As Han Li’s words faded, the surrounding space suddenly shifted.
A yellow mist arose in the void, and yellow boulders the size of millstones materialized out of thin air. Two or three dozen of them densely packed together, completely surrounding the Spirit Moon Flying Boat.
Gu Yunyue’s heart skipped a beat. Before she could think further, the surfaces of these boulders gleamed and they began to spin rapidly, hurtling towards the Spirit Moon Flying Boat with whistling sounds that tore through the air.
The woman was greatly alarmed. She abruptly activated a sword incantation, and a black sword light soared from her body, swaying left and right before instantly expanding into a black giant sword several dozen feet long.
The giant sword spun rapidly, suddenly erupting with a vast expanse of black sword radiance, faintly coalescing into the shape of a dragon, dragging a long, trailing tail of light as it slashed at the nearest boulder.
A deafening crash!
The boulder was barely cleaved apart by the giant sword, but the black giant sword was also sent flying back as if severely damaged, its surface sword radiance completely dissipated.
Gu Yunyue’s body shook violently, and she staggered back several steps before regaining her balance, her eyes filled with terror.
The force of that single boulder's impact was almost comparable to a full-force strike from a Nascent Soul cultivator. Facing the approaching twenty or thirty crystalline boulders, her heart turned icy cold!
But just then, Han Li's calm voice sounded in her ear:
“Protect Le'er and the others well; leave this to me.”
Gu Yunyue felt a blur before her eyes. Han Li had already leaped from the flying boat, his hands flashing with golden light. His figure spun rapidly as he punched out into the void in all directions.
“Bang bang” explosions echoed from all sides as all the yellow boulders were struck by an immense force almost simultaneously, shattering like eggs and turning into a rain of rubble.
“Hmph, so he's a strength cultivator!”
A man’s cold snort suddenly echoed from mid-air, his voice ethereal and impossible to pinpoint.
Hearing the voice, Gu Yunyue snapped back to her senses in surprise and frantically looked around, trying to locate the voice’s owner.
Han Li heard the voice, a hint of mockery tugging at the corner of his mouth. He turned abruptly and flicked a finger, sending a streak of azure sword Qi shooting out to strike a corner of the yellow crystalline world, where it exploded.
Boom!
The void there rippled violently, and a man in black robes staggered into view.
This man was quite stout, with a square face and short beard, his face filled with astonishment.
“I didn’t expect you to be a sword cultivator as well. To see through Lu’s illusion array with a Nascent Soul cultivation, you must be someone of renown. What is your name, and who is your master?” The burly man quickly regained his composure and asked slowly.
“Who I am is irrelevant; the dead have no need to know too much,” Han Li sneered.
“What a joke! I only revealed a fraction of this array's power, and you’re already so arrogant. With the next attack, Lu will obliterate you body and soul!” The burly man roared, forming a hand seal with one hand. Yellow ripples emanated from his body, and he vanished back into hiding.
Seeing this, a trace of surprise flashed in Han Li’s eyes.
The burly man’s array was quite ingenious; he must have plunged into the array's deeper layers, rendering himself undetectable even to Han Li's current spiritual sense.
But then he snorted, his entire body radiating golden light, intending to break the array with brute force and leave the opponent with no place to hide.
But at that moment, an unexpected change occurred!
The entire sky suddenly darkened, and five colossal figures shrouded in black mist appeared, surrounding the Spirit Moon Flying Boat.
Han Li’s pupils contracted slightly, his eyes flashing with piercing azure light.
Beneath the black mist were five black giant ghosts, each thirty or forty feet tall. If not for the pair of curved horns on their heads, they would have resembled enlarged monkeys, covered in short black fur, with green faces and fangs, blood-red eyes, and an extremely ferocious appearance, though their expressions were wooden.
Each giant ghost held a black miniature mountain in its hand.
Compared to the five giant ghosts, Han Li and the others seemed as small as ants.
Gu Yunyue’s face changed drastically!
Each of these five giant ghosts exuded an aura that surpassed her own, and a fine layer of cold sweat instantly appeared on her forehead.
As for Liu Le’er and Yu Menghan, the two women were completely unable to withstand the combined terrifying spiritual pressure of the five giant ghosts and fainted directly.
