Chapter 98: Trapped

"You're awfully arrogant for a little lower realm brat who only just ascended to the Immortal Realm!"

Han Qiu's expression darkened slightly upon hearing what Han Li had to say, and white light flashed around his body as he pointed a finger forward to conjure up a cloud of white mist.

The cloud of mist churned slightly before folding in on itself to form a white ice spike that was several dozen feet in length.

The ice spike was glowing with dazzling white radiance, and it quickly split up into two, then two into four, then four into eight...

In the blink of an eye, countless white ice spikes had emerged, filling virtually the entire sky before hurtling directly toward Han Li in a ferocious barrage.

The ice spikes released a burst of glacial energy as they sped through the air, causing the air temperature in the area to plummet drastically. In fact, the temperatures had dropped so sharply that many icicles had already appeared in the air, and it seemed that the entire area was on the verge of being frozen solid.

Almost at the exact same moment, Patriarch Lu Kun and Mistress Gu Gu also sprang into action.

Patriarch Lu Kun's entire body was enveloped by a layer of blue light as he spread a hand open. Specks of blue light appeared on his palm, then descended through the air before vanishing into the sea down below.

The surface of the sea immediately began to churn violently as an enormous vortex with specks of blue light interspersed throughout appeared, and the vortex was rapidly expanding amid a burst of rumbling that resembled the sound of countless pounding horse hooves.

Meanwhile, Mistress Gu Gu closed her eyes as she made a hand seal, and black light flashed around her as a wisp of black mist rose up from her body before vanishing into one of the clouds up above.

The cloud instantly turned as black as ink, and it began to tumble and churn incessantly while releasing a burst of mysterious fluctuations that attracted all of the water vapor in the area within a radius of hundreds of kilometers, causing the cloud to expand rapidly.

In response, Han Li had already risen up into the air with azure light glowing all around him, directly facing the oncoming barrage of ice spikes as he sped toward Han Qiu's trio.

At the same time, seven specks of starlight appeared on his chest and abdomen, and a string of cracks and pops rang out as his body swelled markedly in stature before he threw a punch through the air.

A burst of immense power erupted forth in a frenzy, causing the entire space to tremble violently before exploding with tremendous force.

Countless white ripples that were visible to the naked eye erupted in all directions from Han Li's fist, and all of the ice spikes that came into contact with the white ripples instantly exploded into countless ice crystals before being blown away.

Han Qiu's expression remained completely unchanged upon seeing this, and he made a hand seal before releasing several incantation seals in quick succession.

All of the shattered ice crystals exploded once again at his behest, forming an enormous cloud of glacial mist that instantly encompassed a large area in a radius of several thousand feet around Han Li while releasing a burst of strong law fluctuations.

Han Li felt as if he had been plunged into a completely white and featureless world, and he immediately swept a sleeve through the air, sweeping up a gust of fierce wind that blew through the surrounding area.

However, the white mist around him only churned slightly in the face of the fierce wind, but didn't scatter or dissipate at all.

Han Li made no further attempt to blow the mist away, choosing to attempt to rush out of the mist instead.

The surrounding mist immediately clung to his body as if it were a living creature, but it wasn't cold enough to be of any concern to Han Li.

In the blink of an eye, Han Li flew out of the cloud of white mist, and bright azure light erupted from his body as he raised an arm to deliver a powerful blow against Han Qiu's trio.

However, a hint of surprise then appeared on his face as he discovered that there was nothing in front of him, and Han Qiu's trio seemed to have evaporated into thin air.

He immediately stopped cold in his tracks before frantically inspecting his surroundings, only to find that the three Ancestral Gods were standing several thousand feet away.

After sweeping his gaze across the surrounding area, Han Li realized what had happened.

It wasn't that Han Qiu's trio had suddenly moved away from where they had originally been standing. Instead, his senses had been disrupted as he was flying through the mist, and as a result, he had inadvertently flown in the wrong direction and emerged from a different section of the cloud of mist from what he had intended.

Immediately thereafter, his brows furrowed slightly as he looked down to discover that there were wisps of white mist that were as thin as strands of hair swirling around his legs and lower abdomen. Bursts of glacial energy were seeping into his body from the mist, gradually numbing his body and making him feel as if he were truly being frozen solid.

Han Li immediately reacted to the situation, conjuring up the semi-transparent True Extreme Membrane over his body to keep out the white mist and prevent it from affecting him any further.

This seemed like a lengthy process, but in reality, the entire sequence had taken place in the blink of an eye.

Before he had a chance to do anything else, a gigantic being emerged from the vortex of seawater down below with a loud splash.

This was a blue giant that was several hundred feet tall, and its body seemed to consist entirely of seawater. It was quite hideous in appearance, with a disproportionately large head compared with the rest of its body, and its limbs also varied in length and thickness, as if it had been thrown together haphazardly without any regard for symmetry and proportions.

The blue water giant rose up into the air, positioning itself directly in Han Li's way as it swatted a massive blue hand directly at him.

Even before the giant hand arrived, a gust of ferocious wind swept through the air, causing the space in its wake to blur and warp, and even Han Li couldn't help but sway unsteadily from the immense wind pressure.

