For some reason, a sense of peril welled up in the elderly man"s spiritual sense at the sight of the seemingly ordinary five-colored light sword.
He immediately opened his mouth to expel a s.h.i.+mmering red flying sword without any hesitation. The sword was around three feet in length, and it was as glittering and translucent as if it had been forged from crystal.
The flying sword flashed through the air as a streak of azure light, hurtling directly toward that unsettling five-colored light sword.
A cold harrumph rang out in the air above, and the five-colored sword abruptly slashed through the air again.
The streak of crimson light instantly shuddered before reverting back to its original form as a flying sword, then plummeting directly downward.
The sword had shrunk down to only several inches in length, but a sizeable c.h.i.n.k had appeared on its blade. Even though it had been sliced in half by the light sword, it had clearly been severely damaged.
In the instant that the flying sword was damaged, the elderly man"s face paled slightly, indicating that he"d also sustained internal injuries as a result.
However, after unleas.h.i.+ng two attacks, the dazzling light emanating from the five-colored light sword had dimmed significantly, and many of the runes hovering around it had also vanished.
A sinister look appeared on the elderly man"s face he let loose a long cry.
The three-colored light that had just been sliced apart surged toward his body before forming a suit of antiquated three-colored armor.
The suit of armor didn"t appear to be of a wooden nor metallic material, and it covered his entire body from head to toe, leaving only a pair of holes for his eyes.
From a distance, it appeared that he had transformed into an armored giant.
Immediately thereafter, the elderly man raised both arms into the air, and three-colored light flashed as an antiquated giant sword appeared in his hand.
The elderly man clenched both hands around the hilt of the sword before positioning it in front of his body, and an astonis.h.i.+ng burst of baleful Qi instantly erupted into the heavens.
At the same time, the blue pouch and golden flag descended from above, revolving around the elderly as a streak of blue light and a streak of golden light, respectively.
Han Li"s eyelids twitched involuntarily as he looked on from his hiding spot within the light barrier.
Only after borrowing the world"s origin Qi that had been absorbed by the sword formation was he able to just barely unleash that ability, which had been named as the Origin Qi Sword Gourd by Qing Yuanzi. The ability manifested a gourd and used the sword Qi from the 72 Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords as a seed, then drew upon the world"s origin Qi to nurture a devastatingly powerful Origin Qi Sword.
The ability was extremely powerful, but it also required an astonis.h.i.+ng amount of the world"s origin Qi to be unleashed.
The two slashes that had just been unleashed had already expended close to half of the world"s origin Qi that had been absorbed by the sword formation.
However, if the elderly man were led to believe that this was the extent of the Origin Qi Sword"s powers, then he was in for a nasty surprise. The power unleashed by the Origin Qi Sword was completely dependent on how much of the world"s origin Qi was injected into the attack.
Han Li was preparing to exhaust all of its remaining world"s origin Qi in the next attack!
With that in mind, a cold smile appeared on Han Li"s face, and he abruptly made a hand seal to spur the sword formation into action.
Spiritual light instantly flashed from the azure light barrier, and the azure lotus flowers rotated on the spot before transforming into pillars of light that surged toward the giant light sword up above.
Azure light flashed all over the entire heavens, and the azure light barrier thinned rapidly before completely vanis.h.i.+ng.
In the blink of eye, only the 72 small azure swords remained hovering in mid-air, and all of them had turned rather dull and l.u.s.terless.
Without the sword formation as camouflage, Han Li had also appeared high up in the air above.
After absorbing so much power, the light sword had swelled to around twice its original size, and the details of the sword had become far clearer than before. Even though it was still a five-colored sword, the azure color was clearly far more p.r.o.nounced than the other four colors.
"Slas.h.!.+"
Han Li pointed a finger down at the elderly man as he issued a cold instruction.
The giant light sword slowly rose up into the air before cras.h.i.+ng down from above.
The armored elderly man also let loose a loud cry at the same time, and he slashed his antiquated giant sword through the air in retaliation.
A thin thread of crystalline light and the thick streak of three-colored sword Qi approached one another amid an earsplitting screech, but everything abruptly fell silent in the instant that the two came into contact with one another.
Immediately thereafter, the crystalline light flashed past the three-colored sword Qi, and the latter vanished following a dull thump.
The elderly man immediately raised his giant sword to defend himself upon seeing this.
A crisp clang rang out, and the elderly man remained completely motionless.
However, in the next instant, a burst of azure light suddenly flashed from the giant sword, following which half of it silently crashed downward.
After the giant sword had been sliced in half, the small golden flag appeared.
The flag shuddered before radiating a ball of piercing golden light, then also plummeting from the sky above in two halves. Meanwhile, the Chaotic Heavenly Pouch remained completely unscathed.
The armor-clad elderly man looked up into the sky in an expressionless manner. The three-colored suit of armor he was wearing was also completely unscathed, with not even a single scratch to be seen on its surface.
Han Li"s pupils abruptly contracted upon seeing this, and he also looked back at his opponent with a cold expression.
