Chapter 749: Emergence

After a dozen breaths, accompanied by a thunderous roar that made Han Li and the others' hearts tremble violently, Yin Xu and Gui Mu finally broke through the outer formation.

"We're still short; hurry!" Shi Chuankong said through gritted teeth, sweat streaming down his forehead.

"There's no time. You continue the setup; I'll find a way to buy some time." Bai Liyan stood up and said solemnly.

"Master, I can't be of much help here either, so I'll go with Fellow Daoist Bai to hold them off!" Ti Hun also said.

"It's too dangerous for the two of you to go like this. They are both genuine Daluo realm cultivators. Outside, a single thought from them would be enough to annihilate you." Han Li frowned, not pausing his work.

"If we don't hold them off, they'll break in before we can release that thing, and then we'll truly be sitting ducks. When the Candle Dragon Dao was destroyed by Xiao Jinhan, my baleful qi backlash nearly ruined everything, thanks to Fellow Daoist Li's Taiyi Pill. Then I was captured and brought to the Nether Domain, only to be rescued by Fellow Daoist Ti Hun. I, Bai Liyan, have already died twice. Let's see if my luck holds this time!" Bai Liyan laughed heartily and said.

"Master, rest assured. I am, after all, a confidant of the Nine Nether Domain Lord. They wouldn't dare to truly kill me. With me and Fellow Daoist Bai going together, we should be able to buy some time." Ti Hun added.

"Be careful, and avoid direct confrontation." Han Li's eyes showed a complex expression as he spoke.

Bai Liyan and Ti Hun exchanged a glance, then simultaneously flickered and flew out of the hall's doorway, one after the other.

In the small square outside the hall, Gui Mu and Yin Xu had just rushed up, only to be met head-on by a massive black fireball.

With a thunderous boom!

The enormous fireball exploded, scattering a shower of meteor-like flames.

Beneath the blazing curtain of fire, a huge green-black shield dispersed into countless ghostly vines, swiftly retracting into Gui Mu's sleeve.

"You reckless fools, do you know where this is? How dare you cause trouble here!" Gui Mu glared at Ti Hun and the others who had rushed into the square, coldly rebuking.

"Stop wasting words with them. Finish this quickly." Yin Xu quickly scanned the surroundings and said.

Bai Liyan said nothing, raised his hand, formed a finger seal, chanted a few incantations, then suddenly pointed at his own dantian.

"Ah..."

With a heart-wrenching roar, a bright red light like magma lit up at his dantian, from which split bright red crack lines that quickly spread across his entire body.

Immediately afterward, wisps of black flames emerged layer by layer from the cracks on its body, mixed with thick, rolling black smoke that blotted out the sky and covered the earth, quickly engulfing the entire small square.

Seeing this, Ti Hun swept to the side, then suddenly raised both arms, clenched fists, and stepped forward, letting out a roar utterly incongruous with her appearance.

"Roar..."

With a wild roar, black light swirled rapidly around her body, her eyes turned blood-red, and her form swelled rapidly, soon transforming into a black giant ape over a hundred zhang tall.

Its jet-black fur stood on end like steel needles, a strange horn grew from its head, fangs bared, and the skin on its brow split open to reveal a third blood-red demonic eye. On its back, three pitch-black bone spurs protruded, exuding a chilling aura of yin energy.

"You traitor, Youluo! The Master favored you, yet you have revealed your true form as a Punishment Beast for an outsider—this is unforgivable!" Guimu said darkly, his face grim.

As his words fell, a series of violent rumbles came from above. Deep within the thick black smoke, it seemed as if countless bolts of lightning were striking each other, bursting with flashes of electricity.

Amid the smoke and lightning, the massive form of a black Candle Dragon loomed indistinctly, its body wreathed in karmic flames, writhing slowly in the air, blocking the hall behind it.

Due to its enormous size, the dragon's back scraped violently against the void restrictions above, sending sparks flying and rumbling incessantly.

"They're counting on us not daring to break the restrictions and being unable to fight freely, which is why they dare to act so recklessly. Elder Guimu, go and undo all the restrictions within the forbidden area." Yinxu sneered and spoke.

"What! How can that be?" Guimu was startled and quickly said.

"They've already broken in. What use is it to keep these outer restrictions active? They'll only tie our hands. If we strike too hard and accidentally shatter the restrictions, it could trigger a chain reaction and directly damage the seal inside. It's better for us to undo them ourselves and finish this quickly." Yinxu said with a dark expression.

"But this..." Guimu was still hesitant.

"You know all the hubs within the formation. Take the Netherworld Token and go at once. This is no longer a matter of whether you or I will be punished. If we delay the Domain Lord's arrangements, we would be guilty of a crime worthy of ten thousand deaths." Yinxu scolded.

Upon hearing this, Guimu stomped his foot, turned around, and shot toward a corner of the square without looking back.

