Chapter 106: Crimson Space
Han Li took a glance at the middle-aged man to find that his face had clearly also been manifested from one of the Transient Guild's masks.
The faces conjured up by the masks looked no different from normal faces, but the wearers of the masks could sense a faint connection between the masks, and that connection was what the members of the Transient Guild used to communicate with one another.
Wyrm 9 and Wyrm 16 had clearly also noticed this, and they stepped into the courtyard of the estate one after another.
Han Li hesitated momentarily before also following suit.
Once everyone had entered the courtyard, the middle-aged man took a quick glance outside before closing the doors again.
The courtyard was over 1,000 feet in size, and aside from a withered old tree, there was only a set of stone tables and stone stools inside, positioned at the foot of the tree.
The tree was growing on a patch of soil, but aside from that, the rest of the courtyard was paved with brand-new tiles that were spotlessly clean, without even a single fallen leaf on them.
Furthermore inside was a main room that was directly facing the doors of the estate, and on either side of the main room were several booths, all of which currently had their doors slightly ajar.
The middle-aged man led the way forward while turning back to Han Li's trio as he said, "I've heard that the higher-ups are sending more people here, and I've been waiting for quite some time. May I ask who it is that's leading this mission?"
Han Li had been constantly observing the middle-aged man ever since he entered the courtyard, and as soon as this question was raised, a cold light immediately flashed through his eyes as he threw a punch at the man from behind without any warning.
The man was quite alarmed by this abrupt turn of events, but he seemed to have already been prepared, and a burst of red light erupted from his back, forming a shimmering silver shield that appeared in the path of Han Li's fist.
A dull thump rang out, and the silver shield exploded violently, while the middle-aged man was sent flying through the air, crashing heavily onto the stone staircase in front of the main room. He immediately threw up several mouthfuls of blood in succession, and his aura became significantly diminished.
Wyrm 9 and Wyrm 16 had clearly also detected that something was amiss, yet right as they were also about to spring into action, a faint buzzing sound rang out, and the surrounding space suddenly began to warp and twist.
Bursts of red light erupted into the heavens in an area with a radius of several thousand feet around the courtyard, and a massive crimson array projection appeared in the sky with countless crimson runes surging over its surface.
Before Han Li's trio had a chance to react, red light flashed at the center of the array projection, and they appeared in a crimson space along with the middle-aged man.
This space didn't seem like it belonged to the real world, and there appeared to be no end to it in sight in any direction.
Above everyone was a dense layer of crimson yin clouds, while the ground down below was bright red in color, as if it had been soaked by blood. There was even a nauseating, bloody odor wafting through the surrounding air.
Right as Han Li's trio was inspecting their surroundings with bewildered expressions, the entire crimson space suddenly shuddered violently, and hundreds of rifts of different sizes instantly opened up on the ground to release bursts of viscous crimson mist.
A series of indistinct figures then crawled out of the mist amid a chorus of ghostly howls.
Those indistinct figures were humanoid blood ghosts that looked as if they had just been skinned, and they were crawling out in hordes from the rifts on the ground.
As soon as these sinister blood ghosts emerged from the ground, they immediately let loose a string of hoarse cries as they pounced on Han Li's trio.
"Be on your guard, fellow daoists. Not only do we have to pay attention to those blood ghosts, the aura of this place is also not quite right," Wyrm 9 cautioned as he took a glance at the blood ghosts, then looked up at the crimson clouds in the sky.
Han Li had naturally also noticed that the bloody odor wafting throughout this place seemed to contain a strange type of belligerent energy that could enter directly into one's consciousness, invoking a sense of frustration and agitation.
However, given his immense spiritual sense, this level of disruption wasn't worthy of concern.
After issuing those cautionary words to Han Li and Wyrm 16, Wyrm 9 flipped a hand over to produce a piece of white jade with a golden string passing through it. He then placed the string around his own neck to wear the piece of jade like a pendant, and it released a burst of translucent white light that encompassed his entire body.
Immediately thereafter, he swept a palm through the air, and a torrent of blue waves erupted in front of him amid a flash of blue light, instantly sweeping up around a dozen of the blood ghosts that were closest to him, pulverizing them into clouds of blood mist upon contact.
Wyrm 16 also pulled out a purple talisman before pressing it to his own glabella, and the talisman abruptly vanished amid a flash of purple light. Immediately thereafter, he let loose a low roar, and a string of cracks and pops rang out from within his body as his arms and torso began to rapidly expand.
In this new enlarged form, he leaped high up into the air before crashing down onto the army of blood ghosts up ahead like a giant asteroid, instantly pulverizing seven or eight of them.
In order to avoid arousing suspicion, Han Li also pretended to take a pill, then took a step forward before sending the two blood ghosts closest to him flying back with his fists.
While the two blood ghosts were flying back, they crashed into around a dozen more oncoming blood ghosts, all of which exploded into blood mist amid a string of dull thumps.
The three of them quickly discovered that these blood ghosts were quite fearsome in appearance, but they weren't very difficult to deal with at all. In fact, none of them could take even a single hit.
However, the problem was that there seemed to be no end to them, and after one horde was struck down, more would immediately emerge from the rifts on the ground to take their place. No matter how many were killed, there was always more to come, and Han Li's trio was quickly surrounded by hundreds of blood ghosts in a watertight encirclement.
