Chapter 595: Battle of Life and Death

Han Li couldn't help but heave a forlorn internal sigh upon seeing this. All of his painstaking efforts had only managed to break the Gold Devouring Immortal's exoskeleton, but hadn't inflicted any substantial injuries.

Right at this moment, the Gold Devouring Immortal opened its mouth and a thread of translucent light roughly the size of a spear shot forth, hurtling directly toward Han Li's chest.

Han Li's pupils contracted slightly upon seeing this, and he hurriedly summoned his Mantra Treasured Axis back to his side to slow down the enemy attack, but as he did this, he realized that something wasn't quite right.

The Time Dao Runes on the axis were clearly glowing, but no golden ripples were released.

Before he had a chance to figure out what was happening, the translucent spear had already reached him, and it was too late for him to take evasive measures.

In this dire situation, Jin Tong suddenly sped over to him as a streak of golden light, positioning herself in front of him as a shield.

The spear pierced straight through her shoulder, then sent her body crashing heavily into Han Li, and blood splattered in all directions amid the grotesque sound of shattering bones.

The two of them crashed into the rock face behind them with so much force that it triggered an avalanche, sending huge rocks tumbling down from above.

Blood was trickling down from the corner of Han Li's lips as he flew toward Mo Guang while cradling Jin Tong in his arms, and Mo Guang immediately sprang into action as well, positioning himself in front of them.

Han Li withdrew his Mantra Treasured Axis into his own body while inspecting Jin Tong's condition, and he could sense that her aura had diminished significantly, but much to his relief, her life wasn't under threat.

Having devoured that strange pill cauldron and that giant rat carcass, Jin Tong had progressed to the High Zenith Stage and attained a far superior physical constitution compared with before. Only then was she able to withstand that blow.

Otherwise, even with her acting as a meat shield, Han Li would've suffered grievous wounds from that spear strike, nonetheless.

"Are you alright?" Han Li asked as he observed the Gold Devouring Immortal intently.

"I'm fine," Jin Tong replied with a determined look in her eyes, then pulled out the translucent spear before stuffing it into her own mouth.

Meanwhile, Han Li's attention remained focused solely on the Gold Devouring Immortal.

Even though it had already detonated both of its wings, a pair of giant five-colored wings of light had emerged on its back to take their place, and with a single flap of those new wings, the Gold Devouring Immortal vanished from the spot.

Han Li's pupils contracted drastically upon seeing this, and he hurled Jin Tong away into the distance while raising his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword to defend himself.

At the same time, Mo Guang abruptly swelled to several dozen feet tall, and bright black light emerged over his body as he raised his black spear before thrusting it directly forward.

A black line shot through the air in a flash, following which a boundless expanse of black qi erupted forth in a formidable wave.

A resounding clang rang out as the Gold Devouring Immortal abruptly reappeared, having withstood Mo Guang's spear strike with its exoskeleton, and its front limbs were reaching around Mo Guang to attack Han Li.

All of this had taken place in the blink of an eye, and Han Li had only just raised his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword when the Gold Devouring Immortal's front limbs were already upon him.

"Let heaven and earth be turned on their heads!" Han Li declared in a thunderous voice, and the Gold Devouring Immortal immediately felt a burst of indescribable power sweep through the entire ravine.

Its vision blurred momentarily, and when it was able to see clearly again, it discovered that heaven and earth had indeed been flipped on their heads, and it had been hovering above the ravine just a moment ago, yet it now found itself at the bottom of the ravine.

Is this another illusion?

The Gold Devouring Immortal was quite bewildered by this, and it reflexively slowed down in its attack as a result.

"Let there be lightning!"

Another thunderous declaration rang out, and the ground at the bottom of the ravine abruptly split open as an incredibly thick pillar of golden lightning erupted out of the earth to instantly inundate the Gold Devouring Immortal.

Bursts of rumbling rang out incessantly as countless arcs of golden lightning ravaged the Gold Devouring Immortal's body, and this was clearly no illusion.

All of a sudden, a thought occurred to the Gold Devouring Immortal, and it opened its cavernous mouth to send a vast expanse of translucent light sweeping toward the bottom of the ravine.

A resounding boom rang out as the ground at the bottom of the ravine exploded, but as opposed to any rocks or dust being raised by the explosion, there were only waves of baleful qi that were scattered in all directions.

As a result, it was revealed that there was a golden figure holding a black bladed weapon that was riddled with lightning cloud designs, and they quickly drifted back into the waves of baleful qi, vanishing without a trace.

