Han Li narrowed his eyes, taking in the scene not far away.
Under the relentless devouring of the Gold Devouring Beetles, the flood dragon’s scales had finally shattered. But the consequence of its flesh being torn apart was countless beams of bloody light shooting out from its body, causing swarms of beetles to dissolve into toxic liquid. In no time, the densely packed insects covering the flood dragon’s body were reduced to a pitiful few.
By now, the flood dragon was also covered in wounds, its body oozing copious amounts of emerald-green blood. The hatred in its gaze as it glared at Han Li was bone-deep.
A chill ran down Han Li’s spine—the name “venomous flood dragon” was certainly well-deserved. His Gold Devouring Beetles had evolved to the point where ordinary magical treasures could hardly harm them, yet a single spray of this toxic light had annihilated them so easily. The potency of the venom was truly fearsome.
But then a cold smile crept onto Han Li’s face. What this demon didn’t know was that he had far more than just these few insects. Even if he had to sacrifice the majority of his beetles, he was determined to take down at least one of these three demons.
With that thought, he quickly glanced toward the other side, where the turtle demon was completely buried under a thick layer of beetles. The sound of gnawing, a constant “shasha” noise, never ceased, yet the insect-covered mound remained utterly still. If not for the faint demonic aura still emanating from within and the fact that it remained bulging high, he would have almost thought the creature was already dead.
Though doubts swirled in his mind, Han Li had no time to dwell on them. With a dark expression, he flung his hands into the air, releasing several spirit beast pouches. Instantly, the buzzing of wings and chirping of insects filled the entire refining room, and the air above became densely packed with over a hundred thousand tri-colored Gold Devouring Beetles, blotting out the ceiling.
At the sight of such an immense swarm, the flood dragon’s face first paled, then twisted into despair.
Inside the white beam of light, Feng Xi’s expression also changed drastically, revealing a trace of horror.
It was worth noting that while social spirit insects had shorter reproduction cycles and laid numerous eggs at once compared to ordinary spirit beasts, each breeding cycle still took upwards of a hundred years. After hatching and imprinting, they required several decades of training and nurturing before they could truly be used. Moreover, the more powerful and higher-grade the spirit insects, the longer the time investment naturally became. Thus, even though many cultivators in the world of immortal cultivation knew about insect control techniques, few had become famous throughout the Chaotic Star Seas for it—especially after reaching Core Formation, where it was even rarer to hear of!
Most insect-controlling cultivators considered themselves lucky if they managed to amass a swarm of over a thousand spirit insects in their lifetime. More often than not, it was a matter of masters passing down their insects to disciples, who in turn passed them to the next generation, barely maintaining such numbers.
Furthermore, spirit insects were far more fragile compared to other spirit beasts. It was common for an entire swarm to be wiped out in a single battle. This was also why, even though other cultivators knew the power of spirit insects, few chose to practice insect control techniques.
Both Feng Xi and the flood dragon had witnessed the might of Han Li’s Gold Devouring Beetles. Even as high-level demon beasts, they found it utterly terrifying. Thus, seeing Han Li release such an overwhelming number left them both in disbelief.
Of course, they didn’t know that these beetles had not yet evolved to their mature form—otherwise, their shock would have been even greater.
Ignoring the fury and venomous hatred in the flood dragon’s eyes, Han Li focused his spiritual sense, and all the insects let out a unified chirp before dividing into several streams, swooping down upon the flood dragon in waves.
Once again, bloody light erupted from the flood dragon’s wounded body. Any beetles caught in the spray vanished without a trace, yet the swarm above continued to dive down relentlessly, fearless of death. In mere moments, the bloody light began to weaken and dim. Shortly after, under the flood dragon’s deathly pale expression, the light vanished completely.
Seeing this, Han Li’s eyes lit up! The swarm descended without mercy, instantly burying the flood dragon. Before long, the towering mound of insects began to shrink, growing shorter and smaller. With its scales breached, the flood dragon couldn’t hold out for long and was finally devoured by the swarm, meeting its end.
Witnessing this, Feng Xi’s face flickered slightly before calming down, though his gaze remained icy as he stared fixedly at Han Li.
With a low chant from Han Li, the swarm lifted away, revealing the flood dragon’s remains. Among them, a fist-sized bloody demon core flickered intermittently.
A strange glint flashed in Han Li’s eyes, but before he could act, the demon core suddenly glowed blue and shot into the air, streaking toward the room’s entrance. Without a second thought, Han Li flicked his finger, sending a green sword Qi flying out, striking the core directly.
