Chapter 1484: A Chance for Escape
Almost in the exact instant that Han Li flew into the distance, another group of sinister ghosts with crimson bodies and green hair charged out from the nearby mist, only to be completely dumbfounded by the lack of targets to attack.
At this point, Han Li was already over 10,000 feet away, and through the use of his spirit eyes, he was able to avoid several large-scale battles in succession as he attempted to fly out of this mist.
If he encountered a small group of ghostly beings, then he'd kill them on the spot. Conversely, if he encountered large hordes of them, then he'd take evasive measures instead.
Thus, Han Li managed to traverse relatively smoothly through the Yin mist. However, it didn't take long before Han Li lost all sense of direction.
As such, he could only take a risk to fly higher up into the air and ascertain his position from a higher vantage point.
Thus, he flew to altitudes of several thousand feet, where the mist was slightly thinner, but he was immediately beset with countless attacks that rained down from above.
Thankfully, he had prepared his Divine Essencefused Light in advance, and he hurriedly swept aside most of these attacks with his Divine Essencefused Light. Otherwise, he would've most likely been forced to plummet straight to the ground.
Even so, he had still been given a massive fright. Before the next wave of attacks could arrive, he flew back down into the denser mist again.
It appeared that it would be impossible for him to fly up to an altitude that would make a substantial difference in his situation.
As such, he could only decide on a certain direction and plunge headfirst into the mist.
However, it was either the case that this mist had been imbued with some kind of profound restriction or it truly did cover an extraordinarily vast area.
In any case, even after several hours, he was still trapped within the mist without any signs of being close to the edge.
Han Li's expression was growing darker as time passed by.
He swept a sleeve through the air, and several golden threads shot forth, instantly slicing in the ghostly shadows before him into several pieces.
However, those ghostly shadows merely recovered amid a burst of unsettling howls before pouncing toward Han Li again.
Han Li harrumphed coldly as he opened his mouth to blast forth a ball of silver flames. The fireball then exploded into several smaller fireballs, completley incinerating the ghostly shadows into nothingness amid cries of anguish.
These formless ghosts were rather difficult to deal with for normal cultivators, but they were naturally completely powerless in the face of Han Li's Spirit Engulfing Heavenly Flames.
After eradicating this wave of ghostly beings, Han Li looked up and was just about to decide on a direction to fly toward when an earthshattering boom suddenly erupted from another direction, and even the nearby ground tremored violently as a result.
Ball of black flames shot forth in all directions in the distance, and an indistinct female cry of shock and fury could be heard.
Han Li's expression faltered slightly as he turned toward that direction.
That voice was rather familiar; it seemed to belong to Yuan Yao. Could it be that she was engaged in battle here?
Even though Han Li couldn't be sure of this, he still flew toward that direction as a streak of azure light after a brief pause for contemplation.
The black fireballs hadn't exploded very far away from Han Li, so it only took him moments to cover the distance of tens of thousands of feet as a streak of azure light, thereby arriving near the area.
Han Li focused his gaze up ahead, upon which his expression changed slightly.
Over 1,000 feet away from him, there were several hundred crimson skeletons with disproportionally massive and thin and long limbs shooting one crimson arrow after another, surrounding and attack over 100 Yin Armor Profound Ghosts.
At the center of these profound ghosts, two black-robed women stood, one with a small black vial in her hand while the other was wielding a black banana leaf fan. They were unleashing balls of black flames with those treasures to assist the ghostly soldiers, trying to keep the barrage of attacks from the crimson skeletons at bay with all their might.
The black flames were quite powerful, and the long weapons being wielded by the Yin Armor Profound Ghosts were certainly nothing to be scoffed at, either, but their opponents were even more bizarre.
Not only were these skeletons able to leap astonishing distances like grasshoppers, they moved like the wind, and the crimson arrows they unleashed seemed to be able to somewhat repress the black flames as well as the Yin winds from the weapons of the profound ghosts. With several hundred skeletons attacking in unison, most of the black flames were forcibly doused before even reaching their targets. Even the skeletons that were struck by stray wisps of these black flames merely stumbled and slowed down slightly, but they didn't appear to have been severely injured at all.
Meanwhile, these crimson arrows were also very effective against the Yin Armor Profound Ghosts.
The black suits of armor worn by these ghostly soldiers had certain defensive properties, but after being struck by about a dozen arrows, the armor would undoubtedly be shattered, and the ghostly soldier would also dissipate as balls of black Qi.
By the time Han Li had reached the scene, the two black-robed women were desperately unleashing the powers of their treasures, and seven or eight more of the ghostly soldiers around them were felled in the blink of an eye. Their situation was a very perilous one.
These two women were naturally none other than Yuan Yao and Yan Li.
Han Li narrowed his eyes to inspect his surroundings, but didn't discover any other powerful ghosts lurking nearby. Thus, he stepped in without any further hesitation.
He flapped his wings and abruptly disappeared on the spot, appearing in the air above the two women in the next instant.
He swept his sleeve through the air, and 72 golden flying swords shot forth, transforming into several hundred streaks of golden sword Qi that rained down in a torrential downpour.