Meanwhile, the eyes of the middle-aged man who had just been injured by Han Li had turned slightly bloodshot, and a horrified look had appeared on his face as he frantically summoned all types of treasures. First, he released a set of array flags that he set up in the surrounding area, then summoned a mirror that hovered above his head while a suit of crimson armor appeared over his body amid a flash of red light.
One protective light barrier after another appeared around him to shield him from all directions, and none of the surrounding blood ghosts were able to get close to him. All they could do was frantically swipe their ghostly claws at the protective light barriers, of which there were around seven or eight.
However, the middle-aged man still didn't seem to feel safe, and he was holding a crimson longsword as his eyes darted around in an anxious and uneasy manner.
It was clear that even though his treasures were capable of keeping the hordes of blood ghosts at bay, they were unable to prevent the bloody odor in the air from contaminating his sanity.
Sure enough, before long, he threw his head back and let loose a guttural roar with completely bloodshot eyes, looking as if he had completely lost his mind as he slashed his sword wildly through the air.
Without his control, the power of the surrounding treasures waned significantly, and the outermost light barrier was quickly torn apart by the blood ghosts.
Han Li was in the midst of fighting off blood ghosts himself when a thought suddenly occurred to him upon seeing this, and he hurriedly communicated a message to Wyrm 9 and Wyrm 16 through voice transmission. "The more of these blood ghosts we kill, the more concentrated the blood in the air will become."
"Indeed. We have to get out of this place as quickly as possible. Otherwise, if this goes on for much longer, we can't guarantee that we won't also lose our minds," Wyrm 9 replied.
"Fellow daoists, I may have a way to break open this space, but I'll need you to protect me while I make some preparations," Wyrm 16 said in an urgent voice after forcing back several of the blood ghosts in front of him.
"Go ahead, Fellow Daoist," Han Li said as he reached out with his hands like lightning, grabbing onto a pair of blood ghosts before hurling them in Wyrm 16's direction, sending them crashing into a horde of blood ghosts to his left.
On the other side, Wyrm 9 sent all of the blood ghosts around him flying, then leaped up into the air before landing on Wyrm 16's right, upon which he made a hand seal and began to chant an incantation.
A burst of low rumbling rang out, and a cloud of blue water vapor emerged in front of Wyrm 9, releasing bursts of rich water-attribute spiritual power.
Immediately thereafter, he thrust his palms forward forcefully, and a draconic roar rang out as a blue water dragon rushed out of the cloud of vapor, flying directly at the horde of blood ghosts approaching from Wyrm 16's left.
Water splashed in all directions as dozens of blood ghosts were knocked over by the water dragon in the blink of an eye, plunging their formation into complete chaos.
At the same time, Han Li had already appeared on Wyrm 16's right, and he was traversing through the army of blood ghosts while lashing out with his fists, sending one blood ghost flying after another. However, while he was doing this, he was also constantly inspecting his surroundings with blue light flashing within his eyes.
With Han Li and Wyrm 9 covering him from the left and the right, Wyrm 16 immediately sat down on the spot with his legs crossed, then summoned a sharp spike in the shape of a narrow triangular pyramid with a wave of his hand. The sharp tip of the spike was pointed directly upward at the heavens.
There were circles of tiny and complex runes engraved all over the surface of the spike, and judging from the spatial fluctuations that it was giving off, it seemed to be an Acquired Immortal Treasure that possessed a hint of power of laws.
Both Han Li and Wyrm 9 were very surprised to see this.
There were very few people in the entire Black Wind Sea who were in possession of immortal treasures, and they certainly weren't expecting a layman immortal like Wyrm 16 to have one at his disposal.
After summoning the spike, Wyrm 16 folded his hands in front of him as he chanted an incantation in an unhurried manner.
Moments later, his chanting drew to a halt, and he reached out to brush his hand over the spike before him, instantly opening up a gash that began to bleed profusely.
After being stained with his blood, the spike instantly began to glow bright with crimson light as if it had been heated extensively in a furnace, and the spatial fluctuations that it was giving off also became stronger and stronger.
Right at this moment, an agonized howl suddenly rang out from a certain point in the crimson space, and Han Li and Wyrm 9 immediately turned toward the direction that the sound had come from.
As it turned out, all of the protective barriers around the middle-aged man had already been torn apart, and he was completely inundated by the hordes of blood ghosts around him.
However, in the next instant, a burst of red light suddenly appeared among the blood ghosts, then rapidly erupted up into the air, revealing itself to be the middle-aged man's nascent soul. The nascent soul was wielding a miniature crimson sword, and it was rising up into the sky with a deranged expression.
However, before it was able to get very far away, a rift suddenly opened up in one of the crimson clouds in the sky, following which a dark purple bowl flew out from within.
The bowl circled around momentarily in the sky, then released a burst of incredibly powerful suction force that instantly drew in the deranged nascent soul.
As soon as the nascent soul entered the bowl, a burst of strange force instantly converged upon it, destroying it in the blink of an eye, reducing it into a burst of red light that vanished into the bowl in a flash.
A series of glowing black runes then appeared on the surface of the bowl, and they appeared to have been engraved onto the bowl's surface.
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