"Since we are guilty of a crime worthy of ten thousand deaths, then let you be ground to dust... Dark Prison!" Yinxu roared, and his aura surged several times over.

A patch of black light lit up beneath his feet, and a vast expanse of shadow as black as ink flowed out rapidly, spreading across the sky and covering the earth. The shadow on the ground rose, and the shadow in the sky descended, closing together like a great cauldron, enveloping the entire square and the void above it.

Baili Yan and Ti Hun, who had revealed their true forms, felt as if they had been suddenly pulled into another void. In an instant, they could not see, could not hear, lost all five senses, and could no longer even sense the aura of heaven and earth.

After a moment, the layers of light screens covering the palace buildings vanished completely. Within a mass of thick, unyielding dark shadow, rumbles continued unabated as it rapidly expanded.

……

Meanwhile, inside the hall, with a soft click, the sound of mechanisms turning came from all around.

Han Li and the other two stood around the sacrificial pit, looking up at the ceiling above, not daring to breathe.

On the dome, layers of circular runes began to glow with dark light, rotating ring by ring. The stone pillar at the center started descending inch by inch.

With a clang,

the descending stone pillar fit perfectly into the altar below, one convex and one concave, embedding into the sacrificial pit.

Click, click, click.

As the mechanisms turned, a dense, pitch-black baleful aura rose from underground, flooding the entire hall floor.

Seeing this, Han Li and the others instinctively stepped back.

Then, the entire stone chamber began to tremble violently. The baleful-absorbing ink stones embedded in the floor and ceiling lit up like stars in the dim hall, and the runes on the ground also began to glow.

At that moment, a sound like a beast panting drifted from somewhere in the hall.

"Something seems off." Han Li sensed a strange aura and murmured.

Shi Chuankong and the other also tensed up immediately.

Han Li's eyes flickered, and he suddenly saw that on the wall behind Hu San, the relief of Kunhou suddenly lit up, as if a wave of crimson fire had swept across it, covered in a layer of hazy mist that made it hard to see clearly.

In a daze, he felt that the ferocious beasts carved on the wall seemed to come alive, trembling, and the scene of them devouring each other became more vivid. The piles of skulls also shook violently, as if they would roll into the hall at any moment.

Just as he was about to speak, he saw the eyes of the Kunhou relief on the wall suddenly light up.

"Hu San, dodge!" Han Li shouted.

Without any hesitation, Hu San tilted his head and sidestepped. A whoosh of air brushed past his ear.

A fist-sized crimson fireball and a pitch-black fireball, intertwined, shot out from the statue's eye sockets and struck the stone pillar hanging from the ceiling.

With a loud bang!

Two bursts of firelight splashed up large sparks, then spiraled up the black stone pillars left and right, like two fire serpents coiling around the pillars. One climbed to the top of the hall, while the other slithered toward the altar on the ground, lighting up countless talisman inscriptions along the way.

Han Li and the others looked on with expressions of shock and uncertainty.

Above their heads, a great black light flared, echoing the crimson glow on the ground, like a prairie fire kindled under the dark night sky.

Rumbling sounds came from underground, and the crimson light on the ground grew ever brighter. Waves of scorching heat actually began to rise from below.

With a crack!

The altar connected to the stone pillar shook violently. Cracks immediately appeared on the ground around it, and the floor became unstable, beginning to collapse.

"Watch out," Han Li said in a low voice, immediately floating into the air.

Shi Chuankong and Hu San also quickly lit up their escape lights and flew into midair.

The three frowned and looked down, seeing the entire hall floor split into countless fragments, breaking apart like floating ice on a river and falling downward.

Beneath the ground, a huge deep pit appeared, extending downward for who knew how many thousands of li. Inside, light flickered, with half crimson flames and half black flames intermingling and burning fiercely.

Below the stone pillar connecting the altar, a thick pillar led deep into the earth, densely inscribed with ancient talisman patterns, glowing red hot from the scorching flames below.

A purple light flashed in Han Li's eyes as he activated his Netherworld Pupils and gazed downward.

Within the red and black flames, he could sense traces of the law of fire as well as strong karma-fire baleful aura. Deep inside, crisscrossing crimson chains seemed to be wrapped around the stone pillar.

Beneath the layers of interlocking chains, a blurry shadow flickered continuously.

Just as Han Li was absorbed in watching, his pupils suddenly contracted, and his body instinctively shot backward, crashing into the dome of the hall.

In the underground pit, the blazing flames suddenly surged up like a volcanic eruption with a roar.

"Roar..."

Accompanied by a soul-shaking roar, a gigantic, ferocious hand suddenly thrust out from the flames, grabbing at the void where Han Li had been a moment before. Missing, it slammed onto the ground at the edge of the pit with a clang.

That hand was over a hundred zhang long, as if forged from fine rock and iron, covered in angular black stones. Its surface was shrouded in sharp protrusions like thorns, wrapped in a dense layer of black flames.