Chapter 930: A Fright but No Harm

Just then, a soft cracking sound was heard.

Han Li raised an eyebrow and saw that the golden puppet man's temples were bulging with veins, his features twisted almost out of shape, and his shoulder had visibly collapsed; it seemed he could not hold on much longer.

At that moment, five snow-white beams of light suddenly shot up from the bow of the ship, straight into the sky above the canyon, and disappeared into the night.

In the night sky, the stars were brilliant, countless beams of starlight descending like fishing lines, linking together with the flying boat's light screen, from which strands of powerful upward pulling force emerged.

The Star Falcon flying boat shook violently, its downward momentum completely halted, and it began to slowly ascend.

After rising about two to three hundred zhang, the pulling force of the stars seemed to reach its limit, becoming locked in a stalemate with the tearing force of the abyss below. The Star Falcon Flying Boat no longer bobbed up and down, and relying on the power of its wings' flapping, it began to slowly advance forward.

However, the four golden puppet men below the flying boat seemed to have exhausted all their strength. The light of all the beast cores on their bodies dimmed, and they fell one after another.

The two on the left fell into the icy wind and instantly froze into ice sculptures, while the two on the right melted into golden-red liquid in the crimson flames, successively falling into the black whirlpool below and disappearing without a trace.

Relying on the power of the Star Sea in the high sky, the Star Falcon Boat managed to pass through the hollow zone within the eye of the hurricane without incident, crossing to the other side of the storm.

With prior experience, the boat's hull moved much more steadily when it entered the hurricane this time.

Once the entire hull was submerged in the hurricane, there was no significant shaking or deviation. As long as they charged straight ahead, they could reach the continent emitting a white light on the other side.

However, contrary to expectations, after the boat had traveled only a short distance, a violent spatial fluctuation suddenly came from ahead.

Han Li looked up and saw a shattered spatial rift mixed within the hurricane, not blown apart. The port side of their boat was moving toward it.

Before he could speak to warn, Lady Liuhua had already noticed the situation and quickly steered the boat to veer to the right.

But at that moment, a sudden change occurred!

"Roar..."

Accompanied by a soul-shaking roar, a tremendous force suddenly came from behind.

The entire Star Falcon Boat was struck as if by a heavy blow. With a violent shudder, the entire starlight barrier nearly collapsed, and the hull surged forward at double speed, making the dense spatial rifts unavoidable.

As the flying boat shook violently, Han Li had already risen from his seat, one hand gripping the gunwale tightly and the other steadying Gu Qianxun, who had stumbled into him, as he turned his head to look behind.

In the void, a massive, ferocious head loomed high, resembling a flood dragon but with thorny spines on its head and pitch-black eyes like chaotic void, chilling to behold.

Beneath that head stretched a thick, serpentine body covered in raised diamond-shaped scales, hundreds of feet long, coiling and twisting out from the black vortex in the dark abyss.

The vortex exerted immense suction, yet the strange dragon-like creature seemed unaffected, shaking its body and charging again at the Star Falcon Boat with its ferocious head.

"Damn it..." Han Li muttered.

The next moment, the Star Falcon Boat was struck again, its starlight barrier trembling violently and nearly dispersing.

Cries of terror erupted on the boat; everyone was utterly terrified of the suddenly appearing monster.

Just then, a roar came from the bow: "Steady the boat! Fellow Daoist Shaxin and I will deal with this beast."

As the words fell, two figures at the bow flickered and vanished.

Almost simultaneously, behind the Star Falcon Boat, the figures of Equine and Shaxin materialized.

"Bold beast, meet your death!" Equine bellowed.

He clenched his fists, assuming an ancient boxing stance, twisting his body and swinging his arms in seemingly awkward and strange movements.

But as he moved, his acupoints lit up one by one, and a faint, peculiar aura emanated from him; the seemingly comical boxing stance began to change.

Equine moved slowly, yet his clothes billowed without wind, the rustling like a howling gale.

Shaxin, not far away, merely raised an eyebrow, withdrew one hand into his sleeve, and then swung it out abruptly.

A black light shot from his sleeve, transforming into a fist-sized sphere that hurtled toward the beast.

"Crack, crack, crack..."

As the black sphere flew through the air, it emitted continuous sounds, as if countless mechanisms were spinning wildly inside.

Soon, cracks split across the sphere, and a black light shone through; a bizarre puppet, nearly a hundred feet tall, resembling a giant ape but with two heads and four arms, emerged from it.

As soon as the giant ape puppet appeared, it was torn by the gravitational force from the vortex below, and its body suddenly plunged downward.

But then, one of the giant ape's hands reached out from behind, and the palm actually detached from the wrist, connected by a thick black chain that shot out with a clatter, wrapping around a spike on the head of the vile flood dragon beast.

