A cold glint s.h.i.+ned from Han Li’s eyes, and he suddenly shook his hands, shooting a bolt of lightning towards the golden net. Countless arcs of lightning began to spark from the net upon impact, causing it to instantly constrict. Then, each of the black threads collided against the golden lightning.
With a huge flash, the golden lightning turned the black threads of Qi into ash, each burned thread accompanied by a wretched and tragic scream.
Soon, the remaining black threads returned towards the center of the golden net, condensing into a glossy black demon Nascent. Its face was filled to the brim with fear. It opened its mouth and spat out clouds and clouds pitch-black Yin Qi. They quickly wrapped around it in layers in an attempt to prevent the Divine Devilbane Lightning from approaching any closer to its body.
Han Li’s face was expressionless apart from the sneer that momentarily appeared. From his hand, he shot a bolt of lightning — so dazzling and bright it was difficult to see — and enveloped the demon Nascent. Yet another miserable shriek soon followed and the rolls of thunder quieted down, leaving only silence for a short while.
When Han Li saw this, he inwardly sighed with relief before retracting his remaining lightning and taking a pitch-black storage pouch into his hand. He then raised his head and expressionlessly swept his gaze past the spell warriors up above. Then with azure light s.h.i.+ning from his body, he flew back down towards the Heavenly South cultivators.
After an exchange of a few brief words, Han Li exterminated his opponent with Divine Devilbane Lightning with unbelievable speed.
Not only were the Heavenly South cultivators dumbfounded, the Moulan spell warriors completely shaken with disbelief.
While the Heavenly South cultivators didn’t know about the finer details of the black-robed figure, they had a general idea. These mysterious cultivators should’ve arrived at the Moulan Plains from a great continent. Although they didn’t know why these cultivators suddenly appeared at the Moulan Plains, they reached some sort of agreement with the three Divine Sages of the Moulan Tribes. And it was clear to see that these cultivator had abilities far beyond cultivators of a similar grade — before the true war even started, two Heavenly South Nascent Soul cultivators had perished one after another, earning the confidence of these two Moulan Sages.
As for why the black-robed figure partic.i.p.ated in the second battle, it was because he felt that there were too many Nascent Soul stage cultivators that were guarding the grand formation, and he felt it best to first exterminate one while he could. But who could’ve known that this ordinary appearing youth would actually be able to kill the black-robed figure with ease. Not even his Nascent Soul was able to escape, much to the shock of the two spell warriors.
When the shriveled spell warrior and Ku Yao regained clarity of mind, he glanced at each other with terror and hesitated for a moment — not knowing whether or not they should continue the battle, or deal with the uproar of the spell warriors behind them. But at that moment, they suddenly heard a faint, nearly inaudible voice speak in their ear.
“Retreat for now. Our momentum has already died. Let us further consider our plans tomorrow. When that time comes, that formation may already be... hehe! While Heavenweep’s death will be inconvenient, I’ll personally explain the matter to the Divine Sages.” The voice sounded neutral in tone, but the words carried an unmistakable air of command.
The shriveled man the Ku Yao were stunned for a moment upon hearing the voice, but they soon complied with their orders and began to give commands to the spell warriors under their command. With some disturbance, the army made an about face and slowly retreated.
The two sages naturally brought up the rear, gloomily watching the cultivators as they retreated. They glared at in particularly Han Li before flying off.
Gu Shuangpu watched the spell warrior army retreat and doubtfully asked,“Should we pursue them?”
“Leave them be.” The bald man shook his his head and said, “Although they’re retreating, they still haven’t been defeated. If we were to pursue them, we could find ourselves surrounded. Also, we have to guard the grand formation. It’ll be best if we nurtured our strength and bide our time. Our Yellow Dragon Mountains’ Thousand Soundform Formation isn’t easily broken. If the Moulan wish to seize it, they will need to double their forces at the very lease.”
After that was said, the bald man couldn’t help but turn his eyes towards Han Li. Due to the surprise of Han Li managing to kill the black-robed cultivator, the cultivators found themselves in an awkward silence, all at a loss of what to say.
