Chapter 965: The Guest Usurps the Host

"Good, good! I have seen it all today. A mere human cultivator with just over two hundred acupoints—outside the formation, I could crush you with a single finger, yet now you dare to be so arrogant before me! Let me see how you will 'clarify the source'!" E Kuai laughed instead of getting angry upon hearing this.

Then he once again formed hand seals and pressed several times against his glabella, where several strange rune marks similar to the previous ones emerged. The blood light around him surged like waves, and the flesh-and-blood power that had flowed out of his body began to converge back into him.

Han Li paid no more attention to E Kuai. He stepped in a ritual pace, continuously forming hand seals, and danced within the blood cocoon.

Immediately after, a beam of white light rose above the blood cocoon, and cracks appeared on its surface, splitting apart like a blooming flower bud, transforming into a nine-layered blood lotus.

Han Li formed a hand seal and sat down cross-legged. The blood lotus beneath him then emitted a scarlet light, from which a powerful attraction force arose.

The flesh-and-blood power that had been intercepted by E Kuai and was beginning to return surged out of his body again, directly taking the form of a flood dragon, fiercely rushing toward Han Li and plunging into the nine-layered blood lotus.

"Ah..."

Han Li roared to the sky, his eyes wide open, and earthworm-like blue veins bulged on his forehead. While gaining double the power, the pain he endured also increased severalfold.

Countless dense beams of blood light lit up on the blood lotus beneath him, like countless sharp blood knives piercing into his body, pouring that even more vigorous power into him.

"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"...

A series of explosive sounds rang out continuously, and seven or eight more acupoints on Han Li's body lit up.

E Kuai's expression changed repeatedly, finally realizing that the situation before him was more severe than he had thought.

At this moment, not only was the flesh-and-blood power of the entire formation flowing toward Han Li through his body, but even the power he had accumulated within himself began to show signs of leaking out.

A flash of fury appeared in E Kuai's eyes. He changed his hand seals, and two slits opened on his palms, from which blood flowed, dyeing his entire hands blood-red.

With his blood-covered hands, he pressed hard onto the five-pointed star beneath him and quickly chanted a few incantations.

The five-pointed star shone brightly, and a powerful attraction force emerged from it, intercepting the flesh-and-blood power that was continuously pouring into Han Li's body, forming a tug-of-war with Han Li and reaching a stalemate.

"City Lord E, I must say, you are very powerful outside the formation—the strongest Xuan cultivator I have ever seen! But can you still not see the situation clearly? I am more familiar with this formation than you are. Inside the formation, you are no match for me." Han Li sneered, took a deep breath, and changed his hand seals once again.

On the nine-layered blood lotus beneath him, strange runes emerged one after another, and the pulling force emanating from it surged several times again.

With a loud bang, the blood light on the five-pointed star beneath E Kuai shattered directly.

He could no longer contend with Han Li and could only allow all the power in the Blood Weeping Array, which he had coveted for who knows how many years, to flow toward Han Li.

Puff puff puff...

Accompanied by a series of faint sounds, the white illusory light shining on E Kuai began to extinguish one after another.

In just over ten breaths, only the more than a thousand fully materialized profound apertures remained.

Along with this, the flesh and blood power that he thought he had fully absorbed also began to pour out.

If things continued like this, before long, he too would end up like Sun Tu and the other three, completely becoming a channel to help Han Li filter the power of the blood array.

E Kuai hesitated for a long time, but finally gritted his teeth, formed hand seals, and struck the top of the statue beneath him.

"City Lord E, don't leave in such a hurry. Li still needs you to stay in the array for a while." Han Li chuckled, quickly forming hand seals as well and pointing into the void in that direction.

Suddenly, a large amount of blood light burst out from the five-pointed star beneath E Kuai, and a seven-petal blood lotus sprang up from it, like the bloody maw of a strange beast closing upward, about to swallow him.

E Kuai's gaze sharpened. Instead of forming seals, he directly raised a fist and smashed it down fiercely onto the five-pointed star beneath him.

Dense profound apertures on his arm lit up one after another, covered by a layer of white starlight, emanating waves of powerful force.

With a thunderous boom.

E Kuai's fist struck the blood lotus. The statue of unknown material trembled violently but did not collapse. Dazzling white light and blinding blood light exploded simultaneously.

A violent wave of air burst out, crashing into the inner wall of the blood-colored light barrier, shaking the entire great array violently.

Everyone on the altar outside the array watched this scene, their hearts filled with shock.

Han Li hovered high in the air, his figure also unstable from the impact of this tremendous force. He quickly formed hand seals, trying to stabilize the entire great array.

At this moment, E Kuai had already begun forming hand seals anew and struck the strange beast stone statue beneath him.

