The five golden heads atop the giant's neck suddenly opened their mouths, unleashing an ear-piercing shriek.
With a "poof," a layer of similarly golden radiance shimmered into existence over the giant's surface after a ripple of spatial distortion.
The vast, invisible torrents of sword qi crashed against it, only to be repelled one after another in a flurry of sounds like rain lashing a fence, utterly unable to breach the barrier.
At the same time, one of the ghostly faces on the giant's body blurred and vanished. Black qi billowed from the now headless neck, swiftly coalescing, and another head materialized intact.
Seeing this, the small golden figure's face remained expressionless, but a cold gleam suddenly flashed in its crystalline eyes.
In the blink of an eye, fluctuations surged on both sides of the giant, and two beams of crystalline light, each over ten zhang long, appeared and crossed in a scything descent.
With a "bang!"
The seemingly indestructible golden barrier shattered and dissipated in an instant after the crystal light swept through. The giant's newly formed head rolled off once more with a "gurgle."
The King of the Gold Devouring Beetles had actually employed its innate ability to behead the giant again in a flash.
But immediately after, amidst the eerie chanting of the five golden heads, a second ghost face on the giant's body vanished. Black qi surged, and a second head silently materialized on the neck. The moment it formed, a mocking laugh issued from its mouth: "I possess the power of over a thousand fierce ghosts, which means I have over a thousand lives. Even if you can slay me hundreds of times over, you can do me no harm. Instead, I wonder if Your Excellency can withstand a single strike from my Thousand Ghost Power."
As soon as the words left its mouth, the giant form of the Ghostly Magistrate King trembled. All the ghost faces on its surface suddenly converged toward its two arms. Then, the giant hands shook and clawed forward simultaneously.
Countless tendrils of black qi writhed forth as the ghost faces detached from the arms with mournful wails, their expressions twisting into ones of extreme ferocity.
With a series of "hissing" sounds, the two giant claws detached from the elbows and shot forward silently. Greeting the wind, they expanded to the size of an acre—one claw snatched toward the small golden figure, while the other swept down toward the distant giant ape.
The small golden figure, usually impassive, showed a first flicker of emotion on its face as the giant claw descended. With a "whoosh," its body flashed with golden light and vanished into the nearby void.
But the giant claw's five fingers curled slightly. Countless nearby ghost faces twisted, and five black chains instantly shot out from their fingertips.
With a "poof!"
The five black chains flashed and vanished, then suddenly jerked back. Amidst a violent fluctuation of the surrounding space, the small golden figure was forcibly dragged out of the void, bound tightly by the black chains.
The giant claw's five fingers closed, trapping the golden figure in its palm, and squeezed hard.
Immediately, the ghost faces surrounding the claw let out a chorus of "woo-woo" sounds, then transformed into black qi and exploded, engulfing the claw and the golden figure within an instant.
But in the next moment, two beams of crystalline light, each over ten zhang long, flashed within the black qi. Like dragons, they lashed out wildly, shattering both the black chains and the giant claw into pieces.
The golden figure inside leaped out, transforming into a ball of golden light that pierced through the black qi.
However, countless ghost faces flashed into existence within the shattering black qi, their mouths murmuring strangely. The giant claw silently reformed amongst them, trembled, and shot toward the figure like a bolt of lightning.
Though the crystalline light sprayed from the King of the Gold Devouring Beetles' eyes was incredibly powerful, it seemed it could not be used too many times. After using it to shatter the giant claw several more times, it had no choice but to retreat while fighting.
Relying on its "immortal body," the giant claw pursued relentlessly without any fear, and for a time, the two chased each other around the mountain peak in a dizzying aerial pursuit.
...
Meanwhile, on the other side, the giant ape Han Li had transformed into faced the similarly howling, bizarre giant claw. Instead of dodging, it pounded its chest with both fists. Its three-headed, six-armed form swelled once more. The dense, silver patterns on its surface hummed as six arms moved in unison, and six massive golden fists struck out toward the giant claw through the air.
Han Li intended to shatter the giant claw with sheer physical force alone.
With the Hundred Meridian Treasure Art operating at its peak, the moment the six golden fists struck, the immense power generated caused the surrounding space to boom. Six golden, hazy hurricanes first trembled before shooting out from the fists. Where they passed, the air blurred and twisted, the display of power terrifyingly immense.
"Keke..."
Facing such an attack, the giant claw's momentum did not diminish in the slightest. Instead, the dense web of ghost faces wound around it all emitted strange laughter simultaneously, then opened their mouths wide.
The moment the six hurricanes swept near, they were all sucked in by these ghost faces like dragons drawing water.
The ghost faces swelled dramatically, then spat out countless black threads from their mouths. The threads wove densely in an instant, transforming into a black silk net.
The six golden fists plunged into it, and the net merely rippled gently without tearing. Instead, it wrapped downward along with the momentum, enveloping the giant ape's massive body completely beneath it.
At that moment, the giant ape's body erupted with a "teng!" Countless billowing silver flames surged skyward, forming a fire cloud that forcefully held the black silk net aloft.