Chapter 496: Conflict

"Uncle, you're too slow! Tell me what I should do? My hands are itching." Gold Boy, now free, stretched his limbs and buzzed.

"Don't rush to deal with him; first help me snatch back a Taiyi Pill." Han Li said hastily.

With Feng Tiandu occupying the others, this was the perfect opportunity to seize the Taiyi Pill, and he didn't want to miss it.

The golden beetle swayed its head, looking at Feng Tiandu and then at the furnace, hesitating. Then she spoke again: "Alright, I've been craving that jade furnace for a while; I'll eat it first..."

These words shocked everyone present.

Recalling how she had devoured Xiao Jinhan's magic treasure and nascent soul, the crowd erupted in uproar. If she ate the furnace now, the remaining pills inside would be completely destroyed.

"Gold Devouring Immortal, d-don't..." Luo Qinghai shouted loudly.

As he spoke, the blue waves surging around him suddenly flared with light, threatening to burst the chains binding him.

Seeing this, Feng Tiandu focused his mind and cast a spell to tighten the chains, firmly restraining him. Among those in the golden hall, Luo Qinghai was the one he feared most.

Both had high cultivation and wielded astonishing law power. Though slowed within Han Li's time domain, they fared better than the others.

"There are still unfinished pills in the furnace; you can't eat it now..." Han Li, greatly troubled, quickly dissuaded her.

"This isn't allowed, that isn't allowed—how annoying..."

Gold Boy grumbled angrily, unsure if she heeded Han Li's words. Spreading her wings, she charged straight into the sea of fire prohibition.

Seeing this, Qi Tianxiao sneered, took a pill, and quietly shifted his position, locking his gaze on Gold Boy without immediately pursuing.

He calculated that with the Gold Devouring Immortal's childish nature, unaware of the true danger of the fire sea, she would be severely burned upon forcing her way in. Then he could capture and slowly tame her for his own use.

But he never expected Han Li to follow closely, appearing before Gold Boy in a flash.

Han Li formed a bizarre hand seal, and a silver flame rose in his palms, which he thrust into the sea of fire.

The moment his hands touched the edge of the fire sea, his expression changed drastically, his brows furrowed in pain.

The heat of the flames was far beyond his expectations.

He parted his hands, and the silver flame in his palms acted like a fireproof barrier, pushing back the surrounding fire sea to reveal a slowly expanding circular opening.

As a result, his time domain visibly thinned, and everyone felt slightly relieved.

"Go in quickly; I can't hold on much longer..." Han Li's hands had turned bright red, and his sleeves had burned to ashes, but he gritted his teeth and persisted.

Seeing this, Gold Boy immediately flapped her wings to dart through the opening.

At that moment, a thick gray mist surged from the side, blocking Gold Boy's path and coalescing into Qi Tianxiao's form.

"Get lost!" Gold Boy roared angrily.

Qi Tianxiao's expression remained unchanged. He shook his sleeves, and rolling gray mist poured out, instantly transforming into seven or eight gray pythons that coiled toward Gold Boy.

Gold Boy's ferocity erupted, and she opened her mouth to bite the oncoming gray pythons.

Han Li struggled to hold on; his hands were nearly transparent, and he was about to give out. His time domain had also become somewhat thin.

"You few, don't worry about me for now; go seize the Taiyi Pill." Seeing this, Luo Qinghai quickly ordered the four Golden Immortals of Cangliu Palace.

The four paused, then mobilized their law power to resist the thinning pressure of Han Li's time domain and headed toward the furnace.

Luo Qinghai glanced over and transmitted a message to Nanke Meng: "How is it? Have you found a way to break the prohibition?"

"I've spotted a few weaknesses, but I don't have a good solution yet." Nanke Meng shook her head and replied via transmission.

"No matter. Tell them the weaknesses and let them try one by one." Luo Qinghai replied.

"Grand Palace Master Luo, it seems your disciple is no ordinary person. No wonder you brought her along." Feng Tiandu noticed their exchange and guessed the gist, clicking his tongue in admiration.

With that, he formed a hand seal, and a black chain shot out from within his robe, instantly piercing Nanke Meng's abdomen and entering her dantian.

Her nascent soul was immediately sealed by the spirit-severing chain, and the light in her eyes dimmed.

"Meng'er..." Luo Qinghai's expression changed as he cried out.

At the same time, the blue light on his body grew brighter and brighter, as if endless blue waves surged violently, battering the spirit-severing chain binding him.

Feng Tiandu's expression remained unchanged as he injected more immortal spiritual power into the chain, pressing down on Luo Qinghai.

In truth, he was also feeling extremely frustrated at this moment.

