The next instant, a flash of golden light rippled across Han Li's body. With a low shout from his mouth, his figure rapidly swelled in size, and strands of golden fur sprouted from his skin, transforming him in the blink of an eye into a colossal golden-furred ape!
He had actually used the Jingzhe Art to transform into a Mountain Giant Ape!
Without a word, the giant ape swung both arms fiercely. The two Extreme Mountains in its grip shot out with a deafening boom, vanishing in a flash before slamming into the stone door.
Two earth-shaking explosions boomed forth.
A layer of golden light surfaced on the stone door, and immediately after, two sun-like spheres of blinding brilliance detonated upon it with a rumbling roar.
The restrictions formed by the golden light shattered inch by inch almost instantly.
The stone door itself, under this terrifying force, silently disintegrated into dust and ash.
Han Li's face had gone somewhat pale, but his spirits were still in fair shape. As a wave of golden radiance swept past his hand, those seemingly unfathomably profound restrictions were obliterated in an instant under the giant ape's brute strength and the devastating power of the two Extreme Mountains.
Seeing this, the giant ape slammed both feet into the ground, and its entire form transformed into a howling gale that surged through the doorway.
A huge silver fist materialized out of the void ahead and hammered downward with tremendous force.
Before it could strike the giant ape, an invisible wave of colossal force bore down menacingly.
Han Li, who had not yet steadied his footing, was startled but utterly fearless. With a thunderous roar, he raised one arm, and a furry golden hand reached up to meet the blow head-on.
Golden light glinted at the tips of each finger, and the entire hand instantly took on the appearance of refined golden metal.
With a sharp crack, the silver fist and the golden fist collided.
The silver fist let out a crisp shattering sound as countless fractures splintered across its surface—it had been smashed to pieces by a single blow from the giant ape!
But at that very moment, a violent gust of wind swept over the giant ape's head from above, and another silver claw slashed downward.
Without hesitation, the giant ape moved its other arm, and an identical golden palm swatted upward.
The silver claw simultaneously detonated and crumbled to fragments.
Having dealt with all of this, the giant ape showed no intention of stopping. A flash of blue light flickered through its eyes, and it suddenly opened its mouth, spraying out a pillar of emerald-green light.
In a flash it was gone, piercing through a spot some thirty-odd meters away.
With a thunderous boom, a silver figure tumbled out of the void and crashed to the ground.
It was a silver puppet with both hands missing.
It stood about two meters tall, its entire body inscribed with mysterious black runes!
The giant ape raised one hand toward the puppet and made a grasping motion in the air. Sharp hissing sounds rang out as ten streaks of cyan sword light interwove and slashed toward it furiously.
The silver puppet was torn apart in an instant!
But just then, the surrounding void rippled, and a series of whooshing sounds rang out in rapid succession.
Seven or eight identical silver puppets materialized out of thin air.
Han Li felt a slight jolt of alarm, yet the puppets wasted no time—their figures blurred as they transformed into seven or eight streaks of silver light and lunged forward.
…
Half an hour later, the golden-furred giant ape let out a long roar. The two mountain peaks it wielded, each several meters tall, were hurled from its hands simultaneously.
With two thunderous booms, two silver puppets were blown apart in midair.
The Extreme Mountains swayed, vanished from where they stood, then flickered back into existence in the giant ape's hands. The ape flipped its palms, and they disappeared without a trace.
Elsewhere, over a dozen Purple-Veined Beetles swirled around several remaining puppets in a frenzy.
The silver puppets plummeted one after another without a sound, and in the blink of an eye, not a single one remained.
Seeing this, the giant ape formed a hand seal with one hand. The golden light covering its body receded, and it rapidly shrank back down, restoring its human form.
The green stone floor below was littered with shattered remnants of silver puppets—more than twenty of them.
Han Li swept his gaze across the scene below, furrowed his brow briefly, then quickly shifted his attention to the void nearby, a flash of solemn gravity passing through his eyes.
These silver puppets, though each was only at the early Deity Transformation stage in terms of individual strength, were present in truly formidable numbers on this level.
The first floor of this tower had appeared unremarkable from the outside, yet it had taken him a considerable time to fight his way to this point.
Along the way, he had destroyed well over a hundred of these silver puppets.
Had he not transformed into the Mountain Giant Ape—against which these silver puppets simply could not withstand a single blow from his overwhelming strength—and deployed three of his spirit insects, dealing with all of them would have cost him quite some effort.
Even so, it was enough to purge any lingering contempt from Han Li's mind.
After all, this was merely the first floor!
With this thought, Han Li lifted his gaze toward the heights above.
At no more than sixty or seventy meters above the ground, a layer of hazy grey mist shrouded everything from view.