Just as Han Li’s heart tightened, the demonic ape let out a low roar and spat out a mass of black-red essence energy from its mouth, enveloping the massive purple sword before it.
Instantly, the sword erupted with dazzling purple light, and the unknown spiritual creature within it swelled in size, abruptly emerging from the surface of the sword. It shook its head and lashed its tail, appearing exceptionally ferocious.
The giant sword spun swiftly before suddenly standing upright, its blade aimed directly at Han Li’s position and slashing downward.
A purple sword light, over ten zhang long, surged forth, silently and steadily cleaving toward the cyan barrier. Though such a sword light should have flashed out in an instant, it moved as if weighed down, its speed reduced several times.
Seeing this, Han Li’s expression drastically changed. His four golden arms simultaneously formed a hand seal and gestured toward the sword formation.
Four golden beams, as solid as reality, shot forth, directly intercepting the purple sword light.
A series of deafening booms erupted!
Though the golden light exploded with astonishing force, it only briefly halted the purple light before being effortlessly shattered.
The purple light continued its advance toward Han Li.
Han Li’s eyes narrowed sharply, and the two shadow puppets standing behind him immediately swung their weapons without hesitation. Golden sword beams and blade lights erupted like a storm.
At the same time, Han Li channeled his spiritual power, fiercely activating the sword formation.
The cyan barrier before him transformed, revealing fist-sized cyan runes that swirled briefly before materializing into clusters of blue lotuses, blocking the path of the purple sword light.
Though the sword beams and blade lights were relentless, they merely caused the purple sword light to flicker a few times before dissipating, failing to halt its advance.
With one final flash, the purple light struck the countless blue lotuses.
Amidst the interplay of cyan and purple radiance, the sword light transformed into a phantom identical to the unknown spiritual creature within the purple blade remnant. With a vicious pounce, its claws swept out, effortlessly cleaving the blue lotuses in two. Its massive form plunged into the cyan light, seemingly unstoppable.
Watching from outside, Han Li’s gaze sharpened. His spiritual power surged like a raging river, instantly pouring into the sword formation.
The shattered fragments of the blue lotuses condensed once more, reappearing in clusters before flashing back into position to block the purple sword light.
Though the purple light was immensely powerful, the Spring Dawn Sword Formation’s transformations were equally profound.
With vast spiritual energy fueling it, countless blue lotuses surged from all directions.
The phantom of the spiritual creature, formed from the purple sword light, ultimately dimmed and dissipated mere zhang away from the cyan barrier, its energy exhausted.
Seeing this, the demonic ape within the sword formation flashed purple light in its eyes, a trace of surprise crossing its face.
It knew a thing or two about the origins of this blade remnant!
It was precisely because of this treasure that it had been hunted down by the Spirit Realm’s cultivators and reduced to its current state.
Though limited by its current cultivation, it couldn’t unleash the blade’s full power, the previous strike had already consumed all its remaining spiritual energy. Yet, it had still been blocked by the sword formation. This sent a chill down its spine!
This meant the sword formation trapping it was far more formidable than it had initially thought. Given its current state, breaking free wouldn’t be easy.
Upon reflection, this creature—renowned even among Saint-rank demonic beasts—felt a pang of frustration.
Ever since crossing into this realm through the spatial rift in the Demonic Gold Mountain Range, it had engaged in several fierce battles with other Saint-rank demonic beasts and human Saint-rank cultivators outside the mountains due to various reasons.
Not only had its cultivation suffered severe damage, nearly causing its soul to scatter, but several of its immensely powerful treasures had also been destroyed in these conflicts.
Otherwise, even with its cultivation diminished to this extent, it could have forcibly broken the formation by deploying its remaining treasures.
The demonic ape’s pupils flickered with purple light, its expression shifting between gloom and uncertainty.
Meanwhile, Han Li relaxed slightly before flicking his sleeve, revealing a stack of cyan talismans glowing with spiritual light.
Each talisman was identical, about half a chi long, exuding exceptionally pure wood-attribute spiritual energy.
At this moment, Han Li was finally certain that the demonic ape’s cultivation had indeed been severely weakened. Excluding its formidable divine sense and various secret techniques, its current spiritual power was at most equivalent to a peak Void Refinement cultivator. However, its protective armor and the purple blade remnant were truly extraordinary, making slaying this demon an arduous task.
Fortunately, as long as he could restrict its unpredictable movement techniques, the demon’s combat prowess would be significantly reduced.
