In the instant that the soul of the azure wasp was destroyed, the swarm of devilish wasp avatars all self-detonated several thousand feet away.
Thus, the giant azure wasp and the devilish falcon were slain in virtually the blink of an eye, and Han Li paid no heed to the devilish falcon"s plummeting body as he cast a frosty gaze toward the final high-grade devilish beast.
Wu Qi had naturally witnessed everything that had just taken place, and he was struck by a sense of astonishment and foreboding.
The giant wasp and the devilish falcon possessed inferior cultivation bases compared to his, but there definitely wasn"t a significant disparity. However, this man had slain them with ease in the blink of an eye, and not even their souls had managed to escape; how could he not be struck by fear in the face of such a fearsome foe?
It was indeed true that he"d only managed to kill the two devilish beasts so easily as he"d caught them off guard with a sneak attack, but under the same circ.u.mstances, Wu Qi knew that he definitely wouldn"t have been able to slay those two companions of his so easily.
At the same time, he was feeling rather perplexed.
Just what was that golden shadow that lured them out, only to be killed with a single hammer strike?
They"d clearly sensed powerful spiritual pressure emanating from it. Otherwise, they wouldn"t have been fooled so easily.
In any case, if he were to engage this man in battle, death would most likely be the fate that awaited him, so it was a much better idea to wait for reinforcements to get here before killing this man.
If worst came to worst, they"d just have to break the agreement that had been made with the outside world and set up an ambush at the entrance to the mountain ranges in order to kill their target.
The top-grade beings of the outside world surely wouldn"t venture into the mountain ranges and spark a battle over just a single Spatial Tempering Stage being.
Thus, after rapidly processing this series of thoughts, Wu Qi immediately devised a strategy.
At the same time Han Li cast his gaze toward him, he made a grabbing motion with both hands, and the two metal war hammers abruptly shrank down to their original size before returning to his grasp.
He then opened his mouth to produce that triangular copper mirror before quickly pointing a finger at it.
A ball of light erupted from the surface of the mirror amid a low buzzing sound, and the ball of light instantly descended from above.
A peculiar scene then unfolded.
As the ball of light descended, Wu Qi"s burly figure suddenly disappeared.
Immediately thereafter, the copper mirror tremored slightly, and it also disappeared into thin air, leaving an afterimage in its wake.
Han Li faltered slightly upon seeing this, seemingly taken aback by this development.
However, his expression then immediately darkened, and blue light quickly flashed through his eyes. It was as if a vortex had appeared in his pupils, and if there were any onlookers present, they"d be struck by the feeling that those eyes were trying to suck the souls out of their bodies.
All of a sudden, Han Li seemed to have caught sight of something, and he abruptly made a hand seal before pointing two fingers toward his glabella.
A ball of black Qi appeared, then manifested an inky-black eyeball.
It was none other than his Law Destruction Eye.
As soon as the demonic eye appeared, inky-black light swirled within it, and there seemed to be runes surging incessantly within the pupil.
A beam of black light that was around as thick as a human finger shot forth from within the Law Destruction Eye, then also disappeared into thin air.
Moments later, an earth-shattering boom rang out from a certain location over 1,000 feet away, following which a black ball of light emerged amid violent spatial fluctuations.
A dull thump rang out as Wu Qi"s burly figure stumbled out of thin air, and an expression of shock and fury appeared on his face.
Almost at the exact same moment, a loud thunderclap rang out above it, following which an azure and white arc of lightning appeared with a humanoid figure visible within it.
Wu Qi didn"t even get a chance to regain his bearing before his heart sank, and he looked up as he reflexively swung his arms upward, sending his two war hammers hurtling directly toward the humanoid figure overhead.
At the same time, spiritual light flashed from his chest, and a blue flag flew forth, then swayed before forming a blue light barrier that s.h.i.+elded his body within.
Meanwhile, black light flashed from Wu Qi"s body as he rushed back like an arrow, trying to open up some distance between Han Li and himself.
However, Han Li certainly wasn"t going to allow him to get his way. Azure and white lightning exploded in the air above, and the lightning suddenly took on a silver hue.
Immediately thereafter, his body swelled drastically in size as he transformed into a ma.s.sive azure bird that was several tens of feet long. The huge bird spread open its wings before swooping down with thick arcs of silver lightning surging all over its body.
It was traveling at an extraordinarily fast speed, and it caught the oncoming pair of black war hammers with its talons in a flash.
A rumbling thunderclap erupted, and the two war hammers were crushed amid a wail of anguish as if they were mere papier-mâché structures.
In the next instant, the giant talons continued onward without pause, cras.h.i.+ng into the blue light barrier around Wu Qi"s body.
