The remaining cultivators were thoroughly struck were fear and the South Sea Sect found themselves between a rock and a hard place. They could only continue to gather more cultivators so that they may resume the hunt.
One day, a group of a dozen Core Formation cultivators being led by a Nascent Soul cultivator was slowly flying across the sea. They had carefully released their spiritual sense around them, taking extra care to look into the sea below them.
Among these cultivators was Han Li, who was disguised as a pale middle-aged man. He was flying at the back of the group with a calm expression, contrary to the irritation he felt.
When the flood dragon extermination was called, Han Li entered their ranks as a Core Formation cultivator, hoping to take advantage of the situation. But he didn’t expect that he wouldn’t make any gains during this time.
Ever since the flood dragons had resurfaced, all squads that went out on patrols were ambushed once or twice. The squad he joined was the only one that hadn’t encountered a single one.
This caused Han Li to be speechless. He truly didn’t know if his luck was amazing or utterly terrible.
Chapter 965: Fighting Flood Dragons
Currently, Han Li’s party was thousands of kilometers to the west of Jade Blossom Island.
A few days ago, a party of cultivators were ambushed by a grade-eight blue flood dragon. Although the flood dragon was rather cunning and wouldn’t likely to stay in the vicinity, the South Sea Sect had sent them on a search regardless to see if they could acquire any unexpected gains.
When in the presence of so many people, Han Li couldn’t fully use his spiritual sense or he would risk attracting the attention of the Nascent Soul cultivator leading their squad. He could only release enough spiritual sense for him to detect traces of the flood dragons ahead of time, which was five kilometers around him and the surface of the ocean.
As the day went on, they finished most of their search, but surprisingly, they weren’t able to find anything.
Suddenly, a cultivator at the front yelled out in surprise, “What’s that!?”
Han Li turned his attention from the sea to the sky after hearing this, catching sight of surging clouds that spanned for over a kilometer flying towards them.
An uproar was raised amongst the group and one of them shouted with delight, “This is good! There should be a high-grade demon beast within. Do not allow it to escape.”
One of the more vigilant cultivators hesitantly said, “Something is amiss. Those flood dragons usually flee as soon as they see us. So then why would they take the initiative to approach us? Do they have some sort of plan?”
The Nascent Soul cultivator leading the squad was a large middle-aged man who wore golden robes. He frowned when he heard the two and unconsciously turned in their direction. However, his face suddenly froze and he loudly shouted, “Be careful! There are demon beasts approaching us from another direction!”
When the group heard this, they were frightened into action. They all spat out their magic treasures and prepared themselves for battle, but as far as the eye could see, they couldn’t find any trace of a demon beast.
The cultivators glanced at one another. Just as they were about to speak, an ear-piercing roar shook the air. Then, various-colored clouds had appeared in the distance. They continuously lurched and revealed the faint silhouettes of flood dragons from within.
But what was most noteworthy were the two particularly large demon clouds in the east and the west, glowing in red and blue light respectively, making for a gorgeous display.
At this close distance, the cultivators could feel the fearsome power of the flood dragons that the clouds contained. Most turned pale with terror, and one of them even lost himself to fear and cried out, “How can this be? Two grade-eight demon beasts...”
Another grade-eight flood dragon had made a sudden appearance. They were no longer satisfied with ambushing them, but now wanted to completely eliminate them. The hunters have turned into the hunted.
The squad leader was still able to keep his calm under the circumstances and he fiercely barked, “Don’t panic! Quickly send word to the other squads! Divide into groups to face the enemy. Do not let them gather together, their strength will become even greater. And don’t even try to escape; with their water movement techniques, they’ll be able to pick us off one by one.”
The orders steadied the group and several immediately released a flurry of voice transmission talismans into the sky.
The leader then sullenly added, “I will go and deal with one of the grade-eight flood dragons. Two cultivators skilled in evasion techniques should tie down the other to keep it occupied for a while. You don’t need to fight it. As for everyone else, go and stall the grade-seven flood dragons.”
