The Fire Moon being"s expression immediately changed as his two treasures flew on ahead with ferocious might at his behest. At the same time, he began to chant something as if he were going to unleash some other powerful ability. The giant silver blade and golden wyrm projection plunged into the ma.s.sive azure lotus flower, and both of them disappeared without a trace.

The Fire Moon being"s heart sank upon seeing this, and he stopped cold in his tracks.

Right at this moment, the azure lotus flower suddenly began to radiate scintillating light, following which a ma.s.sive wave of light surged forth.

The Fire Moon being was quite startled to see this, and he immediately unleashed the ability that he"d been preparing without any hesitation.

Red light swirled all over his body as countless palm-sized red blades of light appeared out of thin air. All of the red blades flew around him at his behest, forming a red tornado that s.h.i.+elded his body within.

The Fire Moon being finally heaved an internal sigh of relief, and in the next instant, the azure wave of light swept in a completely soundless manner.

The Fire Moon being"s heart jolted, and he focused his gaze around him as his surroundings blurred, following which he found himself on a lush gra.s.sland.

There were countless blades of exuberant green gra.s.s growing around him along with wild flowers of many types of different colors. The cries of different birds could also be heard in the distance. It was quite a mesmerizing scene of natural beauty, and the Fire Moon being involuntarily relaxed upon seeing this.

However, his eyes only glazed over for a split second before he returned to his senses, and exclaimed, "This is an illusion!"

He hurriedly cast his gaze upward to find blue skies with a few white clouds overhead, and he discovered that there was no end in sight to the gra.s.slands he was situated on.

The spot where the Fire Moon being was standing was quite soft and lush, and the air around him was filled with the refres.h.i.+ng scent of nature. This illusion was completely flawless; he really did feel as if he were situated on a vast gra.s.sland!

"Break!"

The Fire Moon being let loose a loud cry as a grim expression appeared on his face. He then bit open the tip of his tongue while raising both of his hands up into the air at the same time, and the red blades of wind around him suddenly shot forth in all directions.

A series of white rifts were sliced into thin air, and it was as if these sharp red blades were capable of slicing open s.p.a.ce itself.

In the face of the violent a.s.sault from these red blades of light, the surroundings scenes began to blur, following which the gra.s.slands and the blue skies vanished.

The Fire Moon being was quite elated to see this. It was rather surprising that such an extraordinary-looking illusionary technique had been broken so easily.

However, a smile had only just appeared on his face when a piercing burst of green light erupted from his blurred surroundings.

The Fire Moon being"s eyes narrowed as red light immediately flashed from his body, and countless blades of light surfaced again to form a revolving protective barrier around him.

The Fire Moon being then suddenly felt his surroundings dim slightly, and when he refocused his gaze up ahead, his expression darkened significantly.

After the scenes around him had transformed, he suddenly found himself in a forest that was filled with ma.s.sive trees several hundred feet tall. All of them stood tall and proud, and their lush canopies obscured virtually the entire sky.

It was quite clear that he hadn"t been able to escape from the illusion at all.

The Fire Moon being naturally became quite enraged and unsettled upon seeing this.

However, before he had a chance to do anything, the ground beneath his feet suddenly began to tremor and quake violently. Immediately thereafter, the surrounding trees all began to tip over toward a single direction as if they were frail toothpicks, and countless ma.s.sive trees came cras.h.i.+ng down toward him.

The Fire Moon being"s heart jolted with shock, and the sharp blades around his body immediately shot forth in all directions again.

All of the falling trees that were shredded amid flashes of red light before they could strike their target, yet just when the Fire Moon being was about to try and break the illusionary technique again, a series of dull thumps suddenly rang out. Many of his blades of light had struck a black shadow that was extremely resolute and stalwart.

All of the red blades that struck the object disappeared in a flash, and the black shadow expanded to several times its original size before cras.h.i.+ng down with devastating might.

It was a black mountain that was over 1,000 feet tall.

"Argh!"

The Fire Moon being was caught completely off guard, and he only had time to raise his head and opened his mouth to expel a ball of red mist.

There seemed to be something hidden with that ball of red mist.

As soon as the red mist came into contact with the small mountain, red light flashed, and a crimson treasure that appeared to be a wooden board with countless runes flas.h.i.+ng over its surface emerged.

The wooden board was certainly quite a powerful treasure, but there was no way that it would be able to withstand the Divine Essencefused Mountain"s insane weight and power.

The small black mountain crushed the red light around the wooden board with ease, then continued to descend toward its target without any pause or delay.

"c.r.a.p!"

The Fire Moon being"s expression changed drastically, but it was too late for him to do anything, and he was crushed under this immensely heavy black mountain.

At the same time, the surrounding scenes warped before dissipating into specks of spiritual light. All of the illusions disappeared, and the Fire Moon being reappeared within the small valley that he"d been situated all along.

However, he found himself hovering in mid-air as opposed to standing on a bed of lush gra.s.s, and the small black mountain was still plummeting straight down from above.

