Chapter 24: Crushed

Chapter 24: Crushed

The hunch-backed elderly man raised an eyebrow upon hearing this, and he briefly stopped what he was doing, but his gaze remained fixed on Gu Yunyue.

At the same time, the long-faced young man flipped a hand over to produce a black dagger, using which he sliced viciously into his own arm.

Blood gushed out of the gash, forming a cloud of dense blood mist that fused into the black scroll.

The black qi emanating from the scroll instantly became significantly denser, and gusts of fierce Yin wind were swept up all around it amid the sound of ghastly howls, presenting a harrowing sight to behold.

A pair of fierce ghostly entities leaped out of the scroll, then swelled drastically to around 40 to 50 feet in size.

The two ghostly beings had ape-like upper bodies that were covered in short green fur with sharp white fangs that protruded out of their mouths. Each of them had a pair of thick and strong ape arms with fingers that were tipped with sharp crimson claws that were each around a foot in length, while their lower bodies were enshrouded in black mist, appearing to have no physical form.

The gusts of Yin wind around the scroll became even fiercer, and black qi surged as one ghostly being flew out after another.

In the blink of an eye, over 100 ghostly beings had appeared.

Most of them were at the Foundation Establishment Stage, but there were also five or six of them that were clearly far more massive than the other ones, and they were giving off Core Formation Stage auras.

"Kill them!" the long-faced young man cackled as he stabbed a finger in Gu Yunyue's direction.

The ghostly beings roared in unison as they swarmed the spirit ark with ferocious might.

Gu Yunyue's expression changed drastically as she patted the storage bag on her waist to release four streaks of white light, which descended around her before transforming into four humanoid jade puppets, each of which was around 10 feet tall. The puppets were clad in suits of armor, and each of them was holding a large white flag that was glowing with bright spiritual light.

With a wave of the flags in their hands, dazzling white radiance emanated from the bodies of the puppets before quickly joining together to form a white array that encompassed the entire spirit ark within.

As soon as the array took shape, the army of ghostly beings swarmed onto it, surrounding it from all directions.

The ghostly beings roared ferociously as they attacked the white array with all their might.

In particular, the Core Formation Stage ghostly beings were blasting bursts of green light into the array with devastating power, causing it to tremble violently.

Gu Yunyue hurriedly made a hand seal before releasing bursts of white light onto the four puppets, and only then was the array gradually stabilized.

Meanwhile, the long-faced young man himself also flew over to the white array, and he chanted an incantation as a vast expanse of gray fire emerged on his body again, forming a sea of fire that was over 100 feet in size.

He then made a grabbing motion with both hands, and two small balls of fire detached themselves from the sea of flames before transforming into a pair of fiery spears that were several dozen feet in length.

With a wave of his arms, the two fiery spears shot forth like lightning, flying through the air with a sharp screeching sound before striking the white array with tremendous force.

Two resounding booms rang out as the fiery spears exploded, but the white array also trembled violently, and Gu Yunyue also shuddered as her face paled slightly.

The long-faced young man cackled with glee as he hurled one fiery spear after another into the array.

The white array continued to tremble violently, and it was originally around 70 to 80 feet in size, but it was shrinking rapidly and was quickly reduced to less than 30 feet in size.

Gu Yunyue's face became paler and paler, and her body began to tremble from overexertion as a faint sheen of sweat appeared on her forehead.

The hunch-backed elderly man burst into raucous laughter at the sight of the terrible state that Gu Yunyue was in, and he patted the storage bag on his waist to release 12 streaks of black light, which were revealed to be 12 bone tridents.

The bone tridents expanded rapidly while inky-black flames rose up on their surface, and they gave off a bone-chilling aura as they came hurtling down toward the white array.

They were here on Qi Xuan's orders, so the one who killed Gu Yunyue would naturally be rewarded handsomely.

Gu Yunyue was already a spent force, and the hunch-backed elderly man was taking full advantage to try and land the killing blow.

The long-faced young man was furious to see this, but the hunch-backed elderly man was a superior cultivator to him, so he could only begrudgingly accept this.

