Han Li’s expression remained calm, but he felt a chill shake his heart and his mind grew wary. He swept his spiritual sense around him but wasn’t able to find any trace of the Elder Devil, as expected. His concealment technique alone was enough to kill ordinary cultivators.
With that thought, Han Li narrowed his eyes and blue light flickered from his eyes, activating the Brightsight Spirit Eyes with practiced ease. Then, he suddenly raised his arm and released a bolt of golden lightning. It was targeted at an empty area and transformed into a net of rumbling lightning just before it struck.
As a result, a strange scene occurred. Black light flickered from the empty area, revealing Marquis Nanlong. He felt alarm when he saw the net of golden lightning falling down upon him., but soon, his expression grew sullen as his body blurred, and the net only fell down on an afterimage. Marquis Nanlong’s body had disappeared without a trace.
Han Li pressed his lips tightly together when he saw this. With blue light continuing to shine from his eyes, he looked to his side and raised other arm before pointing it in a completely different direction. Peals of thunder ringing out, a dense bolt of golden lightning shot out from his hand, striking at an empty space twenty meters away.
Just as the golden lightning traveled through the air, Marquis Nanlong’s figure reformed right in its path. He could only blankly stare as he met its thunderous path.
Marquis Nanlong was greatly shocked once more. It may just be a matter of luck if Han Li was able to predict his location once, but it couldn’t be a coincidence for this to happen a second time. Han Li was truly able to see his movements.
This time, the timing of Han Li’s attack was superb; Marquis Nanlong wasn’t able to avoid it. He could only open his mouth and spit out a ball of black-red Devilflame to meet the golden lightning head on.
With a light clap, the black-red flames and golden lightning flashed, dissipating into smoke like fire and ice.
“Yi!” It was Han Li’s turn to be shocked. The Elder Devil actually had a method to block the Divine Devilbane Lightning, a fearsome black-red devilflame.
But under Han Li’s careful watch, he noticed that Marquis Nanlong’s complexion had paled in the instant the ball of Devilflame was combusted. Although he had been able to recover in an instant, it was clear that this black-red devilflame most likely had some sort of connection to his vitality or soul essence.
Before Han Li could think about how to best take advantage of this, Marquis Nanlong suddenly lowered his body and strangely lengthened and shot forward as if his body were boneless. He arrived in front of Han Li and sinisterly smiled, preparing to fiercely pummel Han Li with his devil Qi clad fists.
Han Li watched this with an unchanged expression and calmly took half a step back. With lightning ringing from his back, a pair of silver-white wings appeared. Then with another ring of thunder, he disappeared in a silver flash.
When Marquis Nanlong saw this, he paused before coldly smiling. “Lightning Movement! I see you know quite a bit. But it is a pity, hehe...” He sneered and turned into black mist before disappearing as well.
The two attacks and simultaneous disappearances happened all in a mere instant.
When Ancestor Linghu and the white-clothed woman saw this exchange, they had immediately planned on assisting Han Li with their magic treasures, but they weren’t able to find a good chance to interject themselves into the battle. And with Marquis Nanlong and Han Li now out of sight, Ancestor Linghu and the white-clothed woman couldn’t help but look at each other in dismay. Then, they hastily released their protective treasures around them out of increased wariness, protecting themselves from any chance encounters with Marquis Nanlong. After all, the two didn’t have Han Li’s abilities and weren’t able to see through Marquis Nanlong’s concealment.
At that moment, thunder rang out and Han Li appeared over sixty meters away from his original location. And immediately after, black Qi appeared behind Han Li, followed by Marquis Nanlong’s appearance. Wearing a savage expression on his face, he fiercely pounded his fists down upon Han Li.
Without even turning around, Han Li instantly sensed what had happened with his spiritual sense, but the strike occurred too fast; he wasn’t able to teleport away in time. He was only able to pour the entirety of his spiritual sense into the Bluelight Shield surrounding him a to block the attack.
