Chapter 251: Stalling for Time
While Han Li's trio was clinging on desperately for dear life, the balls of lightning in the sky seemed to have finally been exhausted.
They were initially elated to see this, but the three of them exchanged a glance, and each of them could see their own bewilderment mirrored in one another's eyes.
This was because as soon as these balls of azure lightning had appeared, the azure-armored giant had vanished into the thin air, but the fact that this azure domain still remained indicated that they were clearly not out of the woods yet.
Sure enough, before the three of them even had a chance to catch their breath, a series of azure vortexes of light suddenly appeared out of thin air.
Countless azure tree branches then flew out of the vortexes before crashing down from above.
They appeared to have been branches, but each of them was over 100 feet in length and comparable in size to entire trees, and they were raining down upon Han Li's trio with ferocious might.
Fortunately, during that brief period of respite, Han Li's trio had banded together in a triangular formation, with each person defending one side.
The cloud above Han Li's head had already been whittled down significantly, and it began to tremble violently in the face of the falling branches. The cloud was whittled down even further, but it was able to keep close to a third of the azure branches at bay.
Meanwhile, the sword array that was swirling around Qilin 9 was releasing streaks of sharp azure sword qi that shredded the oncoming branches.
Out of the trio, Qilin 17 was the one who was struggling the most. Having already sustained severe injuries and expended a great deal of immortal spiritual power, cracks were already beginning to appear in the barrier of yellow sand that he had summoned.
Just like with the balls of lightning, there seemed to be no end to the torrent of azure branches, and Han Li's trio was certainly not having a good time in the face of such a ferocious barrage, but thankfully, the triangular formation that they had adopted allowed them to hold their own for now.
"We can't keep this up forever. If I had known this was going to happen, I would've never taken on this mission. How am I even going to get out of this alive now that I've made an enemy out of the Immortal Palace?" Qilin 17 complained with a sullen expression.
There was a dark look on Qilin 9's face as well as he said, "It looks like we fell into a trap. The person who released this mission is most likely intentionally trying to stir up conflict between the Transient Guild and the Immortal Palace for whatever purpose."
"Let's try and figure out how we're going to get out of this alive before we think about those things, fellow daoists. I have a bad feeling about this situation," Han Li suddenly said.
Sure enough, Han Li's concerns were very much warranted.
As it turned out, all of the branches destroyed by Han Li's trio had disintegrated into specks of azure light that had burrowed into the earth down below, following which seedlings began to emerge from the soil. As more and more specks of azure light descended from above, the seedlings began to grow rapidly at a rate that was discernible even to the naked eye.
In a span of no more than a few seconds, the seedlings had grown into huge trees that were several hundred feet tall, and they were only continuing to grow even taller.
In the blink of an eye, Han Li's trio found themselves situated in a lush forest that was giving off an extremely potent wood-attribute aura.
"At this rate, we're going to be trapped here until we die! Fellow Daoist Qilin 9, you possess the most advanced cultivation base out of the three of us, do you have any way to get us out of here?" Qilin 17 asked with an uneasy expression.
"We may only be facing a Golden Immortal avatar, but its abilities are extremely formidable. Even I can only just barely hold on, and escaping would be near impossible. At this point, perhaps the only way to secure a slim chance at survival for ourselves would be to go against conventional wisdom," Qilin 9 replied.
"Go against conventional wisdom?" Qilin 17's eyes immediately lit up upon hearing this.
Han Li's expression remained unchanged, but he was also rather intrigued.
Just as Qilin 9 alluded to, the three of them had their powers severely restricted inside the azure domain, and it was next to impossible for them to escape in the face of this endless barrage of attacks.
Even if Han Li were to reveal his Mantra Treasured Axis and Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords, he still wouldn't have been confident in his ability to escape, and revealing those two treasures would have far-reaching consequences, so he absolutely didn't want to use them unless his life was under threat.
Even though Qilin 9 was in the same situation, he was a late-True Immortal cultivator, and even now, he was still looking quite calm and composed, so he clearly still had some trump cards up his sleeve.
As these thoughts were running through Han Li's mind, Qilin 9 opened his mouth to release three objects of different colors, and they swelled rapidly to become a set of three giant flags. The flags were extremely antiquated in appearance with eight strange runes embroidered upon them, and aside from their colors, which were golden, silver, and black, the flags were identical to one another, so they clearly worked as a set.
A hint of surprise flashed through Han Li's eyes at the sight of the eight runes as they were very similar to the ones on the stone cauldron that he had obtained from the monkeys at the foot of the Crimson Dawn Peak, and he couldn't help but wonder if the two were connected in some way.
He had studied the stone cauldron on many occasions during these past years without making any useful discoveries, and he certainly wasn't expecting to find any leads on the matter here.
His expression remained unchanged, but his mind was racing.
