A flicker of wariness crossed Han Li's eyes. He lowered his gaze and swept it quickly over his own body, and his expression shifted subtly once more.
His frame had grown somewhat thinner. Although his clothing appeared entirely unchanged, the several storage bracelets and spirit beast rings on his wrists had all vanished without a trace.
What was even more bizarre was that after sweeping his spiritual sense over his face, he discovered that his appearance had reverted to that of a youth of thirteen or fourteen — though his skin was no longer dark, having turned as white and smooth as jade.
"Primordial Spirit leaving the body. So the Inner Demon Tribulation is about to begin." Han Li touched his own face and murmured with a peculiar expression.
At that moment, an eerie laugh — neither wholly male nor wholly female — suddenly echoed through his mind:
"Boy, we meet again. This Lord did not expect that you could truly reach this step in so short a time. But this time, this Devil Lord has descended in person. Even if you are the reincarnation of a Grand Ascension true immortal, you will never survive this Inner Demon Tribulation."
Amid the ghostly laughter, the ashen sky suddenly split apart, and a massive, mountain-sized ghost head with a green face forced its way out. It extended a tongue several zhang in length toward Han Li, licked its grotesquely thick lips, and let out a sinister, ill-intentioned chuckle.
This enormous ghost head was none other than the Extraterrrestrial Devil Lord with whom Han Li had clashed years ago — and it had seized the power of the Inner Demon Tribulation to descend directly into this space in its true form.
"Is that so? I didn't expect you would be foolish enough to appear right before my eyes!" Han Li replied flatly, his expression unchanged.
"You still dare speak such bravado! In a moment, this Lord will show you what it means to be unable to live and unable to die—" the Devil Lord snarled in fury. Before the words had even left its mouth, the ghost head swelled rapidly in a surge of black light.
Below, the youthful Han Li's face turned cold. He suddenly opened his mouth, and three fist-sized spheres of golden light shot out soundlessly.
The golden light blurred, and in the blink of an eye, the three objects materialized right in front of the ghost head, mere inches away.
They were three prismatic objects!
Their surfaces gleamed with brilliant gold, covered in dense, crimson runes — like golden spear tips, only slightly smaller.
"Not good!"
Although the Devil Lord could not immediately identify what the three objects were, an instinctive sense of dire danger surged through it. The ghost head jerked violently, attempting to dissolve into a cloud of black mist and evade.
But at that moment, Han Li extended a finger and pointed at the three golden spheres from afar while spitting out the word "explode" three times in rapid succession.
In an instant, the three golden spear-like objects detonated. Countless masses of golden flame and crimson-gold lightning erupted wildly, engulfing the black mist that the ghost head had become. A continuous, thunderous booming filled the air.
"No... it's the Golden Vajra Devil-Extinguishing Thunder... how could you possibly have such a thing...—" The Devil Lord's agonized scream rang out from within the golden radiance as vast swathes of black mist dissipated with astonishing speed, its voice filled with utter disbelief.
"You can ponder that after you've been reduced to ash," Han Li said with a cold laugh. He opened his mouth again, and four more spheres of golden light shot forth.
"You won't get your way! Did you truly think a mere handful of Devil-Extinguishing Thunders could destroy this Lord?!" the Devil Lord howled. The remaining black mist suddenly twisted, then burst apart into countless black threads that simultaneously shot off in every direction.
But Han Li had clearly anticipated this. His expression darkened, and his finger trembled slightly as he pointed at empty air once more.
The four golden spheres flickered and materialized at four different points ahead of the fleeing black threads, then detonated simultaneously.
Billowing golden flame and lightning rained down across the sky.
Nine out of ten of the fleeing black threads were reduced to ash within the golden light. Only a scant dozen managed to escape the blast range, reconverging more than a hundred zhang away to reconstitute a single ghost head.
However, this ghost head had shrunk to the size of a washbasin, its form hazy and nearly transparent — it was clearly gravely weakened.
A strange smile appeared on Han Li's face. He flicked his long sleeve, and seven more spheres of golden light materialized, shooting toward the ghostly figure before it could react.
The moment the ghost head saw this, the fury vanished from its face in an instant. With a shrill shriek, it twisted its body and transformed into a streak of black light that shot away at full speed.
Several sharp cracks pierced the air above, and the black light vanished completely into the void.
But in the next instant, the Devil Lord's enraged, androgynous voice echoed through the ashen sky once more:
"Han Li, you've bested me again this time — but don't celebrate too early. When you face your Ascension Tribulation, this Lord will summon every Devil Lord across the neighboring realms to prevent your ascent. Even with your Golden Vajra Devil-Extinguishing Thunder, you will never make it into the Immortal World!"
As soon as the thunderous words faded, the voice cut off abruptly, and silence returned to the sky.