In the fifth layer of difficulties, Zhao Di encountered several cursed spirits, but their strength was average. Compared to the increasing difficulty of the previous layers, this layer's test didn't seem particularly arduous.

  So Zhao Di had been worried that there would be an even more terrifying threat, but when he heard the voice of "Curse Spirit King", his mind actually calmed down.

  "If we can fight, then we'll fight. If we can't win, then we'll retreat! If it's really a being on the level of the Cursed Spirit King, then running away immediately is the best option!"

  At this moment, he held the Tianxing Order tightly in his hand, and with a sword light opening the way, he slowly followed the direction of the sound to a wide stone cave.

  In this cave, a thick and heavy yin energy permeated everywhere, and the stone cave was burning with a pale blue ghost fire. With the cover of the ghost fire, Zhao Di initially judged that this stone cave was over 100 feet high and more than 1,000 feet wide.

  The area had opened up a lot, and the original feeling of oppression that Zhao Di felt was no longer there. However, the yin energy here was extremely dense, and it emitted a kind of putrid stench that made people want to vomit upon smelling it.

  And in front of him, more than a hundred feet away, there were two red-faced, copper-eyed, horned, and ape-like evil spirits, each about ten feet tall. The two evil spirits looked exactly the same, with greedy and ferocious eyes staring at Zhao Di, their gaze like that of lions and tigers looking at rabbits.

  Zhao Di felt a sense of relief in his heart. The two evil spirits emitted an extremely heavy yin energy, obviously not comparable to the previous few cursed spirits, but only equivalent to the peak level of the later stage of the Cong Dan period, and not at the level of the Cursed Spirit King.

  Although he didn't understand why these two cursed spirits could speak and had intelligence far surpassing the previous ones, as long as they weren't the Cursed Spirit King, he had a chance to win!

  "It's amazing that you two can speak human language, which shows that your spiritual intelligence is extremely high. We don't need to fight and kill each other, as long as you two tell me where the exit of this layer is, I will not disturb you two and will satisfy any reasonable requirements you put forward." Zhao said sincerely.

  Youlan and You'ruo suddenly appeared, their ghostly bodies were in their element here, if they were to fight, they could lend Zhao Di a helping hand.

  "Haha, well said! Now hand over the triangular token in your hand, and I'll give you a pointer!"

  "Hmm, these two little demons aren't bad either, I'll take their masters as well and make them concubines."

  A deep voice sounded, and the two apes each said a sentence, but their voices were exactly the same and difficult to distinguish.

  "Even Lian Tong Tian Ling knows, it seems that the two of you indeed know a lot about this place. Don't you want to get out?" Zhao Di smiled slightly, hitting the opponent's weak spot, and it was clear that these two ghosts had been trapped here for tens of thousands of years.

  "Heh heh, although the yin energy is extremely heavy here, it can ensure that my true self will not disperse for tens of thousands of years. However, being trapped in this place with layer upon layer of restrictions on my body, I am unable to advance even an inch in my cultivation. What reason would I have to not want to leave?"

  "It's extremely difficult to find a way out, but I've found one. As long as I drain your vital energy and use it to activate the Heavenly Command, maybe I can leave this place, haha!"

  The two ghosts were speaking in unison, each claiming to be the true master. If Zhao hadn't seen with his own eyes that they were two ghostly apes, he would have thought there was only one evil spirit talking.

  "You two are so threatening, aren't you afraid that I will directly use the Tian Tian Ling to leave this place? As far as I know, cultivators who can come here are very few! Or do you have some special means to stop me from using the Tian Tian Ling?" Zhao Di frowned and asked. His Tian Tian Ling had a subtle change, the golden light points on it actually dimmed slightly. This slight change was a huge shock to Zhao Di, who always paid attention to his Tian Tian Ling.

  "Haha, you've finally discovered it! I'm taking advantage of the extremely dense yin energy in this place to temporarily block the spatial seal here. Within this half-hour period, you won't be able to use the Tongtian Command to leave this place!"

  "This is a secret technique I've spent thousands of years researching, just for today! Haha!"

  Two evil spirits laughed with great satisfaction at the same time, feeling extremely delighted.

  "But they're just two ugly ghosts in the late stage of their cultivation, what's there to be arrogant about? Wait till you see the might of my master, I'm afraid you'll be so scared that you won't even have the strength to kowtow and beg for mercy!" You Ruo sneered with a bad tone.

  "Bold!" The two ghost apes shouted in unison, each raising a hand and making a grasping motion towards You Ruo as if they were about to grab her out of thin air.

  Two dark grey auras transformed into two large grey-black palms that appeared beside You Ruo, reaching out to grab her frail body.

  Yu Rou seemed to have been prepared early on, and with a flash of movement, she dodged behind Zhao Di's back.

