A muffled bang rang out.
The slender hand had only struck halfway when the five fingers suddenly splayed apart, changing direction in an instant to seize the crown of the old man's Nascent Soul.
"You dare!"
The old man's reaction was remarkably swift. With a great shout, his Nascent Soul blurred and flickered, vanishing into the nearby void in a flash.
But the blood-skirted girl merely let out a soft laugh. Her jade-white hand blurred in the same manner, plunging into the void before yanking back with vicious force.
With a wet squelch, the hand emerged from the void once more, streaks of bloody light flickering between its five fingers. Clutched tightly within them was a tiny figure, bound head to toe in dense blood-red threads.
It was none other than the Nascent Soul of the old man surnamed Yi, the very one who had just fled via teleportation. The blood threads crisscrossed his body in a suffocating web, rendering him utterly immobile. His face was a mask of horror, and as the realization struck him, he let out an alarmed cry: "Space-Time Laws — this is genuine power over space and time! You've already fused the power of two different Laws into one!"
"Uncle-Master Yi, your niece accomplished this preliminary step a hundred years ago. However, due to my limited cultivation, I haven't been able to refine it any further. But now, with Uncle-Master's perfected Nascent Soul, I believe I have a real chance." The blood-skirted girl giggled as she spoke, and with a flip of her other hand, a small blood-red banner materialized in her grasp.
"The Soul-Drawing Banner — you mean to use the Soul Transformation Art on me! Fellow Daoist Luo, stop your daughter at once! Has she gone mad? If I'm gone, how will you ever extract spatial power from the Void Fish clan's crystal cores again? I am the only one who knows the method! And without me, you won't even survive the crisis before you!" The instant the old man's Nascent Soul saw the blood-red banner, his expression twisted into one of abject terror. He let out a shrill scream directed at the woman in the other battlefield.
The Asura Spider Matriarch had long since noticed what was unfolding. Fury and shock churned within her heart. Upon hearing the old man's desperate plea, she could no longer afford to keep her three incarnations engaged against her opponent. The three figures retreated simultaneously, their forms blurring and merging until they reconverged into the original woman's appearance. She hastily released several treasures to shield herself, then sent an exasperated voice transmission to the blood-skirted girl: "Ying'er, what are you doing? Do you have any idea what time it is, and you still dare sabotage us like this? Release Fellow Daoist Yi at once! Use the power of space and time to restore his physical body — dealing with the enemy before us is what matters most!"
"There's no need to worry, Mother. I already extracted the method for refining spatial power from that man's personal disciple long ago. These enemies before us are nothing to fear either — I have my own ways of dealing with them." The girl's tone was light and airy, utterly dismissive. She paid no further attention to the exasperated transmissions from the woman behind her. Instead, she turned a radiant smile toward the old man's Nascent Soul, bound tight in its cocoon of blood threads, and extended a single finger to point at him.
A faint bloody glow flickered at her fingertip, and a bizarre wave of sealing power rippled outward.
The old man's Nascent Soul felt his entire form go numb. Apart from the expression of venomous hatred frozen on his face, he could no longer produce any sound at all.
Outside the stone city, Han Li heard the words "power of space and time" and felt a jolt run through his heart. A flash of alarm crossed his face. But witnessing what the girl did next, he let out a cold snort. He withdrew his own Nascent Soul, raised a hand toward his Holy Nirvana Avatar, and beckoned — ready to seize this opportunity to launch another frenzied assault on the stone city's protective formations.
But at that very moment, the girl swept a glance in his direction. Her lips moved slightly, though no sound emerged.
At the same time, a wave of spiritual fluctuation reached Han Li's ear, and the blood-skirted girl's melodious voice transmission came through in just a few brief sentences.
Upon hearing it, Han Li's expression shifted. His gaze wavered for a moment before he made his decision. With one hand forming a seal, golden light circulated across his body, and in an instant, he reverted from the giant ape form back into his human shape.
The Holy Nirvana Avatar lunged toward him and merged seamlessly back into his body, the two becoming one once more.
On the stone city wall, the girl saw this and flashed Han Li a charming smile. Without the slightest hesitation, she tossed the blood-red banner from her other hand into the air before her.
With a bang, the instant the banner left her hand, it erupted into a sphere of blood-red light that soared skyward.
The girl murmured an incantation. The remaining wolf-headed monsters around her burst open one after another, transforming into billowing clouds of blood mist that hurtled toward the banner and vanished inside in a single flash.
The next moment, the blood banner swelled in the wind, expanding to a size of over a zhang. Blood energy churned across its surface, and the indistinct image of a terrifying, grotesque ghost face materialized upon it.
The ghost face was crowned with twisted, jagged horns, and its visage was split clean down the middle — one half bearing the unspeakably ugly features of a man, the other the exquisite beauty of a young woman. It let out a spine-chilling cackle, opened its massive mouth, and sprayed forth a torrent of crimson light. In a single flicker, the light swept up the Nascent Soul clutched in the girl's hand.
When the old man's Nascent Soul first beheld the ghost face emerging upon the banner, every last trace of color drained from his face. His gaze toward the girl transformed into one of desperate, pitiful pleading.
But the crimson light flashed once, and the Nascent Soul's eyes rolled back as it fell into unconsciousness, devoured into the ghost face's maw without another sound.
The blood-skirted girl formed a rapid series of hand seals, her fingers dancing as she pointed repeatedly at the blood banner from a distance.
The ghost face within the crimson light vanished in a flicker. The banner spun in a dizzying circle, shrank back to its original size, and shot back toward her. After one final blur, the girl swallowed it directly into her mouth.
"It's finally done! Mother, stop fighting them. Come back — all of us together. We can have a proper discussion with these fellow Daoists now." The blood-skirted girl released her hand seals, a look of satisfaction crossing her face. She gave Han Li a nod, then called out to the woman with a light laugh.
"So you really went through with it. Very well — then let me see how you plan to convince these outsiders." When the Asura Spider Matriarch saw that the girl had truly absorbed the old man's Nascent Soul into the blood banner, her expression flickered. The anger on her face vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Without hesitation, she ignited her escape light and abandoned her opponent, streaking back toward the stone city.