When Bai Yaoyi left his sight, Han Li looked back down and observed the three Profound Ice Flowers.
After some contemplation, he slapped his storage pouch and summoned a dozen various colored streaks, attaching themselves into the surrounding crystal walls. A blue mist then completely enveloped the vicinity.
With that done, buzzing shook the air as a swarm of golden beetles flew out from Han Li’s body, disappearing into the mist as specks of light.
So long as nothing particularly powerful approached, the mist should be able to protect him as he refined the Profound Ice Pill.
Feeling at ease, Han Li raised his hand and summoned a fist-sized cauldron that sparkled with silver light. As it floated in front of him, he summoned a variety of wooden boxes and small bottles from his storage pouch onto the ground.
He then changed his focus to the three flowers.
He waved his sleeve, producing three golden streaks that wound around the flowers, carving out the myriad year profound ice they were attached to.
He then pointed to the ground and three foot-long jade boxes warped out from sight and oddly reappeared below the three flowers.
Seeing that the flowers were gathered without a problem, he formed a hand gesture with a satisfied expression on his face. He then launched a series of spell seals into the blue mist surrounding him. The mist roiled around him and ma.s.sively expanded, soon submerging the entire ravine from sight.
Apart from the icy winds whistling in the ravine, there was only silence.
...
Three days pa.s.sed in the blink of an eye.
The blue mist was exceptionally dense at the bottom of the ravine and showed no signs of dissolving.
Then, light flashed from the distant sky and three streaks arrived at great speed, appearing before the ravine in only a moment.
The streak of silver light at the front of the three appeared dim as if its owner had been injured.
The red and green lights following it appeared dazzling and overbearing.
It was clear the silver light was being pursued.
The silver light faded to reveal a gorgeous white-robed woman. Her complexion was pale and a layer of faint green Qi covered her. She was Bai Yaoyi who had last been seen three days ago.
She had somehow encountered mishaps and had been pursued until now. Her bodies were also under the effects of a vicious poison that even a mid-Nascent Soul cultivator couldn"t resist.
When she arrived above the ravine, she quickly looked down and saw a roiling blue mist. She let out a sigh, relieved by the sight.
At that moment, the red and green lights pursuing her were only a few hundred meters away. A man’s voice spoke from the green light, “What? You’ve decided to stop running, knowing how badly you’re poisoned? If you’ve decided to forfeit your life, then this lord won’t hesitate to take it!” The tone of the voice was sinister and harsh.
Bai Yaoyi coldly snorted and dived into the ravine, paying no attention to them. With several silver flashes, she vanished.
The two streaks of light rushed to the opening of the ravine, and the figure of a man and a woman can be glimpsed from within them.
The two looked down at the blue mist with some hesitation.
The two were metamorphosed demon beasts with fully awakened intelligence no lesser than that of a human.
They were bewildered as to why Bai Yaoyi stopped running and decided to hide in the restrictions below.
Just as the two through to use their spiritual sense to explore below them, white mist rolled around them, following the appearance of a dozen snow-white winged insects, all possessing a sinister appearance.
“Six-winged Frost Centipedes!” The woman within the red light trembled as she shouted with joy.
“Those are Six-winged Frost Centipedes?” The man in the green light shouted.
“That’s great! So long as we can devour these insects, we’ll be able to ma.s.sively boost our cultivation through Yin Yang Convergence!” The woman bellowed with hoa.r.s.e laughter and her body burst in flames, releasing a dozen fire serpents.
They were each a foot-long and each of them had wings on their backs. With flames trailing from their mouths, they aggressively pounced towards the centipedes.
For a time, flames and icy Qi clashed, producing deafening explosions.
At that moment, the red light disappeared to reveal the woman’s full appearance.
She had a slender figure wearing crimson clothes, a pair of green eyes, and scarlet scales that freckled her pretty face. A snake’s tongue would also occasionally flick out from her mouth. She was a grade eight demon serpent.
With blatant greed on her face, red light flared from the demon as she personally set herself on capturing each of the centipedes. Then, a series of drones suddenly sounded from underneath her. Specks of golden light suddenly shot out from the blue mist in the ravine, condensing into a ten-meter-wide golden cloud that charged at the two demons.
When the man saw the golden cloud, he swept his sleeve without another thought and released a flood dragon of green Qi to meet the attack.
