In that instant, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth across the entire giant island suddenly began to tremble violently. Countless fist-sized orbs of multicolored light materialized above the pond, surging frantically toward the pseudo-celestial puppet's body.
Though the pseudo-celestial puppet appeared unable to move, spirit patterns of dark ink-green across its surface swelled and thickened wildly, writhing as though they were emerald serpents.
A flash of ruthlessness crossed the puppet's face, and a faint, single syllable escaped its lips: "Detonate."
In the next moment, the thickened dark green spirit patterns blazed furiously, and an overwhelmingly violent aura erupted outward.
Winding, twisting cracks instantly appeared across the pseudo-celestial puppet's body as countless dazzling rays of brilliant light burst forth from within.
With a thunderous boom, a five-colored sun blazed into existence in the void, engulfing the pseudo-celestial puppet entirely.
"This is bad!"
The black-robed youth's eyes filled with dread for the first time upon seeing this. His figure blurred and he shot backward in a streak, leaving a trail of afterimages. Behind him, the colossal phantom of a demonic toad let out a long wail, its golden tongue snapping back with inconceivable speed.
The great tongue flailed wildly, weaving a net of spectral images that materialized above, shielding the youth below.
The five-colored sun contracted slightly, swelled once more, and then exploded completely.
"It's self-detonation!"
"Run!"
In the distance, Ancestor Long and the feathered-robed girl were struck with terror that shook them to their very souls.
Given the terrifying power the pseudo-celestial puppet had just demonstrated, if it self-detonated at this range, survival was utterly impossible for them.
They could hardly expect the Spirit King's divided soul to show any mercy during self-destruction. In fact, this Mahayana expert of the Spirit Race might well have harbored the intention of wiping out everyone present.
After all, his earlier transaction with Sovereign Yuan Yan had been extremely secret in nature — he would not likely want any other witnesses left alive in this world.
Han Li was equally shaken. Without a moment's hesitation, the giant ape form he had assumed whipped both hands forward, and two Extreme Mountains flickered into existence before him. With a flash of light, the miniature mountains expanded into peaks over a hundred zhang tall. The demonic armor on his body blazed with intensified black light as countless dark runes surged outward, forming a luminous barrier that enveloped him.
Then he activated another secret art. Golden light flickered rapidly before him, and a grotesque golden figure with three heads and six arms materialized, its six palms simultaneously striking at the empty air before it. Six orbs of golden light shot forth, and a golden vortex twenty to thirty zhang in diameter materialized before the mountain peaks, spinning wildly.
At the same time, a humming sound rose from Han Li's sleeve as tens of thousands of golden beetles swarmed out, forming a cloud of insects that stretched across his front.
The beetles flurried about, and in moments, an archaic, immensely heavy shield of insects coalesced, hanging motionless before the great ape.
The other two, consumed by shock and fury, gritted their teeth and resorted to their final measures in a desperate bid for survival.
Ancestor Long let out a mighty roar. His half-demon form rolled upon the ground, and with a dragon cry that pierced the very heavens, he transformed into a ten-zhang-long five-clawed golden dragon.
The dragon's entire body gleamed with golden radiance, every scale as though forged from pure gold. Baring its fangs and claws, it reared its head and spat forth a small golden pearl.
The pearl was no larger than a chicken's egg, its surface wreathed in mist-like radiance. It spun once in place, and from within it, a massive golden lotus bloomed into existence, forming a shield before the dragon.
As for the five-clawed golden dragon itself, its scales bristled upward one by one, then shot outward in the next instant. Amid the cascade of golden flashes, the scales swelled to enormous size, manifesting as countless palm-sized golden shields that floated around the dragon, enclosing it in a tight, seamless barrier.
The golden dragon then let out another long cry, coiling its body tight until it formed a colossal golden sphere.
On the other side, the feathered-robed girl's delicate form shimmered with rolling waves of multicolored light as she, too, transformed — into a five-colored phoenix several zhang in length.
The phoenix spread its wings and let out a long, clear cry. In that instant, the surrounding void rippled strangely, and hundreds of white spatial tears materialized one after another, each emitting a tremendous gravitational pull.
After assuming the form of the five-colored phoenix, the girl had pushed her spatial abilities to their absolute limit, conjuring several hundred spatial tears in a single breath.
Simultaneously, the fleshy crest atop the phoenix's head blazed with blinding spiritual light, projecting thirteen layers of multicolored barriers around her body in an instant — nearly exhausting every last drop of her magical power.
From within the five-colored sun of the self-detonation, a hissing roar surged outward!
Dense, countless filaments of five-colored light shot from the sun like millions of arrows. In a few flickering instants, the emerald barrier over the valley's sky was riddled with holes, and the devastation nearly reached the high sky at the very edges of the giant island.
For a time, the entire sky was nothing but blinding streaks of light flashing ceaselessly. The sound of tearing air shook the heavens, drowning out everything else. Nothing else could be seen.
The power unleashed by the pseudo-celestial puppet's detonation was unceasing and relentless, giving the impression that it would never end — a suffocating sensation that gripped the heart.
After an unknowable stretch of time, the filaments in the sky finally began to thin, and at last, the light faded completely into nothingness.