Chapter 945: Joining Forces Again

"You're not getting away!" Han Li yelled as he abruptly vanished from the spot, only to then immediately reappear before the armored man.

A series of spiritual sense chains were wrapped around his arm, and he plunged his hand straight into the armored man's chest.

Having sustained such severe wounds, the armored man's speed was severely hampered, so it failed to evade Han Li's grasping hand, and it was instantly rooted to the spot.

Han Li pulled his hand out of its body, holding the largest of the five white talismans in his grasp, and he immediately sealed it away.

The armored man was far more powerful than the other Heavenly Chief Profound Generals, possessing powers that weren't inferior to those of a High Zenith cultivator, so Han Li was naturally very pleased to have been able to subdue it.

Right at this moment, the two remaining Heavenly Chief Profound Generals pounced at Han Li like lightning, slashing their swords into his body right as he was sealing the largest of the five Heavenly General Talismans.

Han Li's body was instantly sliced into two, only to then fade away, revealing it to have been nothing more than an afterimage.

Immediately thereafter, a pair of hands reached into the chests of the two Heavenly Chief Profound Generals, pulling out the Heavenly General Talismans inside before prompting sealing them.

The two remaining Heavenly Chief Profound Generals instantly imploded into specks of white light, while Han Li stowed the two talismans away.

Only then did Shi Chuankong re-enter the hall as he praised in an earnest manner, "Impressive as usual, Fellow Daoist Li. It seems like there's no end to your powers."

"You're far too kind, Fellow Daoist Shi. It just so happens that my spiritual sense secret technique is a perfect counter to these things," Han Li replied with a smile before crouching down to inspect the five shattered stone pillars.

It seemed that these stone pillars were capable of gathering starpower, and that was why the five Heavenly General Talismans had been adhered to them to be nurtured.

He searched through the wreckage of the stone pillars for a while, then quickly pulled out five short rods that were each around an inch in length and around the same thickness as a human arm.

Each rod was riddled with engraved star runes, forming what appeared to be a set of star arrays.

Han Li's eyes lit up slightly upon seeing this.

He had already developed a decent understanding of the starpower restrictions in the Scalptia Spatial Domain, so even though the arrays on the five rods were quite complex, he was still able to roughly make sense of them.

This was a star gathering array that was countless times more profound than the star gathering array that he had learned from the Origin Realm Temple.

Han Li eagerly scoured his gaze over the starpower restrictions on the five rods, then pulled out a jade slip and engraved the arrays on the rods onto it.

He had prepared this jade slip prior to entering the Great Ruins, and it was precisely for this type of scenario.

Unfortunately, he had been a little too rough in his destruction of the stone pillars earlier, so the rods had been damaged in many parts, resulting in many of the runes on them being erased.

Even so, this set of starpower restrictions was still going to be immensely helpful to him.

After recording the damaged arrays onto his jade slip, Han Li continued onward with Shi Chuankong by his side.

From there, they didn't encounter any further attacks, and it didn't take long before they reached the end of the passageway, where a black staircase that was hundreds of steps tall stood before them.

At the foot of the staircase was a glowing, white exit, and a giant hall could be seen through this opening.

A string of resounding booms were ringing out incessantly up ahead, indicating that a battle seemed to be taking place inside the hall.

"Stay here for now, Fellow Daoist Shi, I'll go take a look at what's happening in there," Han Li said through voice transmission.

Shi Chuankong knew that Han Li's concealment techniques were superior to his own, so he raised no objections and nodded in response.

Han Li immediately channeled his Myriad Acupoint Tranquility Technique and snuck over to the exit before peering out into the hall beyond.

The previous hall was already quite large, but this one was downright enormous, over a hundred times the area of the previous hall.

The ground and walls of this hall were all dark green in color, and there were two rows of massive stone pillars in the hall, one on the left, and one on the right.

The two rows of stone pillars ran straight down the length of the hall, and even with Han Li's eyesight, he was only just barely able to make out a tightly shut stone gate at the end of the hall.

Aside from that, there was nothing else in the hall, giving it a very empty and spacious appearance.

At this moment, there were two parties engaged in a fierce battle inside.

One one side were around a dozen crimson humanoid puppets and three Heavenly Chief Profound Generals, while the other party consisted of four people, all of whom were familiar to Han Li, namely Chen Yang, Xuanyuan Xing, Sun Tu, and Fang Chan.

Han Li raised an eyebrow upon seeing this.

The crimson puppets were each around seventy to eighty feet tall, cutting extremely imposing figures, and even though they weren't armed with any weapons, their bodies contained tremendous power, and the very space around them trembled in the face of their attacks.

Furthermore, they seemed to be very adept at working together, and at this moment, they were standing side by side in a row, unleashing attacks that formed waves of formidable power to prevent Chen Yang and the others from advancing any further.

