"This aura... It's significantly diluted, but there's no mistaking it!" An astonished look also appeared on the black-robed young man's face in the instant that he caught sight of the drop of green liquid, and he immediately slashed his black sword violently through the air, unleashing seven or eight crescent sword projections, all of which instantly converged to form one massive sword projection that hurtled directly toward the Faux Immortal Puppet.
At the same time, he raised his other arm and flicked a finger through the air like lightning, sending a streak of black light hurtling directly toward the drop of green liquid.
At such a close range, the two attacks reached the Faux Immortal Puppet virtually instantaneously, but the puppet seemed to have already anticipated this. It also flicked a finger through the air in retaliation while opening its mouth to devour the drop of green liquid.
The puppet's finger was instantly detached and shot forth through the air before striking the oncoming streak of black light with unerring accuracy.
The two clashed, and the finger exploded on impact, while the streak of black light was stopped cold in its tracks, revealing it to be a miniature spike that was around an inch in length and giving off faint black light.
During this split-second delay, the drop of green liquid had already made its way into the Faux Immortal Puppet's mouth.
Right at this moment, the giant sword projection also reached the puppet before releasing countless streaks of black sword Qi that immediately inundated the Faux Immortal Puppet.
Judging from the fearsome power the Black Devil Dagger had displayed, it seemed that the Faux Immortal Puppet was going to be instantly torn into shreds.
However, in the next instant, a cold harrumph suddenly rang out as a burst of green light erupted forth.
Immediately thereafter, two large green hands reached out of the green light without any warning before forcibly parting the streaks of black sword Qi.
The sword Qi struck the pair of hands, but were completely unable to harm them.
The streak of black light also struck one of the green hands amid a sharp screeching sound, and a metallic clang rang out as the black spike was repelled, while the green hand continued to remain completely unscathed.
Sacred Ancestor Yuan Yan's expression darkened slightly upon seeing this, and he didn't unleash any further attacks as he looked on with a cold gaze.
The black sword Qi was quickly destroyed by the pair of green hands, following which a humanoid figure slowly emerged out of the green light; it was none other than the Faux Immortal Puppet.
However, its appearance had changed drastically. The silver spiritual patterns on its face had turned a dark green color, and they were writhing over the puppet's skin, creating a very unsettling sight to behold.
The puppet slowly withdrew its green hands, then cast its gaze toward the black-robed young man in a completely expressionless manner.
"You managed to secure a drop of Heavenly Fortune Elixir, yet you used it on a mere Faux Immortal Puppet? Don't you think that's a massive waste?" Sacred Ancestor Yuan Yan asked with incredulity in his voice.
"Hmph, if that were a drop of true Heavenly Fortune Elixir, then I would've already used it to refine a Heavenly Fortune Pill. That was a drop of Faux Immortal Elixir, which is 10 times more diluted compared to Heavenly Fortune Elixir, so it's perfect for this Faux Immortal Puppet," the Faux Immortal Puppet harrumphed coldly in response.
"I see. If it's 10 times more diluted, then it'll be nowhere near efficacious enough to refine a Heavenly Fortune Pill. Even so, it still contains a hint of immortal spiritual Qi, which can replace immortal crystals to activate some of the Faux Immortal Puppet's true power. Having said that, how many attacks do you think the puppet will be able to unleash with such a paltry amount of immortal spiritual Qi?" Sacred Ancestor Yuan Yan scoffed in a derisive manner.
"I don't need to worry about that; I don't think you'll even be able to withstand a single attack from this Faux Immortal Puppet in your current state!" the Faux Immortal Puppet harrumphed coldly before stomping a foot down violently and propelling itself through the air as a faint green shadow.
A vicious look appeared in Sacred Ancestor Yuan Yan's eyes at the sight of the oncoming Faux Immortal Puppet, and he let loose a loud roar as a giant devilish projection that was over 1,000 feet tall, suddenly appeared behind him.
