Chapter 1046: Devil Slaying
The Elder Devil swung his newly split sabers and released countless palm-sized black crescents in a dense barrage towards Han Li. He took no notice of the other cultivators and was hellbent on pursuing him alone.
This came as no surprise. Among the enemies that faced him, Han Li and Lin Yinping were the easiest to eliminate, but the Endless Sky Saintess Lin Yinping had Grand Imortal Xu with her.
Of course, the Elder Devil only concluded this because he never had an opportunity to fight Han Li at full strength.
When Han Li saw the devil’s overbearing assault, he maintained complete calm and waved his sleeve. Out produced a small shield that moved in front of him, quickly expanding to protect his front.
He then glanced at the devil and let out a sigh.
The Elder Devil looked at his expression from a distance and shortly paused in surprise at his reaction, but then, he immediately sensed a strange spiritual pressure from underneath him.
Before he could glance down, he heard a slash and a silhouette wrapped in yellow made an abrupt appearance from the ground ten meters behind him.
Soon after, the figure let out a shout and swung down the huge silver axe she held in her hands.
This was the horned woman Gui Ling who had remained hidden underneath where Han Li originally stood.
Before the blade of the axe even fell, its fearsome spiritual pressure shook the nearby ground causing the earth to quake with foot-deep holes.
The Elder Devil’s face fell and no longer moved to assault Han Li. He hurriedly turned around and sliced his swords in a cross. Two huge blades of light surged out to meet the silver axe just in time.
Black and silver light erupted as the attacks collided. A shockwave of both icy and searing air bloomed in every direction.
The black light blades managed to temporarily stop the huge axe’s descend for just a second before disappearing.
During that delay, the Elder Devil clasped two of his hands in an incantation gesture. With the sounds of cracking bone, his body surged in size. His clothes tore away to reveal a layer of sleek armor made from foot-wide black scales.
Inky devilish Qi covered his wounds and his flesh squirmed beneath, quickly healing itself.
After turning in the air, an ominous glint flashed in his eyes and he took a deep breath. He opened his mouth to release a wide shockwave at the axe. When they collided against the huge silver axe, the sound seemed to become solid and blocked the axe from falling any further.
The devil suddenly let out an ancient incantation and the black scales covering his body brightened, igniting in a dense layer of impressive black-purple flames.
Gui Ling’s heart trembled at the sight and she jumped back. With a loud shout, her body ferociously expanded and a layer of green armor fitted around her.
The silver axe grew alongside her, glistening with a brilliant glow. She chopped down with even greater strength.
Her sudden growth had surprised the devil. Although his own form was larger than hers, he had no choice but to stop his incantation as he raised his blades to meet the axe.
Upon impact, the both weapons let out a resounding boom, shaking the air around them. Already on guard, the Elder Devil suffered no damage. Rather, he used the momentum of the attack to quickly fly backwards.
But as he retreated, he wore a mocking smile. The azure halberd in one of his hands lit up with black flames and he launched it towards Gui Ling’s body.
It traveled with an immense speed matched only by a shooting star. In the blink of an eye, it struck Gui Ling’s armor and flashed.
Before the Elder Devil regained stable ground, he began his incantation once more in preparation to employ even more vastly powerful techniques. The halberd alone wouldn’t be enough to exterminate that tenacious horned woman.
But at that moment, something entirely unexpected occurred.
A faint black light burned three meters behind the devil. An inch-long crystalline black blade appeared silently in the air. Then with a flicker, it disappeared without a trace.
The Elder Devil suddenly gained a terrifying premonition and was about to fly away.
But before he could even try, one of his heads felt as if it had been stabbed through, and his spiritual sense cut with agony.
No matter how powerful his was, the surprise attack halted his movements.
In that short delay, a nearly indiscernible red line appeared at the neck of one of the heads. Soon after, it tumbled to the ground without any warning, and a fountain of blood spurted from its vacant neck.
A distance away, Han Li was holding his hands in a strange gesture and his complexion was pale and exhausted.
The pain from the Elder Devil’s spiritual sense was from his Great Development Technique’s Soulfright Thorn, though it was a simplified version.
Although he hadn’t cultivated the last few layers of the Great Development Technique and its power was far less potent than the true Soulfight Thorn, it had a great effect on anyone caught unaware. As such, he called this attack the Spirit Stun Thorn to differentiate the two.
Although the technique was much weaker, it still left him completely dizzy after using it once.
The Elder Devil’s remaining head wore an expression of disbelief, and howled with pain and rage. Devilish Qi soon entirely coated his body.
The devilish Qi burst all around him before he disappeared from sight.
Sixteen meters away, an astonishing change occurred.
A cloud of black Qi made a sudden appearance, followed by the maimed Elder Devil tumbling out from it. Although the loss of one of his heads hadn’t killed him, it severely injured him.
Gui Ling swinging down her axe; the beheading of the Elder Devil; his escape afterwards; all occurred in the blink of an eye.
The scene left the others completely dumbstruck!
Things had gone vastly awry to their original plan. They had intended on only distracting the devil so they could wait for an opportunity to use the teleportation formation to escape.
The thought of killing the devil hadn’t even occurred in their minds.
But now that it was a distinct possibility, how will their plan change?
In truth, Han Li actually planned on slaying the devil all along.
As for the strange blade that beheaded the devil, the cultivators up above hadn’t detected any signs of its appearance. When they wondered if the same could happen to them, they felt their hearts drop.
But in any case, the Elder Devil was out of luck! With so many cultivators attacking him at once, he had no opportunity to reprieve and was unable to make use of any of his greater abilities. Bafflingly enough, he was also gravely injured. Had the devil been able to make use of his secret abilities, it would be impossible for him to suffer in such state in a short amount of time.
The Elder Devil shot a hateful glance at Han Li on the sidelines before fleeing in the direction of the black-robed woman in a surge of black Qi. Under his current conditions, he had no further intention to risk his life to continuing the battle.
Han Li had different plans though, and a trace of derision smeared on his face.
A ball of silver light flared near the Elder Devil, followed by the sudden appearance of a silhouette.
Greatly frightened, the devil recoiled and prepared for the worst, binding himself in layers of boiling devilish Qi. But when he met the gaze of the newly-appeared cultivator, his body was enveloped in an entirely different world. He could sense nothing else apart from a pair of attractive purple eyes.
“A bewitchment technique!” With a spiritual sense comparable to a peak late-Nascent Soul cultivator, he was able to quickly recover. However, it wasn’t nearly fast enough, because an emerald streak suddenly appeared in front of him in a roll of thunder. He could clearly see golden lightning flashing from it too.
“Divine Devilbane Lightning!” the Elder Devil cried out. Had he not been injured, he would’ve been able to deal with
it well enough, but he could no longer afford to confront such an attack.
The devil waved his hand and devilish Qi condensed in front of him. Very rapidly, a small black shield moved forward to block the green streak as he blurred away, intending on arriving ten meters away. But on the way, thunder called from his side.
“Not good!” The devil’s heart trembled. Before he could take action, Han Li appeared in a spark of silver lightning. He waved his sleeve and released dozens of small golden swords and a purple flood dragon at the devil.
The timing of Han Li’s attack was superb. The devil wasn’t able to dodge in the slightest.
Helpless, the devil’s head strangely twisted around in Han Li’s direction. Then, he opened his mouth and released a surging black shockwave. Two devil arms blurred, bringing forth his black blades to meet Han Li’s attack.
But when the devil least expected it, a small black dagger appeared in front of where he originally faced, and flickered out of sight.
Chapter 1047: Sword Recovery
The Elder Devil’s attention was so focused on Han Li that the black dagger escaped his notice.
By the time he discovered it, it was too late.
A red line flashed from the Elder Devil’s neck and its last remaining head was cleanly lobbed off.
Han Li rejoiced, but before he could celebrate, the headless Elder Devil raised his two sabers and swung, flinging two black streaks towards him. Soon after, the headless body of the Elder Devil ruptured into dense clouds of devilish Qi.
Han Li felt surprised, but he had no intention of letting his prey escape. He clasped his hands together in an incantation gesture without hesitation and detonated the purple flame flood dragon that he previously released.
Blazing purple embers spread throughout an area of thirty meters like falling rain.
Several dozen small golden swords sliced through the two black streaks and scattered them. The flying swords then dispersed in every direction, shortly sparking golden lightning between them to create a giant net around the purple flame.
A huge crackle sounded out.
The majority of the devilish Qi didn’t make it very far and were frozen solid in a huge chunk of purple ice. The remaining black Qi was caught by the lightning net, evaporating them with huge bolts of lightning.
When Han Li saw this, he clasped his hands and solemnly uttered, “Rupture.”
Countless thin arcs of golden lightning leapt onto the purple ice as the net dissolved, completely rending it to dust and wiping away the soul of the Elder Devil concealed within.
Several treasures fell out from the extinguished devilish Qi as well.
When he glanced at two of the items there, his eyes lit up.
He flicked his finger and two arcs of golden lightning shot out, and immediately scattered the black threads surrounding them.
They were the two Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords Han Li had lost back at Devilfall Valley!
He rejoiced and quickly tested them with a mental command. The two blades leapt into the air before launching back into his hand.
The worry that had been plaguing his mind was now put at ease.
Fortunately, he would only have to shortly temper them before they return back to fighting form despite having remained seal for such a long while.
At that moment, the others blankly stared as Han Li slayed the Elder Devil with clean efficiency. Even its soul didn’t even have the opportunity to escape. The spectators couldn't help but look at each other with fear.
His human-like puppet, however, had left them completely baffled. They had no idea how Han Li called upon such a powerful cultivator. They hadn’t spotted this person ever since they arrived. Could it be his concealment techniques were at a level where he could hide in plain sight from the best of them?
With that thought, their hearts were thrown into further turmoil.
However, they weren’t ordinary people and were able to quickly calm themselves. Rather, they all made a tacit agreement to begin striking at the barrier protecting the teleportation formation.
