Chapter 301: Baleful Qi

"Fellow Daoist Lu Ji, I'm afraid there's no need to try again. We should leave first." His gaze darkened as he transmitted his voice to the sword-bearing man.

"My sword has already been drawn a few inches; there's no reason to sheathe it now." Lu Ji snorted, replying decisively.

With that, his long sword clattered out of its sheath, and a colossal snow-white sword aura shot straight upward, piercing the nine heavens.

"Well done!" Hu Yanzi laughed upon seeing this, raising a single hand.

In the void behind him, a resounding phoenix cry rang out, and a crimson sword materialized in midair, hovering there.

Golden spirit patterns on the blade gleamed brightly, casting a giant sword shadow over a thousand zhang long. Crimson flames burst from the shadow on both sides, like two flaming wings of a thousand zhang, spreading across the sky.

Instantly, within nearly a thousand li of the main island of the Sacred Puppet Sect, the temperature soared, and a scorching heat filled the air.

At the same time, the black giant axes of the nearly thousand black-clothed bean soldiers also lit up with spirit patterns, bursting into blazing flames as they chopped toward the azure-armored soldiers and the Ten Directions Tower cultivators.

Seeing this, the Sacred Puppet Sect members, who had already resigned themselves to death, were rekindled with hope. Overcome with joy, they wept. Someone raised a shout, and everyone began to furiously attack the Ten Directions Tower forces.

The scar-faced man could only sigh, leaping into the air to fly toward Lu Ji, but Yun Ni and Bai Fengyi had already moved ahead of him, flashing past to block his path.

The entire square descended into chaos once more, with fierce fighting erupting everywhere.

…

In the Thunderstorm Ocean, on a sea area hundreds of thousands of li from the Sacred Puppet Sect.

Han Li, wearing an ox-head mask, stood in the void, facing Chongluan from a distance.

Earlier, he had used the lightning array to teleport several times, but had never managed to shake off Chongluan, who followed him like a clinging bone.

"Han Li, even if you flee to the ends of the earth, you won't escape my grasp!" Chongluan spread his palm and clenched it into a fist before him, a mocking smile in his eyes.

"Having merely comprehended a bit of baleful qi laws, you spout such arrogant words. It seems you're not much better than that waste of a junior brother of yours, Fang Pan." Han Li retorted sarcastically.

"I didn't expect you to be able to discern the laws of baleful aura either; I underestimated you." Chongluan's voice turned cold.

"You were able to track me so easily and launch several silent attacks—you were using baleful aura as well, weren't you?" Han Li let out a low chuckle.

"Correct. In fact, each time you were the one carrying us far away, while I did nothing at all." Chongluan admitted directly, a hint of amusement on his face.

Han Li's expression remained unchanged upon hearing this, but his mind stirred.

In truth, he knew little about the laws of baleful aura; this law was not a common one, and he was unclear about its specific peculiarities.

The black crystalline thread that Chongluan had struck into his body earlier was a thread of baleful aura law condensed from it. The other seemed able to use it to lock onto his position and thereby make his body insubstantial, performing actions akin to teleportation.

Apart from that, although no abnormality had manifested, he could clearly feel the baleful aura within his heart gradually intensifying. Even with his formidable divine sense, he could not forcibly suppress it; rather, the more he suppressed it, the faster it grew.

Han Li vaguely felt that when this baleful aura reached a certain level, it would likely be the moment the scorched-faced man launched a sudden lethal attack on him.

Delay would breed变故; it was better to settle things quickly.

Having made up his mind, Han Li waved a single hand. Behind him, a burst of black light flared, and the Heavy Water True Wheel emerged, spinning swiftly as it shot out, smashing toward Chongluan.

The latter curled the corners of his mouth into a smile, neither dodging nor avoiding, but charging straight ahead.

At the instant the Heavy Water True Wheel struck, his body again turned insubstantial, transforming into black mist that the True Wheel pierced through.

Seeing this, Han Li formed a hand seal and muttered in a low voice, "Go."

The water-attribute dao patterns on the Heavy Water True Wheel immediately blazed with light, the wheel itself instantly doubling in size and spinning violently.

Driven by the True Wheel, the water-attribute spiritual energy in the void rapidly churned, emitting waves of immense tearing force that soon formed a massive water vortex, a thousand zhang high, on the sea surface.

Before Chongluan's body, transformed into black mist, could disperse, it was pulled by this force into the vortex. It let out only a faint cry before quickly disappearing within.

Seeing this, Han Li felt no relief. He flicked his wrist, and the rapidly spinning Heavy Water True Wheel immediately halted, flew back, and hovered before him.

The water vortex that had surged into the sky lost its momentum, crashing down and stirring up turbulent waves on the sea.

When the spray on the sea dissipated, there was nothing there—not a trace of Chongluan to be seen.