Yet, its possession of spirit eyes capable of easily seeing through illusions was equally troublesome. Ordinary illusions from the sword formation would likely be ineffective.
Han Li had long researched the possibility of encountering enemies with spirit eyes while cultivating this sword formation.
It seemed the recent insights he’d gained into the Spring Dawn Sword Formation’s transformations could now be tested on this Saint-rank demonic beast.
With this in mind, Han Li seized the moment while the demonic ape hesitated within the formation, raising a hand.
The stack of cyan talismans transformed into streaks of cyan light, shooting into the sword formation before vanishing.
Simultaneously, he chanted an incantation, and the golden orb in his other hand shot upward as a golden beam, disappearing into the formation.
Then, with a deep breath, he spat out a massive golden rune, which also soared into the sky and vanished.
Within the formation, the demonic ape sensed something amiss and abruptly raised its head with a fierce expression.
A thunderous boom echoed!
The skies above the sword formation suddenly churned with violent winds and dark clouds. A golden sun flickered amidst the storm, emanating an aura of apocalyptic destruction. Countless arcs of lightning crackled across its surface, accompanied by continuous, deafening thunder.
“Lightning Summoning Art!” The demonic ape’s pupils constricted as it muttered.
With a cold snort, it wasted no time, summoning the purple giant sword with a gesture. The sword flashed before returning to its grasp.
Holding the weapon horizontally, the ape prepared to slash apart the celestial phenomenon above.
Facing the Evil-Suppressing Divine Lightning—a technique highly effective against demonic energy—it had no intention of taking a direct hit, even with its purple armor.
But before it could swing the sword, the surroundings erupted in cyan light. The scenery blurred, and it suddenly found itself in a dense cyan forest.
Towering trees, each as thick as a person and dozens of zhang tall, surrounded it.
“Hmph, such petty tricks!” The demonic ape let out a strange laugh, its giant sword trembling with a resonant hum as the runes in its pupils spun rapidly.
Yet before it could discern the illusion’s flaws with its spirit eyes, all the trees erupted in cyan light, twisting and transforming into ten-zhang-tall armored warriors clad in cyan.
With a flash of cyan radiance, each warrior grasped a massive weapon—swords, axes, halberds—all glowing faintly cyan.
The dozen or so warriors nearest to the ape immediately swung their weapons, sending massive black shadows crashing down with gale-force winds.
Startled, the ape abandoned its focus on the divine lightning and instinctively slashed its sword in a wide arc.
A purple scar cleaved through the air, instantly obliterating the weapons and the towering warriors.
“Something’s wrong—these aren’t mere illusions!” The ape showed no joy at its easy victory, instead growing wary.
When its slash passed through the weapons, it had clearly sensed substantial spiritual energy within them.
Before it could ponder further, the thunderous sound of footsteps erupted as more warriors surged forward like a tide, their massive weapons whistling through the air.
With a cold snort, the ape stopped swinging its sword and instead stomped heavily on the ground.
A deafening explosion shook the earth as a shockwave of black-red demonic energy rippled outward like a tidal wave.
Wherever the demonic energy passed, the warriors collapsed like bubbles, swept away in an instant.
Outside the formation, Han Li’s expression darkened as he swiftly altered his hand seals.
Phantom images flickered in the air as countless cyan streaks materialized, transforming into foot-long cyan arrows!
With a sharp whistling sound, the arrows rained down on the ape like a storm.
This time, the ape remained calm, merely patting its purple armor. A layer of purple light emerged from the armor as it narrowed its eyes, scanning the arrows with its spirit eyes.
Its brows furrowed in confusion—each arrow contained genuine spiritual energy, with none being mere illusions.
Yet as the arrows struck, they burst like fireworks against the ape’s body, the dense barrage causing the purple barrier to tremble and flicker.
But the barrier held firm, showing no signs of collapse.
Seeing that the arrows, though real, lacked substantial power, the ape relaxed slightly but grew suspicious of Han Li’s intentions.
Just then, the ground beneath its feet exploded with a thunderous boom as a massive cyan hand erupted from the earth, flipping over to crush the ape like a falling mountain.
Unfazed, the ape raised its sword to bisect the hand—but then sensed something and jerked its head upward.
A golden beam shot down from the divine lightning’s golden sun above, silent and swift, arriving right above its head in an instant.
The ape’s face twisted in alarm!
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