Chapter 939: One Obstacle After Another

"I didn't think that I would encounter an illusion here," Han Li remarked with a calm smile.

"Don't underestimate this illusion, Brother Li. I just tried to use a spiritual sense secret technique to break it, but to no avail. If you have a way to break this illusory array, then I suggest you do it before the illusion takes a more dangerous turn," Shi Chuankong said with a wry smile.

Han Li nodded in response as he channeled his Spirit Refinement Technique.

As he turned to inspect his surroundings once again, he discovered that all of the beautiful dancing women had taken on an extremely harrowing appearance, with rotting flesh clinging to withered bones.

Han Li couldn't help but grimace slightly at this jarring sight.

"Are you also unable to break the illusion, Brother Li?" Shi Chuankong asked.

"This is quite an interesting illusory array, but it shouldn't be too difficult to break it," Han Li replied with a confident smile.

Right as his voice trailed off, the hideous, decomposing women seemed to have discovered that Han Li was attempting to break the array, and they threw down their musical instruments before pouncing at him with their fingers extended into sinister claws.

Han Li channeled his Spirit Refinement Technique with all his might as he let loose a loud roar, and it was as if a thunderclap had rung out within the palace.

Even Shi Chuankong shuddered involuntarily, and the bodies of all of the decomposing women instantly exploded before dissipating into specks of dark red flames.

However, even after all of the decomposing women had been eradicated, the two of them remained in the illusion of the opulent palace.

"It looks like we'll only be able to make it out of this array by breaking its core. Hold on tight, Brother Shi," Han Li said as he grabbed onto Shi Chuankong's shoulder before stomping a foot heavily down onto the ground.

The ground in the entire palace collapsed to form a bottomless pit, which Han Li and Shi Chuankong plummeted into.

Only after close to twenty seconds did the sensation of falling fade away, and as they inspected their surroundings once again, they discovered that they had returned to the same palace from before.

At this moment, the two of them were standing at the center of the dried pond, and the stone arch bridge had already been shattered by the force of Han Li's stomp.

"Looks like this bridge was the core of that illusory array," Shi Chuankong remarked.

Han Li nodded in response, and he was just about to say something when he suddenly turned and cast his gaze toward the rear of the palace.

A string of faint cracks rang out from the statues of the halberd-wielding guards that were half-knelt on the stone platform, and a series of cracks began to spread over their bodies.

Immediately thereafter, a glimmer of red light appeared in their eyes, and all of them seemed to have sprung to life as they turned to Han Li and Shi Chuankong in unison.

"Here we go again," Han Li sighed with a shake of his head.

The cracking sounds ringing out from the bodies of the six statues grew louder, and chunks of stone began to peel off their bodies as they rose to their feet.

After rising to their feet, the six puppets flexed their necks from side to side in a very humanized manner, then gripped onto their halberd and pounced at Han Li's duo.

They split up into two groups while in mid-air, with three of them pouncing at Han Li, while the other three launched themselves at Shi Chuankong.

Han Li darted back to evade a piercing attack from one of the puppets, then pushed off with both feet against the ground, and thanks to the speed boost provided by his Star Moon Boots, he was able to almost instantly reach the puppet.

From there, he slashed his scimitar toward the puppet's head, yet before his attack had a chance to land, the other two guards were already upon him, with their halberd aimed at his throat and his dantian.

Han Li was rather taken aback to see this, and he stopped in his tracks before spinning around on the spot, parrying the halberd aimed at his throat with his scimitar while also kicking aside the halberd that was aimed at his dantian.

Right at this moment, he felt a gust of wind sweep over the back of his head as the first puppet thrust its halberd at the back of his head.

Han Li was able to dodge the attack by swaying his head to the side, but internally, he was astonished by just how seamless the teamwork between the three puppets was.

Thankfully, they weren't all that fast. Otherwise, there was a good chance that Han Li would've already been struck by one of their attacks.

After swaying to the side to evade the oncoming halberd, Han Li reached out to grab onto its shaft, then forced it downward in a powerful motion to catapult its wielder up into the air.

