The blue-robed man"s actions seemed to have acted as a signal, prompting all of the other Nascent Soul cultivators to unleash incredible secret techniques. Some of them disappeared on the spot amid bursts of white light, some of them threw up mouthfuls of blood essence and fled into the distance as streaks of crimson light; in any case, all of them fleeing with all their might, even if doing so necessitated the infliction of severe self-harm.
"Hmph!" A cold harrumph rang out in the air as a frosty look appeared on the Golden Wyrm King"s face. It waved a hand and a loud thunderclap erupted, following which a streak of golden and silver light shot forth through the air.
The demonic cultivator had hurled its golden spear directly toward the blue-robed man.
As soon as the spear left its hand, it disappeared in the flash.
"c.r.a.p!"
The blue-robed man was paying close attention to the Golden Wyrm King, and his heart shuddered upon seeing this as he immediately tossed his azure mirror behind him.
Azure light erupted, creating the projection of a full moon that was several tens of feet in diameter. The moon projection was azure in color and encapsulated the blue-robed man"s body within.
Almost at the exact same moment as the moon projection"s emergence, a golden spear that was over 100 feet in length appeared nearby. Silver lightning flashed along the spear before striking the very center of the azure moon.
The surface of the azure moon cracked like a mirror and as the huge spear continued onward, the moon projection was completely destroyed.
"Argh!" The blue-robed man was extremely alarmed to see this, and the purple light on his body swayed as he attempted to unleash a secret technique to get away.
However, right at this instant, the huge spear shrank to about half its size and shot forth from within the remnants of the moon projection before striking the purple light in the flash.
A resounding boom erupted.
The handkerchief was quite a powerful treasure in its own right, as evidenced by the fact that the purple light it was manifesting was able to keep the spear at bay. Even so, the blue-robed man felt as if he had been dealt a heavy blow, and was completely unable to control his own body as he was sent flying for several tens of feet.
The Golden Wyrm King raised a leg and somehow managed to cover a distance of over 100 feet with a single step. Its body only had to flash through the air a few times before it caught up to the blue-robed man before reaching out with its hand.
Golden light s.h.i.+mmered over its five fingers, making it appear as if they were constructed from pure gold.
The blue-robed man had only just recovered slightly from the last attack when he caught sight of the Golden Wyrm King reaching for him from nearby. In his panic, he hurriedly opened his mouth to blast out a ball of green light. It was a green fist-sized bead.
The golden claws clashed with the green bead amid a loud clang, as well as the loud earsplitting screech of metal sc.r.a.ping against metal. The green bead instantly expanded drastically, attempting to free itself from the Golden Wyrm King"s hand.
A cold light flashed through the Golden Wyrm King"s eyes as nails of several feet in length abruptly sprouted from its five fingers. At the same time, a golden scale of roughly the same size as a copper coin appeared on the back of his hand.
Following a dull thump, it was able to crush the bead with its bare hand.
A burst of piercing green light flashed past, yet the golden claws remained completely unscathed.
"The Dragonification Arts!" The blue-robed man exclaimed in the same instant that the bead was destroyed. At the same time, he threw up a mouthful of blood essence due to the backlash he had incurred from having his magic treasure destroyed. However, the exchange did buy him some him, allowing him to rush through the air again and opening up a distance of over 100 feet in the blink of an eye.
On this occasion, the Golden Wyrm King didn"t set off in pursuit again. Instead, its expression darkened slightly as it slowly threw a fist at the streak of purple light in the distance.
A huge golden fist around 10 feet in size suddenly appeared in the air directly above the purple light, before cras.h.i.+ng down at the speed of lightning.
Following a thunderous boom, the blue-robed man was struck down by the ma.s.sive fist, plummeting like a meteorite toward the stone peak. His body crashed straight through a pavilion, leaving a huge gaping hole several tens of feet in diameter in his wake, before being inundated by countless fragments of rubble.
A cold smile appeared on the Golden Wyrm King"s face. Its body swayed and in the next instant, it appeared directly in front of the huge hold in the pavilion"s wall.
It raised an arm and s.h.i.+ny golden light erupted from its palm as it prepared to put an end to the blue-robed man"s life.
However, right at this instant, his expression changed and he abruptly feigned a grabbing motion toward the gates of the pavilion. As he did so, he yelled, "Who"s there? Show yourself?"
Five golden claw projections streaked through the air before disappearing into the ground.
Five trenches, each several tens of feet in length, were gouged into the ground in front of the pavilion. The trenches were incredible deep, yet they didn"t strike any target aside from the ground.
A hint of bewilderment flashed through the Golden Wyrm King"s eyes up seeing this. A moment ago, he had suddenly been struck by a hint of fear without any premonition. This bone-chilling sensation sent a s.h.i.+ver running down his spine, and he lashed out without any hesitation.
He hadn"t actually discovered anything; it was his instinct as a heavenly spirit beast that had prompted him to attack in a reflexive manner.
During his tens of thousands of years of cultivation, this sense of foreboding had saved his life on several occasions.
However, now that the attack had failed to strike any target, the Golden Wyrm King was left feeling a little hesitant, wondering if that sensation had merely been a figment of his imagination.
After all, that sense of foreboding had proven to be incorrect on several occasions in the past.
It was just that the chilling sensation that he had just experienced was a little too strong, as if there were some sort of extremely dangerous being spying on him from the shadows and even now, there was still fear lingering in his heart.
Just as he was considering widening the scope of his search. a pile of rubble at the foot of the ma.s.sive hole in the pavilion suddenly stirred before reverting back to normal.