He had calculated a thousand times but never expected the restrictions around the furnace to be so formidable, causing two Golden Immortals of his own sect to fall here without any chance to fight back, greatly reducing their strength and giving the advantage to the Cangliu Palace, which harbored its own ulterior motives.

Coupled with Han Li, that troublesome character, stirring up trouble, he might very well end up with nothing to show for his efforts.

Before he could stabilize Luo Qinghai's side, a loud crash came from the chain binding Hu Yan.

There, embedded in the chain just a foot away from Hu Yan's lower abdomen, was that strange lotus-branch flying sword, its pink flower shadows suddenly blooming, closing like a bud, and then exploding with a bang.

The black chain that had penetrated Hu Yan's lower abdomen snapped apart with a loud crack.

At the same time, Yun Ni's figure drifted down from midair, a trace of blood at the corner of her mouth, staggering backward.

Just then, a black figure flashed by and caught her shoulder, steadying her.

"Reckless! What do you think you're doing!" Hu Yan, now transformed into a black-bearded man, shouted harshly, but his eyes were full of concern.

"It's nothing. As long as you're fine." Yun Ni steadied herself, wiped the blood from her lips, and said softly.

Hu Yan frowned slightly, about to say something more, but she gently shook her head to stop him.

Not far from them, Ouyang Kuishan, whose body was covered in black patterns, was uncontrollably rushing toward the sea of fire restrictions, but his eyes were fixed on Hu Yan, filled with a complex mix of envy and regret.

Hu Yan and Yun Ni exchanged a glance, then, holding hands, they flashed to Ouyang Kuishan's side.

Yun Ni flicked her wrist, and a red silk ribbon shot out, wrapping around Ouyang Kuishan's waist and pulling him back firmly.

Hu Yan also grabbed hold of a flying sword wreathed in crimson flames and slashed at the pitch-black chain that had penetrated Ouyang Kuishan's dantian.

A sharp clang rang out!

A slender crimson line of fire appeared on the black chain, and it snapped in two.

"Thank you."

The black patterns on Ouyang Kuishan's body gradually faded, and his aura returned to normal. He nodded to the two of them.

Seeing this, Feng Tiandu's expression grew even more ferocious. He raised his withered, claw-like hand and beckoned.

The two severed sections of the Soul Severing Chain that had been cut from Han Li and the Devouring Gold Beetle immediately flew back into his hand.

"Finally back. Now it's complete..." Feng Tiandu said slowly, gently stroking the two chains.

With that, he lightly raised his hand, and the two chains immediately rose like snake heads, twisting and crawling under his robe, slowly extending to the ground like the others.

"Heh heh heh..."

Feng Tiandu glanced at the chains beneath him, slowly raised his head, and a hoarse laugh came from his throat.

His hands reached out in front of him, and bright red blood gathered between his fingers, dripping slowly onto the black chains below.

A blood-red light spread, and a continuous clattering sound filled the hall. Dense, dark red chains, like thousands of writhing snakes, covered the entire floor and surged toward everyone's feet.

Luo Qinghai and the others, still trapped, were immediately wrapped layer by layer like zongzi, forming seven-foot-tall towers of chains.

Seeing this, Hu Yan reversed his longsword, pointing the tip downward, and stabbed it fiercely into the floor.

A crimson light barrier instantly expanded from beneath the sword tip, carrying rolling waves of scorching heat, pushing back the invading chains by three feet.

The four Golden Immortals of Cangliu Palace each held a piece of emerald token, from which dazzling blue light bloomed, forming a square crystal house around them, also blocking the chains' assault.

"What do we do?" The old Golden Immortal of Cangliu Palace glanced at Luo Qinghai's side, hesitating.

"Since the Great Palace Master told us to seize the pills first, we obey." The pale-faced scholar said after a moment of silence.

The four of them composed themselves and began discussing how to break the sea of fire restrictions and seize the Taiyi Pills.

On the other side, Jin Tong found fighting inside the hall with Qi Tianxiao too restrictive and had already fought their way outside.

Seeing the dense chains reaching his feet, Han Li could only sigh, release his hands, and slowly withdraw them.

As he pulled back his hands, the gap he had opened in the sea of fire slowly closed.

His figure flashed, and he also arrived beside Yun Ni and the other two. In his hands, he already held two Immortal Origin Stones, rapidly absorbing their immortal spiritual power, and the temporal domain he had released was also withdrawn.

Having just deployed his domain while simultaneously activating three Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords and releasing the Soul-Devouring True Flame to hold open the sea of fire restrictions, he had naturally consumed a great deal of immortal spiritual power.

"Now that the Devouring Gold Immortal is gone, it's time for us to settle accounts." Feng Tiandu's eyes blazed with fury as he looked at Han Li and said slowly.

As his words fell, his figure, like a solitary boat half-hidden beneath the sea of chains, drifted toward Han Li and the others with ease.