"Fellow Daoist Han, prepare to unleash your Lightningwield Technique when we give the signal," Liu Zu instructed in an implacable voice as he hovered over the center of the giant spell formation.
Han Li nodded and made a hand seal, upon which arcs of golden lightning immediately began to revolve around his body. A lightning net appeared before swelling drastically, then transforming into a ball of golden light amid a resounding boom.
Golden runes flew in all directions, and the golden ball hovered gently over his palm.
At this point, Han Li ceased what he was doing and stood off to the side with the golden ball above his hand.
Liu Zu and the others then began breaking the restriction.
Liu Zu and Mu Qing both began to chant something as the treasure being controlled by several tens of high-grade demon beasts down below began to glow with scintillating light, forming a formation that instantly gave rise to a massive black hole. Boundless world's origin Qi surged toward Liu Zu and Mu Qing in a frenzy from the surrounding air.
In the blink of an eye, the two of them had been completely enshrouded in rainbow spiritual light, and their bodies shimmered as if they were a pair of divine deities.
On the other end, the white-haired beauty stood in front of the eight black shadows, and brought her hands together before separating them again, producing a small pitch-black bell in the process.
The bell was extremely antiquated, and there were even chips missing from the edges.
Meanwhile, one of the crimson-robed figures stood atop the shoulder of the Purpleblood Puppet while the other descended on top of the head of the giant metallic puppet that had just taken shape.
The Purpleblood Puppet let loose a low roar and rubbed its hand together before producing a purple blood ax that was around 100 feet in length.
The surface of the ax was shimmering with crimson light, and the puppet raised it high above its head with both hands, aiming it directly at the river down below.
The metallic puppet also raised its giant blade at the crimson-robed figure's behest, and black light began to shimmer over the surface of the blade.
At this moment, Liu Zu finally thrust a palm forward amid an explosive boom.
A pillar of black light shot forth from his hand, and this one was several times thicker than the one he'd unleashed in the spatial passageway. As the pillar of light hurtled through the air, the surrounding space warped and twisted as if it were being folded in on itself.
The pillar of light disappeared into the water in a flash, and the seemingly dead infernal river initially displayed no reaction. However, as the pillar of black light continued to be injected into the river, the latter finally began to change.
Ripples began to appear over its surface, following which the water in the river began to rotate in a frenzy around the pillar of light, and it was only accelerating amid a dull rumbling noise.
Mu Qing also sprang into action at this moment.
The golden flower beneath her feet rotated on the spot, absorbing most of the nearby light before swelling drastically, transforming into a gargantuan golden mirror that hurtled directly up ahead.
The mirror was several tens of feet in diameter, and before it had even come into contact with the water, it was already causing a massive commotion. Golden light flashed as the mirror sliced into the surface of the river, finally parting the water in what appeared to be a herculean feat.
A white hole began to appear at the center of the pillar of light before slowly expanding, but the water around it was tremoring violently, causing the holy to waver in an extremely unsteady manner, making it appear as if it were going to collapse at any moment.
Two loud booms erupted as a giant purple ax and a black saber projection also sped through the air.
In the face of the demon monarchs' combined efforts, the infernal river was finally completely parted amid an earthshattering boom, and a chasm that was around several hundred feet tall and over 100 feet wide slowly took shape within the water.
However, right at this moment, a strange noise sounded from the nearby water, following which wisps of translucent black threads appeared from within the water, then converged toward the massive chasm.
An incredible turn of events unfolded!
All of the astonishingly fearsome attacks unleashed by the demon monarchs suddenly dimmed, and their powers were quickly being diminished.
"What are you waiting for, Fellow Daoist Han?" Liu Zu's cold voice sounded from within the rainbow light.
The massive formation that had materialized from the surrounding world's origin Qi was rapidly shrinking while sustaining the output of the black pillar of light. The massive golden mirror that Mu Qing had unleashed was also quickly diminishing in size.
It was quite clear that both of these abilities were extremely taxing on their reserves of magic power, and even with the power of the spell formation to support them, they wouldn't be able to sustain them for long.
Han Li took a deep breath before flicking his five fingers toward the golden ball hovering over his palm.
The golden shot forth high into the air as a streak of golden light. Meanwhile, Han Li rapidly pointed the fingers on his other hand at the ball of golden lightning, and a massive golden rune appeared.
Following a rumbling thunderclap, gale-force winds and dense dark clouds were abruptly swept up in the surrounding area. A golden sun then appeared amid the dark clouds, and a devastating doomsday-like aura erupted from within the dark clouds.
The surface of the golden sun was flashing erratically with arcs of lightning, and dull thunderclaps rang out incessantly.
Han Li wore a grave expression as he chanted something in an unintelligible language, then pointed a finger toward the river.
The golden rune flashed, and a pillar of golden light that was as thick as a water tank shot forth from the golden sun, striking the infernal river after just a few flashes.
