Chapter 773: Surviving a Great Disaster

"All of you, come back!"

Feng Qingshui roared in fury as he reached out with his large hand.

The void around Han Li and the others flickered, and countless blue crystal threads materialized, wrapping around their bodies and pulling them outward.

But at that moment, the nearby void trembled again, and streaks of dark red light seeped out from within.

Silently, a massive mountain-like dark red circular wheel phantom emerged from the depths of the void. On this wheel were six pitch-black holes arranged in a hexagonal plum blossom pattern, embedded into the wheel.

Within each hole, black light churned, forming a vortex that rotated slowly.

As soon as the giant wheel appeared, it spun around, and an indescribably immense force emanated from the void.

The blue crystal threads enveloping Han Li and the others shattered into pieces, and their bodies regained freedom, flying toward the spatial passage along with the Luo Zha Pipa.

But just then, Ti Hun's eyes rolled back, and she fell unconscious.

Countless black qi burst from her pores, within which numerous human and beast faces faintly appeared, all flying toward the dark red giant wheel and vanishing into it.

Ti Hun's aura visibly weakened rapidly, and her body became faintly translucent.

Seeing this, Han Li quickly grabbed Ti Hun's body and, along with the Crab Immortal, stowed her into the Flower Branch Space.

No sooner had he done this than his vision went dark, and he was sucked into the spatial passage.

At the moment of entering the spatial passage, he heard Yin Chengquan's furious roar, and two distinct laws simultaneously descended upon him.

Then all sound behind him ceased abruptly, as if the spatial passage had closed. Although the two laws were cut off, a significant amount still followed them into the passage.

Han Li felt his body sink as the two laws engulfed him, his flying speed suddenly becoming extremely slow, and even the operation of his immortal spiritual power and divine sense became sluggish.

In a daze, he saw the Luo Zha Pipa ahead emitting rings of silver light. The gray and blue laws pressing on him were drawn away by the silver light, relieving him instantly.

He steadied himself and looked ahead.

The silver pipa was now flying suspended ahead, with a blue and a gray stream of light attached to its surface, spiraling around.

Several silver light threads flowed from the pipa's strings, like ribbons tying around Han Li and Shi Chuankong's waists, dragging them forward through the void.

Han Li's head throbbed and his body ached unbearably, but he could still clearly feel the powerful spatial forces pressing in from all sides. Lifting an arm felt like lifting a mountain; he couldn't move at all.

Shi Chuankong was not far away, looking equally miserable, his face full of pain.

Gritting his teeth, Han Li's eyes glowed with purple light as he gazed into the depths of the passage, but he only saw a void space. There seemed to be a powerful spatial tearing force attracting the silver pipa and pulling them forward.

Though filled with doubts, he secretly felt lucky. If he had stayed in the Cleansing Pool, with Liu Qi unable to protect himself, he would surely have been unable to escape from Yin Chengquan and the other Dao Ancestor.

But just then, the silver pipa ahead underwent a change.

The gray and blue streams of light attached to it seemed to be spinning faster and faster!

"Not good!" Han Li's heart sank, a sense of foreboding rising within him.

But now, he could do nothing at all.

Within a dozen breaths, the gray and blue streams spun faster and faster, then expanded and contracted before suddenly exploding.

Torrential waves of blue and gray intertwined light rolled outward in all directions, interweaving with the surrounding silver light.

The surrounding passage was instantly twisted by a violent force, gradually deforming, with countless silver specks drifting away.

Streaks of twisting force grazed Han Li's side, intensifying the spatial pressure around him. The forces converged at the front, ultimately acting on the silver pipa.

Shi Chuankong clearly sensed something was wrong, but like Han Li, he was like a small boat adrift in a vast ocean, unable to do anything but passively accept.

After only a dozen or so breaths, a faint cracking sound suddenly rang out!

Then, the silver pipa flying ahead began to tremble violently, unable to maintain its steady forward flight. Its trajectory became chaotic, and with a sudden jolt, it tumbled wildly in the void.

Dragged along by it, Han Li and the other man also tumbled violently in the void, feeling as if the world were turning upside down. Their vision became chaotic, and under the intense spatial pressure, their consciousness began to grow hazy.

……

After who knows how long, a sliver of light appeared in the dim world.

A streak of silver light shot out from where the brightness originated, revealing its true form, transforming back into a silver pipa, and flew down from the high sky.

Close behind, two figures also flew out swiftly, falling downward.

These two were none other than Han Li and Shi Chuankong.

After the chaotic jostling in the spatial passage, though neither had fainted, their divine senses were somewhat groggy, and it took a moment for their vision to clear.

Han Li looked at the void ahead, feeling the sky was gloomy, with wind howling past his ears. His body was above a range of green-black mountains, plummeting rapidly toward the ground.