"These flags are known as Triple Origin Great Millet Flags, and they can only be activated by three people at once. They're an extremely formidable defensive treasure, but the immortal spiritual power expenditure required to use them is far too immense for me to support on my own. My proposal of going against conventional wisdom involves using this treasure to focus solely on defending ourselves rather than trying to escape," Qilin 9 explained.
"If these flags are so taxing to use, then wouldn't we be completely trapped once we inevitably run out of immortal spiritual power?" Qilin 17 asked, sounding rather disappointed.
"According to my knowledge, there's generally a time limit on all avatars formed by talismans, so I'm presuming that what Fellow Daoist Qilin 9 is suggesting is that we defend ourselves until time runs out for the avatar, is that right?" Han Li asked.
"That is indeed what I'm suggesting, Fellow Daoist Wyrm 15," Qilin 9 replied with a nod.
"It seems like this set of Triple Origin Great Millet Flags are rather different from normal treasures. In particular, may I ask what's so special about the eight runes on them? We're in a dire situation right now, so please pardon me for being extra cautious, Fellow Daoist," Han Li said.
"These flags are indeed rather special, and I only came into possession of them by chance, but I've managed to figure out how to use them after over a century of experimentation. Time is of the essence here, so please familiarize yourselves with them as quickly as possible," Qilin 9 urged.
He made a hand seal as he spoke to expand his sword array slightly to keep close to half of the azure branches at bay, and at the same time, he raised his other hand to send two jade slips flying toward Han Li and Qilin 17.
Han Li caught the jade slip, and he speculated that Qilin 9 most likely knew more about those eight runes that he was letting on, but he wasn't willing to divulge this information.
He injected his spiritual sense into the jade slip in his hand to find that it contained a mantra for treasure refinement, and it was a rather special one that was very different from all of the other refinement methods that he knew.
Han Li quickly read through the contents of the jade slip while thinking back to the discoveries that he had made from studying that stone cauldron over the years, and as he did so, a sense of elation welled up in his heart.
If he weren't mistaken, then this refinement method should've been effective on that stone cauldron as well.
Shortly thereafter, the barrage of azure branches falling from the heavens abruptly ceased without any warning. At this point, all of the trees around them had already grown to around 2,000 to 3,000 feet tall, and their canopies had virtually obscured the entire sky.
"We don't have any time left! Please hurry!"
Qilin 9's brows were slightly furrowed as he immediately thrust the silver and black flags upon Han Li and Qilin 17.
Immediately thereafter, he raised a hand to release several incantation seals in succession, all of which vanished into the golden flag before him in a flash, following which specks of golden light appeared on its surface.
Han Li took a deep breath before casting a series of incantation seals himself into his silver flag.
The flag slowly rose up into the air as specks of silver light appeared on its surface, giving it a resplendent yet mysterious appearance.
Qilin 17 also closed his eyes as he made a series of hand seals, and the specks of black light appeared on his flag as it rose up into the air as well.
Right at this moment, a burst of spatial fluctuations erupted overhead, and the Gold Immortal avatar appeared, having already reverted back to the size of a normal adult human.
"I didn't think that a trio of lowly immortals like yourselves would be able to last this long, but it's time to put this to an end!"
The Golden Immortal avatar raised a hand as it spoke, and a ball of azure spiritual light with countless azure runes flashing within it instantly appeared, then vanished into one of the giant trees down below in a flash.
The tree was immediately uprooted as it rose up from the ground, and it began to radiate dazzling green light as it rapidly transformed, sprouting four thick limbs and an ugly head.
In the blink of an eye, the tree had transformed into a giant that was several thousand feet tall.
As soon as the giant took shape, it immediately raised an enormous fist and lashed out at Qilin 9's golden sword array.
A resounding boom rang out, and the entire azure space shuddered, as did the golden sword array, but it was able to remain intact.
As more streaks of azure spiritual light flew out of the Golden Immortal avatar's hand, around half of the trees down below instantly transformed into formidable giants, but the azure light radiating from the avatar's body also dimmed slightly as a result.
All of the tree giants swung their massive fists through the air, unleashing countless massive azure fist projections that hurtled toward Han Li's trio from all directions.
After withstanding several ferocious barrages of attacks, the black cloud and the screen of yellow sand had dimmed significantly and were appearing rather scattered, but they were still just barely clinging on.
The Golden Immortal avatar was beginning to run out of patience, and it opened its mouth to release a burst of azure light, which instantly enveloped all of the remaining trees down below.
All of those trees immediately began to glow with azure light as they rose up from the ground, but instead of instantly transforming into individual giants, they fused together to form a giant that was around 20,000 to 30,000 feet tall.
Green light was surging up and down its body incessantly, and as it raised an arm, all of the other tree giants around it exploded into balls of azure light that swept toward it before forming an azure wooden saber that was around the same length as the tree giant was tall.
There were countless green runes that were shimmering with a cold light engraved onto the blade of the saber.
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