Han Li’s haphazard decision to teleport away had given Marquis Nanlong quite the opportunity. With shock resonating through his mind, Han Li felt perplexed when he was caught off guard; he hadn’t expected Marquis Nanlong to act so quickly.
Bang. Bang. Han Li now tasted what Ancestor Linghu had just recently experienced. The blue light barrier around Han Li’s body trembled and he was struck back. A majority of the magic power he had condensed was scattered by Marquis Nanlong’s two fists, preventing him from further using Lightning Movement.
Marquis Nanlong wildly howled in laughter and his body turned into a fierce gale as he pursued Han Li, preparing to land a rain of blows with his fists.
While Han Li was shooting through the air, incapable of controlling his body, his face was unexpectedly emotionless. Having seen what Ancestor Linghu suffered, he had prepared himself. Although he wasn’t able to condense his magic power, he had other methods of contending against the Elder Devil.
Although his body had become numb and powerless, he was soon able to feel his arms once more and released a spirit beast pouch from his waist towards Marquis Nanlong.
Before Marquis Nanlong realized what had happened, he heard a sudden wave of buzzing from the bag. Several thousand of Gold Devouring Beetles swarmed out to form a cloud and they all surrounded him as he charged onward. Although he didn’t recognize these Gold Devouring Beetles, he was able to sense an aura of ancient exotic insects, arousing fear in his heart. He didn’t dare to be negligent and swiped his hand in the air towards them, summoning a glowing green ghost claw covered in grey-white flames to sweep away the Gold Devouring Beetles.
In an instant, a majority of the Gold Devouring Beetles were grabbed by the ghost claw, and soon after, the grey-white flames burned a meter tall. The other beetles that hadn’t been grabbed by the claw were now caught in the flames. Marquis Nanlong sneered at the sight and began to move towards Han Li once more.
But at that moment, the white-clothed woman saw an opportunity to finally strike. She activated her mirror and a beam of rainbow light enveloped Marquis Nanlong. Additionally, Ancestor Linghu pointed to a milky-white ring floating above his head. The ring flickered before shooting towards Marquis Nanlong as well.
Marquis Nanlong was enraged at the sight of this and easily dodged the beam of rainbow light with a blur of his body. Although the rainbow light was difficult to deal with, it had no effect on him so long as it didn’t touch him. As for the white ring, it was clearly a treasure focused on restriction. It also had no effect on him unless it touched his body.
As Marquis Nanlong thought this, he turned his sight on Han Li once more and made his way towards him. To him, Han Li and his Divine Devilbane Lightning posed the greatest threat.
However, Han Li didn’t remain idle while inside his light barrier. He slapped another spirit beast pouch at his waist, and summoned over ten puppets that blocked Marquis Nanlong’s way with a single command.
Each of the puppets was six meters long and had human bodies with tiger heads. With a tremble of their hands, ten several-inch-long streaks of light glowed their claws.
Chapter 844: A United Front
“Marquis Nanlong” was initially surprised to arrive in front of the tiger demon puppets, but he continued his charge regardless.
The dozen puppets flickered with white light and they took action all at once. Their silhouettes wildly blurred and they instantly surrounded Marquis Nanlong as they swiped at him with their claws of light.
Marquis Nanlong’s expression sank and he shouted. Holding the puppets in disregard, he quickly met two of the puppets claws with his fist.
Marquis Nanlong wickedly chuckled at the sight of this and his arms blurred and disappeared, followed by his body. Then the various claws of light all struck air, only to be followed by two muffled booms.
Marquis Nanlong appeared outside the encirclement, each arm piercing through the chest of a tiger demon puppet. Since puppets didn’t possess any hearts, they could only fall to the ground after receiving these grievous injuries. Marquis Nanlong’s brutishly powerful fists destroyed Han Li’s meticulously refined tiger demon puppets without any resistance.
However, these strikes were something only done in passing. His true objective was Han Li who had yet to recover from his previous attack. As a result, he rushed past the remaining puppets and appeared before Han Li in an instant, launching another fist at him.
