"Drink!"

Chong Luan's eyes flashed, and he uttered a low shout. The muscles on his arms tightened, and the black long knife in his hand struck down with undiminished force towards the Heavy Water True Wheel below.

There was a loud "boom".

Chong Luan felt a surge of soreness and numbness in his arms. An indescribable force surged from the blade, and he felt as if he had been struck by something with great force, causing his body to falter.

As the water from the pool continued to gush out behind him, waves of majestic water attribute law power surged, pressing down on him so forcefully that his elbows involuntarily retracted towards his chest, and he was almost sent flying backwards.

Sensing the unique aura emanating from the Heavy Water True Wheel, Chong Luan's expression suddenly changed. Despite being at a disadvantage, he suddenly burst into laughter.

"Hahaha... Truly, it's like searching high and low without finding something, only to stumble upon it by chance. Han Li, I never expected to find you here! Excellent, saves me the trip to Gu Yun Continent!"

As he finished speaking, a ghostly light suddenly ignited in his eyes, and his eyeballs instantly turned pitch black.

He suddenly opened his mouth and spat out a strand of dark black silk, which shot out and plunged into the black knife.

The black knife trembled violently, and a layer of black crystal light illuminated the entire blade. The weight of the knife instantly increased several times over.

Chong Luan let out a roar, and wisps of black mist slowly emanated from his body. The hands gripping the knife pressed down fiercely, actually forcing the Heavy Water True Wheel back.

Han Li had already leaped out of the water, summoning the Heavy Water True Wheel back to defend him. Holding a sword in one hand, he stood suspended high in the air, facing Chong Luan from afar, and asked in a cold voice, "You know me? What is your relationship with Fang Pan?"

Although he didn't know the identity of the person before him, the fact that he could perfectly wield the true power of the black knife and call out his real name led him to believe that he was related to Fang Pan.

After all, since entering the Immortal World, he had been using an alias. There were very few people who knew his real name.

Now that Fang Pan and the other two who attacked him years ago had fallen one after another, the person who remotely controlled the mysterious chains, the original owner of the black knife in Fang Pan's hand, and the mastermind who instructed Fang Pan were still the ones he needed to be most wary of.

The person before him was most likely the original owner of the black knife, but he didn't know what his relationship with Fang Pan was.

"I originally thought that even if my junior brother was incompetent, he would at least be killed by a True Immortal late-stage cultivator. But according to the information gathered from the Ten Directions Pavilion, you are only a Profound Immortal in the True Immortal realm early-stage. Now that I see you, you do indeed have some skills." Chong Luan didn't attack immediately, but looked at Han Li from afar and said.

"So you're Fang Pan's senior brother, my apologies. What, are you here to avenge him now?" Han Li's heart stirred, but he said with an unchanged expression.

"That trash is dead, so he's dead. I couldn't care less about meddling in such matters. However, in order to deal with you, he spared no expense in borrowing my Black Emperor Immortal Slaughtering Blade. As a result, that kid sold it off cleverly to you. Don't you think I, as the owner, should come out and ask for an explanation?" Chong Luan's eyes flickered, but he said unhurriedly.

"Your knife is indeed a rare treasure. I originally intended to return it to its rightful owner, so I consigned it to the Impermanence Alliance to see if anyone would recognize it. Now it seems that my efforts were not in vain. You don't need to be so polite, I only did a small favor." Han Li blinked his eyes and said calmly.

"Hehe, it seems I should thank you! Speaking of which, knowing my junior brother as I do, he wouldn't want to hunt you down so meticulously for no reason! Also, the Primordial Isolation Chains on your body are something that Master requires us to retrieve. So, you can die now. Don't worry, to thank you, I will try to give you a quick death!" Chong Luan's eyes were as black as ink, and his body was surrounded by black mist as he spoke slowly.

As soon as his voice fell, the black mist surrounding him surged wildly, instantly engulfing his entire body.

Then, as a breeze blew past, the black mist in front of him suddenly dissipated, revealing nothing but emptiness.

Han Li's divine sense had already enveloped the surrounding area, but until the moment the mist dissipated, he had always thought that Chong Luan was hiding in the black mist.

In the next instant, black mist suddenly condensed in the void behind him. Before it could take shape, a black long knife pierced out from within, stabbing straight at his heart.

Han Li's mind flickered, and the Heavy Water True Wheel instantly arrived, blocking his back.

There was a "clang".

The tip of the black knife was stuck in the hollowed-out pattern on the Heavy Water True Wheel, constantly rubbing against the True Wheel, making grating noises that made one's teeth ache.

Chong Luan's figure slowly emerged from the black mist, a sneer on his lips.

The strands of black mist surrounding the black knife condensed into extremely thin black steel needles, which shot out along the tip of the blade, directly passing through the gaps in the Heavy Water True Wheel, piercing Han Li's clothes, and shooting towards his body.

At the critical moment, golden light burst forth from Han Li's body, and golden scales the size of copper coins flipped up layer by layer, covering his entire body.

There was a series of crisp "ding ding ding" sounds.

The black mist needles all struck Han Li's golden scales, and were shattered by the rebound, turning back into black mist.

