Chapter 288: A Helping Hand

Taking advantage of the stalemate between the Essence Flame and the azure flame, Han Li formed a sword seal with one hand and flicked his wrist, producing a green longsword in his palm. At the same time, he swept out from behind the Heavy Water True Wheel and charged straight at the burly man.

The latter, seeing this, immediately changed his hand seal. The azure fire lotus blazed brighter, spewing forth clusters of azure flames that surged toward Han Li.

Han Li swung his longsword, sending out a series of hazy sword shadows that bloomed like a lotus before him, deflecting each azure flame.

Those flames were extremely sticky, capable of instantly adhering to the Heavy Water True Wheel, yet now they could not touch the longsword at all. This sight made the burly man pause in surprise.

Clearly, he had not expected his strange fire to fail.

Gritting his teeth, he spat out a mouthful of essence blood and flicked a finger toward it.

The essence blood instantly turned into a blood mist, which vanished in a flash into the azure fire lotus.

The fire lotus then spun wildly, and all its petals trembled before shooting out, transforming into azure flame blades more eerie than before, sweeping toward Han Li in a sky-covering torrent.

Han Li calmly formed a sword seal with one hand while raising his sword with the other and swinging it. The sword blade blazed with green light, and thousands of giant sword shadows, clear and bright as water, shot forth, surging through the air toward the burly man.

The countless sword shadows seemed chaotic, like an army without a commander, crisscrossing and ramming wildly in midair. Yet, by sheer coincidence, these rambling sword shadows managed to block all the incoming azure flame blades.

The sword shadows swept past, reflecting the void's light, making that patch of sky appear somewhat blurred.

A second sense of foreboding arose in the burly man's heart. Resolving not to tangle with this opponent further, he changed his hand seals and clapped his palms together before him.

A thunderous boom resounded!

The azure fire lotus suddenly expanded severalfold, then all its petals opened wide and exploded with a roar. Countless viscous flames surged out, turning into a sea of azure fire that directly swallowed the sword shadows.

For a moment, sword shadows clashed and lotus fire boiled, spreading an intensely hot yet fiercely sharp aura in all directions.

After doing all this, the burly man, without hesitation, pinched a golden talisman between two fingers. It ignited instantly at his fingertips. He spun around, transformed into a golden arc, and vanished from the spot.

However, in the void a hundred li away, a massive cyan longsword suddenly appeared out of thin air. That golden arc happened to strike right on the sword's edge, and its body was split in two from the middle, falling down.

Immediately after, a purple Nascent Soul miniature, whose features closely resembled those of the burly man, flashed out from the remains, his face full of terror as he fled into the distance. But before he could fly far, he was caught squarely by a silver net that had already been laid out.

Amidst a series of crackling electric sounds, the Nascent Soul miniature turned into a wisp of green smoke and completely disappeared.

The burly man died without ever knowing how the one wearing the ox-head mask had managed to travel a hundred li in an instant to intercept and kill him.

In fact, it was very simple. At the moment the man detonated the Nether Phosphorous Bone Fire, Han Li activated the divine ability of Reversing the True Wheel, accelerating his own time flow, thus covering in one breath a distance that would have taken others several breaths to cross.

Han Li made a single-handed gesture to retrieve the cyan longsword, and without any pause in his movement, he flew down. With a light wave of his hand toward the burly man's body, the storage bracelet and storage ring on his hand flew up into the air and landed in Han Li's grasp.

He briefly examined them and found many good things inside. Delighted, he put them away, planning to inspect them carefully after this matter was concluded.

Then, he turned his body and transformed into a streak of light, speeding back toward the direction of the Heavy Water True Wheel.

By this time, the Essence Flame Firebird had already devoured the Nether Phosphorous Bone Fire, which had lost the support of its master's immortal spiritual power. It had now transformed into a small flame figure, sitting on the Heavy Water True Wheel, swinging its two little legs, with a satisfied expression on its small face.

As soon as he saw Han Li return, he immediately leaped up, transforming back into the form of a silver flame bird, and charged toward Han Li.

Han Li smiled, opened his sleeve, and took the opportunity to absorb it into his body.

He turned his gaze and looked back at the giant puppet, where the battle between the Sacred Puppet Sect and the Ten Directions Tower was extremely fierce. Most of the puppet army released by the Sacred Puppet Sect had been routed, while more than half of the Ten Directions Tower's forces had been killed or wounded.

Among them, several Mahayana and Combined Cultivation cultivators from the Ten Directions Tower could be vaguely seen quietly withdrawing from the battle group, swiftly flying toward the giant puppet formed from the small island, attempting to secretly destroy it in order to completely open the colorful light array covering the main island.

But before they could get close, the giant, pure-white puppet, without moving its head, suddenly twisted its body around. The silver greatsword it gripped tightly blazed with bright runes, white cyclones coiling around it as it swept toward them.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..."

The hurricane winds swept through, the void trembled, and countless chaotic blades of wind surged forth, precisely engulfing the few who had just flown close.