  Zhao's movements were not slow either. He immediately unsheathed the Mengli Sword and swung it out, creating two purple sword lights that welcomed the two giant palms separately.

  "With a 'zi' 'zi' sound, the sword light met the giant palm and emitted a dazzling strange flame before disappearing."

  This sudden probing attack made both Zhao Di and Gui Yuan slightly startled.

  Zhaodi had previously used his purple sword light to attack this kind of condensed yin energy, and it was always invincible. Every time, the yin energy would disperse with just one sword strike, and the sword light would emerge unscathed. Unexpectedly, this time they ended up mutually destroying each other.

  The two ghost apes were also shocked, this giant palm was condensed from the purest yin energy, ordinary magic treasures could not destroy it at all, but now it was suddenly destroyed by the purple sword's seemingly casual attack.

  Both sides have misgivings and dare not hold each other in contempt.

  Two ghost apes opened their mouths and each spat out a crystal clear, several-inch-long bone rod that swelled with the wind.

  Zhao Di concentrated his mind and looked at it carefully, only to find that the treasure was a transparent jade bone about two feet long and as thick as an arm. At the top end, there was a crystal skull slightly larger than a fist, and at the bottom end, there were four sharp white bones claws.

  Whether it was jade bone or bony claw, they were all wrapped in a faint grayish-black aura. The eye sockets, nasal cavity and mouth of the skull had an endless flow of grayish-black aura going in and out, making it look extremely eerie.

  At the same time, Zhao Di also took out a green ruler and struck it with a series of spiritual lights. Immediately afterwards, a bunch of identical two-foot-long green rulers appeared above his head.

  The yin energy here is extremely heavy, and the power of the array can also be increased. The two women, Youlan and You'rufu, are not idle either. They silently recite incantations in their mouths, and their hands continuously wave out waves of dark wind, bringing out strands of grayish-black yin energy. They set up a "Rejuvenation Array" and a "Protective Array". The former can increase the attacking power of those with wood attributes by 30%, while the latter can add a layer of defense formed by yin energy to Zhao Di, weakening the opponent's attack by more than 20%.

  Two ghost apes let out a loud roar at the same time, waving their bone rods in their hands. The skulls on top of them suddenly opened their mouths and shot out dark gray air, forming a dark gray mist that obscured the ghost apes' bodies, making them appear and disappear suddenly.

  Two apes simultaneously wielded their bone staves, which instantly swelled in size, transforming into two transparent white jade-like hands the size of a zhang, each with four sharp and cold claws, accompanied by a wave of dark grey energy, savagely clawing towards Zhao Di.

  Emerald liquid suddenly transformed into hundreds of small rulers, each carrying a piece of green light, and they rushed towards the two apes.

  At the same time, Zhao Di was murmuring to himself, and one by one, sword incantations were cast onto the Dream Crystal Sword. The latter transformed into three, then nine, forming nine sword shadows that split up to confront two enormous skeletal claws.

  "Puff puff puff" continuous light sounds, countless emerald-green fists struck the dark gray aura protecting the ghost ape, but only managed to punch out holes in the aura before exhausting their power and dissipating into tiny green lights. The dark aura, however, was replenished extremely quickly, resulting in minimal loss.

  At this moment, the first sword shadow had already struck a bony hand. A clear and crisp "ding" sound rang out, like the sound of metal colliding. The bony hand was hit by the sword shadow, and its originally ferocious momentum disappeared instantly, being knocked back several feet away. The strands of dark gray aura attached to it also dissipated in this one strike.

  The two apes saw this and immediately knew it was not good. At the moment when the remaining sword shadows were about to meet the Bone Hand, a thought flashed through their minds. The Bone Hand that had been refined by their hearts suddenly transformed into a wisp of grayish-black air in an instant, while several sword shadows fell empty.

  The next moment, two white jade bone hands appeared in Er Yuan's hands again.

  Obviously, Er Yuan had not truly realized the ferocity of Zhao Di's purple sword before. After this direct confrontation, he knew that his own refined treasure was at a disadvantage, and he felt somewhat apprehensive in his heart. He recalled the Bone Staff to preserve his strength.

  Zhao sighed inwardly, unfortunately his Dream Luminous Sword's material was extremely overbearing, but the time he spent cultivating it in his dantian was too short. Firstly, he couldn't yet wield it like his opponent, freely summoning and recalling it at will. Secondly, its power couldn't be fully unleashed, so he could only rely on the material's inherent superiority to attack the enemy. Otherwise, that previous strike might have severely damaged his opponent's treasured artifact.

  Emerald liquid continued to transform into small rulers, constantly attacking the two apes, but with little effect.

  Zhao did not take it seriously, his purpose in using this trick was only to hold back one or two of the enemy.

