With a thunderous boom, streams of yellow and blue light intertwined. The giant brick and the blue shield both shuddered and went hurtling backward—neither had gained the upper hand.
As the great shield deflected back toward him, Han Li extended a finger and tapped it lightly.
A flash of azure light, and the shield froze in midair.
Meanwhile, the giant brick completed an arc and shot toward Han Li once more in a streak of yellow light.
Han Li gave a cold laugh. Silver lightning crackled behind him, and he vanished.
The yellow-robed elder's heart lurched. Without a second thought, he waved his hand. A small purple flag shot from his palm, instantly expanding into a cloud of violet energy that shrouded his entire body.
At that exact moment, a clap of thunder erupted to the elder's left. Han Li's figure materialized, and from his mouth he spat out a sword no more than a few inches long.
The moment the blade emerged, it was engulfed in a layer of deep blue flame and shot toward the violet cloud in a single flickering instant.
The elder inside the purple cloud had looked utterly composed—but the instant he saw the blue flames on the flying sword, a look of terror crossed his face, as though he had stumbled upon a venomous scorpion.
Without a second thought, he flickered sideways, teleporting roughly a zhang away to dodge the blow.
What the elder never anticipated was that the instant his body shifted, an ethereal female figure materialized behind him—as if she had known this would happen all along. She raised a slender hand, and a cyan sphere shot forth like lightning.
Her appearance was utterly silent, like a specter, as though the elder had simply drifted right in front of her. The timing was impeccable—a perfect coordination with Han Li.
Yet even so, with his Nascent Soul–level spiritual sense, the elder naturally detected the anomaly behind him.
But at such close range, he had no room to dodge. The only thing he could do was pour every last scrap of his magical power into the protective purple cloud.
This ancient treasure had considerable power—he still held a sliver of confidence!
A deafening roar erupted as golden and cyan light exploded outward. The violet cloud, which had looked so formidable, collapsed and disintegrated in the blast. Inside, the elder let out a wail—half his body had vanished entirely, and the remaining half was about to be swallowed by the cyan flames.
Seeing this, the elder's still-intact head was filled with shock and disbelief, but it quickly twisted into an expression of venomous hatred. He clenched his teeth.
With a mangled pop, his ruined body detonated on its own. A blinding ball of yellow light shot out from the wreckage and streaked over a hundred feet away in an instant—inside it floated an infant no more than an inch tall, bearing the elder's features.
The yellow-robed elder had realized the situation was dire and decisively abandoned his physical body, letting his Nascent Soul flee in a desperate bid for survival.
But Han Li had apparently anticipated this. The instant the Nascent Soul tore free, he flickered away in silver light and reappeared directly in its escape path.
A wave of his hand, and amid crackling thunder, a golden net descended overhead.
At the same time, the small sword wreathed in blue flame came hurtling from behind.
The infant in the yellow glow, its face twisted in terror, opened its mouth in a panic and spat out a small round basin no bigger than a thumb, gleaming with silver light, which shot up to meet the descending net.
With a muffled crack, the basin never even touched the net—the elder's Nascent Soul activated a command seal, and it shattered. Silver light flashed as countless fragments scattered in every direction. The descending net of lightning, struck by the debris, wavered for just a moment.
In that brief delay, the elder's Nascent Soul executed a short-range teleportation. The protective yellow light flickered, and the Nascent Soul vanished from where it had been without a trace. An instant later, it reappeared thirty zhang away, then shot off as a streak of light and disappeared.
The golden net fell a heartbeat too late—it had let him slip through.
Han Li's brow furrowed as he gazed in the direction the Nascent Soul had fled. He made no move to give chase.
"That one was rather clever—even shattered his own life-bound treasure just to escape. You don't often encounter someone that ruthless." The white-robed woman who had appeared so suddenly flew over, carrying the elder's storage bag, a note of surprise in her voice.
She was none other than Silver Moon, whom Han Li had quietly released once she flew free from the blood barrier.
"Hmph! I suppose he just wasn't meant to die yet," Han Li muttered, equally vexed.
It seemed that both the Wind Thunder Wings and the Qianlan
"However, your movement technique seems even more refined than before. You managed to get that close without him noticing a thing." Han Li glanced sidelong at Silver Moon and added in a flat tone.
"The concealment ability of this Four-Pupiled Spirit Fox body—I recently broke through to the next level. And since the master was drawing his entire attention at the front, he simply had no capacity to watch for anything else. That made it easy for this humble maid." Silver Moon let out a soft laugh, her voice clear and bright.
"Perhaps." Han Li nodded noncommittally.
Although Silver Moon had become his artifact spirit and was the only other person in this world who shared the secret of the Small Bottle, he always felt that an air of mystery shrouded her—a sense that he could never quite see through her.
After exchanging only a few more words with Silver Moon, Han Li turned his attention back to surveying the battlefield.