Han Li raised his head to watch the rainbow streak disappear into the sky before lowering his gaze to scan the three Frost Spirit Flowers.
After a brief moment of thought, he patted his storage pouch, and over a dozen beams of light in various colors shot out, vanishing into the surrounding crystalline walls. A faint blue mist began to appear, indistinct yet pervasive, enveloping the nearby area.
Once this was done, a loud buzzing sound erupted as a golden cloud of insects surged from Han Li’s body, dispersing into countless specks of golden light that vanished into the mist.
With this setup, unless an exceptionally powerful demon beast appeared, he could ensure that his refinement of the Profound Ice Pills would proceed without interference.
Feeling reassured, Han Li waved his hand and released a fist-sized silver cauldron, which floated lightly before him. One after another, wooden boxes and small vials flew out from his storage pouch, quickly covering the ground.
Only then did Han Li shift his gaze back to the crystalline wall.
With a flick of his sleeve, three golden streaks shot out, circling the ice encasing the three small flowers. Instantly, the ten-thousand-year-old profound ice, along with the flowers, fell away.
Han Li, already prepared, tapped the ground lightly. Three jade boxes, each about a foot long, vanished from their original positions, only to reappear eerily beneath the crystalline wall.
The three white flowers fell into the boxes unharmed.
A satisfied expression crossed Han Li’s face. Suddenly, he formed a series of hand seals and directed several spells toward the surrounding blue mist. The mist churned and expanded outward, soon submerging the entire bottom of the ice crevice, obscuring everything within.
Above the crevice, the cold wind howled, but otherwise, all was eerily silent.
Time passed slowly, and before long, three days had gone by.
At this moment, the bottom of the crevice remained shrouded in dense blue mist, showing no signs of dissipating—as if it would remain that way forever.
Suddenly, a flash of light appeared in the distant sky. Three streaks of light—one silver leading and two others, one red and one green, following closely—shot toward the crevice at incredible speed.
The silver streak in front flickered weakly, as if its owner was severely injured. The red and green streaks behind it, however, blazed fiercely, exuding a menacing aura.
Clearly, this was a chase—one fleeing, two pursuing!
The silver light dimmed, revealing a slender woman in white robes. Her face was pale, tinged with a faint green hue. It was Bai Yaoyi, who had left three days prior.
Somehow, she had ended up being pursued, poisoned so severely that even her mid-Nascent Soul cultivation couldn’t suppress it.
As soon as she reached the crevice, she glanced downward. Upon spotting the churning blue mist of the restriction, she let out a sigh of relief, her expression easing slightly.
But at that moment, the red and green streaks closed in, now less than a hundred zhang away. A cold, mocking male voice rang out from the green light:
“What’s the matter? Realizing you can’t escape the poison, you’ve finally decided to stop running? If you surrender now, this Heavenly Lord might spare your life—for now!”
Bai Yaoyi snorted coldly, ignoring the taunt, and plunged straight into the crevice. After a few flashes of silver light, she vanished into the mist.
The two pursuing streaks arrived above the crevice moments later, revealing a man and a woman within the lights.
Seeing the blue mist below, both hesitated.
These two were demon beasts who had undergone transformation, their intelligence fully awakened—no less than that of humans.
Bai Yaoyi’s sudden dive into the restriction-filled crevice made them wary.
Just as they prepared to scan the crevice with their spiritual senses, white mist surged around them, revealing twelve snow-white centipedes, each with wings on their backs and a fearsome appearance.
“Six-Winged Frost Centipedes!” The woman in the red light trembled with excitement, her voice shaking slightly.
“What? Those are Six-Winged Frost Centipedes?” The man in the green light was equally shocked.
“Perfect! If I devour these spirit insects, the fusion of yin and yang will greatly enhance my cultivation!” The woman let out a grating laugh as fiery snakes erupted from her body.
Each snake was about a foot long, with wings and flames spewing from their mouths. They lunged at the centipedes with ferocity.
In an instant, flames and icy air clashed, accompanied by piercing shrieks and explosions.
The red light dimmed, revealing the woman clearly.
She was tall and slender, with emerald-green eyes and a face adorned with several crimson scales. Dressed in red robes, she flicked a slender snake-like tongue in and out of her mouth. She was an unknown serpent demon, an eighth-grade transformed beast, her greedy gaze fixed on the centipedes.
Just as she prepared to capture them, a loud buzzing rose from below. A swarm of golden insects shot out from the blue mist, coalescing into a massive golden cloud that surged toward the two demons.
The man in the green light frowned but didn’t hesitate. With a flick of his sleeve, a flood of emerald-green mist surged forth, swallowing the golden cloud.
Smirking, he waited for the insects to dissolve into foul liquid—only to realize the buzzing hadn’t stopped. The golden cloud burst through his poison mist, charging straight at him.
Startled, he spun rapidly, his green light transforming into a towering wall of flames that swept toward the golden cloud.
The buzzing faltered as countless golden insects, now coated in green flames, plummeted to the ground.
The remnants of the golden cloud scattered, revealing golden beetles struggling weakly in the flames.
Relieved, the man examined the surviving insects—then his face twisted in horror.
“Gold Devouring Beetles?! How can there still be so many of them?!”
Without the green light obscuring him, his grotesque features became clear—wild green hair, tiny yellow eyes, and a mouth stretching nearly to his ears, filled with razor-sharp teeth.
As he shouted, the falling beetles buzzed back to life, shaking off the green flames—which they promptly devoured.
The man’s expression darkened further.
At that moment, red light flashed above the beetles as the serpent woman reappeared. She spat out a green object that expanded into a wooden bowl, trapping the beetles beneath a glowing green barrier.
The beetles slammed against the barrier uselessly, trapped.
The woman sneered at the man.
“Scared? These aren’t the fully matured ancient variants. As long as they’re not fully grown, there are plenty of ways to kill them.”
To prove her point, she flicked a finger, sending a crimson streak slicing through the barrier—bisecting one beetle effortlessly.
The streak revealed itself as a sharp, inch-long crimson scale.
Seeing this, the man relaxed slightly. The woman smirked, forming a hand seal as hundreds of identical scales shot from her body.
She seemed intent on annihilating the beetles before dealing with the centipedes.
But then, a cold snort echoed from the blue mist below. A thunderous crack followed, and silver light flashed twenty zhang away—revealing a human figure.
The serpent woman reacted instantly, redirecting her scales toward the newcomer.
The figure chuckled, raising a silver shield. A mirror-like barrier appeared, deflecting every crimson scale effortlessly.
The woman recoiled in shock. The man beside her snarled, unleashing a wave of toxic green mist laced with nearly invisible green threads—poisonous needles refined over millennia, lethal even to late-Nascent Soul cultivators.
But the figure simply flicked his sleeve, releasing a small crimson cauldron.
The cauldron expanded, its lid flying open to unleash hundreds of fireballs—each morphing into a blazing crow that screeched as it charged the poison mist.
Upon contact, the mist and needles dissolved into smoke, utterly overwhelmed.
The figure was, of course, Han Li. The crimson cauldron was none other than the Spiritfire Cauldron he had obtained in Kunwu Mountain.
Its thousand-strong flock of yang-fire crows was a perfect counter to yin-based techniques—and it proved its worth immediately.
Han Li’s eyes gleamed with satisfaction. With a subtle flick of his sleeve, a tri-colored glow silently slipped into his palm.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage