Chapter 982: Borrowed Power

As soon as his voice trailed off, E Kuai sprang forward like a bolt of black lightning, appearing in front of Han as if by instantaneous teleportation before reaching out to grab his neck.

However, Han Li seemed to have already anticipated this, and he drew to an abrupt halt, stopping short of E Kuai's hand before darting back toward the lake of blood at a far faster speed than before.

As he drew close to the lake, Han Li reverted back to his human form with E Kuai in hot pursuit, and the latter sneered, "You sure have a lot of tricks up your sleeve!"

In response, Han Li advanced instead of retreating, channeling his Heavenly Baleful Purgatory Arts in conjunction with both his Giant Mountain Ape and Xuanwu bloodlines, and one of his arms abruptly swelled drastically in size.

A layer of coarse golden fur appeared over the arm, but pieces of azure bone armor had appeared over the back of its hand.

Han Li's fist was glowing with radiant starlight as it clashed against E Kuai's fist with an earth-shattering boom, and a burst of excruciating pain instantly speared through Han Li's arm, but he was only forced back a single step, while E Kuai was also forced back a step.

It was quite surprising even to Han Li himself that his Heavenly Baleful Purgatory Arts could combine with his true spirit bloodlines to generate such incredible power, and for the first time, E Kuai was finally beginning to take his opponent seriously.

He took a step forward to arrive before Han Li in a wraith-like fashion, following which a layer of translucent light surfaced over his arm as he threw another punch at Han Li.

The punch appeared to be very light and lacking in power, but it was fast to the extreme.

Han Li was caught slightly off guard by this, and he could only channel his Xuanwu bloodline powers as he raised an arm to shield himself.

However, before the pieces of azure bone armor could even fully materialize on his arm, he was already sent flying by E Kuai's fist.

He flew over the lake of blood to the other side, raising massive waves in his wake before crashing heavily down onto the ground beside Violet Spirit.

Instead of continuing to go after Han Li, E Kuai made his way to the center of the lake of blood.

He looked at the body resting on the crystal slab at the center of the lake, and a series of emotions, including reminiscence, resentment, and indignation appeared in his eyes as he plunged his hand down upon the body's chest.

Right at this moment, all of the complex patterns on the crystal slab lit up in unison, releasing a burst of almost substantial crimson light that kept E Kuai's hand at bay.

At the same time, a resounding boom rang out from the other side of the lake of blood as Han Li launched himself at E Kuai once again.

He was channeling his Heavenly Baleful Purgatory Arts and all of the true spirit bloodlines in his body with all his might, and all 475 of his profound acupoints were glowing radiantly.

A series of true spirit projections appeared behind him one after another, then vanished into his body again, and even though he didn't undergo any physical transformation, his aura had been significantly elevated.

Mistress Liu Hua was looking on with a hint of praise in his eyes, while Gu Qianxun and the others were also stunned by the power that Han Li was putting on display.

E Kuai had also noticed the change in Han Li's aura, and he immediately abandoned the holy remains before launching himself over ten thousand feet back in retreat, only to then immediately launch himself at Han Li again.

At the same time, it seemed like he had also activated some type of devilish bloodline, and a pair of horns emerged on his forehead, while his vertebrae began to protrude outward, piercing through his skin.

Simultaneously, his aura began to take on a more vicious quality, and the crimson mist that was emanating from his body had become very murky and was giving off a pungent, bloody odor.

He was slightly hunched-over as he charged at Han Li, and his speed had been enhanced even further.

All of the bystanders only caught a glimpse of a blurry afterimage before E Kuai and Han Li clashed, and the starpower and true spirit bloodline power that had converged toward Han Li's fist erupted in unison, crashing directly into the murky crimson mist around E Kuai.

The white starlight and crimson mist were whittling away at each other incessantly as two bursts of violent power erupted up into the air in unison.

Bursts of deafening rumbling rang out as countless spatial rifts were torn open in the air above.

Immediately thereafter, a thunderous roar rang out from the edge of the lake of blood, and all of a sudden, a burst of additional power erupted out of E Kuai's fist.

