With that said, Han Li thought of the black-robed woman’s shield and his own flying swords. He felt that this would be quite troublesome as magic tools and treasures of this age would almost always be refined with some sort of metal.
“Hehe, is that so? I’ll have to properly educate you on the matter...”
The Silver-winged Nightfiend brought the conversation to a close and held out his hand, summoning a ball of blinding golden light. Then, he raised his other hand into the air and released beams of grey light to the dried corpses chained to the stone pillars.
In the blink of an eye, the beams entered the many corpses without a trace.
Han Li wasn't able to stop this and his heart sank, knowing that matters were far from good.
The chains all fell to the ground with reverberating clings. The freed dried corpses all opened their dark green eyes before taking several unsteady steps towards Han Li.
When the corpses came to a stop, they all stared at Han Li without emotion.
Standing in place with arrogant bearing, the nightfiend imposingly said, “These incarnations were refined with Baleful Corpse Qi. You have no chance of winning. If you obediently hand over your life, I might spare you the pain of having your soul refined!”
Han Li looked at the dried corpses all around him in silence before eventually letting out a long sigh.
“I truly didn’t expect that there would be an opportunity to use this treasure. I don’t know if you are just unlucky, or if I am!” With that muttered, Han Li slapped a particularly exquisite storage pouch that hung from his waist. Wind blew, followed by a fist-sized ball of light flying around him before falling into his hand.
The Triflame Fan was made of feathers, several inches large, and colored gold, silver, and red. Talisman markings and spirit patterns densely covered its surface in multiple layers, resulting in intermittent fluctuations in the color of its spiritual aura. Whenever multiples of these many markings appeared simultaneously, it made for an entrancing sight.
At that moment, the Silver-winged Nightfiend had already finished casting his technique and rushed to be the first to attack.
With a shout, he launched the ball of light from his hand into the air.
As it spun, it released golden rays in every direction.
When these rays of light emerged, they immediately took the form of needles, circling once around the ball before rushing towards the crown of Han Li’s head.
Golden light filled the air and struck down at Han Li like falling rain. However, Han Li made no attempt to dodge.
As for the dried corpses, they simultaneously raised their hands and gathered together countless Ghostfiend Threads, weaving together near the ground.
In the blink of an eye, a huge net suddenly appeared below him and moved to trap him.
Such a large net contained an astonishing amount of baleful Qi. Ordinary cultivators would lose control of their magic power and bodies from the sheer proximity to such great baleful Qi. But since Han Li’s body was previously afflicted with baleful Qi and tempered with the Bright Jade Arts, it hadn’t affected him in the slightest.
Regardless, the net closed on him with such great momentum that even Han Li was surprised.
Then, his expression turned grim and he clasped his hands together, expanding the Triflame Fan to the size of a meter in a flash.
Holding the fan with a single hand, Han Li concentrated the entirety of his body’s magic power into it and firmly waved it.
What followed left him in complete astonishment. He sensed the fan absorb most of his body’s magic power in an instant, nearly causing him to throw it away in fear.
Fortunately, the fan eventually ceased absorbing his magic power and let out a phoenix’s cry. The fan trembled and a tri-colored flame surged out, condensing into a meter-wide phoenix with feathers of gold, silver, and red.
This strange scene left Han Li at a loss. He originally thought to wave the fan once more at the golden needles, but his current magic power was quite lacking. Instead, his flying swords flared with golden light and quickly fluttered in the air, creating the image of a blooming lotus around him.
Not stopping there, he spat a mouthful of blood essence on the Snow Crystal Pearl above him. It violently trembled before releasing a deep purple flame.
Under the control of a spell seal, the deep flames nimbly formed a circle around him, crackling as temperatures suddenly dropped.
The flames dispersed to suddenly form a thirty-meter-tall wall of ice. It glowed with purple light and surrounded him.
At that moment, the countless golden needles struck the ice wall.
Upon impact, gold and purple light flared together with each impact letting out a clear ring. Specks of golden light lit the wall and holes that were several inches deep riddled it, but continued to hold firm against the repeated waves of assault.
While the wall was only three-meters-thick, the damage had already shredded a foot, much to Han Li’s concern.
Although Han Li didn’t know it, the nightfiend was quite astonished as well.
Although his golden needles were refined with metal-attribute spiritual Qi, they weren’t created from replenishable materials. They were slowly refined from a chunk of unknown metal he had found long ago.
After being tempered for several thousands of years in corpse flames, their might was quite significant. They were much more penetrating than other needle-type magic treasures.
Now that his overwhelming attack was being effectively resisted, he was dumbstruck. Not long ago, he had managed to break a piece of purple ice with his golden light.
Of course, the Silver-winged Nightfiend couldn't have known that the flames Han Li had summoned with his blood essence weren’t ordinary Purple Apex Flames. Rather, it was a thread of ice flame essence he had purified with the assistance of the Snow Crystal Pearl after he took the Snow Soul Pills.
