Chapter 54: Devouring the Devilish Flame
This black flame was rather peculiar. With the scorching heat that it released, it was as if the entire valley had been plunged into a furnace, but at the same time, inky-black devilish qi was gradually permeating throughout the area, giving off a terrifying aura.
Situated within the sea of black fire, Han Li and Liu Le'er were subjected to incredibly high temperatures, so much so that the air around them was becoming warped and indistinct.
Liu Le'er had already turned as pale as a sheet as she watched the oncoming sea of devilish flames with a horrified expression.
However, she then immediately discovered that the silver net of fire around her seemed to be releasing some type of immense suction force that was drawing in all of the surrounding devilish fire and the unbearable heat, creating a cool and refreshing area with a radius of several dozen feet. As a result, Liu Le'er was instantly feeling a lot more reassured.
Even though Han Li didn't have the silver flame to protect himself, he appeared to be extremely calm and collected as he stood within the churning sea of devilish fire.
Right as the devilish flames around him were about to sweep over his body, he suddenly opened his mouth before inhaling sharply.
All of the black devilish flames around him instantly surged into his mouth in a frenzy, and in the span of no more than two or three seconds, most of the fire in the valley had been devoured by Han Li.
The four Body Integration cultivators around the valley were so astonished to see this that their eyes almost bulged out of their sockets, and they hurriedly stopped what they were doing.
As a result, the black fire lotus flower diagrams on the cliff faces quickly reverted back to their original form, but compared with before, the patterns had clearly dimmed slightly.
Meanwhile, Han Li was displaying no signs of stopping, and only after he had devoured all of the black fire in the valley did he close his mouth before letting loose a loud burp, seemingly still not quite satisfied with the meal.
"How can any possibly be able to devour the Ninth Heaven Devilish Flame?"
"What kind of monster is this man?"
"We can't afford to hold back any longer, Fellow Daoists. We have to kill him now while he's still trapped in this Earthly Ghost Soul Suppression Array. Otherwise, once he comes out, the consequences will be catastrophic!" the purple-bearded man yelled in an urgent voice.
He raised a hand as he spoke to summon an antiquated purple copper lantern that was no more than half a foot tall, then chanted a complex incantation as he gently rubbed his hands together.
A faint purple flame was ignited within the lantern, and at the same time, countless tiny purple runes emerged on the surface of the lantern before quickly revolving around it.
A burst of dense purple smoke rose up from the lantern, then quickly swelled to form an extremely life-like giant purple tiger in the blink of an eye. The tiger was the size of a pavilion, and it raised its head before letting loose a silent roar, then pounced directly toward Han Li at an incredible speed.
On another stone pillar, the woman in the red dress was chanting an incantation, while a layer of red light had appeared over her eyes.
The red dress that she was wearing began to billow around her despite the lack of wind, and all of the skin and flesh all over her entire body was rapidly withering away at a rate that was discernible even to the naked eye. The nails on her slim fingers elongated and turned black, transforming into a set of sinister claws, while the flesh on her seductive face melted away, and she transformed into a living pink skeleton.
She swooped down in a graceful manner, traveling at an astonishing speed. In the blink of an eye, she appeared directly above Han Li, leaving a trail of afterimages in her wake before swiping down viciously with one set of claws.
Spatial fluctuations erupted above Han Li, and a white bone claw the size of a small mountain emerged. The fingers of the giant claw were as sharp as blades, and they were screeching through the air as they grabbed viciously down upon Han Li's head with gray baleful qi surging out of the palm of the claw.
Even though the bone claw was also embroiled in the projection of the sea of blood, it seemed to be completely unaffected.
Han Li remained still on the spot as he casually raised a hand upward, releasing a miniature black mountain, which transformed into a full-sized mountain in the blink of an eye before crashing into the white bone claw with vicious might.
The black mountain exploded beneath the bone claw, plummeting out of the sky as a shower of giant rocks, but the bone claw also shattered upon impact.
The boundless expanse of baleful qi quickly faded, leaving behind only the countless bone fragments that remained of the giant claw.
Before the pink skeleton had a chance to do anything else, it was swept up by a devastating shockwave from below like a frail leaf in the wind, sent flying without being able to offer any resistance. The pink skeleton tumbled through the air like a ragdoll before crashing into a mountain face, where it was also shattered into a pile of bone fragments.
Right at this moment, the giant purple tiger entered the fray, opening its mouth to release a pillar of purple light that came crashing down with remarkable speed and power.
However, all it took was a casual wave of Han Li's hand to dispel the pillar of purple light with a resounding boom, following which he leaped up into the air, completely disregarding the heightened gravitational force as he appeared right under the giant tiger's belly.
He then reached out with both hands like lightning, closing his grip around the giant tiger's head with one hand while grabbing onto one of its hind legs with the other. The muscles on his arms bulged, and despite the giant tiger's frantic struggles, it was completely unable to escape his vice-like grip.
Right as he was about to wrench his hands apart and tear the tiger into two, a dull thump suddenly rang out from the ground down below, and four huge black spears that were giving off a faint black sheen erupted out of the soil, piercing through the sea of blood as they plunged viciously toward Han Li's vital organs.