  Several purple sword shadows struck a void and quickly recondensed together, transforming back into the shape of a purple long sword, flying back into Zhao Di's hand.

  Zhaodi held a sword in his left hand and with a light wave of his right hand, under the flashing spiritual light, more than twenty puppets flew out from the storage ring one after another, falling beside Zhaodi. In an instant, they formed a puppet army that had both shield-bearing guards and knife-wielding archers.

  Two ghost apes were about to release the bone rods in their hands and attack the small green ruler in the air, but suddenly they saw so many puppets and the top-grade spiritual instruments in their hands that were full of spiritual energy, and they were all stunned.

  The two apes couldn't help but stop attacking, and at the same time, they spat out a series of dark and mysterious curses. A surge of dark energy shot into the bone staff in their hands. The bone staff was also undergoing a dramatic transformation. The skull on the top of the staff grew to over a foot in size, its mouth wide open as it frantically sucked in the surrounding dark gray air. After a moment, the color of the staff began to change, shifting from white and transparent to light gray, then to dark gray, and finally becoming as black as ink, shining with an eerie glow.

  At Zhao's command, the puppets holding longbows and swords danced wildly with their attacking spiritual tools towards the two ghost apes.

  A foot-long golden blade, a fire pillar as thick as a bucket, three or four feet large stone blocks, a dense and windproof arrow rain of several inches long, and half-meter-long sharp wooden stakes, various spiritual powers transformed into attacks, mercilessly pounced on the two apes.

  At this time, the two apes held a dark and shiny strange bone stick in their hands, let out a low roar, and then threw the bone stick upwards. The skull head at the top of the latter immediately spewed out thick and dense black air, like substance, and rotated on the spot with a rolling sound.

  In an instant, the thick and abnormal yin energy formed a solid barrier, surrounding the two apes and completely covering their bodies, making it impossible to see them clearly. It was like a huge black air mass several meters in size. At the same time, the bone stick suddenly stopped spinning and spitting out yin energy, transforming back into two cold and eerie bone claws that reached out from above to grab at the puppets. This time, however, the bone claws were pitch-black in color and covered with a thick layer of dense yin energy, making their aura even more intense.

  "Puff puff puff" The puppet launched countless colorful spiritual lights to attack, all of which hit the black air mass, but it seemed like a mud cow entering the sea, and its power was exhausted by this extremely dense yin energy, without any further effect.

  The attack of Cui Chi continued, but it had no effect on this group of dark air.

  At the same time, two black bony claws also brought a mass of black air and arrived at a place about ten feet above the puppet, then grabbed it down.

  Zhao Di had been waiting for this moment, he let out a low growl, and a purple aura flashed on his face. A thick layer of purple aura also appeared on his body, but in an instant it converged at his fingertips to form a purple spiritual light.

  Zhao Di's fingers swiftly wiped the treasure sword in his hand, evenly covering the surface of the sword with the mixed yuan divine light. Then, wielding the purple sword, he actively welcomed one of the black bone claws that was closer to him.

  A crisp "crack" sound, a puppet grasping the Qing Guang shield spirit tool was pinched into several pieces by a black bone claw, and even the hard-as-steel shield in its hand was twisted and deformed under the four fingers of this claw, thus destroying it!

  "Hah!" Two soft, simultaneous laughter sounds came from the dark air mass. It seemed that the two apes were very pleased with themselves.

  At this time, Zhao Di, wrapped in a purple aura, held the Dream Crystal Sword and attacked another bone claw. This bone claw did not dodge but instead welcomed it with open arms, its four bony fingers spread wide, clearly intending to grab the purple sword. Meanwhile, the other bone claw also released the broken puppet and spirit tool from its grasp, preparing to attack Zhao Di himself while this bone claw held onto the purple sword.

  Zhao's mouth corners slightly curled up, his hand holding the Dream Glass Sword lightly swaying, but not dodging or evading, allowing the opponent's bone claws to grab him.

  A few light sounds of "cha cha", the bony claws easily "grabbed" the purple sword, but several bony fingers were cut off by the purple sword in one slash!

  "How dare you destroy my treasure!" A furious voice came from the dark air mass, and two bony claws flashed with black air at the same time, turning into a ball of dark energy that dissipated and disappeared.

  The puppet's attack did not stop, still a non-stop crazy bombing, the dark air mass finally thinned out a lot, gradually revealing the two ghost apes inside.

  Suddenly, the two apes merged into one, forming a ghost ape with an unchanged body shape but with two horns on its forehead. It immediately absorbed all the surrounding dark energy, revealing its red face and sharp teeth.

  "Ghost King!" Zhao Di was shocked. At this moment, the ghost ape's body emitted a dark aura that was unfathomably powerful, far beyond what it had been before!

  （）