As the coldness of these flames couldn't be compared to his ‘ordinary’ Purple Apex Flames, they also required significant magic power to control, but under the circumstances, Han Li had to resort to blood essence.
Then, the tri-colored phoenix struck the huge grey net underneath him.
The huge net flashed and released a myriad of grey threads of capture the phoenix, instantly covering it from view in a dense volley.
Upon seeing the incoming attack, the phoenix let out a melodic cry and circled once in the air, leaving mysterious halos of light around it. Then, tri-colored light continuously glowed from within the halos, bursting with profound colorful talisman characters in a gorgeous display.
When the Ghostfiend threads entered the halos, an inconceivable event resulted!
Chapter 992: The Triflame Fan’s Power
Within the tri-colored phoenix’s halos of light, the vast barrage of Ghostfiend Threads trembled before evaporating into wisps of grey smoke.
At that moment, the tri-colored phoenix began to launch its true attacks and expanded its wings before turning into a huge fireball. The halos of light around it pulsed for a moment and suddenly surged in size all around it.
A wheel of gold, red, and silver light took form within the giant surrounding net of Ghostfiend Threads. Talisman characters of various sizes roamed around it, each one incredibly profound and awe-inspiring.
This gorgeous scene captured Han Li’s and the Silver-winged Nightfiend’s attention.
Under the glow of colorful radiance, the giant wheel of light disappeared in a pulse.
Soon after, the hundred-meter-wide net of Ghostfiend Threads had disappeared as well.
The Silver-winged Nightfiend unconsciously fanned his wings with a blank expression of disbelief.
That giant net consisted of nearly all the Baleful Corpse Qi he had ever cultivated. Now, he only had barely enough to control his corpse incarnations, and they were no longer capable of any significant attacks.
A single wave of a fan had decimated countless years of dedicated cultivation. Given its immense power, if he we
re trapped in that tri-colored wheel of light, his death would be certain.
The wheel of light’s flames strangely also made no changes in temperature. It operated underneath other worldly laws, accessing cosmic power that should only belong to Deity Transformation cultivators.
Although he had never encountered cultivators on the same level as a true Gold-clad Lunar Corpse, he had experienced countless years in this world.
The recent strike contained a very slight amount of cosmic power, but it was enough to inspire fear in the Silver-winged Nightfiend.
‘What treasure is in his hand, and how can it be so fearsome?’
Given his cultivation, if he had a suitable top-grade treasures on hand, he wouldn’t be completely at this attack’s mercy. But ever since he gained awareness, he has been trapped in the spell formation and never had the opportunity to refine such a treasure.
Were it not for the cultivators that entered the cave, he wouldn’t have been able to turn them into corpse fiend incarnations and his actions would’ve been incredibly restricted.
Although he acquired a large assortment of treasures from the cultivators he killed, there were none that caught his eye apart from the Evil Moon Mirror. With only one treasure being of acceptable quality, he had invested great time and effort into it, resulting in many exclusive abilities requiring it. As such, Han Li’s destruction of the mirror that thrown the nightfiend into a rampage.
As of current, the endless strikes from the golden needles had destroyed nearly half of Han Li's ice wall. Under these circumstances, only one thing came to Han Li’s mind. He summoned a small bottle from a slap of his storage pouch and he poured a drop of Myriad Year Spirit Milk into his mouth.
With abundant magic power flowing through his meridians, Han Li put the bottle away and coldly glared at the distant nightfiend. He tightly grasped the fan once more and spun it in his hand.
Radiant light blossomed from the fan and shining talisman characters began to flicker.
This time, Han Li planned on exterminating him.
Fortunately, the Silver-winged Nightfiend was restrained to this area and couldn't escape. No matter how powerful the attack, it wouldn’t have mattered if it didn't land.
The nightfiend’s expression betrayed horror.
Given the scope of the fan’s recent attack and the limited area within the light barrier surrounding them, he had no choice but to resist the attack.
Cursing in his mind, the nightfiend gritted his teeth and pointed to the golden ball of light floating in the sky.
It immediately stopped releasing rays of light and shot into his body with a crackle. A layer of sparkling golden light then emerged around his body.
In that same moment, his mouth and spat out a cloud of black corpse Qi that strangely twinkled with an inky light, and soon merged with his golden light barrier.
When Han Li saw this, he coldly chuckled and began to pour the entirety of his body’s magic power into fan, but suddenly, the spell formation beneath them began to violently tremble. The entire light barrier fluctuated before disappearing in a brief flash of grey.
This sudden surprise forced Han Li to pause.
Before he realized what had happened, the earth around the spell formation began to break and release blinding light from underneath. There were nearly a hundred spirit stones embedded in the ground, and those began to fuse with the original formation to create an entirely new one!
“This is...”
Han Li recognized what had appeared after just a moment. A huge teleportation formation was activating.
This caused his heart to sink.
Who knew where this could take him? He flusteredly put away his wall of ice and thunder rang out, immediately moving to escape from the range of teleportation, but Han Li was clearly too late.
