"Not good!" Han Li cursed inwardly, a deep sense of frustration welling up in his heart.
He had originally planned to steer well clear of any trouble, yet here was trouble coming looking for him all on its own.
The three pursuers behind him all radiated extraordinary auras — they were clearly cultivators at the Nascent Soul stage or above. The gray mist ahead fluctuated between weak and strong, bearing the unmistakable look of someone gravely wounded. It appeared to be nothing more than some unlucky soul being hunted down.
Seeing that there was simply no way to avoid the three behind him, Han Li gritted his teeth and shifted his figure, veering to one side on his flying artifact. He would see whether these three, busy with their chase, might simply fly past without noticing a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator like himself.
But Han Li had barely flown a dozen zhang at an angle when his escape light came to an abrupt halt. A look of alarm crossing his face, he began glancing warily from side to side.
At that moment, the gray mist behind him howled past, brushing right by. Hidden within, a cultivator wearing a tall crown and sporting a bloodlessly pale face shot Han Li a cold look. Something strange flickered in the man's eyes, and then the gray cloud streaked dozens of zhang away in the blink of an eye.
But just then, thunderous rumbling erupted from all directions simultaneously. A yellow gourd roughly a zhang in size materialized out of thin air a hundred zhang away. Its mouth quivered once, and a torrent of yellow-tinged sandstorm blasted forth, blowing straight toward the gray mist fleeing in the opposite direction.
"Soul-Falling Sand!" The figure within the gray mist cried out in alarm upon seeing the sandstorm and, gripped by extreme terror, hastily veered to dodge it.
"Ha ha! Brother Xuanye, it's too late to run now!" Accompanied by wild laughter, a burly man in yellow robes with a thick beard on his chin materialized atop the gourd in an instant. He formed hand seals with both hands, and from all directions came tremendous booms. Deep yellow sand mist rolled in from every side, blotting out sky and sun, with banners occasionally flickering in and out of view within.
The cultivator in the gray mist was startled. He hurriedly glanced downward, only to find the low sky similarly blanketed in yellow haze. The sand mist had engulfed an area several li across.
Hidden within his corpse qi, King Xuanye halted, his face pale. He fixed a venomous stare on the yellow-robed man standing atop the enormous gourd. Behind him, a white hurricane and a black demonic cloud had caught up like meteors chasing the moon, arriving right at King Xuanye's back. Without ceremony, they flanked him left and right, perfectly boxing him in.
"Brother Xuanye, you've already taken a blow from Master Song's Supreme Yang Ruler of the Taiyang Gate. Your Celestial Corpse Body, still incomplete, has most likely suffered grave injuries. Now that the three of us have you surrounded here, why bother putting up a futile resistance? All you need to do is obediently surrender the Celestial Corpse Pearl and allow us to plant restrictions on you — and we can certainly spare your life. After all, Brother Xuanye, we've known each other for quite some years. It truly would be a shame to see your soul scattered to nothing. I, Huang, would feel rather reluctant about that." The yellow-robed man spoke in an unhurried, measured tone.
"Mad Sand Master — I knew it was you. From the moment I stepped out of the ancient tomb, I felt something was off. So you've been watching me since then. Setting this trap to lure me out — you've been planning this for quite some time, haven't you? Truly patient, to monitor this king for a full ten years. Such painstaking scheming — this king can hardly call it unjust to have fallen for your trap. But do you truly believe that a mere Yellow Sand Formation can contain me?"
"Seems my earlier words were wasted on you. Fellow Daoist Xuanye, don't blame me for showing no mercy! Though I must say, this time we truly didn't expect you to carry something as important as the Celestial Corpse Pearl on your person. Otherwise, we never would have let you get this far. Oh, and I forgot to mention — to ensure this plan's success, I borrowed half a gourd of Blue Crystal Divine Sand from the Heavenly Stone Matriarch, sand that she spent over a century collecting and refining. It's already been mixed into the surrounding Soul-Falling Sand. If you were hoping to escape using the Earth Escape Technique, you can forget about it entirely."
"Blue Crystal Divine Sand! The Matriarch guards that sand as her very life — she'd lend you half a gourd? You're blowing your boasts far too big!" King Xuanye's expression shifted, but he quickly seemed to recall something, and sneered with disbelief.
"Heh heh…" Mad Sand Master merely chuckled coldly at these words, offering no further explanation. This only made King Xuanye's heart grow heavier, his expression turning darker still.
Strange to say, whether the three feared King Xuanye's deathbed desperation or had other plans entirely, despite clearly holding the upper hand and having cornered the old demon, they simply maintained their encirclement without making a move.
King Xuanye, for his part, was perfectly content with this. While fleeing earlier, he had already sent out a distress voice talisman. Reinforcements should arrive any time now — naturally, every moment of delay worked in his favor.
The four of them fell into a tense, silent standoff.
But besides these four, there was a fifth person trapped within the yellow sand — none other than Han Li, who had been caught off guard and swept into the great formation along with them.
Han Li seethed inwardly, keeping silent to the side, hoping to avoid drawing the three's attention so that when they eventually started fighting, he could find a way to secretly break through the restrictions and slip away.
But this hopeful plan was about to be dashed. From the nearby black demonic cloud came a shrill, piercing voice.
"This junior here is a bit of a nuisance. Before we get down to business, why don't we deal with him first?" The unknown old demon hidden within the demonic cloud had actually turned a killing intent toward Han Li.
"Fine. Saves us the trouble of him being in the way later!" The yellow-robed man on the gourd simply swept an indifferent glance over Han Li and said flatly, without the slightest interest.