At the same time, an item fell soundlessly into his hand, which was hidden up his sleeve.
"Does this attack have a name?" The elderly man"s voice rang out from within the suit of armor, and the question caught Han Li off guard a little.
"Of course! I"m sure taking on my Origin Qi Sword wasn"t a pleasant experience for you," Han Li replied as a peculiar look appeared on his face.
"Hmph, it was indeed quite powerful; even I was unable to completely withstand it," the elderly man harrumphed coldly.
As soon as his voice trailed off, a thin azure line suddenly appeared on his suit of armor.
Immediately thereafter, an incision that was as smooth as a mirror"s surface appeared on the seamless suit of armor, and that section of the armor crashed heavily onto the ground.
Alongside the severed section of the suit of armor, one of the elderly man"s huge arms had also been dismembered, and the overpowering odor of blood wafted through the air from his shoulder.
However, the elderly man merely glanced at his severed arm, and it flew back of its own accord before reattaching itself to his shoulder amid a flash of white light.
Immediately thereafter, he circulated his magic power within his body and made a hand seal, following which the dazzling red light appeared once again, instantly elevating the surrounding temperatures by an astonis.h.i.+ng degree.
Han Li looked down at his opponent through narrowed eyes, and he didn"t attack right away. Instead, a derisive sneer appeared on his face as he scoffed, "Do you really think it"s that easy to recover from a wound inflicted by my Origin Qi Sword?"
"What are you trying to say?" The elderly man"s heart jolted with shock as he cast his gaze toward his wounded arm again, upon which a dark expression instantly appeared on his face.
Blood was gus.h.i.+ng down his reattached arm again, even though he was sure that it had been completely healed just a moment ago.
"Hehe, as soon as you try to use your magic power, the wound will open up again; that"s the true horror of the Origin Qi Sword! Would you like to fight me without any magic power from here onward or keep fighting me until your blood runs dry?" Han Li chuckled as he abruptly swept a sleeve through the air.
A loud buzzing sound instantly erupted as several tens of golden flowers flew forth from his sleeve. As soon as they emerged from his sleeve, they immediately turned into ma.s.sive sinister-looking beetles that were around half a foot in size each.
The elderly man had been extremely shocked and enraged by Han Li"s words, but he managed to maintain an expressionless facade. However, that facade instantly crumbled at the sight of the golden beetles.
"Gold Devouring Beetles! You have mature Gold Devouring Beetles?" A hint of fear appeared in the elderly man"s eyes for the very first time.
However, Han Li didn"t even bother to give a reply as he made a hand seal, following which all of the Gold Devouring Beetles rapidly surged toward the elderly man.
In the same instant, brilliant golden light erupted from his body as golden scales surfaced over his skin. Black light then flashed from his glabella, and an inky-black demonic eye was revealed.
At the same time, a golden halo abruptly appeared behind him, and the Provenance True Devil Projection appeared within the halo.
A loud thunderclap erupted from his body, and countless arcs of golden lightning appeared, following which he flipped a hand over, and the Divine Essencefused Mountain emerged again amid a flash of grey light.
Meanwhile, he waved a hand toward the Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords in the surrounding area, and all of them converged to form a giant azure sword that was around 10 feet in length, which then landed in his grasp.
After doing all that, Han Li stepped forward with a cold expression on his face, covering a distance of over 100 feet with a single step as he strode directly toward the elderly man down below.
The elderly man"s expression darkened significantly upon seeing this. He looked down at his arm, which had ceased bleeding again after he"d unleashed a regenerative ability, then glanced at the several tens of ma.s.sive golden beetles that were flying toward him.
In the end, he gritted his teeth and suddenly opened his mouth to produce a purple talisman.
The talisman exploded with a dull thump, and a cloud of purple mist permeated through the air before completely obscuring the elderly man"s body within.
Han Li faltered in mid-air upon witnessing this familiar scene, and his brows furrowed slightly.
However, the Gold Devouring Beetles continued onward with single-minded ferocity, and they were submerged into the purple mist in the blink of an eye.
Han Li immediately swept a sleeve toward the purple mist, dispersing it with a gust of fierce white winds, but sure enough, there was no longer anything within the mist.
Blue light flashed through Han Li"s eyes as he rapidly swept his gaze toward the ground down below, and he suddenly let loose a clear cry.
Moments later, golden light flashed from the ground, and several tens of Gold Devouring Beetles emerged from the soil before disappearing up his sleeve.
Even though he"d only used the beetles for a short while, Han Li could sense that close to half of his spiritual sense had been expended.
Thankfully, his spiritual sense had become far more powerful after progressing to the Spatial Tempering Stage. Otherwise, he definitely wouldn"t have dared to release so many Gold Devouring Beetles at once.
Through the use of his spirit eye ability, he was able to ascertain that the elderly man had already fled to close to 10 kilometers away as a purple shadow underground, seemingly having truly been frightened away by Han Li"s powers.