But this time, the cultivators looked at each other in dismay.
Although these cultivators couldn’t prove to be their match, they were confident in surviving the grade-seven flood dragons for a time. But wasn’t it asking for too much for only two of them to fight against the grade-eight flood dragon? Even if it were only to stall for time, ordinary cultivators couldn’t last for long.
“If two won’t do, then let’s have three!” Their leader anxiously spoke.
Not long after, thunder sounded out and an astonishing scene had occurred. An unremarkable cultivator from their group suddenly took to the skies with overbearing momentum, turning into a streak of blinding azure light as it flew towards the crimson cloud.
“A Nascent Soul cultivator, at mid-Nascent Soul stage!” Those present shouted out in both surprise and delight.
Their leader also rejoiced. ‘Could it be the South Sea Sect felt that something was amiss and hid a Nascent Soul cultivator in my group?’
With that thought, he turned his sights on the incoming sapphire cloud and charged towards it without another thought.
Seeing that the two biggest threats were being blocked by Nascent Soul cultivators, the squad’s morale rose and they flew off in different directions to obstruct the other approaching demon clouds.
Soon, lights began to shine in every direction, followed by the sounds of distant explosions.
But unlike the others, the cloud in front of Han Li remained motionless as a sea of scarlet inferno burned around him. He was protected by a layer of faint purple flames, and it would only let out the crackle of an occasional singe, a sound that was nothing in comparison to the thunderous booms echoing from the other battles.
A hundred meters in front of him, there was a transformed half-human demon beast. He was surrounded by a pillar of flames and was coldly glaring at Han Li. Although the demon appeared to be mostly human, his body was covered in sparkling fist-sized scarlet scales and variously-sized threads of flame were streaming out from his body.
Han Li widely smiled and said, “So it was actually a Scarlet Flame Flood Dragon, I was right in coming. Your scales will prove much more effective than a grade-seven one.”
“You’re going to fight me?” The transformed scarlet flood dragon blankly stared at Han Li before widely grinning, revealing snow-white fangs. Then with a green glint from his eyes, the flame pillar surrounding him surged with an astonishing pressure.
Despite the flood dragon’s fierce display, he truly felt anxious.
The cultivator who charged towards him was not only at mid-Nascent Soul stage, but his purple ice-attribute flames were profoundly lethal. Those strange flames restrained his own diligently cultivated demon flames, which would greatly restrict his own abilities in the coming battle.
Furthermore, Han Li’s calm attitude had caused his heart to tremble for some unknown reason. The flood dragon faintly felt that disaster would soon befall him, and became even more uneasy.
Han Li chuckled and indifferently said, “The reason why I came here was because I heard that there were grade-seven flood dragons. Now that you’re here, I no longer have any interest in those minor prizes. However, I also don’t have much of an interest in killing
you since you were able to cultivate to this stage and am willing to let you go. How about you take the initiative to hand over the vital scales on your neck and have the other flood dragons depart?”
“My vital scales? Your tone is truly bold. Does a trifling mid-Nascent Soul cultivator dare to be so arrogant? Let's see if your attitude will persist after you turn to ash.” Han Li’s words had thrown the flood dragon into a rage.
Vital scales were something that a flood dragon kept since they were born and were irreplaceable. As they aged, much of their magic power and vitality would be cultivated into their scales, similar to a demon core. If lost, they would lose nearly half of their cultivation.
Enraged, the half-human flood dragon began to distort and a soft bang sounded out. The flame pillar surrounding it scattered, revealing a twenty-meter-long and meter-thick scarlet flood dragon. The original fear in his mind was replaced completely by a thirst to rend Han Li to shreds.
As soon as the beast revealed its demon form, it opened its mouth and spat a stream of crimson lava towards Han Li.
