At the same time, he began to chant an incantation, and a series of dark green spirit patterns appeared over his body before spreading at an incredible speed, covering almost every single inch of his skin before beginning to writhe and squirm as if they had sprung to life.

From a distance, it looked as if countless thin green insects had appeared over the elderly man's body, presenting a very unsettling sight to behold.

Right at this moment, one of the two other men released a crimson copper gong, and upon striking the gong, his head of white hair immediately stood up on end before detaching from his scalp, then transformed into countless winged white-scaled flying snakes that pounced directly toward the oncoming Bone Engulfing Butterflies.

Meanwhile, the other elderly man raised a hand to release a pristine white gourd, which tipped itself over to pour out clouds of black Qi that transformed into black hands with mouths at the palms.

The black hands let loose a string of sharp cries before rushing toward the skulls on the other side.

Thus, four groups of extremely strange-looking creatures began to engage in fierce battles, and dulls thumps indicating bodies plummeting onto the ground were ringing out incessantly.

The black palms and white flying snakes seemed to be quite ferocious, but they were clearly no match for the crimson skulls and white bone butterflies, which were releasing crimson arrows and scorching green flames, respectively.

It didn't take long before most of the black hands and white snakes to be eradicated, whereas only several tens of blood spirits and Bone Engulfing Butterflies had been destroyed.

The two elderly men were looking on with pained expressions as one black hand and white snake was destroyed after another, as if they were losing something very precious to them.

Soon, all of the hands and snakes were destroyed, and grim looks appeared on the faces of the two elderly men as the blood spirits and Bone Engulfing Butterflies began to converge toward them again.

The two of them exchanged a glance, and one of them let loose a loud roar, upon which a massive octopus-like insect projection appeared behind him before instantly brandishing its dozen or so tentacles.

Each tentacle was over 100 feet in length and was riddled with dark green runes, and as the tentacles swiped through the air, they were able to send all of the blood spirits that they came into contact with flying back through the air.

Meanwhile, a fingernail on one of the other elderly man's hands elongated to several inches in length and became as sharp as a knife.

He then swept the fingernail toward his other shoulder, instantly dismembering his own arm, which exploded into a pile of flesh that hovered before him.

Immediately thereafter, he tore off his own robes to reveal seven or eight fierce-looking insect tattoos on his chest.

The elderly man then unleashed some type of secret technique, and the tattoos sprang out of his body before transforming into giant insects that were each around 100 feet in size that devoured the pile of blood and flesh before them.

A cold look flashed through his eyes, and the bodies of the giant insects twisted and warped as they began to sprout a series of silver spikes.

At the same time, they began to shimmer with golden light as if they had attained vajra bodies, and they pounced toward the Bone Engulfing Butterflies amid a burst of loud hissing.

Every time the tentacles lashed out, the runes on their surfaces would flash incessantly, and loud thunderclaps that threatened to shatter even the space around them would ring out one after another.

It was clear that these two abilities were the two elderly men's trump cards, and they were able to keep the blood spirits and Bone Engulfing Butterflies at bay.

Meanwhile, the dark green patterns on the body of the man with the Yu surname converged to form an image of an eight-armed devilish creature. The image encompassed every single inch of his body, presenting a very unsettling sight to behold, as if he were wearing the skin of an azure devil.

All of a sudden, he let loose a loud roar, and countless green threads erupted out of his body to form a giant cocoon all around him.

The cocoon then began to revolve at a rapid speed, and a string of ghostly howls rang out from within it.

Immediately thereafter, the formation below the cocoon also began to emit a loud buzzing sound while releasing clouds of dark green devilish Qi.

A dull thump rang out as the giant cocoon exploded, and a menacing eight-armed devil emerged.

The devilish creature was extremely burly and imposing with azure skin, and it slowly opened its gleaming green eyes.

At this point, the other two elderly were beginning to struggle in the face of the blood spirits and Bone Engulfing Butterflies.

Close to half of the octopus-like insect projection's feelers had been reduced to blood by the blood spirits, while most of the giant golden insects had already been devoured by the Bone Engulfing Butterflies.

However, both of the elderly men were ecstatic to see the emergence of the eight-armed azure devil, and they immediately withdrew their secret techniques before flying toward the devilish creature.

Thus, the blood spirits and Bone Engulfing Butterflies were able to converge toward the trio from both sides before completely surrounding them.