Still wrapped in his protective light barrier and incapable of mustering his magic power, Han Li stare at the oncoming first with an odd expression that lacked the slightest trace of panic.
When Marquis Nanlong saw this, he was bewildered. Just as he thought about what this meant, countless sharp explosions sounded out close behind him. In his alarm, he withdrew his fist without another thought and his body blurred, leaving behind only a line of afterimages in his wake.
In the following instant, countless green claws suddenly appeared, ripping through all of the afterimages. Then in a green flash of light, a green-furred monster with a husk of a face appeared where Marquis Nanlong originally stood. It was the Sovereign Devil Corpse that had stealthily covered under the cover of Han Li’s puppets.
Marquis Nanlong stared at the tiger demon puppets and the devil corpse that had nearly launched a successful stealth attack on him.
“A refined corpse?!” When Marquis Nanlong clearly saw the devil corpse, he shouted with surprise.
At that moment, the tiger demon puppets quickly crowded around Han Li. Han Li then raised his hands and stretched out his fingers, with one hand covered in dense bolts of flickering lightning and the other holding a small ball of purple flames.
With that done, Han Li emotionlessly glanced at Marquis Nanlong.
Marquis Nanlong snorted. With Han Li’s magic power restored, there was no point to make any further attempts to suppress him. But what particularly shocked him was how Han Li had released so much Divine Devilbane Lightning and still had so much in reserve.
If he remembered correctly from before he was sealed, the Divine Devilbane Lightning was extremely harmful to Elder Devils as himself, but there were very few treasures capable of producing it and they were only able to summon the lightning once or twice before running dry.
If that weren’t the case, why else would the humans be completely powerless when the Elder Devils first invaded the mortal realm. But contrary to this fact was the person standing before him, who seemed to be able to draw a limitless amount of Divine Devilbane Lightning from his body. It was a problem how freely he was able to make use of it.
But he was particularly fearful of the purple flame that Han Li held in his other hand. Although he didn’t know what this was, his instincts screamed that it was dangerous ever since it had appeared.
As for the mechanical puppets, he didn’t take them to heart. After all, they posed no threat to him in combat. They simply surprised him when they first appeared. As for the strange refined corpse, its aura was interesting, but it was only an opponent that possessed an early Nascent Soul cultivation; he also had nothing to fear from it.
As the Elder Devil thought this, he couldn’t help but recall the two Nascent Soul cultivators that he had battled against earlier.
When Ancestor Linghu and the white-clothed woman saw that Marquis Nanlong and Han Li had ceased fighting for the time being, they felt a wave of dread and didn’t dare to command their ancient treasures to attack. They simply ordered their treasures to remain still. As for Ancestor Linghu’s ring, it had shrunk and began to hum as it floated in the air.
At that moment, a series of explosions sounded out and Marquis Nanlong turned to look at their source in surprise.
He saw that the ball of grey-white flame rupture in the air. A cloud of golden beetles emerged from the flames unscathed. And with the flames gone, the glowing green ghost claw had disappeared alongside them. Marquis Nanlong’s expression turned gloomy at the sight of this.
Having escaped their prison, the golden beetle cloud immediately rushed towards Han Li.
After a moment of silence, Marquis Nanlong wore a savage expression and said, “I didn’t expect that your abilities were so vast. Fishing your Nascent Soul with ordinary means is rather inconvenient. Since this is the case, I’ll have to regretfully kill you. Additionally, this body has already reached the end of its usefulness, so it is no matter even if it ruins.”
He then took a deep breath and emitted black devilish Qi from his body. At that same time, the sounds of breaking bones could be heard from his body. Following this, his body grew a meter taller, and his neck and shoulders began to warp with protrusions as if something were about to emerge from them.
As soon as Han Li saw this, he immediately reacted and waved his arms. From one hand, several arcs of golden lightning fused together and pounced forward in the form of a golden python. From the other hand shot out an ordinary ball of purple flame.
