While Han Li was lost in thought, Bao, standing at the center of the great hall, suddenly arched her slender brows and spoke:
"Fellow Daoists, stay alert. They're coming."
Bao offered no further explanation as to what "they" were, yet the originally composed expressions of the other Mahayana elders all hardened at once. Several didn't even bother with words and simply swept their spiritual sense outward beyond the giant vessel.
Han Li tensed and did the same.
In the surging sea of insects all around them, a commotion stirred, and then one by one, crimson aberrations began to emerge — each one blazing like a fierce fireball.
These Míng insects were not particularly large, roughly ten feet in size, but their bodies were covered in faint golden spirit patterns, and their eyes glistened a vivid emerald green with an iridescent five-colored glow shifting restlessly within them.
The moment these crimson Míng insects appeared, several Mahayana cultivators stationed at the bow and stern of the giant vessel immediately changed color. Without hesitation, they channeled spells into their respective treasures.
In an instant, sword beams and blade arcs, clusters of fireballs and swirls of dark qi, all came sweeping in with ferocious momentum.
The ordinary Míng insects in the vicinity were reduced to ash in the blink of an eye under such a savage barrage.
But when those crimson aberrations were engulfed by the attacks, they merely beat their wings once and blurred — vanishing from the assault as though they had never been there at all.
In the next instant, seven or eight crimson Míng insects flickered into existence right beside the Mahayana cultivators, their hind legs lurching forward to launch themselves at the elders.
The Mahayana masters were greatly alarmed. Some frantically flicked their fingers, unleashing countless needle-thin rays of light in a slashing net. Others had their protective artifacts flash into being around their bodies all at once. One foreign-realm Mahayana elder let out a low growl and thrust a hand forward, grabbing directly at the insect before him.
Yet regardless of attack or defense, the Míng insects simply wavered once more and passed through every obstacle as though it were nothing at all — appearing as incorporeal phantoms beside the Mahayana cultivators, mere inches away. Then the crimson flame across their bodies surged to full intensity, and they began unleashing blinding light.
The Mahayana elders all blanched, silently crying "Not good!" They could only brace themselves, relying on the sheer toughness of their bodies to endure the imminent self-detonation.
But at that very moment, Bao's cool, detached voice drifted through the nearby void:
"No need to fear. Leave these things to me."
No sooner had the words left her lips than a pillar of white, hazy light pierced straight through from the great hall of the vessel. In a flash, it split into several slender beams that struck the self-destructing crimson Míng insects, blasting them backward and sending them tumbling more than thirty feet away.
A chain of thunderous detonations followed. Several spheres of crimson radiance blazed into being out of thin air, and the surrounding void hummed with a deep resonance as visible cracks began to spider across it — as though the entire space might be torn apart at any moment.
The power of these Míng insects' self-detonation was truly terrifying.
The Mahayana elders witnessed this and felt a chill run through their hearts. These self-destructing Míng insects were indeed every bit as fearsome as the legends claimed. Had they taken such an explosion at close range, they would certainly not have perished on the spot, but a crippling injury would have been all but guaranteed.
Just then, the air above the great vessel rippled, and after a phantom of a massive pink blossom flickered into view, Bao materialized high in the sky, her expression utterly impassive.
The Mahayana elders at the bow and stern had not yet had time to offer their thanks when the sound of something cutting through the air rang out once more, and more than a dozen crimson Míng insects appeared.
These insects similarly executed a spatial leap, materializing in the void around Bao mere feet away, sealing her in a tight encirclement. Their light and flames immediately blazed to full intensity as they prepared to detonate — determined to destroy this powerful enemy in a single strike.
But Bao merely let out a cold laugh. Countless silver stars erupted from her body, and in a single blur, they coalesced into a boundless river of stars that swept every one of those Míng insects into its current.
Several muffled detonations rumbled within the star river. The spheres of crimson radiance flashed and vanished like wisps of smoke, causing no damage to the surrounding void whatsoever.
The myriad stars in the river then surged together and transformed into a banner roughly ten feet in length. Its surface shimmered with a brilliant silver star-pattern — the Falling Star Banner.
From within the great vessel, streaks of escaping light followed one after another as more than a dozen additional Mahayana elders, unwilling to remain idle, burst out from the hall.
One streak of azure light dimmed and vanished, resolving into a figure clad in green — none other than Han Li.
Han Li stood with his arms crossed, watching Bao's display with considerable interest, eager to see how she would deploy her two treasures against the Míng insects.
The repeated failure of the crimson Míng insects to detonate had clearly enraged the entire swarm. Moments later, another commotion rippled through the sea of insects, and even more crimson fireballs surged forth in dense numbers — close to a thousand in total.
The appearance of so many self-destructing Míng insects all at once was enough to make even Bao's delicate features tighten with gravity. Without a word, she unfurled the banner in her hand once more, and it transformed again into a vast river of starlight that shrouded the entire giant vessel — Han Li and all the others — beneath its canopy. At the same time, she pointed a slender jade finger at the small mirror hovering high above.
The mirror, no larger than a palm, hummed and swelled with the wind, expanding into a pale, luminous full moon. A swirl of golden mist coiled within, and then hundreds upon hundreds of light beams were ejected in a volley, flashing forward and piercing clean through the crimson Míng insects with unerring precision.