"You think that you can handle me just by keeping our clashes brief?" Tong Yu scoffed as wisps of black qi spilled out from the gaps in his suit of armor, forming a cloud of black mist that encompassed his entire body.

All of the devilish qi in the surrounding area also surged into the cloud of black mist, and all of a sudden, Han Li found himself enshrouded within it as well.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this, but before he had a chance to do anything, a fist was coming straight at him with tremendous power.

He raised an arm to defend himself, but another fist suddenly came swinging at him from the left.

Before he had a chance to shield himself, he was struck by a heavy blow to the chest, and he gave a muffled groan as he was sent flying through the air.

The cloud of black mist continued to cling to him, and several more punches arrived at once, striking him in the temple, the back of the head, the chest, and other vital regions.

Every single one of these punches packed tremendous force, and they struck him with resounding booms.

Han Li could feel his own immortal spiritual power circulation becoming hampered by the blows,and he hurriedly channeled his true spirit bloodline to conjure up a suit of Xuanwu armor.

The punches fell upon the suit of armor in a torrential barrage, and while the suit of Xuanwu armor did cushion the blows somewhat, they were still far from pleasant to deal with.

Han Li activated his Infernal Devilish Eyes as he swept his gaze across the surrounding black mist, but he was surprised to discover that he couldn't see Tong Yu within it.

All he could see were thousands of fists formed by black mist hurtling toward him from all directions, and it was no wonder that he couldn't defend himself.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly as he summoned his Mantra Axis Scripture, and as soon as all of the oncoming fists entered the golden ripples released by the axis, they were instantly slowed down to a crawl.

Han Li swept his gaze over them to discover that they numbered in the tens of thousands, and a faint smile appeared on his face as he flipped a hand over to summon an Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword.

Immediately thereafter, he shot forward through the air with sword in hand, and the lightning patterns on the sword were flashing incessantly. Following the injection of Bone Rinsing Golden Lightning, the Divine Devilbane Lightning in the sword had attained lightning law powers, making it far more formidable than before.

Thick arcs of golden lightning erupted through the air in all directions, tearing through the surrounding black mist.

All of the black fists that were struck by the golden lightning instantly disintegrated into black mist, and their auras completely vanished.

Han Li continued to scour his surroundings with his Infernal Devilish Eyes, but all he could see was a boundless expanse of black devilish qi in all directions.

A hint of frustration began to well up in Han Li's heart upon seeing this. While he had managed to restrict the devilish qi with his Mantra Treasured Axis, they were completely impervious to his sword qi and lightning-based attacks.

All of a sudden, a thought occurred to him, and a fiery silver figure abruptly appeared on his shoulder.

If I can't cut you, then I'll just burn you!

The fiery silver figure instantly transformed into a silver fire raven at Han Li's behest, and Han Li withdrew his Mantra Treasured Axis as the fire raven flew straight into the cloud of black mist.

Huge waves of silver flames swept through the air, and the vast expanse of black mist began to rapidly shrink in the face of the scorching flames.

An agonized howl rang out as Tong Yu appeared within the black mist with multiple burns all over his entire body.

"What the hell is that thing?!"

Wisps of black mist slowly surged into his body as he spoke, healing the burns that had been inflicted by the Essence Fire Raven.

Han Li naturally wasn't going to answer the question, and he darted forward through the air while making a beckoning motion with his free hand.

The other seventeen Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords shot forth in unison, and as they approached Tong Yu, they released hundreds of sword projections that surrounded him from all directions.

At the same time, the Essence Fire Raven was hovering behind him, waiting to strike at the first sign of weakness.

Han Li was charging at Tong Yu in a full-frontal assault, while all of the surrounding sword projections converged toward him.

A hint of fury flashed through Tong Yu's eyes as he let loose a loud roar, and a layer of black light instantly erupted out of his body, forming a spirit domain that instantly encompassed Han Li and all of the flying swords.

In the instant that the flying swords and sword projections pierced into the spirit domain, all of them began to tremble violently, and they were enveloped by layers upon layers of devilish qi.

