Chapter 1564: Pursuit
"Fellow Daoists, this formation leads straight into the secret passageway. I'll be going ahead first." The big-headed being smiled before casting an incantation seal onto the teleportation formation.
White light flashed from the formation, and the big-headed being abruptly disappeared, leaving behind only the deity statue in his wake.
"Brother Yuan sure is resourceful to have installed a teleportation formation inside this puppet of his," the green-skinned being chuckled before also striding into the puppet's stomach, and he also cast an incantation seal onto the teleportation formation before abruptly vanishing on the spot.
"You can go before me, Brother Han," the being enshrouded in red light offered.
Han Li was rather surprised by this gesture, but his expression remained unchanged as he nodded and strode forward.
The teleportation was extremely quick, and Han Li appeared within a dim and dank cave before he had even experienced any discomfort.
He looked around to find that this was only a small cave just over 100 feet in size, but there was a glowing crystal hanging from the roof of the cave that illuminated his surroundings.
On one face of the cave was a square entrance to a passageway that was around 10 feet tall.
The big-headed being and the green-skinned being were already there, and the former was inspecting a formation plate in his hand with a grim look on his face, seemingly in deep thought about something.
Han Li's body swayed, and he exited the teleportation formation. Moments later, white light flashed within the formation once again, and the being enshrouded under red light also appeared.
Seeing as everyone was present, the big-headed being raised his head with a smile and was just about to say something, when a dull rumbling erupted around them from all directions, and the entire cave began to tremor slightly.
Everyone's expressions immediately changed slightly in response to this alarming development.
"Let's hurry up and get out of here; the city's protective barrier won't last much longer," the green-skinned being urged.
"Alright, I'll lift the restrictions on the city gates so everyone else can flee first." The big-headed being nodded with a solemn expression before tossing the formation plate in his hand into the air before making a rapid series of hand seals.
Incantation seals of different colors disappeared into the formation plate in quick succession, following which the plate suddenly exploded amid a dull thump.
Han Li's trio were all quite taken aback by this.
Detonating a formation plate normally brought about much severer implications than just lifting a restriction.
The big-headed being seemed to have sensed their bewilderment, and he chuckled, "I've already activated a self-detonation formation below Green Light City, and the entire city will be reduced to ashes in two hours."
A chill immediately ran down Han Li's spine upon hearing this.
This big-headed being really was quite a nasty piece of work!
Even though most of the beings in the city had fled to the city gates, there were definitely many mortals as well as cultivators who were hiding within the city in the hopes of being able to weather this storm.
In that case, all of them would perish along with this city.
The other two beings also exchanged an astonished glance upon hearing this.
However, before the three of them had a chance to say anything, the big-headed being had already flown into the passageway as a streak of yellow light.
Han Li and the others naturally immediately followed suit.
At this moment, massives holes with diameters of over 1,000 feet had appeared on the light barriers in front of the city's four gates, and all of the beings that had gathered there in advance all fled for their lives as countless streaks of light.
Some sank into the ground and instantly vanished into the soil, while some rolled onto the grass and also abruptly disappeared.
These were beings that were proficient in earth and wood movement techniques.
However, the majority of beings were still flying through the air as quickly as they could atop their respective treasures.
It seemed that everyone had already decided to split up and escape on their own as everyone was fleeing in different directions.
At this moment, the higher-ups of the Jiao Chi Race in that silver "island" had also noticed all of the beings fleeing the city. Thus, silver light immediately flashed from the giant island, following which massive twin-headed white falcons emerged.
Not only did these giant falcons each possess two heads and bodies that were 30 to 40 feet in size, all of them were also wearing simple suits of white arms, as well as conical metal tips on their talons that appeared to be extremely sharp.
There were over 1,000 of these giant falcons, and as soon as they flew out of the silver island, they immediately spread their wings before hurtling toward the beings escaping from Green Light City. All of them were flying at speeds no slower than that of Core Formation cultivators, and after these giant falcons emerged, there was still spiritual light flashing from the giant island as another vast horde of objects were ejected.
On this occasion, these objects were black wooden canoes that were only around 100 feet in length each.
