Chapter 939: One Obstacle After Another
"I didn't think that I would encounter an illusion here," Han Li remarked with a calm smile.
"Don't underestimate this illusion, Brother Li. I just tried to use a spiritual sense secret technique to break it, but to no avail. If you have a way to break this illusory array, then I suggest you do it before the illusion takes a more dangerous turn," Shi Chuankong said with a wry smile.
Han Li nodded in response as he channeled his Spirit Refinement Technique.
As he turned to inspect his surroundings once again, he discovered that all of the beautiful dancing women had taken on an extremely harrowing appearance, with rotting flesh clinging to withered bones.
Han Li couldn't help but grimace slightly at this jarring sight.
"Are you also unable to break the illusion, Brother Li?" Shi Chuankong asked.
"This is quite an interesting illusory array, but it shouldn't be too difficult to break it," Han Li replied with a confident smile.
Right as his voice trailed off, the hideous, decomposing women seemed to have discovered that Han Li was attempting to break the array, and they threw down their musical instruments before pouncing at him with their fingers extended into sinister claws.
Han Li channeled his Spirit Refinement Technique with all his might as he let loose a loud roar, and it was as if a thunderclap had rung out within the palace.
Even Shi Chuankong shuddered involuntarily, and the bodies of all of the decomposing women instantly exploded before dissipating into specks of dark red flames.
However, even after all of the decomposing women had been eradicated, the two of them remained in the illusion of the opulent palace.
"It looks like we'll only be able to make it out of this array by breaking its core. Hold on tight, Brother Shi," Han Li said as he grabbed onto Shi Chuankong's shoulder before stomping a foot heavily down onto the ground.
The ground in the entire palace collapsed to form a bottomless pit, which Han Li and Shi Chuankong plummeted into.
Only after close to twenty seconds did the sensation of falling fade away, and as they inspected their surroundings once again, they discovered that they had returned to the same palace from before.
At this moment, the two of them were standing at the center of the dried pond, and the stone arch bridge had already been shattered by the force of Han Li's stomp.
"Looks like this bridge was the core of that illusory array," Shi Chuankong remarked.
Han Li nodded in response, and he was just about to say something when he suddenly turned and cast his gaze toward the rear of the palace.
A string of faint cracks rang out from the statues of the halberd-wielding guards that were half-knelt on the stone platform, and a series of cracks began to spread over their bodies.
Immediately thereafter, a glimmer of red light appeared in their eyes, and all of them seemed to have sprung to life as they turned to Han Li and Shi Chuankong in unison.
"Here we go again," Han Li sighed with a shake of his head.
Han Li immediately ducked down upon hearing this, but before he had a chance to move away, he was dealt a tremendous blow to the shoulder, and he crashed heavily down onto hte ground with a resounding boom.
The entire pond was instantly shattered, while he plunged into the ground like a steel nail.
Instead of taking any time to see what it was that he had just been attacked by, Han Li burrowed deeper into the ground, quickly vanishing out of sight.
Immediately thereafter, the ground elsewhere in the palace suddenly began to bulge before splitting open, and Han Li re-emerged.
His brows were tightly furrowed as he cast his gaze toward the stone platform in the palace, only to find that the statue of the staff-wielding devilish man was nowhere to be seen.
All of a sudden, Han Li sprang forward with all his might, and in the next instant, a purple staff came crashing down into the ground, only just barely glancing past his back.
The ground exploded violently as sparks and shattered stone shards erupted in all directions, and Han Li swung around to discover the statue of the devilish man hovering in mid-air with its staff in its hand.
There was a pair of black wings on its back that were flapping steadily, and it seemed to possess some degree of intelligence as a frustrated look had appeared on its face after its attack failed to land.
With a violent flap of its wings, a fierce whirlwind was swept up around it, and it flew directly at Han Li at an extraordinary speed.
On this occasion, Han Li raised his scimitar and swung it at the puppet's face instead of taking any evasive measures.
A humanized gleeful gleam flashed through the puppet's eyes upon seeing this, and it grabbed onto its staff with both hands, upon which a layer of faint white light emerged over its surface, indicating that it was a star artifact.
It swung its staff through the air to clash against Han Li's white scimitar, and Han Li felt a burst of tremendous force shoot through his arm upon impact, forcing him to raise his other arm so that he could support the scimitar with both hands.
At the same time, his legs had already sunk around half a foot into the ground, and he couldn't help but be astonished by the puppet's incredible combination of speed and power.
Before he had a chance to retaliate, a series of star acupoints lit up over the purple staff, immediately following which a thick arc of white lightning shot out from within before striking Han Li on the glabella.
Han Li felt a burning sensation on his forehead, and his consciousness also shuddered violently. As a result, the strength in his arms seeped away, and the purple staff was able to overwhelm his scimitar before striking him on the shoulder.
Han Li's legs buckled beneath him as his body began to fall back, and a cold look appeared on the puppet's face upon seeing this as it prepared to swing its staff down onto Han Li's head.
In the instant that Han Li was struck by the arc of white lightning, he had already channeled his Spirit Refinement Technique, so he was able to quickly regain lucidity.
In this dire situation, he hurriedly pulled out a small white shield from the front of his robe before injecting his starpower into it with all his might.
Radiant white starlight surged into the shield, and it conjured up a white light barrier that was just barely large enough to encompass his entire body.