Magical Power surged wildly through Han Li's body as he let out a low shout.
The enormous sword blazed with spiritual light throughout, trembling once before transforming into a golden arc like a flood dragon. It swept through the air in a wide spiral and slashed downward with savage force.
With a deafening rumble, the golden arc cleaved straight down through the middle of the colossal bronze pillar.
The hill-sized pillar of cyan and red crumbled like wet clay under the golden light, splitting in two and crashing to either side with thunderous booms.
From a distance, it looked as though heaven and earth were splitting apart!
The handful of Star Rebellion Alliance cultivators still lingering on nearby spirit ships scrambled into the air on their flying treasures in a panic.
Such a tremendous commotion drew the startled gazes of cultivators from both sides.
Han Li hovered motionless in the air, his robes billowing in the wind, and was immediately spotted by everyone.
Upon seeing him, reactions were starkly divided — some went pale as death, while others let out cries of wild elation. The two expressions could not have been more different.
Of course, not everyone had the leisure to look over at once.
For instance, the man and woman in a certain battle zone that Han Li was now gazing toward had no attention to spare for the tremendous noise. They were hemmed in on all sides by five enormous ghostly heads, cursing furiously from within the encirclement.
As it happened, the demonic aura and pink fragrant mist unleashed by the Twin Blue Devils were precisely countered by the gray-white demonic flames spewed by the Five Devils, leaving the pair with barely enough strength to defend themselves.
Elder Zhao and the burly man in the purple robe nearby saw this and were both startled and overjoyed. They frantically poured their power into several treasures and joined the assault on the Twin Blue Devils.
As for the dozen or so golden insect clouds Han Li had released, they were wreaking havoc of their own. Guided by a strand of Han Li's spiritual sense, they targeted Star Rebellion Alliance cultivators below the Nascent Soul stage with single-minded precision. Wherever they passed, a hum would ring out as the insect clouds pounced upon their targets. No matter what kind of magical artifact or treasure was used for protection, it dissolved into nothingness under the glittering golden light in an instant.
In the span of just a few moments, several dozen cultivators had been devoured clean by the Gold Devouring Beetles.
This sent the nearby Star Rebellion Alliance cultivators into complete disarray. Wherever the insect clouds passed, they scattered like people fleeing a venomous scorpion, retreating three feet at a time.
On top of that, Han Li had just destroyed the eye of the Wind-Fire Heaven-Severing Formation with a single sword strike. The blow to the Alliance cultivators' morale was devastating, sending it plummeting to its lowest point.
Cultivators on the Star Rebellion Alliance side began to flee on the spot. At first it was a few, then a dozen turning to run, and within moments it had swelled to dozens, then hundreds, scattering in every direction!
Without Han Li even needing to lift a finger, the Alliance's defeat was a foregone conclusion. Even Elder Long and the old woman, sensing the tide had turned, immediately shook off their opponents and vanished as two streaks of fleeing light.
The Twin Blue Devils clearly understood the danger as well. They suddenly conjured several immensely powerful treasures in rapid succession, performed hand seals to trigger their self-destruction, and managed to forcibly drive the Five Devils back long enough to break through the encirclement, attempting to flee in separate directions.
At the sight of this, Han Li's brows furrowed slightly. Then, without a moment's hesitation, the twin wings on his back beat once and he vanished from sight.
The next instant, the Twin Blue Devils — who had just escaped the Five Devils' encirclement — heard a low rumble of thunder up ahead. A flash of azure arc-light flickered past, and Han Li materialized before them with an eerie calm, gazing at the pair with leisurely composure, squarely blocking their path.
The moment the two demons met Han Li's emotionless eyes, their hearts sank.
But they were cultivators of the demonic path who had earned their fame long ago, and they were not about to simply await death. They exchanged a glance, then simultaneously raised their hands and released several more treasures of various colors. At the same time, their bodies blurred as they activated their demonic arts and charged forward with ferocious intent.
A thread of killing intent surfaced between Han Li's brows.
……
Several days later, the entire Scattered Star Seas was thrown into an uproar. The decisive battle between the Star Palace and the Star Rebellion Alliance had not only begun far earlier than anyone had expected, but — to the astonishment of the vast majority — had ended in a sweeping victory.
Not only had Wan Tianming of the Myriad Arts Gate perished in the battle, but numerous high-ranking Star Rebellion Alliance cultivators had fallen as well. Even the infamous Twin Blue Devils, feared demons from centuries past, had been effortlessly slain on the Star Palace's side.
Han Li's name naturally became known to every soul in the Scattered Star Seas on the back of this battle. Even the stories of how he had ventured into the Vault of Heavens and obtained the Void Heaven Treasure Cauldron before he had even condensed his Nascent Soul, and how he had later been placed on the Star Rebellion Alliance's kill list, were dug up and recounted. The tales left countless ordinary cultivators of the Scattered Star Seas clucking their tongues in amazement.
But with Han Li's reputation now what it was, no Nascent Soul old monster would dare to court death by coveting that treasure cauldron.
In the months that followed, the Star Palace dispatched teams upon teams to reclaim their lost territory while simultaneously hunting down the fleeing high-ranking Alliance cultivators. In one sweeping offensive, they drove all the way back to the Star Rebellion Alliance's stronghold.
The Alliance's remaining Nascent Soul Elders were unwilling to accept a permanent exile into hiding. Gritting their teeth, they mustered another force and engaged the Star Palace in yet another great battle at the Alliance's headquarters.
This time, without a late-stage Nascent Soul powerhouse to anchor their ranks, the Alliance suffered an even more crushing defeat.
They deployed three mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivators in concert against Han Li, yet Han Li cut down two of them with almost no effort whatsoever. The third managed to escape with his life through a secret technique, but his body was sliced clean in two by a single sword strike. Even if he succeeded in a Body Seizing in the future, his Magical Power would most likely never recover.