Han Li narrowed his eyes slightly, then suddenly flipped his hand, revealing a faint yellow gourd about an inch tall in his palm. He tossed it forward.
The gourd inverted, its surface shimmering with crystalline runes before rapidly expanding in size, transforming into a colossal object as large as a house in the blink of an eye.
Han Li pointed a finger at it.
A thunderous roar erupted from within the giant gourd, and countless specks of crystalline light sprayed out—each one a translucent, bean-sized grain of sand.
These were none other than the *Lie Sha Jin Gang Sha* (Fierce Fiend Golden Sand) Han Li had obtained in the Demon Realm back then.
The grains of sand rolled through the void, multiplying from one to a hundred, then a hundred to a thousand, until they too formed a vast, shimmering sea of sand.
“Go!”
Han Li flicked his sleeve and uttered a cold command.
The crystalline sand surged forward with a deafening rumble, sweeping toward his opponent like a tidal wave.
In an instant, the two seas of sand collided violently in midair, producing an ear-piercing *crunching* sound and erupting in dazzling bursts of yellow and crystalline radiance.
The yellow sand writhed wildly, morphing into the forms of tigers, leopards, jackals, and other demonic beasts, savagely tearing and charging at the crystalline sand.
In contrast, the crystalline sea of sand resembled an unfathomable ocean. No matter how bizarrely the yellow sand transformed, it merely set each grain into a slow rotation, grinding every grain of yellow sand it touched into dust.
The battle between the two was decided almost instantly.
The yellow sea of sand visibly shrank, reduced to less than half its original size within a few breaths.
From within the yellow wind, Yang Lu witnessed this scene and, after a brief moment of surprise, snorted coldly. He suddenly took a massive step forward.
*Boom!*
Amidst violent spatial fluctuations, Yang Lu’s enormous figure traversed hundreds of feet in an instant, appearing directly above Han Li. His two fleshy palms crossed briefly before pressing down like twin mountains.
Before his palms even landed, two nearly transparent white halos bloomed from their centers, enveloping Han Li in a suffocating, viscous force.
Han Li arched an eyebrow, then reached out with one hand, summoning a several-foot-long green sword into his grasp. With a flick of his wrist, he slashed upward.
A flash of green light!
A green arc over a dozen feet long shot skyward, vanishing in an instant before slamming into the milky-white halos.
*Thud!*
Green and white light intertwined and trembled, and the green arc was deflected away.
Instead of being alarmed, Han Li smirked. His arm suddenly thickened, and his skin sprouted purplish-gold scales. He then threw a punch straight into the sky.
Seeing this, Yang Lu grinned savagely and shook his shoulders, channeling two additional surges of immense power into his palms.
The milky-white halos around his descending palms grew even more blinding, and the viscous force pressing down on Han Li thickened severalfold.
The beast clearly intended to crush Han Li into paste with a single strike.
The moment Han Li’s seemingly frail fist made contact with the milky-white halos, a layer of silver-patterned arrays ignited across it, unleashing an unimaginable, terrifying force.
*BOOM!*
An earth-shaking explosion erupted.
The two milky-white halos shattered into fragments almost simultaneously, and Yang Lu’s fleshy palms were violently forced apart.
When the terrifying force struck Yang Lu’s massive body, he staggered backward uncontrollably.
After stumbling more than a dozen steps, he finally regained his footing. His gaze toward Han Li now flickered with shock and fury. With a low roar, he opened his mouth and spat out a white, hazy wind bullet over ten feet in diameter. In a flash, it teleported to within inches of Han Li.
Only then did the wind pressure accompanying the bullet emit a piercing shriek in the nearby void.
*Bang!*
Han Li’s purplish-gold arm blurred, and the massive wind bullet was knocked away just as swiftly. It exploded into a white sunburst in the distance, the resulting shockwave flattening everything within a mile.
Yang Lu’s face darkened at the sight.
At that moment, Han Li expressionlessly formed a hand seal. His body erupted in dazzling purplish-gold light, engulfing him entirely, while the cries of phoenixes and dragons echoed from within.
When the light faded, a demonic deity with three heads, six arms, a single horn, and a body covered in purplish-gold scales stood in his place.
The demon’s three pairs of silver eyes coldly regarded Yang Lu before it began striding forward through the air.
*Thud! Thud!*
With each step, the demon’s body swelled in size. By the time it had taken a dozen steps, it had grown to match Yang Lu’s colossal stature.