Those few hastily released their protective treasures, but they could only barely hold out for a moment before being torn to pieces one after another, with only a few nascent souls managing to escape.

As Han Li took in all of this, he also summoned the Heavy Water True Wheel behind him and flew over toward Lin Jiu.

Lin Jiu was now locked in a bitter struggle, gradually even losing the upper hand.

The plump woman, having cast some unknown spell, suddenly transformed into a woman in red robes. Not only had her cultivation base risen by a level, but even her techniques and abilities were vastly different.

The seemingly ordinary red oilpaper umbrella was exceedingly eerie; once it covered one's head, strands of red threads would drip down from it. If one was not careful, they would be entangled, and their immortal spiritual power would become sluggish.

Fortunately, the brilliant light released from his Nine-Star Golden Sword protected his body, so he was only occasionally hit, not completely bound by the red threads.

The red-spotted golden tiger released from the golden ancient mirror was now covered in wounds, yet it still stayed close to him without leaving, because the gaunt old man was now drifting unpredictably around Lin Jiu and the red-robed woman, seemingly looking for an opportunity.

The azure giant serpent the old man had released earlier had been torn to pieces by the giant tiger, so his eyes were full of unwillingness, clearly intending to kill Lin Jiu and take his belongings as compensation.

"Now!"

The red-robed woman had clearly noticed everything that had just happened with Han Li. A murderous glint flashed in her eyes. She clasped her hands in the void, and a red light flashed in her arms, immediately revealing a blood-colored pipa as smooth as jade.

She pressed one hand on the frets and lightly stroked the soundboard with the other, gently plucking the strings.

"Zheng, zheng, zheng..."

Upon hearing this sound, Lin Jiu felt his scalp go numb.

It was not that the sound was too harsh or unpleasant; on the contrary, the pipa's sound was very crisp and loud, like silver beads falling into a jade plate, very pleasing to the ear.

But the moment the sound rang out, the red oilpaper umbrella above suddenly glowed with blood light and doubled in size.

The blood-colored threads hanging from it became denser, like slender snakes, crazily thrusting toward him, several times faster than before.

At the same time, the gaunt old man also made his move. With a flick of his hand, a three-colored ring flew out with a roar, and in a flash, it transformed into countless overlapping rings of three colors, tightly binding the charging giant tiger.

He himself appeared like a ghost in the void below Lin Jiu. With a sweep of his sleeve, a dazzling sword light more than ten zhang long flashed out, slashing upward toward Lin Jiu.

Lin Jiu's heart tightened, and he had no choice but to divert the golden ancient mirror to block that dazzling sword light.

In doing so, although he blocked the old man's sneak attack, a gap appeared in his defense. Carelessly, he was struck by several red threads simultaneously on his shoulder and back.

Those red threads, made of unknown material, once they entered the body, immediately took root and sprouted, splitting into several branches that burrowed into his flesh.

"Not good!"

Lin Jiu felt numbness in his shoulder and arm, and the circulation of his immortal spiritual power became sluggish. He was terrified out of his wits.

Just then, from the corner of his eye, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a black shadow flashing by his side. His heart cried out in alarm, and just as he was about to use a life-saving talisman, he heard a sound like a diabolo spinning in front of him.

A black-light-emitting treasure wheel roared past, sweeping almost close to his chest, knocking away a sinisterly thrusting emerald-green dagger.

Immediately after, a figure flashed over, sweeping a long sword in hand. With a flash of green light, the red threads, like puppet strings, snapped and retracted.

The threads remaining in Lin Jiu's body, as if vines suddenly deprived of moisture, turned grayish-white and lost their effect.

"Great kindness need not be spoken; I owe you a favor!" Lin Jiu said solemnly, looking at Han Li, who held a green long sword.

"Let's deal with these two first," Han Li said with a wave of his hand.

"Alright." Lin Jiu moved his shoulder, found that the previous sluggish numbness had completely disappeared, and with a grim expression beneath his mask, said in a deep voice.

On the other side, the gaunt old man and the red-robed woman had also regrouped. They looked at each other, both seeing a trace of shock in the other's eyes.

They had not expected that the seemingly weaker ox-headed man not only killed one of their companions in no time, not even letting his Nascent Soul escape, but also, on his own, broke their combined attack.

"It seems this fight is unwinnable. I'll take my leave first," the gaunt old man sighed and said.

With that, he did not linger at all. A streak of escape light rose around him, and he instantly fled far away.

"Cunning old thing..." the red-robed woman spat lightly, cursing.

In the previous battle, using that human-skin tattoo treasure had already drained her greatly. She had hoped that with the combined attack of the gaunt old man, they could at least eliminate one person and reap some benefits, but now Han Li had ruined it.

Now, naturally, she would not stay to fight alone. After all, they were all here to scavenge; no one would truly risk their life, or they would be fools.

With a wave of her hands, the red oilpaper umbrella suddenly spun in midair, carrying her as she flew away, at an extremely fast speed.