All of these canoes had black runes carved onto them, and there were three to five silver-armored warriors sitting in each canoe.
Over 100 of these black canoes flew out at once, and even though they were slightly slower than the giant falcons, they were still far faster than the vast majority of beings that were fleeing from the city.
After releasing those two waves of pursuers, the giant island fell silent for a short while. However, not long after that, a string of dragon roars rang out, and seven or eight massive figures flew forth from the island.
These beings all possessed bodies that were several hundred feet in length, and they each had a pair of five-colored wings.
Upon closer inspection, one would discover that they were winged wyrm-like beasts.
Aside from their vibrant wings and the golden hue of their bodies, they were completely identical to normal wyrms.
As soon as they emerged from the island, their massive bodies swayed, and they blurred before disappearing on the spot.
In the next instant, these winged golden wyrms appeared around 300 to 400 feet away, flying at an astonishing speed.
After these three waves of pursuers had been released from the giant island one after another, all of the fleeing beings became even panicked as they escaped in a blind frenzy.
Even though there were tens of thousands of these beings, the vast majority of them possessed rather lackluster cultivation bases. Those who possessed superior cultivation bases had already fled to several tens of kilometers away, while those with the most inferior cultivation bases were still less than 10 kilometers away from the city.
Furthermore, the vast majority of beings fell into that latter group, and they were chased down by those twin-headed giant falcons in what felt like the blink of an eye.
All of these giant falcons swooped down, sweeping up gusts of fierce winds in their wake. Their metal-tipped talons tore through the defenses of these low-grade beings with ease, then sliced through their bodies like hot knives through butter.
Some of these beings were instantly torn apart while others were flung into the air, then pecked to death by the giant falcons waiting up above.
Of course, there were some beings who were unwilling to give up without a fight, and many of them banded together to release their treasures or unleash their abilities, creating a collective effort to try and ward off the oncoming falcons.
However, these beings were simply far too weak, and the suits of white armor being worn by the giant falcons possessed remarkable defensive properties.
As such, only a dozen or so falcons were felled by these attacks, and most of them had fallen to lucky shots that just so happened to strike vital regions peeking through the gaps between their armor. The rest of the attacks were all brushed aside with ease.
All of these giant falcons were enraged by these retaliative attacks, and all of them let loose sharp cries as they swooped down to attack with increased ferocity.
Thus, more anguished cries rang out as hundreds more bloodstained and mangled bodies plummeted from the sky.
At this moment, the black canoes also joined the fray, and all of the armored warriors standing atop the canoes slashed their weapons through the air to summon a series of silver projections. All those who were struck by the projections were instantly dismembered without being able to offer up any resistance.
Thankfully, the armored warriors had no intention of expending excessive effort to hunt down these low-grade beings. Instead, the black canoes merely continued onward, pursuing the fleeing beings with superior cultivation bases.
As for the golden wyrms that had emerged last, they were flying directly toward the most powerful beings who had already fled far into the distance.
With their fearsome speed, it wouldn't take them long to hunt down their prey, either, and thus, a completely one-sided slaughter ensued.
Meanwhile, azure light suddenly flashed from a mundane-looking rock face on a nameless mountain close to 10 kilometers to the west of Green Light City, following which a dull explosion suddenly erupted.
Following the explosion, a large black hole was blasted into the rock face, and four streaks of light whizzed out from within.
These four were none other than Han Li and the trio of foreign beings.
Due to the fact that this place was quite secluded and its direction didn't correspond with that of any of the city gates, no Jiao Chi Races forced had appeared in the area yet. However, all four of them still wore cautious expressions as they hurriedly scanned through the nearby area with their spiritual sense.
"Let's get away from this place before the Jiao Chi beings arrive. We'll have to split up from here onward; staying together will make us too large of a target," the green-skinned being said with an elated look on his face.
The big-headed being nodded before glancing at Han Li's trio with a hesitant look on his face, then suddenly said, "Of course, but before you all leave, I have something to ask of all of you, and I hope you won't refuse."
"What do you need from us?" the being enshrouded under red light asked.
Han Li and the green-skinned being were also rather curious to hear what he had to say.