“This form represents my peak strength. The true battle begins now. As a True Spirit, I wonder how many of my strikes you can withstand,” boomed the voice from Han Li’s transformed demonic form. A verdant light flashed along one of its arms, and a dark green wooden sword materialized out of thin air. With a slight tremble, ripples of law fluctuations radiated outward.
“True Devil’s Body! A Profound Heavenly Treasure!”
Despite his vast experience, Yang Lu’s expression twisted in shock upon recognizing Han Li’s transformation and the sword in his hand. His heart sank to the depths.
—
Elsewhere, within a crimson fire cloud spanning over ten miles, streaks of silver sword light flickered wildly, accompanied by thunderous roars.
A bolt of lightning split the sky, and all the sword lights vanished. A thousand-foot-long silver greatsword materialized above the fire cloud and slashed downward.
From within the fire cloud, a bizarre shriek echoed as a monstrous flood dragon covered in crimson tendrils surged forth, spewing balls of thunderfire to meet the silver greatsword.
A silver flash later, the greatsword transformed into a silver curtain beneath the flood dragon, cleaving the fire cloud cleanly in two.
The greatsword then blurred and vanished, replaced by an ordinary-looking man in gray robes.
The man was drenched in sweat, with nearly half his body missing. The wound was charred black, with no trace of blood. He gazed up at the motionless flood dragon with lingering fear.
“A Fire Tendril Beast… So such a sacred fire beast truly exists. It seems this one was brought from the Immortal Realm by that immortal. Pity it’s just a puppet, devoid of intelligence. Otherwise, without resorting to the Ninth-Level *Mie Zhen* Grand Technique, victory would’ve been impossible. But even so…” The gray-robed man glanced down at his unhealing wound and couldn’t help but smile bitterly.
At that moment, the motionless flood dragon trembled before exploding into countless fragments, unleashing a torrent of crimson flames that swept outward like a tidal wave.
The gray-robed man gasped and, without hesitation, let out a long cry. He transformed back into the silver greatsword and shot skyward, piercing through the sea of flames.
After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the crimson fire sea gradually diminished before finally dissipating entirely.
The gray-robed man reappeared where the flood dragon had been, scanning his surroundings. Finding nothing left behind, his expression darkened.
After a moment of conflicted contemplation, he sighed heavily, stomped his foot, and transformed into a streak of sword light that vanished into the horizon.
—
“Huoxuzi… failed?” Ma Liang murmured in a voice barely above a whisper, his face a mask of surprise.
“Hmph! If you hadn’t refused to lift the soul restriction on me, preventing me from using even a tenth of my power, how could a mere lower realm cultivator have defeated me?” A shrill voice retorted from the nearby void.
A faint ripple appeared a few feet in front of Ma Liang, and several egg-sized crimson fireballs materialized silently. They flashed toward each other, merging into a crimson miniature figure that stared emotionlessly at the immortal.
“Hmph. Lifting your restriction in this realm is out of the question. Unless we return to the Immortal Realm, I won’t take such a risk. The fact that you’re even conscious now is already a concession. But I’ll soon plunge your soul back into slumber. With your strength, your indestructible shell alone is more than enough for my purposes,” Ma Liang snorted.
As he spoke, he opened his mouth and exhaled a golden mist.
Upon contact, the crimson figure’s icy gaze faded, replaced by its previous dazed, vacant expression.
Ma Liang flicked his sleeve, sending several golden talismans flying onto the figure’s body.
He then retrieved a blue jade box, opened its lid, and waved it forward. A white mist surged out, sucking the crimson figure inside.
After storing the box, Ma Liang raised his head to survey the sky, his brow furrowing subconsciously.
Though the sky still echoed with the sounds of battle, both the eight five-clawed blood dragons and the four blood giants had been forced into a disadvantageous position. Under the combined might of Yin Gangzi and the other Great Ascension cultivators, along with the four Black Qilin Beasts, they had retreated to the vicinity of the blood river, relying on its endless supply of primal energy to barely hold their ground.
But it was clear this resistance wouldn’t last much longer.
Ma Liang’s gaze swept across the various battlefronts along the blood river before shifting to a palm-sized screen of light nearby.
On it, a three-headed, six-armed demonic figure stood, gripping a dark green greatsword in one hand and half of a massive beast’s carcass in the other.
“A True Devil’s Body and a Profound Heavenly Treasure… To think the guardians of the formation’s eye would be so troublesome. Neither of them succeeded. It seems I’ll have to lift another seal. But since I’ve already located the target, there’s no need to hold back any longer.” Ma Liang muttered to himself before flipping his hand to reveal another golden talisman.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage