The seven-colored radiance flashed, and the small tower instantly expanded to the height of a person. A mysterious power silently reached down toward the small cauldron.
But at virtually the same moment the youth made his move, Han Li's spirit body — which had been standing motionlessly to one side — suddenly opened its mouth and spat out a ball of white light. Inside was something that vaguely resembled a ring, and a finger quickly tapped it.
With a crack, the ring shattered the instant it was tapped, and a faint ripple of spatial power immediately spread outward.
The ability projected by the small tower was thrown off by this force, veering involuntarily to the side as the spatial energy grazed past the edges of the Purple Profound Cauldron.
The small cauldron let out a clear, resonant hum, then transformed into a streak of purple light and fled a hundred zhang into the distance.
The Blood Light Holy Ancestor's clone holding this treasure flew into a panic. It stomped one foot down and instantly transformed into a beam of crimson light that shot off in hot pursuit.
"You dare lay a hand on my sacred treasure? I will not rest until I have extracted your soul and refined it into dust — only then will I be worthy of my title as Holy Ancestor of the Sacred World!" The leading youth had barely recovered to his normal appearance when he took in the scene. His face turned an ashen shade of iron-blue in an instant.
A torrent of blood surged outward.
The blood water was extraordinarily foul, and once it began pouring forth it seemed utterly inexhaustible, transforming the surrounding void into a vast sea of blood. With a series of hand seals from the leading youth, the sea churned into towering waves and rolled toward Han Li in a fearsome tide.
Han Li's heart tightened. As the giant ape he had transformed into, he formed a hand seal with one hand, and several temporary spell arrays that had been laid out nearby immediately hummed to life.
Array after array materialized, fortifying the sword formation within layers upon layers of luminous curtains and patches of multicolored mist that billowed outward, threatening to swallow the giant ape's body entirely.
By this point, the crimson boat had already come to rest upon the endless sea of blood.
The leading youth on the boat saw the full defensive preparations Han Li had made and let out a cold laugh. Both sleeves flicked forward simultaneously toward Han Li's position.
The sea of blood below surged violently, and with a single roiling motion, it rose into a colossal crimson wave dozens of zhang high, surging toward Han Li with menacing force.
The temporary arrays blocking its path collided head-on with the enormous wave.
In the span of a single breath, the radiant mist and light pouring from the arrays were snuffed out as though meeting their natural nemesis. The arrays themselves, struck by the blood water, crumbled like paper and dissipated into wisps of green smoke.
The crimson wave crashed down upon the central sword formation. With a vicious push from the leading youth, it slammed into the formation with a thunderous boom.
Brilliant azure sword light erupted from the sword formation in a frenzy, weaving and interlocking until they formed a wall of azure that stood firm against the crimson wave.
The blood tide surged and roared, yet before this azure barrier it was completely halted.
The leading youth felt a twinge of surprise.
This sea of blood had been refined from a uniquely toxic water found only in the demon world. Normally, regardless of whether it faced magic treasures or spirit beasts, anything caught in its grip was annihilated without delay.
Though the power of this technique had been greatly diminished due to his limited Magical Power, he had assumed it would be utterly unstoppable against any cultivator below the Mahayana stage. He never expected it to be so easily blocked by his opponent's sword formation.
The azure sword light streaming from the formation appeared ordinary enough, yet under the battering of the blood wave, it showed not the slightest sign of being damaged — as though the sea's lethal toxicity simply had no effect on it.
But being a Mahayana cultivator himself, the leading youth naturally had more than this one trick. His expression darkened, and his hand flew through a series of seals before pointing a finger at the surrounding sea of blood.
The sea rolled and churned, and from it burst forth several hundred fist-sized clumps of blood. As they condensed and took shape, they transformed into winged blood-silkworms that hummed through the air and swarmed toward the azure sword screen.
Han Li's pupils contracted at the sight. He pushed the sword formation with renewed intensity.
From the azure screen before him, a five-clawed azure dragon unfurled with a long, piercing cry, its massive jaws opening to unleash a dense storm of sword light.
The winged blood-silkworms squealed and shrieked before the cold gleam sliced them cleanly in half, one after another.
However, in the very next instant, a blood wave swept over the falling silkworms and they were restored to their original form in a flash. They surged forward again in a writhing mass, and at the moment they drew close to the azure screen, each one opened its mouth and spat out a single strand of gossamer-thin blood silk.
The strands were as fine as a single hair, yet the instant they touched the sword screen, they produced a sound like jade beads dropping onto a plate — sharp, crystalline pings.
The countless strands of sword light that made contact with the blood silk were not cleaved apart by the piercing sword energy. Instead, the silk turned impossibly sticky, each strand rooting itself onto the blade-light as though it had taken root.
The blood-silkworms that had spat these threads immediately beat their wings and shot backward.
As hundreds of taut strands pulled tight, portions of the sword light slowed and faltered.
In the span of a heartbeat, the azure barrier stuttered, contracting involuntarily and revealing a thin sliver of an opening.
The leading youth broke into a hearty laugh. Another colossal blood wave crashed forward, and the blood water prepared to pierce straight through the barrier in this fleeting window.