Chapter 1965: The Battle of the Devil Realm — Phantoms in the Deep

The birth of an Insect King relied primarily on their devouring one another.

This naturally left Han Li feeling rather exasperated.

Unable to come up with a suitable method for the time being, he could only resort to various techniques to continuously temper and stimulate these dozen-odd spirit insects.

While this approach wouldn't compel them to devour one another anytime soon, it could gradually bolster their strength, marginally increasing the chances of eventually cultivating an Insect King.

Moreover, even though he hadn't yet produced an Insect King, these dozen-odd Purple-striped Beetles could now be controlled effortlessly with spiritual sense. They were far more practical than the swarm of tens of thousands of Gold Devouring Beetles, granting him an additional trump card in battle.

Over the course of these two hundred years, Han Li had consumed most of the Styx spiritual milk, bringing about ineffable and subtle changes to his constitution.

The most conspicuous of these was that the speed at which he converted ambient spiritual energy during cultivation had increased by at least thirty percent.

One shouldn't dismiss this mere thirty percent — it meant he could save nearly a third of the time he had previously spent cultivating.

What's more, Qing Yuanzi had once solemnly declared that a body cleansed by the Styx spiritual milk would be of tremendous benefit when attempting to break through the Body Integration bottleneck. Otherwise, why would the four great demon lords of the Earth Abyss have risked venturing deep into the River Styx to snatch the spiritual milk from the jaws of danger?

With such astonishing changes to his body, combined with the fact that Han Li had never stopped taking various pills to enhance his Magical Power during this period, his power had been surging forward at a dramatic pace.

He was now approaching the peak of the mid-to-late Body Integration stage. Given another decade or so, he could begin attempting to break through the late-stage bottleneck.

With these thoughts drifting through his mind, Han Li let out a faint sigh, placed his hands on his thighs, and was about to close his eyes once more to resume cultivating.

But just at that moment, a flash of white spiritual light suddenly appeared at the door of his sealed chamber, followed by a ripple of translucent waves spreading outward.

Han Li's true body was taken aback. After a few rapid thoughts flickered through his mind, he suddenly swept a sleeve toward the door.

With a soft "whoosh," the spiritual light on the door split apart and swung open.

A fireball shot in from beyond the doorway in a flash, and in the blink of an eye, it had materialized in Han Li's hand.

Han Li's eyes swept over the fireball as his spiritual sense plunged into it. A moment later, his expression changed drastically.

With a muffled "bang," he clenched his five fingers and crushed the fireball apart.

Bathed in the crimson glow, Han Li's face looked utterly grim.

"The Devilmark has appeared this early! It seems I have no choice but to make a trip outside." He murmured in a voice so low it was barely audible, and the spiritual light around his body blazed to life.

The other two "Han Lis," upon seeing this, moved with expressionless faces and flung themselves toward his true body like phantoms.

With two muffled thuds, the three merged into one!

The aura around Han Li's body surged violently before abruptly contracting. He gave his sleeves a shake and rose to his feet.

With a casual gesture, the massive green cauldron before him spun around and shrank to the size of a fist. With a flash of green light, it vanished into his sleeve.

Han Li then took a single step and traversed over a dozen zhang in an instant, appearing at the doorway. A shrug of his shoulders, and he slipped through without a trace.

...

At the base of a towering peak deep within a mountain range of the Wildlands, a white-robed young man stood with his hands clasped behind his back, locked in a standoff with three enormous primordial beasts.

One of the beasts was a two-headed giant standing a hundred zhang tall, its features savage and hideous, with a tangled mop of yellow hair and a pitch-black club dangling from one hand.

The other two beasts were a pair of scarlet giant serpents, one large and one small.

The larger measured over three hundred zhang in length, while the smaller was around seventy or eighty. Both spewed red mist from their mouths, radiating an aura of incomparable toxicity.

All three primordial beasts stared fixedly at the comparatively minuscule young man across from them, apparently very wary of him.

"Heh heh, I already gave you all a little warning a couple of days ago — I told every powerful creature in this area to obediently leave. The others had the good sense to depart, but only you three cling here and refuse to go. Do you really think that by banding together, you can stand against me? You truly don't know the meaning of death! Since that's the case, then don't bother leaving — just hand over your crystal cores and spirit souls!" Strange silver-and-gold patterns were inscribed upon the white-robed young man's face. His gaze swept across the three great beasts, and his words were cutting as ice.

The two scarlet serpents' eyes flashed with cold light, the purple-red flicks of their forked tongues growing more agitated, while the hissing sounds grew deafening.

The white-robed young man let a cold smile play across his lips. He formed a hand seal with one hand and suddenly rolled toward the ground.

With a muffled "bang," a plume of frigid white mist burst outward, expanding to cover several acres in the blink of an eye. In its wake, translucent snowflakes materialized out of thin air in the surrounding space, each one as large as an egg, shimmering with brilliant colors in the sunlight.

At that moment, an eerie, piercing shriek erupted from within the white mist. The frigid air churned violently, and a pure white centipede — its crystalline body like a sculpture carved from ice — burst forth from within.