The devilish projection resembled an enormous black toad, and not only did it have a huge head at the center of its neck, there were four other far smaller heads on either side of the central head.
This was a legendary Nine-headed Devilish Toad!
As soon as the Nine-headed Devilish Toad projection appeared, its central head opened its massive mouth to expel a streak of golden light.
The streak of light struck the oncoming Faux Immortal Puppet, only to be sent flying backward even faster than the speed at which it had been released.
The vicious look in the black-robed young man's eyes became even more pronounced upon seeing this, and he suddenly made a hand seal, upon which the streak of golden light began to dance erratically through the air, leaving countless golden afterimages in its wake.
A giant golden net that encompassed close to half the pond down below quickly took shape, then instantly closed itself around the Faux Immortal Puppet.
In the next instant, the Faux Immortal Puppet was struck by one golden projection after another within the giant net, bouncing around like a toy that had no control over its own fate. Every time it came into contact with the golden net, it would instantly be repelled, and it seemed to be completely powerless.
A cold smile appeared on the black-robed young man's face upon seeing this, and he switched to a different hand seal, upon which all golden projections within the net abruptly disappeared with the exception of a single one. That single remaining golden projection flew a few laps around the Faux Immortal Puppet like lightning before shooting back toward the black-robed young man.
The Faux Immortal Puppet was dragged over to less than 10 feet away from the black-robed young man, and it was completely immobilized, bound by a shimmering golden rope-like object.
Only then did it become clear to everyone that the rope-like object was none other than the giant devilish toad's tongue.
Not only was this tongue golden in color, there were a series of patterns on the suction cups that ran along the surface of the tongue, forming a series of golden runes. These runes were shimmering with a faint golden light, making the tongue appear as if it were a treasure.
"Insolent fool! What other tricks do you have up your sleeve? If that's all you have, then you can die now!" Sacred Ancestor Yuan Yan chortled as the giant golden tongue abruptly tightened, causing a string of cracks and pops to ring out from the Faux Immortal Puppet's body.
It seemed that he was planning to use the golden tongue of his devilish projection to crush this Faux Immortal Puppet into pieces.
The Faux Immortal Puppet's body was definitely no less powerful than that of a Grand Ascension Stage being, but it was on the verge of being crushed by the constricting golden tongue.
However, as opposed to being horrified or alarmed by this situation, a derisive sneer suddenly appeared on its face.
Chapter 2099: Close Shave
All of a sudden, the world's origin Qi on the entire island began to tremor violently, and countless fist-sized balls of five-colored light appeared in the air above the pond before surging into the Faux Immortal Puppet's body in a frenzy.
The dark green spiritual patterns on the surface of the Faux Immortal Puppet's body immediately began to thicken and writhe violently like countless dark green snakes.
A vicious look appeared in the Faux Immortal Puppet's eyes, and it suddenly uttered the word "explode"!
In the next instant, an extremely violent aura erupted out of the thick dark green spiritual patterns.
A series of twisted cracks instantly appeared over the Faux Immortal Puppet's body, from within which scintill
ating light erupted forth.
A resounding boom rang out, and a five-colored sun appeared in mid-air, instantly inundating the Faux Immortal Puppet.
A hint of fear appeared in the black-robed young man's eyes for the very first time upon seeing this, and he hurriedly shot back, leaving a trail of afterimages in his wake. The giant devilish toad projection behind him also released the Faux Immortal Puppet and withdrew its golden tongue at an incredible speed.
The tongue then swept violently through the air, creating countless tongue projections that formed a massive net to protect the black-robed young man.
The five-colored sun shrank slightly, then expanded before completely exploding.
"It self-detonated!"
"Run!"
The Long Family patriarch and the woman from the Ye Family were scared witless upon seeing this.
With the power that the Faux Immortal Puppet had just displayed, there was no way they would be able to survive its self-detonation from such a close range.
