The strange moth hissed incessantly, clearly taken aback by the unexpected outcome of its earlier attack. However, its crimson-golden eyes soon flared with renewed ferocity. With a flick of its hands, a layer of green light enveloped its bloodied arms, rapidly healing the wounds. Simultaneously, its wings trembled violently, emitting a dazzling white glow.
In a flash, the wings vanished, replaced by hundreds of gleaming flying blades, each half a foot long, shimmering with cold light and exuding a sinister aura.
The creature’s eyes gleamed with malice as the blades behind it hummed ominously, poised to strike again.
Yet, at that moment, Han Li suddenly smiled. A golden light flickered across his body as the scales on his skin receded, and his four golden arms dissipated into nothingness.
This unexpected turn momentarily stunned the intelligent moth, causing its attack to falter.
Meanwhile, Han Li formed a single-handed seal. With a thunderous crack, a pair of crystalline wings materialized behind him. With a single motion, he vanished from sight.
A moment later, a thunderclap echoed dozens of feet away as Han Li reappeared, his stance relaxed, arms crossed, and a faint smirk playing on his lips as he regarded the moth.
Though momentarily bewildered, the moth’s innate savagery quickly overrode its hesitation. With a hiss, its scales bristled, and it prepared to pursue.
But Han Li suddenly chuckled softly, murmuring, “Fall, fall, fall!”
As the words left his lips, the moth’s head grew heavy, dizziness overwhelming it. An unbearable itch spread from its chest, and parts of its body went numb, causing it to sway unsteadily.
Panicked, the creature looked down to discover that, centered around the unhealed wound on its chest, a third of its body had turned a sickly purple-black, emitting a foul stench. The discolored areas were precisely where it had lost sensation.
It had been poisoned—a toxin so insidious and potent that it had gone unnoticed until now, spreading with terrifying speed.
The moth was horrified.
Without hesitation, it spat out a greenish glow, revealing a jade-green orb the size of an egg. The orb hovered over the wound, spinning rapidly as its radiance intensified. A fragrant aroma emanated from it, countering the stench and halting the toxin’s spread.
Han Li raised an eyebrow in surprise. The venom of the Spirit Vortex Evil Light was notoriously lethal, yet the moth had resisted immediate death, suggesting a formidable resistance to toxins.
With a cold laugh, Han Li lunged forward, his body engulfed in azure light as he transformed into a colossal ten-foot-long cyan roc. In two flashes, he appeared above the moth, his wings spreading with a thunderous roar.
Golden arcs crackled across the roc’s body as its talons, gleaming faintly gold, lashed downward.
The moth shuddered, launching its blades skyward like a torrential downpour.
The roc ignored the barrage, descending relentlessly. The blades clattered harmlessly against its feathers, unable to pierce its hide. Han Li’s natural resilience, further enhanced by his roc form, rendered the attacks futile. His talons effortlessly parted the blades and pierced the moth’s body.
Yet, as the talons struck, the moth’s form split apart, revealing nothing but an empty husk—a mere decoy. Even the green orb it had used to counter the poison dissipated into nothingness.
The roc hesitated momentarily before its eyes flashed blue, scanning the surroundings. With several powerful wingbeats, golden arcs erupted from its body, coalescing into a thick bolt that zigzagged across hundreds of feet in an instant.
A deafening explosion followed as the bolt detonated fifty feet away, scattering into a web of lightning that ensnared the area. A emerald glow surged from below, tearing through the net, revealing the moth—now two-thirds of its body purple-black, its mouth aglow with the green orb, barely holding the toxin at bay.
Its arms and tail, faintly shimmering with green light, showed only traces of the poison. Still, the creature swayed precariously, its strength failing.
No wonder it had sought to flee rather than fight.
But its concealment had failed against Han Li’s Brightsight Spirit Eyes. Forced to defend against the Divine Annihilation Lightning, it had expended precious energy, allowing the toxin to surge back uncontrollably.
As the arcs dissipated, the roc reappeared above the moth, its gaze icy.
Though not a true Kunpeng, Han Li’s transformation still exuded an overwhelming aura. The moth’s golden eyes flickered with fear as it attempted another escape.
But then—a crisp crack! The green orb in its mouth shattered inexplicably.
Both Han Li and the moth froze.
A shrill screech erupted as the moth’s body erupted in blinding light, swelling several times its size. Beside its serpentine head, a lion’s head materialized grotesquely.
With a snarl, the creature lunged at Han Li, its arms flailing wildly. Countless claw shadows merged into two colossal strikes, drawing in the surrounding spiritual energy until they seemed to encompass the heavens themselves.
Trapped beneath the shadows, Han Li sensed no escape. His pupils contracted sharply as the roc let out a piercing cry.
In a breath, the roc’s form shifted again, this time into a five-colored peacock, its radiant plumage blazing like tangible flames.
For reasons even he couldn’t explain, Han Li had instinctively assumed this form.
Then, the impossible happened.
As the claw shadows descended, the peacock’s feathers shot forth, dissolving into the surrounding light. The five-colored radiance swelled fiftyfold, surging upward like an inverted river of light.
The moth’s dual heads gaped in disbelief.
But it was too late. The claw shadows met the luminous river—and vanished without a sound, swallowed whole.
Cautious, Han Li retreated, the peacock flickering twenty feet away.
The moth hovered motionless, its eyes burning with hatred.
Then, the purple-black toxin surged upward, staining both heads. The creature convulsed, its eyes dulling, before plummeting lifelessly to the ground.
The peacock folded its wings, shrinking back into Han Li’s human form. He hovered coldly, watching the corpse.
With a thud, the moth’s body struck the ice, motionless.
Han Li’s brow twitched as he reached out. A silver fireball—the previously trapped Devouring Spirit Flame—materialized in his grasp.
At his command, the flame shot downward, morphing mid-flight into a silver bird. It dove toward the corpse—only for the moth’s heads to explode simultaneously, releasing two fist-sized green flames that shot in opposite directions.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage