Chapter 1083: Reversal

"He is Han Li? The one who could single-handedly storm the Golden Immortal Palace and still retreat unscathed..." After a long moment, Su Qianxi finally came to her senses and murmured.

Jin Liu's gaze fell on Han Li, growing increasingly complicated.

Lei Yuce glanced at Wen Zhong and gently shook his head. The latter nodded in understanding, and both stood aside, watching without a word.

Su Qianxi quickly recovered from her earlier shock, returning to her usual icy demeanor, and showed no intention of speaking.

Jiao San and Hu San, naturally, said nothing more.

Seeing this, She Chan swept his gaze over these people one by one, finally settling on the Lan siblings.

"Please forgive us, Elder She. My sister and I have already sworn an oath that within the Time Tower secret realm, we will not make a move against Fellow Daoist Han. If you require our assistance, please wait until we leave this place," Lan Yuanzi said with a troubled expression, cupping his fist.

"Nonsense! In the face of such a great matter of right and wrong, why adhere to a petty oath? Have you forgotten the purpose of pursuing this man?" She Chan emphasized the word "purpose" heavily.

Lan Yuanzi's expression shifted slightly, but after a moment of hesitation, he maintained his apologetic posture with fists cupped, refusing to rise.

Seeing this, Lan Yan also quickly bowed her head, cupping her fists in silence.

"Fine, fine, fine... Very well, you Lan siblings. Once I return to the sect and report this to the Ancestor, I will surely demand an explanation from your master," She Chan said with a few consecutive "fine"s, laughing in anger.

Lan Yan's expression changed drastically, and she was about to stand up.

"Disobeying orders is not the issue; if we lose our integrity today, it is our master who will be heartbroken to death," Lan Yuanzi grabbed her sleeve and transmitted his voice.

Only then did Lan Yan bow again, making no further move.

The others not helping was one thing, but even his own sect's disciples refused to act, which made She Chan feel greatly embarrassed. His gaze swept over the two of them darkly.

"I hope you siblings remember your choice today, and that you won't regret it in the future," She Chan said slowly, his tone full of warning.

Jin Liu watched this scene, a hint of mockery appearing in his eyes as he stood by with arms crossed.

He knew that the angrier She Chan became now, the more viciously he would strike at Han Li later—exactly what he wanted to see.

Han Li stood with his hands behind his back, silently calculating how to deal with the yellow-robed ugly woman before him. From start to finish, his expression remained unchanged, and a hint of relaxed smile even lingered at the corner of his mouth.

"Let's see how long you can stay relaxed," Jin Liu thought to himself, letting out a soft snort.

"Since you all choose to stand by and watch, then be good spectators and stay far away," the yellow-robed ugly woman said, and without any warning, her figure vanished from the spot, leaving only a yellow halo behind.

Seeing this, everyone quickly retreated.

The next moment, wind and sand suddenly rose behind Han Li. A cloud of yellow sand soared into the air, converging from all sides to encircle him.

Han Li had anticipated this. The True Word Wheel within him reversed, and his figure instantly disappeared from the spot, causing the yellow sand to land on empty space.

The yellow sand splashed upon landing, and a yellow light screen rose from it, spreading in all directions and instantly enveloping an area nearly a hundred miles in radius.

Trapped within, Han Li immediately felt a heaviness around him. A tremendous oppressive force came from the ground, and the void seemed to press down with several invisible peaks, greatly restricting his movement.

Within She Chan's domain, the yellow sand desert shifted scenes. At the edges appeared low but winding mountain ranges, looking desolate and barren at a glance, with little sign of life.

In the area near Han Li, yellow light surged on the ground, revealing patches of yellow quagmire of various shapes and sizes. The muddy yellow liquid churned slightly, occasionally emitting large bubbles.

Han Li caught the putrid smell emanating from them and wrinkled his nose, feeling nauseous.

"Croak, croak..."

Just then, a frog's low croak suddenly reached Han Li's ears. His mind stirred, and he quickly turned to look behind him, his expression changing slightly.

In a patch of quagmire only a few hundred zhang away, a toad's head the size of a house emerged from the murky water. Its golden eyes stared coldly at him, and the dense bumps on its skin sent a chill down one's spine.

Han Li gave a slight flick of his wrist, and a golden electric light flowed beside him. Thirty-six Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords materialized simultaneously, swiftly shooting through the air toward the giant yellow toad.

"Crackle..."

Where the sword tip passed, a sound of surging electric current rang out. Suppressed by the power of the earth-attribute law within the spirit domain, its speed was much slower than usual, yet the momentum and might it carried showed no sign of decline.

Just as the flying sword approached, its light converged, lightning surged, and it was about to strike down, when the yellow toad suddenly dove into the mud and vanished.

Han Li quickly activated his Spirit Refining Art, urging his divine sense to search for the toad, but found that all he could sense around him was a vast, ocean-like power of earth-attribute law, with no trace of the toad at all.

"Using its own spirit domain as cover, its aura completely merged—this is troublesome." Han Li's heart tightened, his brow furrowed, and he couldn't help muttering to himself.

As soon as he spoke, he suddenly felt the ground beneath him heave violently. The whole earth beneath his feet rose, and he was lifted into the air by the toad that had burst out from below.

Han Li's expression remained unchanged. He raised his hand and beckoned sharply. The thirty-six Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords immediately trembled and flew back, forming a guard around him.

But before the flying swords could draw near, he suddenly noticed the sky above darken. A hundred-zhang mountain shot over from afar and came crashing down directly on his head.

If this mountain were an ordinary object, Han Li would naturally not fear it. But in fact, it was a refined object within She Chan's Creation realm spirit domain, imbued with dense earth-attribute law power, its weight far exceeding a thousand jun.

Han Li frowned slightly and immediately pointed upward with two fingers. The Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords instantly shifted their trajectory, turning their blades to shoot upward.

Just as the mountain was about to strike Han Li, the thirty-six Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords let out sharp, piercing cries, plunging into the mountain's base. Azure-gold light blazed from their blades, and lightning and sword shadows surged wildly.

The countless golden lightning bolts interlinked, gathering into a vast golden sea of lightning that held up the entire mountain, halting its descent.

Han Li, meanwhile, activated the Heavenly Fiend Prison Suppression Art. He spun around, inverted his body as if descending from the sky, drew his fist to his side, and prepared to throw a punch downward.

The ground had already cracked into a massive sunken pit. A huge yellow toad, its gaping maw nearly as large as the pit itself, was opening wide to swallow Han Li from above.

Han Li descended rapidly, and within a few breaths, he had fallen into the yellow toad's mouth.

A cold gleam flashed in the toad's eyes. Its huge mouth snapped shut, swallowing Han Li.

But at the same time, Han Li's fist momentum had already gathered. Starlight blazed at the tip of his fist as he punched downward.

With a thunderous "Boom!"

A dazzling white light bloomed inside the toad's mouth. Its tightly shut maw was torn open by a fierce gale of astral wind and force, splitting into countless gashes, from which brilliant starlight streamed out.

Immediately after, there was another "boom" as the enormous yellow toad burst apart, and Han Li's figure reappeared from within.

As soon as the yellow toad died, the surrounding environment changed. The light curtain of the spirit domain contracted sharply, shrinking tenfold in an instant, and its light gradually dimmed, as if it were about to disappear.

At the same time, the mountain peak high above seemed to melt suddenly, turning into a mass of yellow, muddy liquid that scattered down from the sky, raining mud and stones.

Han Li, standing below, could not avoid it and was drenched.

He waved his hand, and the Green Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords flew back, reentering his body.

"How is this possible?"

The others, who had been avoiding battle in the distance, looked somewhat perplexed at this scene, finding it hard to believe that She Chan, a Grand Luo, had been defeated so easily.

Among them, Jin Liu's expression was the most interesting, showing both disappointment and anger.

Just then, another change occurred!

Han Li's body, suspended in midair, suddenly stiffened, as if frozen in place, and he fell straight down uncontrollably, crashing to the ground with a "thud."

"Not good!" Jiao San frowned and immediately dashed forward several dozen li.

"What are you doing? Don't forget our mission here. The overall situation is more important..." Hu San, seeing this, quickly caught up and stopped her.

Hearing this, Jiao San halted her steps and looked into the distance.

The yellow mud that had dripped onto Han Li had formed a layer of mud coating, wrapping his entire body and solidifying into a yellow shell, making him look like a human-shaped pottery figurine.

However, unlike ordinary pottery figurines, the mud shell on Han Li's body was covered with strange patterns, containing an extremely powerful earth-attribute law force, like a powerful law of confinement sealing him within.

At first, Han Li's body seemed to struggle slightly, but as the color of the mud coating rapidly deepened, his body became completely still.

Only after the mud shell had completely dried and hardened did a "splash" sound come from the muddy ground not far away, as a toad no larger than a palm, covered in mud, leaped out. Its body glowed with bright yellow light, transforming into a yellow-robed ugly woman.

"Heh! A mere Taiyi stage minor cultivator, did you really think you could stir up much trouble?" She Chan glanced at the "pottery figurine" beside her, her eyes full of mockery.