As it turned out, heaven and earth hadn't actually been flipped on their heads, and that pillar of golden lightning had just been unleashed by Daoist Xie using the Thunderslash blade.

By the time the Gold Devouring Immortal came to realize this and turned its attention back to Han Li, it discovered that Han Li's eyes were tightly shut, and a speck of translucent light was glowing from his glabella.

In the next instant, a cage of black chains abruptly took shape in front of the Gold Devouring Immortal, then transformed into several translucent chains that instantly vanished into thin air.

Immediately thereafter, the Gold Devouring Immortal was completely rooted to the spot, immobilized in mid-air.

Within a golden space deep in its consciousness was a miniature golden beetle. This was its nascent soul, and it was currently trapped in a cage formed by translucent chains.

A series of black runes were engraved upon the chains, and the chains didn't appear to be particularly sturdy, but also seemed to have some type of unbreakable quality about them.

The Gold Devouring Immortal's nascent soul was furious, and it crashed repeatedly against the chain with all its might. The golden light within its consciousness was also crashing against the cage in powerful waves, but the cage remained as still as an immovable mountain.

Inside the ravine, Han Li heaved a faint sigh of relief, but he didn't dare to let his guard down at all.

Thanks to the combination of his Mantra Domain ability and that decoy from Daoist Xie, he had managed to trap the Gold Devouring Immortal's nascent soul in a Spiritual Sense Cage.

However, even though the Gold Devouring Immortal's soul was its weakness, it was still a late-High Zenith Stage being, so Han Li wouldn't be able to trap its nascent soul for long.

"Jin Tong, hurry!" he yelled in an urgent voice.

Jin Tong had been waiting for this opportunity, and she gritted her teeth to suppress the pain from her injuries as she transformed into a golden beetle the size of a water vat, then flew over to the gash on the Gold Devouring Immortal's chest before scurrying her way inside.

As soon as she entered the Gold Devouring Immortal's body, she immediately began sinking her teeth into the flesh inside.

The grotesque sounds of tearing flesh and chewing rang out incessantly, and it didn't take long before Jin Tong's entire body was drenched in blood.

With each mouthful of flesh that she devoured, more power would arise in her body, and the wound on her shoulder that had been inflicted by the translucent spear would recover a little.

Even though the Gold Devouring Immortal's nascent soul had been sealed away, its body was still trembling violently from the excruciating pain that it was experiencing.

Its nascent soul had been driven to a blind rage, and it was crashing against the Spiritual Sense Cage with reckless abandon, seemingly completely unconcerned by the possibility that it could harm itself in the process.

Han Li could feel his own spiritual sense shuddering violently, and his complexion paled slightly as he involuntarily threw up a mouthful of blood.

However, he had no time to tend to his own internal injuries as he channeled his Spirit Refinement Technique with all his might.

Maintaining the Spiritual Sense Cage was already extremely taxing on his spiritual sense, and he was having to expend even more spiritual sense in order to stabilize the cage against the Gold Devouring Immortal's frenzied assault.

Before long, his robes were completely drenched in sweat, and he was gritting his teeth so tightly that they were audibly creaking and groaning. He had even stowed his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords and the Profound Heavenly Gourd away as he didn't dare to divert even the slightest modicum of attention away from the cause at hand.

As time passed, Jin Tong continued to rapidly eat her way through the Gold Devouring Immortal's body, and her aura was steadily being elevated in the process, but it was still significantly lacking compared with the Gold Devouring Immortal's tremendous aura.

15 more minutes passed by.

At this point, Han Li was so drenched with sweat that he looked as if he had just been fished out of a pond, and his face was as pale as a sheet, while his eyes were dull and dim from exhaustion.

Finally, his spiritual sense ran out, and the Spiritual Sense Cage within the Gold Devouring Immortal's consciousness immediately began to fade.

The Gold Devouring Immortal's nascent soul pounced on this opportunity to unleash one final wave of ferocious attacks, and the Spiritual Sense Cage fell away without being able to pose any further resistance.

Upon regaining control over its own body, the Gold Devouring Immortal immediately let loose an agonized screech that caused the entire ravine to tremble violently.

With its nascent soul trapped in the Spiritual Sense Cage, it had been deprived of the majority of its senses, so it hadn't been able to feel the excruciating agony of having its own body eaten away from the inside.

Now that it had returned to its senses, it was struck by a wave of indescribable pain that was almost too much for it to bear.

𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

The golden light emanating from its body immediately began to tremble erratically, and a string of cracks and pops rang out from its bones as it flexed all of its muscles at once to compress down upon Jin Tong.

At the same time, all of the immortal spiritual power within its body also began to surge toward Jin Tong.