Chapter 161: Perilous Battle
Gan Jiuzhen wasted no time with words as she sped up in her hand seals, and the flames around her instantly began to burn more fiercely.
Han Li noticed that the trail of fire that connected the two of them had grown thicker, and the crimson flames around him had also begun to burn with greater ferocity, further protecting him from the cold.
Blue light flashed within his eyes as he quickly scanned his gaze over the crystalline wall around them. He then abruptly sprang up before charging forward, and thanks to the layer of flames around him, his speed wasn\'t impacted much by the glacial qi in the air.
All of a sudden, he drew to a halt in front of a certain part of the crystalline wall, following which a layer of golden scales appeared over his arm as he threw a punch at the space up ahead.
A resounding boom rang out as Han Li\'s fist slammed heavily into the crystalline wall.
The entire crystalline wall trembled violently while releasing bursts of blinding white light, but not only did it remain intact, not even the slightest crack had appeared on its surface.
Right at this moment, a burst of silver light shot out of the crystalline wall, then rapidly expanded to swallow up Han Li in a flash, freezing him alongside the layer of crimson flames around him.
"It seems like I was right," Gan Jiuzhen murmured to herself, and she wasn\'t very surprised to see what had happened to Han Li.
It seemed that she had already anticipated that this would happen, and she had intentionally used Han Li as cannon fodder to test out what would happen if the crystalline wall were attacked.
However, right at this moment, a loud thump rang out as bright golden light erupted out of Han Li\'s body, instantly shattering the ice around him.
Gan Jiuzhen was rather taken aback to see this, following which she praised in a heartfelt voice, "Given how powerful your physical body is, you must be a dual cultivator who focuses on refining both magic power and the physical body. It seems like I underestimated."
"Don\'t blame me for turning on you if you try this again," Han Li replied in a cold voice.
However, Gan Jiuzhen merely nodded in response with a calm expression, seemingly feeling as if she had done nothing wrong.
Outside the crystalline wall, the effeminate man\'s brows furrowed slightly as he exclaimed in incredulity, "Once someone is sealed by the glacial qi, their dantian and magic power will all be frozen! How was he able to escape?"
"If I\'m not mistaken, that man is most likely a Profound Immortal. It seems like we made a mistake by going after him, but it\'s too late to turn back now. In any case, this seems like the perfect opportunity to try out that technique," the hideous man said as a hint of cold killing intent flashed through his eyes.
As soon as his voice trailed off, he immediately drifted over to the crystalline wall before laying a hand onto it.
As he did so, he began to chant an incantation, and a faint buzzing sound rang out as a vast expanse of azure light appeared over his body.
The azure light resembled countless glowing azure wings that extended out of both sides of his body, presenting a stunning sight to behold.
Inside the crystalline wall, a hint of unease welled up in Han Li\'s heart upon seeing this, and Gan Jiuzhen\'s brows also furrowed slightly.
Immediately thereafter, the crystalline wall began to glow with bright silver radiance, intertwining with the azure light to form a series of circular arrays, each of which was around the size of a millstone.
The hideous man let loose a forceful yell, and all of the glacial qi within the crystalline wall instantly formed countless sharp ice spears that were roughly 10 feet in length each, all of which hurtled directly toward Han Li\'s duo.
The ice spears shrieked through the air as they reached Han Li and Gan Jiuzhen in the blink of an eye.
Han Li clenched his hands into tight fists before swinging them rapidly through the air, unleashing hundreds of golden fist projections to clash against the ice spears.
Meanwhile, Gan Jiuzhen summoned a huge crimson sword with a flick of her wrist.
She was making a hand seal with one hand while swinging her sword in the other, conjuring up a vast expanse of crimson sword projections that resembled a bright red sun. Balls of crimson flames were flying incessantly out of the crimson radiance to meet the spears of ice.
A string of resounding booms rang out as the golden fist projections and crimson fireballs were shattered one after another, but the ice spears didn\'t break. Instead, they were merely knocked back, and after pausing momentarily in mid-air, they began to hurtle toward their targets once again.
Han Li continued to swing his fists through the air to keep the ice spears at bay, and at the same time, he was scouring his surroundings with his Brightsight Spirit Eyes.
He discovered that every single one of these ice spears seemed to have been imbued with an extremely thin thread of law powers, and that was what granted them such incredible durability and penetrative power. Even with the body of a Profound Immortal, he definitely didn\'t want to be struck by those spears.
However, what was quite perplexing to him was how these two men were able to use so many law threads at once when they were clearly both only at the early-True Immortal Stage.
On top of that, a hint of surprise and recognition also flashed through his eyes at the sight of the huge crimson sword that Gan Jiuzhen was wielding.
This was the exact same weapon that Wyrm 3 had wielded on Red Moon Island, so unless Wyrm 3 had been slain and had their treasure taken, or had lent their sword to this woman, then she was none other than Wyrm 3.