They certainly couldn't count on the Spirit Monarch soul fragment to hold back during its self-detonation; perhaps it harbored the intention of killing everyone here.
After all, he had just discussed an extremely secretive matter with Sacred Ancestor Yuan Yan in the form of that proposed exchange, so he most likely wouldn't want anyone who knew of this information to remain alive.
Han Li was also stunned by this drastic turn of events, and he immediately hurled his pair of extreme mountains forward. The two mountains swelled to over 1,000 feet in size each amid a flash of spiritual light, and black light also swelled from his suit of devilish armor as it released countless black runes, which formed a light barrier to shield him from all sides.
Immediately thereafter, his Provenance Golden Body also appeared behind him, and as soon as it emerged, it thrust its six hands up into the air in unison. Six balls of golden light shot forth, then converged to form a rapidly rotating golden vortex with a diameter of around 300 feet.
At the same time, a loud buzzing sound rang out from Han Li's sleeve, and tens of thousands of golden beetles surged forth, rapidly forming a dense beetle shield ahead of him.
Meanwhile, the Long Family patriarch and the woman from the Ye Family were also unleashing their final trump cards in a desperate bid to save their own lives.
The Long Family patriarch let loose a loud dragon's roar and transformed into a five-clawed golden dragon that was over 100 feet in length.
The dragon's entire body was covered in shimmering golden scales, and it opened its cavernous mouth to expel a golden bead. The bead was only around the size of an egg, and there were cloud-like patterns of light spread all over its surface.
The bead rotated on the spot, following which a giant golden flower emerged from within it.
As for the five-clawed golden dragon itself, all of its scales began to stand up on end, then detached themselves from the dragon's body and shot forth through the air.
The scales then swelled drastically in size amid a flash of golden light, conjuring up countless palm-sized golden shields that created a watertight barrier around the dragon.
The golden dragon then let loose a long roar and curled up into a giant golden ball.
Meanwhile, five-colored light surged over the body of the woman from the Ye Family, and she transformed into a five-colored phoenix that was several tens of feet in length.
The phoenix flapped its wings and let loose a long cry, upon which spatial fluctuations suddenly erupted all around it. A series of white spatial rifts appeared in the surrounding area, emitting bursts of powerful suction force.
After transforming into the five-colored phoenix, the woman from the Ye Family was unleashing her spatial abilities to their maximal extent, instantly creating hundreds of spatial rifts.
At the same time, dazzling spiritual light erupted from the comb on the phoenix's head, and 13 layers of five-colored light barriers were instantly conjured up around it, expending almost all of the magic power within its body.
At this moment, countless five-colored threads erupted out of the scintillating five-colored sun before hurtling forth in all directions. In the blink of an eye, the green light barrier above the valley was riddled with holes, and the wreckage spread through the entire island.
The power unleashed by the Faux Immortal Puppet's self-detonation continued to wreak havoc in a persistent manner, striking one with a sense of suffocating despair, as if this ordeal would never end.
After a long while, the five-colored threads in the air finally began to thin out, then gradually faded into nonexistence.
Everything in the valley became visible again, and it was now completely unrecognizable.
A thick layer of soil and stones had gone missing from the ground below, and all of the water in the pond that was filled with extremely pure spiritual Qi had disappeared.
The underside of the pond was revealed to be a vast expanse of flat green stone, upon which was inscribed a massive black formation that was shimmering with faint black light.
At this point, the Faux Immortal Puppet had already completely disappeared. In its place was a white pavilion-sized spatial rift that was giving off extremely powerful spatial fluctuations and was gradually sealing.
Several hundred feet away from the spatial rift hovered the black-robed young man, whose face had turned rather pale. The giant sword he was holding was shielding most of his body, while the exposed portion of his body had completely disappeared.
However, no blood was flowing out of the wound, and there were countless crimson threads writhing and intertwining rapidly to heal the wound.
