A cold light flashed through the eyes of the devilish cavaliers near the ark, and they all began to converge together into massive groups.
From a distance, it looked as if several black seas had suddenly appeared in the air, and they were setting up complex formations as they slowly advanced toward Heavenlean City.
The devilish cavaliers and their devilish beast steeds all began to release a vast amount of inky-black devilish Qi, and the sun up above was quickly completely concealed by a black devilish sea.
Some of the giant arks suddenly blasted forth pillars of purple light that instantly vanished into the bodies of the giant rhinoceroses, and their injuries were completely healed within the span of just a few breaths.
Their eyes then turned bright red in response to the sharp cry that had just erupted behind them, and they crashed through the oncoming attacks as they charged directly toward the gap in the city wall.
Under the cover of these giant rhinoceroses, the army of low-grade devilish beasts was also finally able to advance toward Heavenlean City as well. As such, the situation had become extremely perilous for Heavenlean City!
Right at this moment, spiritual light flashed several times in rapid succession from the gap in the city wall, and groups of human cultivators suddenly appeared, then frantically waved the formation flags they were holding through the air.
A string of loud rumbling rang out as giant bricks of different colors came raining down from above, completely filling the gap in the blink of an eye.
Chapter 1905: Stalemate
Not only were these bricks remarkably huge, they were all as smooth and lustrous as jade, clearly having been specially refined.
After they blocked the opening in the city wall, the cultivators up above immediately cast incantation seals toward them, and they immediately fused with the rest of the city wall in a seamless manner.
In the instant that the opening in the city wall vanished, the surfaces of several giant buildings in Heavenlean suddenly blurred, following which countless runes emerged from them.
These runes swirled through the air before forming a series of profound formations of different sizes, and immediately thereafter, these buildings transformed into giant stone puppets amid a string of rumbling booms.
Each puppet was completely devoid of facial features aside from a huge single eye, and there was a house-sized opening on each of their bellies.
Within each of those openings were several human cultivators standing on a heptagram, holding strange treasures with nervous looks on their faces.
These giants abruptly threw their heads back and let loose thunderous roars, then immediately rushed over to the city wall before rubbing their hands together.
A gust of fierce glacial winds swept forth, and countless specks of blue light appeared within the glacial wind before converging toward their palms.
In the blink of an eye, a series of translucent ice spears that resembled thousand-feet-long pillars appeared. The giant puppets grabbed onto the spears, then hurled them violently through the air, upon which they instantly vanished amid flashes of blue light.
In the next instant, spatial fluctuations erupted in the air above the giant rhinoceroses, and over 1,000 streaks of piercing blue light emerged out of thin air. These streaks of blue light then transformed into thousand-feet-long ice spears that pierced through the rhinoceroses' mountainous bodies before exploding violently.
Following their explosions, the spears transformed into clouds of blue mist that were several acres in size, sealing the severely wounded rhinoceroses into gargantuan ice statues. The yellow protective light barriers around their bodies had completely failed to protect them!
Loud thunderclaps then erupted as over 100 massive bolts of crimson lightning crashed down from above, piercing through the dense devilish Qi without any warning before shattering all of the gigantic ice statues.
All of the giant rhinoceroses were instantly slain on the spot, and even their souls hadn't managed to escape.
Within a set of secret chambers inside the bodies of these giant stone puppets, a group of Deity Transformation Stage human cultivators all released the items in their hands as relieved expressions appeared on their faces.
These items were a series of shimmering red talismans, upon which were inscribed countless golden and silver runes.
As soon as these talismans were released by the human cultivators, they immediately completely dimmed and disintegrated into plumes of smoke.
Almost at the exact same moment, the human warriors on the city wall had exhausted the powers of their weapons, and they quickly began to retreat back to the city.
They were replaced by groups of human cultivators wearing four-colored robes, and as soon as they arrived on the city wall, they summoned a series of shimmering treasures, which transformed into swathes of five-colored light that hurtled directly toward the oncoming army of low-grade devilish beasts.
All of the low-grade devilish beasts that came into contact with these swathes of light were instantly destroyed, and it was quite clear that these weapons were far more powerful than the weapons the human warriors had been using.
With so many cultivators attacking at once, they were able to conjure up an astonishing spectacle, even though there weren't many high-grade beings among their ranks.
Without the protection of the giant rhinoceroses, the low-grade devilish beasts were being wiped out at an alarming rate, and the devilish army was being severely dented. As a result, the All-encompassing Devilish Cavaliers behind the low-grade devilish beasts immediately spurred on the devilish cloud around them to more than double the speed of its advancement.
Following a command issued by a high-grade cultivator, who was the leader of all of the human cultivators on the city wall, everyone immediately directed their treasures away from the low-grade devilish beasts and aimed them toward the devilish cloud instead.
The treasures hurtled toward the devilish cloud like a series of shooting stars, and a few dull thumps rang out as the devilish cloud churned violently.