A hint of despair surfaced in Gu Yunyue's eyes upon seeing this.

However, right at this moment, a figure rose up into the air from the spirit ark, flying through the white array to arrive outside it in the blink of an eye. It was none other than Han Li.

He moved left and right through the air, conjuring up several afterimages that quickly fused as one, and the 12 bone tridents somehow vanished in the blink of an eye.

The hunch-backed elderly man's brows furrowed tightly upon seeing this, following which his expression changed drastically.

As it turned out, all 12 of the bone tridents had been caught in Han Li's grasp, and as he rubbed them between his hands, the black flames on the tridents were completely snuffed out.

He took a glance at the tridents before casually stowing them away in an expressionless manner, as if he had just done something completely unremarkable.

"You... You..." The hunch-backed elderly man was both shocked and furious to see this.

As soon as the ghostly beings surrounding the array detected Han Li's aura, they immediately abandoned the array and pounced toward him, letting loose excited roars as they did so.

"What a nuisance!"

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly, and he sped into the army of ghostly beings as an indistinct azure shadow.

In the face of the azure shadow, all of the ghostly beings in its path were like waves crashing into rocks, exploding violently into countless pieces.

In the blink of an eye, all of the ghostly beings had been slain with incredible ease.

The long-faced young man was utterly astonished as he looked on with wide eyes.

All of a sudden, Han Li appeared in front of him before throwing a vicious punch, and the long-faced young man didn't even get a chance to cry out before his body exploded into scraps of flesh and blood, and not even his nascent soul managed to survive.

The hunch-backed elderly man was horrified to see this, and he hurriedly swept a sleeve through the air to release hundreds of green flying needles. Each needle was around a foot in length and as thin as a strand of hair, with green flames burning on their surface.

The thin needles screeched through the air as they sped toward Han Li, and at the same time, green flames erupted out of the elderly man's body as he fled into the distance, even abandoning the golden pagoda in his desperation to get away.

Han Li remained completely still on the spot as he opened his mouth before taking a deep breath.

A burst of enormous suction force took shape in the air before him, and the entire space buzzed incessantly as all of the flying needles were caught by the suction force before flying into Han Li's mouth.

The needles crunched between his teeth as he chewed briefly, then tipped his head back slightly to swallow everything.

Gu Yunyue's mouth gaped open slightly upon seeing this, and she was completely rooted to the spot.

From the perspective of Yu Menghan and Liu Le'er on the spirit ark, all they saw was a frenzied flurry of activity. Before they had even figured out what had happened, one of their two powerful assailants had been killed, while the other was desperately fleeing the scene, and they were no less shocked than Gu Yunyue.

Meanwhile, Han Li cast his gaze toward the fleeing elderly man, and golden light flashed from his arm as he threw a punch in that direction with an indifferent expression.

A golden fist projection that was around the size of a human head instantly appeared behind the hunch-backed elderly man, and it was flying several times faster than he was.

The hunch-backed elderly man's expression changed drastically upon seeing this, and he hurriedly released a layer of black light around his entire body, right before he was struck by the golden fist projection with devastating force.

The green flames around him exploded violently, but only a pile of bones fell out of the sky.

At the same time, a burst of spatial fluctuations several dozen kilometers away, and a vast expanse of black light appeared out of thin air before the hunch-backed elderly man stumbled out of it.

He took a horrified glance behind him, then opened his mouth to release a burst of green light, which enveloped his body in a layer of green flames before he continued to flee into the distance, vanishing out of sight in the blink of an eye.

Han Li's spiritual sense had already been released, so he was well aware of where the hunch-backed elderly man was. However, right as he was about to lash out again, he suddenly lowered his head to look at the azure light around his body, which had clearly become dimmer than before.

His brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this, and he decided against pursuing the elderly man. Instead, he swept a hand through the air to release a burst of azure light that drew the long-faced young man's storage bag to him, then descended back onto the spirit ark.

He had relied mostly on the power of his physical body during that battle, but he had still expended a great deal of magic power.