"What's wrong with having thoughts like this? If I recall correctly, you've been stuck at the fifth-tier for many years already, right? If you could make a powerful man like Mr. Han your Dao Partner, then you should be able to easily break through your bottleneck through dual cultivation. So what if you're still not very familiar with Mr. Han? Everyone starts off as strangers. As long as he doesn't leave this region, you'll have more chances to meet and interact with him. With your looks and talents, you can't tell me that he won't fall for you," the woman in black giggled with a teasing look in her eyes.
"Stop spouting nonsense, Sister! Mr. Han has to return to his own continent sooner or later, so how could he possibly stay here for long? Besides, perhaps he already has a Dao Companion." Qing Xiao finally managed to muster up a coherent response after forcibly recomposing herself.
"Hmm, that's indeed an issue. However, that sea beast is extremely cunning, and this region of the sea is extremely vast; tracking it down and killing it will be no easy task. As long as he's unable to recover the Spatial Cloud Crystal, he'll be forced to remain on Flame Coral Islands. In that case, what does it matter if Mr. Han already has a Dao Companion or not?" the woman in black replied with a nonchalant shake of her head.
This time, Qing Xiao didn't say anything in response. She merely looked on toward the direction that Han Li had departed in and heaved a barely audible sigh.
Chapter 1560: The Two Beasts
Over two months later, a streak of azure passed over a certain region of the ocean, flying along at low altitudes.
All of a sudden, the streak of azure light swerved around before flying toward another direction at several times faster than its original speed, covering a distance of over 100 feet in the blink of an eye.
As such, the monstrous fish that was trying to attack it chomped down onto empty air, but the fish whipped its tail through the turbulent waves to try and pounce toward it again.
Right at this moment, a loud cry rang out from within the azure light, and several tens of azure threads shot forth in a flash before revolving around the fish.
The massive sea beast was instantly sliced into countless pieces, and its remains plummeted from the sky amid a rain of rank green blood that stained the entire area of the nearby ocean.
The streak of azure light then continued onward toward along its original route in an unhurried manner.
Within the azure light, a young man who appeared to be in his twenties was standing motionlessly atop a massive azure sword with an indifferent expression on his face.
He was none other than Han Li, who had already been searching for the whale-like sea beast in this region for over 10 days.
Even though he hadn't been searching for his target for a long time, he was still struck by the feeling that he was searching for a needle in a haystack.
During these past few days, he had slain several similar insolent sea beasts that had attempted to attack him, but he'd found no leads indicating the whereabouts of the sea beast he was searching for.
Thankfully, there were many tiny islands in this region, and they were separated by distances of several tens of kilometers at most. As such, Han Li wasn't concerned about spiritual Qi expenditure. All he had to do was rest on one of those islands for a day or two every once in a while, and his magic power would be fully replenished.
Of course, during this time, Han Li wasn't just solely searching for that sea beast. If one could look into his body, then they'd discover a golden and azure Nascent Soul that was several inches tall situated within his dantian, blasting forth a constant stream of nascent flames to refine the small crystalline shield that it was holding.
Most of Han Li's magic power had been dedicated to this purpose.
After dissecting the monstrous moth that he'd slain earlier, he'd procured over 100 scales from it, and refined that small crystalline shield using those scales in conjunction with some other materials.
The refinement process wasn't very complex, but the materials required were rather special. Not only was this shield extremely hard and resolute, it had even inherited the monstrous moth's ability to refract light-based attacks, and that was quite a pleasing development for Han Li.
After a brief hesitation, he decided to refine this treasure into his body as well.
Aside from that, Han Li had also refined 360 flying sabers from the massive wings of the moth, each of which was around an inch in size. These flying sabers were all extremely sharp and could easily tear through normal armor and shields.
Unfortunately, the moth's beast core had been completely shattered. Otherwise, Han Li would've been interested in investigating the intricacies behind the monster's peculiar roars.
After all, he still didn't know how those soundwave attacks had managed to trigger such a reaction from the true spirit bloods within his body, and this presented quite an unsettling notion to him.
Who knew if his 12 Awakening Transformations possessed some kind of weakness that he was unaware of? What if he were to encounter an enemy with a similar ability in the future? Would the same occurrence repeat itself?
Han Li pondered these thoughts while aimlessly scouring the ocean down below with his eyes, as well as his spiritual sense.
According to Qing Xiao and her companion, this whale-like sea beast had been sighted many times in this area of the sea during the past century. As such, as long as he was willing to expend some time, there was a good chance that he'd encounter it sooner or later.
Most importantly, the sea beast possessed a type of extremely potent water movement technique that made it very difficult to kill.
However, during his search, he'd already devised some tactics to counteract this, so he was relatively confident in his ability to kill the sea beast after encountering it.
Han Li continued to sweep his gaze across the surface of the ocean, and his brows furrowed slightly.
There were some low-grade sea beasts in the nearby seabed, so the whale-like sea beast most likely wouldn't be in this area.
