The entire Profound Heaven Domain was affected by the tree's anomaly — the phantom petals dancing within it nearly doubled in number, swirling wildly and coalescing into palm-sized crystalline pink shields that positioned themselves behind everyone as a barrier.
As for Han Li, after taking a deep breath, the silver runic patterns on the surface of his three-headed giant ape form hummed with increasing intensity. Surging torrents of five-colored radiance poured forth from within, channeled along all six arms directly into the Profound Heaven Spirit-Slaying Sword.
With a clear, piercing ring, the emerald-green sword blazed with a line of silver runes across its surface — so dazzling that one could barely look at it directly.
Once all the light converged, the spirit sword had transformed to over thirty feet in length. The silver runes across its surface twisted and pulsed unpredictably, almost as if they had become living things.
With a low shout, Han Li's giant ape form blurred as it delivered a sweeping downward slash. A ring of emerald light spread outward in all directions in utter silence.
Almost simultaneously, the White Bone Warriors surrounding them suddenly moved their arms, and every bone spear was hurled forth at once.
A whistling roar of breaking air erupted!
The launched bone spears trailed writhing dark qi, their tips flickering with black radiance, radiating an overwhelming sensation of razor-sharp lethality.
The very instant the bone spears left the warriors' grasp, a series of muffled pops like firecrackers echoed from the White Bone Warriors themselves. The force sustaining them dissipated rapidly, and their bodies crumbled into powder on the spot.
The next instant, the bone spears plunged into the wildly expanding emerald ring.
The heavens shook with deafening explosions. Black qi and green light interwove as the power of laws churned and rolled through the void itself, throwing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into complete chaos.
Though Han Li's sword strike was extraordinarily powerful, facing the combined full-force blow of over a hundred Mahayana-stage beings simultaneously was not something he could withstand head-on.
The emerald ring forged from sword qi lasted barely a moment before perishing together with the majority of the bone spears.
The dozen or so remaining bone spears, now unopposed, screamed with the sound of wind and lightning as they transformed into over a dozen streaks of black light and plunged into the wildly spinning domain.
Silence.
Bao's pupils contracted sharply. One of her jade-like fingers, concealed within her sleeve, curled slightly, and a faint ripple of fluctuation flickered and vanished in an instant.
At that moment, the rapidly spinning domain solidified, then contracted further. Within it, over a dozen pitch-black spheres of light appeared from nothing.
The black spheres swelled and rotated, then fused together at lightning speed, drenching a vast swath of void — including the domain itself — in absolute blackness. Then, with a final flash, everything blurred and vanished without a trace.
The Insect Mother's Spirit Domain, which had been enveloping the entire sky, seemed to have exhausted all its power as well. It gradually receded like a scroll being furled away, slowly revealing the landscape of the deep-sea abyss beneath.
Two enormous orbs of light — one green, one yellow — glowed brightly in the water, radiating intense fluctuations of laws. Within them were none other than Bao, Han Li, and the Crab Daoist.
Bao and Han Li each stood with their Profound Heaven treasures: she with one hand supporting a rust-pocked ancient nail, and he with his sword held horizontally, face expressionless.
Clearly, in the preceding exchange, both had survived unscathed thanks to their Profound Heaven treasures, but the Profound Heaven Domain had been utterly destroyed in the process.
As for the Crab Daoist, he had at some point reverted to human form and stood pressed close to Han Li's side. Faint sparks of lightning still flickered across his body, but the massive gray net that had filled the sky had completely vanished.
Whether the net had been scattered by the collision of laws moments ago, or whether the Crab Daoist had deployed some other profound technique to dissolve it, was impossible to tell.
Opposite the trio, high above, the colossal body of the Insect Mother hovered steadily in the water. The golden-eyed female head at its center fixed its gaze upon the three, a hint of something unreadable flickering within those golden pupils.
"To think that a mere three people would possess two Profound Heaven treasures, and even command a smattering of knowledge regarding the Profound Heaven Domain," the Insect Mother said slowly, her tone finally betraying a note of gravity. "No wonder my two earlier incarnations were no match for you. Setting aside that Pseudo-Immortal puppet, the two of you must be the most exceptional figures this lower realm has produced in tens of thousands of years."
"I am humbled by the praise — I hardly know what to say!" Bao exhaled softly, a cold glint flashing through her eyes. "But were it not for the fact that your vital energy has yet to recover, and the Profound Heaven Domain could not unleash its full power, even with Profound Heaven treasures in hand, I doubt we could have broken through your Spirit Domain. It would seem that being forced to awaken early has left you with precious little of your former cultivation."
"Oh? From the way you speak, little girl, it sounds as though you believe you had the upper hand in that exchange?" The Insect Mother let out a fit of delicate laughter, her expression turning to undisguised contempt.
"Whether we truly held the upper hand, I cannot say," Bao replied after a brief pause, her beautiful face blooming into a full smile. "But that you are currently unable to deploy any great divine abilities — that, I am quite certain of."