Chapter 98: Trapped

"Retreat? A mere junior from the lower realm who has just ascended—how arrogant!"

Upon hearing Han Li's words, Hanqiu's expression darkened slightly. White light flashed around him, and he pointed a finger forward. A mass of white mist materialized in front of him.

The mist churned and then wove together in the middle.

With a sharp sound of air tearing, a white ice spike several tens of feet long condensed into being. Its entire body flashed with white light, then blurred, splitting into two, then four, then eight...

In an instant, countless white ice spikes densely appeared, covering nearly half the sky, and hurtled toward Han Li like a tidal wave.

An extreme chill emanated from the countless ice spikes, and the surrounding temperature plummeted to its lowest point. Even icicles crystallized in the void, glittering as if they would freeze the entire world.

Almost at the same time Hanqiu made his move, Patriarch Lu Kun and Madame Hube also struck.

Patriarch Lu Kun was enveloped in a layer of blue light. With one hand, he spread his five fingers, and specks of crystalline blue light appeared in his palm, which then whistled into the sea below.

Boom!

The sea surface suddenly churned, forming a massive whirlpool that expanded continuously, emitting a thunderous roar like thousands of stampeding horses. Faint flashes of blue light could be seen within.

Madame Hube closed her eyes slightly, formed hand seals, and black light flickered on her body. A wisp of black mist rose from her surface and vanished into a white cloud above.

The white cloud instantly turned pitch-black and began to churn violently. An inexplicable fluctuation spread from it, drawing dense moisture from thousands of miles around to converge and causing it to expand rapidly.

Seeing the situation turn unfavorable, Han Li immediately shot upward, his body wrapped in azure light, and charged straight toward Hanqiu and the other two, meeting the countless ice spikes flying toward him.

A sharp glint flashed in his eyes. Seven points of starlight appeared on his chest and abdomen. With a series of cracking sounds from within his body, his frame suddenly swelled by a third, and he punched the void.

A terrifying force surged forth, shaking the entire void violently, then suddenly exploded.

Countless visible white ripples layered upon each other, spreading outward from his fist as the center.

The countless blue ice spikes collided with the white ripples, immediately producing a series of crackling explosions. All of them were shattered, turning into countless fine ice crystals that splattered in all directions.

Seeing this, Hanqiu's expression remained unchanged. He quickly formed hand seals and flicked out several spells.

With a "bang," the fine ice crystals exploded again, turning into countless white cold mists that rolled and spread, instantly enveloping an area of several hundred feet around Han Li. A strong law fluctuation rippled outward in concentric rings.

Han Li felt only a vast white expanse around him. He suddenly waved his sleeve, conjuring a fierce wind that swept in all directions.

But these white cold mists showed no sign of dissipating, aside from a ceaseless rolling and tumbling.

Han Li paid no further attention to the mists and, without pausing, plunged directly into the white fog.

The surrounding mist, as if alive, immediately coiled around his body, but for him, this level of extreme cold was nothing to fear.

With a "whoosh," Han Li flew out of the white fog's coverage in an instant. A burst of azure light flared on his body, and he raised his arm, ready to deliver a thunderous strike against Han Qiu and the other two.

But then his expression changed—ahead of him was empty space; the figures of Han Qiu and his companions seemed to have suddenly vanished without a trace.

He flickered and steadied himself, then looked around, his pupils abruptly contracting.

Several hundred zhang away, Han Qiu and the other two stood there perfectly fine.

Han Li swept his gaze around, and a glimmer of realization flashed in his eyes.

It wasn't that Han Qiu and the others had suddenly shifted positions; rather, while traversing the white fog, his five senses had been subtly disrupted, altering his direction, causing him to emerge from the other side of the mist.

Then, frowning slightly, he looked down and saw that his legs, lower abdomen, and other parts were entwined with white mist as fine as hair strands. A strange chill was seeping into his body through this mist, making him feel gradually numb all over—as if he were truly frozen stiff.

Han Li, almost without thinking, let out a low shout. The seven-star pattern on his chest and abdomen suddenly flared, and a translucent film covered his body's surface, instantly isolating the strange white mist, preventing it from getting any closer.

All this takes more words to describe, but it happened in an instant.

However, before he could make any other move, with a "crash," a massive object shot out from the whirlpool on the sea surface below.

It turned out to be a blue giant, dozens of zhang tall, seemingly composed entirely of seawater, looking quite ugly—with a large head, a small body, and arms and legs of varying thickness and length, as if casually pinched together from dough.

The blue water giant soared into the air, its enormous body blocking Han Li's path, and a blue hand the size of a house slapped toward him.

Before the giant hand arrived, a fierce hurricane howled forth, distorting and blurring the air wherever it passed, its momentum immense—even Han Li's body swayed from the blast.