He quickly circulated his immortal spiritual power, steadied himself, and hovered in midair.

Looking around, he saw not far away in the air, Shi Chuankong was also falling toward a mountain peak below.

At that moment, Shi Chuankong seemed to have just awakened. After a brief confusion in his eyes, a flash of遁光 appeared on his body. He steadied himself, then flew dozens of zhang in one breath and snatched the silver pipa back into his hands.

Holding the Luozha Pipa, he examined it with a look of pity. The silver light on the pipa had dimmed considerably, and there was a clear crack on the head of the instrument, splitting the carved runes in two.

Han Li opened his mouth, about to call out to him, when his whole body suddenly stiffened.

A series of crackling sounds like popping beans came from within his body. One immortal aperture after another lit up. Around him, strands of heaven and earth spiritual energy began to emerge, first like heavy snowflakes drifting down, then forming into large clouds of fluff, gathering toward him.

At this moment, Shi Chuankong also noticed the commotion and turned to look.

His brows raised, and a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes. He said, “Brother Li, you are…”

“I should have already broken through in the Cleansing Pool earlier, but the Gray Realm has no heaven and earth spiritual energy, so I couldn't impact and open immortal apertures. Now that I'm back, the spiritual energy is pouring in, and I'm about to break through immediately.” Han Li said with a wry smile.

Shi Chuankong glanced down at the mountain range below, where miasma grew thick and white mist was dense, and his brows furrowed.

“But here…” He started to speak but was interrupted by Han Li.

Han Li said, “The decay tribulation in my body is no longer hindering me. I'm afraid I can't suppress it, and there's no time to choose a secluded spot. I ask Brother Shi to help, along with Brother Xie, to protect me for a while.”

With that, a flash of遁光 appeared on Han Li, and he shot down toward a valley below.

Before his body even touched the ground, another silver light gate lit up in midair, and the Crab Daoist's figure emerged as well, diving into the valley alongside him.

A thunderous boom echoed!

A silver lightning pillar as thick as a water vat flared up from Han Li's body and blasted into the valley, instantly triggering a series of violent rumbling echoes that shook the valley violently, with electric light spilling everywhere and dust rising in all directions.

Amid the chaos, all kinds of roars and cries sounded, and countless towering ferocious beasts charged out of the valley with a momentum as vast as a river flood, while flocks of birds scattered and flew out, blotting out the sky in dense masses.

In the valley, the area struck by lightning had all vegetation within a hundred miles reduced to ashes, standing out starkly in the dense green-black mountain forest.

Han Li sat cross-legged in that open area, surrounded by a white vortex of rich heaven and earth essence swirling around him, dotted with shimmering light, looking extremely peculiar.

Outside that open area, the Crab Daoist, holding the warblades "Slash Thunder" and "Sever Sky" in his left and right hands respectively, hovered three feet above the ground, patrolling as a guardian like a heavenly battle general.

Shi Chuankong slowly withdrew his gaze from Han Li and the other, looking far into the distance at the jagged peaks and undulating mountain ranges, as well as the thick, low-hanging dark clouds in the sky, his brow furrowing tighter and tighter, his expression growing more and more solemn.

"I say, Fellow Daoist Li, you really know how to pick a place. If you knew where this is..." he said with a bitter laugh, then flew down and landed outside that open area.

Seeing Shi Chuankong fly closer, the Crab Daoist stopped his patrol and looked at him from afar, a clear hint of wariness in his eyes.

"You and I, one north, one south, stay on guard. There'll be plenty to keep us busy soon," Shi Chuankong shouted loudly.

Hearing this, the Crab Daoist's eyes flickered with a trace of confusion.

Just then, fierce and strange roars came continuously from deep within the valley and beyond, the entire valley floor trembling, and fine gravel bouncing from the force.

"Here they come," Shi Chuankong shouted loudly.

As his words fell, the sound of trees breaking came incessantly from the dense green-black forest deep in the valley. Ancient trees hundreds of feet tall snapped one after another, thrown into the air and crashing down in all directions, with wood chips and debris flying everywhere.

A giant pitch-black ape, a hundred-foot-long cyan python, and a massive purple spider charged forward side by side, rushing out of the shattered forest straight toward Han Li.

Among them, the black ape had blood-red eyes, no fur on its body, and its skin was like refined steel and rock, full of edges and corners, gleaming with a dark luster. It grabbed an ancient tree and a huge rock with its massive arms and hurled them at Shi Chuankong.

The cyan python opened its huge mouth wide, spewing out a rolling cloud of five-colored poisonous smoke that spread across the sky, mixed with dense swarms of small cyan snakes and countless eight-legged spiders crawling along the ground with a rustling sound.

Behind them, thick fog surged forward, within which could be seen the enormous figures of strange beasts rising and falling, galloping and surging, their traces flickering in and out of sight.