Chapter 980: The Stunning Beauty

Ekuai was anxious, and his eyes blazed with fury. Under the relentless assault of the Four Symbols Formation, his skin had turned a bloody red.

"Ha!"

With a thunderous roar, he bent his legs sharply, coiling like a bow. At the peak of his power, he leaped upward, attempting to break through the deadly formation from above.

But the moment he rose, the invisible water pressure from the Black Tortoise's cyan light surged violently, while the Vermilion Bird above spewed torrents of fire, sticky flames clinging to his body and searing his organs.

Ekuai frowned deeply but remained unmoved, focused solely on escaping to stop the holy remains from reviving.

However, even as he gathered his strength, Shaxin raised his hand and tossed something—a golden arc shot forth, crackling with golden lightning, from which emerged a golden-armored puppet wreathed in electric light.

It was stout, about ten feet tall, its armor seamless, even its face hidden behind a heavy visor. Mysterious runes covered its body. It carried no blade or spear, only a massive golden shield over five feet tall, making it seem as solid as Mount Tai.

As soon as the golden-armored shield-bearer appeared, it leaped, crashing down like a mountain, colliding head-on with Ekuai, who had just broken through the Vermilion Bird's fiery blockade.

"Damn you, get out of my way!"

Ekuai roared and threw a punch at the shield-bearer, which pressed its shield beneath it and slammed into his fist.

"Dong..."

A resonant sound like a great bell rang out, and a strange wave of sound emanated from the shield.

Layer upon layer of sound waves stacked and amplified, like waves crashing repeatedly against a reef, their force surpassing even great mountains.

Ekuai felt a colossal force surge through his arm, shaking his bones, and he was forced back down to the ground.

The shield-bearer, struck by the immense power of Ekuai's punch, was sent flying backward, tumbling through the air.

But at that moment, a golden afterimage suddenly appeared within the Four Symbols Killing Formation, moving swiftly around Ekuai, seemingly unaffected by the formation's power.

As soon as Ekuai landed, he punched backward.

A boom echoed through the void, blasting a huge hole in the scorching mist and wind blades, but the golden afterimage flickered and appeared above Ekuai's head.

The golden light faded, revealing another golden-armored puppet.

Unlike the shield-bearer, this one was small, only three feet tall, with armor covering only its vital parts, looking like a tiny dwarf.

In its hands, it held a golden greatsword longer than its own body, stabbing down at Ekuai's head.

Ekuai spun and punched upward again, stellar power surging from his fist, driving back the scorching mist, wind blades, cyan light, and crimson flames for ten feet.

The sword-bearer changed its thrust to a block, hiding behind the blade, but was still sent flying backward by the force, landing in the distance.

By then, the shield-bearer had returned to the formation and caught the sword-bearer.

The small sword-bearer leaped onto the shield-bearer's shoulder, the two forming a seamless offensive-defensive unit.

"Hmph! Forcing me to this point—you will all pay!" Ekuai shouted coldly.

As he spoke, he pressed two fingers to his forehead. A red light roiled at his brow, and a date-red mark in the shape of a flame appeared.

The mark flickered, then blazed with intense light, and his entire aura transformed.

"No! He's about to use blood-burning techniques! Activate the formation at full power—we must not let him escape!" Shaxin shouted urgently.

By the crystal coffin in the center of the lake, Han Li heard Shaxin's words and moved to help.

But out of the corner of his eye, he saw the holy remains beside him, now fully fleshed and absorbing blood from the lake, and hesitated.

Just as he was deciding whether to join the fight or continue guarding the Crab Immortal, a sudden change occurred!

Ekuai's body boomed as all his acupoints lit up, not with white light but with a bloody radiance. His skin turned purple-red, and bulging veins twisted like centipedes.

At the same time, his aura skyrocketed, and a bloody mist enveloped him, directly repelling all the suppression from the Four Symbols Killing Formation.

He leaped upward, but before the formation could block him or the golden puppets could intervene, he landed again, planting his feet firmly on the ground in a horse stance.

With a deafening boom, a cataclysmic sound erupted!

The entire underground space shook violently, followed by a continuous series of explosions.

The ground beneath E Kuai suddenly collapsed in a violent tremor, and with him at the center, the surrounding earth burst upward, shattering into countless giant rock fragments that shot out in all directions like a storm of hail.

In the blink of an eye, within a radius of several hundred zhang, the flying rocks were all reduced to dust, while beyond that range, they turned into a rain of fire and meteors, sweeping outward amid intense friction.

