"How could it possibly be that easy to comprehend? I've only grasped the barest scraps of it. But for the fight below, I'll have to trouble you to keep acting, Master Yi. After all, the opponent is a Mahayana powerhouse — how could Ying'er dare face him alone? I can only assist you from the sidelines." The girl in the blood-red skirt spoke to the old man with a radiant smile.
"Heh heh. If you've already comprehended a divine ability as profound as Spirit Material Retrograde, how could that possibly count as mere scraps? With Ying'er harrying him from the side, I can certainly take another crack at that fellow." The old man surnamed Yi carefully inspected his own body and discovered that the girl's retrograde technique seemed to have even restored some of the vitality he had originally expended. His confidence surged immediately, and he straightened up with renewed vigor as he replied.
With that, he let out a long, piercing cry. His head wavered and transformed once more into that strange appearance — a bird's face atop a human body. Each hand flipped over, and a ball of silver light and a ball of golden light flashed into being as the golden mirror and silver scroll appeared simultaneously.
The old man gave a low shout. The scroll in his hand blurred and exploded into countless silver runic symbols, which swirled and condensed over his body, transforming into a suit of silver battle armor that encased him from head to toe.
The golden bronze mirror in his other hand blazed with light, then split, suddenly forming into two towering golden swords. His arms moved, and he seized one in each hand.
The girl beside him smiled faintly at the sight. She formed a hand seal, and the two wolf-headed beasts before her detonated with a muffled boom, dissolving into two plumes of blood mist that surged into her body.
Instantly, the girl's palm began to glow with an eerie crimson light. Chanting softly, she pointed repeatedly at the old man through the air.
With several soft pops, a string of blood-colored runic symbols shot from her fingertips, vanished in a flicker, and sank into his armor.
A layer of strange blood patterns immediately surfaced across the armor, writhing and drifting.
At the same time, the old man surnamed Yi felt a surge of warmth flood through his body, his strength multiplying several times over without warning. A surge of violent, berserk fury boiled up from the depths of his heart, and fine threads of red crept across the whites of his eyes. His will to fight surged mightily!
"The Bloodlust Technique. Excellent — it suits me perfectly!" The old man let out a wild laugh, and with no further reservations, flung his arms wide and shot out through the light barrier as a streak of silver. At the same time, two arcs of golden sword light exceeding a hundred zhang in length slashed fiercely outward, the howling rents in the air trailing behind them as though cleaving the entire sky in two.
Han Li glanced at the golden sword light bearing down on him, then swept his gaze toward the girl in the blood-red skirt atop the stone city. He suddenly chuckled and pointed one finger toward the sky.
A soft rippling sound!
The three Extreme Mountains blurred and vanished from the void without a trace.
The next moment, fluctuations stirred in the air before him, the atmosphere itself distorting, and the three Extreme Mountains materialized in a row, blocking his path.
A tremendous boom.
The two arcs of golden sword light struck squarely against the Extreme Mountains.
The three peaks trembled only slightly before sending both streaks of sword light rebounding away.
But the old man's eyes flashed with a vicious gleam. From afar, he simultaneously hurled both towering swords into the air and began chanting incantations once more.
In an instant, a deafening hum filled the sky above. The two golden swords, blazing with ten thousand rays of golden light, merged into one. Carrying a blade of sword light over a thousand zhang long, it slashed down once more with devastating force.
Amid the golden radiance, wind and thunder roared!
"Come!"
Han Li gave a cold snort. The giant ape he had transformed into formed hand seals simultaneously with all six arms. Seventy-two small azure swords shot from within his body, and with a series of flickers, they coalesced into a dense mass of azure sword light that converged into a single spot, transforming into another colossal blade several hundred zhang long that soared skyward.
Propelled by Han Li's sword art, the giant blade sang a clear note as it rose to meet the attack.
A deafening explosion rang out as the two titanic swords collided head-on.
A cacophony of tearing sounds filled the air as golden and azure sword light crisscrossed in every direction, the combined brilliance so blinding it was nearly impossible to look upon.
The two blades remained locked in a stalemate, neither gaining ground.
The old man's face darkened. His fingers flickered through the air repeatedly as he channeled his Magical Power into the sword from afar.
In an instant, the golden blade's cold light blazed fiercely, and thin filaments of golden radiance shot outward.
Almost simultaneously, the giant ape below raised all three of its heads and spat out three thick arcs of golden lightning, which vanished into the void in a flicker.
The next moment, countless bolts of lightning erupted across the surface of the azure giant sword, transforming into a swarm of golden serpents that surged wildly toward the golden blade.
A muffled detonation!
Under the combined assault of azure sword light and golden lightning, the azure giant sword fractured inch by inch, shattering apart in mere moments.
This spectacle gave the old man surnamed Yi a moment's pause.
But in that very instant, the giant ape bared its fearsome visage, took an unhesitating step forward, blurred, and vanished eerily from where it stood.
The old man surnamed Yi's heart jolted. He shouted urgently at the girl in the blood-red skirt — "Fellow Daoist Ying!" — formed a hand seal with one hand, and five-colored radiance erupted across his skin as eight five-colored crystal shields materialized, surrounding his entire body from every direction. His other palm flipped, and a purple-black wooden ruler appeared, spinning ceaselessly as a phantom within his palm.
On the stone city below, the girl in the blood-red skirt heard the old man's shout and smiled faintly, but simply turned her hand and struck outward.