Under the spell formation’s effects, the situation reversed. It appeared they could hold out for a while longer.
But just as Han Li was wordlessly watching the battle, something unexpected occurred.
Following a loud bang, an explosion occurred near the three women. A demon beast with a serpent’s body and a human head shot out from the sand.
The demon serpent had a head of sickly yellow hair and a hideous woman’s face. A pair of delicate infant-white arms emerged from its side, each holding a meter-long bone spear. Black Qi wrapped around the spears, revealing themselves to be low-grade magic tools.
As soon as the demon serpent appeared, the three women controlling the formation turned pale with fright. The demon serpent turned to look at the women in charge of the formation and flashed a malevolent smile and wordlessly waved her spears. Three black lights streaked from the spear and flew towards the women.
The three were quick to react. They immediately recovered from their shock and took out the flags from the formation, hastily waving it in front of them.
Several crackles sounded as a wave of mist suddenly appeared in front of them.
The black lights flew into the mist, resulting in three large explosions. The mist scattered from the strike but managed to block the attack for Xiang’er and the white-robed woman. However, the red-robed woman’s mist was far weaker. When the black light struck the mist, her body trembled and she flew out into the air, away from the mist’s protection.
The red-robed woman knew things were far from good and she turned deathly pale. For a time, she wasn’t able to control her own body.
When the demon serpent saw this, it smashed down its tail and its body blurred, arriving below her with its spear held out.
The other two women yelled out but they weren’t able to protect her.
In the following moment, the woman was about to be stabbed by the glowing black bone spear.
But at that moment, a piercing sound whistled through the air. A white object struck the spear with strange accuracy.
Bang. The spear was pushed a half-foot away, brus.h.i.+ng past the woman’s clothes. The woman was left deathly pale with her brush from death, but she used the opportunity to regain control of her body. With a flip, she nimbly landed on the ground.
The white object was an unremarkable stone.
The demon serpent was surprised, but malevolent glint flashed from its eye and with its other arm, it released a chain of stabs.
However, yet another whistling sound shrieked through the air. This time, a stone didn’t strike the spear but pounded towards the demon serpent’s head.
The stone clearly carried an immense strength. If the attack truly struck the serpent, it might not shatter its skull, but it would be enough to leave it dazed at the very least.
The demon serpent was enraged and had no choice but to turn its head to the side and use its spear and block the oncoming stone.
But with a m.u.f.fled thump, the serpent felt a huge force knock against its hand, forcing it back several steps. Enraged, it turned to look in the direction where the stone came from.
A young man was looking down at it from the top of a nearby tortoise carriage. He was fiddling with a similar stone in his hand.
It was Han Li.
The red-robed woman had now arrived next to her companions in a blur and let out a sigh of relief.
Having been foiled twice, the serpent felt immense rage and opened its mouth to release a black poisonous mist towards the three women.
But then, Nan Qizi’s voice sounded from one of the carriages, “Evil creature! You dare?!”
Soon after, the white light shot out from the carriage window. It circled once in the air before cleaving at the demon. It was a crystalline sword that was several inches large.
When the serpent saw this, its expression changed and it ceased spitting its poison. It rushed to toss the spear in its hand with all its strength at the carriage it came from. It then twisted its body to duck into the sand.
When it saw more cultivators appear, it didn’t dare to fight and immediately flee.
As for the spear, it was aimed at Han Li.
Obviously, the demon thought to take revenge on the mortal that thought to ruin its fun and express its resentment.
When Han Li saw the black light coming towards him, he wryly smiled. Not only did he not use the stone in his hand, but he also stood still in place.
Boom. The spear struck Han Li accurately, and he was sent flying over thirty meters away, leaving a large hole in a carriage’s container he fell on. The crash resulted in twinkling blades falling out from a carriage’s storage.
“Ah!”
When the three women saw this, they let out a cry of alarm. As for Nan Qizi, he let out a yelp from a neighboring carriage.
