Chapter 107: Escape
Almost as soon as the nascent soul was devoured by the bowl, a purple-robed elderly man suddenly flew out of the crimson bowl, then immediately pointed a finger at the bowl from afar.
All of the runes on the surface of the bowl instantly began to glow with dazzling black radiance while intertwining to form countless tiny patterns. Immediately thereafter, a thick beam of black light shot out of the bowl, hurtling directly toward Wyrm 16 down below.
The beam of light was traveling incredibly quickly, and having been preoccupied with the blood ghosts, it was too late for Han Li and Wyrm 9 to step in.
Wyrm 16 was at a crucial juncture in the ability that he was preparing, so he was also unable to take evasive measures.
In this dire situation, he had no choice but to adjust the angle of the spike before him so that it was pointed up at the oncoming beam of black light instead of its original target.
The spike had already turned a bright crimson color, and a burst of light had only just appeared on its tip. However, before the burst of light was able to erupt out of the tip, it was struck by the beam of black light, which exploded violently on contact.
It was as if a scintillating crimson sun had suddenly risen in front of Wyrm 16, sending bright crimson light and incredibly powerful shockwaves sweeping in all directions, forcing all of the surrounding blood mist to recede by several thousand feet.
Countless blood ghosts were sent flying by the powerful shockwaves, while Han Li and Wyrm 9 forced their way through the shockwaves as they rushed toward Wyrm 16.
However, before they were able to reach him, the crimson light faded to present a disturbing sight.
Wyrm 16 had slumped to the ground with his eyes tightly shut, seemingly having fallen unconscious. Several metal-skewer-like pillars of black light had pierced through his limbs and his torso, pinning him firmly to the ground while releasing bursts of faint law fluctuations.
Immediately thereafter, a string of rumbling thunderclaps rang out from high up in the sky, and Han Li and Wyrm 9 immediately stopped cold in their tracks before shooting back in retreat.
In the next instant, a series of millstone-sized balls of crimson lightningfire came crashing down from the heavens before exploding violently, completely inundating the spot where they had been standing just a moment ago in blinding lightning.
After steadying themselves, both Han Li and Wyrm 9 looked up in unison to find that the purple-robed elderly man was holding the dark purple bowl in his hand, while his face was concealed behind a layer of red light, and lightning was flashing wildly in the crimson clouds around him.
"I knew that those bastards would've definitely had more allies to come, but I didn't think that three True Immortals would arrive here at once. What an honor this is for me. If you don't want to completely lose your sanity, then surrender yourselves for capture right away!" the elderly man chuckled in a cold voice.
"If you don't want to die, then let us out right now!" Wyrm 9 countered in an unyielding voice.
"To think that you'd still be acting so cocky even when your deaths are imminent! Let me give you two a lesson in respect at the cost of your lives!" the purple-robed elderly man cackled.
As soon as his voice trailed off, the bowl in his hand flew out of his grasp before circling around in the air, and a string of rumbling thunderclaps instantly rang out within the surrounding crimson clouds. Immediately thereafter, hundreds of balls of crimson lightningfire came crashing down from the heavens like a meteor shower.
A string of deafening booms rang out one after another, causing the entire space to tremble and quake violently.
With each ball of lightningfire that crashed down onto the ground, a massive crater would be left in its wake, and huge bursts of crimson fire and lightning would erupt in all directions.
Before long, the entire area within a radius of several kilometers had been completely filled by countless bursts of crimson flames, which resembled a garden of crimson lotus flowers in full bloom, radiating astonishingly scorching temperatures.
It was unclear whether this was intentional or not, but none of the balls of lightningfire had fallen upon Wyrm 16. Instead, he was only splattered with traces of crimson flames, and the burning pain instantly roused him from his unconscious state, causing him to howl with agony.
Blue light continued to flash within Han Li's eyes as he constantly sprang from one spot to another, traversing through the blood ghosts and the storm of lightningfire, but he was still unable to avoid being struck by the haphazardly flying bursts of crimson flames.
Even with his current physical body, the flames were still causing him slight burning pain, and what was even more disturbing was that the flames also seemed to be capable of setting his blood alight, causing a sense of violent mania to well up in his heart.
However, a burst of cool and refreshing energy instantly rose up from his dantian at his behest, then circulated throughout his head to eradicate the sense of manic violence in the blink of an eye.
Not far away from Han Li, Wyrm 9 had summoned a blue gourd treasure, and bursts of watery blue light were gushing out from within to form a rippling blue light barrier around him. The barrier allowed him to ward off the crimson flames, but he was struggling to deal with the simultaneous assault from both the falling balls of lightningfire and the converging blood ghosts.
It had only taken a few seconds for the nearby space to be virtually completely inundated by crimson flames, leaving the two of them with less and less space to maneuver and evade.
During this time, more and more blood ghosts continued to rush out of the rifts on the ground, and not only did they not seem to be negatively affected by the crimson flames at all, their speed and power seemed to have been enhanced in this environment as they charged toward Han Li and Wyrm 16 with no regard for their own safety.
Wyrm 9 had only just barely dodged several balls of lightningfire when he was instantly surrounded by a horde of blood ghosts.
A grim look flashed through his eyes as he bit through the tip of his own tongue, then opened his mouth to release a burst of blood essence that vanished into the blue gourd in his hand in a flash.
The gourd instantly began to glow with dazzling blue radiance, and countless blue runes emerged on its surface while the sound of a rushing river rang out from within.