The grey wall isolated the formation from the world and was produced from several flags surrounding the formation. There was also a restriction that was disabling its use.
Several attacks whistled through the air and crashed down.
Spiritual light flashed and rumbles shook the space. Much against their expectations, the barrier held firm against the assault. Be it the demon’s fierce attacks or Grand Immortal Xu, their strikes had only caused faint ripples.
They naively believed that they would be able to immediately leave following the Elder Devi’s defeat, but now their hearts tensed.
The Lion Hawk in particular was upset by this and wildly flailed its talons to no effect. Then with an ominous glint shining in its eye, it unleashed golden shockwaves from its mouth towards it, leaving a deep depression in the barrier and visibly putting it under great strain.
Grand Immortal Xu’s mind stirred at the sight of this, and he commanded his Keen Spirit Peacock to spread out its wings and rainbow release a gust of rainbow light as well. To the side, Lin Yinping followed suit and repeatedly spat out silver light to strike at the same spot. The Silver-winged Nightfiend condensed countless Ghostfiend Threads into a huge python to add on to the relentless assault.
They all knew that breaking through would be key to escaping so they spared no effort.
In the blink of an eye, an astonishing spiritual light completely enveloped the barrier.
Sounds of cracking had finally begun to ring. By then, Han Li and Gui Ling had arrived in several blurs. The human-like puppet had disappeared from sight along the way.
Han Li appeared entirely calm when he arrived, but his presence inspired fear in the others. And with his timely arrival, the formation flags finally howled and split in two, dissolving the barrier to the teleportation formation. The cultivators immediately made a mad rush inside.
But before anyone actually reached it, several balls of light ruptured and the cultivators fell to the ground.
Following that mutual attack, the others backed away from one another.
Grand Immortal Xu held an azure pearl in his hand and furiously glared at Han Li. “Fellow Daoist Han, what are you doing!?”
“I should be asking you that,” Han Li replied with a mysterious smile. There were several golden swords floating in front of him, and he was holding the fearsome Triflame Fan in his hand.
With his wings wrapped around his body, the nightfiend glared at Han Li and coldly said, “The first one to leave will be me! I don’t trust any of you humans!”
“Haha, that will be difficult,” Han Li’s smile disappeared and he spoke with an icy tone, “This small formation can only move two people at once. If the formation is destroyed from the other side, where are we to go?”
With that said, the others began to slowly encircle the formation.
The three parties stared each other down in a standoff.
When they finished the circle, an overly sweet voice sounded out from the direction of the palace, “You killed one of my brethren in front of me? Don’t think even think about escaping!”
Despite how far away the voice spoke from, everyone could clearly hear her cold and furious tone.
In the instant her subordinate was slain, Devil Ancestor Yuan Cha sensed it.
By using nearly half of the Black Wind Flag’s power, the woman managed to completely overwhelm the Ninetruths Devil Suppression Formation. Even the Eight Spirit Ruler was completely ineffective against its power. It had summoned the eight spirit beast phantoms to besiege her, but the Black Wind Flag’s supreme power kept them at bay.
The woman originally planned on first dealing with the formation before subduing the ruler, but now that her only subordinate had unexpectedly perished, her ire was raised.
The black-robed woman’s expression turned icy and she spat out several crimson flags into the air. Afterwards, she flicked her fingers and struck them all with spell seals.<
br />
Blinding light flared from each of them and they surged in size, growing thirty meters tall in the blink of an eye. These giant flags had purple incantation characters and black Qi roaming across its surface.
With the appearance of the flag, the nearby tornados surged with power and twisted viciously, slowly scraping away at the altars establishing the Ninetruths Formation. The golden blades of light were launching attacks into the winds with fervor but it was clear that the formation was nearing its limits.
When the black-robed woman grew closer to the palace, the Eight Spirit Ruler wasn’t able to exhibit most of its power and could only attack her with its eight beast phantoms. However, the Black Wind Flag blew them astray and their figures grew unsteady.
The cultivators and demons hearts trembled with the sudden and violent surge of wind following the black-robed woman’s threat. The three parties then glared at one another, fearing that they would leave through the teleportation formation first.
With rumbling from the direction of the palace and dark clouds blocking the sky, a dozen black tornados converged together and caused the air itself to tremble. Han Li felt an immense sense of dread from this and immediately said, “Let’s first have Fellow Daoist Gui and Fellow Daoist Lin teleport through. Gui Ling is a demon beast and old friends of the Nightfiend and the Lion Hawk. Fellow Daoist Xu should be more at ease once Fellow Daoist Lin crosses over. For our second group, the Lion Hawk and Fellow Daoist Xu will cross over, then lastly, I will cross over with the Nightfiend. Let’s hurry before we all die!”
Grand Immortal Xu and the others also sensed that something terrible was on the verge of creation. But even so, they had misgivings about the plan, but with no better option they couldn't afford to delay any further. After exchanging a glance with one another, they nodded.
Gui Ling immediately followed Han Li’s commanded and stepped into the formation with Lin Yinping.
But unbeknownst to anyone, just as the two stepped in, it lit up with white light and a silhouette appeared within.
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 565