He was rather taken aback by the notion that the Transient Guild member that had led everyone on the mission to kill Gong Shuhong would be a woman.
At the same time, the crystalline wall was continuing to get thicker and thicker under the effeminate man\'s continued efforts. The glacial qi inside was also becoming denser and denser, and Han Li and Gan Jiuzhen were slowly being cornered.
"We can\'t keep going like this, Fellow Daoist Liu. At this rate, we\'ll either be overwhelmed by these ice spears or get frozen to death by the glacial qi," Gan Jiuzhen said to Han Li through voice transmission with a grim look in her eyes.
"Do you have a way out of this?" Han Li asked.
He was naturally aware of this as well, and he had already instructed his Essence Fire Raven to remain in his body and protect his internal organs against the infiltration of glacial qi, so he was going to be fine for the time being, but the situation would undoubtedly turn quite grim if he were trapped in here for an extended period of time.
"I have a way to break this array, but I\'ll need you to protect me while I make preparations," Gan Jiuzhen said.
"Alright, I can do that," Han Li replied.
After arriving at the realization that Gan Jiuzhen was most likely Wyrm 3, he had already decided that he would conceal his powers in order to avoid exposing his own identity as Wyrm 15, so he was naturally glad to follow this arrangement.
Thus, he knocked back the oncoming wave of ice spears with his fists, then positioned himself in front of Gan Jiuzhen before sweeping a sleeve through the air, releasing the set of nine flying swords.
The radiant white swords flashed through the air, leaving chaotic trails of white sword projections in their wake.
After releasing the swords, Han Li made a string of hand seals, and the flying swords immediately began to buzz incessantly before transforming into a vast expanse of white sword threads, which intertwined to form a sword net that was several hundred feet in size, encompassing both Gan Jiuzhen and himself within it.
Gan Jiuzhen immediately stowed her giant crimson sword away upon seeing this, then sat down onto the ground with her legs crossed.
After that, she flipped a hand over to summon a dark red square jade pendant, which had several fearsome beasts engraved upon it and was giving off an indescribable primordial aura.
A cold look appeared in the eyes of the hideous man outside the crystalline wall upon hearing this, and he communicated something to the effeminate man through voice transmission, following which the effeminate man responded with something, also via voice transmission.
The two of them then switched to different hand seals in unison, and the bodies of the six snow toads around the crystalline wall began to glow brightly as they continued to emit the same high-pitched screech.
At the same time, the layers of frost covering their skin began to melt away, revealing their glittering and translucent black bodies underneath.
Simultaneously, the hideous man\'s body also began to glow brightly, while his hand that was pressed against the crystalline wall turned as black as ink. A series of black veins then began to extend out of his hand in all directions, instantly crawling over the entire crystalline wall.
A hint of foreboding welled up in Han Li\'s heart upon seeing this, and with a flick of his wrist, several balls of Heavy Water Veined Lightning fell out of his sleeve before landing in his grasp.
However, before he had a chance to unleash them, his entire body abruptly stiffened, and he was completely immobilized.
The dark red jade pendant in Gan Jiuzhen\'s hand had already begun to glow with crimson light, clearly having reached a critical stage in its activation, but all progress was halted there as well.
Han Li quickly realized that he had been frozen by the power of ice laws within this space, which had become drastically more potent all of a sudden.
He immediately instructed the Essence Fire Raven in his body to help him regain his mobility, but all he could hear in response were the raven\'s anguished cries within his consciousness.
It was clear that it had also been immobilized by the power of ice laws and was powerless to help him.
Meanwhile, all of the ice spears in the surrounding area had already turned black, and they began to hurtle toward Han Li and Gan Jiuzhen while giving off even more powerful law fluctuations.
A grim look appeared in Han Li\'s eyes upon seeing this.
With his Profound Immortal body, he would perhaps be able to withstand the assault for a while, but Gan Jiuzhen was in an extremely perilous situation.
If she were to be killed, then he would have to face the two enemy immortals and snow toads on his own, which was far from an appealing prospect.
With that in mind, he began to burn through his blood essence in order to stimulate the immortal spiritual power within his body. Even so, he was only able to draw upon less than a thousandth of the total immortal spiritual power that he possessed, and he directed it into the ball of Heavy Water Veined Lightning in his hand.
A flash of lightning appeared, and the ball of Heavy Water Veined Lightning fell out of Han Li\'s sleeve.
A thunderous explosion rang out as a black sun appeared no more than a foot away from Han Li. Contained within the black sun was a vast expanse of silver light that inundated Han Li\'s entire body.
An instant later, Gan Jiuzhen was also swallowed up by the explosion of black and silver light.
A string of rumbling thunderclaps rang out as countless tiny black particles erupted in all directions, forming a spherical shockwave that expanded rapidly, causing the surrounding space to tremble and quake.
In the face of the violent explosion, all of the oncoming ice spears were finally shattered, and the entire space was plunged into complete chaos.