Chapter 818: Persistent Threat
"It's a Bright Heart Jellyfish! These things have always been found deep in the sea, what's this one doing on the surface?" Shi Chuankong mused with a surprised expression.
Han Li's expression instantly changed drastically upon hearing this, and he yelled, "Run!"
Immediately thereafter, he channeled his Reversal True Axis ability and sprang forward, then grabbed onto Shi Chuankong before flying up into the air.
The two of them had only just risen up into the sky when the jellyfish crashed into the whale, and a resounding boom rang out as the jellyfish exploded.
At the same time, the gargantuan whale's body also exploded with a resounding boom, and all of the bones in its body shot out before hurtling directly toward Han Li and Shi Chuankong.
In response, the two of them swiveled around before each throwing a punch downard, and two giant fist projections, one azure and one silver, came crashing down upon the wave of oncoming bones.
The two fist projections exploded in unison, and all of the whale's bones were also reduced to white powder.
Immediately thereafter, a white figure shot out of the cloud of bone powder, and they swept a sleeve through the air to conjure up a white light barrier that encompassed both Han Li and Shi Chuankong within it.
The area contained within the white light barrier was filled with ghostly qi, and a series of tall pagodas rose up in the distance.
Han Li and Shi Chuankong's expressions changed drastically upon seeing this.At the same time, a cold voice rang out, and it resonated throughout the entire area encompassed within the white light barrier.
"You two sure made it difficult for me to track you down, but this is where your luck runs out!"
"It's Daoist Master Bone Shine! What a pain in the backside," Shi Chuankong groaned with tight furrowed brows.
Han Li activated his Infernal Devilish Eyes before looking around, and his skin immediately began to crawl at the sight that he was greeted by.
There was a pagoda that was thousands of feet tall and constructed entirely from bones standing in each of the eight directions, and there were ghostly green flames flickering in the eye sockets of all of the skulls on the pagodas.
On the very top of each pagoda was a skull that was different from all of the other ones, and they appeared to have belonged to powerful cultivators slain by Daoist Master Bone Shine.
There was clearly some type of hidden connection between them, and together, they formed a strange array that was giving off such formidable glacial qi that Han Li and Shi Chuankong could feel the immortal spiritual power circulation in their bodies becoming slower and more sluggish.
Han Li naturally didn't dare to hold back against a Great Encompassment cultivator, and he immediately swept a sleeve through the air to summon his time spirit domain, which encompassed the entire surrounding area in a radius of several thousand feet.
Even though the ghostly white mist in the air was clearly moving far slower within his time spirit domain, the air temperature only continued to plummet, while the surrounding area was also becoming darker and darker.
"Let's see how you weasel your way out of this one!" Daoist Master Bone Shine roared, following which the sound of crashing waves suddenly rang out.
Han Li looked down to see that bursts of red light had appeared in the dense mist down below, and an infernal pit of fire that was over a thousand feet in radius had emerged on the surface of the sea.
Plumes of black smoke were rising up from the fiery pit, and there seemed to be lava churning inside, but it wasn't releasing any heat.
Inside the pit of fire, countless headless skeletons were struggling in futility, trying to climb their way out, only to sink deeper and deeper.
Right at this moment, a rune lit up on each of the eight different skulls on top of the surrounding bone pagodas, and all of the bones instantly began to tremble as if they had sprung to life.
The jawbones on the skulls were quite loose to begin with, and they immediately began to chatter audibly from the tremors.
At the same time, the fiery pit down below also began to tremble violently, and the bubbling lava was rapidly rising upward, threatening to gush out of the pit altogether.
All of the headless skeletons inside also rose up with the lava, and they began to ascend into the air.
Han Li's brows were tightly furrowed as he looked on with a grim expression. At this point, there was no time for him to think about how Daoist Master Bone Shine had managed to track them down. Instead, his top priority was to think of a way to escape.
"We're truly in trouble now, Brother Li. Daoist Master Bone Shine possesses a Creation Tier spirit domain, and that's far too much for us to deal with. Let's find an opportunity to split up and try to get away from there," Shi Chuankong said.
"He's clearly come into this with a plan, so I'm afraid that won't be so simple," Han Li replied with a wry smile.
He had seen Creation Tier spirit domains in the past, but none had struck him with a sense of pressure as intense as Daoist Master Bone Shine's.
All of a sudden, Han Li declared, "Here they come!"
