Chapter 1280: Stone Statue on the Bridge

With another sweep of his sleeve, the other thirty-six Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords emerged as well, and they hovered in the air in a row in front of Han Li's trio.

The flying swords began to circle through the air at his behest, forming a lightning sword barrier that was close to ten thousand feet tall.

At the same time, Jin Tong had adopted her Gold Devouring Immortal form, while Weeping Soul had summoned her Infernal Ghost Claw and Soul Scattering Ghost Flute.

Before long, the horde of ghosty creatures was already upon them, and they came in all types of forms and sizes, and some of them didn't even possess any visible forms.

Their auras also varied drastically, with the vast majority of them at the True Immortal Stage, but there were also some Golden Immortal and even High Zenith Stage ghostly beings among them.

Due to their vast numbers, their collective aura was extremely fearsome, and they unleashed a collective barrage of attacks to rain down upon the lightning sword barrier.

The sword barrier instantly began to tremble incessantly, but Han Li remained completely unfazed as he made a rapid string of hand seals, and countless streaks of lightning sword qi shot out of the sword barrier to pierce into the ghostly beings' ranks.

Given the immense destructive power of Cardinal Heavenly Lightning and its extra potency against ghostly entities, none of the ghostly creatures charging at the forefront stood a chance, and they were torn to shreds amid a cacophony of agonized, ghostly shrieks.

However, the rest of them continued to charge onward without pause.

These ghostly beings seemed to have been quite wary of the black river, so they only dared to attack Han Li's trio from the front and the sides, and as a result, they didn't have to watch their backs.

With that in mind, Han Li was tempted to retreat over the river in order to shake off the ghostly army, but he wasn't sure if doing so would only place them in even more peril than they were already in, so he decided to adopt the safe approach and continue to ward off the ghostly army with his sword barrier.

The lightning sword barrier formed by his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords was extremely formidable, but there was seemingly no end to the ghostly creatures, and the sword barrier's powers were gradually beginning to wane.

Weeping Soul and Jin Tong had offered their help on multiple occasions, only to be instructed to stand down and preserve their power by Han Li.

Right at this moment, a sharp screech rang out, one that even all of the ghastly howls weren't able to drown out.

All of the ghostly creatures instantly stopped cold in their tracks, then arranged themselves into four or five massive, sword-shaped formations.

These formations began to rapidly revolve like drill tips before hurtling directly into the golden sword barrier, and radiant black and golden light instantly erupted forth in unison like a fireworks display.

The golden sword barrier was shattered with a loud crack before reverting back into the thirty-six Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords, which came spinning back through the air end over end, clearly having suffered some damage to their spiritual nature.

Han Li's expression darkened slightly as he swept a sleeve through the air to stow the thirty-six Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords to be nurtured in his body, following which he made a grabbing motion with his other hand, and the other thirty-six Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords that were circling around him instantly shot forth toward the oncoming ghostly creatures as thirty-six streaks of dazzling golden light.

A string of loud explosions rang out as close to a hundred ghostly beings were erased from existence, but more ghostly creatures charged forward to take their place.

Jin Tong and Weeping Soul were unable to continue standing by passively anymore upon seeing this, and they immediately sprang into action.

Weeping Soul summoned her Infernal Ghost Claw, and bursts of scorching black flames emerged over its surface as it made a grab for the ghostly creatures charging in from the left.

All of the ghostly beings that came into contact with the Infernal Ghost Claw instantly exploded before being incinerated into ashes by the black flames, and at the same time, she also began blowing on her Soul Scattering Ghost Flute, releasing countless blades of sound to tear through the hordes of ghostly creatures.

At the same time, a burst of black light was surging out of her mouth, sweeping up the surrounding ghostly creatures before sucking them into her belly.

Compared with Han Li and Weeping Soul, Jin Tong's attacks were proving to be far less effective.

With a sweep of her front legs, dozens of streaks of translucent light were sent sweeping toward the ghostly creatures on the right, instantly cutting down large swathes of them.

However, aside from the few ghostly beings that possessed substantial bodies, all of the others were able to simply reform their wraith-like bodies and emerge completely unscathed.

Jin Tong's expression darkened slightly upon seeing this, and half of her huge body suddenly disintegrated into a golden cloud, while the other half transformed into a smaller Gold Devouring Immortal.

Within the golden cloud were countless Gold Devouring Beetles the size of grains of rice, and they swarmed the oncoming ghostly beings before clinging to their bodies and rapidly devouring them.

However, the rate at which they were devouring the opposing ghostly creatures wasn't able to keep up with the rate at which more ghostly beings continued to storm onto the scene, and Han Li immediately came to Jin Tong's aid upon seeing this.

