At that moment, the colossal beast below could no longer hold back. With a furious roar from its maw, both its massive hands suddenly slapped violently upward into the sky.
The void ahead of the enormous palms blurred for an instant before a piercing boom erupted. Wave after wave of white, misty ripples surged straight toward Han Li, sweeping in to engulf him.
Han Li's brows twitched slightly. He did not dodge a single step in the air, yet one of his palms abruptly flipped over. With a flash of grayish light, a small black mountain materialized before him.
The mountain was entirely jet-black and several zhang in size — none other than his Primordial Magnetism Mountain!
The white ripples crashed against it like titanic waves, erupting in booming after booming detonation, but the small black mountain stood utterly immovable, steady as Mount Tai.
At the same time, the Leopard Qilin Beast planted all four limbs together, its body flickered, and it instantly split into over a dozen identical phantom images that dove furiously toward the Magnetic Light Beast below.
In the blink of an eye, the dozen-odd phantoms materialized all around the giant beast. As claws shot forward, dense swarms of claw shadows lanced out from every direction, gleaming with golden light as they slashed across the colossus's massive frame.
Countless golden bursts detonated across the beast's body, and a number of multicolored stone fragments tumbled from its surface with muffled thuds — yet the Magnetic Light Beast remained entirely unscathed.
Enraged, the creature turned its fury outward. Over a dozen compound eyes locked simultaneously onto the nearby phantom images of the Leopard Qilin Beast.
A flicker of five-colored radiance flashed through those compound eyes, and a flurry of "pfft pfft" sounds erupted!
Over a dozen five-colored pillars of light shot from the eyes, and in a single flash they engulfed every one of the golden beast phantoms.
An inconceivable scene unfolded!
Wherever the five-colored pillars passed, the phantoms conjured by the Leopard Qilin Beast shuddered and froze in midair — they could not so much as blink.
The next instant, a savage grin appeared on the giant beast's face. The five-colored pillars simply spun in a leisurely circle, and the trapped phantom images were shredded as though countless blades had struck them simultaneously, instantly torn into countless fragments.
Yet even after every last phantom had vanished, not a single drop of blood remained in the air.
Clearly, none of those images had been the Leopard Qilin Beast's true body!
The Magnetic Light Beast realized this as well. Its fury did not abate in the slightest; instead, the five-colored pillars it sprayed from its compound eyes flared even brighter, thickening by another measure as they swept wildly through the surrounding void.
When one of the five-colored pillars abruptly paused, the nearby void rippled and condensed — and a golden beast figure stumbled into view.
It was the Leopard Qilin Beast's true form!
The colossus was overjoyed. Without a moment's hesitation it shook its head, and all of its compound eyes converged on the Leopard Qilin Beast at once.
The dozen-odd five-colored pillars merged together, fusing into a single, extraordinarily thick beam of light that rolled toward the small beast.
The Leopard Qilin Beast was terrified. Its body shifted as it tried to transform and flee once more.
But before the five-colored pillar even descended, the surrounding void tightened violently first, turning as hard and unyielding as tempered steel. Even with its abilities, the small beast could not break through and escape.
Watching the massive pillar of light about to engulf its true body at last, the Leopard Qilin Beast finally panicked for real, letting out desperate whimpers for help.
"Hmph, so now you're scared. This Magnetic Light Beast's powers caught even me off guard and landed me a small loss. With your cultivation, you're simply no match for it."
At the critical moment, Han Li's voice drifted down from high above, calm and unhurried.
The words had barely faded when a golden sword beam over a hundred zhang long cleaved through the air, slicing the golden pillar of light cleanly in half.
The Leopard Qilin Beast felt the pressure around it ease in an instant, its freedom restored.
Overjoyed, it flickered back into a phantom image and shot toward Han Li at full speed.
After just a few blinks, the golden beast figure reappeared beside Han Li, looking thoroughly dejected.
Han Li held a golden great-sword roughly a zhang long in one hand, and that same green stone in the other. Seeing the Leopard Qilin Beast's pathetic expression, he offered a faint smile — but before he could say anything further, the Magnetic Light Beast below had already flown into a towering rage at Han Li's intervention.
The creature shook its body. The dozen-plus compound eyes on its head unleashed another volley of five-colored pillars of light, and at the same time the stone fragments across its colossal frame rattled and transformed into a dense rain of meteor-like boulders, hurtling toward Han Li in a torrential cascade.
Though each stone was insignificant compared to the Magnetic Light Beast's titanic body, even the smallest was the size of a grown man's head, while the largest rivaled small houses. Rolling in from every direction, the barrage was nothing short of staggering in its momentum.
Han Li surveyed the scene without the slightest change in expression. With a casual flick of one hand the golden great-sword vanished, and then, entirely unruffled, he extended a single finger toward the small black mountain before him.
With a heavy whoosh!
Several silver runes flashed across the surface of the black mountain, and it swelled a hundredfold in size, transforming into a mountain peak several hundred zhang tall. It shielded both Han Li and the Leopard Qilin Beast completely behind it, their protection thorough and absolute.