"Friend Han Li, prepare your Exorcism Divine Lightning ritual now. When we give the signal, release the lightning." Liu Zu hovered at the center of the enormous formation, his robes billowing around him, issuing his command in a tone that brooked no argument.
Han Li nodded. He formed a series of hand seals, and arcs of golden lightning instantly coiled around his body. A layer of lightning net materialized and swelled violently, then with a thunderous boom, condensed into a sphere of golden radiance.
Golden sigils fluttered in all directions as the radiance flickered and collapsed into a golden orb that hovered gently above his upturned palm.
At that point, Han Li ceased his spellwork and simply cradled the sphere in one hand, watching the proceedings with cold detachment.
Liu Zu, Mu Qing, and the others began their assault on the barrier.
Liu Zu and Mu Qing chanted incantations under their breath. Beneath their feet, the high-ranked demon beasts simultaneously channeled the spiritual artifacts they controlled. Countless beams of light erupted at once, and the formation they created transformed in an instant into a massive black hole. Spiritual energy from heaven and earth poured in from the surrounding air and surged toward Liu Zu and Mu Qing in wild torrents.
In the blink of an eye, the two of them were enveloped in shimmering mantles of multicolored spiritual light, their bodies gleaming with brilliance, resembling two deities.
On the other side, the white-haired beauty stood at the forefront of the eight dark shadows. She pressed her palms together, then drew them apart, and a small, pitch-black bell appeared between her hands.
The bell's surface was utterly ancient, its edges even chipped and worn!
The two blood-robed figures took their positions — one perched on the shoulder of the purple-blood puppet, the other flickering through the air to land atop the newly assembled giant metal puppet.
The purple-blood puppet let out a low growl. It rubbed its palms together, and with a flash of bloody light, a purple-red blood axe roughly thirty meters long materialized in its grip. The axe shimmered with sanguine radiance as the puppet raised it overhead with both hands and aimed it at the water's surface ahead.
Under the blood-robed figure's command, the metal puppet similarly hoisted the colossal blade it held, its surface beginning to gleam with an eerie black sheen.
With a deafening boom, Liu Zu finally struck. He raised one hand and drove his palm forward.
A beam of black light erupted from his hand and shot outward. This beam was several times thicker than the one he had unleashed in the spatial corridor. Wherever it passed, the surrounding space itself warped and distorted, folding in on itself like crumpled parchment.
The beam plunged into the water's surface in a flash.
The Nether River, which had appeared perfectly still, initially showed no reaction. But as the black beam poured into it without pause, changes finally began.
First, concentric ripples spread outward from the point of impact. Then the Nether River's waters began spinning furiously around the beam as their axis, accelerating faster and faster, producing a deep, rumbling roar.
Mu Qing struck as well.
The golden artifact beneath her feet spun rapidly, absorbing most of the surrounding spiritual radiance into itself. Then it swelled enormously in size. Standing upright, it transformed into a colossal golden dharma wheel that hurtled toward the barrier ahead.
The wheel's diameter spanned several meters. Before it even touched the water's surface, it erupted with the sound of wind and thunder, its golden light flashing as it cleaved into the water.
The still-spinning surface of the water finally parted with a sonorous groan as the golden light swept through!
A white void centered on the black beam slowly emerged and expanded, but the surrounding curtain of water trembled violently, making the opening extremely unstable — ready to collapse at any moment.
Two more sounds thundered forth: the spectral image of a purple-red blood axe and a beam of black blade energy screamed through the air.
Under the combined might of so many attacks, another earth-shattering explosion rocked the scene, and the Nether River was finally cleaved fully in two. A watery gorge roughly thirty meters tall and over ten meters wide was slowly taking shape.
But at that very moment, a strange gurgling noise emanated from the nearby water curtain. Then strand after strand of crystalline, glimmering black threads surfaced from the Nether River's waters and surged toward the great gorge, wrapping around it.
An incredible sight unfolded!
Every one of the devastating attacks unleashed by the Demon Kings — the black beam, the golden wheel, the blade energy — trembled and dimmed the moment those black threads enveloped them. Their momentum immediately faltered, and they began to collapse.
"Friend Han Li, what are you waiting for?" Liu Zu's voice suddenly rang out coldly from within the multicolored radiance.
The spiritual energy of heaven and earth gathered by the great formation, which had been sustaining his black beam, was dwindling rapidly. Beside him, Mu Qing, who was controlling the golden wheel, was in the same predicament.
Clearly, both techniques consumed enormous amounts of Magical Power, and even with the formation's support, they could not be maintained for long.
Han Li took a deep breath. With the hand holding the golden orb upturned toward the void, he flicked his five fingers upward.
With a soft *pff*, the golden orb transformed into a streak of golden light and shot high into the sky.
His other hand rapidly traced a seal, and an enormous golden sigil materialized and shot forth as well.
A thunderclap split the clear sky. Violent winds erupted without warning, dark clouds surged in to blanket the heavens, and a golden sun blazed into existence amid the blackened sky. An aura of world-destroying power erupted from within the clouds, piercing the heavens.
The sun's surface crackled with frenzied flashes of lightning, and peals of thunder rolled on without cease, deep and terrifying.
Han Li's expression was solemn. An incantation in a strange, arcane tongue spilled from his lips, and he pointed one finger toward the water below.
The golden sigil flashed!
A golden beam as thick as a water barrel erupted from the blazing sun and, after several flickers, struck the surface of the Nether River.