In the next instant, an earthshattering boom rang out, and a ma.s.sive crater that was several tens of feet deep was smashed into the ground by the small black mountain.

The Fire Moon being"s body was instantly reduced to a pile of mincemeat within the crater.

He was a Spatial Tempering Stage being just like Han Li, but his physical body was unexpectedly feeble.

As a Spatial Tempering Stage being, the Fire Moon being naturally possessed more abilities than those he"d just revealed. Unfortunately, he made the wrong decision to use his avatar secret technique from the get-go. After his avatars were caught off guard and destroyed by the lightning bead, as well as the Armor Origin Talisman, his body was dealt two heavy blows in quick succession, thereby forcing him firmly onto the back foot.

After that, he"d fallen into the illusionary technique of Han Li"s Spring Dawn Sword Formation, and the Divine Essencefused Mountain had attacked him under the camouflage of all of the illusions around it, thereby easily destroying his physical body and leaving him with no chance to turn the tables.

Right at this moment, red light flashed from the Fire Moon being"s remains beneath the black mountain, following which an egg-sized bead shot forth before disappearing into the soil down below in a flash.

All of a sudden, a swath of grey light erupted from the underside of the small mountain, instantly sweeping up the red bead within the soil and completely immobilizing it.

Immediately thereafter, grey light flashed, and the bead was hurled viciously out of the ground.

At the same time, azure light flashed from the summit of the small mountain, and a humanoid figure appeared out of thin air before making a grabbing motion toward the bead.

The bead was instantly drawn into the humanoid figure"s grasp by an enormous suction force.

The humanoid figure was none other than Han Li, and he looked down at the bead in his hand to find that it was of a fiery red color. The material of the bead was glittering and translucent, and there was a miniature humanoid figure that was around an inch in size inside the bead.

The miniature humanoid figure was completely identical in appearance to the Fire Moon being, except a barely noticeable small horn had appeared on his forehead.

"You really are related to the Jiao Chi Race! I"m rather curious now; are you a Jiao Chi being or a Fire Moon being?" Han Li asked with a cold smile on his face as he casually ma.s.saged the bead between two of his fingers.

The miniature humanoid figure remained silent with its eyes tightly shut.

"Seeing as you were trying to obtain my jade box, you must know what"s in them, right? If you can reveal to me the contents of the boxes, perhaps I can..."

"You can allow my soul to escape from this place?" The miniature humanoid figure suddenly cut off Han Li as it opened its eyes with an expressionless look on his face.

"I can"t do that, but I can save you the pain of having your soul searched," Han Li replied in a cold manner.

"In that case, then I have nothing to say. If you plan to use a soul search technique on me, then I"d advise you to save your energy. A holy race being has already planted a restriction in my spiritual sense; even if a being of the upper three tiers of the holy race were to try and search my soul, it would only cause my soul to self-detonate," the miniature humanoid figure said with a deriding sneer on its face.

Han Li"s brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this, and he stared intently at the red bead for a while longer before suddenly rubbing his hands together.

A loud thunderclap rang out, and golden arcs of lightning flashed as the bead and the miniature humanoid figure within it were both destroyed.

Han Li didn"t know if the Fire Moon being had been telling the truth, but he couldn"t afford to waste any more time here.

It was also possible that a tracking mark could"ve been planted into the Fire Moon being"s soul, so he couldn"t just keep it alive and take it with him for future interrogation. As such, he destroyed it without any hesitation seeing as it was unwilling to provide him with the information he wanted.

Unbeknownst to Han Li, in the instant that the Fire Moon being"s soul was destroyed, a faint cry of surprise suddenly rang out from within a large silver palace atop the giant silver island hovering above Green Light City.

"What is it, Brother Tu?" another being asked with a curious look.

"The restriction that I planted in Hong Yin"s soul has disappeared. It appears that he"s been killed," a silver-robed elderly man replied with furrowed brows as he sat in a white chair. There was a short crimson horn on his head, and he made a grabbing motion, following which an azure wooden badge appeared in his grasp.

There was a red gem at the center of the wooden badge, but it had been shattered into several pieces.

"Could it be that someone blew his cover and he was killed by a swarm of cultivators?" the other person mused. This was a middle-aged man who appeared to be in his forties, and he was also wearing a set of silver robes.

"Perhaps so. After all, Hong Yin"s cultivation base is nothing to be scoffed at, and according to the information he brought back last time, there are not beings of the three holy race tiers in Green Light City. Unless he was swarmed by many cultivators at once, he shouldn"t be falling in a small city like that. Alternatively, perhaps another being of the holy race tiers has infiltrated the city prior to our arrival. If a being of that caliber were to appear in the city and insist on concealing themselves, then it"s quite possible that our initial forces failed to notice their presence," the elderly man replied as he stroked his beard with a nod of his head.

"In that case, it looks like the two of us will have to make a trip in person. I really don"t understand what treasures we"re trying to obtain that would warrant deploying beings of our caliber," the middle-aged man sighed as if he found all of this to be quite a pain.