Roar roar roar!
The five giant ghosts let out deafening roars, their blood-red eyes flashing with fierce light. They swung their ape-like arms and suddenly hurled the five miniature mountains in their hands.
The miniature mountains emitted intense black light, growing rapidly as they left their hands, instantly transforming into mountains over a hundred feet in size, whistling as they crashed down towards Han Li and the others.
Even before the giant peaks arrived, a terrifying pressure that made one’s heart palpitate had already descended, causing the void around the spirit boat to hum and a gale to rise.
Gu Yunyue nearly screamed. Her last shred of sanity drove her to frantically unleash several magical treasures and talismans, erecting layers of multicolored light shields around herself and the two unconscious women.
Han Li merely frowned, both hands flashing with golden light as he casually deflected the incoming giant peaks with his fan-like palms.
Five earth-shattering booms reverberated in succession!
The powerful shockwaves spread out in circles, causing the entire yellow space to hum and violently distort, growing more and more intense.
The yellow space could finally no longer withstand it and shattered with a “bang,” and the surrounding environment reverted to the previous desert landscape as countless yellow fragments scattered.
Although the yellow space had shattered and disappeared, it was only an illusion; the ground was still marked with yellow patterns, indicating that the original array was still in place.
The five giant ghosts were still standing in mid-air, their expressions once again wooden.
In a certain part of the void, the black-robed man’s figure flashed into view, a smug sneer on his face.
Even a late-stage Deity Transformation cultivator without a good spiritual treasure would find it difficult to withstand this Five Ghosts Moving Mountains secret technique.
But in the next moment, the smile on his face froze as he widened his eyes, staring incredulously at the scene below.
He saw that the five colossal peaks below were stacked together like a pyramid, and beneath the five peaks, Han Li stood calmly in the void, supporting the five peaks with a single hand, as if lifting a weightless object.
As for the Spirit Moon Flying Boat beneath Han Li, including Gu Yunyue and the other two women on board, they were completely unharmed.
Before he could react, Han Li casually opened his mouth and blew out a stream of white air.
The five giant peaks were as light as feathers, blown away by the white air.
The black light on the surface of the mountains flickered, shrinking rapidly until they returned to their original miniature size.
Han Li flicked his hand, plucking at the mountains with his fingers as if playing marbles.
“Chi chi” sounds of rushing air echoed out.
The five miniature mountains shot towards the black-robed man one after another, their speed unbelievably fast, reaching him in a flash.
The black-robed man’s expression changed, and black light erupted from his body as he plummeted towards the ground, barely dodging the five miniature mountains.
Han Li’s figure blurred and he appeared like a ghost in front of the five miniature mountains, flicking his fingers again to stop them.
His body spun rapidly, and he kicked two of the miniature mountains with both feet.
The two mountains instantly transformed into two blurred phantoms, falling like meteors, nearly twice as fast as when they had shot upwards.
The black light on the two miniature mountains flickered, and their size increased once more, transforming into two hundred-foot-tall peaks in the blink of an eye, and the sharp whistling was replaced by a terrifying howling.
One of the mountains crashed towards the array below, while the other flew towards the black-robed man.
With a resounding crash!
The former slammed heavily into the yellow array diagram.
The array instantly erupted with dazzling light, attempting to resist, but it was easily overwhelmed and torn apart by the terrifying force contained within the giant peak. With a “bang,” it shattered into countless streams of light.
With the array shattered, the Spirit Moon Flying Boat was immediately freed, swept away by a gust of wind like a small boat.
The other giant peak struck towards the black-robed man like lightning, catching up to him before he could reach the ground.
The black-robed man was horrified. He spat out a mouthful of vital essence, and his body was suddenly enveloped in blood-red light. With a twist, he transformed into a bizarre serpentine light, his escape speed increasing several times over.
Boom!
The black giant peak crashed into the ground, sending up clouds of dust.
At the moment the giant peak landed, the serpentine escape light brushed against the ground and flashed out to a hundred feet away, revealing the man’s figure, his face covered in cold sweat.
Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, a whooshing sound exploded in his ears.
The light above the black-robed man's head dimmed, and another giant mountain was rapidly crashing down. He had just looked up when the giant peak was already inches away, and there was no time to dodge.