Han Li paid no attention to the Yue Emperor's venomous expression, his gaze fixed instead on the dimming blood light surrounding the man's body.
A golden ruler, a pair of strange purple blades, and a blue longsword hovered motionlessly within the blood light — these were Song Meng and the others' magic treasures.
At the moment, they hung lifelessly within the blood glow, clearly stripped of their spiritual resonance.
A thoughtful look flickered through Han Li's eyes. It seemed this man's protective demonic light specialized in corrupting ordinary magic treasures. Of all his possessions, only the Black Dragon Pincers would be immune to such sinister arts.
Moreover, since only this man had shown himself so far, it appeared that the blue-robed man who had called himself the Black Fiend Cult Master had truly perished beneath the Heavenly Thunderbolt.
At this thought, Han Li felt a wave of relief. But he had no intention of giving the enemy a moment to recover. With a mental command, the more than a dozen puppets before him launched their assault. Barrages of multicolored light arrows and beams rained down one after another, hammering toward the opponent.
On one side, Song Meng and the others — still shaken by having their magic treasures seized and unwilling to use them again — saw Han Li's attack and immediately began forming hand seals and chanting incantations, hurling all manner of spells and talismans downward in rapid succession. They understood clearly that only by pressing the attack and crushing this final enemy could they preserve their own lives and free themselves from the nightmare of watching their fellow disciples die miserably.
Below, the Yue Emperor watched this unfold with an expressionless face, but he casually drew a line through the air before him with his bare hand. A massive blood-colored light shield materialized, catching every last attack with ease. Yet the blood light surrounding the Yue Emperor himself had grown noticeably thinner — it even gave the impression of flickering on the verge of collapse. This only spurred Han Li and the others to attack even more fiercely.
The Yue Emperor gave a cold snort. Without another word, he reached into his robe and produced a small dark-green bottle.
He deftly poured out a single pill the size of a longan fruit. The pill was entirely scarlet, emanating a pungent reek of blood — it did not look like any kind of good medicine. Yet the Yue Emperor popped it into his mouth without a moment's hesitation, then tossed the bottle aside. It turned out the bottle had contained only this one pill.
The moment the blood-colored pill entered the Yue Emperor's stomach, something that shocked Han Li occurred.
The Yue Emperor's face instantly revitalized, and the blood light around his body blazed back to its former brilliance. All his wounds began vanishing at a speed visible to the naked eye. In that brief instant, the formidable enemy in Han Li's mind had once again become calm and composed — as though all the Magical Power he had expended and all the injuries he had sustained had been fully restored to the state they had been in before Han Li used the Heavenly Thunderbolt.
"That's impossible! How can such a thing exist in this world!"
Song Meng was so stunned that he forgot to release the dozen or so ice cones already formed in his hand, muttering in disbelief over and over.
Han Li was equally shaken. He too had no idea what the other man had consumed to produce such heaven-defying effects.
None of the texts he had ever read had mentioned anything remotely like this!
"What he took is the Marrow Refinement Pill. It's a life-saving elixir that can only be refined by someone who has cultivated several specific demonic arts and is willing to permanently damage their own cultivation base. It works only for the person who refined it — to anyone else, it would be nothing more than a lethal poison." A cool, clear voice came from behind Chen Qiaoqian. Han Li blinked in surprise, and Chen Qiaoqian turned around with a face full of joy.
"Sister Zhong, you're alright!"
"I'm fine — nothing serious. But watching this demon who killed Senior Brother Liu… I'm going to make sure he dies!" Zhong Weiniang, now finally conscious again, managed a faint smile at Chen Qiaoqian, then said with a grim expression.
"We all want to kill him. The problem is, right now he's thinking the exact same thing about us." Without turning his head, Han Li spoke in a flat tone after hearing Zhong Weiniang's words.
At Han Li's remark, Zhong Weiniang paused and looked downward. Her face immediately turned ugly.
Below, their great enemy the Yue Emperor had withdrawn the light shield back into his body while they were talking. The blood light surrounding him had swelled to a thickness of two or three zhang, and the captured magic treasures suspended within the blood glow were gradually dissolving away.
All the spells and puppet attacks were being repelled outside the blood light. Before this, the man's protective glow had been only a few feet thick — his cultivation had far surpassed what it had been only moments ago.
He raised his head and swept a cold gaze over Han Li and the others. Suddenly, he extended one arm and grabbed at the air behind him. A fire-red bead shot out from somewhere in the rear and landed precisely in his palm.
Seeing this, Han Li's eyes flashed with a strange light, and he immediately thought of the blue-robed man who had died to his Heavenly Thunderbolt. It seemed this bead was a relic of that man. Now the "Blood-Condensed Five Elements Pill" was finally complete — if he could kill this fiend, he would obtain this treasure of immense benefit for Core Formation.
"Boy, do you have any more Heavenly Thunderbolts? If so, I'll stand right here and take another one — let's see whether your Heavenly Thunderbolt is more formidable, or my protective demonic arts run deeper." The Yue Emperor carefully tucked the bead into his robe, then addressed Han Li in a frigid voice.
The moment these words left his mouth, everyone hovering in the air froze, and all eyes turned involuntarily toward Han Li.
Han Li's expression did not change, but inwardly he gave a cold snort and replied calmly: