Han Li did not look at the Yue Emperor’s venomous expression, his gaze fixed on the dim bloodlight surrounding him.
A golden ruler, a pair of peculiar purple blades, and a blue longsword floated motionlessly within the bloodlight—these were Song Meng and the others’ magic tools. At this moment, they hung inert in the bloodlight, seemingly drained of their spiritual energy.
A thoughtful glint flashed in Han Li’s eyes. It appeared this person’s protective demonic light specialized in corrupting ordinary magic tools. Among his possessions, only the pair of Black Dragon Claws were impervious to such sinister techniques.
Moreover, only this person had shown up alone so far. It seemed the blue-robed man who called himself the Black Fiend Cult Leader had truly perished under the Heavenly Thunderbolt.
At this thought, Han Li felt a wave of relief but had no intention of giving his opponent any breathing room. With a mental command, the dozen or so puppets before him launched their attack. Multicolored arrows and beams of light poured down incessantly, striking toward the enemy.
On the side, Song Meng and the others, though alarmed by the loss of their magic tools and hesitant to use them again, unanimously began chanting incantations and hurling spells and talismans downward as soon as Han Li initiated the assault. They understood clearly that only by relentlessly crushing this last enemy could they preserve their lives and free themselves from the nightmare of their fallen comrades.
Below, the Yue Emperor remained expressionless but casually swiped a hand through the air before him, conjuring a massive crimson shield that effortlessly blocked all incoming attacks. However, the bloodlight around him grew increasingly faint, even giving the impression of teetering on the verge of collapse. This only spurred Han Li and the others to intensify their assault.
The Yue Emperor snorted coldly and, without a word, reached into his robes, producing a dark green vial.
Deftly, he tipped out a pill the size of a longan fruit. The pill was blood-red and emitted a pungent, bloody odor—clearly not something beneficial. Yet the Yue Emperor unhesitatingly tossed it into his mouth and discarded the vial, which had contained only that single pill.
As soon as the blood-red pill entered his stomach, something astonishing happened.
The Yue Emperor’s face instantly brightened, and the bloodlight around him flared back to brilliance. His various wounds vanished at a visible rate. In that brief moment, Han Li’s formidable enemy had regained his composure, as if his expended magic power and injuries had fully recovered to the state before Han Li used the Heavenly Thunderbolt.
“What sorcery is this? How could such a thing be possible in this world!” Song Meng muttered in disbelief, even forgetting to throw the dozen or so ice spikes he had already formed in his hands.
Han Li was equally stunned. He had no idea what his opponent had taken to achieve such a heaven-defying effect. None of the ancient texts he had read had ever mentioned anything like this.
“He took a Marrow Restoration Pill. It’s a life-saving elixir that can only be refined by those who practice certain specific demonic arts and are willing to sacrifice their own cultivation. It can only be used by the refiner himself—for anyone else, it would be a lethal poison,” a cool voice spoke from behind Chen Qiaoqian. Han Li couldn’t help but start slightly, while Chen Qiaoqian turned around with a face full of surprise.
“Senior Sister Zhong, you’re alright!”
“I’m fine, nothing serious! But now that I’ve seen this demon who killed Senior Brother Liu, I must slay him!” Zhong Weiniang, now fully conscious, forced a smile at Chen Qiaoqian before her expression turned icy.
“We all want to kill him. The problem is, he now has the same idea about us!” Han Li replied faintly without turning his head.
Hearing this, Zhong Weiniang glanced downward and her face instantly darkened.
Their formidable enemy below had retracted the light shield into his body while they were speaking, and the bloodlight around him had thickened to two or three zhang. The magic tools he had seized earlier were now slowly dissolving within the bloodlight.
All spells and puppet attacks were blocked outside the bloodlight. Previously, his protective glow had been only a few chi thick—now his cultivation had far surpassed what it was before.
He lifted his head and cast a cold glance at Han Li and the others, then suddenly reached an arm backward and made a grasping motion in the air. A fiery red pearl shot out from somewhere behind him and landed precisely in his hand.
Seeing this, a strange light flickered in Han Li’s eyes as he recalled the blue-robed man who had died from his Heavenly Thunderbolt. It seemed this pearl was what that man had left behind. Now, the “Blood Condensation Five Elements Beads” were complete. If he could kill this fiend, he would obtain these treasures greatly beneficial for Core Formation.
