As he hurtled forward, Li Jiuyuan watched the blood walls steadily close in. The gaps between them grew ever narrower, and anxiety crept over his face.
At his current speed, he could never escape the encirclement before the blood walls closed.
A flicker of grim resolve flashed in Li Jiuyuan's eyes.
A blue-gray talisman suddenly appeared in his hand.
The talisman shattered, turning into a gale of azure astral wind that enveloped him.
Li Jiuyuan's speed instantly doubled, and he streaked across the sky like a beam of azure light.
The blood walls ahead loomed ever closer. Just as he was about to pass through the gap between two of them, a bolt of Mystic Yellow Thunder suddenly struck.
Boom!
The lightning struck the azure astral wind.
The wind collapsed, and Li Jiuyuan's speed plummeted.
Immediately afterward, the last sliver of daylight ahead vanished, leaving only crimson bloodlight.
The blood walls had sealed shut.
Li Jiuyuan finally shattered the lightning with the Soul-Breaking Awl, but the way ahead had already become a dead end.
Not just ahead-every direction, above and below, was now enclosed by the blood lotus.
And the blood lotus began to shrink, pressing toward him from all sides.
"Extreme Yin, I'm willing to submit! Please spare my life!"
Li Jiuyuan's roar received no response whatsoever.
Song Wen was already outside the blood lotus.
The blood lotus finally contracted into eight blood cocoons, each ten feet tall.
Li Jiuyuan, Lu Quan, and the six Mahayana-stage cultivators were now all trapped inside those cocoons.
Song Wen summoned a flying ship, loaded the blood cocoons aboard, and headed toward the Divine Blood Sect.
This was certainly no place to linger. It was best to leave as quickly as possible.
The journey passed without incident, and Song Wen returned safely