"I have no choice! Haoran Sacred Image!"
Though terror had reached its absolute peak in his heart, Du Yu could only let out a silent roar upon seeing the colossal purple-gold hand in the sky show no intention of holding back as it descended ever downward.
His hands flew through a rapid series of seals, and the crown of his head split open in an instant. A white Nascent Soul, no more than half a foot tall, flickered into existence above him.
This Nascent Soul bore a striking resemblance to Du Yu's own features. The moment it appeared, it opened its mouth in a look of desperate urgency and spat out a ball of brilliant golden essence blood.
The instant that ball of essence blood left his lips, Du Yu's physical body below — once youthful and handsome — suddenly hollowed by three-tenths, his face aging more than a decade in the blink of an eye. His gaze turned vacant and dull.
At that same moment, the Nascent Soul shrugged its shoulders. The white halo of light radiating from its surface blazed brilliant, then blurred and transformed into a towering white figure over a dozen zhang tall, standing sentinel above the white-robed youth.
The enormous figure was as vivid as a living person, though its features remained hazy and indistinct. Three long beards could be discerned hanging from its chin, and it wore a conjured white Confucian robe atop its head sat a scholar's cap. Its entire body radiated an indescribable aura of pure yang energy.
Yet this phantom Confucian figure merely stood motionless in the void, as still as an inanimate object.
Below, Du Yu suddenly pointed a finger toward the void.
The ball of golden essence blood detonated in an instant, transforming into a fist-sized golden rune that flashed and vanished into the body of the towering Confanucian phantom above.
A bizarre scene unfolded.
After a cascade of crystalline light rippled across the surface of the white Confucian figure's face, a refined, scholarly visage materialized — eyes tightly shut, its expression carrying an overwhelming, oppressive majesty.
The terrifying spiritual pressure in the air shuddered.
The five fingers of the purple-gold giant hand curled ever so slightly, closing to within seven or eight zhang of the white Confucian phantom.
Under the torrent of terrifying force bearing down from above, the Confucian figure's body trembled, growing somewhat blurred — it seemed as though it might be crushed and dispersed at any moment.
But precisely then, the Confucian Sacred Image suddenly opened its eyes, revealing a pair of pure silver pupils. It let out a low snort, flicked one sleeve upward toward the sky, and reached the other hand out into the void before it.
From the white sleeve, a torrent of milky-white mist came rolling forth. Meeting the wind, it condensed and took shape into a massive white hand that surged upward to meet the purple-gold palm head-on.
Meanwhile, from the other hand that the Sacred Image had extended into empty air, the ambient spiritual energy of heaven and earth churned violently. A blinding burst of white light erupted and then contracted, and a towering five-colored brush materialized in its palm.
A thunderous, heaven-shaking boom!
The white hand finally collided with the purple-gold giant hand. A violent shockwave rippled outward, causing the entire barrier of light to shudder.
But the purple-gold hand merely paused for the briefest instant before crushing the white hand to pieces with irresistible force, sweeping downward once more.
However, that momentary delay was enough. With a single beckoning gesture from the Sacred Image, the two treasures that had been circling and dancing above Du Yu's head instantly shot forward with a sharp whoosh, arriving before it in a flash and spinning in place as they radiated shimmering, prismatic light.
The Sacred Image moved its arm. The five-colored brush trembled once, then dipped into the inkstone, coating its tip halfway in an unknown silver liquid before being drawn sharply upward and dabbed onto the slowly opening jade book.
Following a wave of mystical chimes, the jade book erupted with a five-colored halo of light. Fist-sized silver runes poured forth from within in a frenzy, soaring high into the sky where they converged and fused into a single enormous silver character — the word "Confucius" — each stroke blazing with radiance, spanning roughly an acre in size.
The purple-gold hand flashed and seized the giant character with fingers hooked like iron claws.
The massive character hummed with a deep, resonant drone. The spiritual energy of heaven and earth within the entire barrier went mad, surging into the character in torrents, causing the enormous silver word to swell to more than twice its size in an instant.
Gold and silver light blazed and flickered wildly in the sky. For the time being, the purple-gold giant hand could not press any further down.
"Interesting! But merely relying on such trivial arts to withstand my strike — that, I'm afraid, is still impossible."
Han Li watched the scene unfold and could not help but chuckle softly.
As soon as his words fell, one of his fingers pointed forward without so much as a flicker of effort, carrying no hint of mortal exertion.
A nearly transparent seal flashed and vanished into the void. The five fingers of the purple-gold hand trembled, and at each fingertip, silver spirit patterns condensed and coalesced, each one manifesting a profound and intricate formation array that erupted with dazzling golden light.
Five spheres of golden light materialized and immediately began swelling. In the space of a few breaths, each one expanded into a massive orb several zhang in diameter before merging into one.
Blinding golden radiance surged, and an enormous golden vortex instantly took shape within the purple-gold hand, spinning with tremendous speed.
Amid the deafening roar, the entire void blurred violently, and a force more than twice as overwhelming as before came crashing down.
The silver "Confucius" character, however profound and mystical it might be, and however vast a quantity of heaven and earth's spiritual energy it had absorbed — under the weight of such an overwhelming blow, it could no longer hold.
With a sharp crack, the "Confucius" character shattered, fragment by fragment.
With nothing left to block its path, the titanic force hammered downward upon the Confucian phantom below.
The void beneath twisted violently, and the white Confucian figure was instantly caught in the distortion before exploding apart in a single, catastrophic instant.
A scream of agony rang out!