A Tragic and Brutal Battle!

Ice sculptures filled the air across the sky, followed in the very next instant by the group's furious onslaught!! Yet this power did not freeze their foes for long. In merely the span of a breath, many broke free. Even so, under their concerted assault, quite a few still lost their lives. Meng Wanshu's face turned pale; her primal energy had also been drastically depleted through the ongoing fight. None of these enemies were ordinary figures; cutting them down inevitably came at a price. Boom! Boom! Boom!! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!!! The deafening din of fierce combat resounded endlessly. Gradually, everyone felt an unprecedented pressure. It was absolute suppression by sheer numbers!! Just like Li Guanqi, they all felt as though no matter how many foes they slaughtered, more kept closing in. Tang Ru could no longer sustain his precognition at all, able only to direct the battlefield. Fewer and fewer cultivators pursued Gu Li and Tang Ru. Not only were they impossible to catch, but one also had to be on guard at every moment against the inscribed talismans Gu Li might produce. So they simply turned everyone toward besieging the rest of the group. Little by little, the spiritual glow of the belt wrapped around Gu Li's left hand grew dimmer and dimmer. Fortunately, Gu Li was there. Working in coordination with Tang Ru, he had saved the others several times already. Li Guanqi's gaze was stern. Mighty as he was, facing a siege by so many opponents left him stretched thin as well. By now, he had already begun drawing upon the power within his Primordial Spirit Thunder Bead. Relying on spirit stones alone could no longer keep pace with his consumption. *Pfft!!* The scales on Li Guanqi's back tore open, turning into a bloody, mangled mess. Chaotic forces invaded his body, rampaging through his meridians, making the circulation of his primal energy increasingly sluggish. Suddenly!! A cold glint flashed in the depths of Li Guanqi's eyes, and his figure vanished from the spot in an instant!!! A dagger had soundlessly appeared at Tang Ru's neck. Li Guanqi saw that he would be too late. Yet at that very moment, Gu Li thrust his hand toward the dagger without a second thought!! *Squelch!!* The dagger pierced through his palm, sending blood spurting, but Gu Li locked his grip onto the enemy's blade with all his might. No matter how the opponent dragged and wrenched the dagger, shredding his hand into a mangled mess of flesh and blood, he refused to let go, dead or alive. An afterimage flashed. Tang Ru rose and smashed a fist into the black-robed man's cheek. Yet the man reversed the dagger, seeking to shear through Gu Li's entire arm!! In a blur of motion, Li Guanqi swung his sword with his left hand, severing the enemy's arm, and drove his right fist forward, obliterating the man's head!! Gu Li pulled out the dagger, his face twisted in agony, his eyes turning slightly dazed. Li Guanqi cursed under his breath, "You faint at your own blood??" Palely, Gu Li nodded, his limbs turning soft. In his wildest dreams, Li Guanqi had never imagined Gu Li would actually faint at the sight of his own blood... "Number Six!!!" Tang Ru rushed over and hastily caught hold of Gu Li, steadying him. Li Guanqi froze, his jaw clenching hard until his cheeks bulged. He looked toward Tang Ru's hands with mixed emotions. A few scraps of mangled flesh clung to the stark white bones, and his pale lips were trembling faintly. "Why didn't you say something sooner?!" Tang Ru quickly tugged down his sleeves, wiped away a nosebleed, and lowered his head, not daring to meet Li Guanqi's eyes. "If I'm not here... everyone will have an even harder time." Li Guanqi sighed, for a moment at a loss for words. Turning, Li Guanqi gave the two a deep look, unclasped the only remaining storage gemstone from Gu Li's person, and then sent him into his own domain. Looking up at Tang Ru, he shoved the gemstone into his hands without room for argument, his voice solemn. "Burn through those inscribed talismans as fast as you can. The moment you can't hold out, have Pengluo take you into the domain!" Tang Ru took it, yet still tried to speak. "But Eldest Brother—" Li Guanqi cut him off firmly. "No buts! "Rather than focusing on slaying enemies, I would much rather you hurry to recover your strength and then come back to help me. "Risking your lives recklessly is an idiot's move!" Hearing this, Tang Ru nodded. Li