Chapter 171: Last Resort
All of a sudden, all of the giant octopus's tentacles closed in toward the center, and it's enormous body sped toward Fang Pan as a blurry black shadow, resembling a purplish-black mountain that was moving rapidly along the seabed in a bizarre sight to behold.
Even before it was fully upon Fang Pan, the surrounding seawater was churning violently in the face of the tremendous pressure that it was exerting. The resulting currents were so violent that Fang Pan was swaying unsteadily in the water, and he was sent flying back like a cannonball, only managing to steady himself after stumbling several times in succession.
Meanwhile, the giant octopus had already appeared no more than 1,000 feet away from him, and it swatted its eight tentacles viciously at Fang Pan, leaving a series of bright trails in the water amid a sound that resembled rumbling thunderclaps.
Fang Pan was quite alarmed, but he managed to maintain his composure as he instantly split up into five different clones amid a flash of azure light, and each of the clones fled in a different direction.
The giant octopus's tentacles faltered slightly upon seeing this, and it seemed to have been caught off guard by this maneuver from Fang Pan. However, in the next instant, its tentacles continued to come crashing down with devastating force, smashing several deep trenches into the seabed that were several thousand feet in length as countless rock fragments flew in all directions.
Taking advantage of this brief window of opportunity, the five clones conjured up by Fang Pan were just barely able to evade the flailing tentacles before rising up toward the surface of the sea like lightning.
The giant octopus let loose a furious roar, and green light flashed within its eyes as it opened its mouth to release five pillars of purplish-black lightning, each of which was as thick as a water tank.
The five pillars of lightning didn't appear to have been remarkable in any way, but they were far faster than normal lightning, and they caught up to the five Fang Pans in a flash before striking them with unerring accuracy.
Five resounding booms rang out as four of the Fang Pans were destroyed by the purplish-black lightning, with only the leftmost one managing to survive the attack, but even he was sent flyin forward by the force of the impact as he threw up a large mouthful of blood.
However, it seemed that he hadn't suffered any severe injuries, and he was able to steady himself after performing a somersault.
The material of the robe on his back had been torn apart by the lightning strike, revealing a suit of dark golden inner armor that was riddled with golden scales.
A deep mark had been blasted onto the suit of armor, and many of the scales on its surface had been broken. Its spiritual nature had also been severely damaged, but ultimately, it remained intact.
Meanwhile, Fang Pan continued to fly up toward the surface of the sea as a streak of azure light, traveling at an incredible speed.
The giant octopus let loose another thunderous roar of fury, and it extended its tentacles before withdrawing them forcefully, launching itself after the streak of azure light as a blurry black shadow.
Inside the sea, its speed was just about on par with Fang Pan's.
The two of them instantly vanished into the distance as the chase continued, and the turbulent seawater left in their wake slowly settled down again.
Only then did Han Li emerge from the trench on the seabed, and he took a glance at the direction that Fang Pan and the giant octopus had fled in with a hesitant look on his face.
However, he then quickly arrived at a decision and began flying in that direction as an azure shadow.
It appeared that his plan had been successful up to this point, but he wasn't confident that the sea beast would be powerful enough to hunt Fang Pan to his death, so he decided to follow them and finish the job himself if the octopus couldn't kill Fang Pan in his place.
Han Li's speed was far inferior to that of Fang Pan and the giant octopus, and at this point, the two of them had already traveled out of his spiritual sensory range, but the immortal spiritual power fluctuations left in their wake provided an extremely clear trail to follow.
He followed this trail for close to an hour, then suddenly drew to an abrupt halt.
The seawater several hundred kilometers up ahead was churning violently as if it had been brought to a boil, and there were countless vortexes raging in the area. Even from this far away, he could still feel tremendously powerful currents washing over him.
At the center of all the chaos was a giant ball of light that was several dozen kilometers in size with countless arcs of purple lightning and black mist surging around it.
The lightning and the mist intertwined to form a series of balls of purplish-black light before exploding violently, sending immense destructive energy erupting in all directions.
Even the seabed was constantly being torn apart, causing magma to flow out into the water.
This is a spirit domain... No, it's not quite the same. Instead, it seems to be some type of domain ability similar to a spirit domain.
A hint of lingering fear welled up in Han Li's heart as he sensed the terrifying spiritual pressure being released by the massive ball of light.
Even though the giant octopus that he had lured out possessed late-True Immortal Stage power, it seemed to be some type of primordial beast that hadn't yet attained higher intelligence. Otherwise, if it had unleashed this domain ability right away, then Han Li would've been swept up in it as well.
Han Li only entertained this thought for a moment before casting it aside, and a layer of blue light appeared in his eyes as he cast his gaze into the giant ball of light, within which he could just barely make out two figures, one far larger than the other, clashing over and over again.
The larger of the two figures was naturally the giant octopus. It had shrunk down from its original size to less than 200 feet tall, making it far more agile than before, while the other figure was none other than Fang Pan.
Fang Pan's speed seemed to have been severely limited within the ball of light, and he was at an absolute disadvantage, constantly being sent flying over and over again by the giant octopus's tentacles.
At this moment, he appeared to have been in an extremely sorry state. His face was pale, his hair was disheveled, and the azure light around his body had dimmed significantly.