However, Han Li was able to quickly steady himself, then threw a vicious punch in retaliation without taking any evasive measures.

A burst of tremendous force erupted through the air, causing the space up ahead to twist and warp amid a deafening boom.

Countless white ripples emerged once again, then came together to form an enormous white fist projections that struck the blue giant before its attack managed to reach Han Li.

A series of ripples instantly emerged on the section of the giant's body that was struck by the fist projection, forming a swirling vortex.

To Han Li's astonishment, the white fist projection vanished into the vortex, then emerged on the other side of the giant's body before continuing onward and striking nothing but empty air, leaving its target completely unscathed.

Immediately thereafter, the vortex on the blue giant's body sealed over in the blink of an eye, and at this point, its massive blue palm had also reached Han Li.

It was too late for Han Li to dodge the attack, and he was sent flying as if he had been struck by an asteroid, tumbling through the air over a huge distance.

However, he was quickly able to steady himself, and even though his face had paled slightly, he hadn't been harmed by the attack.

Right at this moment, the blue giant came charging toward him again.

"It's only been less than 30,000 years since we last met, but you've made significant strides in your control over this Immaterial Water Giant conjured up by your gentle water laws. This thing is the perfect counter to a Profound Immortal like him!" Han Qiu praised.

"You're far too kind, Fellow Daoist Han Qiu. You've also made some good progress in your glacial ice laws." Despite Patriarch Lu Kun's humble response, the proud look in his eyes betrayed his true emotions.

"I can't even begin to compare with you when it comes to mastery over the power of laws, Fellow Daoist Lu Kun. Now that we've both shown what we're capable of, it's Fellow Daoist Gu Gu turn to show us what she's capable of," Han Qiu chuckled.

While Han Li was being occupied by Han Qiu and Lu Kun, the dark cloud in the sky had already swelled to several dozen kilometers in size, and there were bolts of silver lightning flashing incessantly within it.

Right at this moment, Mistress Gu Gu swept a hand through the air to release an incantation seal, and the entire cloud churned violently amid a flash of lightning.

All of a sudden, a torrential downpour came raining down from the heavens.

The rain was extremely heavy, and what was very strange was that the droplets of rain were connected together, forming strings of rain that cascaded down from above.

Han Li had only just evaded a punch from the blue giant, and he looked up as his brows furrowed slightly.

The strings of rain came falling down, and as soon as they made contact with his body, they immediately began to wrap around him like lengths of rope.

In the blink of an eye, his body had already been bound by several hundred strings of rain.

Silver light surged over the True Extreme Membrane on his skin as he raised his arms in a powerful motion, snapping all of the strings of rain around his body amid a string of dull thuds.

These strings of rain were extremely flexible and supple, and a few dozen or several hundred of them posed no threat to him, but if he were to be bound by thousands or tens of thousands of them, then the consequences would be catastrophic!

Han Li's expression darkened significantly as bright azure light erupted all over his body, and he attempted to fly out of the area encompassed under the dark cloud.

However, the blue giant instantly got in his way, sending its massive palms crashing down upon him.

Han Li thrust his fists through the air in retaliation, and two bursts of tremendous force struck the giant's palms, leaving a pair of white marks in the space in their wake.

Blue light flashed from the giant's palms, and the two bursts of power passed through without being able to inflict any damage upon the giant.

Meanwhile, the giant's palms continued to come crashing down without slowing in the slightest.

Han Li let loose a frustrated roar as he dodged to the side, and in the span of just a few seconds, his body had been bound by several hundred strings of rain once again.

As a result, his movements had become far slower than before, but he was still just barely able to evade the giant's palm strikes.

All of a sudden, the blue giant opened its cavernous mouth, and around a dozen millstone-sized balls of blue water came flying out from within. The balls of water were shimmering with blue light while giving off powerful energy fluctuations as they hurtled directly toward Han Li.

At the same time, it swiveled around and charged toward Han Li once again.

Han Li was completely preoccupied with this unkillable giant, so he was unable to deal with the strings of rain that were wrapping themselves around his body, and his movements became more and more restricted.

However, if one were to look closely here, they would notice that the light radiating from the bodies of the three Ancestral Gods had also dimmed significantly, and this was particularly true for Gu Gu and Lu Kun.

A few seconds later, a translucent blue cocoon had appeared in the air, and Han Li's figure could just barely be made out through it. At this point, he was virtually completely immobilized.

The blue giant had also ceased its attacks, and it was hovering next to the blue cocoon in a completely skilled manner.

"Thank you for your hard work, fellow daoists. You can leave the rest to me now!"

A hint of elation flashed through Han Qiu's eyes as he let loose a low cry, and countless white runes emerged from his body amid a flash of white light, releasing a burst of incredibly powerful law fluctuations that fused into the white mist.

At the same time, the white light radiating from his body was rapidly dimming at a rate that was discernible even to the naked eye.

The white mist immediately began to churn violently as it surged toward Han Li, inundating Han Li along with the blue cocoon around him to form a massive ball of white mist, within which a burst of glacial law fluctuations was swirling incessantly.

Shortly thereafter, the white mist dissipated to reveal a white ball of ice that was several hundred feet in diameter, with Han Li's body completely frozen within it.