Chapter 730: Sudden Turn |
"Fellow Daoist Mo Guang!" Han Li yelled, and Mo Guang immediately swept a sleeve through the air to release a plume of black mist, which split up into eight tentacle-like appendages before lashing out at the oncoming karmic fireballs.
A string of loud thumps rang out as specks of black flames were sent flying in all directions, but some of them made their way up the tentacles of black mist toward Mo Guang.
Mo Guang's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this, and a burst of aura fluctuations erupted out of his body to scatter the oncoming karmic flames.
Some specks of karmic fire fell onto Fox 3's body, but they were instantly repelled by the green light emanating from his body.
He felt a burst of baleful qi infiltrate his body, and his consciousness was dealt a heavy blow, but thankfully, under the protection of the Imperial Peak Spirit Restriction Talisman, he only experienced a brief rush of dizziness that quickly wore off.
However, that was far from the end of their troubles.
As the karmic fireballs continued to shoot up from down below, the fiery crater became more and more restless, and the karmic flames inside began to rise up as a black wall of fire.
Shi Chuankong strummed his fingers over the strings of his lute upon seeing this, releasing a burst of formidable soundwaves and spatial power that clashed against the wall of karmic fire, tearing an opening that was several dozen feet wide through it.
Shi Chuankong continued to strum the strings of his lute urgently, releasing a steady stream of soundwaves to keep the opening intact as he yelled through tightly gritted teeth, "Hurry! I can't keep this up for long!"
However, as soon as the karmic flames made contact with his spirit domain, bursts of baleful qi instantly seeped straight into his body through the spirit domain from all directions.
Han Li gave a muffled groan as his consciousness began to churn violently, and he was almost overcome by a intense wave of aggressive intent, but thankfully, he was already channeling his Spirit Refinement Technique with all his might, so he was able to suppress the adverse effects of the baleful qi.
Immediately thereafter, the white snowy mountain rune on his glabella brightened significantly, releasing bursts of invisible ripples that quelled the unrest in his consciousness.
However, at the same time, his spirit domain was constantly being whittled down by the surrounding karmic flames.
With his brows tightly furrowed, he let loose a low roar as he swept a sleeve through the air to release several chains of azure light, which wound themselves around Baili Yan and hte others. At the same time, he channeled his Reversal True Axis and instantly accelerated significantly as he flew through the opening in the wall of fire.
As soon as they passed through the wall of fire, Shi Chuankong retracted his fingers with cold sweat pouring down his face, and the tips of his fingers were torn and bleeding profusely.
Without the resistance of the soundwaves, the black wall of fire quickly mended itself, but at this point, it was already past them, and Han Li's group was no more than a hundred feet away from the karmic fire passageway that led to the Soul Cleansing Area.
Everyone heaved a collective sigh of relief, yet right as they were about to venture into the karmic fire passageway, an array suddenly lit up within it, following which the black karmic fire inside surged forth like floodwaters through a broken dam.
At such close quarters, there was no time for Han Li and the others to react, and they were instantly scattered by the torrent of karmic fire before plunging down toward the fiery crater below, and the karmic fire down below also reared up to devour them in an instant.
As soon as Han Li plunged into the karmic fire, the spiritual connections that he had formed with everyone through the Imperial Peak Spirit Restriction Talisman were severed. Before he had a chance to think about anything else, he was inundated by karmic fire from all directions, setting his suit of dark green armor alight.
Bursts of incredibly formidable baleful qi surged into his body alongside the waves of heat, and even his suit of armor wasn't able to keep them at bay. In the blink of an eye, Han Li felt as if he were being bound by layers of chains, and the baleful qi in his immortal acupoints also began to riot.
Thankfully, he was still keeping a tight leash on his own consciousness, so he wasn't driven to the point of insanity.
All of a sudden, his Mantra Treasured Axis appeared behind him at his behest, and all of the black karmic flames encompassed within the golden light that it was releasing were instantly frozen, but the heat and baleful qi that they were giving off hadn't abated in the at all.
Han Li's brows were tightly furrowed as he flew out of the fiery crater, yet before he even had a chance to steady himself, a vast expanse of black light suddenly descended upon him like a crushing black cloud.
