Chapter 1093: Too Late

As Lan Yuanzi and Lan Yan activated the formation, the sky-blue oil-paper umbrella suspended above the altar began to spin rapidly. The pond painted on it suddenly seemed to encounter a fierce storm, shaking violently.

At the edge of the umbrella, it seemed as if water splashed, almost leaping off the paper. The dozen or so koi in the pond also began to move, swimming across the umbrella's surface, their tails leaving trails of golden marks as they glided.

With the formation activated, the altar began to tremble violently. The cluster of golden flames on it flickered gently but remained still for the moment, while the blue cloth bag beside it reacted much more intensely.

The bag bulged and shook violently up and down. The rumbling sound inside grew louder and louder, now no longer resembling a surging river but rather thunder shaking the heavens.

Hearing this, Lan Yuanzi exchanged a glance with Lan Yan. Both looked solemn, clearly feeling some tension in their hearts.

Then, with a loud bang,

the blue bag shook violently. A flash of blue light burst forth, and eighteen water dragons charged out, heading straight for the siblings.

Each water dragon was over a hundred feet long, with a crystal-clear body that looked like glass, yet inside, water could be seen surging, emitting waves of powerful water-attribute law force.

"Here they come. Be careful..." Lan Yuanzi's gaze sharpened as he warned.

As soon as he spoke, the eighteen water dragons slammed into the formation they had set up.

"Rumble..."

A series of explosions rang out continuously. The eighteen water dragons radiated intense lightning, unleashing countless blue water thunderbolts that bombarded the entire formation. The electric threads shot out, enveloping the whole altar.

Feeling the might and power contained in those water thunderbolts, Lan Yan's face turned slightly pale.

She steadied herself inwardly, continuously forming hand seals, and together with Lan Yuanzi, channeled immortal spiritual power into the sky-blue oil-paper umbrella.

The umbrella flashed with light, instantly expanding several times. In the pond painted on it, waves churned, and one after another, bright red koi leaped like fish jumping over the dragon gate, bouncing on the umbrella's surface, tracing golden arcs.

As the strange phenomena appeared on the umbrella, the rings of runes engraved on the handle also blazed with light. Like peach blossoms blooming on branches, clusters of pitch-black whirlpools emerged, emitting threads of attracting force.

Once these whirlpools appeared, the surging blue lightning below, as if finally finding an outlet, crazily converged into them and was absorbed.

The eighteen lightning water dragons continued to rage wildly, while the water thunderbolts they released were frantically absorbed by the umbrella.

The pond on the entire umbrella surface boiled over. The koi were no longer simply jumping but darting about wildly, their scales flipping up one by one, with electric threads flashing incessantly inside.

As the umbrella continued to absorb, it seemed to reach a temporary stalemate with the lightning water dragons. Although the water thunderbolts around the altar no longer increased, their might remained formidable.

"It seems we can only control it to this extent. If we keep stalemating, the Koi Umbrella might give out first. Since we've come this far, we need to take some risks..." Lan Yuanzi said gravely.

"Alright!" Lan Yan, pale-faced, nodded.

With that, they both sat down cross-legged and closed their eyes. Each formed a very strange hand seal, and waves of powerful water-attribute law force rippled from their bodies.

As the changes occurred in their bodies, the two layers of spiritual domain light screens surrounding them each gave rise to slender threads. These threads interconnected, drawing closer, and finally, with a flash of light, merged together.

At the same time, a blue light suddenly appeared on the foreheads of Lan Yuanzi and Lan Yan. Two miniature infant spirits emerged, flew to the center between them, held hands, and their bodies blazed with light, also merging together.

The merged infant spirit rapidly expanded in size, becoming almost as large as an ordinary person. However, its face became somewhat blurry, making it difficult to distinguish gender.

Then, waves of intense water-attribute law force surged from the merged spiritual domain, wrapping around the translucent merged infant spirit and forming a set of bizarre blue water armor.

Once the water armor was attached, the merged infant spirit's aura soared. It glanced back at the two physical bodies still sitting cross-legged in place, took a step, and instantly appeared at the edge of the altar.

It reached its hands into the wall of lightning, pulled left and right, and the layer of water thunderbolts parted like a curtain, revealing an opening.

The merged infant spirit bent down and slipped through the opening.

As soon as it entered the altar area, the eighteen water dragons immediately raised their heads high and swooped down toward it.

Seeing this, the merged infant spirit clasped its hands together, forming a strange seal, and pushed its palms out toward the water dragons.