Immediately thereafter, a torrent of blue water came gushing out of the gourd's opening, then transformed into a series of blue-armored water warriors that charged toward the surrounding blood ghosts with their ice spears held aloft.
After doing all of that, he turned to Han Li before communicating a message to him through voice transmission.
"We can't let things continue like this, Wyrm 15! I'll find a way to keep that man occupied, you go and save Wyrm 16 and assist him in breaking open this space!"
As soon as his voice trailed off, a hint of red light appeared in his eyes, and he shot up directly toward the purple-robed elderly man as a streak of light.
However, Han Li offered no response to this, and he didn't even seem to have heard Wyrm 9 at all.
First, he threw several punches to send the blood ghosts around him flying back through the air, then dodged a few balls of lightningfire before suddenly changing directions and flying away in a certain direction at an incredible speed.
Wyrm 9 had only just reached the purple-robed elderly man when he saw this out of the corners of his eyes, and he immediately flew into a thunderous rage.
"Wyrm 15, where the hell are you going?"
Before he had a chance to do anything else, a beam of black light shot out of the bowl in the purple-robed elderly man's head, then came hurtling directly toward his head.
He hurriedly injected more power out of his blue gourd, which released several bursts of blue light that began swirling in front of him to form a massive blue vortex.
A dull thump rang out as the beam of black light fell directly upon the center of the vortex, resulting in an explosion of black light, while the blue vortex was also rapidly shrinking amid a burst of loud rumbling.
Right at this moment, several more beams of black light came shooting out of the bowl in the purple-robed elderly man's hand, and Wyrm 9 was forced to focus solely on defending himself as he forced the blue gourd to release more bursts of blue light. As a result, he was unable to go after Han Li.
At this point, the red light in his eyes was gradually growing brighter and brighter, while the piece of white jade hanging in front of his chest had turned rather dim and wasn't as glittering and translucent as before.
"Ha! Your companion has already abandoned you! But rest assured, there's no way he'll be able to break out of this space!" the purple-robed elderly man cackled without even taking a glance at Han Li.
Meanwhile, Han Li was already several thousand feet away, and he suddenly raised a fist before throwing an almighty punch through the air.
A resounding boom rang out, and the entire crimson space shuddered violently as a line of bright light appeared in front of Han Li's fist, then rapidly extended into a white rift that stretched for thousands of kilometers.
The sound of a shattering mirror then rang out as the entire crimson space crumbled away from the white rift, then disintegrated into countless fragments.
All of a sudden, everyone had returned to the sky above the secluded courtyard in Heavenly Water City. There were eight blue-robed cultivators laying on the alley outside the courtyard, and there were several array plates strewn on the ground next to them.
They were naturally the ones who had summoned and were controlling the crimson space, and what was quite surprising was that all of them were Body Integration cultivators. They seemed to have suffered some type of backlash from the destruction of the crimson space, and not only had they fallen unconscious, there was blood flowing out of all of their orifices, making them appear as if they were on the verge of death.
Inside the courtyard, Wyrm 16's entire body was charred black, and he was leaning against the withered old tree in a completely still manner.
The black skewers of light impaling his body had already disappeared, and his aura was rather unstable, but it seemed that he wasn't in any life-threatening danger.
All of a sudden, a burst of dazzling light erupted in the sky above the courtyard, and two figures emerged before shooting back in different directions.
One of those figures was Wyrm 9, and the red light in his eyes was gradually fading. As a result, clarity was restored in his mind, and an elated look appeared on his face.
In contrast, the purple-robed elderly man on the other side wore an extremely dark expression, and he turned to Han Li with intense resentment in his eyes.
Han Li appeared to be the weakest of the trio, so never did he think that Han Li would be able to identify the most fragile point in the array and destroy the entire array in a single strike.
The crimson space was far more stable than the average array, and even if an ordinary immortal could identify the fragile points within it, there was still no guarantee that they would be able to break the array open.
However, this wasn't the time to be pondering such matters. The purple-robed elderly man quickly thrust a palm against the bottom of the bowl in his hand, and waves of strange ripples that were visible to the naked eye rapidly spread through the area.
A string of dull thumps rang out from within the alley as the heads of all of the unconscious Body Integration cultivators exploded one after another.
Immediately thereafter, their nascent souls were drawn in by bursts of strange ripples, flying into the bowl as streaks of crimson light before being pulverized in the blink of an eye.
The only exception came in the form of one of the Body Integration cultivators, around whom a layer of white light had appeared. It seemed that he was carrying some type of treasure that was able to ward off the effects of those strange ripples, thereby preventing his head from exploding. The purple-robed elderly man faltered slightly upon seeing this, but he had no time to dwell on such trivial matters as he quickly lashed out.
The black runes on the surface of the bowl began to glow brightly once again, and two even thicker beams of light erupted out from within, hurtling directly toward Han Li and Wyrm 9.
The spiritual patterns on the surface of the blue gourd in Wyrm 9's hand flashed for an instant, and a thick pillar of water erupted out of the gourd's opening.
A resounding boom rang out as the black light and blue water exploded violently, sending water splashing down in all directions.
Wyrm 9 was sent flying back several hundred feet by the resulting shockwaves before finally managing to steady himself, while Han Li was also forced to take evasive measures against the beam of black light directed at him.
By the time both of them had steadied themselves, the purple-robed elderly man was already nowhere to be seen.
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