Afterwards, Nan Qizi’s small sword circled in the air before turning to him.
At that moment, the red-robed woman shook her flag and scattered her protective mist, then running over to the container.
“Brother Han, are... are you alright!?” She worryingly cried out.
A trace of worry also appeared on the other two women’s faces.
“I am well. However, my body can’t seem to move.” Han Li spoke out with a wry chuckle.
The three women were relieved to hear this and exchanged a glance. They all jumped on top of the giant tortoise in question and looked at the damaged container.
They saw Han Li lying down on a pile of spears and sabers with town robes. He appeared helpless, but there were no obvious injuries.
The three were overjoyed and dragged him out in a joint effort.
“Brother Han, thank you for saving my life!” The red-robed woman gratefully said.
Han Li chuckled and casually answered, “It wasn’t much. It only took a slight effort. However, the attack has left me helpless. I’ll have to lay down for a moment longer.”
A trace of surprise appeared on his face and Nan Qizi smiled, saying, “There is nothing wrong. The Vajra Arts is worthy of being of the five great body refining techniques. You are already so strong after cultivating the third layer. That evil creature’s magic tool wasn’t what harmed Benefactor Han, but the exertion of the rock throwing has caused some injury to your meridians. It should be healed with some rest.”
“I am glad!” The red-robed woman said with joy.
Nan Qizi smiled and looked at the formation diagram that no longer glowed with light. He chuckled and said with a deeper tone, “How could this humble Daoist lie? However, the situation will turn for the worse now that you’ve stopped driving the Minor Returning Spring Formation.”
When that was said, the three’s expression vastly changed and they hastily looked around them. They saw that the guards have become exhausted once more without the aid of the formation, and they have resumed taking casualties.
“d.a.m.n. We’ve only brought one copy of the formation diagram. We’ve used all the power from our formation flags to block the demon serpent. We won’t be able to activate it again.” The white-robed woman cried out.
The other two looked at each other in dismay.
“That is truly troublesome!” The Daoist priest frowned. As they thought of a plan, they suddenly heard the sounds of battle around them stop. Suddenly, the guards let out a resounding cheer.
The women looked around in surprise. They saw that the huge worms were jumping off the carriages and fleeing in a panic. They seemed to have lost all their previous mettle.
“It is done! Sister Liu’er and the others must’ve defeated the insect demons.” The green-robed woman said with a grin. The other two also wore pleasant expressions.
As expected, several tens of cavalry were returning to the caravan, leaving dust clouds in their wake.
Out of the fifty-some cavalry that went out on the attack, only about thirty managed to return. Furthermore, many of them were injured and stained with blood. It was clear they had a desperate battle.
When the wolf-mounted cavalry returned, the large scarred man tossed something on the ground. It was the head of a huge worm, but its body was entirely golden.
The blue-robed woman leading the crimson tiger appeared entirely without injury.
When the two saw Nan Qizi and the three women surrounding Han Li, they revealed a trace of shock.
At that moment, one of the guards gave a detailed explanation of what happened.
The scarred man soon let out a bellow, it appears that I’ve made the right decision to take you into our organization. As soon as you joined, you already saved Quan’er. If something truly happened, I wouldn’t have the face to see the mistress.”
When the blue-robed woman heard this, she looked at Han Li with a friendly face.
Han Li simply smiled back and said nothing else.
Since they repelled the Sandbug Beasts, the troops needed to rest. After half a day, they resumed their journey.
The rest of the way was remarkably peaceful. After three days, the caravan left the Azure Sifting Desert and was met with an endless gra.s.sland. It was incredibly flat.
With this, the speed of the caravan increased several times as the tortoises could walk with bigger steps.
As for Han Li, he remained still on his back, unable to move. He later noticed that the banter from the caravan instantly went silent after they entered the gra.s.sland.
In addition, the four women sitting the carriage looked at the gra.s.sland with an uneasy expression, faintly betraying a sense of dread.