The strange moth hissed without cease, clearly startled by the outcome of its recent attack. But almost immediately, its crimson-gold eyes blazed with ferocity. It waved its hands, and a layer of green light surged over its mangled arms, the wounds healing at astonishing speed. At the same time, the wings on its back trembled violently, releasing a burst of hazy white light.
The wings vanished in a flash, replaced by hundreds of gleaming flying blades, each half a foot long, glinting with cold light and radiating a sinister aura.
The monster's eyes flashed with killing intent, and the blades behind it began to hum, seemingly preparing to launch another assault.
But just then, Han Li suddenly laughed aloud. Golden light flickered across his body, and the scales that had surfaced on his skin receded one by one. The four golden arms that had materialized also blurred and dissipated.
The moth, no dull creature, was taken aback by this, and its attack wavered for a moment.
Across from it, Han Li formed a hand seal with one hand. Behind him, after a crack of thunder, a pair of crystalline wings materialized, shimmering with light. With a single flap, he vanished from the spot.
An instant later, a peal of thunder rang out dozens of zhang away, and Han Li's figure reappeared in a ghostly flicker. Yet he made no move to guard himself—instead, he crossed his arms and regarded the moth with an expression caught between amusement and mockery.
Though the giant moth harbored doubts, its savage nature quickly overpowered its hesitation. It let out a piercing shriek, and the scales on its body bristled upright, one by one, as it prepared to give chase.
But just then, Han Li suddenly clapped his hands together and laughed aloud, then spoke:
"Fall! Fall! Fall!"
The moment the three words left his lips, the moth felt its head grow suddenly heavy. A wave of dizziness surged to the crown of its skull, followed by an unbearable itch in its chest. Part of its body went instantly numb, and it swayed unsteadily, unable to maintain its footing.
The creature was both alarmed and furious. It hastily lowered its head and discovered that, centered on the slow-to-heal wound in its chest, nearly a third of its body had turned a deep purple-black. At the same time, a foul, putrid stench emanated from its skin.
And wherever the purple-black coloring spread, sensation was lost entirely.
It had been afflicted by a bizarre poison it had never encountered before! This toxin was hidden and devastating beyond measure—it had crept in without leaving the slightest trace, and once it flared up, it had spread to this extent in an instant.
The moth's horror was beyond words!
Without a second thought, it opened its mouth and spat out a beam of eerie green light, within which a jade-green pearl the size of an egg could be faintly seen. The pearl flashed once and vanished, reappearing at the chest wound in the next instant.
The pearl spun rapidly, and its green radiance blazed to dazzling intensity. A strange, fragrant aroma wafted from the pearl, causing the putrid stench to weaken considerably. The rapidly spreading purple-black venom actually congealed, halting its advance.
Han Li observed this with a trace of surprise.
He had witnessed firsthand how potent the poison of the Spirit Vortex Sinister Light was, yet it had failed to kill the creature outright. Its physical body evidently possessed considerable resistance to toxins.
But Han Li let out a cold laugh and suddenly surged forward. With a brilliant flash of azure light, he transformed into a massive azure roc ten zhang in length, then swooped downward.
In just two flaps, the roc materialized above the poison-stricken moth in a howling azure gale.
Its wings spread wide, and thunder roared!
Thick arcs of golden lightning instantly surfaced across the roc's body, and a pair of pale golden talons raked downward with savage force.
Below, the moth suddenly shuddered, and the bizarre blades on its back shot skyward like a torrential downpour.
The roc paid no heed whatsoever to the dense storm of white light hurtling toward it, its diving momentum undiminished.
After a clattering volley, every blade that struck the roc's plumage was repelled. The supposedly razor-sharp edges could not so much as harm a single feather.
This was hardly surprising. Han Li's physical body was already extraordinarily tough to begin with, and after transforming into the Kun Peng form, its robustness had only increased further—these blades were simply incapable of harming him. Instead, his talons parted over a dozen blades with ease and pierced through the moth's body like a bolt of lightning.
But where the talon-light swept past, the moth's figure split into pieces—only to reveal nothing within, not a speck of flesh or blood.
The true moth had vanished in the most ghostly fashion, leaving behind only a thin shell of skin. Even the green pearl it had been using to suppress the poison had dissipated in a flash. It had all been nothing more than an illusory double.
The roc faltered for a moment, but its Clear Spirit Eyes quickly swept the surroundings in a blue flash. Immediately, it beat its wings furiously, and golden arcs of lightning erupted from its body like a storm, then converged into a single bolt as thick as a bowl's mouth. The bolt shot out, stretching dozens of zhang in length.
A deafening boom followed!
The golden lightning flickered in and out of existence across hundreds of zhang, jumping like a phantom, crossing the vast distance in a single instant.
A tremendous explosion!
The golden bolt detonated in the void fifty zhang away, and countless fine filaments of electricity crackled and danced, forming a massive golden net that descended over the area.
But beneath it, a flash of emerald light erupted, and the golden net was blasted apart.
And within the flickering golden lightning, a staggering figure was revealed below.
It was the moth, which had executed a Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell!
But now, two-thirds of its body had turned purple-black. Only at its center did green light flicker erratically—the creature was clenching the green pearl in its mouth, keeping the venom confined below its neck, preventing it from surging all the way up into its head.
Its arms and tail, meanwhile, seemed to possess some natural resistance to the toxin; beneath a faint green glow, only a thin layer of dark mist had formed upon them.
Even so, the poison was clearly taking its devastating toll, and the creature looked as though it might collapse at any moment.
No wonder it had not dared exchange even a single further blow with Han Li, choosing instead to suppress the poison and make a stealthy escape.
Unfortunately for it, no matter how miraculous its concealment technique might be, it could not escape Han Li's Clear Spirit Eyes. He had tracked it down in an instant.
To fend off the Evil-Warding Divine Lightning, the creature had been forced to grit its teeth and summon what remained of its Magical Power to put up one last defense.