When he saw this, he raised his brow and muttered, “Concentrated Flameslag! This demon flame has been well cultivated. It seems I’ll have to personally take action.”
With that said, Han Li didn’t dare to tarry. Slapping the back of his head, he spat out the Snow Crystal Pearl.
As soon as a pearl appeared, it immediately expanded to the size of a fist and directly flew forward to meet the attack. At the same time, Han Li softy spoke and pointed at the pearl before muttering a short incantation. The pearl ignited in a purple blaze, quickly forming a three-meter-long flood dragon of raging flame with the pearl held in its mouth.
As soon as the purple dragon took shape, it charged forward to meet the lava stream.
With a loud snap, a white mist suddenly filled the air and enveloped the two of them. The purple flame dragon was using the pearl in its mouth to spit out a stream of purple flames, slowly pushing back the lava.
When the scarlet flood dragon saw this, a hint of fear was betrayed from his face. But soon, an ominous gleam shined from his eyes and scarlet light glowed from his body as he let out a fierce screech.
The sea of flames surrounding Han Li was roused by the noise and began to form two thirty-meter-tall waves of flame to crush him from opposing directions.
Han Li coldly smiled when he saw this. He slapped his hands together and then separated them to point at the waves of lava.
Purple light flickered in front of him and a clear ring sounded out. A sparkling hundred-meter-tall mountain of brilliant ice suddenly condensed around him, firmly blocking the incoming tides of lava.
Upon this, the flood dragon blurred and reduced his body to a mere three meters in length.
As soon as that happened, the beast ceased spewing lava and shot towards Han Li in a scarlet streak. He traveled sixty meters in the blink of an eye and began to swipe its claws down.
Now that the flood dragon saw that its inferno was ineffective against Han Li, he planned on striking him down with his claws.
Chapter 966: Exterminating the Flood Dragon
When the Scarlet Flame Flood Dragon approached him, Han Li smiled. His sleeve trembled and a red light flew out before disappearing without a trace. Afterwards, thunder rang out from behind him, followed by the appearance of a pair of silver-white wings on his back.
In a flare of silver light, Han Li disappeared just as the flood dragon’s scarlet claws were about to strike him. Before he could recover from the missed attack, he heard a soft yet sharp shriek. As silent as it was swift, a translucent red needle arrived next to the flood dragon and was about to pierce through its head. It was the needle that Han Li had refined from crystallized demon core.
Currently, the only thing protecting the flood dragon were the flames surrounding its body.
When the scarlet flood dragon finally saw the needle arrive at his side, he felt engulfed in terror. Given no time to react, he could only twist his head to the side, but he was far too slow. Hiss. He let out a cry of agony let out and covered his face with his claw as blood freely flowed from it. The flying needle had left behind a hole in his face.
While the needle was incredibly sharp, it didn’t have the power to severly injure the flood dragon. So in the instant the needle pierced through, he mentally commanded it to immediately expand several times in size, multiplying the damage of the wound.
Before the flood dragon could rampage, he could hear a clap of thunder behind him, followed by the appearance of Han Li. He had waved his arm and released a three-meter-long golden streak directly towards him.
The scarlet flood dragon’s mood sank and he ignored the pain on his face. His tail flickered with light and grew several times in size before fiercely sweeping it at Han Li with reckless abandon, hoping to crush him first.
Han Li then frowned. As expected of a worldly spiritual beast, he was extremely quick to react, unlike ordinary human cultivators who were helpless in the face of his lightning movement ambushes. With a mental command, the golden swordstreak shifted direction to cleave through the flood dragon’s tail.
It had split through the red light surrounding the tail without resistance. The flood dragon felt his heart tremble at the sight and he hastily gathered the entirety of his spiritual power into his tail scales, turning them into shining red crystals.
Bang. Golden and scarlet light intertwined in a blinding display, forcing Han Li to close his eyes. It was only after employing the Brightsight eyes that he was able to glimpse at what was happening.