A bright blue light shone before it, and a round water shield half a person's height appeared in front, blocking the impact of the water dragons.

"Rumble..."

With a violent clap of thunder, eighteen lightning water dragons slammed heavily into the water shield, splashing up large patches of blue water lightning.

"Crackle..."

Countless bolts of violent lightning splashed onto the Nascent Soul, but though they were blocked by the water armor, the Nascent Soul's face could still be seen constantly twisting, clearly in great pain.

Yet even so, the fused Nascent Soul stubbornly refused to retreat a single step, advancing bit by bit toward the altar.

"Boom, boom, boom!"

As the rumbling grew louder, the water lightning became increasingly violent. The water armor on the fused Nascent Soul began to melt away, and the originally sharp, clearly defined runes on it started to blur.

At the same time, the oilpaper umbrella above was shrouded in mist, with large amounts of water vapor evaporating from it. The pond painted on it grew increasingly shallow, and seven or eight of the dozen or so koi fish painted there had already vanished.

The fused Nascent Soul's face was twisted, and just as it seemed about to collapse, it had already climbed onto the altar.

"Ah..."

The Nascent Soul let out a roar, and in the moment before it was about to disintegrate, it grabbed hold of the blue cloth pouch.

With a sharp tug, it pulled the blue cloth pouch back in front of itself and yanked it off the altar.

As soon as the pouch shifted, the blue light on it flashed once, and the eighteen lightning water dragons surging from its mouth all retracted, turning into a ball of liquid that fell back into the pouch. The light converged, and all its power subsided.

At the same time, the oilpaper umbrella above the altar could no longer hold out. The pond painted on both sides had completely dried up, all the koi fish inside had vanished, and the umbrella surface, as if scorched by fierce flames, had become dry and wrinkled.

The last trace of spiritual light on the Brocade Fish Umbrella faded, and with a "whoosh," the umbrella surface burst into blazing flames, burning completely to ashes.

After the fused Nascent Soul withdrew from the altar, the blue light on its body flashed sharply, and it split back into two small Nascent Souls, flying back into Lan Yuanzi and Lan Yan's bodies respectively.

The two, who had been sitting cross-legged on the ground, gasped and suddenly opened their eyes.

Among them, Lan Yan held the blue cloth pouch in her hand, looking at Lan Yuanzi with eyes full of joy.

The latter opened his mouth, about to speak, when the altar suddenly began to shake violently, with huge cracks spreading across it like a spiderweb, on the verge of collapse.

Lan Yuanzi quickly rose, grabbed Lan Yan's hand, and with a backward leap, flew straight out of the hall, landing back on the mist-shrouded square.

But before the two could land, they were astonished to find that the layer of mist on the square was gradually thinning, eventually dissipating completely.

At that moment, the pain on the faces of the people in the square suddenly intensified, but a moment later, they all furrowed their brows, opened their eyes, and awoke from the illusion.

Han Li had just shaken off the suffocating feeling from before, gasping for air, and quickly scanned his surroundings. He immediately saw the blue hall trembling violently ahead and the Lan siblings descending in midair.

He frowned, puzzled, when a loud crash came from the hall.

Then, from beneath his feet all the way to the blue hall, a massive black crack appeared on the ground, splitting the cliff apart as it spread left and right.

"Damn it..." Lei Yuce shouted, leaping up to fly into the hall.

But as soon as he rose, the black crack suddenly widened, splitting even the blue hall in two, collapsing on both sides.

Through the split hall, Han Li immediately saw the altar standing inside, with a solitary golden flame floating above it, its flames flickering as if about to go out at any moment.

Han Li activated his Great Five Elements Illusory World Art, channeling the power of time laws, and raised his hand to beckon the flame from afar.

The altar's restrictions had already been destroyed by the Lan siblings, so the golden flame shot out from the altar, circled around Han Li's hand, and was collected by him.

At this point, the already precarious altar finally lost all its suppressing power and completely collapsed with a rumble.

In its original position, a huge black pit appeared where it had collapsed, and the broken altar fell into the pit, with no sound heard for a long time.

"Too late, too late..." Lei Yuce muttered, his expression stiff.

As soon as he spoke, a series of shrill howls and strange cries came from the pit beneath the altar.

Han Li frowned slightly, sensing many powerful auras rising from there, drawing closer.

"Old man Wen Taisui, what does it matter that you suppressed me for so many years? In the end, I have still come out, haha..." A sharp voice came from the pit, filled with ferocity and resentment.