The man coldly smiled upon seeing the dragon swallow the golden cloud. Surely whatever was inside the golden cloud would be thoroughly decayed by the venom. But while the thought flickered in his mind, the golden cloud released a drone as it flew out from the green Qi.
The man was greatly alarmed.
He quickly began to spin and had green light envelop his body, transforming himself into a ten-meter-tall wall of flame that rushed to sweep the golden cloud.
Suddenly, a dense emerald flame pa.s.sed the cloud and silence their buzzing. Soon after, crackles popped and countless golden specs began to fall from the flames.
The remnants of the golden cloud instantly scattered, revealing individual golden beetles. They violently swayed within the green flames and were barely able to struggle.
When the man saw this, he felt relieved, but something soon came to mind as he looked at the remaining beetles. He suddenly cried out in terror, “Those are Gold Devouring Beetles! How can there be so many?”
In his shock, the green light covering him faded to reveal his odd appearance. He had two beady yellow eyes and a headful of disheveled green hair. His mouth stretched to the edges of both cheeks.
He shouted in surprise as the falling Gold Devouring Beetles seemed to regain life. They flew back up, buzzing, and the green flame dragon wrapping around the other beetles was rapidly shrinking.
The man’s complexion became increasingly unsightly.
But at that moment, red light flashed from above the Gold Devouring Beetles. The serpent woman suddenly appeared with an open mouth, spitting an azure mist down below, soon taking the form of an azure alms bowl.
The bowl surged several times in size and released many azure threads, turning into a huge light barrier that wrapped around the many Gold Devouring Beetles down below. The Gold Devouring Beetles attempted to attack the light barrier with all their might, but it had no effect. They were completely trapped.
At this moment, the serpent woman turned to the man and coldly said, “What are you scared of? Do you believe those beetles to be fully mature? So long as they aren’t complete, they are capable of being killed.”
As if to verify her words, the woman flicked her finger down, producing a frigid, tearing noise. A fingernail-sized streak flickered down towards the azure light barrier and swept past one of the beetles.
As a result, the Gold Devouring Beetle was silently cleaved into two. The red streak then halted to reveal itself to be an inch-long red serpent scale with incredibly sharp edges.
After this, relief was visible on his face and the woman wore a sinister smile. She then grasped her hand in an incantation gesture and successive cracks sounded out as over a hundred identical serpent scales show out from her body.
The serpent woman decided to leave the Six-winged Frost Centipedes to her fire serpents for the time being and decided to exterminate the captured Gold Devouring Beetles.
But at that moment, an icy snort sounded out from the blue mist below, followed by booming thunder. Then, silver light flashed sixty meters away from the serpent woman.
Vigilant, the serpent woman formed an incantation gesture and immediately made use of a demon art, commanding her flame serpents to charge direction and tear towards the silhouette that appeared before her.
The silhouette chuckled and flipped his hand, producing a small sparkling silver s.h.i.+eld in front of him. Then, a mirror-like wall suddenly came into existence.
The dense barrage of red streaks struck the silver wall and erupted in blinding silver light. The red streaks were repelled in different directions, none of them leaving any mark behind in the wall.
When the serpent woman saw this, her heart jumped. A fierce expression appeared on the face of the man next to her. He swept his sleeve, releasing a stream of roiling toxic mist. If one were observing the mist carefully, they would discover unremarkable green threads flickering within them.
These were poisonous needles that he bitterly cultivated over several thousand years from condensing his most lethal venom. Even late-Nascent Soul cultivators would quickly dissolve to poisonous refuse if they didn’t dissolve the venom in time.
Han Li simply waved his sleeve to face the attack and released a small red cauldron.
In a flash, it disappeared outside the silver wall and let out a clear ring. As it surged in size the lid of the cauldron opened of its own accord and released countless crimson fireb.a.l.l.s.
Each of the fireb.a.l.l.s were only fist-sized, but they soon joined together to form hundreds of crimson crows. With shrill cries, they charged to meet the oncoming poison mist.
Upon contact with the birds, the mist along with its poison needles were extinguished, wiped away into grey smoke. The mist stood no match.
The scarlet cauldron was the sentient cauldron Han Li acquired from Kunwu Mountain.
It controlled over a thousand Great Yang Birds, an ideal weapon against wicked and evil arts. Its might was made obvious as soon as it appeared.
A glint flashed from Han Li’s eyes and he felt satisfied by what he saw. He shook his sleeve and a tri-colored fan slipped into his grasp.