Any crimson skeletons that were struck by the sword Qi were sliced into countless pieces like a hot knife through butter.
However, an extremely harrowing scene then immediately ensued.
Crimson light flashed from the surface of the remains of all of the crimson skeletons, and they all disintegrated into balls of blood-like liquid. They then converged to form a massive vibrant red ghostly being.
Han Li raised his eyebrows upon seeing this, and he raised a pristine white hand before thrusting his pal toward the giant crimson ghost that was slowly taking shape.
All of a sudden, five large skeleton projecitons appeared above his fingertips, following which a vast expanse of five-colored glacial flames came crashing down.
As soon as the glacial flames inundated the giant crimson ghost, it was transformed into a huge ice sculpture, and was completely immobilized as a result.
Han Li then flicked a finger to send forth an arc of golden lightning that struck the ice sculpture amid a loud thunderclap!
The ice sculpture was instantly shattered by the arc of lightning, and the massive ghostly being was slain before it even had a chance to unleash any of its powers.
Yuan Yao and Yan Li had witnessed everything from down below, and their mouths had gaped open with shock.
These ghostly beings had almost been the death of them, yet Han Li had eradicated all of them in virtually the blink of an eye.
That was downright astonishing to them.
Yan Li was the first one to recover her composure, and she hurriedly extended a curtsey toward Han Li with a smile on her face. "Thank you for saving us, Brother Han!"
The astonishment on Yuan Yao's face was also replaced by a gorgeous smile that resembled the beauty of countless exuberant flowers blossoming at once. "If you'd come here any later, we'd most likely have been dead already, Brother Han."
Even Han Li was slightly entranced by her smile, but he quickly composed himself before asking, "Why are the two of you here? Weren't you with one of the demon monarchs? And what about these ghostly soldiers..."
"Weren't ou with Fairy Mu Qing as well, Brother Han? We were separated in the same way that you were separated from everyone else. As for these Yin Armor Profound Ghosts, the two of us participated in their refinement process, so we'll able to control some of them. However, these are all that's left of the profound ghosts under our control, and it was all thanks to their protection that we were able to survive to this point," Yan Li explained with a smile.
"This ambush was most likely led by a ghostly being with an extremely high level of intelligence. Otherwise, there was no way that such a massive and organized trap could've been sprung. They clearly want to kill all of us in one fell swoop," Han Li said with a nod of his head.
Yuan Yao's face paled slightly, and she chewed down on her lower lip before asking, "Your analysis is quite plausible, Brother Han. What do you intend to do now? We've been surrounded by far too many ghostly beings for us to kill."
Han Li didn't give a direct reply. Instead, a peculiar look appeared on his face as he said, "Have you not noticed? Up to this point, we've only encountered low-grade and mid-grade ghostly beings, but we haven't even seen a single high-grade ghost."
"What you're saying is..." Yan Li faltered slightly before catching the gist of Han Li's words.
"That's right, those Spatial Tempering Stage ghostly beings are most likely busy battling Liu Zu and the others. Otherwise, even if just a few of them were to appear, we'd be in severe danger," Han Li mused as he stroked his chin.
"What are you trying to say, Brother Han? Please make yourself clearer," Yuan Yao prompted.
"I simply think that the situation is not looking very good, and it's also quite chaotic, but at the same time, it also presents to us a brilliant opportunity to get away from the demon monarchs," Han Li said in a slow voice.
"So what you're suggesting is..." Yan Li's smile faded, and was replaced by a grim expression.
"That's right. If we can get out of this place, then the demon monarchs won't be able to come after us. We just have to find a place where pure Yin Qi has materialized so we can wipe away the tracking marks in my body. With the size of the infernal river, even if the demon monarchs try to come after us, it'd be like searching for a needle in a haystack," Han Li proposed.
Yuan Yao and Yan Li glanced at one another, and both of them were quite tempted by this proposition.
After holding a brief discussion through voice transmission, the two women finally made up their minds. "Alright, we'll do as you say, Brother Han. Here in this infernal river, the two of us are in constant peril, and we'd also like nothing better than to gety away from these demon monarchs."
A hint of elation flashed through Han Li's eyes, but he quickly furrowed his brows in with concern again. "Now that we're on the same page, the first hurdle in our way is this ghostly mist. I've been searching for a way out for hours to no avail."
"You're troubled by this ghostly mist, Brother Han? With our pitiful powers, we wouldn't be able to provide assistance in many other areas, but don't forget that Junior Martial Sister Yuan and I are using Ghost Dao cultivation arts, and we also possess semi-ghostly bodies!" Yan Li chuckled upon hearing this.
Han Li faltered slightly initially before his expression lit up with elation. "Are you saying you have a way to get out of this place, Fellow Daoist Yan?"
"The Yin Yang Reincarnation Arts that we're cultivating may not be extremely useful in battle, but it's provided us with many other abilities. All you have to do is follow us, and we'll lead you out of this ghostly mist. In reality, we were planning to escape from this mist as well, but we were unable to do so as we kept on being attacked by ghostly beings," Yuan Yao explained with a slightly smug expression on her face.