However, that split second of abnormality was enough to draw the Golden Wyrm King"s attention. He scanned his gaze across the pile of rubble beneath him, upon which a flash of killing intent surfaced on his face.
He immediately reached out and feigned a grabbing motion.
Following a resounding boom, that golden spear appeared once again with lightning snakes arcing over its surface.
He grabbed the spear before viciously swinging it downward.
Arcs of silver light flashed as the spear transforming into a streak of blinding golden light, hurtling downward before disappearing mid-away again. When it was revealed once again, the spear had already plunged into the ground in a certain spot over 200 feet away from the pavilion.
The golden spear disappeared into the ground with a loud boom.
A m.u.f.fled groan then rang out as the ground nearby completely crumbled. Countless rock fragments shot forth in all directions, from within which a streak of purple light emerged. The purple light contained none other than the blue-robed man.
However, at this moment, the blue-robed man"s face was extremely pale and there was blood trickling down the corner of his lips. The brightness of the purple light over his body was also oscillating sporadically, looking as if it were about to crumble at any moment. The purple light was indeed quite powerful, but after taking several heavy attacks from the Golden Wyrm King, it was finally about to give out.
As soon as the blue-robed man was forced to reveal himself, he fled in a panicked frenzy away from the stone peak.
The sinister smile on the Golden Wyrm King"s face widened and he reached out again, upon which the golden spear materialized out of thin air.
He then waved his arm through the air again to launch the golden spear. The speed of the fleeing blue-robed man had already decreased drastically, and even though he summoned a s.h.i.+eld and metal ruler to defend himself, those two treasures were completely ineffective in the face of the golden spear.
Two loud booms erupted in quick succession as the two treasures were destroyed, while the golden spear continued onward.
The blue-robed man tried to evade with all his might, but the spear was simply far too fast for him to avoid.
In the end, the golden spear punctured the feeble layer of purple light and pierced through his chest.
The blue-robed man let loose a howl of anguish before plummeting down from above. He crashed straight to the ground, where he lay, completely stationary. A charred black hole with a diameter comparable to the size of a bowl had appeared on his chest. Several thin arcs of lightning were flas.h.i.+ng incessantly around the wound, and the smell of charred flesh wafted through the air.
The Golden Wyrm King raised a hand to summon the golden spear back to him as he harrumphed coldly. "Hmph, you think a mid-Nascent Soul cultivator like you can escape from me? What a joke!"
He then swept his arm through the air again, and several fingernails shot forth, expanding drastically during their decent. In the blink of an eye, they had swelled to become huge golden nails around a foot in length before pinning the blue-robed man"s limbs and neck firmly to the ground.
Runes began to flash over the nails as several golden chains emerged, forcibly sealing the blue-robed man in place in order to prevent his Nascent Soul from escaping.
The Golden Wyrm King feigned a grabbing motion toward the blue-robed man, drawing the storage pouch hanging from his waist toward him. He then swept his spiritual sense through the contents of his storage pouch, upon which his expression immediately darkened.
He raised his head with a dark expression as he swept his gaze around him.
A short while later, two of the other fleeing Nascent Soul cultivators had been caught up in battles against demon beast opponents again, while a grey-robed gourd-wielding cultivator and a cloud of blood mist fled into the distance. In the blink of an eye, they had already become two black spots on the horizon.
There were demon beasts flying toward the grey-robed man in hot pursuit, yet the cloud of blood mist was getting further and further away from his demon beast opponents, traveling at a far faster speed than his pursuers.
The Golden Wyrm King"s lips twitched as he looked at the cloud of blood mist in the distance. He contemplated momentarily before his body flashed through the air, transforming into a streak of golden light as he hurtled toward the blood mist.
As the golden light flashed into the distance, Han Li heaved a faint sigh of relief as he stood behind the pavilion gates.
When the blue-robed man had been sent flying into the pavilion, he had been tempted to quickly subdue him before searching to see if he were carrying the top-grade spirit stone. However, he deemed that to be too risky in the end, and refrained from doing so.
To his surprise, the Golden Wyrm King"s spiritual sense was able to detect something during Han Li"s split second of indecision, the attack he had unleashed almost managed to strike Han Li.
Thankfully, he had mastered his teleportation technique to an extremely high degree, thereby allowing him to soundless travel to the other side of the pavilion gates, causing the Golden Wyrm King to miss his attack.
From the Golden Wyrm King"s expression, it appeared that the top-grade spirit stone wasn"t in the blue-robed man"s storage pouch, and nor could he possibly be carrying the spirit stones on his body somewhere.
After all, if an item with such pure spiritual Qi weren"t placed in a storage pouch, anyone would be able to identify its whereabouts.
Han Li paid no heed to the blue-robed man on the ground and turned his attention to the air above.
Beneath the blue demonic mist, there was only an unidentifiable eighth grade demonic cultivator. He was hovering in the air, completely still, seemingly having been left behind by the Golden Wyrm King to oversee the situation on the stone peak.
This demonic cultivator"s face was of a faint blue hue and his facial features were quite sinister. There were also large patches of blue scales on his arms and legs, giving him an extremely ghastly appearance.
All of a sudden, he turned his gaze toward a certain direction.
Han Li stirred upon seeing this and also turned his attention toward the same direction.
A ball of light yellow light was flying over from the distance, within which there seemed to be a demon beast that was carrying something.
A blue light flashed through Han Li"s eyes as he unleashed his Brightsight Spirit Eyes to survey the demon beast within the yellow light.