Chapter 24: Overwhelming

The hunchbacked old man raised an eyebrow at the words, pausing slightly in his movements, but his gaze did not leave Gu Yunyue for a moment.

At the same time, the horse-faced youth flipped his hand and produced a black dagger, slashing it fiercely across his arm.

A large gush of blood surged out, turning into a thick blood mist that merged into the Hundred Ghost Diagram.

The black qi emanating from the scroll suddenly thickened, and eerie winds arose out of thin air around them, accompanied by a cacophony of ghostly wails and howls, extremely terrifying.

Roar! Roar!

Two hideous ghostly creatures leaped out from the scroll, swelling in the wind to a size of four or five zhang.

The upper bodies of these two ghostly creatures resembled apes, covered in short, dark green fur, with mouths full of snow-white fangs protruding outward. Their ape-like arms were thick and sturdy, and their ten fingers bore blood-red claws a foot long.

Their lower bodies were shrouded in a black mist, as if they had no physical form.

The eerie wind around the scroll grew stronger, black qi churned, and one ferocious ghostly creature after another flew out from within.

In the blink of an eye, over a hundred ghostly creatures appeared.

Most of them were at the Foundation Establishment stage, but there were also five or six whose bodies were significantly larger, emanating auras that reached the Core Formation stage.

"Kill!" The horse-faced youth grinned maliciously, pointing at Gu Yunyue and the others.

Roar! Roar! Roar!

The hundred-odd ghostly creatures pounced toward the Spirit Moon Flying Boat with astonishing momentum.

Gu Yunyue's expression changed drastically. She withdrew her hands from the silver brocade handkerchief and slapped her storage pouch. Four beams of white light flew out from the pouch and landed around her, revealing four humanoid white jade puppets, each about a zhang tall, clad in armor and holding wide white banners that shimmered with spiritual light.

The four puppets merely shook the banners in their hands, and a dazzling white light burst forth from their bodies, rapidly connecting to form a white formation that enveloped the Spirit Moon Flying Boat.

The formation had just taken shape when the nearly hundred ghostly creatures pounced, surrounding the white formation in a tight circle.

Roar! Roar!

These ferocious ghostly creatures howled incessantly, clawing and biting, attacking the white formation with all their might.

Especially the several Core Formation stage ghostly creatures, which continuously spat beams of green light from their mouths, bombarding the formation.

The white formation immediately shook violently.

Gu Yunyue hastily formed hand seals, and beams of white light fell upon the four puppets, gradually stabilizing the formation.

The horse-faced youth's figure flickered, and he also shot toward the vicinity of the white formation. Muttering incantations under his breath, a large expanse of gray-white flames emerged from his body, forming a sea of fire over ten zhang in size.

He grabbed at the air with both hands, and a small portion of the gray-white flames in the sea of fire separated, condensing into two flame spears several zhang long.

With a wave of his arm, the flame spears shot out like lightning, emitting a piercing shriek, and struck the white formation with force.

Two loud booms!

The fire spears shattered, but the white formation also shook violently, causing Gu Yunyue inside to tremble as well, her face turning a few shades paler.

The horse-faced youth sneered without stopping, hurling one flame spear after another, bombarding the formation in succession.

The white formation, originally seven or eight zhang in size, shook violently, its light rapidly dimming and shrinking. Before long, it had shrunk to less than three zhang.

Gu Yunyue's face grew even paler, fine beads of sweat appearing on her forehead, and her body trembled slightly.

Above the formation, the hunchbacked old man, seeing Gu Yunyue's expression, laughed heartily. He slapped his storage pouch, and twelve beams of black light shot out, revealing twelve bone forks.

The bone forks swelled in the wind, and black flames burst forth from their surfaces with a crackling sound. They flew down, exuding a chilly, bone-piercing aura, and stabbed toward the white formation.

Qi Xuan had ordered the two of them to come; whoever could kill Gu Yunyue would naturally achieve a great merit.

Gu Yunyue was now at the end of her strength, so the hunchbacked old man immediately moved to steal the credit.

The horse-faced youth was furious, but since the hunchbacked old man's cultivation was higher than his, he could only swallow his anger.

Seeing this, a trace of despair crept into Gu Yunyue's eyes.

