should head to the sect quickly. The others will want to know of this as fast as possible." Lin Mu said.
