Chapter 933: Destined for Conflict

In the instant that Han Li set foot into the altar, a resounding explosion rang out as a massive hole was blown into the ground beneath his feet.

Countless shattered rocks screeched through the air as they converged toward him, and at the same time, a sharp blade shot out of the hole, sweeping rapidly toward his feet.

Despite the abrupt nature of this turn of events, Han Li reacted extremely quickly, drifting back as soon as the ground exploded beneath him to evade the shattered rocks, and the blade that was sweeping toward him didn't even manage to graze his robes.

In the next instant, a black shadow shot out of the hole, revealing itself to be a black ape that was around ten feet tall.

The ape was clad in a suit of bright, silver armor that also appeared to be a star artifact, but unfortunately, most of it was already ruined, and it was wielding a white scimitar that was around seven feet in length.

Is this a scaled beast? No, it's another puppet.

The ape's entire body was covered in black fur, and not only was there a cold gleam in its eyes, there was also viscous saliva dripping down from its fangs, making it no different in appearance from an actual living creature, but Han Li was still able to instantly identify it as a puppet.

The ape gave him a similar feeling to back when he first encountered Daoist Xie.

Han Li's gaze fell upon the white scimitar, and he discovered that it was displaying no signs of decay at all, and the star designs on its were still flashing incessantly while giving off bursts of formidable saber qi that caused the surrounding air to tremble incessantly.

Before Han Li had a chance to take a closer look, the black ape launched itself at him, and at the same time, the star designs on its white scimitar lit up, releasing a saber projection that was several dozen feet in length that came sweeping directly at Han Li's neck.

Han Li paid no heed to the oncoming attack as he began swaying from side to side, conjuring up four or five identical that sprang at the black ape from different directions.

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

The ape puppet let loose a low roar as it swept its scimitar through the air in a circle, aiming to cut down all of the oncoming Han Lis, only for all of them to instantly vanish upon making contact with its scimitar projection.

The black ape was momentarily rooted to the spot upon seeing this, and right at this moment, Han Li appeared before it in a wraith-like manner, then chopped down onto its wrist like lightning with his left hand, severing its hand at the wrist like a hot knife through butter.

The black ape let loose an agonized howl before lashing out with its other arm, throwing a punch at Han Li's head.

However, Han Li was far faster, and he grabbed onto the white scimitar with one hand, then slashed it through the air to slice the black ape's body into two from head to toe before its fist even had a chance to reach him.

The two halves of its body tumbled to the ground and spasmed momentarily before falling still.

Silver liquid that resembled blood poured out of the black ape's body, and on top of that, it had a full set of organs, making it appear no different from an actual living creature. However, these organs were crafted out of some type of crimson jade material, presenting an intriguing sight to behold.

Han Li took a glance at the two halves of the black ape's body, then turned his gaze to the white scimitar in his hand with an elated look in his eyes.

He channeled his Heavenly Baleful Purgatory Arts as he tightened his grip slightly around the hilt of the scimitar, and a bright saber projection instantly emerged over its blade, causing the nearby space to tremble and buzz incessantly.

As he swept the scimitar through the air, a series of saber projections instantly began to revolve around him like a nest of white spirit snakes.

The saber projections swept over the nearby walls, easily leaving deep marks onto theirs surfaces as if they were made from tofu.

However, a disappointed look quickly flashed through Han Li's eyes.

Even though this scimitar appeared to be quite powerful, it wasn't actually a star artifact, and it couldn't enhance one's physical prowess like a true star artifact could, so it could only be considered a pseudo-star artifact.

Even so, this was still a very valuable weapon under the current circumstances.

Han Li strapped the scimitar to his back, then concealed his aura once again and continued onward.

Beyond the entrance of the altar was a long passageway, and the walls on either side were constructed from gray stone bricks that were giving off a cold aura.

The passageway was quite wide at thirty to forty feet, but it was only around twenty to thirty feet tall, and for some reason, it was extremely dim here, restricting visibility to only less than two hundred feet, thereby striking one with a sense of tension and unease.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly as he continued onward, but he was walking along extremely carefully, constantly preparing for another puppet or something else to jump out of the walls or the ground below to attack him.

