His heart sank. Han Li naturally had no intention of being engulfed by the power of the Myriad Demon Banner. Without a moment's hesitation, he tapped the Five Nascent Devils, chanting an incantation while simultaneously activating his devil-controlling techniques.
The Five Nascent Devils lunged into the air, and amidst flickering gray light, the five skeletons fused and merged together, forming a colossal skeleton that stood thirty zhang tall.
Immediately, green light flashed within the skeleton's hollow eye sockets. Its two bony hands reached toward its own torso and plucked out two ribs, which instantly transformed into two bone blades each over ten zhang long. Letting out a roar, it slashed them downward at the sky in a cross pattern.
A cross-shaped blade radiance, gleaming with an astonishing cold light, slashed toward the giant banner hovering in midair, shattering the descending gray haze into tatters before striking directly upon the Myriad Demon Banner.
A heaven-shaking, earth-shattering boom erupted as demonic energy and cold radiance intertwined and flashed, momentarily tangled together.
The giant skeleton then abruptly soared into the air, its twin blades whirling wildly as crescent-shaped arcs of cold radiance howled forth, blanketing nearly half the sky in a wash of frosty light — it seemed intent on destroying the giant banner in a single assault.
From within the Myriad Demon Banner came Old Monster Che's furious roar. The giant banner flickered in midair and shrank drastically in an instant, reducing to about a foot in size in the blink of an eye.
The child-like figure materialized in a flash, snatched the banner into his hand, then flickered and instantly teleported to another spot several dozen zhang away.
It seemed this old monster knew well that enlarging the Myriad Demon Banner made it cumbersome to maneuver, turning it into the perfect target for the giant skeleton's twin blades — far better to return it to its original form for easier use.
The white giant skeleton witnessed this, and its body trembled as it similarly shrank within the gray-white demonic mist, ultimately reducing to a height of about two zhang. The devil then let out a series of eerie wailing cries, spewing gray-white demonic energy, waved its similarly shrunken pair of bone blades, and charged straight toward the child.
The child-like figure found the Five Nascent Devils rather troublesome to deal with.
These five sub-devils had undergone special ritual refinement and were immune to the restrictions of the Myriad Demon Banner. Moreover, unless one possessed special devil-subduing treasures or eliminated their master, these five devils were virtually immortal — no matter how many times they were destroyed, they could be reborn on the spot.
Though the Myriad Demon Banner was formidable, it was primarily designed to deal with human cultivators. Against such powerful devils, it truly could not easily absorb them. Even if one could dispatch them using other techniques, it would by no means be a quick matter.
However, seeing the skeleton charging at him furiously, Old Monster Che's avatar could only furrow his brows and wave the Myriad Demon Banner, releasing waves of dark demonic energy to temporarily entangle the skeleton. Yet of his ten parts of spiritual focus, he devoted six to keeping tabs on Han Li, leaving only four to deal with the five devils.
At this moment, Han Li stood shoulder to shoulder with his humanoid puppet, his expression shifting between dark and light, yet he remained completely motionless.
The silver-robed woman likewise stood firmly upon the high platform, showing no intention whatsoever of launching an attack.
It appeared this woman wished to continue the stalemate, or perhaps feared that the slightest move on her part would allow Han Li to seize the opportunity and slip away through the teleportation array.
As for the two four-winged centipedes, they hovered above the two smaller teleportation arrays — one on the left and one on the right — watching Han Li with menacing vigilance.
The Ice Phoenix knew full well that these two teleportation arrays were the only way to escape from this hall.
The reason Han Li had not made a move was quite simple — he was somewhat wary of the Ice Phoenix's ability to tear through space.
Despite having numerous techniques at his disposal, he had yet to come up with a way to force this demon back and then escape unscathed.
But just at that moment, a burst of wild laughter suddenly rang out from the center of the great hall behind him.
"Haha, I've finally come out! This time I'm going to have a good stretch. Let me say upfront — I absolutely will not go back easily until I've had my fill!"
The laughter sounded like a woman's voice, yet it was extraordinarily harsh and grating to the ear.
Han Li was startled. His spiritual sense swept backward, and a look of surprise appeared on his face.
He saw that the beautiful woman who had been battling the two Ice Phoenix avatars had suddenly abandoned the fight and was hurtling toward him at high speed. Only the two elderly men remained behind, holding the two Ice Phoenixes in check.
Behind the beautiful woman, a mass of hazy green yin qi followed like a shadow, and within it a faint female figure flickered ceaselessly. That booming laughter was actually emanating from this green qi.
"This is..."
Han Li instantly sensed the formidable yin power of the woman within the ghostly qi — she was yet another late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator.
But this woman's entire body was wrapped in yin force. She was a ghost cultivator of fearsome power!
"Fellow Daoist Han, there is no need for alarm. This Palace Master will not let them gang up on you. Allow me to lend you a hand!" The beautiful woman spoke abruptly, addressing Han Li.
Hearing this, Han Li was somewhat speechless.
It was plain that this woman feared he would be killed by the two demons working together, after which, with no one left to restrain them, they would turn their attention to the Extreme Ice Palace. Yet the moment she opened her mouth, it became her doing him a favor.
These tenth-grade demon cultivators had been targeting the Extreme Ice Palace from the very start.