With that in mind, the streak of azure light accelerated slightly as Han Li flew further into the distance.
Thus, days passed by one after another.
Once every month or so, Han Li would rest on a small island for a few days to recover his magic power, then continued his search.
As a result, many of the slightly more powerful sea beasts were struck by ill-fortune.
Those who dared to attack Han Li were naturally all slain with ease, but those that were smart enough to avoid Han Li were left alone after he ascertained that they weren't the target that he was searching for.
Han Li was still yet to find the sea beast that he was looking for, but he did encounter a few signs that suggested that it had passed through certain areas that he was searching through.
There was even an occasion where he'd found a massive piece of beasthide that the sea beast had shed, and it was extremely sturdy and resolute, making it an exceptional tool refinement material.
However, Han Li didn't use it to refine any suits of armor. This section of beasthide was indeed quite sturdy, but it definitely still couldn't compare to his powerful body.
Instead, he refined a few talismans using the material, including a set of Nine Palaces Heavenly Talismans, as well as several Armor Origin Talismans and High Zenith Invisibility Talismans.
Among the talismans recorded on that half-page of the Golden Jade Tome, the Heavenly Halberd Talisman was the only one that he still couldn't refine.
However, ever since Han Li had progressed to the Spatial Tempering Stage and gained superior control over the world's origin Qi, a whole new world seemed to have been opened up to him, and he received some inspiration that took him closer to being able to refine the Heavenly Halberd Talisman.
Of course, he still didn't know when he'd be able to refine the talisman, but he was at least making progress.
Time flew by in a flash, and before Han Li knew it, he'd been roaming this region of the ocean for several years.
> However, he wasn't in any hurry. He'd only just recently progressed to the Spatial Tempering Stage, so there were still many things that he had to slowly learn over time. During these past few years, he was unable to cultivate his magic power much, but he'd made large strides in many of his cultivation arts and abilities.
On this day, Han Li was flying along at a leisurely rate while pondering a certain cultivation art as usual when he suddenly heard a strange cry erupt in the extremely far distance.
This was a cry that he'd never heard before, and he stirred as blue light flashed through his eyes.
Moments later, an elated look appeared on his face as he cast his gaze into the distance.
"I've finally found it! But what's that thing battling it right now?" Han Li murmured to himself as he transformed into an azure thread before accelerating into the distance.
After just a few flashes, the azure thread had covered a distance of several thousand feet, and following one final flash, it disappeared from view.
Close to a small island several hundred kilometers away, dark clouds obscured the entire sky and the ocean was raging with turbulent waves as two colossal creatures faced off against one another. One of them was a giant crimson prawn that was over 2,000 feet in length. It was half sprawled over a massive rock and possessed a translucent and smooth hard exoskeleton.
In the ocean not far away from the rock, there was a whale-like sea beast that was about twice the size of the giant prawn.
The sea beast possessed an identical body and tail to those of a whale, but the only difference was that its entire head was covered in scales, and there were also golden horns and a pair of long feelers protruding from its head, making it akin to the head of a wyrm.
The two giant beasts appraised one another with caution in their eyes, and the giant prawn was roaring incessantly. All of the dark clouds and turbulent waves in the nearby area had been conjured up by this massive beast.
In contrast, the giant whale-like monster was merely floating along in a completely silent wraith-like manner. However, its eyes were fixed firmly on the giant crimson prawn, and there was a hint of greed flashing through its eyes.
Even though the prawn was causing a massive commotion while the giant whale was quite silent and subdued in comparison, one could sense that the prawn was a lot more uneasy and was merely kicking up a ruckus in a futile attempt to intimidate its opponent.
All of a sudden, the whale-like sea beast suddenly turned toward a certain direction with a hint of bewilderment in its eyes.
Moments later, spiritual light flashed in the distance in that direction, and a barely visible azure thread shot forth toward them at an incredible speed, making no effort to disguise or conceal itself in the process.
Even the crimson prawn couldn't help but turn toward the azure thread with a wary look on its face.
The azure light receded, and Han Li appeared in the air directly in between the two giant beasts in a wraith-like manner, then looked down at them expressionlessly.
"There's no mistaking it; this is the beast I'm searching for. Hmm? And there's also a Bloodfire Prawn here as well; I'm in luck!" Han Li murmured to himself in an excited manner.
Immediately thereafter, he swept both sleeves through the air at once, and a clear cry rang out within one of his sleeves before several tens of small azure swords came flying out from within. The flying swords hurtled toward the whale-like sea beast, but suddenly disappeared into space mid-flight. Meanwhile, a black shadow emerged from within his other sleeve, and it swelled drastically in size to form a massive black mountain that came crashing down toward the Bloodfire Prawn.
At the same time, Han Li made a hand seal, and brilliant golden light erupted from his body as he conjured up the golden projection with three heads and six arms. The projection's six arms swept through the air, and six pillars of golden light shot forth, three of which were aimed toward the prawn while the other three flashed toward the whale-like sea beast.