Thankfully, there were no further attacks, and after a long and meticulous walk, an exit that was giving off a faint white glow appeared up ahead.

Han Li's eyes lit up slightly as he immediately sped up and made his way into the exit, upon which he arrived in a square hall.

The hall was several thousand feet in area, with a series of glowing white stones embedded onto the ceiling to brightly illuminate the entire area, which was riddled with a series of stone statues of different sizes.

These statues depicted figures in all types of different postures with a wide range of expressions on their faces, and all of them were extremely lifelike, presenting a rather unsettling sight to behold.

Right at this moment, a speck of white light appeared in Han Li's field of view, and it was rapidly expanding at an extraordinary speed. It was as if a star were plummeting from the heavens toward his face with unstoppable might.

An alarmed look instantly appeared on Han Li's face as he rushed back in retreat while drawing the scimitar from his back, raising it in front of his head to just barely parry the oncoming burst of white light.

A resounding boom rang out as the burst of white light clashed against the blade of the scimitar.

Han Li's scimitar-wielding arm trembled violently as he was sent flying back even faster, and he stumbled back close to twenty steps before finally managing to steady himself.

The burst of white light had also been repelled, and it was flying back end over end through the air.

Only then was Han Li able to catch a clear glimpse of it, and he discovered that it was a thin white sword that resembled a spirit snake. The specks of starlight on its surface indicated that it was a star artifact of a high caliber.

Immediately thereafter, a figure emerged from behind one of the stone statues to catch the sword, and it was none other than Feng Wuchen.

"I wanted to grant you a swift and painless death by punching a hole straight through your head, but it looks like you're going to have to suffer now," Feng Wuchen harrumphed coldly with undisguised killing intent in his eyes.

"It seems like we were destined to clash, Feng Wuchen," Han Li said as his eyes narrowed slightly.

That attack was far more formidable than the attacks that Feng Wuchen had displayed during their previous battle, so it appeared that he had stumbled upon some type of opportunity in the Great Ruins.

"Indeed! There were too many people in the Asura Arena, so I didn't go all out, and you managed to defeat me thanks to my complacency. Now that there's no one else around, I'm going to make you wish you had never been born!" Feng Wuchen declared with a vicious and confident gleam in his eyes.

"We've had our differences in the past, but it's nothing personal. Right now, we should be uniting against the cultivators of Puppet City instead of fighting among ourselves," Han Li said as his brows furrowed slightly.

"Are you begging for mercy now? It's too late! You humiliated me in front of everyone in the Asura Arena, so no matter how much you beg, you're not going to leave this place alive!" Feng Wuchen roared as a look of intense resentment appeared in his eyes, and second identical sword appeared in his other hand.

"So you insist on fighting me here then," Han Li sighed.

A cold sneer appeared on Feng Wuchen's face, and he offered no response as he sprang forward, instantly covering a distance of several hundred to appear in front of Han Li in the blink of an eye.

The two swords in his hands had been raised, and both of them were aimed at Han Li's chest.

The speed that Feng Wuchen was displaying here was almost twice as fast as what he had shown during the arena battle, and Han Li remained rooted to the spot, seemingly having completely failed to react.

Feng Wuchen had been feeling a little uneasy, but he instantly felt much more assured upon seeing this, and he cast his gaze toward Han Li's face, hoping to see the panic and horror in his eyes during his dying moments.

However, he was only greeted by the sight of a pair of eyes that were calm to the extreme.

A sense of foreboding welled up in Feng Wuchen's heart upon seeing this, but before he had a chance to do anything, the swords in his hands had already been knocked aside by a burst of tremendous force that almost wrenched them out of his grasp altogether.

A stunned look appeared on Feng Wuchen's face as he darted back as a blurry shadow, instantly retreating to over a thousand feet away.

"I failed to kill you last time, but it looks like I've been given a second chance to finish the job here," Han Li said in a cold voice, immediately following which all 237 of the profound acupoints on his body lit up one after another in rapid succession.

A loud explosion rang out in the air around Han Li as an unimaginably formidable aura erupted out of his body before sweeping forth in all directions.

The entire hall trembled violently, as did all of the stone statues, and an incredulous look appeared on Feng Wuchen's face as he exclaimed, "Impossible! How could you have opened so many profound acupoints?!"