Chapter 577: Indescribable Danger

Inside the silver light barrier, Han Li raised his head and took a drop of spirit milk before glancing down at the small bottle with a pensive expression.

It was the morning of the next day and he had now taken his fifth drop of spirit milk, but the golden light outside the light barrier still didn’t show the slightest sign of weakening. The flames, however, had begun to shrink. It seemed Wen Tianren wouldn’t be able to sustain them for much longer, and Han Li would be able to escape fairly soon.

With that in mind, Han Li’s hand flashed with white light and he calmly placed the bottle back into his storage pouch. He then glanced at the Yin clouds in the sky and unconsciously frowned.

He had clearly seen the beam of green light shooting into the skies from the direction of the valley that seemed to have been caused by Yuan Yao’s spell ritual. Although he didn’t know what had specifically happened, based on the black clouds lowering down, it appeared that the Soulrise Technique had yet to finish.

As quickly as these thoughts appeared in Han Li’s mind, he buried them. He couldn’t afford to be concerned with anything else until after he escaped the prison of golden light.

After taking a deep breath, he felt his magic treasures begin to surge with excitement. At that same moment, the silver wings could faintly be seen once more from his back.

Floating above the golden flames, Wen Tianren no longer appeared as proud as when he had initially trapped Han Li. Instead, his face had begun to pale and a layer of faint black Qi had started to form. The golden horn on his forehead also appeared to be an inch shorter than the day before.

Wen Tianren gloomily scowled, but his heart brimmed with furious alarm as a faint trace of dread began to take hold.

When he had taunted Han Li that he would only be able to withstand the flames for an hour at most, he had been exaggerating. Knowing precisely how powerful the Divine Golden flames were, he had honestly believed that it would’ve been difficult for Han Li to persevere for even half an hour. As such, he had been willing to expend a bit of his Origin Qi to eliminate Han Li and prevent him from becoming an even greater problem in the future.

But an hour later, Han Li still showed no signs of wavering, somewhat surprising Wen Tianren.

When it had reached two hours, Wen Tianren was alarmed to find that Han Li had yet to turn to ash.

After four hours, Wen Tianren had started to feel trepidation after seeing how Han Li still endured.

He faintly felt that he had made a mistake, as Han Li hadn’t shown any fear at the prospect of contesting his magic power with Wen Tianren’s own. It was clear that Han Li either possessed some kind of item that allowed him to quickly replenish his magic power or had some other mysterious ability. According to what he knew, the only item that could allow this kind of replenishment of magic power was the extremely rare Myriad Year Spirit Milk. Could it be that Han Li truly possessed some?

Wen Tianren quickly found his guesses to be true.

However, he had reached the point where he could no longer afford to stop. With a majority of his apex devil incarnations already eliminated and his unrestrained use of the Golden Mirrors of Eight Gates, he had greatly exhausted his cultivation. If he were to let Han Li go, it wasn’t likely for him to win. 

However, Wen Tianren was aware that given how rare the Myriad Spirit Milk was, ordinary cultivators couldn’t possibly possess all that much. As a result, he had resolved himself to continue to exhaust his true essence and continue his attempt to roast Han Li in the Divine Golden Flames.

The current damage to his true essence would take at least thirty years of secluded cultivation to repair. 

With each passing moment, Wen Tianren’s complexion grew slightly paler, while the silver light barrier appeared as dense as ever. Wen Tianren wouldn’t be able to persist for much longer.

He didn’t know how much spirit milk Han Li had left and he was still stuck in a deadlock. As he desperately searched for a method to breakthrough his plight, something eventually came to mind.

Wen Tianren pursed his dry lips and coldly commanded, “Violet Spirit! Go over to where he came from and capture his Dao companion. That person should be at a crucial moment in the ritual and should be incapable of resisting you.” His originally refined appearance was now completely gone, revealing a trace of sinister malice.