Han Li had attacked both sea beasts at once, and he wasn't holding back in the slightest.
After activating his Provenance True Devil Arts to its maximal extent, the speed at which the pillars of golden light was traveling through the air was downright incredible!
After just a single flash, they were upon the two sea beasts.
Both of the sea beasts' hearts jolted with shock, and the whale-like sea beast opened its mouth to expel a ball of blue light, while the giant prawn conjured up a layer of crimson light that encapsulated its entire body.
A string of dull thumps rang out, and as soon as the three pillars of golden light made contact with the blue light, the latter was instantly destroyed, leaving the pillars of light to strike the whale's massive body.
A sharp cry immediately escaped from the sea beast's mouth as three gaping holes were blasted into its body. Blood gushed out like fountains from those puncture wounds, and the flow of blood simply refused to stop.
Chapter 1561: Repairing the Formation
The whale-like sea beast was naturally extremely stunned to see this.
The ball of blue light that it had unleashed didn't appear to be very noteworthy, but it was an extremely powerful defensive ability that drew on the essential power of water, and it had saved its life on countless occasions in the past.
As such, it was quite alarmed by the fact that the three pillars of golden light were able to pierce through it so easily, and it was immediately struck by a sense of foreboding.
The damage inflicted on its body by the golden light wasn't a cause for concern. The sea beast merely shook its mountainous body, and the sea around it tumbled and surged, following which countless specks of blue light emerged from the seawater before instantly filling its wounds.
Following a flash of spiritual light, the puncture wounds on its body were completely healed.
Han Li's eyes narrowed slightly upon seeing this.
Meanwhile, the other three pillars of golden light also struck the layer of crimson light, and even though the latter was once again vanquished with ease, the golden pillars of light had somehow become a lot thinner and weaker than they originally were.
The pillars of light struck the crimson prawn's exoskeleton amid three dull thumps, and the prawn's massive body shuddered before it flung off the rock that it was perched on.
However, only three indentations that were several inches deep had been left in its exoskeleton, and it hadn't been punctured by the golden light.
Han Li was quite surprised to see this, but that didn't stop him from continuing in his assault.
Right after the crimson prawn was blasted away by the three pillars of light, the small black mountain was already crashing down toward it.
The massive prawn's two front claws suddenly glowed with crimson light before expanding to several times their original size, and it hoisted them up into the air, preparing to use its immense strength to withstand the descending Divine Essencefused Mountain.
It was no wonder that the beast would be so complacent. After all, its massive body was around 2,000 feet in length while the small mountain was only just over 1,000 feet tall, so theoretically, there was no reason why it wouldn't be able to keep the mountain at bay.
However, as soon as its massive claws came into contact with the underside of the black mountain, grey light flashed, and a couple of crisp cracks sounded.
The pair of giant claws shuddered before being snapped into four segments by the enormous force of the descending mountain. The giant claws were completely shattered, but the black mountain continued to descend before crushing half of the prawn's body against the massive rock beneath it amid a rumbling boom.
The entire rock tremored violently and sank several tens of feet further into the ocean.
The crimson prawn roared with shock and fury while thrashing with all its might, but the black mountain was completely immovable, as if it had fused as one with the rock down below.
The giant prawn had been completely immo
bilized by Han Li in a matter of mere moments.
A hint of fear flashed through the whale-like sea beast's eyes upon seeing this, and it immediately slapped its massive tail onto the surface of the ocean.
Countless water spears that were each around 10 feet in length instantly shot forth from the ocean, hurtling directly toward Han Li like a torrential storm.
At the same time, more specks of blue light began to emerge from the nearby ocean before enveloping the entirety of the massive sea beast, causing its body to flash erratically.
The beast could see that Han Li was far too powerful an adversary for it to engage in battle, and it immediately threw up a smokescreen before attempting to unleash its water movement technique and fleeing the scene.
A peculiar look appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this, and he swept a sleeve through the air.
A vast expanse of grey light surfaced before him, forming a grey light barrier that was several tens of feet in size.
The grey light barrier revolved in mid-air, and all of the water spears that struck it disappeared without a trace like moths throwing themselves onto an open flame.
The Divine Essencefused Light was the bane of all powers of the five elements, so it destroying these water spears was naturally a simple task for Han Li.
However, Han Li didn't even take a single glance at these water spears. Instead, his gaze remained firmly fixed on the whale-like sea beast.
At the same time as he unleashed his Divine Essencefused Light, he had also silently activated his sword art.
Just as the giant sea beast's body was beginning to blur and it was preparing to get away, balls of azure spiritual light suddenly appeared in an area with a radius of several thousand feet around it. These balls of azure light flashed before forming 72 fist-sized azure lotus flowers, and these lotus flowers blurred before manifesting several hundred more identical lotus flowers.
All of the azure lotus flowers revolved before expelling bursts of azure light that instantly combined as one, thereby forming an azure barrier of light.
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