After several booms, Han Li released another volley of Evil-Dispelling Divine Thunder. The Nether Lightning Beast's body paused briefly before its sleeve flashed, and three golden lights shot forth.
They were none other than three fully-matured Gold Devouring Beetles!
The Nether Lightning Beast had just gleefully swallowed a few arcs of golden lightning when it saw the three golden beetles flying toward it. It faltered for a moment, but then opened its mouth dismissively.
A silver arc of lightning sprayed out, splitting in midair into three bolts that shot toward the beetles one apiece.
After three crackling peals of thunder, the beetles were completely engulfed in lightning.
But in the next instant, the Nether Lightning Beast's golden eyes narrowed, a flash of astonishment crossing its gaze.
Once the lightning subsided, not only had the three spirit insects failed to turn to ash — they had swollen to several times their original size and were charging toward the beast with savage ferocity.
Though the Nether Lightning Beast's intelligence couldn't compare to that of an average human, any creature that had cultivated to such a level would naturally possess a sharp mind.
Sensing something eerie about these insects, it immediately ceased its careless demeanor. One of its claws wreathed in arcs of lightning swiped through empty air.
Three streaks of cyan claw-light flashed outward, expanding enormously before they crashed head-on into the beetles.
After a piercing shriek, the claw-light exploded, and a wave of cyan radiance engulfed the beetles entirely.
Bursts of astonishing spirit wind radiated in all directions, drawing in the ambient spiritual energy of heaven and earth. The surrounding space seemed as though it might collapse at any moment.
The Nether Lightning Beast appeared thoroughly confident in this attack and didn't bother watching the result. Silver lightning flickered across its body as it prepared to spring away once more and pursue Han Li at full speed.
But then several buzzing sounds emanated from within the cyan glow, freezing the beast's expression. An almost human look of disbelief flickered through its eyes.
From within the cyan light, specks of golden luminescence flashed, and the three golden beetles shot out, covering the distance of several zhang to the beast in the blink of an eye.
Their bodies gleamed with brilliant golden light — they hadn't sustained the slightest injury.
The Nether Lightning Beast was truly alarmed now, but that alarm only stirred a surge of vicious fury within it!
Without a moment's hesitation, it opened its mouth again, and a billowing cloud of silver mist swept out, enveloping the three beetles within it.
The Gold Devouring Beetles, though capable of devouring anything, could not possibly chew their way out of the silver mist instantly.
After drawing a deep breath, the beast reversed the flow of the silver mist, and all three beetles were swept back into its maw.
Its jaws clamped down — rows of fangs ground without mercy — and then it swallowed them whole in one gulp.
The beast then shrank its body, and with a chorus of thunderous rumbles, it dissolved into a silver arc of lightning and vanished from where it had stood.
Han Li had used this reprieve to escape over a thousand zhang away. Glancing back and witnessing this scene, a strange look flickered across his face. Without a second word, the twin wings behind his back beat once, and he transformed into a crystalline thread that pierced through the air, vanishing into the void.
The two seemed to have returned to a game of pursuit and flight.
However, the Nether Lightning Beast appeared to have been thoroughly enraged by the gold beetles Han Li had released earlier. Its body flickered within the silver arc of lightning, and vicious glints flashed through its eyes from time to time.
It seemed that this time, the beast truly intended to kill Han Li.
The events that followed proved this was indeed the case!
When Han Li unleashed the Evil-Dispelling Divine Thunder once more, the Nether Lightning Beast's body flickered, passing directly through several arcs of golden lightning without its pursuit slowing in the slightest.
The beast no longer harbored any intention to toy with him.
Han Li's heart turned cold. He gathered every ounce of his Magical Power, and the crystalline thread he had become wove erratically through the void, its glow flickering in and out of sight like a specter.
But even so, in the span of mere moments, the Nether Lightning Beast had closed to within just over a hundred zhang behind him.
On the beast's back, lightning intertwined and arcs of electricity crackled outward, forming a pair of electric wings from the interwoven silver arcs.
Each wing spanned roughly two zhang, their surface a uniform silver-white with countless runes drifting across them.
With a single, gentle flap of these wings, the Nether Lightning Beast's body blurred amid a thunderous roar.
In the next instant, a silver arc appeared a mere ten-odd zhang behind Han Li, and the Nether Lightning Beast's phantasmal form materialized from it. The afterimage at its previous location dissipated like a burst bubble.
"Shadow Shift!"
Sensing the anomaly behind him, Han Li twisted his head mid-flight just in time to witness this scene. His face turned somewhat pale.
This beast actually possessed one of the most eerie movement techniques known — the Shadow Shift. It had caught him completely off guard, and his heart sank.
Shadow Shift might not be the fastest escape art in the world, but it was unquestionably the rarest and most mysterious. Few people in the entire world had ever witnessed it firsthand.
If Han Li hadn't studied lightning-escape techniques back at Skyline City and pored over the relevant reference texts sold there, he would never have been able to recognize this movement art at a glance.
But now was clearly not the time for astonishment. The Nether Lightning Beast had just manifested right behind him, and its pair of electric wings shivered through the air, striking toward Han Li as though they were phantoms.
Instantly, those wings forged from condensed lightning blurred and vanished amid a peal of thunder.