Baiyi Langjun faced Yan Ziyan's new round of fierce offensive with a slight smile. Then, he suddenly raised his hand and cast several hand seals in succession, which disappeared into the surrounding void in a flash.

In the next moment, within his released yellow spiritual domain, clusters of light disks the size of cartwheels appeared, spinning incessantly, constantly weakening the sonic attacks emitted by the Purple-Winged Bat. However, layers of wrinkles still appeared on his white robe, which was of extremely high quality.

After a while, a series of "tearing" sounds came, and countless tiny cracks actually appeared on his robe. The light disks finally began to collapse one after another.

At the same time, the palace ruins beside and behind Baiyi Langjun trembled under the sound waves, and soon turned into dust, rising like smoke and scattering everywhere.

Seeing this, Yan Ziyan's eyes lit up with joy. She busily chanted incantations and rapidly plucked the pipa in her hands.

The Purple-Winged Bat's eyes flashed fiercely. It abruptly spread its wings, transforming into a streak of purple light and rushing towards Baiyi Langjun.

"Hmph, since you refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit, then don't blame me for being merciless!" Baiyi Langjun glanced down at his tattered clothes, a hint of annoyance flashing in his eyes, and scolded.

Having said that, he turned his wrist, and a flash of spiritual light appeared in front of him, immediately revealing a gigantic iron fan about six feet long. Engraved on it were circles of complex and obscure yellow runes, from which came waves of intense earth-attribute law aura.

He performed a hand seal with one hand, and the iron fan in front of him immediately "clang" opened. On the huge fan surface, the image of a yellow-haired wind howl-like strange beast shone brightly, actually leaping out from it as if it had come to life. Its huge mouth opened, and a tornado hurricane, wrapped in rolling yellow sand, flew out.

"Boom boom boom..."

A burst of violent sound came as the yellow sand tornado swept across, directly smashing the Purple-Winged Bat, which had just rushed close, into powder.

Yan Ziyan, who was holding the pipa, felt her whole body heavy and unable to evade at all. She was violently struck by the yellow sand tornado, sending her flying backwards. With a "bang," she crashed into the door of the "Blazing Fire Palace" behind her and fell inside.

"Tsk tsk, I was a little heavy-handed; I hope I didn't ruin that face..." Baiyi Langjun called out with a "Oops" in his mouth, quickly stowing the iron fan and rushing forward with heartache.

However, before he could reach the palace door, he suddenly heard an extremely faint, dense sound in his ears, which sounded like the sound of countless beetles flapping their wings simultaneously.

Immediately afterward, Yan Ziyan's exclamation came from within the hall: "No! What is this..."

As soon as she finished speaking, her figure shot out from the hall. She had only flown a hundred feet into the air before falling heavily to the ground with a "bang."

Seeing this scene, Baiyi Langjun was first stunned, and then his eyes narrowed as he looked at her body, immediately taking a deep breath of cold air.

A large number of dark red insects the size of rice grains, burning with specks of red flames, were densely covering Yan Ziyan's entire body.

She was rolling frantically on the ground with a painful expression, constantly making hoarse moaning sounds. Her body was shrouded in a layer of pale golden mist under the burning flames. Wrinkles were appearing on her originally radiant face at a speed visible to the naked eye, and white hairs were beginning to appear at her temples.

What exactly were these things, that they seemed to be able to burn her essence?

It should be known that although cultivators in the Golden Immortal realm still cannot avoid the arrival of decline tribulations, their lifespan is almost infinite apart from that. How could these strange insects possess such heaven-defying power?

Baiyi Langjun's face suddenly became extremely ugly, and his heart was filled with extreme shock. He turned around and was about to flee from this place at all costs.

But at this moment, an unexpected change occurred!

A huge figure descended from the sky, landing like an iron tower. A fiery red spiritual domain immediately enveloped the surrounding area, also encompassing him.

Baiyi Langjun glanced sideways, seeing that the person had an unusual appearance, with fiery hair growing from his head, a nose like a rhinoceros horn, and two large golden rings hanging from his pointed ears. His expression was stern, and his eyes seemed to hold a hint of disdain.

This fire-haired alien was none other than Chi Rong.

After sensing the powerful aura deliberately released by Chi Rong, Baiyi Langjun's heart suddenly turned cold. He was actually a Late Taiyi cultivator.

"A mere Golden Immortal dares to covet the Fire Age Firefly Worms raised by my master. Let me see how many moments your lifespan is enough for them to burn," Chi Rong said with a sneer.

"Wh...what, there really is such a thing?"

Hearing the four words "Fire Age Firefly Worms," Baiyi Langjun's entire body stiffened. Only then did he suddenly recall a rumor that had been circulating in the True Immortal Realm for a long time.

The legendary Fire Age Firefly Worms are a very peculiar type of spiritual insect. Although they resemble fireflies from the mortal world, the flames burning on their bodies contain a strange power of temporal laws. When they encounter flesh and blood beings, they can burn their lifespans to obtain energy to help them reproduce. The places they pass through are often devoid of life, and they are exceptionally ferocious.

