Seeing the fire flood dragon instantly close in, Han Li revealed a faint smile. A finger within his sleeve trembled slightly, and a red streak shot from his fingertip, vanishing in a flash. Simultaneously, thunder roared behind him as a pair of silver-white wings abruptly appeared, giving a gentle flap.
Silver light erupted. Just as the pair of claws, wrapped in red light, were about to strike, Han Li’s figure vanished within the radiance. The Scarlet Fire Flood Dragon’s attack landed on empty air.
Almost at the same moment, a sharp whistling sound pierced the air—soft but unmistakable. A crystalline red needle materialized beside the flood dragon, aiming straight for the fatal spot between its brows.
Though the flood dragon’s body was wreathed in flickering flames, they only slightly hindered the needle before it pierced through with a flash—none other than the exceptionally sharp crystallized flying needle.
Silent and lightning-fast, the needle had closed in unnoticed, startling the flood dragon out of its wits. With no time to think, it desperately jerked its head aside—but too late. A soft *thunk* sounded, followed by a shrill, agonized scream. The beast clutched its face with one claw, blood streaming between its fingers. The needle had pierced clean through its cheek and shot out the other side.
Though the needle was extraordinarily sharp, being forged from a fire-attribute demon core, its inherent properties meant it couldn’t inflict severe damage to the fire-aligned flood dragon. However, under Han Li’s spiritual command, the needle had instantly expanded several times in size, leaving a thumb-sized hole in the beast’s face, causing excruciating pain.
Before the flood dragon could erupt in fury, a thunderclap boomed behind it. Han Li’s figure reappeared, his arm sweeping down as a golden blade over ten feet long slashed viciously downward.
The flood dragon’s heart sank. Ignoring the searing pain in its face, its tail flared with crimson light, swelling to twice its size like a massive fan as it swept toward Han Li, intent on crushing him into pulp regardless of the consequences.
Han Li was momentarily taken aback. *This beast truly lives up to its reputation as a spirit creature of heaven and earth—its reflexes are astonishingly fast. Few human cultivators could react in time to my Thunder Evasion ambush.* With a thought, he adjusted the golden sword’s trajectory to strike the tail first.
The moment they clashed, the golden blade cleaved through the red light and struck the tail squarely. The flood dragon shuddered, channeling all its demonic power into its tail, which turned translucent and crimson.
A deafening explosion followed, golden and bloody light clashing in a blinding flare. Han Li narrowed his eyes, blue glints flashing in his pupils as he discerned the outcome.
The golden sword, formed from several merged flying swords, had failed to sever the tail in one strike. Instead, it had split the scales and embedded itself a third of the way in, halted by an exceptionally tough bone.
Han Li’s eyes flickered. He formed hand seals to retract the sword for another strike, but an immense suction force erupted from the tail, locking the blade in place.
“Without your weapon, let’s see how you fight!” The flood dragon let out a maddened laugh, twisting its head to open its maw. A red, needle-like radiance shimmered as a fist-sized orb flickered into view within its jaws.
“Demon core!” Han Li’s pupils contracted in recognition.
Realizing it couldn’t match him head-on, the beast had seized the chance to trap his bonded treasure and now prepared to unleash its core in a desperate attack.
Han Li’s expression darkened. With a shout, his figure blurred, splitting into three identical copies standing side by side.
The flood dragon faltered, unable to distinguish the real one. The three Han Lis smirked in unison, flicking their sleeves to release three golden blades several feet long, slashing toward the beast from different angles.
Panicked, the flood dragon spat its core at the central blade while its claws flared red, swiping at the other two. Having witnessed the sword’s sharpness, it doubted all three strikes were real—likely two illusions and one genuine attack. If the core blocked the real one, it would survive. If not, its claws—harder than its tail—could endure the strike while it killed Han Li’s true body with the core.
But as this thought crossed its mind, a thunderous boom erupted. The core’s red light repelled the central blade, revealing the sword’s true form.
*The middle one was real!* The flood dragon rejoiced—until the other two blades flared brilliantly. Its claws went cold, then erupted in unbearable agony as both were severed in an instant. The golden blades then shot toward its body like lightning.
The beast shrieked, its body glowing as it tried to retreat. But beneath its feet, a violet lotus bloomed, unleashing a bone-chilling frost that froze it in place for a split second.
That delay was fatal. The two golden blades crossed in a blinding flash, shearing through the flood dragon’s neck with a *crack*. Its massive head toppled, its thick scales offering no resistance.
Unbeknownst to the beast, Han Li had secretly channeled most of his spiritual power into the two swords, unleashing their full might—enhanced by refined gold essence—rendering them unstoppable.
The two illusory Han Lis flickered and vanished.
Without pause, Han Li pointed at the swords. Thunder roared as two thick golden arcs erupted, weaving into a net that descended upon the falling head.
Simultaneously, a miniature red flood dragon—the beast’s nascent soul—fled from the corpse’s neck, only to plunge straight into the golden net. Trapped, it spewed desperate flames, but the net contracted relentlessly, confining it to a tiny space.
Rather than obliterating it immediately, Han Li summoned a jade-green vial. With a wave, countless golden threads wove around the soul, binding it into a fist-sized sphere before being drawn into the vial by a beam of white light.
Han Li exhaled in relief.
“Though the Shadow Clone Technique is a minor art, it proves quite useful in battle. No wonder Golden Light Mountain guards it as a legacy secret,” he murmured.
He then retrieved his sword from the tail and stored the head and corpse in a prepared storage pouch. The now masterless eighth-grade demon core was carefully sealed in a jade box.
With the flood dragon dead, the surrounding demonic clouds and fire sea began dissipating.
Han Li scanned the other battlefields, frowning slightly.
The Core Formation cultivators, outnumbering the seventh-grade flood dragons, held their own. But the Nascent Soul-stage burly man was in dire straits, thoroughly suppressed by the eighth-grade azure flood dragon.
“Eighth-grade demons are rare. Might as well take this one too,” Han Li muttered coldly, his body glowing as he prepared to strike.
“Han brat, don’t get greedy. I sense other cultivators approaching. If you delay, escaping will be difficult. The South Sea Sect went to great lengths to hunt these flood dragons—they won’t let you take all the spoils,” the Great Divination Sage warned telepathically.
“The South Sea Sect? They move fast. Pity, but I’d better leave.” Han Li’s expression darkened. After confirming with his spiritual sense, he vanished before the last of the demonic clouds dispersed.
Meanwhile, the azure flood dragon, sensing its kin’s death, erupted in frenzied attacks, pushing the already struggling burly man to the brink. Just as the man considered retreating, two groups of over a dozen cultivators each appeared in the distance.
Realizing the danger, the azure flood dragon suppressed its rage, shrieked, and dove for the sea. The other flood dragons followed suit, but the human cultivators gave chase, preventing their escape.
The battle grew even fiercer…
Han Li, disinterested in the aftermath, flew a hundred miles before revealing his aura and speeding deeper into the ocean.
He needed to find a secluded spirit island—it was time to craft the Great Divination Sage’s puppet constructs.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage