His body was sinking slowly; no one could fight off enemies while stuck in a mire. He Lingchuan snatched out a light-body talisman and slapped it onto himself, immediately checking his downward sink.
This was an essential item for Fu Realm hunters, originally meant to counteract the fourfold gravity of the Fu Realm, with an effective duration of merely dozens of breaths. Using it now in this realm, He Lingchuan felt his body become abruptly light and nimble, floating with every step, and his sinking halted for the time being.
Of course, when gravity suddenly shifted, the speed and power of his strikes naturally changed as well. Fortunately, he had already practiced this during his rehearsals beforehand, so he wouldn't make any embarrassing blunders now.
A glazed creature resembling a giant crocodile lunged violently from below. Thirty feet in length, it was every bit as formidable as a real giant crocodile.
Just as He Lingchuan affixed the talisman, a gaping, bloody maw bristling with dozens of conical fangs burst into view. Leaning to the side, he wielded the soul-snatching mirror in his left hand as a shield and smashed it viciously into its lower jaw.
With a resounding clang, the crocodile's snout was knocked askew. Its massive body tilted and slammed heavily back down onto the ring.
Yet the recoil pushed He Lingchuan back ten feet, his body sinking until he was submerged to mid-calf.
Trekking here was truly grueling—how could he fight when he couldn't even keep his footing?
"Watch out!"
A glazed monster shaped like a swordfish had slithered insidiously right beneath him. Without even looking down, He Lingchuan knew it intended to skewer him like a kebab.
Even if he had to die, he certainly didn't want to die that way. Having no time to curse, He Lingchuan swiftly whipped out an item and shoved it straight down into the "mire" beneath his feet.
It was an oval black stone, shaped like a heart, with a faint red glow seeping through the fissures across its surface.
In less than the blink of an eye, it transformed into a ten-foot-tall black stone golem. Its entire surface was riddled with tiny honeycomb-like pores, each sputtering sparks of fire.
It emerged just a step ahead of the glazed swordfish, naturally hoisting He Lingchuan atop its head.
Right at that moment, the swordfish accelerated upward, leaping out of the glazed mire, and drove its snout swiftly, accurately, and ruthlessly straight into the golem's crotch.
He Lingchuan hissed through his teeth at the sight, clamping his thighs together as his scalp went numb. Thank goodness he had reacted quickly!
Crack! Several chips of stone were gouged out of the golem.
Yet that was all. It felt no pain.
The swordfish thrashed a couple of times and fell sullenly back onto the ring.
This was the stone seed Juju had gifted He Lingchuan, capable of manifesting Juju's lesser rock-fire avatar in moments of crisis.
He Lingchuan had not expected to face a "crisis" the moment he entered the formation core, forced to expend the stone seed so soon.
Like Juju, bound by the Spirit Gathering Grand Formation, this thing could not attack anything belonging to the Heavenly Palace.
While it could not attack, passive defense was entirely fine—such as serving as a competent shield against blades, just as it had done here.
The black stone golem's body was harder than diamond, impervious to blades and axes alike. Riddled with honeycomb-like pores like porous volcanic rock, it did not sink into the mire, proving far more useful than He Lingchuan's light-body talisman.
Juju was watching this battlefield all along; an old demon who had lived for thousands of years possessed far greater command over chaotic situations and precision in countering enemies than He Lingchuan.
Several more monsters arrived in quick succession.
Sitting astride the black stone golem's neck, He Lingchuan drew Fusheng and severed two of them in succession. These two beasts were not nearly as cunning as the swordfish, practically offering up their heads on a platter.
With solid footing, he had room to maneuver, and his blade struck swift and vicious.
The mirror suddenly yelled, "They can't knit back together!"
He Lingchuan grunted in acknowledgment. "I see it."
The giant crocodile and swordfish that ambushed him earlier had merely circled back for another strike after dropping back onto the ring. In contrast, the glazed creatures he had severed in half failed to fuse back together after falling back in; instead, they thrashed and floundered in agony within the ring.
Fusheng's trait of severing "formless" entities remained as formidable as ever.
Once these liquid monsters were cleaved apart, they could not re-form anytime soon.
With such a precedent before them, the other monsters seemed visibly shaken. Instead of charging headlong at He Lingchuan, they switched to biding their time.
Commonly known as slacking off.
Just as the threat from below subsided, red light flashed repeatedly at the far end of the ring, and a throng of guards came surging forth!
As expected, Zhaixing Tower had dispatched reinforcements without delay.
A faint glow enveloped their bodies, clearly shielding them from the ring's anomalies. They sprinted swiftly across the softened glaze ground, while the grotesque glazed creatures didn't spare them a single glance.
Their target was unanimous: He Lingchuan.
Heh, trying to overwhelm him with numbers? He Lingchuan flicked his wrist and tossed out a bead of crimson amber. Before it even hit the ground, it morphed into more than a dozen black spiders the size of sheep.
This was his ace in the hole: Zhu Erniang's spider-blood amber.
Originally, according to the incantation Zhu Erniang had taught him, each amber bead could only manifest three Bloodfang Guardians. But considering how convoluted today's battle would be, the eyeball spider had simply taught He Lingchuan alternative applications as well.
One method was dispersing the demonic power within the amber to conjure a small squad of spiders, rather than the original three Bloodfang Guardians.
Although the strength allocated to each individual spider was diminished, they were far better suited for group combat.
Over the past several months of constant peril across the Beijia Kingdom, He Lingchuan had only used a single spider-blood amber when fighting Fan Sheng.
With the situation so dire, this was no time to hold back.
