A peculiar cry abruptly rang out. A dark shadow stumbled out of the mist, revealing itself to be a red demon beast several feet in length with a pair of blue eyes and a purple comb on its head. However, there was blood splattered all over one of its wings, and even more blood was gus.h.i.+ng violently out of a fist-sized puncture wound.
However, this beast was extremely aggressive, and it threw itself at Han Li despite its injuries.
That didn"t come as any surprise to Han Li. After all, fire-attribute demon beasts were commonly much more ferocious and violent than other demon beasts.
Han Li heaved a faint sight before casually flicking five of his fingers.
Five red threads short forth, puncturing several regions of the demon beast body before winding themselves around the bird and tightening violently.
Brilliant red light flashed as the demon beast was chopped into several sections.
Its body had been severed by none other than Han Li"s Fire Spirit Threads! In the face of weaker opponents like this fiery bird, the might of the Fire Spirit Threads was very apparent.
Han Li waved a hand through the air and the red threads flew back toward him before disappearing into his palm.
As he continued deeper into the sea of mist, more and more demon beasts began to appear with increasing regularity. Before he knew it, he had slain more than 10 demon beasts.
On one occasion, he was attacked by five or six fire apes at once, each of which was around 10 feet tall. A normal early-Nascent Soul cultivator would"ve been in some trouble had they been faced with that situation, but Han Li was naturally able to handle the situation with aplomb.
He merely opened his mouth to blast forths swords that were several inches in length, and the fire apes were easily slain.
However, after forging ahead for a while longer, he finally encountered the first true stumbling block on his journey.
In the air several hundred feet away from him, there was a s.h.i.+mmering red ball of light around 10 feet in size that was constantly transforming. It took on the form of a tiger, then a wolf, transitioning between different demon beast forms as if it didn"t have a set form of its own.
Han Li looked on with a cold expression before abruptly raising a hand, sending several streaks of golden sword Qi flying toward it.
Golden light flashed past, easily slicing this creature into several pieces, but the segmented red light merely converged once again to revert back to its original form with no issues whatsoever.
Han Li"s brows furrowed as he made a hand seal. He then abruptly opened his mouth to eject a pilar of purple light, puncturing the ball of light in the blink of an eye to create a hole with a diameter comparable to that of a large bowl.
This was a new secret technique that Han Li had mastered after reaching the late-Nascent Soul Stage. It involved compressing the Purple Apex Flames that he had refined, then blasting it out of his mouth using his immense spiritual power.
As one could imagine, the resulting attack was very fearsome.
Even though the ball of light was still able to regenerate itself, it took a lot longer to do so than on the previous occasion.
"It"s just as the rumors say; this Malicious Fire Spirit really is a little troublesome to deal with. Even my glacial flame, which is supposed to hold an attribute advantage over it, isn"t very effective. No wonder Master Arctic Dragon"s memories suggested that he was quite wary of this creature," Han Li murmured to himself.
Right at this moment, the red ball of light took on the form of a crimson devilish ghost and rushed toward Han Li with red flames erupting from its mouth.
Han Li adopted a serious expression as he waved a hand through the air. A ma.s.sive azure hand immediately appeared above the devilish ghost"s head, cras.h.i.+ng down like lightning before grabbing the ghost firmly between its five fingers.
Red light flashed as the fingers of the azure hand tightened, crus.h.i.+ng the entire body of the devilish ghost. However, the red light converged and regenerated itself again in the next instant.
A cold smile appeared on Han Li"s face as he patted his storage pouch, seemingly preparing to summon some kind of treasure. However, right at this moment, a crisp cry suddenly rang out from within his body. Crimson light then flashed on his shoulder as a tiny little crimson bird that was only around several inches in size materialized out of thin air.
Han Li faltered slightly at the sight of this bird.
This bird was none other than the spirit beast manifested from the Greatyin True Flame.
A surprised look appeared on Han Li"s face. Before he could ascertain why this Fire Raven had appeared of its own accord, the latter suddenly spread open its wings and hurtled directly toward the ball of red light.
Along the way, the Fire Raven swelled drastically in size, expanding to several feet in a few flashes as it opened its beak to peck the ball of light.
To Han L"s surprise, the bird was able to peck a chunk out of the ball of light"s insubstantial body.
Following just a few more pecks, a large hole had appeared in the ball of light, and it was no longer able to regenerate as it once could.
However, this Malicious Fire Spirit didn"t appear to be very intelligent and nor did it seem to have any sense of pain. Instead of trying to flee the scene, it was merely transitioning into different forms over and over again in an attempt to better combat the Fire Raven.
The Fire Raven had the Malicious Fire Spirit"s body grasped tightly between its talons, continuing to peck at it viciously regardless of what form it adopted. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, the ball of light had almost been reduced to half of its original size.
Han Li chuckled upon seeing this.
Never did he think that the Greatyin Fire Raven would be the bane of the Malicious Fire Spirits here.
In that case, he would be spared of a lot of trouble.
Thus, Han Li looked on with a relaxed expression. It didn"t take long for the Greatyin Fire Raven to completely devour the ball of light.
