Chapter 303: Astonishment
Han Li's brows furrowed slightly as he cast his gaze toward that area to find the crimson sea churning incessantly.
Turbulent waves were surging on its surface while over 100 massive shadows were slowly rising up from the depths, bringing with them an overwhelmingly nauseating bloody odor.
Han Li activated his Spirit Refinement Technique to protect his consciousness, and he unconsciously tightened his grip on his sword as he inspected the surface of the sea with blue light flashing in his eyes.
Finally, all of the shadows rising up from below emerged out of the water one after another, revealing them to have been a series of different marine demon beasts of all types of different descriptions.
Han Li had seen all of these demon beasts in some of the books that he had read in the past, and he knew that their cultivation bases varied drastically, with the most powerful ones among them already at the True Immortal Stage, but at this moment, all of them were floating belly up on the surface of the sea, and they couldn't have been any more dead.
Each of them had a giant round hole in their abdomen, from within which blood was pouring out incessantly, spreading through the seawater like a massive crimson veil.
Han Li could see that the skin and flesh around those wounds were spread outward, indicating that their bodies had detonated from the inside, rather than the injuries being a result of external force.
All of a sudden, a near animalistic roar rang out, and massive waves swept over the surface of the sea down below.
A massive crimson hand that was over 1,000 feet in size suddenly parted the waves and reached out of the sea to make a grab for Han Li, who immediately darted back in an attempt to avoid it.
However, right as he did so, another identical giant crimson hand emerged from the water right in the path of his retreat before grabbing toward him as well.
Han Li hurriedly changed directions as a streak of azure light, but right at this moment, two more massive crimson hands emerged, one in front of him and one behind, and they were closing in on him from both directions.
The huge crimson hands were astonishingly fast, to the point that Han Li was caught between them before he had a chance to react.
Immediately thereafter, the seawater began to churn violently, and an enormous figure that was over 10,000 feet tall slowly rose up from the depth.
As it turned out, it was a giant crimson figure with clearly defined muscular lines all over its body, and it was completely naked with the exception of an azure loincloth around its waist.
It was like a giant that had just been skinned, and there was still blood all over its exposed muscles. Its face was extremely twisted and horrific, but some semblance of Zhong Luan could still be seen in it.
Aside from the pair of arms attached to its shoulder, the crimson giant had a pair of arms growing from beneath its ribs as well, and it was none other than the hands attached to that lower pair of arms that Han Li was trapped between.
At this moment, Han Li felt as if he were being crushed between a pair of massive mountains, and his bones were creaking and groaning incessantly.
He let loose a loud roar as a layer of golden scales appeared over both of his arms, and he pushed back at the pair of giant palms with all his might.
With his tremendous strength, he was able to push the giant palms slightly to the sides to open up a small gap.
The crimson giant immediately let loose a thunderous roar in response, and it exerted even more force through its hands, forcibly eliminating the gap that Han Li had just barely created between them.
Han Li's face was bright red as he let loose a low roar, and in the next instant, all of his muscles began to bulge as his body swelled up rapidly like a balloon, quickly transforming into a giant golden ape that was over 10,000 feet tall.
At the same time, white light appeared over his body, and seven specks of blue starlight appeared on his chest and abdomen, while his body swelled even further in size.
The giant ape let loose another low roar as it glowered at the crimson giant, then spread its arms open forcefully, and not only was it able to force the crimson giant's hands apart, it was able to grab onto them as well.
The golden ape then twisted its own arms, forcing the crimson giant's hands outward, and the sound of cracking bone instantly rang out, immediately followed by a roar of pain.
However, at the same time, the crimson giant reached out with its other two hands to lock the golden ape's arms in a vice-like grip.
Immediately thereafter, it began to chant an incantation in a rumbling voice, and as it did so, a series of strange corkscrew-shaped patterns on the palms of the hands that were locked around the giant ape's arms, and a pair of crimson snakes slithered out before winding themselves around the golden ape's arms.
