A moment earlier, Li Yan had looked down at the resistance against his left hand and discovered that the Guiyi Water-Parting Spike was caught in a layer of dim light. That was... half a suit of azure armor.
Ripples coursed through it, releasing waves of defensive power, supple yet unyielding.
It was only half a suit because the armor had risen from beneath the bald, purple-robed man's feet, but had only reached his back when his protective barrier and skull were shattered. Its "growth" had stopped instantly.
The instant Li Yan recognized that half-formed armor, alarm surged through him. His protective barrier flickered wildly, and a cloud of bloody mist splattered across it.
Caught unprepared, he and Gong Shanhe were hurled into the distance by the tremendous force of an explosion of blood essence. Their protective barriers lasted less than a breath before being torn to pieces, like paper kites scattered in the wind.
Fortunately, both men were veterans of countless battles who had walked the edge between life and death more times than they could count. Their reactions to danger had long since surpassed their divine sense.
Within a single breath, they moved with unbelievable speed, slapping on defensive talismans one after another as though they cost nothing.
Bang, bang, bang...
Like firecrackers on New Year's Eve, an unbroken series of explosions rang out. Blinding flames of light bloomed across their bodies as they flew backward. Those talismans could not last even half a breath before shattering.
But their reactions had been so swift that the talismans still blocked a considerable amount of force. Meanwhile, an earth-shaking wave of destructive power spread outward from the spot where the three had clashed.
Two nearby islands, each spanning seventy or eighty li, seemed to have been wiped clean off the sea.