Chapter 248: Deathblow

"Brother Lin Jiu, in your opinion, how much longer can this person last?" Han Li asked, feeling somewhat relieved, then turned to Lin Jiu not far away.

"Now that his burning of essence blood has spread from the organs to the flesh, from the bones to the skin, he should soon burn out. We just need to wait patiently for another incense stick's time," Lin Jiu said with a sigh of relief.

At this moment, Lin Shiqi, who had been lying motionless on the ground since earlier, suddenly twitched his fingers a few times and sat up with apparent difficulty.

The bloody flesh at the hole in his chest slowly squirmed and gradually fused together.

"Close call, close call, I almost kicked the bucket here..." After the flesh had fully healed, he let out a long breath, patted his chest which had been restored to its original state, and said, still shaken.

Han Li exchanged a glance with Lin Jiu, both seeing a hint of disdain in each other's eyes, but neither said anything, since this task would soon be over and there was no need to argue with him.

Lin Shiqi took in the situation, his eyes darting around, but he didn't immediately approach the two. Instead, he flickered over to the ruins of the stone hall and began searching through the rubble.

With a wave of his hand, he swept aside a pile of debris, revealing the alchemy furnace underneath. He bent down and reached out to pick it up.

"How dare you!"

Just then, the white-haired old man, who had been trapped in the Dragon-Subduing Staff formation, seemed to see this. He suddenly looked up to the sky and let out a thunderous roar.

The surrounding formation, which had already gone out and could summon eight fire dragons, suddenly lit up with runes. Blazing flames surged out, and eight fiery dragons burst forth, charging straight at the white-haired old man.

Han Li and the other two were startled and quickly tried to intervene, but they were all a step too slow.

The eight fire dragons plunged directly into the old man's abdomen, and with a flash of light, they all vanished inside.

The old man's body became even more crimson, and the cracks on his skin seemed to flow with magma, looking extremely terrifying. His aura surged again, forcibly breaking through its limits and reaching the Golden Immortal level.

He reached out his arms, wrapped them around the golden chains outside his body, and yanked them back. The dozen or so Dragon-Subduing Staffs were pulled out of the ground one after another with a series of bangs, and the old man swung them at Han Li and Lin Jiu.

The two exchanged glances, not daring to meet the attack head-on, and quickly dodged to the sides.

But the white-haired old man took a step forward, appearing directly in front of Lin Shiqi, and raised his fist to smash down on him.

This step was so fast that it defied reason, as if it had folded the space between him and Lin Shiqi, leaving the latter unable to dodge. Lin Shiqi had no choice but to raise both hands, waving a large banner glowing with earthy yellow light to block, while a white, hazy light shield appeared on his body.

The earthy yellow banner was clearly no ordinary item. It was painted with a mythical beast, Bixia, carrying a stone stele on its back. The banner radiated intense light, as if the beast were about to leap out from the surface, emitting an extremely profound earthy attribute aura.

Just as the banner was fully unfurled, the white-haired old man's fist slammed heavily into its surface. The void within a dozen zhang radius seemed to collapse, bursting forth a faint golden light and ripples.

However, when the fist struck the banner, not a single sound was heard.

But the seemingly soft and weak banner, battered by the immense force, billowed like undulating mountains, yet did not collapse immediately.

However, after a short while, the Bixia painted on the banner became covered in cracks and shattered directly.

Then, the entire banner tore apart.

Lin Shiqi, who was underneath, took advantage of this gap to roll away and dodge, but he was still caught by the residual force of the punch. His white light shield shattered with a bang, and he spat blood as he was thrown aside.

The white-haired old man did not stop, moving like a teleport to pursue him, and threw another punch at his head.

All of this happened too fast; even if Han Li and the others wanted to save him, they simply couldn't.

Lin Shiqi was filled with regret. If he had known this would happen, he would have rather continued playing dead than rush to take the alchemy furnace.

In panic, he flipped over, grabbed the two ears of the golden alchemy furnace, and raised it high to shield himself.

Just as the white-haired old man's heavy fist was about to hit the furnace, a golden light flickered in his eyes, and a trace of reluctance appeared on his face. He forcibly stopped his punch.

Lin Shiqi, with his eyes tightly shut and drenched in cold sweat, thought he was about to die, but the punch never came.

He cautiously opened his eyes and saw that the white-haired old man's body had not a single intact spot, yet he still maintained the pose of throwing a punch, motionless.

In the cracks on his body, faint red lights still glowed, like the dying embers of a burned-out fire. But anyone could see that this body no longer had any trace of life.

Han Li walked over and looked at the old man's remains, feeling an inexplicable emotion.

He wondered whether the old man's final blow had been unable to fall because his essence blood and Nascent Soul had burned out, or because his obsession made him unwilling to destroy the alchemy furnace.

Just as Han Li and the other two breathed a sigh of relief, deep in the white-haired old man's seemingly lifeless eyes, a faint, barely noticeable golden light suddenly lit up, like a final flicker, giving him a trace of vitality out of nowhere.

"Not good!" Han Li seemed to sense something amiss and cried out in alarm.

But before his words faded, a sudden change occurred!

