Chapter 667: Fire Age Fireflies

In the face of this latest round of attacks, the white-robed young man merely smiled as he raised a hand, then released a string of incantation seals that vanished into the surrounding space.

In the next instant, a series of large disks of light appeared within his yellow spirit domain, and they were revolving incessantly to weaken the soundwave attacks unleashed by the purple bat, but layers of creases were still appearing on his white robe.

Shortly thereafter, the sound of tearing rang out, and countless tiny gashes appeared on his robes, while the disks of light began to disintegrate one after another.

At the same time, the palatial ruins beside and behind the white-robed young man were trembling incessantly in the wake of the soundwaves, and they quickly disintegrated into dust.

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

A hint of elation appeared in Yan Ziyan's eyes upon seeing this, and she hurriedly began chanting an incantation while rapidly strumming the strings of her lute.

A fierce look flashed through the purple bat's eyes, and it spread its wings before hurtling toward the white-haired young man as a streak of purple light.

A hint of anger flashed through the young man's eyes at the sight of his torn robes, and he yelled, "I gave you a chance, but seeing as you insist on making things difficult for yourself, I suppose it can't be helped!"

He flipped a hand over as he spoke to summon a giant metal fan that was around six feet in length. Circles of complex yellow runes were etched onto the fan, and they were giving off formidable earth law power fluctuations.

The metal fan spread open in front of him with a loud clang, revealing a creature with yellow fur etched onto its surface. The creature burst out of the fan as if it had sprung to life, then opened its cavernous mouth to release a ferocious tornado that was interspersed with yellow sand.

A burst of violent rumbling rang out as the tornado swept through the air, pulverizing the purple bat in its path.

All of a sudden, Yan Ziyan felt her own body become impossibly heavy, and she was unable to take evasive measures at all as she was sent flying by the yellow tornado, crashing through the gates of the Flowing Fire Palace behind her.

"Crap! I should've held back more. I really hope I didn't scar that pretty little face of hers," the white-robed young man cursed to himself as he hurriedly stowed away his metal fan before rushing before.

However, before he had even reached the entrance of the palace, he suddenly heard a buzzing sound that resembled the sound of countless beetles flapping their wings at once.

Immediately thereafter, Yan Ziyan's panicked voice rang out from within the palace.

"No! What are these things?!"

As soon as her voice trailed off, she shot out of the hall, but only managed to rise about a thousand feet up into the air before plummeting to the ground with a heavy thump.

The white-robed young man faltered slightly upon seeing this, but he then immediately drew a sharp breath as soon as he caught a clear glimpse of Yan Ziyan.

At this moment, her entire body was covered in tiny dark red insects with specks of red flames dancing over their bodies.

She was rolling on the ground in a frenzied panic with an agonized look on her face while moaning hoarsely, and there was a layer of faint golden mist around her. Wrinkles were beginning to appear on her youthful face at a rate that was discernible even to the naked eye, and her hair was also beginning to turn white.

Whatever those insects were, they seemed to be burning through her vitality!

Even though Golden Immortals were unable to avoid baleful decays, aside from that, they were theoretically immortal, so it was extraordinary that these insects were able to do this to her.

A grim look instantly appeared on the white-robed young man's face, and he was just about to flee the scene when a giant figure came crashing down from the heavens like a steel pagoda, following which a fiery red spirit domain instantly spread over the surrounding area.

The white-robed young man turned to discover an imposing foreign being with fiery red hair and the nose of a rhinoceros. There was a large golden ring hanging from each of his tapered ears, and a look of cold disdain on his face.

The man was none other than Chi Rong.

The white-robed young man was instantly plunged into the depths of despair upon sensing the late-High Zenith Stage aura emanating from Chi Rong's body.

"To think that a mere Golden Immortal would dare to try and claim Master's Fire Age Fireflies! Let's see how long it'll take to burn through your vitality!" Chi Rong harrumphed coldly.

What? Fire Age Fireflies actually exist?

The white-robed young man's entire body stiffened upon hearing this, and he recalled a rumor that had been circulating in the True Immortal Realm for a very long time.

It was said that Fire Age Fireflies were a type of spirit insect that was very similar in appearance to fireflies of the mortal world, but they possessed flames of time, which were imbued with time law powers, thereby allowing them to burn through the vitality of living beings. This vitality is then used as energy for them to reproduce, and anyplace that these insects pass through is generally left completely devoid of living beings.

