Li Guanqi licked his lips and looked up at the three ragged figures a hundred zhang away, cold murderous intent flickering in the depths of his eyes.
"Heh, the Blood-Oath God-Locking Grand Array is complete. Let's see what waves you can make now!"
Li Guanqi's aura was indeed noticeably diminished from before, down by at least thirty percent.
Yet he merely surveyed his surroundings, clenched his fist, and murmured softly, "Suppressing the circulation speed of the meridians in my body, tearing at my meridians and devouring my essence blood...
"To be honest, this is the first time I've ever encountered such a terrifying grand array."
At this point, Li Guanqi's voice paused slightly, and he slowly shed the Floating Cloud Robe from his shoulders.
The three Mei-rank assassins found this completely baffling.
Li Guanqi had clearly fallen into their trap and had remained at a disadvantage throughout the fight. Why had he appeared so calm from start to finish, without even a hint of panic?
"Why is this kid acting so calm?"
"Could he have a way to escape the array's seal?"
Li Guanqi glanced at the men surrounding him and spoke as if to himself.
"Then do you know... there is an extremely brutal method of circulation?"
As soon as the words left his mouth, the primal energy inside Li Guanqi instantly ran wild!
That sensation... was like a savage, unreasonable beast rampaging through his body!
His originally weakened aura surged abruptly in that very moment!
Like a deep, calculating hunter, Li Guanqi looked up, his eyes locked dead on the three across from him.
In that instant, the trio felt as though they were the prey!
Yet on second thought, they were unaffected by the array; in this shift of strength, the outcome was already set in stone.
*Thump!*
Li Guanqi's physical body strength was laid bare in all its fury.
Brutally circulating the Dragon Elephant Prison-Suppressing Art under the influence of the array's bloody light, slight ruptures appeared within his meridians in just a few breaths!
*Bang!*
A burst of blood mist erupted from the surface of Li Guanqi's body, causing his expression to shift slightly.
The three struck at him simultaneously from before and behind.
With tranquil eyes, Li Guanqi took on all three alone!
Darting and shifting his stance, he kept himself facing at most two foes at any given moment, temporarily seizing the upper hand with his advantage in speed.
One man was pressing three men back, yet every step was fraught with immense peril.
The three coordinated with flawless precision, and gradually, the rhythm of battle began to level out.
Even though the trio was not as fast as he was, they worked to restrict the range of Li Guanqi's movements to within a hundred zhang.
That way, no matter what, Li Guanqi would be forced to face the attacks of all three at once!
*Clang! Clang!*
*Clash! Boom!*
Holding his sword in his left hand, Li Guanqi formed hand seals in rapid succession with his right. Instantly, several lightning spirit incantations erupted violently!
A sky full of lightning lances rained down like a tempest, and dozens of lightning serpents and whips coiled toward the three.
Yet the power of these spirit incantations was too weak—so weak they could not even get close to the assassins.
"Hahahaha, Li Guanqi! Don't waste your effort! Thinking you can hurt us with mere spirit incantations like these is nothing but a fool's dream!"
Li Guanqi's expression turned grim. In less time than it took a stick of incense to burn, nearly twenty percent of his meridians had ruptured.
His face was slightly pale, and the rate at which his essence blood was draining was far faster than he had anticipated!
He had originally thought he could suppress it with his own strength, but the harsh reality was that he could not fend off that bizarre force at all!
Meanwhile, Meng Jiangchu, who had been the farthest away, had already arrived in the Daochan Domain!
Gu Yong's speed was just as swift; in the time it took a stick of incense to burn, he would arrive as well.
Meng Jiangchu closed his eyes slightly, his expression shifting... Firelight flared beneath his feet, and his figure vanished into the void in an instant.
Li Guanqi dared not halt the sword in his hand for a single moment, hacking and slashing repeatedly.
Yet every time he tried to close in, his opponent would pull back at once and let the other two force him away.
It was an utterly suffocating feeling. What was more, having devoured Abyss Demons, the trio possessed physical strength in no way inferior to body-tempering cultivators.
Presumably, that was the power brought by the Abyss Demons.
Li Guanqi took a deep breath, knowing he could not let this drag on any longer.
The hand seals formed by his right hand changed with imperceptible subtlety. Just as the three disregarded the lightning spirit incantations...
Li Guanqi's gaze turned razor-sharp, and a roar erupted from his mouth!
"Spirit Incantation 78: Four-Direction Heaven-Reaching Pillars!!"
*Rumble!*
Pillars of dark-purple thunderous light, each a full zhang thick, crashed toward the three in a violent pincer from above and below!
The faces of the three warped in terror. Caught off guard, one of them had half his body sealed within the light pillar!
The man stared in horror at the pillar sealing him, struggling desperately to no avail.
As demonic qi surged within his body, fine cracks finally appeared across the heaven-reaching pillar.
The other two charged Li Guanqi immediately, refusing to give him any opening to act.
Yet since Li Guanqi had premeditated this strike, how could he not have foreseen their reaction?
The moment the two took flight into the air, Li Guanqi's figure had already appeared ten zhang behind the pillar.
His blade lashed out with furious power, a violent aura sweeping across heaven and earth, shattering the tie that bound his hair.
His black hair danced in the wind, and his robes snapped loudly in the air.
Holding the Red Lotus high, sword cries resonated everywhere as the four-foot blade radiated a terrifying scarlet light.
"Red Lotus: World's End!!"
*Boom!*
A blindingly condensed ray of sword light flashed across midair!
"No—!"
The heaven-reaching pillar shattered inch by inch, and the sealed figure within was wiped out into nothingness in an instant!
*Rumble!*
*Crack! Crack, crack!*
A terrifying explosion resounded. Amid the trembling of heaven and earth, crisp sounds of fracturing seemed to ring by the ears of everyone present.
Li Guanqi panted heavily, looking down at the blood array beneath his feet, which now showed several faint cracks.
Unleashing that full-power slash had consumed a great deal of his primal energy. Furthermore, his current method of circulating energy placed an immense burden on his body...
He did not know how much longer he could hold on...
The two remaining assassins now wore grim expressions, the pupils behind their masks contracting slightly.
They had never imagined that in such a brief span, they would actually lose one of their companions.
The contempt in their hearts vanished completely in that moment. Who knew whether the next swing of that blade would sever their own heads?
And that heaven-reaching pillar...
"A sealing spirit incantation ranked in the top hundred... If I remember correctly, isn't Gu Yong of Tianji Pavilion the only one who knows it?"
"Such a difficult sealing spirit incantation to comprehend, and he only just left Tianji Pavilion not long ago... When on earth did he learn it?!"
"Phew... Attack with everything you have! Be careful of complications if we delay!"
With the shift in the two assassins' auras, Li Guanqi's heart sank heavily; very little primal energy remained in his body.
The enemy would surely remain on high alert against the Four-Direction Heaven-Reaching Pillars now, and he did not know whether he could survive this ambush!
A crisis of mortal danger enveloped him, yet he could place his faith only in the sword in his hand.
***
Outside the blood-red domain.
Gu Yong and Meng Jiangchu stood in place, both looking extremely grim.
Gu Yong reached out to touch the blood-red barrier and said in a heavy voice, "This domain... cannot be breached!"
"If forced open, everyone inside will die!"
Meng Jiangchu narrowed his eyes at the blood-red barrier before him, cold light flashing in his gaze!
"These array runes... carry an aura that is identical... to that modular dharma artifact awl!!"
Chapter 716