When Fairy Violet Spirit heard this, her expression changed. This battle was truly beyond the scope of reason. She had originally believed that Han Li wouldn’t be able to persist for long, but he had remained unscathed throughout the entire night. Instead, Wen Tianren was now in a difficult situation, much to her surprise.

After hearing his command, she was startled for a moment before realizing his intentions.

This young master of the Starfall Coalition intended to use the woman conducting the ritual to force Han Li into submitting! Since Han Li had agreed to act as her protector, their friendship should run deep. However, being forced to use this shameful method only further illustrated that the disciple of Archsaint Six Paths had truly reached his absolute limit.

Fairy Violet Spirit quickly recovered her ice-cold expression and silently remained in place.

A cold glint ran through Wen Tianren’s eyes and he sinisterly said, “What? Could it be that you believe that because of how damage my cultivation is that I cannot take your life? Or is it that you’ve always wanted to defect from the coalition ever since you were forced to join? Don’t forget that the Starfall Coalition rules over half of the Scattered Star Seas, and you are only an early Core Formation cultivator, so where could you possibly run? Obediently follow my orders, and I will turn a blind eye to your disloyal inaction.” 

Fairy Violet Spirit’s expression changed several times before her eyes wandered onto the golden flames, indecision lingering in her heart. During her moment of indecisiveness, streaks of light began to fly over from the distance. As they grew nearer, Fairy Violet Spirit and Wen Tianren recognized them to be the female cultivators and their carriage.

When Wen Tianren saw this, he was greatly elated while Fairy Violet Spirit could only bitterly laugh in her mind.

These Foundation Establishment women hadn’t been of any use at the start, but now they would be of pivotal importance.

Before Fairy Violet Spirit could wryly smile, she spotted their panicked expressions as they approached Wen Tianren the moment they arrived.

They looked at the current scene in astonishment and then quickly saluted Wen Tianren. They appeared extremely restless, but still remained silent.

Wen Tianren appearance was harsh and a hostile expression appeared on his face. He coldly chuckled and thought to say something when his face contorted in bewilderment upon looking into the distance.

When the others saw this, they were baffled and curiously turned their heads to look.

“What in the world is that!?” One of them shouted out upon seeing it. 

They all saw wisps of black quickly emerge from the ocean at a frightening speed, leaving them all at a loss for words.

“The ghost mist?” After a moment, one of the woman shouted out in terror and immediately flew deeper into the island. At that moment, the others had clearly seen the black wisps. A pitch-black fog had emerged from the sea and was rushing towards them as if it were alive.

Suddenly, the rest of the Foundation Establishment cultivators present had been shocked senseless and fled in complete panic.

Wen Tianren and Fairy Violet Spirit were both aghast at the sudden developments.

Fairy Violet Spirit then stomped down and streaked away while enveloped in red light.

Wen Tianren nervously stared at the golden flames, unsure of what to do. After a cold glint appeared in his eyes, he gritted his teeth and spat a mouthful of blood essence into the flames, instantly causing them to intensify. 

Afterwards, he flew into the distance in a flash of golden light while his many maids closely followed after him.

An inconceivable event then occurred before them as the cultivators closest to the ghost mist fell onto the island like downed birds.

This occurred with all cultivators that had drawn too close to the ghost mist. They suddenly lost their bearings in mid-flight and dropped down with deathly pale complexions.

Even their magic tools had been completely deprived of their spiritual nature.

As for Fairy Violet Spirit and Wen Tianming, they were only able to fly for a short amount of time and barely reach the other edge of the island before their lights had disappeared and they fell into the ocean.

At the time, the golden flames that had remained in the distance wavered for a moment before fizzling out. The eight small mirrors had also returned to their original forms, revealing the silver barrier of light within.

But just as the light barrier was revealed, it dispersed into specks of starlight, revealing an astonished Han Li from within.

Han Li had already seen what had happened with the others, but before he could come overcome his shock and come up with a countermeasure, he felt the magic power in his body become restricted and he began to helplessly fall from the sky.