"Get lost!" the Yue Emperor snarled in a sinister voice.
A mass of blood light immediately spun around the group of puppets at furious speed, then let out a piercing howl and shot after Han Li and the others in a blur, vanishing from sight in the blink of an eye.
Moments later, the puppets—frozen motionless—suddenly shattered apart and plummeted from the sky, every single one dismembered beyond recognition. Not one remained intact.
Han Li, who had already reached the airspace above his own pre-set formation, sensed everything with crystal clarity through his split spiritual consciousness. Despite a twinge of regret at the puppets' destruction, he wasted no hesitation whatsoever. With a single wave of his hand to signal the others, he dove straight down into the small bamboo grove below.
Just as Han Li and his group streaked downward, the Yue Emperor—who had been slightly delayed by the puppets—came hurtling after them and clearly saw Han Li vanish into the bamboo. This initially baffled the Yue Emperor, but soon enough, a surge of delight rose in his heart.
When he arrived above the grove and saw that Han Li and the others had no intention of coming back out, he let out a cold, sinister laugh and immediately swept both hands downward. A small chunk of blood light split off from his body.
With a wet hiss, the fragment of blood light flashed and shot down toward the bamboo grove below. On the way, it swelled in the wind, growing enormous in an instant until it blanketed the entire canopy above the grove, painting everything beneath in a deep crimson glow that looked utterly bizarre.
Watching the blood light silently envelop the wild bamboo grove, a hint of smug satisfaction crossed the Yue Emperor's face. As long as his protective demonic light could keep this patch of bamboo firmly pinned, he could activate another secret technique to dissolve everything inside down to nothing. They had walked into a death trap of their own accord—no need to blame him for being ruthless.
His fingers blurred through a dizzying series of movements as he formed hand seals, ready to activate the secret technique—when suddenly, a curtain of green-and-white light rose from within the bamboo grove below, catching the slowly descending mass of blood light and holding it up with ease. The Yue Emperor froze, and his expression turned cold.
"So they really did come here with a plan—they've set up a formation!" he thought with a flash of anger.
"But what of it? A hastily arranged formation can't be anything formidable. At worst, I'll just refine the formation and everyone inside it together! In any case, I absolutely cannot let these people escape the Imperial City." His thoughts hardened with resolve.
Having made up his mind, he ruthlessly pinched a hand seal and immediately activated the secret technique.
The blood-colored radiance—which had been held aloft—blazed with a blinding glow and pressed downward, halting the upward force that had been supporting it.
But the Yue Emperor didn't stop there. He lightly traced a line through the air across his own body, and another mass of blood light—no smaller than the first—launched downward once more, merging seamlessly into the blood light already pressing against the grove.
The entire curtain of blood-red light deepened by another shade, and a faint metallic stench of blood began to seep out—enough to make anyone who caught a whiff retch.
Seeing this, the Yue Emperor's face lit up with satisfaction. His ten fingers flickered ceaselessly, sending a rapid stream of multicolored hand seals raining down into the blood curtain below.
The blood curtain surged and roiled as each seal struck, then suddenly surged outward in all directions, engulfing the entire bamboo grove in its embrace. The deep crimson blood light bore down heavily, while the green-and-white glow inside struggled desperately to hold its ground, looking as though it might be swallowed at any moment.
Only now did the Yue Emperor finally feel at ease.
In his mind, wiping out Han Li and the rest was now simply a matter of time—they were trapped with no chance of escape. What bothered him instead was the matter of tying up loose ends afterward.
"It seems I can't play the Emperor of Yue much longer. I'll have to go underground and start over somewhere new!" he thought with a touch of regret.
While the Yue Emperor pondered his exit strategy high in the air, Song Meng and the others inside the bamboo grove were nearly shaking apart with dread.
They had heard Han Li's telepathic message telling them to follow him if they wanted to survive, and out of trust in his strength, every one of them had done exactly as he said. But not a single one of them had expected to end up in this nameless little bamboo grove—dead center of a trap.
The grove might have a defensive formation protecting it, but with the Yue Emperor's blood light sealing off every direction, the formation was already teetering on the verge of collapse. At any moment it could shatter, and they would all die. How could they not be terrified and furious?
"Junior Brother Han—is this your trump card?" Song Meng muttered in disbelief, his voice barely steady.
"Yes. Is there a problem?" Han Li replied flatly without turning around, his gaze fixed on the situation above.
Song Meng's face went white as a sheet. Zhong Weiniang and Chen Qiaoqian's senior brother—the one who had lost his dual-cultivation partner—didn't look much better.
Only Chen Qiaoqian studied Han Li's unperturbed expression, and a flicker of thoughtful curiosity passed through her eyes.
"Han Li, if you have some other trick, just say so. Don't keep us in the dark!" she said suddenly, her voice calm. "I don't believe that with your usual methods, this could be your only contingency."
At these words, the other three startled, then perked up and turned their gazes to Han Li. They clearly felt that given the meticulous, calculating mind he had shown in dealing with their enemies before, there was no way he could have made such a foolish move.