Chapter 940: The Blood-Red Key

Just as Han Li urged the small white shield to form a white light barrier, the thunderbolt puppet's purple-black staff came crashing down with the force of a thousand jun!

With a thunderous boom!

The white light barrier trembled violently, and a torrent of white lightning poured from the staff, rumbling incessantly.

Countless bolts of lightning ricocheted off, striking the surrounding ground and kicking up showers of sparks.

After several breaths, the lightning's momentum began to wane, but the shield's light barrier was nearly depleted, having shrunk to the size of the shield itself, unable to cover Han Li's body.

At that moment, the thunderbolt puppet suddenly hooked the small white shield aside with its staff, stepped forward, and kicked Han Li hard.

Han Li felt as if struck by a mountain; a tremendous force surged through him, churning his internal organs. He tumbled backward, crashing through the broken stone arch bridge and slamming into the pool wall, embedding himself in it.

But then, he slammed his hands against the wall and shot forward, only to see the thunderbolt puppet flapping its wings and hurtling toward him.

Just as they were about to collide, the acupoints on Han Li's feet blazed with light. He stepped on empty air, rising several feet above the puppet's head, and stomped down hard.

Boom...

At the same time, a thunderclap seemed to explode from within Han Li!

All his acupoints shone with white light, and a vast, unmatched white light wave surged around him, pressing down toward the thunderbolt puppet below—its might even greater than when he had fought Gu Qianxun.

The other two halberd-wielding warriors that tried to approach were swept away by the white light wave and shattered.

The thunderbolt puppet's physique was extraordinary; under this crushing force, it did not even lower its head, but its wings, seemingly weaker, were torn apart inch by inch by the white light wave.

Han Li's feet, heavy as Mount Tai, stomped onto the puppet's shoulders, forcing it to crouch, and the ground beneath cracked open with huge fissures.

Having succeeded, Han Li did not pause. He furiously activated the Heavenly Devil Suppression Art, and the dense acupoints on his arms lit up simultaneously. A hazy starlight enveloped his palms as he struck the puppet's head with a heavy clap.

With a loud bang.

A burst of white starlight exploded. The thunderbolt puppet's sharp-beaked, monkey-like head was crushed and deformed, its body slackened, and its eyes dimmed, losing their luster.

Seeing this, Han Li breathed a slight sigh of relief, leaped down from its shoulder, and looked toward Shi Chuankong.

Of the two halberd-wielding warrior puppets that had fought him earlier, only one remained, chased by Shi Chuankong to the temple entrance, no longer a threat.

Han Li withdrew his gaze and looked at the sole remaining female statue on the stone platform, musing, "At least one is still obediently playing statue..."

His eyes fell on the blood-red key in the statue's hand. After a moment's hesitation, he leaped toward the stone platform.

But before he could near it, a white light barrier suddenly appeared in the void before him, separating the female statue.

Han Li immediately halted, landing from midair, and looked closely. Around the stone platform, encircling the female statue, a white light pillar barrier had risen.

"Oh, this is interesting..." After a moment, Han Li curled his lips and smiled.

Just then, a loud explosion came from behind—the last halberd-wielding warrior had been destroyed by Shi Chuankong.

Shi Chuankong exhaled a long breath of turbid air, walked slowly toward Han Li, and casually picked up the white curved blade Han Li had dropped earlier, along with the purple-black staff.

"What's the matter, Brother Li? Found something?" Shi Chuankong asked as he approached.

"Look at the array patterns beneath this barrier. Do they seem familiar?" Han Li said without turning around.

Shi Chuankong looked as instructed and saw a dense distribution of star patterns beneath the light pillar, intricate and complex, but some areas did look familiar.

"These seem to be Flying Star runes..." Shi Chuankong said hesitantly.

"Exactly. Though the array patterns appear complex, traces of Flying Star runes can still be seen in the finer details." Han Li nodded.

"So, can you break this formation?" Shi Chuankong raised an eyebrow, delighted.

"Not entirely certain, but it's worth a try." Han Li smiled.

With that, he reached into his bosom and took out the Starry Orchid Brush he had used to inscribe runes on the Star Falcon Flying Boat, and began drawing outside the formation.

He worked slowly, pausing now and then to check, and after more than half an hour, he finished inscribing the entire formation.

"Done?" Shi Chuankong asked, seeing this.

Han Li did not reply. Instead, he put away the Starry Orchid Brush, closed his eyes, and began to chant softly.