The formation suddenly began to drone and blinding white light covered hundreds of meters out, starting at the center of the spell formation. When the light faded away, there was nothing left behind. Han Li, the Silver-winged Nightfiend, and the other cultivators had completely disappeared.
No one could’ve known that this also happened in three other rarely-known places in the Great Jin, all trapping unknown and dangerous monsters.
...
The high-grade cultivators of the Ye Clan were all gathered above a small lake in Nanjiang, currently in a fluster.
The square-faced middle-aged cultivator had grabbed the clothes of an aging old man. With an ashen complexion, he shouted, “What’s going on!? Wasn’t the spell formations we placed supposed to conceal the spectacle of the seal’s destruction? Is there something wrong with them or did they just not activate? All cultivators within several thousands kilometers will be able to see what is happening. Countless cultivators will gather here, and it will result in the extermination of our entire clan!”
Behind him, the other Ye Clan cultivators were looking particularly grim.
At the heart of the small lake, there was a hundred-meter-wide white pillar shooting up to the sky as far as the eye could see. There were six other various-colored light surrounding it.
The white-haired old man, the spell formation grandmaster responsible for dissolving the seal, felt panicked and said, “I-I don’t know. I clearly examined the concealment formations yesterday and commanded my disciples to activate it this morning.”
“Second Brother, release Nephew Long! He had put meticulous effort into dissolving the seal. Quickly, activate the concealment spell formations if they are dormant. If there are any mistakes, immediately correct them. If we can repair the issues soon, at worse we can resolve this problem by killing all the cultivators in the surrounding thousand kilometers.” The one who spoke was a Confucian scholar in his thirties. He had white robes and flawless skin, but his words were completely ruthless.
As soon as that was said, the square-faced cultivator immediately let go of the old man. Then, the Confucian scholar pointed to the other Ye Clan elders, and they bowed, following his orders, “Yes, Grand Elder!” They promptly departed.
With the orders given, the scholar turned to the white-haired old man and asked, “The concealment spell formations have gone awry, but what about the seal destruction?”
The scholar’s emotionless voice caused the old man to tremble. He replied with a respectful tone, “Grand Elder, there should be no problems. The seal on Kunwu Mountain has already begun to crack and is only growing weaker. In about a year's time, the entire seal should disappear.
The young scholar indifferently said, “Yes, that will do. Immediately gather together the lower-grade disciples and prepare to depart. Conceal yourself where we planned. If anybody dares to show themselves in that year, they will be subject to the clan’s punishments.”
The old man’s heart trembled once more upon hearing this and he quickly acknowledged the order. Then, he dropped down to the ground and went out of sight.
The other cultivators had regained their calm at this point and were calmly floating in the air.
The location of the concealment spell formations wasn’t far away and given the speed of the Nascent Soul cultivators, it only took a short moment before they returned.
One of the Ye Clan elders that went to investigate had returned with expressions of furious alarm.
“Grand Elder! The concealment formations have all been destroyed, and the disciples that managed them have disappeared without a trace."
When this was said, the scholar’s expression sank and a cold glint flashed from his eyes.
When the other cultivators heard this, they were thrown into panic.
Chapter 993: Change in the Sky
Not long after, the others returned from examining the concealment formations and they all found the same result. The formations were annihilated and the disciples in charge had disappeared.
With this, all those present felt that there was something greatly amiss and they fell silent.
The scholar bitterly laughed and said, “There are no other
cultivators within fifty kilometers. And it is too timely an occurrence for someone to break our concealment while we are dissolving the seal. It seems this is the doing of one of us.”
“One of us?”
“How is that possible? There are only Ye Clan members here. What is going on?”
“No, there is someone that doesn’t truly belong to our clan!”
After some discussion, it was obvious who came to mind.
A majority of the cultivators all turned to look at a single person.
He had a common appearance and a calm face; he was the disguised Elder Devil.
The Ye Clan Grand Elder said, “Elder Han is someone that I personally invited, and he has always remained at Seventh Uncle’s side.”
“That’s right!” The large-headed eccentric said, “Fellow Daoist Han has always stayed close.”
When the other cultivators heard this, their suspicions were dispelled.
Then, the scholar turned to the square-faced cultivator and said, “Second Brother, can you check the bottom of the lake and see if there is anyone missing apart from the disciples that have disappeared.”
“Yes,” the square-faced man readily agreed. Afterwards, he flew deep underwater in a radiant streak.
The scholar solemnly said, “Clan Elders, let’s all make our preparations. Although an astonishing change had occurred and we can no longer conceal this matter, there will be no threats to us during this short time. Nanjiang has no extremely powerful sects and it will require at least half a month for those who could contend with us to arrive. We may not know what lies in Kunwu Mountain, but we will need to excavate its hidden treasures as soon as possible. The two Divine Spirit Treasures in particular must be acquired first, or we will not have the power to defend ourselves against the coming storm. Those parasites have been plotting against us for thousands of years, and will exterminate our clan given the opportunity. Failure is not an option.”
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 537