Han Li frowned. Just a moment ago, he felt an inexplicable surge of malevolence in his heart, and at his brow, hidden beneath the mask, strands of black mist began to condense.

At that moment, a dark shadow suddenly appeared in the seawater beneath him, spreading like ink from a squid's spray, quickly dyeing the sea within a thousand yards pitch-black.

On the sea surface, oily black waves churned as if boiling, and streams of black mist surged upward.

With a loud splash,

a massive wave rose from all directions, like a giant black carnivorous flower opening its maw and closing in, surrounding Han Li.

Han Li raised an eyebrow, and light flashed from his body as he prepared to dodge.

But at that moment, the black mist strands at his brow suddenly glowed with a dark light. A sharp pain shot through his sea of consciousness, and his body momentarily stalled, failing to evade. He and the True Wheel of Heavy Water were both engulfed by the black wave.

Han Li looked around but could only see a deep, ink-black void.

Blue light flickered in his eyes, and he saw strands of black mist floating in the void around him, covering an area of over a hundred yards, but he could not see through them.

He turned around and found that his divine sense was also greatly restricted; all he could perceive was the pervasive baleful aura.

Han Li took a deep breath and waved his hand. The True Wheel of Heavy Water immediately spun rapidly and shot forward.

With a dull thud,

the True Wheel of Heavy Water struck a water wall. After trembling violently a few times, it was entangled by layers of black mist and could not move.

The more he channeled immortal spiritual power to control the wheel, the more violently the surrounding black mist surged, binding the wheel ever tighter.

Han Li frowned slightly and formed a sword seal with one hand. A green sword shot out from his sleeve, its spiritual patterns gleaming with intense green light. It instantly split into seventy-two Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords, scattering in all directions.

The swords' edges were extremely sharp, and layers of green light rippling from their blades split into several more green sword shadows, densely numbering in the thousands, filling the surrounding space.

At this moment, if someone were outside this pitch-black space, they would see a black sphere over a hundred yards in diameter floating on the sea surface, continuously absorbing the ink-like black seawater.

On the sphere's surface, large, pointed bumps constantly emerged, deforming the sphere until it looked like a spiky black ball.

Not far from the spiky ball, a black crane with iron-black feathers and a golden crest hovered in midair, faint black flames flickering on its feathers, giving it an extraordinary appearance.

On the black crane's back sat a burly man with a scorched face, clad in a black cloak. He held a black blade in both hands, his eyes fixed on the black sphere.

On the blade's surface, circles of spiritual patterns flickered eerily, and black qi coiled around it, accompanied by faint wails and howls.

This man was none other than Chong Luan.

"Master, this fellow is quite tenacious!" the black crane suddenly craned its slender neck and said to Chong Luan in a sharp voice.

"No matter. The more he struggles, the faster the baleful water condenses, and the more my baleful essence erodes him. Once he tires out, that's when we finish him," Chong Luan said with a smile.

"If it weren't for uncovering the secrets he hides, Master wouldn't need to use such a tedious method. In a frontal assault with the Immortal-Slaying Blade, he would be no match for you," the black crane continued.

"Secrets that Fang Pan spent centuries trying to uncover—truly intriguing. If I can dig them all out, it will be worth the time and effort," Chong Luan said, his gaze sharpening.

As the man and crane conversed, the commotion from the black sphere gradually diminished until it fell completely still. The black liquid in the surrounding seawater had all merged into the sphere.

Strangely, the sphere did not grow larger but shrank considerably, its surface now solid and gleaming like a massive black crystal.

"Seems about right..." Chong Luan said, rising from the crane's back. He leaped forward, blade in hand, and flew to the sphere, reaching out to gently touch its surface.

Black light suddenly flared from his palm, and a black vortex emerged. The sphere's surface roiled with black smoke, which poured into the vortex and was absorbed into Chong Luan's body.

As the thick black smoke separated from the sphere, its volume shrank, and Han Li's figure was revealed.

He stood rigid, eyes tightly shut. The black mist strands on his brow had vanished, leaving only a black character "煞" (baleful) etched into his forehead, seemingly having seeped into his skin and merged with him.

Beside him, the seventy-two Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords and the True Wheel of Heavy Water were all encased in a thin layer of black crystal, their light dim, trembling slightly but unable to break free.

Chong Luan nodded in satisfaction and raised two fingers, pointing them at the "煞" character on Han Li's brow.

Once his fingertips touched it, all the secrets hidden in Han Li's mind would open their doors to him without hindrance, fully revealed.

But at that moment, a sudden change occurred.

Han Li's tightly shut eyes snapped open, blue light flashing. A sharp "hiss" sounded from his brow, and a crystalline thread shot out, shattering the "煞" character and flying straight toward Chong Luan's forehead.