Han Li steadied himself with a flicker, then, without dodging, clenched his fist and punched out fiercely.

An invisible force shot forth, causing the void to emit a piercing roar and twist violently.

Countless white ripples appeared again, then spun and condensed into a hazy white giant fist shadow, which struck the blue water giant before the latter's hand could land.

A sight that astonished Han Li appeared!

Where the giant was struck, ripples spread in circles, forming a whirlpool.

The white fist shadow flashed and vanished into the whirlpool, then, in the next moment, shot out from the other side of the giant's body, continuing forward and slamming into the void, causing a series of crackling, explosive muffled sounds.

Yet the whirlpool on his body closed up in the blink of an eye, as if completely unharmed.

At that moment, the giant blue hand had already swung toward Han Li.

With a loud bang!

Han Li had no time to dodge; his body was struck as if by a meteor, sent flying and tumbling far away.

But he steadied himself with a stiffening of his body, his face somewhat pale, yet he had suffered no real injury.

However, the blue water giant charged at him again.

“Brother Lu Kun, I never expected that in just over twenty thousand years, you have driven this Formless Water Ghost, condensed from your Soft Water Law, with ever greater finesse—it is precisely the bane of this Mystic Immortal’s brute force,” Hanqiu said with a chuckle from midair.

“Brother Hanqiu flatters me. Your Ice Law is not bad either; it seems you have already touched the threshold of the Void Domain,” said Patriarch Lu Kun modestly, though he could not help showing a hint of pride.

“Hehe, just a bit of皮毛—still far from the Void Domain. Next, we shall see Brother Hubone display his divine might,” Hanqiu said, looking up into the sky with a grin.

In the moment Han Li was entangled by the two, the dark cloud in midair had swelled to dozens of miles in size, with lightning bolts like silver serpents darting within.

Just then, Lady Hubone, with a solemn expression, waved her hand and cast a spell; a flash of lightning appeared in the cloud, and the entire mass roiled violently!

Rustle, rustle!

Countless dense raindrops fell from the sky, turning into a torrential downpour.

The raindrops were extremely dense and, eerily, linked together to form strands of rain, falling in a blanket.

Han Li had just sidestepped a punch from the blue water giant and glanced up at the sky, frowning.

Strands of rain fell from the sky, and upon touching his body, immediately coiled around him like thin ropes.

In an instant, hundreds of rain strands had wrapped around him.

Han Li swung his arms with force; the silver light on the surface of his True Extremity Membrane flowed, snapping the rain strands with faint, low thuds.

These rain strands were remarkably tough—dozens or hundreds were nothing to him, but if trapped by thousands or tens of thousands, the consequences would be dire!

Han Li’s face instantly turned grim; a brilliant green light burst from his body as he shot out of the cloud’s range.

A blue flash appeared, and the blue water giant blocked Han Li’s path, its two large hands slamming down fiercely.

Han Li punched the air with both fists.

Two booming sounds rang out!

Two streams of invisible force carved white streaks through the void, striking the giant's palms.

A flash of blue light flickered on the giant's palms, and the two forces passed straight through, failing to cause any damage.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The two giant palms did not pause at all, continuing to slam down toward Han Li.

Damn it!

Han Li let out an angry low shout, his form flickering as he sidestepped horizontally.

In just a few breaths, his body was again entangled by hundreds of rain threads, slowing his movements considerably, but he still barely dodged the giant palms' strike.

The blue water giant opened its mouth wide, and over a dozen millstone-sized blue water spheres shot out, their interiors flickering with dazzling blue light, radiating intense power fluctuations as they sped straight toward Han Li.

At the same time, it turned its body and charged forward again like lightning.

Han Li was tightly entangled by this indestructible water giant, with no time to break free from the rain threads on his body. The more threads bound him, the more difficult his movements became.

But if one observed carefully at this moment, the light on the three figures of Han Qiu was also dimmer than at the beginning, especially for Hu Gu and Lu Kun.

After a few breaths, a crystalline blue cocoon appeared in midair, with the faint silhouette of Han Li visible inside, almost unable to move.

The blue water giant also stopped attacking at this moment, floating motionless beside the blue cocoon.

"Fellow Daoists, you have worked hard. Now, let me handle the rest!"

A flash of joy flickered in Han Qiu's eyes, and he let out a low shout. Countless white runes emerged from the white light on his body, emitting an extremely powerful law fluctuation that merged into the white mist.

At the same time, the white light on his body was rapidly dimming at a visible rate.

The white mist immediately stirred, rolling and surging toward Han Li in the distance, engulfing him together with the surrounding cocoon, forming a huge white smoke sphere.

A powerful law fluctuation filled with extreme cold flashed within it.

Crack, crack!

The white mist drifted apart, revealing a white ice ball dozens of zhang in diameter. Han Li's body was completely frozen inside.