Surprisingly enough, the seemingly ordinary light barrier suddenly flashed with blue light before turning into a barrier that seemed to be crystalline in nature.
The arcs of silver lightning and the immense power of the giant bird"s talons were all completely nullified without being able to damage the barrier in the slightest.
Wu Qi heaved a long sigh of relief upon seeing this, and a faint smile appeared on his face.
However, before he had a chance to do anything else, a sharp cry suddenly rang out from outside the light barrier, following which the azure bird"s beak transformed into streaks of azure light that came cras.h.i.+ng down in a flash.
Three resounding booms rang out from the same spot on the light barrier, followed by a crisp crack, and the crystalline light barrier was shattered into specks of blue light from the point where the bird had pecked it.
"Argh!"
Wu Qi was stunned to see this, and he hurriedly waved both of his arms upward in unison.
Countless black claw projections were sent hurtling through the air, creating a net of claw projections that s.h.i.+elded it from above.
However, the ma.s.sive azure bird merely pecked down with its beak again, and another streak of azure light disappeared into the claw projections in a flash.
All of a sudden, silver lighting erupted in a frenzy, and the net of claw projections was torn apart with ease, following which the streak of azure light abruptly vanished like an illusion.
Wu Qi shuddered as his flailing arms fell still, and he looked down to discover that a gaping hole hand been punctured into his chest, within which silver light was flas.h.i.+ng incessantly.
An expression of incredulity and horror appeared on his face, yet before he even had a chance to cry out, arcs of silver lightning erupted from the puncture wound on his chest, completely inundating his body in a flash.
Loud thunderclaps rang out for a long while before finally ceasing, and at this point, Wu Qi"s body and soul had both been completely destroyed.
The only thing that remained was that strange triangular copper mirror.
The ma.s.sive azure bird"s body abruptly shrank as it reverted back to its human form amid a flash of spiritual light.
After casting his gaze toward the copper mirror, Han Li raised a hand, and a burst of suction force erupted as he drew the treasure into his grasp.
He took a cursory glance at the treasure, but was unable to glean much from such a rushed inspection.
However, he was quite interested in this mirror. It was able to combine the magic powers of multiple beings and escape into s.p.a.ce of its own accord, so it was clearly no ordinary treasure.
Han Li waved a hand through the air, and the mirror abruptly disappeared amid a flash of yellow light.
It appeared it had been worth expending some magic power to slay these devilish beasts.
With that in mind, Han Li didn"t remain here for any longer as he flew deeper into the sea of mist as a streak of azure light.
Around an hour later, a gust of black devilish winds surged forth from afar.
The devilish winds then vanished right before the sea of mist to reveal a group of five devilish beasts.
The five-colored little beast cast its gaze toward the sea of mist, and said, "This is where the three of them disappeared."
Wary expressions also flashed through the eyes of the other four beasts upon hearing this.
"How could the three of them have disappeared one after another in such a short span of time? Could it be that they encountered some other difficulties along the way?" the snake-headed wolf beast speculated.
"I"m not too sure about that, but in any case, we have to focus and be more cautious from here onward," the small beast replied in an implacable voice with a shake of its head.
"Yes!"
The other four devilish beasts all lowered their heads in a respectful manner.
Immediately thereafter, the gust of devilish winds was swept up once again as all five beasts traveled into the sea of mist.
A few minutes, later, all five devilish beasts reappeared at the location where Han Li had slain Wu Qi, and they were inspecting their surroundings with bewilderment in their eyes.
One of the devilish beasts, which bore a strong resemblance to a duck with a single white horn on its head, abruptly flew downward as a streak of white light, vanis.h.i.+ng from view in the blink of an eye.
This naturally drew the attention of the other devilish beasts, and all of them exchanged glances with one another.
Moments later, the devilish Qi down below surged, and the duck-like creature reappeared.
It had returned holding fist-sized fragments of bull horns in both of its webbed feet.
"These are fragments of the spirit horns on Master Wu Qi"s head! How could they have been shattered? Could it be that they really have perished?" a tiger-like devilish beast murmured with a stunned expression on its face.
"It looks like the three of them really have been killed. Are we really chasing after such a powerful target?" the small five-colored beast mused as its eyes narrowed.
"What do we do next? That outsider"s completely disappeared, and there"s no way we"ll be able to track him down," the snake-headed wolf said with a dark expression.
"Hmph, there"s no way we"d continue this chase even if we could track him down. If he could kill Master Wu Qi and the others, then we"ll be no match for him, either. Let"s go back the way we came," the five-colored beast immediately decided.
"But that"s not going to end well for us, either; Master will definitely be very displeased," another devilish beast countered in a wary voice.