The moment the spiders appeared, they screeched from the searing heat of the glaze. Fortunately, Zhu Erniang was a primordial great demon who had weathered countless harsh environments; a tough layer of cuticle immediately formed over the tips of each spider's legs, providing excellent thermal insulation.
Naturally, this alone could not entirely keep the glaze's scorching heat at bay, so they pumped copious amounts of air into their claws. Like improvised air cushions, this not only insulated against heat but also allowed them to sprint across the viscous glaze sea without sinking.
More than a dozen spiders charged forward, spraying acid and webs at the guards.
As for the monsters in the glaze sea, they deliberately steered clear of them, seeming to know their attacks would be useless against such things.
In the blink of an eye, two guards were brought down by the webbing.
The webs were extraordinarily supple and tough, layered four deep; even bolstered by origin power, the guards had to hack vigorously several times to cut through.
He Lingchuan flipped over and vaulted onto the back of one spider. The arachnid stretched its eight long legs, scurried rapidly atop the two captive guards, snatched one of them up, and hurled him violently toward the large sphere at the center of the ring—the transparent prison encasing Zhu Erniang's immortal shed husk.
Everyone watched helplessly as the captive slammed against the sphere. With a sharp crackle, lightning flashed, and the guard detonated into a cloud of bloody mist.
"Holy shit!" He Lingchuan couldn't help swearing out loud. The large sphere looked utterly unassuming, showing no signs of electricity, yet it harbored such a ferocious formation concealed within, clearly meant to ambush the unwary. "The Lightning Pool!"
Had he not already heard of the "Lightning Pool" from both Zaifu Kua and Juju, he would have been thoroughly deterred right then.
*Thwip!* Another spider guardian shot a venomous spike at the sphere.
The very next instant, the venom needle rebounded at more than twice its original speed.
The spider guardian dodged, and the poison nail struck another enemy directly behind it. That fellow collapsed without a sound, stiff as a board, faint arcs of electricity dancing across his skin.
The name "Lightning Pool" was truly misleading, making one imagine a vast body of water. In reality, it referred to the surface of the large glazed dome at the center of the ring, fully blanketed in devastating thunder and lightning without a single blind spot!
Yet there was good news here:
The Heavenly Palace guards could walk upon the ring and remain immune to attacks from the glazed monsters, but they could not ward off lightning.
Perhaps lightning-warding magic artifacts were scarce, or perhaps the Lightning Pool's power was simply too overwhelming?
He Lingchuan had the spider guardian step onto the remaining captive, using him as a springboard to catapult violently into the air!
Zhu Erniang's amber spider guardians possessed nearly all the special traits of every burrow spider breed: beyond spinning silk, weaving webs, spitting acid, and skimming across liquid, the remarkable leaping ability of jumping spiders was also indispensable.
The unfortunate fellow was stomped straight into the sea of glaze. The red glow around him shattered with a pop, and he shrieked as he was scalded to death!
Meanwhile, the spider guardian's high leap bridged thirty feet in a single bound, landing directly on the ring less than three feet from the glazed dome.
He Lingchuan possessed lightning-ward talismans, but the spider guardian did not; it had to proceed with caution.
Guards were still pouring in relentlessly, and several powerful demons were even joining the fray. These few spider guardians wouldn't hold out for long.
Time was precious. Without another word, He Lingchuan pulled out "Zhu Daniang's Eye Socket" and began blowing into it.
Yes, that xun. Though it had nine fingerholes, Zhu Erniang had personally sealed one of them and instructed He Lingchuan to unseal the final hole only after finding her shed husk.
He Lingchuan had waited and waited, and now that moment had finally arrived!
He hadn't forgotten to peel away the seal over the ninth hole.
Strangely enough, the xun normally had an exquisite tone, and He Lingchuan could already play it melodiously. Yet now, with all ten holes open, no matter how he blew, it only produced a harsh hissing noise.
It sounded like a snake flicking its tongue, like a cat hissing, but having heard burrow spiders roar, He Lingchuan knew this was the sound Zhu Erniang made!
And then?
Filled with anticipation, he waited for reinforcements to drop from the sky.
After going through hell to fight his way here, Zhu Erniang ought to pull her weight, shouldn't she?
And yet, nothing happened.
The shed husk inside the glazed sphere remained motionless.
The eyeball spider hopped repeatedly on his shoulder, signaling that the sphere was hermetically sealed, so playing the xun just now likely didn't reach it—he had to break the sphere first!
He Lingchuan let out a curse.
Sure enough, nothing was ever that simple.
A tentative attempt, and it had failed.
Undiscouraged, he snatched out a cold ice talisman specially crafted by the Marquis of Songyang, Li Qingge, and hurled it toward the dome.
Refined from a "frost pellet" formed by a Wu beast of the Fu Realm, its efficacy was far superior to ordinary cold ice talismans. To deal with the liquefied, flowing glazed gold, this talisman was indispensable. To harvest those few frost pellets, He Lingchuan had nearly lost his life in the Fu Realm.
With a soft thud, before the cold ice talisman could even activate, it was deflected straight off the glazed dome.
The reflection formation was active.
And as the talisman was flung away, it was simultaneously blasted into a cloud of crushed ice—
The Lightning Pool's power had triggered.
"Uh..." He Lingchuan froze. "You've got to be kidding me."
For the cold ice talisman to work, it had to adhere to the glazed dome first;
yet the glazed dome possessed a reflection formation and the might of the Lightning Pool, refusing to let anything come close!
If the cold ice talisman couldn't take effect, how was he supposed to deal with this glazed dome?!
With the two buffs stacked together, this was an infinite deadlock. The problem was, he was out of time! The spider guardians wouldn't last long, and more enemies were rushing in fast.
Chapter 685