The core spun wildly from the impact, and suddenly, a ball of blue light emerged from within, containing a miniature dragon about an inch long—the flood dragon’s soul.
Once exposed, the dragon soul panicked, flashing with bloody light before vanishing from sight.
A cold light flashed in Han Li’s eyes. He suddenly patted one of the spirit beast pouches at his waist, and a green light shot out, landing on the ground and revealing a lazy-looking little monkey with a somewhat displeased expression—it was the Soul Devouring Beast.
Han Li had no time to care about the beast’s mood. Giving its head a light pat, the Soul Devouring Beast involuntarily snorted through its large nose, releasing a yellow beam that circled in the air before enveloping an empty spot nearby. With a flash of yellow light, the blood-red miniature dragon soul was revealed.
The yellow light then retracted, pulling the flood dragon’s soul toward the beast’s nose.
Naturally unwilling to be devoured, the dragon soul emitted a blinding blue light mid-pull, which momentarily resisted the yellow beam, holding it in place.
As expected of a heaven-earth spirit beast in its transformed state, the strength of its soul was far beyond that of sixth or seventh-level demon beasts. Of course, this was also because the Soul Devouring Beast was still in its juvenile stage; otherwise, it would have lived up to its formidable reputation.
But Han Li had never intended for the Soul Devouring Beast to actually absorb this dragon soul. The soul of an eighth-level demon beast was an extremely rare treasure in this world, and he had no intention of wasting it.
Thus, just as the yellow beam and the dragon soul reached a stalemate, Han Li flashed to the side and reached out with five fingers glowing with green light, accurately seizing the helpless soul.
The inch-long dragon soul struggled desperately between his fingers, but Han Li flipped his other hand, revealing a pre-prepared jade bottle. With a flick, “whoosh,” the soul, wrapped in a ball of green light, was tossed into the bottle.
Han Li swiftly sealed the bottle and carefully stored it in his pouch, finally letting out a slight sigh of relief.
Without wasting any time, Han Li turned and headed toward the turtle demon.
But just then, a crisp “crack” sounded from mid-air—the light barrier had finally shattered under the relentless assault of the two giant swords. Without even looking up, Han Li opened his palm, releasing a large expanse of green light that enveloped the exposed Wind and Thunder Wings and instantly pulled them back into his hand. Without a second glance, he stuffed the treasure into his storage pouch.
This action nearly made the nearby Wind-Splitting Demon vomit blood in fury, its previously calm expression once again twisting with extreme venom.
But Han Li’s gaze fell upon the towering mound of insects. With a low chant from him, the swarm immediately rose from the ground, revealing the turtle demon below.
At the sight, Han Li sucked in a cold breath.
The turtle demon was covered in wounds, its flesh mangled and bloody, but its body emitted a faint earthy yellow glow. The exposed flesh wriggled continuously, rapidly regenerating and healing right before Han Li’s eyes. In moments, most of the wounds had already mostly closed.
“Self-regeneration body!” Han Li exclaimed in shock, a bitter taste rising in his mouth.
So-called “self-regeneration bodies” were not uncommon among demon beasts. Many low-level demon beasts possessed this bizarre ability to heal wounds and regenerate limbs. But this innate talent was extremely rare among high-level demon beasts. In fact, among the many sixth and seventh-level demon beasts Han Li had slain, he had never encountered one with such regenerative abilities.
To find that this eighth-level turtle demon possessed such a physique naturally came as a great surprise to Han Li.
But this also meant that Han Li was in serious trouble. Unless he could sever the turtle demon’s head or shatter its core with a single sword strike, relying solely on the Gold Devouring Beetles would not be enough to finish it off anytime soon. At the very least, until this innate ability was exhausted, he would be unable to do anything to it.
Unfortunately, his Green Bamboo Cloud-Sewing Sword had only been refined a few decades ago, and the time he had spent nurturing it was minimal. Thus, even though the materials used were Divine Thunder Bamboo—one of the three great divine woods—and later enhanced with extremely rare Refining Crystal, the power of a single sword was not particularly impressive compared to the life-bound treasures of cultivators of the same level.
His previous successes in slaying sixth and seventh-level demon beasts with these swords were largely due to their overwhelming numbers. When several or even a full set of twelve swords combined into one giant sword, their power was naturally on a completely different level. This was the fundamental strength of set treasures.
But clearly, this time, even if he employed the giant sword technique, it would not be enough to break through the demonic bodies cultivated by these two eighth-level demon beasts.
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