He looked up to discover a millstone-sized black seal that was somehow completely unaffected by his time law powers, and it was crashing down with tremendous force while releasing a burst of suction power that held him firmly into place.
Han Li had no time to think in this dire situation, and he threw a punch up toward the black seal, unleashing a giant azure sword projection the size of a house, which struck the black seal with immense power.
The azure fist projection shattered almost instantly upon contact, sending waves of azure energy erupting in all directions, while the black seal continued to crash down from above.
Han Li let loose a thunderous roar as the muscles on his body bulged, and he took on his Giant Mountain Ape form before pushing against the black seal with both hands.
The black seal abruptly swelled to several times its original size before crashing down onto the palms of Han Li's hands, and he felt as if he were being crushed under a thousand mountains.
Even with his current physical prowess, the seal was impossible to keep at bay, and he found himself being forced back into the fiery crater.
Only then did he realize that the seal wasn't affected by his time law powers purely because the power that it contained was too immense, to the point that it was able to affect the space around it to a certain extent.
Without his time law powers slowing it down, the black seal would've only crashed down onto him with even greater speed and power.
Right at this moment, a raspy voice rang out nearby.
"Time law powers and a true spirit bloodline? Impressive! No wonder you dared to sneak into the Rashom Area. Who are you? Are you from the Reincarnation Region or the Heavenly Court?"
Han Li was struggling to keep the giant black seal and the surrounding karmic flames at bay as he looked up to find a figure hovering a foot in the air above the bridge overhead.
The figure was dressed in a black robe that was giving off a faint sheet, and there was a strange tall hat on his head. His face was deathly pale, but his pupils were an extremely dark gray color, even darker than Mo Yu's.
His appearance was rather effeminate, and unlike the cold expressions commonly seen on the faces of other Infernal beings, there was a faint smile on his face, striking Han Li with a sense of disgust.
What was most alarming to him was that this Infernal being was a Great Encompassment cultivator.
Standing behind him were a pair of strange beings with bull horns on their heads, and both were completely devoid of expression.
The two beings were from the same tribe as the beings that Han Li had seen in the puppet refinement fortresses, except these two were clearly finished products. There were shaped white bones protruding out of their arms and shoulders, and black chains were wound around their hands.
On the other end of the chains was another figure that had been completely tied up, and it was none other than Fox 3.
At this moment, his eyes were tightly shut, and it was unclear whether he was dead or alive.
There were seven or eight armorclad Infernal Servants nearby holding the same black chains, and they had formed an encirclement around Shi Chuankong.
These Infernal Servants were different from the ones that Han Li had seen up to this point in that the scales on their faces were black instead of gray, and there was a huge hole in each of their chests, within which were balls of scorching karmic flames.
The Infernal Servants released the chains in their hands, and karmic flames emerged over them as they converged from all directions to form a spherical cage around Shi Chuankong, who was strumming the strings of his silver lute to release a spatial barrier that kept the black chains at bay.
Two of the armorclad Infernal Servants drifted forward upon seeing this, approaching the spherical cage as a series of strange runes emerged around the karmic flames in their chests, following which the flames exploded violently.
A burst of tremendous shockwaves erupted forth, instantly shattering the spatial barrier around Shi Chuankong.
Not far away from him, Baili Yan's arms had already turned completely black, while his hands had transformed into a pair of huge dragon claws that also had black flames burning over them. Clearly, he had been forced to release his karmic fire once again after suppressing it for so long.
In contrast with Shi Chuankong, he only had a single opponent, but Han Li was astonished by the sight of this opponent as it was none other than Su Liu!
At this moment, Su Liu's aura didn't resemble that of a True Immortal at all, and his suit of armor had also vanished, leaving his upper body bare. There was a series of harrowing gashes on his body, and a hole had also been dug into his chest, embedded into which was a metal ball that was riddled with runes and burning with karmic flames.
There were also two black chains that completely ran through both of his arms before protruding out of the palms of his hands, and connected to the ends of the chains was a black double-edged ax and a chain mace.
Han Li noticed that Su Liu's eyes were completely dull and devoid of luster, and that his pupils had turned gray, just like the pupils of a gray immortal.
