Following the explosion, countless bolts of black and white lightning lashed out at everything in the surrounding area in a frenzy, and the four giant silver hand projections were instantly pulverized.
Han Li immediately threw up a mouthful of blood essence, and the armor on his four arms also shattered before disintegrating into specks of silver light.
Without any further obstacles standing in their way, all of the remaining bolts of black and white lightning descended upon Han Li like a torrential storm, instantly inundating his giant ape body.
The massive ape swayed unsteadily in the face of the ferocious lightning strikes, but managed to steady itself in the end as the surrounding earth tremored violently.
After several rounds of bombardment, the black and white lightning finally exhausted all of its power, leaving the ground down below severely ravaged and injuries riddling Han Li's entire body.
At this moment, most of Han Li's purplish-golden scales had been torn away, revealing huge patches of charred-black golden fur, presenting an extremely sorry sight to behold.
Following the explosion of the black and white ball of lightning, the giant hole up above silently disappeared.
Thus, a peculiar silence descended upon the basin, and there was nothing left in the sky aside from the dense blanket of dark clouds.
"Haha, the true lightning tribulation really is as fearsome as the rumors suggest, but it's still not enough to kill me..." A burst of hearty laughter suddenly ran out from down below, and the spirit patterns, golden scales, and azure horn on Han Li's body quickly disappeared as he reverted back to his human form.
After that, Han Li slowly rose to his feet, then began to inspect his own body.
At this point, his face was completely devoid of color, but all of the wounds on his body had vanished without a trace, having been instantaneously healed by his insane regenerative abilities as he had undone his own transformation.
Of course, his internal injuries were actually still quite severe, and it would take him a long time to completely recover from them.
Right at this moment, a burst of loud buzzing suddenly rang out up above, and Han Li faltered slightly before looking upward.
There, he discovered the Purple-striped Gold Devouring Beetles flying through the air, completely unscathed.
As these beetle monarch candidates let loose this peculiar buzzing sound, loud buzzing also erupted from the ground as one unconscious golden beetle after another rose up into the air before gathering around the beetle monarch candidates in separate groups. On top of that, all of the groups were displaying intense hostility toward one another.
This was quite an alarming sight to Han Li, and he immediately tried to instruct all of the beetles to return to him, but his heart quickly sank as not even a single beetle heeded his call.
A grim look appeared on Han Li's face, and just as he was about to unleash a secret technique to forcibly withdraw the spirit beetles, the dozen or so swarms of Gold Devouring Beetles suddenly began to attack the nearest swarm led by the beetle monarch candidates.
Tens of thousands of Gold Devouring Beetles converged to form a massive golden cloud, then began to viciously tear at and devour one another amid a burst of loud rustling.
The dozen or so Purple-striped Gold Devouring Beetles were also devouring all of the nearby Gold Devouring Beetles in a frenzy, swallowing an entire beetle whole in just a few bites.
A peculiar look appeared in Han Li's eyes upon seeing this, and he suddenly paused in what he was doing.
Just as he was at a slight loss for what to do, a burst of unsettling cries suddenly rang out from within the dark clouds up above, following which countless balls of black light surged out in a frenzy.
Upon closer inspection, one would discover that these balls of black light contained projections of ghostly heads. These projections were all of different sizes and colors, and their cries were of various different pitches, but all of them struck the listener with a sense of disorientation.
"There's a Heavenly Devilish Monarch here!"
Han Li's pupils contracted upon seeing this, and his expression darkened as he cast his gaze upward, paying no further heed to the warring swarms of beetles.
Almost at the exact same moment, the dark clouds up above surged violently, and a burst of delightful heavenly music rang out as grey threads of light emerged, then converged to form a grey mirror-like projection. Within the projection were halos of grey light, all of which slowly shone down toward Han Li.
The grey light in the giant mirror flashed slightly, and Han Li's vision abruptly blurred, following which he found himself in a completely unfamiliar world.
Chapter 2187: Combating the Devil with Divine Lightning
A hint of caution flashed through Han Li's eyes, and he lowered his head to look down at his own body, upon which his expression immediately changed slightly.
He discovered that he had become slightly thinner, and even though he was still wearing the same clothes as before, his storage bracelets, spirit bracelets, and treasures had all disappeared.
What was even more peculiar was that as he swept his spiritual sense toward his own face, he discovered that he had reverted back to his 13 year old appearance, except his skin was as pristine white as jade instead of dark and tanned.
"My soul has come out of my body! Looks like the inner demon tribulation is about to begin," Han Li murmured to himself as he laid a hand onto his own face.
Right at this moment, a burst of gender-neutral cackling suddenly rang out within Han Li's mind.
"We meet again, brat; I didn't think you would progress to this point in such a short time. However, I've descended in person on this occasion, so even if you're a true immortal, you definitely won't be able to transcend this inner demon tribulation."
The grey sky parted, and a mountainous ghostly face emerged, cackling in a sinister manner as it licked its remarkably thick lips with a massive tongue that was around 10 feet in length.