Before the puppet had a chance to land, Han Li sprang up into the air to pursue it, then sliced it into two with a sweep of his scimitar.

Meanwhile, Shi Chuankong had already been forced into a corner of the pond by his three puppet assailants.

Two of the puppets had thrust their halberds at his chest, and even though he was able to keep their attacks at bay, the puppets were able to push him all the way back with their halberds until he was trapped in the corner.

The third puppet sprang up from the ruined stone arch bridge, holding onto the shaft of its halberd with both hands as it thrust it down upon Shi Chuankong's chest.

Shi Chuankong was still yet to fully recover from his injuries, so he was in no condition to be fighting, and all he could do was look on helplessly as the halberd sped toward his chest.

Right at this moment, Han Li swiveled around in mid-air, and his scimitar flew out of his grasp, revolving end over end as it was hurled at the puppet from afar.

𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

The puppet was able to detect the scimitar that was flying toward it from behind, and it withdrew its halberd to deflect the scimitar away.

That split second of delay was all that Han Li needed to arrive on the scene, and he channeled his Heavenly Baleful Purgatory Arts as a string of profound acupoints lit up over his arm in rapid succession.

The puppet only had the chance to turn around halfway before it was struck on the head by Han Li's fist, and its head instantly exploded like a ripe watermelon.

Right at this moment, Shi Chuankong suddenly yelled in an alarmed voice, "Look out!"

Han Li immediately ducked down upon hearing this, but before he had a chance to move away, he was dealt a tremendous blow to the shoulder, and he crashed heavily down onto hte ground with a resounding boom.

The entire pond was instantly shattered, while he plunged into the ground like a steel nail.

Instead of taking any time to see what it was that he had just been attacked by, Han Li burrowed deeper into the ground, quickly vanishing out of sight.

Immediately thereafter, the ground elsewhere in the palace suddenly began to bulge before splitting open, and Han Li re-emerged.

His brows were tightly furrowed as he cast his gaze toward the stone platform in the palace, only to find that the statue of the staff-wielding devilish man was nowhere to be seen.

All of a sudden, Han Li sprang forward with all his might, and in the next instant, a purple staff came crashing down into the ground, only just barely glancing past his back.

The ground exploded violently as sparks and shattered stone shards erupted in all directions, and Han Li swung around to discover the statue of the devilish man hovering in mid-air with its staff in its hand.

There was a pair of black wings on its back that were flapping steadily, and it seemed to possess some degree of intelligence as a frustrated look had appeared on its face after its attack failed to land.

With a violent flap of its wings, a fierce whirlwind was swept up around it, and it flew directly at Han Li at an extraordinary speed.

On this occasion, Han Li raised his scimitar and swung it at the puppet's face instead of taking any evasive measures.

A humanized gleeful gleam flashed through the puppet's eyes upon seeing this, and it grabbed onto its staff with both hands, upon which a layer of faint white light emerged over its surface, indicating that it was a star artifact.

It swung its staff through the air to clash against Han Li's white scimitar, and Han Li felt a burst of tremendous force shoot through his arm upon impact, forcing him to raise his other arm so that he could support the scimitar with both hands.

At the same time, his legs had already sunk around half a foot into the ground, and he couldn't help but be astonished by the puppet's incredible combination of speed and power.

Before he had a chance to retaliate, a series of star acupoints lit up over the purple staff, immediately following which a thick arc of white lightning shot out from within before striking Han Li on the glabella.

Han Li felt a burning sensation on his forehead, and his consciousness also shuddered violently. As a result, the strength in his arms seeped away, and the purple staff was able to overwhelm his scimitar before striking him on the shoulder.

Han Li's legs buckled beneath him as his body began to fall back, and a cold look appeared on the puppet's face upon seeing this as it prepared to swing its staff down onto Han Li's head.

In the instant that Han Li was struck by the arc of white lightning, he had already channeled his Spirit Refinement Technique, so he was able to quickly regain lucidity.

In this dire situation, he hurriedly pulled out a small white shield from the front of his robe before injecting his starpower into it with all his might.

Radiant white starlight surged into the shield, and it conjured up a white light barrier that was just barely large enough to encompass his entire body.