With a flash before his eyes, a green rainbow pierced through the void. As the light dimmed, Han Li’s figure emerged, and he turned to glance behind him.
There, towering motionless, stood a colossal pagoda thousands of feet tall. The hole he had emerged from, located in the middle of the pagoda, was rapidly shrinking at a visible speed. In the blink of an eye, the void there returned to its original state. It seemed the treasure had suffered little to no actual damage.
Han Li’s expression shifted, but he quickly took a deep breath and swept his gaze around. His face soon twisted into one of extreme astonishment.
The nearby void was still filled with deafening battle cries. The armies of humans and demons were still locked in fierce combat before the towering walls of Yitian City. High above, a towering beast with the head of a goat and the body of a bear fought alongside Frost Li the Transcendent against the black-armored giant and a group of eerie, blood-misted demon soldiers. The battle was deadlocked.
Frost Li the Transcendent had already reverted to human form, his face deathly pale. Under the assault of the bizarre demon army, he could barely defend himself. The demons’ attacks were deceptively simple—either spewing blood-red beams from their mouths or wildly swinging their weapons to release crimson slashes. Yet, Frost Li and the towering beast seemed deeply wary of these attacks, avoiding direct hits at all costs. They shielded themselves with protective spiritual light or activated treasures to encase themselves in layers of defense.
Moreover, these demons appeared to possess an unnatural immortality. Even when torn apart by the beast’s strange winds or crushed to pieces by its massive palms, they would reform in a flash of blood-red light and immediately launch even fiercer attacks. The black-armored giant lurked behind the demon army, striking with full force whenever the beast neared a breakthrough, forcing it back into the encirclement. Occasionally, he would also target Frost Li, sending him into frantic disarray.
Despite the goat-headed beast’s terrifying power and its ability to summon winds that even late-stage Body Integration cultivators feared, it was helpless against the black-armored giant and the demon army’s relentless assault. Yet, given the beast’s overwhelming abilities, the demons seemed equally incapable of truly defeating or injuring it. The battle had reached an eerie stalemate.
The situation on the other side of the battlefield, however, was starkly different.
Lin Luan and Silverlight Fairy had somehow joined forces, but their circumstances were dire. One unleashed boundless silver radiance, while the other was engulfed in rolling tricolored flames. Their combined powers merged seamlessly, amplifying their strength manifold. Yet, their opponents—the white-robed youth and the petite woman—had also teamed up. Behind the petite woman loomed a colossal, emerald-green toad phantom. Each time it opened its mouth, it spewed clouds of jade-green mist.
The mist contained an unfathomable power. Whenever the silver radiance or flames touched it, both would vanish in a flash, annihilating each other. Were it not for the toad phantom’s brief pauses between attacks, the women’s defenses would have long been shattered. But what truly tormented them were the white-robed youth’s assaults.
Aside from wielding over a dozen crystalline flying blades, the youth employed no other techniques. Yet these seemingly simple attacks carried a bone-chilling cold far surpassing his earlier strikes. Each slash forced Silverlight Fairy and Lin Luan to expend tremendous energy to neutralize. As a result, their spiritual power drained at an alarming rate. Had they not carried rare, restorative elixirs, their combined defense would have collapsed long ago, sealing their doom.
Even so, as their elixirs dwindled, their situation grew increasingly desperate. Beyond their defensive perimeter, vast swathes of white frost had begun to form, enveloping several acres of the void.
Han Li’s lips twitched, his mind reeling with shock. Though it seemed as if little time had passed since he was sucked into the pagoda, he had spent nearly half a day inside. Could the pagoda manipulate the flow of time, making its interior distinct from the outside world? If so, the origins of this treasure were far more extraordinary than he had imagined.
Apart from legendary Profound Heavenly Treasures, he had never heard of any artifact capable of altering time. A chill ran down his spine, but his thoughts remained razor-sharp. Scanning the battlefield, he realized someone was missing—the silver-robed man who had joined forces against him earlier was nowhere near the pagoda.
Extending his spiritual sense, he detected only faint remnants of restrictive spells but no trace of the demonic Venerable. A sense of foreboding gripped him, recalling the cryptic message he had heard within the pagoda. A cold sweat broke out as an ominous premonition took hold.
“I can’t stay here. I must leave immediately,” Han Li thought, his resolve hardening. Yet, seeing the human forces on the brink of defeat, he hesitated. “Perhaps I should help them eliminate these two demonic Venerables first. It shouldn’t take long if I go all out.”
This wasn’t out of altruism—fleeing now would make it impossible for him to remain among humans in the future. More importantly, even if the earlier voice truly belonged to the Blood Light Sage’s true form, he doubted the demon could pose a direct threat without descending in person. And such an event was nearly impossible during the early stages of the demonic invasion. Historical records showed no instances of a Sage manifesting in the Spirit Realm at this phase.
Thus, despite his unease, Han Li decided to aid Yitian City’s defenders before departing. As for the pagoda, though it intrigued him, he knew it—like the purple cauldron—was likely a treasure lent by the Blood Light Sage to his subordinates. Given the Sage’s overwhelming spiritual imprint, seizing it would be futile. No wonder the Sage had entrusted such a treasure to his underlings without concern.
With his mind made up, Han Li shot forward as a streak of green light. He bypassed Frost Li and the beast, targeting the white-robed youth and the petite woman instead.
Silverlight Fairy and Lin Luan, spotting Han Li’s escape and his approach, were overjoyed. As Han Li appeared beside them, unleashing a storm of green sword lotuses and a silver ruler that transformed into a gleaming ribbon lashing toward the petite woman, Lin Luan exclaimed, “Brother Han, thank the heavens you’re safe! Hold off these demons while I prepare to summon my spirit beast to eliminate the other Venerable and those mutated fiends!”
With that, her tricolored flames vanished as she formed hand seals, the blood rune between her brows reappearing as she focused entirely on her summoning.
Han Li frowned slightly but raised a hand, summoning a black mountain that expanded to over a hundred feet, blocking the white-robed youth’s crystalline blades aimed at the women. As white light flashed, a layer of ice spread across the mountain’s surface, freezing nearly half of it instantly. The youth’s cold energy had grown several times stronger since their last encounter, now capable of freezing even the Magnetic Divine Mountain.
Undeterred, the white-robed youth brightened at Han Li’s interference. Dozens of crystalline blades gleamed blindingly before transforming into a rolling tide of white frost. Han Li’s heart clenched as he formed a sword seal. The green sword lotuses spun and vanished, only to reappear as hundreds of green pillars erupting from the void. Interweaving, they formed a vast, hazy green sword array, enveloping Han Li and the two women.
Not daring to underestimate his foe and aiming for a swift resolution, Han Li deployed his trump card—the still-incomplete Emerald Swarm Sword Formation. Though the youth’s freezing blades were formidable, they dissolved harmlessly upon contact with the array.
“How amusing,” the white-robed youth sneered, his voice icy with scorn. “But if you think this flimsy array can stop me, you gravely underestimate this Venerable!” With a hand seal, his blades merged into a single fifty-foot-long giant blade that silently cleaved toward the formation.
Before it even struck, a white halo descended, freezing the surrounding void with an eerie creaking sound. Even the razor-sharp sword lights within the formation slowed to a crawl, the entire array grinding nearly to a halt.
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