The giant ghostly head was none other than the Heavenly Devilish Sovereign that had a vendetta against Han Li, and it had managed to descend into this space through the power of the inner demon tribulation.
"Is that so? I didn't think that you would be stupid enough to appear directly before me," Han Li countered in an expressionless manner.
"How dare you! I'm going to make you regret ever being born!" the Heavenly Devilish Sovereign roared with fury, and the ghostly head began to swell in size amid a surge of black light.
A cold look appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this, and he suddenly opened his mouth to release three fist-sized balls of golden light.
The balls of golden light blurred before appearing right in front of the ghostly head, revealing themselves to be three golden rhomboid objects; these were three miniature golden spears with bright red runes spread all over their surfaces.
Even though the Heavenly Devilish Sovereign wasn't able to immediately identify what these objects were, a sense of extreme peril welled up in its heart, and it hurriedly retreated as a cloud of black mist to evade the miniature golden spears.
However, right at this moment, Han Li pointed a finger toward the three balls of golden light from afar, then uttered the word "explode" thrice in rapid succession.
The three miniature golden spears immediately exploded, and a flurry of golden flames and lightning erupted forth in a frenzy, instantly inundating the cloud of black mist as a string of explosions rang out.
"No... This is Vajra Devil Vanquishing Divine Lightning... How did you obtain this lightning..." The black mist within the golden light quickly dissipated, and an incredulous howl of anguish rang out from within.
"You can think about that after you're reduced to ashes," Han Li chuckled coldly before opening his mouth to expel four more balls of golden light.
"Insolent brat, do you really think this is enough to kill me?" the Heavenly Devilish Sovereign roared as what remained of the cloud of black mist exploded into coun
tless black threads that shot forth in all directions.
However, Han Li seemed to have already been prepared for this, and his expression darkened slightly as he pointed his finger forward once again.
All of a sudden, the four balls of golden light appeared in four different directions that the black threads were fleeing toward, then exploded in unison, sending golden flames and lightning raining down from above.
Most of the black threads were reduced to ashes within the golden light, and only around a dozen managed to escape before converging to form a ghostly head again over 1,000 feet away.
However, not only was this ghostly head significantly smaller than what it had been, it was also very blurry, clearly indicating that it had been severely harmed.
As soon as this ghostly head emerged, a furious look appeared on its face, and it transformed into a malicious ghostly projection that was several hundred feet tall before pouncing directly toward Han Li.
However, a peculiar smile suddenly appeared on Han Li's face, and he swept a sleeve through the air, releasing seven more balls of golden light that flew toward the oncoming ghostly projection.
The fury on the ghostly projection's face instantly vanished upon seeing this, and it let loose a strangled cry before twisting around and flying away as a ball of black light.
After just a few flashes, the ball of black light completely vanished into the distance, and in the next instant, the Heavenly Devilish Sovereign's furious gender-neutral voice rang out again.
"You've bested me again, human brat, but don't get too full of yourself; I'll be sure to gather all of the devilish sovereigns in the nearby realms to impede you as you transcend your tribulation to True Immortal Realm. When that time comes, you won't be able to ascend even with Vajra Devil Vanquishing Divine Lightning!"
After the enraged parting threat, everything abruptly fell silent, and Han Li heaved a long sigh of relief.
He waved a hand through the air, and the seven balls of light returned to him before revealing themselves to be seven golden beads, around which arcs of lightning were flashing incessantly, but they weren't actually Vajra Devil Vanquishing Divine Lightning.
A faint smile appeared on Han Li's face as he stowed the seven golden beads back up his sleeve.
These seven golden beads weren't exactly total counterfeits; they were simply half-complete Vajra Devil Vanquishing Divine Lightning.
Ever since he had reached the late-Body Integration Stage, he had been refining this lightning in secret whenever he had some spare time.
However, this lightning was truly extremely difficult to refine; even though Han Li had sufficient Golden Lightning Bamboo leaves, the other materials were very difficult to source, and the refinement success rate was also appallingly low.
Even with Han Li's late-Body Integration Stage powers, he had only managed to refine seven pieces of this lightning. As for the seven half-complete pieces of lightning, there would be no way for him to completely refine them.
Han Li had already carefully considered how he was going to deal with that Heavenly Devilish Sovereign prior to his breakthrough attempt.
The inner demon tribulation was extremely difficult to transcend to begin with; with the Heavenly Devilish Sovereign's intervention, it would be almost impossible for him to successfully transcend it.
As such, he had devised this plan to wound the devilish sovereign with the real Vajra Devil Vanquishing Divine Lightning, then use the fake lightning to scare it away.
The Vajra Devil Vanquishing Lighting was extremely effective against Heavenly Devilish Sovereigns, so even though the devilish sovereign possessed Grand Ascension Stage powers, there was a very good chance it would be intimidated into retreat by the combination of genuine and counterfeit lightning.
Prior to commencing his breakthrough, he had refined all of his genuine and counterfeit lightning into one with his soul so that he would be able to use it as a surprise attack in this space.
