Chapter 931: Sudden Arrival

"We killed one, and now eight more have come. Are they never going to stop?"

"Daring to block our path—they must be tired of living!"

"Hmph, with two city lords like Ersha here, we'll kill as many as come!"

"Wait, this thing looks somewhat familiar to me..."

The crowd on the flying boat stared at the eight massive heads that had suddenly appeared around them, and amid their shock and uncertainty, they began shouting in a flurry of voices.

"City Lord E, should we..."

With Erkuai and Shaxin having previously annihilated one such scaled beast with lightning speed, the crowd was not overly panicked; some even looked to Erkuai, awaiting his signal.

However, neither Erkuai nor Shaxin spoke, nor did they seem to have any intention of acting.

Below the two of them, the four city lords including Chenyang, as well as Zhuo Ge and others under Shaxin's command, stood on high alert, their gazes constantly sweeping over the ferocious heads around them.

This scene caught Han Li's eye, causing his pupils to contract inexplicably as a sense of foreboding surged within him.

Just then, with a roar, another head emerged from behind the flying boat.

However, this head was far smaller than the others, covered in a layer of white film as if newly grown, and there was a distinct dark red mark below its neck.

It was unmistakably the one that Erkuai had decapitated earlier!

"Not good... this is a Nine-Qi Serpent..." Erkuai suddenly realized, exclaiming in alarm.

Han Li's expression also changed upon hearing this.

He had long heard of the notorious Nine-Qi Serpent, but most accounts were unverifiable legends, and he had never seen one before.

Legend had it that this creature had a body like an elephant, a neck as long as a python, nine heads and one mouth, capable of devouring all things. It was ferocious by nature, and to kill it, all nine heads had to be severed simultaneously; otherwise, it would endlessly regrow its heads and never truly be destroyed.

And when they said it had one mouth, it didn't mean that among its nine heads only one had a mouth, but rather that on its back there was a gigantic Taotie mouth that could devour everything, somewhat similar to the Pixiu Xiao Bai.

Just then, the nine heads of the Nine-Qi Serpent simultaneously reared up and struck down heavily from all directions toward the Star Falcon Flying Boat.

In an instant, the nine heads blotted out the sky, and roars rose one after another, even obscuring the starlight falling from the high sky.

The Star Falcon Flying Boat trembled violently, and the starlight barrier enveloping it grew increasingly thin.

"It's over..." Feng Wuchen looked up at the sky and murmured to himself.

The expressions of the others were each worse than the last, and they were probably thinking the same thing.

Erkuai and Shaxin naturally would not sit idly by. They exchanged a glance, simultaneously stamped their feet on the flying boat, and shot up into the air, charging toward the nine-headed giant serpent.

The void trembled violently, as if space itself were about to shatter.

The black veil on Shaxin's face fluttered noisily in the wind, revealing a glimpse of an extremely beautiful face beneath, but her expression was solemn, her eyes like water. With a wave of her hands, two spheres shot out simultaneously, one to the left and one to the right.

One of the spheres burst with dazzling white light, and amid waves of intense stellar power fluctuations, a colossal figure a hundred zhang tall emerged from it.

The hundred-zhang figure wore an eight-treasure purple-gold crown and a five-colored golden scale armor, with a wrathful Vajra countenance, his body as if cast from bronze and iron, reflecting layers of metallic light.

After the armored Vajra appeared, he reached out and grasped in the void. The other sphere also lit up with bright light, and with a spin, transformed into a giant silver shining treasure umbrella that fell into his hand.

Although Han Li was on the flying boat, he could still feel the immense aura emanating from the armored Vajra, which gave him a sense that it was not inferior to Erkuai, and he couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart.

He took a deep breath, his eyes focusing, and saw Shaxin twisting her body in midair, her ten fingers plucking at the void. The giant Vajra then grasped the umbrella handle with one hand and pushed upward.

The treasure umbrella's white light surged, transforming into a massive canopy that blotted out the sky, shielding the high air.

On the canopy, it seemed to be painted with myriad stars, with starlight flowing within, as if the Milky Way were reflected there.

All the stars on the umbrella seemed to interconnect with the stars in the night sky, borrowing endless stellar power from them to meet the nine ferocious serpent heads.

"Boom boom boom..."

A series of violent impacts like a storm rained down upon the starry umbrella canopy.

The white light on the treasure umbrella trembled violently, and the star patterns painted on it dissipated like smoke, one after another.

The giant Vajra's eyes focused, his face twisted by the immense force, but he did not let go, holding on stubbornly.

"Daoist Shaxin, let me take over!"