With a sweep of his sleeve, hundreds of streaks of lightning sword qi were unleashed to eradicate close to half of all of the ghostly creatures on the left side, thereby alleviating much of the pressure on Jin Tong.

Even though they were able to fend off the army of ghostly creatures, they were certainly not doing so with ease, and it seemed as if there were no end to these ghostly entities.

"What do we do, Master? There are too many of them!" Weeping Soul yelled.

"If we stay here, we're eventually going to be overwhelmed, so let's take a risk and retreat along the river," Han Li decided, and thus, the three of them began to retreat in the upstream direction.

Moments later, Weeping Soul suddenly exclaimed in an ecstatic voice, "Look! There's a bridge up ahead!"

Han Li turned to discover that an ancient arch bridge really had appeared over the river.

The bridge was dark red in color, and it extended toward the other side of the river, but it eventually faded into darkness, making it impossible to tell how long it was.

Its surface was riddled with pits and potholes, and it appeared to have been a very old and weathered structure, but overall, it looked relatively intact.

Right at this moment, the ghostly beings suddenly stormed toward Han Li's trio with renewed intensity, and it was as if they had been granted some type of hysterical power.

Han Li raised a hand to release a streak of golden light, which fell upon the bridge before transforming into a golden Dao Warrior.

The Dao Warrior began to rush over the bridge, and no lightning fell from the dark clouds above, while the horrific creatures in the river also left it alone.

Han Li's eyes lit up upon seeing this, and he immediately yelled, "Retreat onto the bridge!"

He swept a sleeve through the air as he spoke, unleashing several hundred thick bolts of golden lightning that instantly eradicated all of the ghostly creature within a radius of several hundred feet.

The three of them pounced on this opportunity to rush onto this bridge, and as soon as they did so, Weeping Soul's legs suddenly gave out from under her, causing her to stumble.

"Are you alright?" Han Li asked as he caught her before rushing over the bridge with her in tow.

The ghostly creatures were all gathered at one end of the bridge with furious expressions, but none of them dared to step onto the bridge.

"There seems to be some type of power on this bridge that subjugates ghostly entities. Thankfully, the debilitating effects aren't too severe on me," Weeping Soul replied as she steadied herself, and Han Li cautioned her to be careful before continuing onward.

Due to the arched shape of the bridge, the further they advanced, the closer the black clouds above became, making Han Li's trio feel rather uneasy. Thankfully, the black clouds displayed no reaction, and it seemed as if their auras had been concealed by the stone bridge.

All of a sudden, Weeping Soul stopped in her tracks, and Han Li and Jin Tong immediately drew to a halt alongside her.

"What's wrong?"

"There seems to be a statue on the bridge up ahead," Weeping Soul replied with a peculiar look on her face.

"A statue?"

Han Li was slightly taken aback to hear this.

The three of them continued onward, and they quickly arrived at the statue.

It was a gray, humanoid statue that was around thirty to forty feet tall, and it wasn't giving off even the slightest amount of aura.

The bridge wasn't very wide to begin with, and the statue blocked most of it.

"Why is there something like this here?" Weeping Soul mused with an intrigued expression.

Han Li's brows also furrowed slightly as he began carefully examining the statue with his Infernal Devilish Eyes.

Right at this moment, a dull voice rang out from within the statue, and it was speaking the language of the True Immortal Realm.

"Ah, what a rare sight it is to see cultivators of the True Immortal Realm here."

Han Li's trio hurriedly stepped back in an alarmed manner upon hearing this.

"Who are you?" Han Li asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"You most likely won't have heard of me, but just like the three of you, I also come from the True Immortal Realm. It's so good to see fellow cultivators of the True Immortal Realm here!" the statue replied with a hint of irrepressible elation in its voice.

"Are you actually from the True Immortal Realm?" Han Li asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"I am from the Earth Emperor Sect in the Vast Earth Immortal Region, and I stumbled into the underworld by chance. What are the three of you doing in the underworld?" the statue asked.

A peculiar look suddenly flashed through Jin Tong's eyes upon hearing this, but she then immediately concealed it.

However, this momentary change in her expression failed to escape Han Li's notice.

"The three of us are vagrant cultivators, and just like you, we stumbled into the underworld by chance after being sucked into a spatial rift," Han Li replied.

"I see. It's terrible luck that you ended up on the Fierce Ghost Plains, but also quite impressive that you were able to make it out alive," the statue mused.

It seems like you know quite a bit about the underworld," Han Li remarked.

"You eventually learn some things once you've been in this place for as long as I have," the statue sighed.

"Why are you here on this bridge, and how did you become a stone statue?" Han Li asked.

"I was sealed here by an enemy secret technique," the statue sighed.

Han Li wasn't surprised to hear this. Through his Infernal Devilish Eyes, he had identified some type of very advanced seal present in the statue's body, but he wasn't able to see what was inside the seal.