The aura that was being released by Sacred Ancestor Yuan Yan had weakened significantly, and it was quite clear that the Faux Immortal Puppet had directed the majority of the power of its self-detonation toward him. If it weren't for the fact that he was able to use the Black Devil Dagger as a shield, there was a very good chance that he would've perished from the explosion.
Of course, this was only because his powers were severely restricted here. Otherwise, he definitely wouldn't have been reduced to such a sorry state.
Sacred Ancestor Yuan Yan was staring intently at the rapidly shrinking spatial rift with a look of thunderous fury etched on his face.
It had been countless years since he had sustained this much damage in a battle, and the most frustrating thing was that the culprit wasn't even in the Elder Devil Realm, so there was no avenue through which he could vent his fury.
All of a sudden, he swept his giant sword viciously through the air, unleashing an inky-black sword projection that was over 1,000 feet in length. The sword projection struck the spatial rift amid a resounding boom, completely erasing it from existence.
However, that was clearly not enough to assuage the fury in his heart, and he cast an enraged gaze toward Han Li and the others, upon which he was completely rooted to the spot.
There was currently only a single lonesome figure situated in that direction with his arm raised in front of himself as a shield.
There were two small mountains hovering on either side of him, but their surfaces were riddled with cracks, and the spiritual light shimmering from them had also dimmed significantly.
As for the insect shield formed by over 10,000 mature Gold Devouring Beetles, only a small section of it remained, consisting of around 3,000 Gold Devouring Beetles.
The mature Gold Devouring Beetles naturally hadn't been destroyed, they had merely been knocked flying or stunned unconscious by the fearsome explosion.
As for the Provenance Golden Body, it was nowhere to be seen, most likely having been destroyed during the explosion.
The lone figure was naturally none other than Han Li, and not only had he reverted back to his human form, his suit of black devilish armor was riddled with countless thin cracks.
However, Han Li himself appeared to be completely unscathed.
As for the Long Family patriarch and the woman from the Ye Family, they had
already been completely wiped out of existence by the force of the explosion.
The two of them had unleashed extremely powerful trump cards to defend themselves with all their might, but they still hadn't managed to escape this tragic fate, and that was sufficient testament to just how fearsome that explosion had been.
It was precisely because of this that the black-robed young man was so stunned that Han Li had managed to remain completely unscathed.
He forcibly repressed the fury in his heart and scrutinized Han Li intently, as if he were trying to figure out how Han Li had survived that ordeal.
However, Han Li was paying no heed to the black-robed young man whatsoever, nor was he inspecting his two damaged extreme mountains or what remained of the insect shield. Instead, he was staring at his own arm with a bewildered look on his face.
All of a sudden, his suit of black devilish armor exploded into a burst of devilish Qi that dissipated into space amid a dull thump.
He then cast his gaze toward the spots where the Long Family patriarch and the woman from the Ye Family had been not long ago before heaving a long forlorn sigh.
Chapter 2100: Bao Hua's Arrival
The three-headed devilish toad projection that the black-robed young man had summoned had also disappeared, and it was unclear whether it had been destroyed during the explosion or withdrawn just in the nick of time.
The black-robed young man glanced at his own rapidly healing wounds, then cast a cold gaze toward Han Li. "Hmph, I didn't think that a mere Body Integration Stage being would be able to survive that explosion; looks like I underestimated you. However, all of your companions are dead, and you're going to be no exception; I'll be taking your life in person!"
"If I'm not mistaken, you've expended far more energy than I have to survive that explosion. On top of that, you have to regenerate from your injuries, so you most likely possess less than a third of your original magic power," Han Li replied in a calm manner.
"So what? Do you really think you'll be able to survive on your own against my Black Devil Dagger? On top of that, the restriction above this valley has already been destroyed, so I'm able to absorb much more devilish Qi from the outside world," the black-robed young man chuckled coldly as he suddenly slashed his giant black sword upward.
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