However, because their own lifespans are extremely short, often only lasting about a month, if no living beings are burned by them, they cannot reproduce continuously, and will eventually become extinct. Therefore, they are not widely circulated in the world.

However, it is said that some cultivators who are skilled in controlling insects can freeze them with temporal treasures or special restrictions to preserve them for a long time, and then open the treasures or restrictions to release them when needed.

Obviously, there was originally such a restriction in this Blazing Fire Palace. His battle with Yan Ziyan had destroyed the restriction, releasing these things.

Cold sweat broke out on Baiyi Langjun's back. Just as he was thinking about how to escape, he saw the alien man turn his gaze and stare at him intently.

Knowing that things were not good, he dared not hesitate any longer. He performed a hand seal with both hands, and yellow light lit up around his body. A khaki vortex immediately appeared beneath his feet, and a rotation swallowed him in, his figure disappearing.

However, after only a few breaths, a khaki halo relit on the ground several hundred feet away. Baiyi Langjun's figure was pulled out of the ground by a fiery hand extending from the crimson spiritual domain, gripping him tightly.

"Heh heh, now that you're here, don't even think about leaving," Chi Rong chuckled lightly, raising his hand and pressing down heavily on the ground.

The fiery hand grabbed Baiyi Langjun and pressed him firmly onto the ground.

Immediately afterward, Chi Rong unhurriedly took out a short flute with a dark red body from his chest. It was covered with black spots, looking like an old blowpipe.

However, when Chi Rong pressed the holes on it and began to play the flute, a series of ancient and desolate sounds slowly emanated from it.

As the sound rang out, the "buzzing" sound inside the Blazing Fire Palace grew louder and louder. Thousands upon thousands of Fire Age Firefly Worms were awakened from their frozen state, and they flapped their wings and flew out, rushing towards Baiyi Langjun.

For a time, screams of misery once again resounded through the sky.

Chi Rong did not look at Baiyi Langjun and Yan Ziyan again, but strode toward the other side of the plaza.

There, stood an alien statue that was relatively well-preserved, with few traces of damage.

Its hands and feet were as large as cattail fans, and flames rose from the top of its head. It was naked from the waist up, and its skin was engraved with circles of strange patterns.

"Disciple has taken the liberty of coming here to collect Fire Age Firefly Worms. Please forgive me, Master... Those who trespassed on my Blazing Fire Palace have already been executed." Chi Rong walked up to the statue, gave it a respectful bow, and muttered.

……

More than ten days later.

In the True Words Sect ruins, above a certain mountain forest, a figure dressed in green was piloting an emerald green flying chariot, flying through the air. His face was pale, and his appearance was ordinary. It was Han Li, who had changed his appearance and was posing as Li Jiangliu.

In recent days, he had continued forward behind the huge pond. Along the way, he had only sporadically discovered some damaged ruins, and had not encountered any danger, nor had he been able to find any treasures. He had arrived here relatively peacefully.

On the flying chariot, he gazed into the distance, his brow suddenly furrowing. He changed the hand seals in his hand, controlling the flying chariot to descend to the ground.

After landing, Han Li stowed the flying chariot and walked out along a small path paved with bluestone slabs in the forest. Before long, he came to a huge suspension arch bridge.

The main body of the arch bridge was a wood and stone structure, more than thirty zhang wide. It had both bluestone steps and flat vehicle lanes. On both sides of the bridgehead were placed gray-white stone lions, serving as spiritual objects guarding the arch bridge.

Han Li stepped forward and stroked one of the stone lions, which was much taller than himself, confirming that it was just an ordinary stone beast guarding the bridge, with no spiritual power fluctuations on its body at all.

His gaze narrowed slightly. After hesitating for a moment, he slowly climbed the stone steps, step by step, walking towards the bridge.

When he was about to reach the center of the arch bridge, his footsteps suddenly stopped, and he did not continue forward.

Because the bridge surface ended here. Further ahead was a spatial rift with a length of several thousand zhang. It was pitch black inside with no light at all. Only waves of intense spatial fluctuations were constantly transmitted.

The other half of the arch bridge seemed to have been swallowed by this spatial rift.

In addition to this huge spatial rift, there were also countless dense small rifts scattered around. Although they did not completely block Han Li's path, he did not dare to cross through them rashly.

Han Li's eyes narrowed slightly, watching the black space within the rift. He found it to be empty, unable to see anything at all. Observing it for a slightly longer time even gave him a feeling of fear, as if he was about to be swallowed into it.

He slowly withdrew his gaze and looked towards both sides of the bridge. He saw that the areas stretching thousands of zhang on both sides were almost the same as here. Whether it was towering ancient trees or pavilions and buildings, they had all been neatly cut in half.

Some of them, like this half of the arch bridge, were still stubbornly standing, while others had completely collapsed and become dilapidated.

All of this seemed quite strange.