As of current, Han Li was wearing a faint smile as he fiddled with a black storage pouch in his hands.
Originally, Han Li’s faint smiles hardly inspired any feelings in these cultivators. But after he managed to kill a Nascent Soul cultivator, Han Li’s smile now gave them a profound and odd feeling — not to mention that their original contempt for him was now completely gone.
The bald man smiled and and said, “Fellow Daoist Han, congratulations on slaying a high grade spell warrior. I will be certain to inform the Nine Nations Alliance of your achievement. They will most definitely reward you greatly.”
Old Man Ma and Gu Shuangpu also congratulated him with a smile. However, Han Li’s expression still remained as subtle as before, despite the faint admiration and respect their tones held.
As if ignoring this, Han Li simply exchanged a few courteous pleasantries with them as his gaze unconsciously wandered to one of them in particular. When n.o.body noticed this, he couldn’t help but wear an indistinct smirk.
Once the spell warrior army disappeared from sight, the bald man opened a pa.s.sageway into the mist down below and the party hastily disappeared from sight, the mist closing its entrance soon afterwards. Now, the surroundings of the Yellow Dragon Mountains grew peaceful once more.
When Han Li and company returned to the hall, they had a quick discussion about the battles that occurred today before reach returning to their own residences to rest. Old Man Ma in particular not only had his treasure destroyed, but his vitality had greatly suffered as well. He was in dire need to rest and recover. Thus in the blink of an eye, only the bald man remained in the hall.
He sat in the main building and lowered his head, his mind lost in thought. A short moment later, he suddenly raised his eyebrow and a strange expression appeared on his face. He softly shouted, “Who is there? Come out.”
Then with a flash of light, another person appeared in the hall. “Hehe! Brother Lu’s abilities are truly profound. Just as I entered, he was able to perceive me. It is not wonder why the Nine Nations Alliance had you guard the formation alone.”
The bald man frowned and wore a strange expression. “You? Why aren’t you resting? Why did you come back stealthily?”
“It’s nothing. I merely discovered a secret. I felt that I should have a discussion with you.”
The bald man glanced at him with an appraising look and puzzlingly asked, “Secret? What secret?”
“The Drifting Cloud Sect’s Fellow Daoist Han is likely a spy for the Moulan!” He spoke without the slightest hesitation and slowly walked inside.
The bald man involuntarily laughed and his face was filled with disbelief. “Spy? Could it be that your mind if unclear? Fellow Daoist Han had just slain a Nascent Soul spell warrior today. The thought is ridiculous.”
“I know that Brother Lu might not believe it, but I have evidence. You’ll know that I’m speaking the truth.” This person sighed and bitterly smiled before summoning a jade slip into his hand with a flash of light. He then stepped forward and neared the large man.
The bald man wore an expression of astonishment and stood up to face him. He then calmly took the jade slip into his hand.
At the same time the bald man took the jade slip into his hand, his expression vastly changed and a fierce expression appeared in his eyes. In a flash of green light, the jade slip suddenly turned into a small emerald-green snake. It bit the bald man’s wrist with the speed of lightning.
With an expression of shock, he couldn’t even scream before he motionlessly collapsed onto the floor, his complexion turned a black-violet.
Joy flickered from the man’s face and he muttered, “The Twintailed Jade Serpent is truly as poisonous as its reputation. It is it no less inferior than the Ten Supremes Poison. After the bite, it robs even a Nascent Soul the power to escape. If the snake was able to fly, it’d be an incredibly powerful method of killing other cultivators.” He then took a step forward the examine the corpse that was slowly melting.
The small dark-green snake released its fangs from the corpse and slid away, revealing the two slim tails on its back. Its two tails struck the earth and then flung itself into the palm of its master. It coiled around itself and hissed with its purple-black tongue, its eyes glowing with a eerie dark-green light.
At that moment, this person lightly waved his hand and took the corpse’s storage pouch into his hand. He then excitedly searched the storage pouch with his spiritual sense as if he were looking for something in particular.