A moment later, his eyes suddenly snapped open. He channeled the star power within his body, bent his finger, and pointed forward. A beam of white light shot from his fingertip and struck the star-patterned array on the ground.

Immediately after, the array he had drawn emitted a white glow, accompanied by a loud humming sound, and began to operate.

Streams of white light shot out from the array, vanishing one by one into the white pillar of light on the stone platform. The light within the pillar, like snow encountering a blazing sun, rapidly melted and dissipated.

A faint smile curled at the corner of Han Li's lips. He stepped forward and took the blood-red key from the hand of the female statue.

To his slight surprise, the key felt somewhat warm to the touch, as if it had just been taken from someone else's hand. Apart from that, there was nothing particularly special about it.

"After all that trouble, all we got here is this key. I wonder what it's even for," Shi Chuankong remarked with a wry smile.

"Given the tight security, it's probably something significant. I just don't know if it's related to the sacred remains you mentioned," Han Li said, handing the key to Shi Chuankong.

"Aside from the unusual feel, I can't tell much else. Better keep it with you for now, it's safer," Shi Chuankong said, examining the key for a few moments before returning it to Han Li.

Han Li didn't say much more. He placed the key into his bosom, then suddenly froze.

"Thump, thump, thump."

He felt a series of powerful heartbeats emanating from within his body. The blood-red key seemed to sense something, its surface shimmering with faint blood light, and it began to beat gently like a heart.

With this pulsation, a wave of heat seeped from the blood-red key into his body.

As the heat entered, Han Li felt as if his entire body were immersed in a hot spring. He was thoroughly comfortable, every pore opened wide, and the circulation of blood and qi within him quickened significantly.

Not only that, but the latent aperture on his body that was about to stir trembled slightly, seeming to open a little more.

"Brother Li, are you alright?" Shi Chuankong asked, noticing Han Li's unusual expression.

"It's nothing..." Han Li shook his head, about to say something.

At that moment, the entire structure suddenly began to shake violently, growing more intense by the second, accompanied by a rumbling roar like a mountain collapsing and the sea roaring, as if an earthquake had struck.

"What's going on!" Both Han Li and Shi Chuankong were greatly alarmed.

The shaking of the ground grew stronger. Cracks appeared on the walls, rapidly widening, and then the walls collapsed with a crash, sending countless stones of various sizes raining down on the two.

"This place is collapsing! Let's go!" Han Li grabbed Shi Chuankong.

The next moment, all the latent apertures on his body lit up, especially those on his legs, which shone brilliantly, resonating with the many star apertures on his Star Moon Boots.

Han Li stamped his feet on the ground and, without further ado, pulled Shi Chuankong upward, shooting into the air.

As he shot upward, his gaze briefly swept over the cracked ground.

Through the huge fissures in the ground, faint blue light could be seen emanating from deep below, suggesting something else lay underground.

However, Han Li quickly averted his gaze. Now was not the time to investigate what was underground. He stepped through the air, nimbly shifting his position to dodge the falling debris.

Shi Chuankong, pulled along by Han Li, did not remain idle. He swung his purple-black long staff, weaving a net of staff shadows to deflect or shatter the stones falling from above.

Above ground, centered on the black altar, the ground within a radius of over ten li rumbled and shook, crisscrossed with huge cracks. Then, with a loud crash, it collapsed, forming a massive deep pit.

At the moment of the collapse, with a "boom," two figures shot out from within, twisted in midair, and landed on a nearby building that had not been affected by the collapse.

Both were covered in dust, looking quite disheveled.

But they paid no attention to their appearance, staring at the huge pit before them with expressions of surprise.

"Why did the ground suddenly collapse?" Shi Chuankong said with a furrowed brow.

Han Li gazed at the pit, his eyes flickering, but he said nothing.

In his mind, he recalled the blue light he had seen underground earlier, wondering what it was.

"Brother Li, do you have any idea?" Shi Chuankong glanced over and asked.

"This ground anomaly is probably related to our taking the blood-red key. Otherwise, the timing would be too coincidental," Han Li said, touching the blood-red key on his chest.

"If that's the case, this blood-red key must have a significant origin," Shi Chuankong said, startled, then nodded.

"We should leave this place as soon as possible. Somehow, I have a bad feeling about this," Han Li said, suddenly looking up with a grave tone.

"Alright, let's hurry..." Shi Chuankong nodded, but stopped mid-sentence, his expression changing.

Han Li's expression also darkened. He immediately grabbed Shi Chuankong again and shot off into the distance through the air.