With this leverage, the giant ape's arm pulled hard, and its massive body leaped upward, directly vaulting over the vile dragon's head, then stomped down heavily with both feet, landing on the vile dragon's head with the force of a mountain falling.

Its remaining three arms simultaneously gripped a thick iron pestle shaped like a huge beam and smashed it down onto the vile dragon's head.

The two forces combined, unleashing tremendous power.

"Roar..." Struck by this immense force, the vile dragon's body suddenly slumped downward.

At this moment, dense acupoints all over E Kuai's body lit up, and on his arm where he clenched his fist, starlight seemed to overflow from the acupoints, enveloping his arm in a layer of mist-like smoke, dotted with light, resembling a vast starry sky.

As he completed his power buildup, all his momentum converged on his arm, and he threw a punch.

The timing of this punch perfectly coincided with the moment the vile dragon's head drooped down.

When all the starlight on his fist gathered together and exploded, it was like a bursting starry sky, emitting a terrifying devouring force that shattered and collapsed the void ahead, as if tearing a spatial black hole out of the void, directly engulfing the vile dragon's head.

As the starlight faded, the spatial black hole vanished, and the vile dragon's head was swallowed up, leaving only a serpentine body writhing and struggling, with blood gushing from the severed end, a messy sight.

All this seemed lengthy, but in reality, it happened within a dozen breaths.

At the same time, the nearly失控星隼飞舟 had rapidly crashed toward the spatial rift ahead.

Madam Liuhua's eyes were wide open, veins bulging on her forehead, her hands pressed on the deck of the flying boat in front of her, with a ring of white light patterns surrounding her palms. She leaned her body to the right and struggled to twist, but despite using all her strength, she could only turn the hull slightly, unable to completely steer it away from danger.

The bow of the Star Falcon Flying Boat veered sharply, barely avoiding the spatial rift, but the side of the hull inevitably collided with it.

The left extended wing of the flying boat first crashed into the spatial rift, instantly torn apart, turning into chaotic fragments sucked into the rift. The massive hull immediately lost balance and began to tilt to the right.

"No, Qianxun..." Madam Liuhua suddenly woke up with a scream, immediately withdrew her hands, abandoned the flying boat, and rushed toward the port side.

However, it was already too late.

Han Li and Gu Qianxun, located at the midsection of the port side, were already carried by the失控飞舟 directly toward the spatial rift, moving so fast that no one had time to react.

At this critical moment, Han Li's eyes flickered, and he let out a thunderous roar.

His right fist had already been drawn back to his waist, and with a sudden lift, his arm crackled as acupoints lit up one after another, immediately shrouding it in a hazy starlight, bearing a resemblance to Elixir Canthus.

But it was merely a resemblance; the disparity in momentum between the two was far too great.

Even so, Han Li did not hesitate to throw his punch. Starlight gathered at the tip of his fist, forming a colossal white fist shadow that, trailing a series of blurred afterimages, slammed violently into the spatial rift.

A thunderous boom erupted!

The white fist shadow exploded abruptly within the spatial rift, unleashing an immensely powerful aura that swept in all directions.

Propelled by this force, the Star Falcon Boat shifted slightly to the right.

Seizing the opportunity, Han Li activated all the acupoints on his legs, blurred into motion, and instantly appeared beside Gu Qianxun. He wrapped an arm around her slender waist, flickered again, and landed near the bow.

Crack, crack, crack...

A series of shattering sounds came as the Star Falcon Boat ultimately failed to fully evade the spatial rift. The midsection of its port side scraped against it, splintering like rotten wood and tattered cloth.

But thanks to Han Li's strike, the Star Falcon Boat did not directly collide with the spatial rift; it merely grazed past with a fright, losing only a part of its hull, with damage that was not severe.

Seeing Han Li and the others return safely, Sixflower finally breathed a sigh of relief.

At that moment, Elixir Canthus and the other also flashed and landed on the bow.

"What was that thing..." Sixflower asked, still shaken.

"Never seen it before. It seems to be a scale beast unique to the Black Abyss. Not very powerful, but it nearly destroyed our boat," Elixir Canthus shook his head and said slowly.

"Fortunately, the danger has passed. Now, if we push through in one go, we can reach the other side..." Shaxin frowned and said slowly.

The moment his words fell, their expressions changed simultaneously as they looked in different directions.

A howling wind arose, accompanied by roars of beasts. One after another, beast heads emerged from all around, directly encircling the Star Falcon Boat.

These emerging beast heads were all, without exception, shaped like flood dragon heads, covered in spikes, with ferocious features—identical to the one Elixir Canthus and the other had killed earlier!