The golden sword condensed from several of his flying swords wasn’t enough to cleanly sever the flood dragon’s tail. Instead, it had only managed to break through the scales and cut a third of the way through before being firmly stopped by bone.
Han Li narrowed his eyes and held his hands in an incantation gesture, commanding the flying sword to withdraw. However, the flood dragon’s tail exerted immense strength and firmly held the sword in place.
“Let’s see how long you’ll last without your magic treasure!” The flood dragon wildly laughed and opened his mouth, spitting out a fist-size pearl in a flash of red light.
“His demon core!” Han Li narrowed his eyes as soon as he saw it.
The flood dragon knew he was at a disadvantage and steeled his heart, using this as an opportunity to trap the magic treasure and launch a counterattack.
Han Li’s expression contorted in disbelief and he loudly yelled, blurring and splitting into three exact copies of himself, putting the flood dragon at a loss.
Before he could recognize which Han Li was genuine, the three copies all tossed their sleeve with a sneer, each releasing a meter-long golden swordstreak.
In furious alarm, he could only hastily deploy his demon core at the center attack and brandish his glowing claws to meet the two others at either side.
Although he already saw the incisiveness of Han Li’s flying swords, he had no way of recognizing which of the three attacks were real. If his demon core could block the true strike, his life would be guaranteed. But if he missed, he could temporarily block it with his claws, as they were even harder than his tail, and use his demon core in the meantime to destroy him.
Just as these thoughts appeared in his mind, a deafening impact sounded out. The demon core had clashed against the golden swordstreak in a flash of red light and was pushed ten meters back.
‘So it was the middle sword,’ the flood dragon happily thought. However, the two other sword-streaks brilliantly flashed beside him and he felt an unbearable pain afflict his claws as they cleanly cut through and continue towards his body.
The flood dragon let out a fierce scream and his body flared with light as he attempted to dodge. However, purple flame quickly surged from beneath him in the shape of a lotus, enveloping him in a layer of frost.
In that moment of delay, the two golden swordstreaks burned with brilliant light before circling around the flood dragon’s head. Swoosh The flood dra
gon’s head fell from his body; the dense scales on his neck hadn’t offered the slightest resistance. With this, the other two clones had disappeared in a flicker of azure light.
Before the final strike, Han Li had formed an incantation gesture inside of his sleeve, channeling most of his body’s spiritual power into the two flying swords. As a result, the fearsome might of the infused Auric Essence had been fully displayed, and the swords carried forward with unyielding force.
Just as the flood dragon’s head tumbled off, Han Li pointed once more at the two swordstreaks. With a crack of thunder, two dense bolts of lightning shot out from the swords, layering the flood dragon’s corpse in a net.
A red light suddenly appeared from the stump of its neck, revealing a miniature flood dragon that flew out in a panic, but it was caught by the net of lightning. Just as it thought to change the direction of its escape, the net quickly closed in and captured it.
The flood dragon’s soul was struck with terror and it spat out strands of scarlet flame at the net with all its might in an attempt to break free.
Han Li coldly snorted when he saw this. The net soon shrunk to an area of three meters. Unlike with Nascent Souls, he didn’t plan on destroying the soul.
He summoned a small jade bottle into his hand and beckoned to the lightning net. Countless strands began to unravel towards the center of the net, and despite its greatest attempts, the flood dragons soul had nowhere to run. Soon, a fist-sized golden ball was weaved around it, completely restraining it.
He then pointed the bottle in his hand to the golden ball, and a mist of white light flew out before drawing the golden ball inside.
Han Li’s expression finally relaxed.
“Although I only have some skill in the Spirit Apparition Technique, it seems quite effective in a fight. It is no wonder Gold Mist Mountain carries it as their legacy technique,” Han Li muttered. He reached out to the still-blazing flood dragon corpse and recalled the golden sword stuck in its tail. Afterwards, he kept the head and the rest in the corpse in a storage pouch he specially prepared.
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 523