Chapter 248: Final Blow
Han Li heaved a slight sigh of relief upon seeing this, then turned to Qilin 9 as he asked, "Fellow Daoist Qilin 9, how much longer do you think he'll be able to last?"
"His blood essence has already been incinerated from his organs to his flesh, and from his bones to his skin, so he should be a completely spent force soon. All we need to do is wait another 15 minutes," Qilin 9 replied.
Right at this moment, Qilin 17, who had been laying still on the ground this entire time, suddenly spasmed a few times before getting up into a seated position, seemingly with great difficulty.
The bright red flesh around the hole in his chest was slowly squirming as it fused back together, and only after the hole was completely sealed did he heave a long sigh of relief with a look of lingering fear in his eyes.
"That was way too close! I almost died here..."
Han Li and Qilin 9 exchanged a glance, and both of them could see their own derision mirrored in one another's eyes, but neither of them bothered to say anything. After all, the mission was going to be over soon, so they wouldn't have to put up with Qilin 17 for much longer.
Qilin 17 naturally noticed this brief interaction, and he had no intention of immediately joining Han Li and Qilin 9. Instead, he flew over to the rubble that was once the stone hall, then began to search through the wreckage.
With a sweep of his sleeve, a section of loose rocks was swept aside to reveal the pill cauldron down below, and he crouched down to pick it up.
"Don't you dare!"
The white-haired elderly man who was trapped in the array seemed to have spotted Qilin 17, and he threw his head back before letting loose a thunderous roar.
The octagonal array on the ground that had been snuffed out earlier abruptly lit up once again, and scorching flames erupted forth to form eight fiery dragons that flew directly toward the white-haired elderly man.
Han Li's trio was greatly alarmed by this sudden turn of events, and they hurriedly tried to intercept the fiery dragons, but it was already too late.
The eight fiery dragons surged straight into the elderly man's abdomen before vanishing into his body.
The crimson coloration of his body instantly became even more pronounced, and it was as if there were molten lava flowing within the cracks on his body, giving him an extremely terrifying appearance.
Most importantly, his aura had swelled drastically once again, and he had broken through to the Golden Immortal Stage.
He reached out with both hands to grab onto the golden chains around him, then tugged on them forcefully, and all of the surrounding Dragon Locking Staves were instantly uprooted before being swung at Han Li and Qilin 9.
The two of them naturally didn't dare to fight fire with fire, and they hurriedly flew back in retreat.
In just a single stride, the white-haired elderly man was able to reach Qilin 17 before throwing a punch directly at his head.
The speed displayed in that single stride had been downright ridiculous, and it was as if the space between him and Qilin 17 had been compressed. There was no time for Qilin 17 to take evasive measures, so he could only raise both hands to summon a glowing yellow flag to protect himself, while a white light barrier also surfaced over his body.
The yellow flag was clearly no ordinary treasure, and there was an image of the almighty beast Baxia with a stone monument on its back emblazoned upon it. The Baxia was so life-like that it was as if it could spring out of the flag at any moment, and it was giving off an extremely powerful earth-attribute aura.
As soon as the flag was unfurled, it was struck by the white-haired elderly man's fist, and all of the surrounding space in a radius of over 100 feet collapsed violently.
However, despite the fact that the flag appeared to have next to no structural integrity, it merely rippled incessantly in the face of the white-haired elderly man's fist, but wasn't instantly torn apart.
However, it was only able to last a brief moment before the Baxia image emblazoned upon it crumbled away, immediately following which the entire flag was torn to shreds.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Qilin 17 rolled to the side to take evasive measures, but he was still struck by the residual shockwaves from the blow, and the white light barrier around his body was instantly shattered, while he was sent flying through the air with blood gushing out of his mouth.
The white-haired elderly man didn't skip a beat as he caught up to Qilin 17 in an instant before throwing another punch at his head.
All of this had taken place so fast that even if Han Li and Qilin 9 wanted to save him, they simply wouldn't have been in time to do so.
Qilin 17 was cursing his own impatience, thinking to himself that he should've played dead for a while longer instead of being in such a hurry to secure the pill cauldron.
In a state of panic, he swiveled around and grabbed onto the ears of the golden pill cauldron, then raised it up high in front of him as a shield.
The white-haired elderly man's fist came hurtling through the air, yet right as it was about to strike the pill cauldron, a hint of reluctance appeared in his golden eyes, and he stopped his own fist dead in its tracks.
Qilin 17's eyes were tightly shut, and his entire body was drenched in cold sweat. He thought that his fate was sealed, but to his surprise, the final blow didn't come.
He carefully opened his eyes to find that the white-haired elderly man's entire body was completely wrecked, and he was standing in a completely motionless manner with his fist still outstretched in front of him.
There were still some specks of crimson light glowing within the cracks on his body, resembling the dying embers of a flame, but it was clear that his body was already completely devoid of life.
Han Li strode over to the elderly man's remains, and a myriad of emotions welled up in his heart.
It was unclear whether the elderly man had failed to deliver the final blow as he had exhausted all of his blood essence and nascent soul, or because he was unwilling to smash his prized pill cauldron.