Han Li immediately felt a burst of scorching pain shoot through his arms, and he hurriedly released the crimson giant's hands before stumbling back around a dozen steps.
After opening up some distance between himself and the crimson giant, Han Li looked down to find circles of corkscrew-shaped marks running all the way up his arms to his shoulders, and it was as if it had been branded into his skin.
"With my baleful blood mark on your body, you're as good as dead," the crimson giant declared in such a thunderous voice that the surrounding space was quivering incessantly.
As soon as his voice trailed off, it continued to chant its incantation, and a series of giant crimson runes began to appear over its body.
Han Li could feel the scorching pain in his arms becoming more intense by the second, and he leaned forward to plunge his arms into the seawater in an attempt to lessen the pain, but to no avail.
What was even more alarming was that all of his blood essence was currently surging violently through his body like a wild horse that had been let off its reins.
He could clearly sense that the temperature of his blood essence was rapidly rising, as if it were about to be set alight, and it wouldn't be long before it tore through his veins, causing his body to detonate.
If it weren't for the fact that he was a Profound Immortal with a physical body far more formidable than the average True Immortal, and he had cultivated the Organ Refinement Origin Arts, his organs would've most likely already exploded by now.
Han Li was astonished by this turn of events. The baleful qi law powers being wielded by his opponent was extremely difficult to deal with. First, it was the violent baleful qi that had swayed his spiritual sense, and now, this burst of blood baleful qi was attempting to control his blood essence.
He took a moment to compose himself, then attempted to quell the unrest in his blood essence using his immortal spiritual power, but to no avail, once again.n-)O).V.)e(.l-(B./I--n
With so many types of power true spirit blood essence infused into his bloodline, his blood essence was far more powerful than that of the average True Immortal, and it was impossible for him to suppress it with his immortal spiritual power alone.
All of a sudden, a draconic roar rang out from within Han Li's body, following which a giant five-clawed golden dragon projection emerged behind him amid a flash of golden light before roaring to the heavens.
The giant ape's face became twisted with agony, and it also let loose a roar of pain.
"You possess a true spirit bloodline in your body? This is fantastic! The heavens are truly smiling down upon me!" the crimson giant exclaimed in an elated voice.
It then made a strange hand seal with all four of its massive hands, and a series of crescent-shaped runes appeared over its body, shimmering with a magma-like crimson and yellow glow.
Immediately thereafter, a clear phoenix cry rang out, and a rainbow phoenix projection emerged behind Han Li as well, hanging in mid-air right next to the golden dragon.
The black crane, which had already retreated to over 100,000 feet away, was very surprised to see this.
"He has more than one type of true spirit bloodline in his body! Normally, possessing multiple true spirit bloodlines would be a great asset, but given Master's abilities, those true spirit bloodlines will only work against him!" the black crane chuckled.
As soon as its voice trailed off, an Azure Luan Bird projection appeared behind the giant ape amid a flash of azure light, followed by a Lightning Bird projection amid a flash of silver lightning.
Immediately thereafter came the projections of a Five-colored Peacock and a giant black turtle.
"Impossible! How could he have this many?" the black crane exclaimed in an incredulous voice.
At this moment, it wanted nothing more than to grow a pair of hands to rub its own eyes. It was simply in complete disbelief that someone could possess so many powerful true spirit bloodlines, particularly a human, which had the weakest physical body among all races.
Another agonized roar erupted out of the giant ape's mouth, and the true spirit projections hovering behind it suddenly began to struggle violently, with someone trying to rise up into the heavens and others trying to descend into the sea.
The crimson marks on the giant ape's arms also began to glow brightly, and the unrest in its blood essence was becoming even more violent, causing it to crash through its veins like a wild bull.
This scorching sensation that came from within his body was even more painful than having his skin peeled and his bones plucked out.
Han Li could sense that the blood essence in his body was only continuing to grow more violent, and it would break out of his body as soon as it reached a certain threshold.
Once that happened, he would end up just like those dead marine demon beasts floating on the surface of the sea.