However, their lifespans were extremely short, generally only living for around a month, and if they couldn't find any living beings to incinerate, then they wouldn't be able to reproduce. Hence, there hadn't been many sightings of them.

However, it was said that some cultivators who were adept at raising insects could use certain time-attribute treasures or special restrictions to preserve these insects and only release them when necessary.

It was clear that such a restriction had existed in the Flowing Fire Palace, and only after Yan Ziyan inadvertently broke the restriction were these insects freed.

With that in mind, a sheen of cold sweat surfaced on the white-robed young man's forehead,a dn he was contemplating how he was going to escape when he noticed the red-haired man staring intently at him.

His heart instantly jolted slightly upon seeing this, and he made a hand seal without any hesitation, upon which a yellow vortex appeared beneath him, swallowing up his body in the blink of an eye.

However, it was a few seconds later when the white-robed young man was forcibly ejected out of the earth several thousand feet away, having been plucked out of the ground by a giant fiery hand extending out of the surrounding crimson spirit domain.

"Did you think you could get away?" Chi Rong chuckled as he raised a hand before pressing it downward forcefully, and the large fiery hand emulated this gesture, forcing the white-robed young man into the ground.

Immediately thereafter, Chi Rong pulled a dark red flute out of the chest of his robes. The flute was covered in black spots, giving it the appearance of an old blowpipe.

As Chi Rong began to play the flute, an ancient melody rang out, and the sound of buzzing from the Flowing Fire Palace grew louder and louder as thousands upon thousands of Fire Age Fireflies were freed from the restriction, then converged upon the white-robed young man.

A blood-curdling howl instantly rang out, but Chi Rong paid no further heed to Yan Ziyan and the white-robed young man as he crossed the plaza to the other side.

A relatively intact statue of a foreign race being stood on the other side of the plaza.

The foreign being's hands and feet were as large as banana leaves, and their hair resembled flames. Their upper body was bared, and a series of strange patterns were etched onto their skin.

Chi Rong made his way over to the statue, then extended a deep bow as he said, "Master, please forgive me for coming here of my own accord to claim these Fire Age Fireflies. The intruders of our Flowing Fire Palace have already been dealt with."

......

Around half a month later.

An azure figure was flying through the air on a green jade flying carriage above a forest in the True Mantra Sect ruins. It was none other than Han Li, having adopted another disguise, and after passing through the lotus pond from before, he had only encountered some sporadic sets of ruins.

He wasn't met with any more danger, but nor had he found any more treasures.

On the flying carriage, he cast his gaze into the distance, and all of a sudden, his brows furrowed slightly, following which the carriage descended toward the ground at his behest.

Upon his landing, Han Li stowed the flying carriage away, then made his way down a small bluestone path in the forest, quickly arriving before a giant arched bridge.

The bridge was over three hundred feet wide and primarily constructed from wood and stone, consisting of a bluestone staircase and a flat carriage path, as well as a gray stone lion placed on either side of the bridge's entrance.

Han Li strode forward before raising a hand to stroke one of the stone lions, which was even taller than himself, and he was able to ascertain that they were nothing more than normal stone lions that were completely devoid of spiritual power fluctuations.

After a brief hesitation, he made his way onto the bridge, but right as he was about to reach the center of the bridge, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

The bridge had been snapped here, and up ahead was a giant spatial rift that was tens of thousands of feet in length. The spatial rift was filled with nothing but darkness, and there were formidable spatial fluctuations constantly surging out of it.

It seemed that the other half of the bridge had been devoured by the spatial rift.

Aside from this giant spatial rift, there were also countless smaller rifts around it, and even though they hadn't completely blocked Han Li's path forward, he didn't dare to recklessly pass through them.

Han Li peered into the spatial rift, but couldn't see anything in it, and the longer he stared into it, the more an irrational fear of being devoured by the rift began to take root in his heart.

He withdrew his gaze before turning his attention to either side of the bridge, upon which he discovered that half of all of the trees and buildings within an area that spanned tens of thousands of feet had been erased.

What was left was either standing resiliently like this half-intact bridge, or had completely collapsed, presenting a very strange sight to behold.