On a flat, massive boulder near the summit of Storm Mountain, a silver giant ape over ten zhang tall hammered its chest with both fists and roared at the sky. Beneath its enormous shadow stood Han Li and his companions.
Han Li gazed solemnly at the sky, silent, while the two women wore faces ashen with fear, a trace of panic showing through their composure.
Over a thousand yin beasts of various forms — all with fleshy wings sprouting from their ribs — circled and danced in the air above the boulder. The largest spanned five or six zhang across, while the smallest were barely a foot long, but every single one had a hideous, savage appearance.
These flying yin beasts, however, seemed to dread the ferocious aura radiating from the giant ape that the Slobbering Soul Beast had transformed into. For the moment they didn't dare swoop down, though neither did they show any intention of leaving — and so a tense standoff settled over the place.
Han Li was far from relaxed.
From the greedy, bloodshot eyes of those yin beasts, he could see their patience wearing thin, drop by drop. At any moment they might be unable to hold back and swarm down en masse.
Inwardly, Han Li cursed the portly old man who had provided him with intelligence. The man had mentioned that flying yin beasts still lurked above Storm Mountain, but he had never said there would be this many. Whether he had deliberately withheld the information or genuinely didn't know, Han Li couldn't tell.
The group had just passed through the region of dense mist, and they'd thought they could finally breathe a little easier — only to be spotted immediately by these flying yin beasts and surrounded on all sides. With no other option, Han Li had released the Slobbering Soul Beast and had it shift into the form of a giant ape.
He had full confidence in the beast's ability to suppress yin creatures, but there were simply too many beasts in the sky. Whether the Slobbering Soul Beast could handle them all at once — Han Li wasn't so sure.
Still, things had already come to this, and there was no time for second-guessing. He could only fight with everything he had.
With that thought, Han Li turned and whispered a few words to Mei Ning and Zi Ling behind him, both of them looking grim. He then pulled a small red crossbow and a folded soft shield made of beast hide from inside his robe, handing one to each of them. For himself, he flicked his sleeve — a clatter of metal rang out — and ten small swords dropped to the ground with crisp, clear notes.
Each sword was connected to one of Han Li's fingers by a slender strand of beast sinew, like a rope dart. Naturally, manipulating ten of them at once was something no one had ever done before.
The moment Han Li finished preparing, the yin beasts above finally lost their patience.
A massive three-headed yin beast among them suddenly let out a bizarre shriek. Over a dozen of the closest beasts to Han Li's group beat their fleshy wings hard and dove straight down, no longer caring about the giant ape's overwhelming pressure.
The great battle had finally begun!
Almost the instant those yin beasts rushed down, the giant ape sucked in a huge breath through its nose, then clamped its mouth shut and blasted outward. A vast sheet of silver light surged from its enormous nostrils, engulfing eight or nine out of every ten beasts. The flying yin beasts trapped within the silver light shrieked miserably and immediately tumbled downward, wings wobbling helplessly.
But two smaller yin beasts slipped through the net. A single beat of their fleshy wings carried them past the silver light, and they lunged savagely at Han Li and the other two from both flanks.
With a thunderous bang, one of the yin beasts was sent flying several zhang by a casual punch from the giant ape. It shot off the edge of the boulder and vanished somewhere below.
The other — a creature five or six feet across, resembling a bald vulture — seized the opening and lunged directly above their heads, slashing down with its razor-sharp talons without the slightest hesitation.
Han Li's expression turned dark, but he didn't move from where he stood. His ten fingers danced with incredible dexterity.
The ten small swords sprang upward with a whistle, transforming into a shimmering net of cold, cyan-green light that shot straight toward the yin beast overhead.
A shrill, wretched scream tore from the beast's throat.
Even without magical power channeled into them, the sharpness of the Green Bamboo Bee Cloud Swords was far beyond what this small yin beast could withstand. It was torn apart in an instant — chunks of flesh and blood scattered through the air like rain. Han Li's body swayed slightly, but he still caught a few spatters. He furrowed his brow, then decided to ignore it.
Because another wave of yin beasts was already diving from above.
This time it wasn't just a dozen or so — it was over twenty, plunging from every direction. Behind them, even more yin beasts hovered, clearly eager to join in.
Han Li's heart clenched. Without a moment's hesitation, he swept both hands outward, lengthening the sinew lines by several more feet. The cyan-green sword net appeared once again, only this time its coverage expanded dramatically, wrapping Mei Ning and Zi Ling inside its protective sphere as well.
Silver light, cyan-green glow, and piercing screams all merged together...
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