The old man's lips, already charred nearly black, parted slightly a few times, and finally he struggled to utter a single word:

"Go."

As soon as the word was spoken, the last glimmer of gold in the old man's eyes was extinguished completely.

At the same time, a cyan talisman flew swiftly from his sleeve, appearing like a cyan rainbow in the void hundreds of feet away in an instant. Golden light flowed on its surface, and then countless tiny golden runes surged out wildly.

It was unmistakably a talisman inscribed with golden seal script!

The next moment, myriad dazzling cyan rays burst forth from these runes, converging and surging in midair into a blinding sea of cyan light. The entire void rumbled like muffled thunder, and then dark clouds gathered above the valley in an instant, while below it became pitch black.

Between heaven and earth, it seemed that in the blink of an eye, only this sea of light remained.

The primordial energy of heaven and earth within ten thousand li surged from all directions like a tide into the valley, pouring into this sea of light, causing its surface to ripple and roll with cyan mist, like surging waves.

At the center of the sea of light, faint cyan light filaments shot out, intertwining and twisting, and finally condensed into a solemn-faced cyan figure clad in armor.

All this takes long to describe, but from the moment the talisman flew out, less than a breath had passed!

As soon as the cyan figure appeared, it turned its gaze toward the corpse of the white-haired old man on the ground, then with anger in its eyes, it struck out with one hand.

Boom!

A cyan light emerged along its palm, then split into three slender cyan threads that flew toward Han Li and the other two at an unbelievable speed.

Where the cyan threads passed, the void became hazy and blurry, even twisting and deforming.

A bizarre scene appeared!

Dense dots of cyan light converged from all directions, coming from the soil, slopes, and the countless flowers, grass, and trees throughout the valley. As the cyan light flew out, those plants withered as if they had lost their vitality.

The dots of cyan light, like clay oxen entering the sea, coiled around the three cyan threads, instantly transforming into three cyan light spheres about a foot in size. Countless cyan runes danced on their surfaces, emitting a devastatingly powerful law fluctuation!

Where the spheres passed, the void twisted and trembled violently, with strange fluctuations surging, and white cracks appeared one after another, from which astonishing suction forces emanated, as if they might collapse at any moment.

Han Li's heart tightened. The silver flying sword in his hand shot out like lightning, its sword light blazing as it transformed into a massive silver sword beam to intercept the cyan sphere.

But the moment they met, a crisp sound rang out. The silver sword beam was easily cut in two, revealing the broken body of the silver flying sword as it flew apart in two directions, its spiritual energy completely lost.

The cyan sphere, instead of slowing, accelerated, instantly catching up to Han Li and smashing down heavily.

Though startled, Han Li remained calm. A translucent film appeared on his body, and with a wave of his hands, the Heavy Water True Wheel emerged from a dazzling black watery light, suddenly expanding dozens of times like a giant shield before him, its surface wreathed in black qi and also emitting dense runes.

The cyan sphere crashed down, striking the Heavy Water True Wheel.

A thunderous, earth-shattering roar erupted!

Han Li felt an irresistible, immense force, his body shuddered violently, and he was sent flying together with the Heavy Water True Wheel, traveling over a thousand zhang before barely stopping.

Over the years, Han Li had continuously infused the Heavy Water True Wheel with heavy water containing the Water Law, making its weight not inferior to several great mountains, and the Water Law power within it had also grown considerably, already comparable to a post-natal immortal artifact of no low grade.

Although the cyan sphere had sent Han Li flying, it also shattered, dispersing into countless cyan lights.

But a trace of horror flashed in Han Li's heart.

The power of this cyan sphere was far too formidable, far exceeding any late-stage True Immortal he had ever encountered.

As his thoughts turned, he looked again at the Heavy Water True Wheel before him.

He saw a shallow mark on the wheel's surface, as if its spiritual nature had been damaged. Han Li's heart ached, and he quickly infused his immortal spiritual power into it.

The Water Dao patterns on the wheel flickered, and black watery light flowed over it. The mark soon disappeared, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

On the other side, Lin Jiu and Lin Shiqi were also sent flying backward, but given their higher cultivation levels, they managed to barely block the cyan sphere's strike by casting spells and activating their treasures, apparently without serious injury.

Lin Shiqi had summoned a turtle-shell-shaped shield before him, its surface engraved with a lifelike beast with a dragon's head and a turtle's body. It shimmered with spiritual light, clearly an extraordinary treasure.

But now a clear mark had been blasted onto the shield, causing Lin Shiqi's eye to twitch with deep regret.

Lin Jiu's golden flying sword was gone, perhaps damaged and put away like Han Li's silver sword. Before him floated a golden millstone, an unknown treasure, its surface faintly showing countless tiny golden patterns, giving a feeling of weightiness like a mountain.

His gaze fell on the Heavy Water True Wheel before Han Li, a flicker of surprise on his face, then his expression returned to normal as he casually looked away.

Although Lin Jiu's expression change was only for an instant, Han Li keenly caught it, and his heart stirred.

Judging by Lin Jiu's reaction, had he seen this Heavy Water True Wheel before?

As thoughts raced through Han Li's mind, his wariness toward Lin Jiu deepened another layer.