A dull thump erupted from the surface of the water, and in the instant that the golden pillar of light struck the water, it transformed into countless arcs of golden lightning that spread in all directions.
Following a loud thunderclap, an astonishing scene ensued.
All of the translucent black threads that had surfaced from the infernal river were destroyed without a trace by the golden lightning, much to the elation of the demon monarchs. All of them hurriedly unleashed a barrage of devastating attacks into the river, and the white-haired beauty, who had refrained from attacking this entire time, also let loose a shrill screech.
The eight black shadows behind her suddenly combined their Yin Qi before sending it surging toward the white-haired woman.
Even though these eight Yin Amor Ghost Monarchs were only late-Spatial Tempering Stage beings, their combined Yin Qi was still astonishingly powerful, and a massive ghostly projection appeared above the woman's head.
Meanwhile, brilliant black light erupted from the small black bell in her hand, and it instantly rose into the air before expanding to several tens of feet in size.
The woman then extended a finger and gently flicked it toward the air.
The black bell tolled, and a layer of black light fanned out from its surface, proliferating toward the chasm that had appeared in the infernal river up ahead.
A peculiar turn of events then unfolded.
As soon as the black light came into contact with the chasm, it instantly transformed into a light barrier to support the walls of the chasm, thereby forming a true passageway.
As Liu Zu and the others continued their relentless barrage of attacks, the chasm deepened further into the infernal river, thus extending the passageway further and further.
Han Li was quite surprised to see this, but he had to focus on controlling the golden sun in the sky to continue eradicating the black threads that were relentlessly emerging from the infernal river. One golden pillar of light after another erupted from the sun, assisting Liu Zu and the others in their efforts.
As the chasm continued to extend, the demon monarchs drew upon more of the spell formation's power to ensure that their attacks also extended to match. This was going to be the final push, and they were in the home stretch. Meanwhile, Han Li continued to inject his power into the golden sun up above, and he could only stand on the spot with a wry smile on his face.
He didn't have a powerful enough spiritual sense to guide his divine lightning to strike a spot so far away with unerring accuracy, but thankfully, the golden lightning was conducted by the water in the infernal river, so he only had to strike within the general vicinity of the spot that he was aiming for to eradicate all of the black threads in that area.
Of course, as the chasm continued to extend, Han Li was forced to focus more of his attention on guiding the golden pillar of light deeper into the passageway.
Around 15 minutes later, a dull rumbling sound erupted from the other end of the chasm.
Mu Qing was elated upon hearing this sound, and she immediately announced, "The passageway has extended all the way through!"
She then waved a hand, and the golden mirror flew back to her from deep within the chasm before settling beneath her feet and reverting back to its golden flower form.
All of the other demon monarchs were also overjoyed as they withdrew their abilities.
"Alright, this passageway can maintain itself for several hours, which should be more than enough for us to pass through the infernal river. However, we still have to look out for attacks from the ghostly beings in the river," Liu Zu cautioned before turning to the low-grade demon beasts behind them before he continued, "As for them, how many of them make it through the infernal river will depend on their luck; let's just focus on trying to get to the other side as soon as possible."
Mu Qing and the others glanced at one another upon hearing this, and their elated expressions also faded.
Meanwhile, Han Li withdrew his Lightningwield Technique, seeing as there was no need to continue unleashing it any longer.
At this moment, all of the puppets and ghostly soldiers had gathered at the entrance of the passageway, and had arranged themselves into a circular formation to protect the demon beasts at the center.
There were tens of thousands of beings in total, and they took up almost the entire entrance of the passageway.
The demon monarchs issued an order, and the army of puppets and ghostly soldiers flew ahead into the passageway first.
The black winds that enshrouded the bodies of those Yin Armor Profound Ghosts had already dissipated at this point, finally revealing their true appearance.
All of them were shriveled up corpse-like beings with glistening black armor over the upper halves of their bodies. They were wielding all types of long weapons such as halberds, tridents, and spears, and the sections of their skin that were peeking through the gaps in their armor were all gray and drab. All of their heads were enshrouded by a ball of green ghostly flames each, and a sinister skull could be seen within each ball of green flames.
All of the profound ghosts were completely silent and expressionless, and Han Li couldn't help but narrow his eyes as he appraised these ghosts from behind Mu Qing.
The infernal river was rife with ghostly beings, but the demon monarchs still refined so many ghostly soldiers; there had to some kind of reason behind this.
Moments later, the low-grade demon beasts that were surrounded by the puppets and ghostly soldiers were also ordered to enter the passageway.
Meanwhile, the demon monarchs and high-grade demon beasts looked on with cold expressions, displaying no intentions to enter the passageway with them.
In the instant that those low-grade demon beasts entered the chasm passageway, silver light flashed from black light barriers around them. Countless silver threads then hurtled through the air from all directions, and all of them were aimed directly at the low-grade demon beast, but paid no heed whatsoever to the puppets and ghostly soldiers.