It then let loose a long cry before returning to its perch on Han Li"s shoulder, where it began to organize its feathers, seemingly unwilling to return to Han Li"s body right away.
There was no way that there was only one Malicious Fire Spirt in this sea of mist, so Han Li naturally wasn"t going to force the bird back into his body. Thus, he continued onward in his journey.
The mountain ranges enshrouded under this sea of mist were truly ma.s.sive beyond belief. Han Li"s spiritual sense was restricted, so he didn"t dare to fly too quickly, and it took him three full days before he finally arrived at his destination; a ma.s.sive extinct volcano.
Along the way, he had slain at least 70 to 80 demon beasts of all stages, if not over 100. There were even some that had reached the pinnacle of the seventh grade and were only a step away from the eighth grade. Eighth grade metamorphosis stage demon beasts would go on to attain intelligence, so they would depart from the Fiery h.e.l.l to find a more suitable place to cultivate.
As for Malicious Fire Spirits, Han Li only encountered two in total on the way here. Both of them were devoured by the Greatyin Fire Raven, so they didn"t cause him much trouble at all.
However, as they were pa.s.sing through a fiery lake along the way, Han Li was forced to slow down significantly. The fiery lake was capable of blasting crimson pillars of fire into the air without any premonition, and those pillars of fire were quite powerful.
Han Li wasn"t fearful of these flames, but he naturally didn"t want to unnecessarily waste his magic power.
As such, he exercised a policy of caution and slowly flew over this area.
At this moment, Han Li was already standing on the rim of the extinct volcano, casting his gaze up ahead with his arms crossed in front of his chest.
He patted a storage pouch on his waist, and a thick stack of formation flags and formation plates immediately appeared in his hand. He tossed those formation tools behind him, and silver light flashed as another "Han Li" emerged. The second Han Li raised a hand to summon a swath of silver light, which allowed it to catch all of the formation tools that had been flung into the air.
This second Han Li was none other than the humanoid puppet, which was being controlled by Han Li"s second Nascent Soul.
The puppet"s body swayed, and it transformed into a silver streak of light, disappearing into the mist in the blink of an eye.
Meanwhile, Han Li sat down to meditate with his legs crossed and his eyes closed.
A short while later, the humanoid puppet arrived back by his side, completely empty-handed.
Han Li opened his eyes and turned his gaze toward the puppet before nodding his head.
The puppet swayed before vanis.h.i.+ng once again.
Brilliant spiritual light erupted over Han Li"s body as he hurtled through the air as a streak of azure light. Following a few flashes, he had arrived at the very center of the volcanic crater, upon which the azure light receded.
Han Li inspected his surroundings before raising his hand, tossing out a white object that he had prepared in advance.
The object revolved in the air before swelling drastically amid a ball of spiritual light, transforming into a ma.s.sive object over 100 feet tall before cras.h.i.+ng to the ground, causing the entire earth to tremor slightly.
It appeared to be an extremely heavy object.
As the white light faded, a small jade sacrificial pillar was revealed. However, there were runes carved over the surface of this altar, clearly indicating that it was already a treasure.
Han Li flipped his hand over again, and a small blue cauldron appeared over his palm.
He then began to chant something as he cast several incantation seals onto the cauldron.
The cauldron revolved and began to radiate scintillating spiritual light. At the same, it swelled dramatically to around 10 feet in size.
Han Li gently flicked a finger toward the cauldron, and its lid was immediately flung off. A buzzing sound rang out from within the cauldron, following which a burst of blue light emerged before quickly proliferating through the air.
As the blue light flashed over the surrounding landscape, a layer of s.h.i.+mmering blue ice appeared over the ground.
Han Li had unleashed his Celestial Blue Flames, and that small blue cauldron was naturally the spirit treasure replica he had obtained from Master Arctic Dragon, the Celestial Blue Cauldron.
There were only two of these cauldrons in existence, and both of them were in Han Li"s possession. As the blue light flashed through the air, the red mist nearby receded, and the volcanic crater suddenly became a lot clearer.
A slight smile appeared on Han Li"s face upon seeing this. He pointed a finger toward the ma.s.sive cauldron, and it immediately landed right the very center of the sacrificial altar before him.
Meanwhile, Han Li had also brought out a palm-sized blue formation plate before rapidly casting a few incantation seals onto it. All of a sudden, a loud thunderclap erupted from the ground near the sacrificial altar, and a ma.s.sive formation that was s.h.i.+mmering with different colors of spiritual lights suddenly appeared, with the altar situated at the very center of the formation. At this moment, it appeared as if the formation around the sacrificial altar had always been one with the giant cauldron, and there seemed to be no end to the Celestial Blue Flames flowing out from the cauldron.
Blue ice soon spread over the entire volcanic crater.
Han Li wore a serious expression as he pointed several times toward the formation plate in his hand. All of a sudden, an almighty boom erupted from the entire formation as several tens of pillars of blue light shot into the sky around the crater, creating a gargantuan cage of light that completely sealed off the s.p.a.ce nearby as well. Each and every pillar was s.h.i.+mmering with green light and reached several hundred feet into the air, creating a formidable sight to behold.