Right as Han Li's trio heaved a collective sigh of relief, a glimmer of barely detectable golden light suddenly appeared in the white-haired elderly man's lifeless eyes, as if there were still a final hint of vitality in his body.
A sense of foreboding immediately welled up in Han Li's heart upon seeing this, but before he could do anything, an azure talisman suddenly flew out of the white-haired elderly man's sleeve.
With the emergence of that talisman, the final glimmer of golden light in his eyes completely faded, while the talisman flew through the air as a streak of azure light, instantly covering a distance of several thousand feet, immediately following which it began to release a flurry fo countless tiny golden runes in a frenzy.
It was a talisman that had been entirely inscribed using golden seal text, and in the next instant, all of the runes began to release countless rays of dazzling azure light.
All of the azure light converged in mid-air to form a sea of azure light that was blindingly bright, and a rumbling thunderclap rang out in the air, following which the sky above the valley was instantly concealed behind a dense blanket of dark clouds.
It was as if the entire world had been plunged into darkness with the exception of this sea of azure light.
All of the world's origin qi within a radius of thousand of kilometers converged toward the valley from all directions before fusing into the sea of azure light, causing it to churn violently like a turbulent wave.
Faint threads of azure light emerged from the center of the sea of light, then intertwined to form an azure figure clad in a suit of armor with a solemn look on his face.
All of this had taken place in the blink of an eye, and as soon as the azure figure appeared, he immediately took a glance at the remains of the white-haired elderly man down below before lashing out with an enraged expression.
A burst of azure light emerged from the palm of his hand, then split up into three thin azure threads that hurtled toward Han Li's trio at an incredible speed.
The space in the wake of the azure threads instantly became twisted and warped, and countless specks of azure light converged from all directions from all of the vegetation within the entire valley. With the emergence of these specks of azure light, all of the surrounding plants instantly wilted away.
The countless specks of azure light gathered around the three azure threads, which instantly transformed into three balls of azure light, each of which was around a foot in size. Countless azure runes were dancing on the surfaces of these balls of light, and they were giving off incredibly destructive law fluctuations.
All of the space in the wake of the balls of azure light trembled and warped violently, and numerous white spatial rifts appeared, releasing astonishing suction force that threatened to collapse the entire space.
Han Li immediately shot back in retreat, only for the ball of azure light to accelerate even further and catch up to him in a flash before crashing down with tremendous force.
Han Li was quite alarmed, but remained composed, and he conjured up his True Extreme Membrane while raising both hands to summon his Heavy Water True Axis, which instantly swelled to several dozen times its original size, forming a massive shield before him.
The azure ball of light crashed into the Heavy Water True Axis with an earth-shattering boom, and Han Li felt his entire body being jolted by a burst of devastating, sending both him and the Heavy Water True Axis flying back for over 10,000 feet before he just barely managed to steady himself.
Having been fed so much heavy water by Han Li over the years, the Heavy Water True Axis had become as heavy as several mountains combined, and it had also been imbued with a great deal of water law powers, making it no lesser in power than a decent Acquired Immortal Treasure.
The ball of azure light had sent Han Li flying, but it had also disintegrated into countless specks of azure light itself.
Even so, Han Li was still stunned by the power of the ball of azure light, which far exceeded that of the attacks unleashed by the late-True Immortal cultivators that he had come across in the past.
He turned his gaze to the Heavy Water True Axis in front of him, and much to his dismay, he discovered that a faint mark had appeared on its surface, indicating that spiritual nature seemed to have been harmed.
Han Li hurriedly injected his immortal spiritual power into the Heavy Water True Axis, and the Water Dao Rune on its surface flashed momentarily as the mark on the axis quickly vanished.
Only then did he allow himself to heave a sigh of relief.
Meanwhile, Qilin 9 and Qilin 17 had also been sent flying, but they possessed superior cultivation bases to Han Li, and thanks to their treasures, they were also able to withstand the blows from the balls of azure light without much trouble.
Qilin 17 had summoned a turtle-shell-shaped shield with an extremely life-like demon beast that had the head of a dragon and the body of a turtle engraved onto its surface. The shield was flashing with spiritual light, and it appeared to have been quite a remarkable treasure.
However, a clear mark had been inflicted onto the shield, much to Qilin 17's anguish and chagrin.
As for Qilin 9, the golden flying sword in his hand had already disappeared, and instead, there was a golden millstone hovering in front of him. The millstone's surface was riddled with countless tiny golden runes, and had an extremely heavy and sturdy appearance.
A hint of surprise appeared on his face as he caught sight of Han Li's Heavy Water True Axis, but he then immediately composed himself and withdrew his gaze as if he hadn't noticed anything.
The change in Qilin 9's expression had only lasted an instant, but it hadn't managed to escape Han Li's notice.
Judging from Qilin 9's reaction, Han Li couldn't help but wonder if he had seen this Heavy Water True Axis before.
With that in mind, Han Li unconsciously became even more wary of Qilin 9.
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