Han Li turned sharply, and the long sword in his hand swept across, green light blazing on the blade. With one sword, he cut Chong Luan's body in half at the waist.

However, Chong Luan just smiled at him, and both halves of his body became illusory at the same time, turning into a cloud of smoke.

Han Li's heart skipped a beat. Activating his escape technique, he instantly flew thousands of feet away, away from the cloud of black mist.

But before he could stop, he suddenly felt a chill on his back, as if a wet, cold, and slippery snake was clinging to his spine.

He quickly made a hand seal, and the protective light behind him burst forth, forcing the thing attached to his back away.

It was a mass of black mist, condensed and unscattered like a living thing. Thin, hair-like tentacles grew on the surface, twisting wildly, constantly approaching him, as if trying to rush into his body.

Han Li stretched out a hand, condensing it into a large hand shrouded in green light, and controlled the black mist in mid-air. After carefully examining it, he was horrified to find that it actually contained a trace of weak law power.

It was just that it was so weak that he couldn't even detect which attribute of law power it was. Fortunately, he hadn't rashly removed the protective golden scales just now, so he had avoided being invaded by this thing.

While Han Li was still in shock, the void around the black mist suddenly vibrated, and strands of black mist appeared out of thin air. Chong Luan's body reappeared strangely from within.

At some point, the black cloth covering his face had been removed, revealing a yellow face. He opened his mouth and made a soft "puff" sound. A strand of dark black silk, shimmering with crystal light, suddenly shot towards Han Li's face, with astonishing speed.

Han Li's long sword immediately swept upwards, slashing towards the black silk.

Where the green light passed, the black silk was broken at the first touch, directly turning into a black starlight and dissipating.

Seeing this, Han Li frowned and stepped on the void, retreating explosively.

As soon as he retreated, a black silk thread reappeared and pierced through the position where he had been standing.

"As expected, it's the same trick as before. It will reassemble after being destroyed." Han Li thought to himself.

However, before he could finish speaking, another change occurred in front of him.

The black thread that had reassembled was actually connected to the green long sword in his hand from afar. With a flash of light, it suddenly surged up along the blade and shot into his palm.

Han Li felt a slight numbness in his palm and immediately focused his mind to check inside his body. However, apart from the feeling in his palm, he didn't feel anything else unusual.

But the more it was like this, the more uneasy he felt.

At this moment, his divine sense sensed several auras approaching, but he couldn't tell whether they were from the Saint Puppet Sect or the Ten Directions Pavilion.

Han Li frowned tightly. After a moment of pondering, he summoned both the green long sword and the Heavy Water True Wheel.

Whether the people coming were from the Ten Directions Pavilion or the Saint Puppet Sect, he planned to leave here first.

This yellow-faced man's methods were very strange, and he seemed to be able to use some kind of mist law power. He couldn't fully exert his strength here, and he was at a disadvantage.

Then, he made a hand seal, and lightning flashed on his fingertips. Silver arcs of electricity shot out, condensing into a huge lightning formation that enveloped his entire body.

There was a crack of thunder, and several silver arcs of electricity as thick as buckets emerged from the center of the lightning formation.

With a flash, Han Li's figure instantly disappeared from the lightning formation, leaving only a faint smell of scorched earth in the air.

"Hehe, interesting! Then I'll play with you for a while!" Chong Luan smiled and said.

After speaking, his figure was once again enveloped in a cloud of black mist and dissipated.

…

On the other side, on the main island's plaza.

The clamor continued, but the commotion was much smaller than before.

On the Saint Puppet Sect's side, almost all the puppets had been destroyed and could no longer participate in the battle. The remaining surviving disciples had also suffered more than half their casualties. The huge circle that had been formed by the encirclement had shrunk considerably.

What was somewhat moving was that although these Saint Puppet Sect cultivators were all injured and had sorrowful expressions, not one of them surrendered or fled.

Everyone's eyes held a hint of determination.

This was partly because they were originally the loyal forces that the sect had left behind to live and die with the sect after evacuating some of its core strength. On the other hand, it was because all of them had relatives and descendants among those who had been evacuated.

As long as those people were safe, they would naturally have no scruples.

In contrast, the cultivators recruited by the Ten Directions Pavilion hadn't gained much of an advantage. Not only had they suffered heavy casualties in the battle from the outside to the inside, but many of them, like Old Ancestor Cold Flame, had left early. So, the number of people remaining on the periphery of the plaza wasn't very large. They were scattered in twos and threes among the dense ranks of Azure Armor Bean Soldiers.

As the battle progressed to this point, the pace of the mutual slaughter slowed down instead.

The people who had been summoned by the Ten Directions Pavilion to participate in this battle who had survived until now were naturally not fools. They all understood that the final counterattack of a rabbit before death was the fiercest. If they pressed too hard at this time, they would suffer even greater losses.

It would be better to stalemate for a while, exhausting the last breath of the Saint Puppet Sect's people, and then easily reap the benefits.

In this way, the Bean Soldiers deployed by the Scarface Man had become the main force in strangling the remaining cultivators of the Saint Puppet Sect, charging at the forefront of the encirclement.