Han Li was already struggling to oppose E Kuai to begin with, and he was already tapping into as much of his power as possible with no more left to give. Hence, in the wake of this burst of power, he was instantly sent flying as blood came gushing out of his mouth.

A burst of crimson mist surged forward from E Kuai's fist, forming a giant fist projection that struck Han Li with tremendous power, launching him through the air like a cannonball that plunged directly to the bottom of the lake.

E Kuai descended out of the sky, crashing into the lake after Han Li before raining down punches in a torrential barrage.

The entire lake was trembling violently, and the blood level inside was rapidly falling, but Han Li was still nowhere to be seen.

A look of despair had appeared on Shi Chuankong's face, while Gu Qianxun had averted her eyes, unable to bear watching any longer.

Mistress Liu Hua also heaved a long sigh, and even Violet Spirit stirred slightly in her unconscious state.

......

At the bottom of the lake, Han Li felt as if there were enormous mountains crashing down upon over and over again in rapid succession. He felt as if all of the bones in his body had been shattered, making it impossible to defend take any evasive measures.

To compound his woes even further, he could feel his own consciousness beginning to fade in the face of the devastating barrage of attacks.

His True Extreme Film had already been shattered long ago, exposing his body directly to the wrath of E Kuai's fists, and only now did he come to realize that there was still a massive gap between them.

It seems like this is the end...

Right at this moment, a voice rang out in his mind.

"Fellow Daoist Li..."

The voice sounded as if it belonged to Daoist Xie, but it was also a little unfamiliar at the same time, and Han Li wanted to respond, but was unable to even muster up the spiritual sense required to do so.

"Do not resist, I'm going to lend you some of my essential spiritual power."

Immediately thereafter, the eyes of the holy remains on the crystal slab abruptly sprang open, and it made a strange hand seal before pointing a finger at its own heart.

After that, it raised its finger, and a burst of golden light flowed out of its chest before converging to form a golden ball at its fingertip.

With a flick of its finger, the golden ball flew into the lake of blood as a streak of golden light.

E Kuai hurriedly raised a hand to try and stop it, but the golden ball passed straight through his hand as if it had no substantial form before flying directly into Han Li's glabella.

"This is... immortal spiritual power!" Shi Chuankong exclaimed in a stunned manner upon detecting the aura emanating from the golden ball, while Gu Qianxun was looking very perplexed, clearly not familiar with immortal spiritual power at all.

Right at this moment, a burst of radiant golden light erupted from the bottom of the lake of blood, as if a radiant sun were rising up from its depths.

Basked within the golden light, E Kuai suddenly realized that his own fists had become incredibly slow. It was as if countless invisible threads had appeared in the surrounding space, latching onto his body to slow him down.

What was even more alarming to him was that even his thoughts had slowed down to a crawl.

A giant, golden wheel had appeared behind him without any warning, and it was giving off waves of time law powers that brought him almost to a complete standstill.

In a testament to E Kuai's incredible power, even though he was in such close proximity to the Mantra Treasured Axis, he was still not completely immobilized, and he swung around to try and shatter the axis, but Han Li naturally wasn't going to give him that opportunity.

A burst of golden lightning sprang forth as an Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword burst out of Han Li's body. It seemed to be ecstatic that it had finally been called upon after so long, and it flew directly at E Kuai.

There was very little distance between Han Li and E Kuai at the moment, so the tip of the Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword pierced into the latter's lower abdomen in the blink of an eye, but E Kuai's body as so incredibly resilient that even the Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword was only able to just barely pierce into the outer wall of his dantian.

Right at this moment, a thunderous roar rang out from down below, and Han Li drew upon all of his remaining immortal spiritual power and physical prowess to slam a hand into the end of his sword's hilt with all his might.

A dull thump rang out as the Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword was slammed into E Kuai's dantian, following which it released an arc of golden lightning.

E Kuai let loose a drawn-out cry of agony as a hole was blasted into his dantian, out of which a plume of black smoke rose up into the air.

Immediately thereafter, the black coloration of his skin began to slowly fade, and he stumbled back a few steps before falling onto his back.