A loud clang rang out, and it was as if the four spears had struck a steel wall. The impact of the strike caused the spears to be repelled back as they quivered violently.
All of a sudden, the ground split apart, and a giant black spider sprang out.
There were two rows of white compound eyes on its head, and its eight spear-like legs were as thick as human arms. There was also a gray fleshy pouch hanging beneath its abdomen, and upon closer inspection, Han Li discovered that the pouch contained none other than that hunch-backed elderly man.
The spider seemed to have grown out of the bulge on his back, presenting a very strange sight to behold.
As soon as the black spider appeared, it crossed its two sharp forelegs once again before raising them upward. The crimson light radiating from its forelegs gave them the appearance of a pair of red-hot giant scissors, which were closing in viciously on Han Li's neck.
However, this time, Han Li chose to retaliate rather than remain passive. While still holding onto the giant purple tiger, he sprang down with ferocious might, sweeping his right foot horizontally through the air during his descent.
A resounding boom rang out as the spider's two forelegs were shattered, and it was sent flying through the air by a burst of tremendous force, crashing into a mountain face before being buried under the falling rocks.
As soon as Han Li landed on the ground, he spread his arms apart viciously to tear the giant purple tiger into two.
However, things suddenly took an unexpected turn.
Instead of disintegrating into nothingness, the giant purple tiger transformed into a huge cloud of purple mist that completely encompassed Han Li.
A strong, indescribable scent was released by the purple mist, and it possessed the ability to cloud the mind and disorient the senses.
"Brother Rock!" Liu Le'er called out in an alarmed voice upon seeing this.
Not far away, the pink skeleton had reformed itself from its remains, and it stood up in a slightly unsteady manner as it cackled, "Hehe, so what if you possess a formidable physical body? Under the effects of Elder Lu's Soul Corroding Ghostly Mist..."
Before it had a chance to finish its sentence, an agonized howl suddenly rang out from the top of one of the stone pillars.
The purple-bearded man came tumbling down from the stone pillar before rolling around in agony, while the purple copper lantern fell onto the ground beside him.
The purple mist formed by the giant purple tiger faded to reveal Han Li, who drew the purple copper lantern into his grasp with a casual beckoning gesture. After a brief inspection, he stowed the lantern away into his storage bag.
At the same time, a translucent thread of spiritual sense shot out of the purple-bearded man's head before flying back into Han Li's glabella.
Only then did he turn and cast his gaze toward the archway to the left before asking in an indifferent voice, "Have you still not found an opening to attack me?"
As soon as his voice trailed off, a figure emerged from behind the archway in a flash before rapidly retreating. It was none other than the one-eyed man, who had refrained from attacking this entire time.
At this moment, his entire body was encased in a suit of spiky bone armor, and he was holding a translucent crimson ax in one hand, which was clearly also an extremely powerful treasure.
After retreating to some distance away, the one-eyed man cast a wary gaze toward Han Li, displaying no intention to attack.
He had just witnessed Han Li dominate three Body Integration cultivators at once with ridiculous ease, and throughout the entire process, he hadn't found any opportunity to attack.
He couldn't even remember the last time he had felt this helpless in a battle.
Han Li took a glance at the one-eyed man before withdrawing his gaze, then made his way toward one of the archways in an unhurried manner.
Judging from how tightly his clothes were pressed against his body, it was clear that the enormous force being exerted by the sea of blood was still acting upon him, but even though he wasn't walking very quickly, he clearly wasn't struggling, either.
Upon making his way over to one of the archways, he inspected it momentarily before suddenly bending down at the knees and wrapping his arms around one of the pillars. He then suddenly began to exert force through his entire body, hoisting the pillar upward.
The ground rumbled and quaked violently as a humanized look of shock and horror appeared in the eyes of the giant ghostly head on the archway.
The entire archway began to sway from side to side while growing taller and taller before finally being completely uprooted.
The giant ghostly head let loose an anguished wail, immediately following which the entire archway shrank down amid a flash of black light, reverting back into a black badge that fell into Han Li's grasp. At the same time, the vast sea of blood also churned violently before shrinking significantly in size.
Han Li stowed the badge away before making his way toward another archway.
At this point, the hunch-backed elderly man and the purple-bearded man had already clambered back to their feet, and the red skeleton had already returned to its original human form.
The four Heavenly Ghost Sect Body Integration cultivators were standing at the four corners of the valley, watching with complex looks on their faces as Heavenly Ghost Sect uprooted the archways one by one, but none of them stepped in to try and stop him.
All four of them were standing in silence, seemingly waiting for something.
A few minutes later, as Han Li stowed the final black badge away, he suddenly raised an eyebrow before turning toward a certain direction.
He then abruptly opened his mouth before exhaling forcefully, releasing all of the devilish flames that he had devoured earlier.
The devilish fire erupted into the heavens, then converged in mid-air to form four clouds of fire the size of wagon wheels. Immediately thereafter, the fiery clouds transformed into four fiery black pythons, each of which was several dozen feet in length, and they pounced toward the four Body Integration cultivators in unison.
The four of them were greatly alarmed to see this, and they hurriedly summoned different defensive treasures, conjuring up protective barriers to shield themselves from the flames.
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