However, there was a silver scroll hovering above his head, releasing countless silver runes that formed a silver light barrier around him. Under the protection of the light barrier, he was able to avoid significant injury despite being sent flying over and over again.
Once again, Fang Pan was sent flying by one of the flailing tentacles, and the silver light barrier was flashing erratically.
After such a long and drawn-out battle, the giant octopus was becoming impatient, and it was lashing out with its tentacles faster and faster. As a result, the frequency at which Fang Pan was being struck was significantly increased.
This was a dire situation. Given his current cultivation base, if he couldn't escape from this spirit-domain-like space, then he would be sure to meet his demise once the immortal treasure above his head was broken.
With that in mind, his resentment toward Han Li only grew more intense.
Right at this moment, the octopus's wildly flailing tentacles suddenly paused for a moment, and it abruptly opened its mouth to release a huge torrent of ink.
Fang Pan felt a foul stench surging toward him, and he was struck by a rush of dizziness.
He hurriedly drew upon his spiritual sense to rid himself of the sense of dizziness, and at the same time, the silver scroll above him began to radiate dazzling light.
Countless silver runes surged out of the scroll to form a round silver shield of light, which resembled a silver moon that protected him from above.
A burst of loud sizzling rang out as plumes of smoke rose up from the silver shield upon making contact with the black ink, and countless holes were instantly eroded into its surface.
The black ink flowed through the holes on the shield as it continued to rain down toward Fang Pan, who hurriedly switched to a different hand seal as he began to chant an incantation.
The silver scroll instantly erupted into flames, and balls of silver fire descended from it to ignite the silver light barrier around him.
From afar, it appeared as if Fang Ban's entire body had transformed into a massive silver fireball.
As soon as the black ink came into contact with the silver flames, the former instantly evaporated into plumes of black smoke.
However, before Fang Pan had a chance to catch his breath, the giant octopus suddenly extended its eight tentacles until they were ramrod straight and resembled eight staves, then swung them through the air to send countless staff projections sweeping toward Fang Pan from all directions.
A string of earth-shattering booms rang out, and the silver fireball began to tremble violently.
At the same time, the flames on the silver scroll above Fang Pan's head were quickly being snuffed out, and it clearly wasn't going to be able to last much longer.
"No! I refuse to die here!" Fang Pan roared, and a thought suddenly seemed to have occurred to him as he flipped a hand over to produce an azure pill.
The pill was only around the size of a thumbnail, but it was giving off extraordinary spiritual power fluctuations and was riddled with countless tiny azure runes, while an extremely life-like visage of a miniature azure wyrm had appeared above the pill.
This pill was called the Azure Wyrm Pill, and he had purchased it for an extremely steep price in preparation for his late-True Immortal Stage breakthrough. It wasn't a dao pill, but it wasn't any less valuable than the average first-tier dao pill.
He naturally wasn't going to attempt a breakthrough in this situation.
Instead, he wanted to take advantage of one of the pill's effects, which was its ability to stimulate the consumer's latent potential, allowing them to attain power far superior to their cultivation base for a short time. As a result, one would be able to experience what it was like to be at a higher cultivation base, thereby significantly increasing their chances of making a successful breakthrough.
In this desperate situation, Fang Pan had no choice but to take the pill.
His entire body instantly began to radiate incandescent azure light, and his waning aura was being rapidly elevated, quickly returning to its former peak before continuing to swell even further.
In this instant, it seemed that all of the latent potential in his body had been forced to the fore.
Violent immortal spiritual power fluctuations erupted out of his body, while the azure light was dancing over his skin like fire.
Furthermore, around 20 to 30 bright specks of azure light that were fluctuating in brightness had appeared all over his body, and they resembled a series of blinking eyes.
Immediately thereafter, another speck of azure light abruptly lit up on a certain part of his body.
In the next instant, all 24 specks of light brightened in unison as if they were resonating with one another, causing his aura to swell even further, to the point that it was beginning to reach the same level as that of the octopus monster.
Fang Pan bit down viciously onto the tip of his own tongue, then spat out a mouthful of blood essence, which fused into the silver scroll above his head.
The scroll was already on the verge of destruction, but with this injection of blood essence, the flames burning on its surface were suddenly revitalized, transforming into a fireball that was several dozen feet in size.
All the silver runes around Fang Pan also swept upward in a frenzy before fusing into the fireball as well.
Immediately thereafter, the silver fireball rose up toward the heavens, then exploded with a resounding boom.
Boundless silver light swept through the air in all directions alongside incredibly powerful shockwaves, keeping all of the staff projections formed by the giant octopus's tentacles at bay.
Fang Pan took advantage of this opportunity to dart through the air as a blurry azure shadow, and his black saber had already reappeared in his grasp.
In the blink of an eye, he arrived at the edge of the spirit-domain-like space, then conjured up seven identical clones, all of which lashed out viciously with the black sabers in their hands.
The seven black saber projections combined as one to form a massive saber projection that was close to 10,000 feet in length, and it struck the dark purple light barrier up ahead with devastating force.
The dark purple light barrier flashed erratically as a huge crack appeared on its surface, following which the entire light barrier exploded altogether.
Fang Pan immediately seized this opportunity, fleeing from the giant octopus as a streak of azure light.
All of this had taken place in the span of only one or two seconds, and by the time the giant octopus set off in pursuit, Fang Pan had already vanished into the distant sea.
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