Amid a series of roars, the four Four Symbols War Puppets had no time to dodge and could only retreat continuously. After persisting for just two or three breaths, their bodies began to burst apart one after another.

The sword-wielding puppet agilely flipped and hid behind the shield-wielding puppet, while the latter held its shield forward and was sent flying backward by the rolling blast of air.

The entire blood lake also echoed with continuous explosions, stirring up layers of blood waves over ten zhang high that surged toward the sacred remains at the lake's center.

Han Li frowned, and over four hundred acupoints on his body lit up. Then he spun sharply in place, shaking both arms simultaneously, and threw punches like thunder.

A thunderous roar erupted!

Layer upon layer of dense fist shadows emerged, advancing in all directions like a wall of stars, directly crashing into the rolling blood waves and barely blocking the onslaught of the storm.

After a moment, all the commotion gradually subsided.

The golden hall above the dome had completely collapsed, revealing a wide sky and open land, with night spreading in all directions.

Han Li clenched his fists and swept his gaze around. Everywhere he looked was a mess. The Four Symbols War Puppets had completely shattered, their fragments mixed among the rubble, and the two golden-armored puppets were nowhere to be seen.

Just then, his pupils suddenly contracted. He saw a delicate figure half-buried in the rubble in the distance. The black veil on her face had fallen off, revealing a face of peerless beauty.

Her face was like white jade, her bright eyes like water.

If it wasn't Zi Ling, who else could it be?

Han Li's figure flashed, and he appeared beside the woman. He brushed away the rubble on her and lifted her horizontally.

Looking at the unconscious Zi Ling, with her lower abdomen pierced by flaming rocks, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth, her brows tightly furrowed, and her face full of pain, Han Li felt as if a needle had stabbed his heart, and he couldn't help but feel deeply remorseful.

Wasn't this his close female friend Ziling? If he had recognized her earlier, perhaps she wouldn't have had to suffer like this?

As he thought this, his figure had already leaped high into the air, flying down toward the other side of the blood lake.

After a few bounds, he landed beside Liuhua Furen and the others, gently set Ziling down, took out a pill from his bosom and fed it to her, then said to Liuhua Furen, "Please look after her for a moment."

Liuhua Furen's expression was grave; she said nothing, only nodded.

Gu Qianxun, who was also lying nearby, stared intently at Ziling, a somewhat complicated look in her eyes.

Although the restrictions on Shi Chuankong had been removed by Liuhua Furen, his injuries were still severe, and he could only sit propped up on the side, unable to join the battle.

"Much obliged," Han Li said, then leaped and landed on the opposite bank.

In the deep pit ahead, Elixir was covered in a purplish-red hue, with blood mist rising from his body. Holding Kun Yu by the neck with one hand, he was walking step by step toward the blood lake.

Han Li's gaze swept over and saw that Kun Yu's dantian had been blasted into a bloody hole, his head lolled to one side—he was dead beyond dead.

"Boy, on this journey, everything has gone according to my plan—only you are an anomaly! From the Blood Weeping Grand Formation onward, you've been a constant meddler, repeatedly ruining my good deeds. In truth, I rather admire such a rule-breaking disruptor. If you hadn't resurrected that corpse, I would have taken you as my disciple and passed on my entire legacy to you. But unfortunately, today you too must die..." Elixir casually tossed Kun Yu's corpse aside, smashing it into the distant stone wall, shattering it to pieces.

"City Lord Elixir's gracious offer is hard to refuse; I, Li, shall repay it doubly..." Han Li sneered, his face showing no fear, but his voice was chilling to the bone.

As soon as the words fell, Han Li had already activated the Feather Transformation Ascension Art to its utmost. His figure blurred and instantly vanished from the spot.

Seeing this, Elixir sneered and punched toward a certain spot beside him.

Under the Blood Burning Secret Art, his fist force was like thunder, rumbling loudly, its momentum astonishing.

With a loud "Boom!" an explosion sounded.

Beneath Elixir's fist, a golden light flashed, but what appeared was not Han Li's figure—it was the golden-armored puppet holding the giant shield.

It had somehow appeared there, and Elixir's punch landed squarely on the huge golden shield, which was over five feet tall.

The shield's surface rippled with golden circles like lake water, layers of sound waves overlapping and undulating like water, surging back like crashing waves, rebounding with great force.

This shield-wielding puppet had used the opponent's force against him, neutralizing Elixir's own fierce strength, allowing it to stand unmoving and lock in a stalemate with Elixir.