Du Yu's horror had mounted to a peak, and in the face of the unstoppable purplish-golden hand, he knew that he had to fight for his own life.
"Evil Vanquishing Holy Projection!"
He quickly made a hand seal, following which a white Nascent Soul that was around half a foot tall immediately flew out of the top of his head.
The Nascent Soul bore a strong resemblance to Du Yu, and as soon as it appeared, it opened its mouth in an urgent manner to expel a ball of shimmering golden blood essence.
In the instant that the ball of blood essence was expelled, Du Yu's youthful face suddenly became wizened and shriveled, as if he had instantly aged over 10 years, and his eyes also became completely blank and soulless.
At the same time, a white humanoid figure that was over 100 feet tall emerged behind the Nascent Soul, standing in the air right above Du Yu.
The giant humanoid figure was as clear as an actual person, but its facial features were completely blurred. It wore a set of white scholarly robes with a scholarly hat on its head, and its entire body was radiating a burst of indescribable pure Yang energy.
However, the giant projection merely hovered still in mid-air as if it were incapable of movement.
All of a sudden, Du Yu pointed a finger upward, and the ball of golden blood essence instantly exploded, forming a huge golden rune that vanished into the projection's body in a flash.
A burst of translucent light flashed over the projection's face, following which an extremely authoritative set of facial features appeared.
At this point, the massive purplish-golden hand was only around 70 feet away from the white projection.
In the face of the terrifying power crashing down upon it, the projection's body was beginning to blur slightly, as if it were about to be crushed into nothingness.
Right at this moment, the white projection suddenly opened its eyes to reveal a pair of silver pupils, then raised a hand upward before making a grabbing motion.
A burst of white mist immediately surged out of its sleeve, then transformed into a massive white hand that clashed violently with the purplish-golden hand.
An earth-shattering boom rang out as the two clashed, sending powerful shockwaves erupting forth in all directions, causing the entire light barrier to tremor violently.
However, the purplish-golden hand was only stopped momentarily before it crushed the giant white hand and continued to descend.
However, during this split-second delay, the two treasures above Du Yu instantly appeared in front of him, then began to radiate dazzling light in unison.
The holy projection raised a hand to conjure up a huge five-colored brush, which was dipped into the unknown silver liquid in the inkstone before being tapped onto a page of the jade book.
A burst of Buddhist chants rang out as brilliant five-colored erupted from the jade book, following which countless silver runes surged out in a frenzy, converging to form a gigantic rune that was around an acre in size.
The massive purple hand grabbed onto the huge silver rune like five steel hooks, while all of the world's origin Qi within the entire light barrier surged toward the giant rune in a frenzy, causing it to swell by close to half its original size.
Golden and silver light flashed violently, and the purplish-golden hand was temporarily rendered unable to descend any further.
"Interesting! But if that's all you've got, then it won't be enough to stop me," Han Li chuckled as he pointed a nonchalant finger from afar.
A near-transparent incantation seal vanished into thin air in a flash, following which the silver spirit patterns on the fingertips of the giant purplish-golden hand converged to form profound formations.
Five balls of dazzling golden light emerged from the formations, then swelled drastically to around 10 feet in size each, then combined as one to create a massive golden vortex.
All of a sudden, a burst of tremendous force surged out of the vortex, and in the face of this enormous force, the huge silver rune was unable to hold itself together any longer.
The silver rune was destroyed amid a dull thump, following which the tremendous force came crashing down toward the white projection without any further inhibition.
The space down below twisted and warped, and the giant white projection instantly exploded.
A howl of anguish rang out as an indistinct white Nascent Soul flew down as a ball of white light, returning to Du Yu's physical body in a flash.
Du Yu's lifeless body immediately became reanimated, but as soon as he reawakened, he threw up several mouthfuls of blood essence, and his aura also became extremely feeble.
It was clear that the destruction of the white projection had severely harmed his Nascent Soul as well.
The giant purplish-golden hand spread its fingers to encompass Du Yu's entire body beneath it, and the air around Du Yu abruptly tightened, upon which he was completely immobilized.
His face instantly became completely devoid of color, but right at this moment, the giant purplish-golden hand suddenly stopped where it was.
The golden vortex dissipated in a flash, but enormous power was still being released by the massive hand, locking Du Yu firmly into place.
At this point, the outcome of the battle was all too apparent.
Due to the interference of the protective light barrier, Elder Gu and the others were unable to sense the unfathomable power imbued within Han Li's last attack, but the fact that Han Li had crushed Du Yu's holy projection and powerful treasures with a nonchalant-looking attack was naturally extremely astonishing to them.
In that instant, all of the elders of Deep Heaven City arrived at the same incredible conclusion.
Meanwhile, the yellow-haired man and hideous woman were completely flabbergasted, and they felt as if their minds had gone completely blank.
They were well aware of just how powerful Du Yu was, which made this outcome even more incredible to them.
As for Daoist Xie and Silvermoon, their expressions remained completely unchanged.
Han Li had already progressed to the Grand Ascension Stage, so it would be far more astonishing to them if he couldn't crush a Body Integration cultivator with a single attack.
At this moment, Han Li was appraising the two treasures that Du Yu had summoned rather than paying any attention to Du Yu himself.
Due to the fact that they were no longer being controlled by their owner, both the jade book and inkstone had dimmed significantly, but they were still revolving around him like a pair of sentient creatures.
Han Li waved a hand toward the pair of treasures, and a burst of enormous invisible force immediately acted upon them.
As a result, they were both drawn into his grasp as two balls of spiritual light.
As soon as they were caught by Han Li, they began to squirm and jump as if they wanted to escape, but instead of being enraged by this, Han Li was ecstatic instead.
He rubbed the pair of treasures between his hands, and the spiritual light radiating from them was instantly snuffed out, following which they fell completely still in his hands.
"I'll be keeping these two treasures; you can come and get them after you progress to the Grand Ascension Stage," Han Li said to Du Yu in an indifferent voice, then stowed the pair of treasures away before suddenly vanishing on the spot.
In the next instant, spatial fluctuations erupted beside Elder Gu and the others, and Han Li re-emerged in a wraith-like manner.
"Fellow Daoist Han, have you already reached the Grand Ascension Stage?" Elder Gu hurriedly asked in a panicked voice.
Everyone else also immediately turned their attention toward him.
"Hehe, I was indeed fortunate enough to succeed in my breakthrough a few months ago," Han LI replied with a faint smile, then released his Grand Ascension Stage aura without any reservation.
A burst of spiritual pressure that threatened to crush all things instantly descended upon the entire hall, and all of the Body Integration cultivators in the hall were forced to stumble backward.
"You really have progressed to the Grand Ascension Stage! Brother Han… No, Senior Han, please forgive me for my rudeness."
Even though Elder Gu had already figured it out for himself, receiving confirmation from Han Li and sensing his terrifying aura still came as quite a shock, and even his voice was trembling slightly as he hurriedly extended a deep bow after steadying himself.
All of the other elders also extended respectful bows with expressions of shock and elation on their faces, while the yellow-haired man and hideous woman were left at a complete loss for what to do.
However, as Han Li cast a cold gaze toward them, they immediately shuddered before also extending horrified bows, in complete contrast with the arrogance they had displayed before.