At that same time, Han Li released a muffled cry, commanding the Gold Devouring Beetles to fly forward. As for the Sovereign Devil Corpse and the tiger demon puppets, they remained in place to guard against any sneak attacks.
To the side, Ancestor Linghu and the white-clothed woman glanced at each other before pointing at their treasures and activated them. Suddenly, a beam of rainbow light shot out, arriving a step faster than Han Li’s attacks. As for the milky white ring, it grew to three meters in size and moved to cover Marquis Nanlong. Having suffered from the Elder Devil’s strange techniques, they couldn’t allow him to successfully pull off another or they would face even greater danger.
Marquis Nanlong was completely unfazed when he saw these oncoming attacks. Rather, the rainbow light completely disappeared when it touched the black Qi that covered his body as if it were being absorbed.
At that moment, the golden lightning python, the purple fireball, and the huge white ring simultaneously struck Marquis Nanlong. The Gold Devouring Beetles were lagging somewhat behind, but they were on the way to attack regardless.
As for the other attacks, Marquis Nanlong was unwilling to receive them and the black Qi surrounding his body trembled before instantly shooting out at great speed, carrying him along with it.
This ten-meter-wide ball of black Qi protected him as it flickered through the air. All of the attacks weren’t able to reach him as his speed and evasive maneuvers were truly unordinary, preventing any attack from landing for the time being.
When the white-clothed woman saw her attack negated, she resentfully willed her mirror to repeatedly shoot out beams of rainbow light, but they still missed him.
This chase had already continued for a short moment, and much to Han Li’s frustration, neither of his attacks have landed despite using his spiritual sense to control them.
Then, Han Li suddenly heard the Monarch of Soul Divergence in his mind, “Youngster, if you have no other killing methods up your sleeve, I urge you to escape. Elder Devils greatly differ from the cultivators of the mortal realm. They are all cruel and brutish, each of them well versed in combat. Although they come and go from our realm, none of them are as vicious as a high-grade Elder Devil. If they are earnest, you definitely aren’t a match for them. Since I’ve yet to refine my final grand Nascent Soul puppet, I don’t wish to die alongside you.”
When Han Li heard this, he didn’t reply. Rather,
a harsh expression appeared on his face and he suddenly waved his sleeves. In the blink of an eye, a clear ring sounded out and several tens of small golden swords flew out, each taking the form of a foot-long golden streak of light. They then spiralled away and fluttered through the air under Han Li’s command.
Han Li expressionlessly struck his swords with several streaks of spell seals and had them all tremble several times, before forming over a hundred identical copies of themselves in a display of blinding radiance. Han Li formed an incantation gesture with his hands and shouted, “Go!” The swordlights simultaneously rang and trembled before disappearing from sight. In an instant, Han Li had laid down the Aureate Sword Formation in front of him.
The Monarch of Soul Divergence yelped in alarm and he leisurely said, “A sword formation! You still had techniques you haven’t yet used? Then pretend I didn’t say anything just now. However, I do wish to see why you hold this sword formation in such high confidence.”
“Senior will soon know what this sword formation is. It is hard to say whether or not this sword formation will be able to strike down the Elder Devil if it were his true body, but since he’s possessed the body of a human cultivator, I should be able to rid him of his container at the very least, given that I don’t kill him.”
The Monarch of Soul Divergence wryly chuckled and said, “Youngster, don’t boast and overestimate yourself. Haven’t you already experienced the brute force of the Elder Devil’s possessed body and his vicious devil arts?”
Chapter 845: Two Heads, Four Arms
Han Li’s heart stirred upon hearing the Monarch of Soul Divergence’s warning and he asked, “From your tone, it seems you’ve had personal experiences dealing with Elder Devils. I thought you never entered Devilfall Valley.”
Monarch Soul Divergence snorted several times and annoyedly said, “Oh? Could it be you didn’t hear me before? I had several good friends who enter the valley. Although they all possessed exceptional abilities, only one of them was able to escape alive with their combined powers. Surely this displays the power of the Elder Devils.”
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 455