Erkuai had now caught up, his entire body's acupoints glowing, as if shrouded in a blur of starlight, and he punched toward the end of the umbrella handle.

Just then, another change occurred below.

Within the black vortex, the mist churned violently, and the body of the Nine-Qi Serpent actually floated up.

His back was so broad that it nearly filled the entire eye of the hurricane, covered in dense, diamond-shaped scales, with a shallow vertical mark running down his spine.

"Man proposes, heaven disposes—it's here after all..." Lady Liuhua said gloomily, muttering to herself.

"Father, what is this..." Gu Qianxun asked, frowning.

"No matter what happens, don't leave my side," Lady Liuhua said without answering, turning to look at her and instructing earnestly.

Before Gu Qianxun could reply, a deafening roar suddenly erupted from below.

"Roar..."

The roar was like a volcanic eruption, deafening everyone and leaving their minds dazed.

Han Li activated his Spirit Refining Technique, and after a brief tremor, his divine soul stabilized. When he looked at the others, he found that aside from Lady Liuhua, everyone was swaying unsteadily.

Lady Liuhua pressed a hand on Gu Qianxun's shoulder to stabilize her soul, then looked at Han Li with surprise and couldn't help but praise, "Your divine soul is remarkably stable..."

"Senior, this is hardly the time for that..." Han Li said casually, but his gaze turned toward the bow of the ship.

Shi Chuankong and the woman in black were both kneeling on the ground, only slightly better off than the others.

Just as he was about to check on them, he felt the ground beneath him suddenly give way, and his body involuntarily began to fall.

The Star Falcon Flying Boat had completely lost control and was plummeting rapidly as well.

On the back of the Nine Qijiao below, a massive blood-red maw had already opened wide, with dark light churning inside, waiting for all prey to fall in.

In his urgency, Han Li activated the acupoints on his legs, unleashing the power of the stars from his soles with a loud bang, propelling himself upward several feet, but he was soon dragged down again by the pulling force from below.

Screams filled the air, chaos reigned, and everyone tried to escape, but to no avail.

E Kuai and Sha Xin, who were above, also noticed the trouble below, but it was too late for them to come to the rescue.

"Boom..."

A thunderous roar erupted as the tail of the Star Falcon Flying Boat fell into the giant maw on the Nine Qijiao's back, instantly crushed by the strange force within, producing sounds of shattering and destruction.

"No..."

Desperate cries echoed around, but Han Li, frowning deeply, remained utterly calm.

He reached into his bosom, fumbled out a leaf-shaped jade token, and held it in his palm. His gaze swept around, searching for Shi Chuankong and the woman in black.

That jade token was none other than the marker token given to him by Third Prince Shi Pokong before they entered the Scale-Scale Void, which would allow him to take them back to the demon realm.

But after scanning, he couldn't find Shi Chuankong; instead, he spotted Crab Immortal a hundred zhang away.

"Brother Crab, come to me quickly..." Seeing the Nine Qijiao's maw drawing closer, Han Li grew anxious and sent a telepathic message, but he couldn't wait to see if he followed.

Just then, he turned and saw the woman in black from Puppet City not far behind him. He immediately activated his Feather Transformation Ascension Art, stepping on the void to resist the pulling force and charge toward her.

Thirty zhang, twenty zhang, ten zhang...

As they drew closer, Han Li's heart stirred more intensely.

Zi Ling, is it you?

Just as Han Li's hand was about to grab the woman in black's arm, Lady Liuhua's voice suddenly echoed in his mind:

"Lad Li, head for the largest spatial rift and don't you dare die..."

Startled, Han Li turned his head sharply.

He saw Lady Liuhua standing a hundred zhang away outside the Nine Qijiao's maw, waving her hand to send a palm-sized white disk flying into the center of the blood-red mouth, where it exploded with a bang.

"Boom, boom, boom..."

A series of deafening explosions rang out as the Nine Qijiao's mouth cracked like a mirror, splitting into massive spatial rifts that spread in all directions.

Powerful tearing forces burst from the newly formed spatial fissures, dragging in many from the Xuan and Wei cities before they could react.

Those lucky enough fell into the fissures intact; the unlucky were torn to shreds instantly.

Han Li shuddered and lunged forward, trying to grab the woman in black.

But a spatial rift appeared right between them, colliding with Han Li and swallowing him whole.

The moment Han Li entered that pitch-black space, he felt powerful tearing forces from all directions, spinning him around.

All sounds faded away, and all light went out in an instant.

Han Li's head throbbed painfully, and his consciousness gradually blurred. The last image in his mind was still the woman in black.

But her veiled face seemed to merge bit by bit with Zi Ling's...