“Boy, do you have any more Heavenly Thunderbolts? If so, I’ll stand right here and take another one. Let’s see whether your Heavenly Thunderbolt is stronger or my protective demonic arts are more profound,” the Yue Emperor said coldly, carefully tucking the pearl into his robes.
These words left everyone in the air stunned, and they couldn’t help but look toward Han Li again.
Han Li’s expression remained unchanged, though he inwardly snorted. Calmly, he replied, “I, too, am very curious—are you the Black Fiend Cult Leader, or was it the man from earlier? And it seems you’ve absorbed most of that man’s cultivation! I find it hard to believe that there exists a cultivator in this world willing to make such sacrifices for another’s benefit.”
Instead of answering the question, Han Li deliberately shifted the topic, clearly displaying a confrontational stance.
The Yue Emperor, however, showed a strange expression—part mockery, part regret. But then, as if recalling something, his face grew increasingly sinister, and his eyebrows drew together sharply.
A chill ran down Han Li’s spine. He immediately parted his lips slightly and whispered a few words into the ears of the others, leaving Chen Qiaoqian, Song Meng, and the other four looking astonished.
Seeing their expressions, Han Li said indifferently, “I’ve said my piece. Whether you believe it or not is up to you!”
He didn’t use a voice transmission this time, so even the Yue Emperor below heard him clearly. The latter’s face turned cold, and he suddenly pointed a finger. A thumb-thick red light shot out and vanished in a flash, reappearing right in front of Han Li in an instant.
Startled by the speed of the red light, Han Li barely managed to overlap the White Scale Shield and the turtle shell artifact in front of himself. At the same time, a cyan glow emerged around him, forming a cyan sword shield. Facing this unknown attack, Han Li didn’t dare to be the slightest bit careless.
Two soft *pfft* sounds echoed almost simultaneously. Han Li’s body instinctively jerked to the side as a searing pain erupted in his right shoulder.
His face grim, Han Li glanced down and saw blood streaming from a finger-sized hole in his right shoulder.
Licking his slightly parched upper lip, Han Li looked down in disbelief at the artifacts in front of him.
A hole of the same size had been pierced through both the overlapping White Scale Shield and the turtle shell artifact—the unassuming red light had penetrated them effortlessly. As for the Green Origin Sword Shield on his body, it had been utterly useless, disintegrating upon contact and completely dissolved by the red light.
Seeing this, Han Li’s heart sank.
If not for his long practice of the Misty Step Technique and his agile reflexes, that attack would have pierced his heart and killed him instantly. In the world of cultivation, a single moment of carelessness could cost anyone their life.
The more Han Li thought about it, the more unnerved he became.
Although he knew his opponent had absorbed most of the blue-robed man’s magic power and was undoubtedly far stronger than before, he hadn’t expected him to be this overwhelmingly powerful.
Unbeknownst to Han Li, the Yue Emperor below was even more astonished that this strike hadn’t killed Han Li.
Although the move he had just executed seemed effortless, the “Blood Spirit Drill” was actually a technique he cultivated by slowly compressing and refining parts of his true energy dozens of times over, hiding it within his body to catch enemies off guard. It was a one-time attack.
Not only was the process of condensing it excruciatingly painful, but refining a single drill also took an extremely long time. It was one of the killing moves of his demonic arts.
In the past, this technique had never failed him—no cultivator had ever survived it. Yet now, it had only lightly wounded Han Li. How could he not be shocked?
Now, he had only one Blood Spirit Drill left in his body. Should he attempt to attack Han Li again? He hesitated.
Chen Qiaoqian and the others had also witnessed the attack and seen Han Li injured. Their faces paled. Unconsciously, Han Li had become their pillar of support. His unexpected injury threw the others into panic.
“Retreat!” Han Li said without hesitation as he shifted his gaze from his wound. He channeled magic power into the Divine Wind Boat beneath his feet and flashed away on his artifact.
Song Meng, Zhong Weiniang, and the others exchanged glances before swiftly following Han Li in flight.
Seeing this, the Yue Emperor was first taken aback, then let out a cold laugh.
He flashed into mid-air and was about to give chase when his vision blurred—ten puppets of various forms surrounded him tightly.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage