With a muffled boom, the corpse erupted in a blinding burst of blood-red light the instant it began to topple, and then detonated in a violent explosion.
Flesh, blood, and the residual true power within the body were transformed into a torrential downpour of blood rain that sprayed outward in every direction in a torrential storm.
The shriek of its passage through the air echoed across more than half the sky.
Amidst the shower of blood, an incredibly faint spectral image flickered into view and shot forth like a wraith, hurtling straight toward the small, snow-white bell not far away.
It was none other than the young man's Nascent Soul, transformed into an escape light!
He understood the situation with perfect clarity. He knew that without his physical body, his Nascent Soul alone stood no chance of escaping Han Li's clutches. Instead, he intended to possess the silver bell first and flee for his life by relying on its mysterious powers.
The giant ape faced the oncoming barrage of blood arrows head-on, neither dodging nor evading. Instead, a fierce gleam flashed across its face, its chest swelled outward, and it let out a thunderous roar.
The roar was like a bolt of divine thunder from the nine heavens. The moment it left the ape's mouth, it set the surrounding sky ringing and humming. The vast expanse of empty space before it was engulfed by the shockwave of the sound and warped and twisted violently, causing countless white, web-like cracks to appear out of thin air.
This single roar from Han Li's giant ape form seemed powerful enough to shatter the very fabric of space itself — a testament to the terrifying might contained within.
The blood rain was instantly obliterated to nothingness, and the spectral image caught within the roar's range could only let out a single piercing shriek before it, too, was annihilated into dust and ash.
But to everyone's surprise, the instant the young man's Nascent Soul perished, the snow-white bell let out a resonant hum, its light flickered once, and it too self-destructed.
However, this self-destruction produced none of the destructive power one might expect. The bell simply dissolved into a sphere of white light that flickered a few times before mysteriously scattering into countless motes of light and vanishing without a trace.
The giant ape's eyes glimmered with a flash of blue light at this sight, but without the slightest hesitation, its massive form blurred and vanished into the void.
The next instant, the giant ape reappeared directly above the six-legged lizard that was still entangled with the white serpent.
Two colossal fists hammered down upon it like a devastating storm.
Poor lizard — it possessed the cultivation of the mid-stage Void Refinement realm, yet under Han Li's attacks in giant ape form, it was utterly powerless to resist. It was smashed flat into a slab of meat, and in the end, even its demon core was ripped forcibly from its body.
The demon spirit that fled from the ruined corpse was swallowed whole by the white serpent, its soul utterly and irreversibly scattered.
Having dispatched this final enemy, the giant ape's body shimmered with golden light, and its frame rapidly shrank.
Han Li reverted to his human form in midair in the blink of an eye, then turned his head to fix his gaze upon the spot where the snow-white bell had disappeared, his eyes flickering with contemplation.
…
At the same moment the small bell self-destructed in the Realm of Cold, far away in a mysterious palace somewhere in the Spirit Realm, a sudden exclamation rang out from the uppermost floor of a tower surrounded by layer upon layer of restrictive seals.
"Impossible!"
The cry was filled with astonishment and fury.
At the entrance to the tower, several golden-armored guards stood ramrod straight, their faces utterly blank, as though they had not heard a single sound emanating from within.
On the upper floor of the tower, three Jiaochi clansmen of varying appearance stood gazing at a colossal snow-white bell enshrined upon a jade table of emerald green, each wearing an expression of solemn gravity.
The one who had cried out was a beautiful woman in her thirties, a pair of small, emerald-green horns protruding from her head. She held one delicate hand over her mouth, her almond eyes blazing with frustration.
The enormous bell on the table stood a full zhang tall, identical in shape and color to the small bell wielded by the young man with the golden horns — differing only in size.
On the floor beneath the jade table, five miniature magical formations inscribed in a row glowed with flickering golden light.
Four of the formations were completely empty. Only the one closest to the great bell held a hovering sphere of white light.
The white light and the great bell pulsed in tandem, their glows flickering in apparent resonance, as though answering each other.
"A Profound Heaven Sacred Artifact has been destroyed, and the Divine Bell Spirit that served as its primary material has fled back on its own. It seems the disciple who carried this Profound Heaven Sacred Artifact has undoubtedly fallen within the Realm of Cold," the woman murmured.
"What's so extraordinary about that? Countless powerful races have sent people into the Realm of Cold. It's hardly impossible that this young man encountered a few opponents with heaven-defying abilities, or that he fell prey to some of the realm's native beasts by chance," said another figure — an elderly man in white robes with a blue marking between his brows — stroking his beard with an air of unconcern.
"Brother Shixin, that's not quite right," said the third person, a clean-shaven, fair-complexioned middle-aged man in blue robes, his tone light and measured. "With a Profound Heaven Sacred Artifact capable of replicating the Myriad Illusionary Heaven Bell in his possession, he should have been able to protect himself even against a Sacred-tier existence. Besides, we gave strict orders beforehand that all teams must move as a single group. I simply cannot imagine what danger could have caused a Core Disciple carrying a Profound Heaven Sacred Artifact to perish while under the escort of so many protectors. Moreover, half a year has already passed. Even if they were teleported to the farthest reaches at the start, they should have reached their destination by now and begun carrying out the plan."
At the middle-aged man's words, the old man's gaze flickered, and he fell into silent contemplation.