A series of massive black runes then surged out of the cloud in a frenzy before forming a giant black formation. Treasures rained down upon the formation like a torrential storm, but the formation merely tremored slightly before keeping all of the treasures at bay.
Right at this moment, the devilish cavaliers within the devilish cloud each raised a hand at the same time, conjuring up long blades that were several feet in length each before slashing them violently through the air.
Countless black blade projections swept out of the devilish cloud as streaks of black light, and resounding explosions echoed throughout the entire heavens.
Hundreds of thousands of human treasures clashed with these blade projections before instantly being sliced into pieces, then disintegrated into specks of light of different colors. The entire sky was instantly illuminated by these colorful lights, and at the same time, the devilish cavaliers let loose loud roars as they hurled their long blades through the air.
The blades transformed into streaks of black light that vanished into the giant formation up above, and a series of giant black blades quickly re-emerged from the center of the formation amid erratic flashes of black light.
Each of the blades was several hundred feet in length, and they immediately swept forward before crashing viciously down toward the city wall up ahead.
Black light swirled around the giant blades, and blade projections that were over 10,000 feet in length hurtled directly toward the city wall, unleashing a devastatingly fearsome aura.
All of the human cultivators encompassed beneath this burst of terrifying spiritual pressure immediately flew into a blind panic, and many of them rose up into the air to flee the scene, but it was already too late.
The giant black blade projections swept through the air, reducing all of the human cultivators to shreds of mangled blood and flesh, and another massive section of the city wall was felled, creating a huge gap that was ov
er 1,000 feet wide.
Over 10,000 cultivators had just been killed by that single attack alone, and all of the human cultivators on the city wall were extremely horrified to see this. Some of them gritted their teeth and continued to attack the devilish formation in the distance, while others hurriedly summoned defensive treasures as a prophylactic measure.
After unleashing that devastating barrage of attacks, the giant black blades at the center of the formation disintegrated into specks of black light, following which a bone-chilling cry rang out from that gargantuan devilish ark again.
Vicious looks appeared on the faces of all of the devilish cavaliers upon hearing this sound, and they roared as they abruptly spurred on their devilish steeds to carry them forward as rapid streaks of black light. The distance of several kilometers was covered by these devilish cavaliers in just a few flashes, and all of the attacks that they were struck by were repelled by the black light barriers that appeared over their suits of armor.
Only very few of the oncoming treasures managed to break through their defenses, but the number of devilish cavaliers that were felled by these treasures was simply negligible in the grand scheme of things.
In the blink of an eye, 100,000 All-encompassing Devilish Cavaliers had reached the protective light barrier in front of the city wall, and they unleashed countless streaks of powerful black light with their weapons to attack the light barrier.
Meanwhile, their devilish steeds were also unleashing all types of abilities with some blasting pillars of flames out of their mouths, while others conjured up a series of giant wind blades, and some were even directly attacking the light barrier with their horns.
In the face of such an astonishing number of attacks, the protective light barrier was only able to last for the span of a few breaths before flashing erratically, looking as if it were on the verge of collapse.
Just a single wave of attacks from these All-encompassing Devilish Cavaliers was threatening to breach the city's defenses, and the oncoming human treasures were completely ineffective against them.
As for the giant stone puppets in the city, they seemed to only be capable of unleashing that one attack, and they had reverted back to become giant buildings again thereafter.
However, a clear ringing sound suddenly erupted from one of the giant towers, immediately following which spatial fluctuations surged through the air nearby, and thousands of human cultivators suddenly emerged.
All of them wore grim expressions, and they quickly formed a massive formation with the giant tower at the very center. After that, they lowered their heads and raised a hand each as they began to chant incantations in unison.
Five-colored incantation seals formed by spiritual power surged into the massive tower as countless streaks of spiritual light, and a loud buzzing sound rang out from the tower as dazzling five-colored light appeared over its surface.
At the same time, violent tremors suddenly ran through a plot of empty land outside the city wall, and the ground abruptly split open to reveal a series of inky-black tunnels. Immediately thereafter, groups of copper humanoid figures that were each around 20 feet tall rushed out of the tunnels.
These copper humanoid figures were clad in thick and heavy suits of armor, and were wielding all types of weapons, including long halberds and powerful crossbows. Some of them were riding atop copper spirit beast steeds, while others were standing on azure war carriages that were over 100 feet in length each. These humanoid figures pounced toward the devilish cavaliers in a completely expressionless manner, and the devilish general in the giant ark seemed to be rather taken aback to see this, but he then harrumphed coldly before letting loose another piercing cry.
Ferocious looks immediately appeared in the eyes of the devilish cavaliers as they rushed toward the puppet army, and a fierce battle immediately ensued.
During this brief period of respite, a series of dazzling streaks of light appeared in the air above the city wall. These streaks of light then faded to reveal several thousand high-grade human cultivators, and they summoned countless treasures before also joining the battle.