As it turned out, the situation unfolded exactly as he had envisioned.
After being severely wounded by the first seven pieces of lightning, the Heavenly Devilish Sovereign immediately fled in horror at the sight of the seven counterfeit pieces of lightning.
Of course, this was also because the counterfeit pieces of lightning were half-complete Vajra Devil Vanquishing Divine Lightning to begin with. Otherwise, other types of treasures definitely wouldn't have been able to fool the devilish sovereign.
Now that the Heavenly Devilish Sovereign had departed, Han Li was relatively confident that he would be able to transcend the inner demon tribulation with his powerful spiritual sense.
The parting threat delivered by the Heavenly Devilish Sovereign made Han Li's heart sink a little, but the ascendance tribulation was something that he would only have to worry about far in the future, so he didn't pay it much heed.
For Han Li, the most important thing now was to transcend this inner demon tribulation so he could progress to the Grand Ascension Stage.
With that in mind, Han Li quickly focused his thoughts, and blue light flashed within his eyes as he peered into the surrounding area.
At this point, the grey space around him was already beginning to tumble and surge.
Moments later, countless massive grey eyes suddenly appeared in all directions around him, all of which were staring intently at him while shimmering with five-colored light.
As soon as Han Li's gaze came into contact with this light, his consciousness faded slightly, and his surroundings suddenly blurred, following which he found himself in a scenic natural setting.
Han Li's vision slowly focused, and he discovered that he was situated in a little village. He had also transformed into a child who was around six years of age, wearing a rough cloth garment that had been mended so many times that it was almost impossible to see its original color.
He was currently playing involuntarily with a group of other children, and the scene immediately brought long-buried memories to the surface. "Doggy, Dumb Egg..." [1]
However, a series of emotions had only just begun to well up in his heart when a burst of enormous mysterious power acted upon his soul, causing him to instantly forget everything and completely fall into the current moment, where he was enjoying himself with his group of young friends.
Another thin and short figure was stumbling over from not far away, and as soon as he caught sight of the familiar figure, he immediately called out in elation, "Little Sis..."
......
At the center of the basin, Han Li sat still on the ground with a shimmering golden Nascent Soul above his head, which was also seated in mid-air in a completely still manner.
Grey devilish Qi was surging all around him, creating an impenetrable barrier, and occasionally, there would be black and white ghostly figures, skeletons, and other devilish creatures rushing out of the devilish Qi.
However, as soon as these devilish creatures came within 30 feet of Han Li, countless arcs of golden lightning would surge out of his body to eradicate all of them.
The other devilish creatures would immediately spring back into the devilish Qi in alarm upon seeing this, but they would emerge once again as if they couldn't help themselves.
Atop a mountain peak in the distance, Silvermoon and Zhu Guo'er were standing side by side, appraising the scene unfolding within the basin with solemn expressions.
Daoist Xie was situated on another mountain peak, seated on a giant rock with his eyes closed, seemingly no longer interested in Han Li's current situation.
1. Reminder, in Han Li's mortal village a lot of children were given silly nicknames as second names. Han Li's nickname was "Second Fool"
Chapter 2188: Inner Demon Tribulation
The grey mirror-like object was still hanging high up in the air in a completely stationary manner, while murky images were quickly flashing through the five-colored light within the mirror.
Even upon closer inspection, these images were completely indiscernible, li
ke indistinct scenes from a dream.
Meanwhile, the Gold Devouring Beetles were still devouring one another like there was no tomorrow.
After such a long time, only several hundred beetles were left, and the situation had already transitioned into one where the beetle monarch candidates were devouring the normal beetles with reckless abandon.
The normal Gold Devouring Beetles were also retaliating valiantly, but they were clearly no match for the beetle monarch candidates and were quickly being devoured.
Shortly thereafter, the beetle monarch candidates' bodies had also become riddled with wounds.
Thus, time slowly passed by, and after a long while, all of the normal Gold Devouring Beetles had been devoured, leaving only the wounded beetle monarch candidates behind.
In the instant that the final normal Gold Devouring Beetles was consumed, all of the beetle monarch candidates separated and rested for a short while, then began to appraise one another with animosity in their eyes.
After a burst of hostile buzzing, these beetle monarch candidates immediately sprang into action again, tearing at one another in a battle that was far more brutal than the one that had just taken place.
Screeches of anguish rang out as severed limbs rained down from above, and all of the beetle monarch candidates were unleashing their abilities with all their might to try and devour one another.
However, they were too evenly-matched, so it would clearly require a very lengthy process before any substantial progress could be reached in the battle.
......
At the same time, Han Li was situated within another space, being accompanied by a group of joyful villagers into a room that was decorated with large pieces of red fabric.
All of the villagers then departed with mysterious smiles after leaving behind heartfelt messages such as "we hope your marriage is long prosperous" and "give birth to a child soon", then quickly closed the door to the room.
Thus, Han Li and a petite figure seated on the large red bed with a red cloth over her head were the only ones left in the room.
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 1255