Guanqi had already charged back into the crowd. A swing of his sword sent the enemies behind Cao Yan flying, and in the next blink he appeared behind Meng Wanshu. With the two joining forces, the pressure on Meng Wanshu eased significantly in an instant. Li Guanqi's killing intent swelled even fiercer. He had to find a chance to kill Song Yuan!! That man was a variable... Cao Yan and Xiao Chen were currently surrounded by mortal peril on all sides. Fortunately, Tang Ru was continuously hurling inscribed talismans to trap and slay their enemies. By now, both men were in a sorry state, drenched in blood and covered with wounds. Ye Feng, by contrast, grew more ferocious the longer he fought, rampaging like a god of slaughter, trading injury for life without the slightest hesitation. Ye Feng, Cao Yan, and Xiao Chen held a triangular formation, ready to support one another the moment any of them was in danger. In the void, aided by Pengluo, Tang Ru drifted through the interstitial folds of space, constantly shifting his position as he squeezed the last dregs of his strength to madly deduce the battlefield's flow. Gradually, Tang Ru felt his vision growing blurred. Fortunately, the battlefield in the Third Domain had essentially stabilized. Yet he still could not put his mind at ease regarding Li Guanqi and the others. Just as he tried to hold on a bit longer, Pengluo suddenly sensed a crack violently fracture across the Dao platform in Tang Ru's sea of consciousness!! *Crack!!* The soundless fracture was like the final straw that broke the camel's back. Tang Ru coughed up a mouthful of blood, his pupils contracting violently, an excruciating headache tearing through him as if his bones were being scraped and his marrow scooped out!!! The phantom of the Eight Trigrams Yin-Yang diagram shattered in an instant. Without a second thought, Pengluo pulled Tang Ru and vanished from the spot, reappearing inside Li Guanqi's domain. Sensing this in his heart, Li Guanqi's killing intent erupted instantly!! Gripping Red Lotus tightly in his left hand, he exchanged a glance with Meng Wanshu the moment their figures crossed paths, and the two immediately understood each other's intent. *Boom!!!!* The dozen or so remaining gigantic gates of thunder abruptly burst forth with blindingly brilliant purple light. In that instant, the suppressing force reached its absolute peak. Realizing this, Ye Feng and the other two fought with renewed ferocity to slay their foes! "Wanshu, help me!!" Meng Wanshu's expression hardened. Her lips parted slightly, and frost flared into existence. A chilling sword Qi crisscrossed the void, holding back every incoming attack around them in that instant!!! Hiding among the crowd, Song Yuan immediately sensed impending doom. Every hair on his body stood on end, and a chill surged straight from his spine to his skull!! *Not good! He wants to kill me!!!* The moment Song Yuan realized this, he pulled back in a frantic retreat!! Yet Li Guanqi's body had already transformed into a streak of blinding thunder, rocketing forward! Red Lotus rang out with a clarion sword chime in his hand, sword intent surging tempestuously as his entire might peaked. Demonic patterns flared, and a layer of black demonic flame enveloped the dragon scales across his body. Along the path, any cultivator who dared obstruct Li Guanqi was slaughtered without exception!! Unstoppable, unmatched! Seeing himself draw closer and closer to Song Yuan, the expression on Li Guanqi's face turned even more ferocious. The dragon scales across his body were gradually shattering; he was clearly nearing his limit as well. Meng Wanshu followed closely behind him, unleashing frenzied sword strikes regardless of the cost. Such depletion on the battlefield was practically fatal, yet she showed not the slightest retreat! Boom! Boom! Boom!!! Explosions echoed endlessly. Li Guanqi wove through the firelight, hurtling straight toward Song Yuan until less than a hundred zhang remained between them. Yet right at that moment, Song Yuan ruthlessly kicked the cultivators beside him straight toward Li Guanqi!! One after another, the bodies of peak Mahayana cultivators were forced to detonate by a power manipulating their souls. The self-detonations of peak Mahayana cultivators... Tremendous booms echoed throughout the void as floating island after floating island was reduced to flying ash. Enduring the violent shockwaves, Li Guanqi boldly struck with his sword!!!