But at that moment, a figure shot up from the spirit boat, flickered, and directly passed through the white formation, appearing in midair outside—it was Han Li.

His form swayed left and right, suddenly transforming into several afterimages, then swiftly merged back into one.

The twelve descending bone forks vanished in a bizarre manner.

The hunchbacked old man's gaze sharpened, then his expression changed drastically.

Han Li slowly opened his hands in midair, and the twelve bone forks were all within them. He rubbed his hands together, and the black flames on the twelve bone forks dissipated, revealing their true forms.

He glanced at these bone forks, then waved his hand and put them away, his expression unchanging throughout, as if he had done something trivial.

"You, you..." The hunchbacked old man pointed a finger at Han Li, shocked and enraged.

Those ghostly creatures, sensing the living human aura on Han Li, immediately abandoned the white formation and pounced toward him, letting out excited roars.

"Annoying!"

Han Li frowned, his form flickering again as he turned into a blurry green shadow and charged into the midst of the ghostly creatures.

Wherever the green shadow passed, the ghostly creatures burst apart like waves crashing against a rock, shattered to pieces.

In the blink of an eye, the nearly hundred ghostly creatures were all killed by the green shadow, sweeping through them like an autumn wind blowing away fallen leaves.

The horse-faced youth stood dumbfounded, staring blankly at everything before him.

The figure flickered, and Han Li appeared before him, throwing a punch.

"Boom!"

Before the horse-faced youth could even let out a scream, his body burst apart into a shower of minced flesh, and even the Nascent Soul hiding inside could not escape.

"Not good!"

The hunchbacked old man was greatly alarmed at this sight. He hastily waved his sleeve, and a dense array of green flying needles emerged, numbering in the hundreds, each a foot long and as thin as hair, with green flames burning on them.

The countless fine needles rained down toward Han Li like a storm, producing a dense, hissing sound.

Almost simultaneously, the old man's body erupted with rolling green flames, and he turned around to flee into the distance, abandoning even the golden giant tower.

Seeing this, Han Li did not move from his spot but opened his mouth and suddenly took a deep breath.

"Rumble"

A tremendous suction force suddenly appeared in the void before him, causing the airflow within ten zhang to reverse and the space to hum and buzz.

The rain of flying needles was immediately swept up by the suction force, like autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves, and all disappeared into Han Li's mouth.

He chewed with his mouth, making crunching sounds, then tilted his head back slightly and swallowed them directly.

Gu Yunyue, witnessing this, opened her mouth slightly and stood there stunned.

On the nearby flying boat, Yu Menghan and Liu Le'er only saw a blur in the sky before their eyes, seemingly not understanding what had just happened, as the two enemies were either dead or fleeing, leaving them also dumbfounded.

At this moment, Han Li glanced at the green light of the fleeing hunchbacked old man in the distance, his expression calm. A faint golden light flickered on his arm, and he threw a punch.

A sound of air being torn!

Behind the hunchbacked old man, a golden fist shadow the size of a head flickered into existence, shooting out several times faster than his escape speed.

"Ah!"

The hunchbacked old man's expression changed drastically. His body trembled, and a layer of black light emerged on his skin, but the next moment, the golden fist shadow struck him with force.

Boom!

The green ghost fire burst apart, but there was no trace of flesh and blood, only a pile of white bones scattered everywhere.

At the same time, in a void dozens of li away, a fluctuation occurred, and a large expanse of black light appeared out of thin air, from which a figure stumbled out—it was the hunchbacked old man.

He looked back in terror, then spat out another mouthful of green light, which turned into rolling green flames enveloping his body, and shot into the distance, disappearing over the horizon in the blink of an eye.

Han Li's divine sense had already spread out, naturally covering the situation dozens of li away. He was about to chuckle and make a move when he suddenly lowered his head to look at the green light on his body, which was noticeably dimmer than before.

Han Li frowned, then abandoned the thought of continuing the pursuit. Instead, he waved his hand, sending out a beam of green light that swept up the horse-faced youth's storage pouch, then turned and landed on the Spirit Moon Flying Boat.

In this series of battles, although he had mainly relied on his physical strength, his magical power had inevitably been consumed considerably.