Right as his voice trailed off, the fiery pit down below finally completely erupted, and the crimson lava inside exploded upward, carrying with it countless headless skeletons.
All of the skeletons seemed to have sprung to life, and their joints were cracking and popping audibly as they rushed at Han Li and Shi Chuankong with weapons forged from bones held in their hands.
"Are those domain spirits?" Shi Chuankong exclaimed as he hurriedly flipped a hand over to summon a black saber, while Han Li swept a sleeve through the air to conjure up a door of silver light, and Daoist Xie emerged from the Flower Branch domain.
"Oh? Is that a domain treasure? Looks like I'll be able to claim some decent spoils from you two," Daoist Master Bone Shine remarked, but it was unclear where his voice was coming from.
"Judging from their aura, these things seem to be Dao Warriors, as opposed to domain spirits," Han Li said to Shi Chuankong, then turned to Daoist Xie before giving him a nod.
Daoist Xie immediately flipped a hand over to summon an azure gourd, which he tipped upside down before slamming hand onto its underside.
A burst of azure light flashed over the mouth of the gourd, and thousands of golden beans flew out from within before raining down from above.
Arcs of purplish-golden lightning flashed incessantly as all of the golden beans transformed into armored Dao Warriors, each of which was around ten feet tall.
Their facial features were completely identical, and all of them were rather wooden and stiff in appearance, but their eyes contained a faint, intelligent gleam.
All of them were clad in suits of antiquated golden armor that were riddled with purple patterns, and these suits of armor covered all of their vital regions.
Without requiring any instructions, the Dao Warriors raised their hands up to the sky in unison, and bursts of purplish-golden lightning erupted out of their hands, then took on the form of all types of lightning weapons, all of which were giving off formidable auras.
As soon as all of the Dao Warriors emerged, they were met by the horde of headless skeletons, and the two armies clashed violently.
Thousands of arcs of purplish-golden lightning erupted out of the hands of the Dao Warriors before exploding in unison, illuminating the night sky with spectacular purplish-golden radiance.
All of the headless skeletons that were struck by the arcs of lightning instantly fell apart before tumbling back down into the fiery pit below.
Deep within the dense mist, a white shadow stiffened momentarily in surprise, then drifted away again and vanished out of sight.
Han Li immediately turned his gaze in that direction, but by then, the white shadow was already gone.
"Even though he's at the Great Encompassment Stage, he's clearly making an effort not to approach us. It seems like he's already aware of all of our powers," Han Li said through voice transmission.
"We've been on the run for a very long time, and I'm sure the entire Holy Realm is aware of us at this point, so I suppose that's no surprise. I've been working hard in my cultivation, but I'm unable to make any significant strides without first reaching the High Zenith Stage. Having said that, if we can break our way out of this spirit domain, I can instantly get us out of here using a spatial secret technique," Shi Chuankong replied.
"According to my knowledge, Creation Tier spirit domains are different from normal spirit domains in that the law attributes of the former are significantly enhanced. It's most likely going to be quite difficult to break our way out, and the fact that Daoist Master Bone Shine is lurking in the shadows certainly won't help our cause," Han Li sighed.
Shi Chuankong hesitated momentarily, then said, "Brother Li, if you can somehow destroy one of those bone pagodas, I can try to forcibly unleash the secret technique at the cost of some blood essence to get us out of here."
"I think that may be our only way out," Han Li replied with a nod.
Right at this moment, a loud commotion rang out from down below, and Han Li looked down to discover that all of the shattered skeletons that had fallen back into the fiery pit had completely regenerated and were clashing against the Dao Warriors once again.
At the same time, a giant skeletal white hand suddenly extended out of the fiery pit, then grabbed onto its edge before pulling upward forcefully, and the body attached to the hand was vaulted out of the fiery pit.
It was a giant headless skeleton that was over a thousand feet tall, and it had four arms instead of two. On top of that, there were balls of crimson flames circling around its body, and it was wielding four bone longswords that were riddled with countless yin runes.
The giant skeleton sprang up into the air, launching itself up into the ranks of the Dao Warriors, and it was instantly surrounded by hundreds of Dao Warriors that lashed out at it with their weapons, striking it with bolts of purplish-golden lightning.
The crimson flames around the giant skeleton brightened significantly before transforming into a suit of glowing crimson armor, and it was able to keep all of the lightning at bay.