On the back of the beast statue beneath him, two bursts of white light shot out from its pair of wings, splitting left and right to force open an opening in the blood-colored light barrier just large enough for one person to pass through.

The opening appeared highly unstable, beginning to contract and close as soon as it was forced open, but E Kuai had already flashed through it in an instant, emerging outside the blood-colored light barrier.

Moreover, just as he was leaving the formation, his hands suddenly reached out, and two white bone chains shot forth from his sleeves, instantly piercing into the blood cocoons nearest him that enveloped Sun Tu and Chen Yang.

The two, already powerless to resist, had their shoulders pierced in an instant; with a violent yank, they were pulled straight out of the blood cocoons and dragged toward the opening that was about to close.

Han Li was about to stop him when he noticed that the blood-red glow, resembling a blood dragon, having lost three people as a buffer, surged directly toward him after passing through Fu Jian and Qin Yuan.

The moment the glow flooded into the nine-layered blood lotus, Han Li's heart seemed to be struck heavily by a fist, thumping with a "dong."

Immediately after, a force far more狂暴 than before began to violently clash within his limbs and bones; if before it was like being hacked by axes and chiseled by chisels, now it was like being pierced by ten thousand swords, threatening to spiral out of control at any moment.

Han Li quickly composed his mind, forming hand seals to suppress this force.

On the other side, at the last moment before the Blood Weeping Array closed, E Kuai forcibly pulled Chen Yang and Sun Tu out, throwing them to the ground nearby. The two lay sprawled like lumps of mud, motionless.

Shi Chuankong and the others watched with grim expressions, but none dared to step forward.

"A brat with less than three hundred acupoints, and with three fewer people to share the blood array's power, let's see how much longer you can hold on. After you explode and die, you'll become part of this blood array, then re-merge into my body. Isn't that a bit ironic when you think about it?" E Kuai said coldly, not even glancing at the others, his eyes fixed solely on Han Li within the array.

Han Li's eyes were bloodshot, and his ears felt as if thunder were roaring, making him unable to hear a word.

He pushed his star power to the limit, doing everything he could to control the Blood Weeping Array, finally stabilizing it again. But the狂暴 power contained in the flesh and blood of the array, now lacking the filtration of three people, was more than his current physique could bear.

"Bang, bang, bang..."

Strange sounds continued to erupt from Han Li's body. Over a dozen more acupoints on his chest and abdomen opened up, but strangely, the white light shining from these newly manifested acupoints was tinged with a hint of crimson bloodlight.

At the same time, his body began to swell. Not only did his limbs and torso double in thickness, but even his head seemed about to burst, swelling into a round ball.

Han Li's mind ached unbearably. If not for his powerful soul, he would have already lost his sanity.

It was precisely because he still maintained a sliver of clarity in his consciousness that he knew his end was near, and in no more than ten breaths, after just a few more breaths, his body would explode.

"I wonder if the Nascent Soul and primordial spirit still have a chance to survive, if they can hide inside the small bottle?" At this final moment, such a strange thought surfaced in Han Li's mind.

Not far away, Shi Chuankong's expression was grim, his eyes still fixed firmly on Han Li, while Madame Liuhua's expression was complex, as if she were pondering something.

Zhu Ziqing seemed unwilling to witness the scene of his body exploding and turned her head slightly away.

"Haha, arrogant brat, go to hell!" E Kuai laughed wantonly and shouted loudly.

Yet after his words fell, the bloody scene that everyone had imagined did not appear. For some unknown reason, Han Li's swollen body began to slowly contract and soon returned to its original state.

Han Li clutched his head with both hands and let out a wild roar, appearing to be in extreme pain, yet his eyes had clearly regained some clarity.

Only he knew that at this moment, a small dark green bottle inside his abdomen was displaying great power, like a heaven-swallowing giant bag, continuously absorbing the violent force surging into his body.

No matter how much of this force poured in, it accepted all without refusal.

Han Li's current state of agony was, of course, all feigned by himself to divert attention.

The vast majority of the great formation's power had already been absorbed into the Vial of Heaven's Spirit, and he only intercepted a small portion, absorbing it with his own physical body.

"How can this be? Impossible, there's no way he could hold out this long..." E Kuai exclaimed in shock and disbelief, roaring.

Not only him, but even Shi Chuankong, who had originally planned to flee, was astonished by this sudden turn of events.

"Eh, could there be something strange about this kid?" Madam Liuhua couldn't help but marvel.

"Brother, what's going on?" Zhu Ziqing asked in confusion.

Zhu Ziyuan frowned deeply, shook his head silently, and turned his gaze to the city lord, E Kuai.

E Kuai's figure flickered and vanished from the spot, reappearing in the next instant behind the statue where Qin Yuan was located.

"Let's see if you can still hold on without these two backing you up," E Kuai said with a cold smirk, curling his lips.