As for the Heavenly Chief Profound Generals, all of them were comparable in power to the armored general that Han Li had just subdued, and thanks to their insubstantial bodies, they were unaffected by the waves of power unleashed by the crimson puppets as they attacked Chen Yang and the others at will.

It was clear that Chen Yang's group was trying to reach the stone gate at the end of the hall, but they weren't able to make any progress against these puppets and talisman spirits.

The puppets didn't pose much of a threat, but the Heavenly Chief Profound General were a huge pain to deal with, and out of the four, only Sun Tu possessed a bone sword that was etched with black patterns that seemed to be pose some threat to the Heavenly Chief Profound Generals.

The black patterns on the bone sword were releasing rings of black ripples that proliferated throughout the hall, and they had no effect on Chen Yang and the others or the crimson puppets, but as soon as the three Heavenly Chief Profound Generals came into contact with the black ripples, they would instantly be slowed down significantly.

If it wasn't for that, Chen Yang and the others would've already sustained injuries from the Heavenly Chief Profound Generals.

The three Heavenly Chief Profound General were swinging their halberds rapidly through the air, unleashing flurries of white halberd projections that converged to form a large net, which descended upon Chen Yang and the others.

Sun Tu let loose a low roar as he slashed his bone sword through the air, and a metallic clang rang out as a giant black sword projection struck the net of halberd projections.

The net was instantly sliced apart, but the black sword projection was also destroyed, and the three Heavenly Chief Profound Generals and Sun Tu were both forced back into retreat.

Han Li cast his gaze toward the black bone sword in Sun Tu's hand with an intrigued look in his eyes.

The black patterns on the bone sword were giving off a burst of peculiar sealing power fluctuations, so it was no wonder that it was able to ward off the Heavenly Chief Profound Generals attacks.

"Fellow Daoist Li, Fellow Daoist Shi, come out and show yourselves. It's rather rude to watch from the sidelines like this," Sun Tu suddenly said as he turned his gaze to the entrance of the hall.

Chen Yang and the others displayed no surprise upon hearing this, and it seemed that they were already aware of Han Li and Shi Chuankong's presence.

Han Li was quite taken aback to hear this. He had thought that his aura was completely concealed by his Myriad Acupoint Tranquility Technique, and Shi Chuankong was currently thousands of feet away. Spiritual sense was severely restricted here, so how had Sun Tu and the others discovered them?

After a brief moment of contemplation, Han Li beckoned to Shi Chuankong, and the latter rushed over to join him, following which both of them stepped into the hall together. Seeing as they had already been discovered, there was no point in hiding any longer.

"I'm very impressed that you were able to discover us, Fellow Daoist Sun Tu. May I ask how you were able to detect our presence?" Han Li asked with a smile.

In contrast with Sun Tu and the others, the puppets and talisman spirits were clearly quite surprised by the emergence of Han Li and Shi Chuankong.

"It's just a little trick that's really not worth flaunting. Seeing as your Green Goat City and our White Rock City have already forged an alliance, why don't we all join forces here?" Sun Tu invited with a smile.

"Our earlier agreement still stands, Fellow Daoist Li. The Great Ruins are fraught with peril, so it would be far too dangerous for the two of you to continue on your own. I'm sure there must be some precious treasures to be found in here, so let's take care of these puppets and talisman spirits, then split the treasures inside evenly among ourselves," Chen Yang said.

Meanwhile, Fang Chan was looking out behind Han Li and Shi Chuankong, seemingly searching for something, and a hint of disappointment flashed through his eyes when he discovered that there was no one behind them.

Shi Chuankong could tell that these crimson puppets and Heavenly Chief Profound Generals were far too formidable for the two of them to deal with, so he was also quite tempted to join forces with Sun Tu and the others.

However, he didn't say anything as he turned his gaze to Han Li, clearly content to follow his lead.

"I'm very flattered that you think so highly of me. In that case, I'd be happy to join you," Han Li replied with a smile after a brief moment of contemplation.

Meanwhile, the crimson puppets and Heavenly Chief Profound Generals were already pouncing at them again.

"Alright, in that case, let's get rid of these pesky things together. The longer we're delayed here, the greater the chance that something could go wrong, so let's not hold back. If you have any tricks up your sleeve, now would be the time to reveal them," Chen Yang declared.

He swept a sleeve through the air as he spoke, and three short yellow spears appeared in his grasp, all of which were etched with peculiar lightning-shaped patterns.

The three spears were then hurled through the air as a trio of yellow shadows, and they displayed incredible penetrative power, piercing through the waves of power unleashed by the crimson puppets before embedding themselves into the bodies of three of the puppets.

In the next instant, three loud explosions rang out as bursts of white lightning erupted out of the spears, forming three balls of white lightning that were each around ten feet in size.

The three puppets were instantly torn apart, with their fragments flying in all directions.

With these three puppets eliminated, the wall of force unleashed by the rest of the puppets was instantly significantly weakened.