After a single flash, the six golden spheres of light converged into a mass in the empty air below, then spun rapidly before transforming into a colossal golden-violet vortex.
The vortex had initially been only several zhang across, but as it spun faster, its size ballooned as if being inflated, swelling to cover an area of roughly one mu. Countless gold-and-silver runes drifted out from within it, and at the same time, a tremendous force surged outward from its center.
The instant the two black streaks of light touched the massive vortex, they vanished with a sharp, piercing shriek—their mournful wail cut short—as the invisible force tore them in and ground them to dust.
The phantom of the enormous purple claw, however, was momentarily held at bay by the swarm of gold-and-silver runes and trembled faintly.
In that brief moment of delay, a Buddhist chant rang out from within the golden vortex, and its volume surged once more by nearly half.
The air around the giant claw phantom tightened, and a crushing, mountain-like force slammed downward with terrifying ferocity.
Under the weight of that immense power, the five fingers of the purple claw trembled violently, its surface blurring and dimming as though it might collapse at any moment.
At the same time, the five demons below suddenly felt their shoulders sink. Their bodies stiffened, and they found themselves bound by an invisible force, unable to move.
At first, the five were stunned—then fury erupted.
With their level of cultivation and power, how could they possibly be restrained by something so trivial? Curses and sharp cries burst from their mouths simultaneously as beams of light and clouds of black qi exploded from their bodies, ready to shatter the bindings in the next instant.
But at that very moment, a strange smile flickered across Han Li's face. His hands formed a set of seals in unison, and the pair of wings on his back fanned out violently, unleashing another thunderous roar. Countless silver-white lightning arcs poured from the wings, intertwining and flashing at blinding speed, gradually condensing into two enormous spheres of thunder.
Han Li extended a finger, pointing at the long-robed elder and the winged woman below.
A deafening boom rang out as the two massive thunder spheres flickered once and vanished into thin air.
In the next instant, the long-robed elder and the winged woman both felt their hearts lurch. A crack of thunder erupted beside them, and two enormous thunder spheres materialized out of thin air. Countless silver arcs shot from within, intertwining together to form two thunder arrays several zhang across in the span of a heartbeat.
The long-robed elder and the winged woman found themselves standing squarely at the center of each array!
"This is bad—it's a teleportation formation!"
The long-robed elder's eyes swept across the thunder array beneath him, and his face drained of color. He blurted out the realization in alarm, and roaring purple flames surged from his body. The invisible force that had been holding him loosened and vanished amid the raging fire.
His body blurred as he prepared to flee the formation.
But at that moment, an exquisitely cold snort descended from high above.
The instant it reached his ears, a searing pain as though his soul were being torn apart exploded in his skull.
Even someone of the long-robed elder's stature—far beyond an ordinary Fusion-stage cultivator—could not withstand such agony. His face contorted in pain as he clutched his head with both hands. His body swayed, and he nearly toppled over outright.
In that brief window of hesitation, the thunder array below spun once, and with a flicker, the elder's body vanished amid the interlacing arcs of lightning.
The winged woman was no different—a boom of thunder erupted, and she too was teleported to an unknown location by her array.
Han Li let out a long laugh. His wings shook once more, and countless lightning arcs surged outward from his body before instantly coalescing into a gleaming silver thunder array.
He took a step forward and vanished amid a crack of thunder.
Almost the very instant Han Li disappeared, the golden vortex let out a muffled boom and collapsed in on itself.
By now, the remaining three demons had broken free of their restraints, their faces twisted in a mixture of shock and rage.
But in the next moment, the petite demon woman's expression suddenly relaxed.
"That's a relief. Brother She and the others were only sent to a location ten thousand li away—not too far. If we want to rejoin them, it will only take a short time."
"As long as Fellow Daoists Wei and Shi are unharmed. We have Fairy Wu's secret technique to thank for being able to communicate with the others directly, or we would have been genuinely worried," the gold-armored demon man said, letting out a long breath of relief as his expression softened.
The three-eyed demon, upon hearing their exchange, visibly relaxed as well.
But at that moment, a deafening, earth-shaking explosion erupted from nearby.
The golden barrier of light that had been suppressed under a barrage of various attacks suddenly erupted into a ball of blinding golden radiance. Countless golden beams shot outward in every direction, piercing clean through the nearby streams of light and phantom axes as though they were nothing, before flashing upward and vanishing with a shrill whistling into the two swarms of bees high above.
In the blink of an eye, blood bees rained down from the sky like a downpour. Within moments, only a scant hundred remained aloft, having narrowly escaped with their lives—but even those scattered in every direction like birds startled by the twine.
And from the point of the golden explosion, a terrifying aura of suffocating pressure surged skyward!