After being ensnared within the black mist, the sword projections quickly turned a lifeless gray color, and the spiritual power within them was completely exhausted, following which they disintegrated into nothingness.

The seventeen Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords had also been caught within bands of black mist, and even though they were also being rapidly sapped of their spiritual qi, they continued to struggle against their bindings.

At the same time, plumes of black mist began to wrap themselves around Han Li like black serpents before slowly contracting.

The black mist was gradually turning gray while taking on the form of Han Li's outline, and it appeared as if he were being turned into an immobile statue.

The Essence Fire Raven immediately flew toward Han Li with silver flames surging out of its body upon seeing this, but it was intercepted by Tong Yu, who made a hand seal with a cold sneer on its face, conjuring up a pair of giant hands formed by black sand, which joined their palms together to trap the Essence Fire Raven between them.

Immediately thereafter, Tong Yu swept a sleeve through the air to release a golden talisman that fell upon the giant hands, and the talisman instantly vanished, following which several long strings of strange runes appeared over the black hands to tie them together.

A burst of formidable restrictive power then surged out of the giant hands, and despite the Essence Fire Raven's best efforts, it was unable to struggle free as the fiery power radiating from its body was firmly contained by the peculiar energy fluctuations being released by the runes.

On the other side, Shi Chuankong was being forced back into retreat by the formidable sword qi unleashed by Yin Yu, and at this point, he was already very far from Han Li.

He could see what was happening in Han Li's battle out of the corner of his eye, and a sense of despair began to set in.

"Don't make this more difficult for yourself than it has to be. Your companion may have mastered the laws of time, but there's no way he can oppose Tong Yu. Our king instructed us to capture you alive, so just come back with us to meet your brother. If you surrender now, you can be spared of torment, but if you continue to resist, then I'll amputate your limbs, then torture you to my heart's content before taking you back," Yin Yu said with a cold expression.

"My brother? So it really was Shi Zhanfeng. What compensation did he offer your king in exchange for my life? I'm willing to give three times the compensation if you let me go," Shi Chuankong proposed as he forced a smile onto his own face.

"If you want to negotiate, then you can negotiate with our king. I'm just here to kill," Yin Yu replied in a cold voice.

"In that case, can you get Fellow Daoist Tong Yu to stop so I can go and see your king with my companion?" Shi Chuankong negotiated, while a silver lute appeared in his grasp, concealed within his baggy sleeve.

However, his sneaky tactics failed to trick Yin Yu, and a cold look flashed through the latter's eyes as he slashed his longsword through the air, unleashing hundreds of streaks of white swordlight that formed a giant mountain before crashing down upon Shi Chuankong.

Shi Chuankong was just about to dart back in retreat when he felt a sharp pain in his knees, and he looked down to discover that two sharp streaks of transparent sword qi had emerged, seemingly out of thin air, before instantly piercing through his knees.

That split-second delay made it impossible for him to evade the oncoming attack, so he had no choice but to raise the Virata Lute in front of him before strumming its strings with one hand.

The silver light emanating from the lute trembled as the space above it warped and twisted, then compressed together to oppose the vast mountain of swordlight.

A string of resounding booms rang out as the spatial power summoned by the Virata Lute clashed incessantly against the streaks of swordlight, and the compressed space was being rapidly whittled away, while only the outermost layer of swordlight had been eradicated.

Right as Shi Chuankong was about to be overwhelmed, an earth-shattering boom suddenly rang out in the distance.

Yin Yu's brows furrowed slightly as he turned in that direction, just in time to see Han Li abruptly rush out of the gray statue within Tong Yu's spirit domain, holding an Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword in one hand and a green gourd in the other.

Tong Yu was very much taken aback to see this, but he reacted very quickly, lashing out with his fists.

A relentlessly stream of devilish qi was released from his fists, and it was compounding upon itself in layers with each punch that was thrown, forming a layered wall of devilish qi that hurtled directly toward Han Li.