Even though the army of copper puppets was clearly no match for the All-encompassing Devilish Cavaliers, the addition of the high-grade cultivators allowed them to hold their own. Furthermore, with the assistance from the desperate attacks being unleashed by the low-grade cultivators on the city wall, they were slowly gaining the upper hand.
Strangely enough, the devilish general in the giant ark didn't send the Jialun War Devils into battle despite this. Only after several hours had passed, when both the All-encompassing Devilish Cavaliers and the human army had suffered some casualties, did the dull chime of a bell suddenly ring out.
As soon as the devilish cavaliers heard this sound, they immediately began to retreat, forming a series of tight defensive formations as they did.
At the same time, the Jialun War Devils began to advance while appraising the human army with cold expressions.
Chapter 1906: Formidable Foes
The high-grade human cultivators' hearts jolted upon seeing this, and they didn't dare to pursue the retreating devilish cavaliers.
The copper puppet army also stopped not far away from Heavenlean City at the behest of some mysterious cultivators in the city.
After these devilish cavaliers retreated back to the giant arks, they immediately disappeared into the arks as specks of black light.
Once all of the devilish cavaliers had entered the arks, the Jialun War Devils also turned back and did the same thing.
A loud buzzing sound rang out, and all of the giant black arks instantly flew away into the distance, vanishing out of sight in what seemed like the blink of an eye.
After launching a massive attack against the city, the devilish army had retreated in an inexplicable fashion. Han Li and Fairy Silver Light couldn't help but exchange a befuddled glance upon seeing this.
Han Li was silent for a moment before analyzing in a contemplative manner, "Something's not right! If those Jialun War Devils had joined the battle, the devilish army could've immediately regained the upper hand, and if the devilish lords had been deployed as well, then it's quite possible that they could've forced their way into the city! With so many devilish elites in this army, I'm sure there would be quite a few devilish lords among their ranks as well. Two of Heavenlean City's grand elders have already perished, which means there are only two Body Integration cultivators left in the city, so they're at a grave disadvantage when it comes to top-grade forces. Heavenlean City must have some other trump card that the devilish army has already fallen prey to, which is why they're proceeding with such caution."
"That does indeed sound quite plausible. It seems that our task here may not be as difficult as we imagined!" Fairy Silver Light's expression eased slightly upon hearing this.
"I wouldn't be so quick to jump to conclusions. Even if Heavenlean City does possess some kind of powerful trump card, it's most likely not enough to oppose the devilish army. Otherwise, they wouldn't have taken such a risk to request reinforcements from Deep Heaven City. We'll only know what the exact situation is like when we enter the city," Han Li said.
Fairy Silver Light nodded in response. "I guess so. Even though the devilish army has retreated, they've definitely left behind some scouts to monitor the situation here, but there's no way they can stop us, so let's head to the city right away. Fairy Lin Luan of the Heavenly Sovereign Sect is an old acquaintance of mine; I wonder how she's doing."
"Indeed, this is a great opportunity for us to enter the city. Let's go," Han Li agreed with a nod. At this point, the human cultivators and puppet army had also retreated back to the city, and the two of them began to fly toward the city as two streaks of light.
Their approach naturally attracted the attention of the high-grade human cultivators in the distance, and some of the Spatial Tempering cultivators among them swept their spiritual sense toward Han Li's duo from afar. Upon verifying that the two were both humans, a s
tir immediately ran through the group of human cultivators.
Just as they were about to reach Heavenlean City, a bone-chilling voice suddenly rang out, seemingly out of nowhere.
"I've been waiting for you!" As soon as the voice trailed off, the nearby world's origin Qi surged violently, and a set of mountainous devilish claws emerged out of thin air before hurtling toward the two streaks of light.
The devilish claws were several thousand feet in size and completely inky-black in color, with pillars of green flames erupting from the fingertips.
Its enormous size encompassed the entire heavens, and Han Li's duo was struck by the sense that there was no way to evade it.
"One of the devilish lords must've stayed behind!" Fairy Silver Light exclaimed as she immediately swept both of her sleeves through the air.
Silver light flashed, and a pair of silver hooks shot forth before transforming into a white crescent moon and a scorching crimson sun. Each celestial body was several hundred feet in size, and they hurtled directly toward the giant claws amid the sound of rumbling thunderclaps and howling winds.
As for Han Li, he also raised a hand to launch a massive shimmering golden fist projection through the air, and an earth-shattering boom rang out as spiritual light of different colors exploded violently.
The entire space tremored, and the sound of wind and thunder rang out incessantly.
Even with Han Li's extraordinary strength and physical constitution, he was still forced to stumble back seven to eight steps from the force of the impact before finally stabilizing himself.
As for Fairy Silver Light, she was forced back even further, hurtling through the air for several hundred feet before finally managing to arrest her own momentum. Furthermore, this was even after Han Li had nullified around 75% of the devilish claws' power!
In the face of such a fearsome attack, Fairy Silver Light's expression immediately darkened significantly.
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 1101