In this dire situation, the azure devil finally sprang into action.

It lashed out with its eight arms in unison, thrusting four palms toward each side.

Bright golden light radiated from its eight palms, and a golden seal text rune surfaced in each hand before instantly swelling to around 10 feet in size.

The golden runes then each released a vast expanse of rainbow light, which immediately immobilized all of the blood spirits and Bone Engulfing Butterflies upon contact.

Moments later, the rainbow light flashed, and the blood spirits and Bone Engulfing Butterflies were all reduced to dust as if they had encountered the bane of their existence.

Within the span of just a few breaths, all of the blood spirits and Bone Engulfing Butterflies were completely wiped out.

Immediately thereafter, the eight-armored azure devil's aura subsided along with the rainbow light it had released, and it slowly withdrew its eight arms.

A dull thump suddenly rang out as the azure devil's skin fell away from head to toe, revealing the elderly man with the Yu surname again.

However, his face was very pale, and his aura had abated significantly, indicating that he had expended a lot of energy.

"It's a good thing that the three of us came together. Otherwise, we would've been in huge trouble," the man with the Yu surname said with a hint of lingering fear in his eyes.

"Indeed. We already knew that the restrictions leading up to the blood prison would be extremely difficult to deal with, but I didn't think that we'd encounter creatures as fearsome as blood spirits and Bone Engulfing Butterflies. If any one of us had come here alone, then we'd be in grave peril," the elderly man with the Wu surname agreed.

"Seeing as two types of creatures have already appeared, we should be quite close to the true entrance of the blood prison, so this is good news," the final elderly man said with a smile.

"I certainly hope so. Let's continue," the man with Wu surname replied with a nod.

Thus, the three of them began to advance onward again.

......

Several days later, a giant golden ape with three heads and six arms was wielding a massive golden blade in each hand while engaged in a fierce battle against two blue ice wyrms.

The giant ape was over 1,000 feet tall, while the ice wyrms were around 5,000 to 6,000 feet in length.

Their bodies were covered by translucent blue scales, and they were conjuring up violent snowstorms while releasing bursts of glacial Qi that was threatening to freeze this entire space solid.

The massive ape was completely unfazed by the glacial conditions, but it was clearly rather wary of the two ice wyrms' huge claws.

After a few more exchanges, the giant ape suddenly let loose a thunderous roar before combining its six massive golden blades into one enormous blade that was over 10,000 feet in length, then sliced the two ice wyrms in half cleanly down the middle.

However, the four remains of the two ice wyrms then transformed into four shorter ice wyrms before pouncing toward Han Li again.

Right at this moment, the gigantic golden blade transformed into a sea of golden light at the giant ape's behest, then swept toward the four ice wyrms before slicing them into several tens of pieces.

Blue light flashed from the remains of the ice wyrms, and they were about to transform into dozens of even shorter ice wyrms.

However, before they could complete their transformation, one wave of golden light surged toward them after another, slicing them into thousands of pieces, and they finally completely disintegrated into specks of blue light.

Only then did the massive ape withdraw the golden light, then quickly reverted back into its human form.

"The restriction here is truly quite troublesome; it's able to manifest close ice-attribute creatures with powers infinitely approaching those of Grand Ascension Stage beings. However, my calculations tell me that the exit should be just up ahead," Han Li murmured to himself as he flew onward through the snowstorm as a streak of golden light.

All of this was only possible as he was a master of formations and possessed incredibly powerful spiritual sense. Otherwise, a normal cultivator would've already gotten completely lost in here.

Around an hour later, the streak of golden light appeared in front of a stone platform enshrouded under a golden light barrier after slaying a few more powerful ice beasts.

There was a small teleportation formation on the platform, and a smile appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this.

However, his smile faded slightly as he swept his spiritual sense toward the golden light barrier.

"This is a Five-elemental Astral Light Barrier; I won't be able to break through it in a short time through conventional means. So be it, looks like I'll have to expend some more energy than anticipated." Han Li quickly made up his mind before making a grabbing motion, and a dark green longsword appeared in his grasp amid a flash of green light.

As soon the sword appeared, the world's origin Qi in the nearby area immediately began to tremor slightly.

Han Li gripped onto the sword and took a deep breath as bright purplish-golden light erupted from his body, while the Provenance True Devil Projection appeared behind him.

He then gently slashed the longsword toward the golden light barrier down below.