Arcs of golden lightning violently leaped about ten meters around Han Li, brilliantly setting him ablaze with golden light as if he were a lightning god that had descended upon the world. The cloud of devilish Qi nearby was cleanly wiped away to leave an empty area over thirty meters wide, revealing the azure-robed old man that was previously hidden within it.
"Ah!" The old man couldn't help but shout as he realized that things had taken a turn for the worse. His body promptly flashed with light as he hurriedly streaked away.
But since Han Li had taken the risk of approaching the old man with lightning movement, he wasn't about to allow him to easily leave. Han Li turned into a blur as he left a string of afterimages in his wake and raised his hands into the air, releasing a ball of purple flame and a streak of golden light.
When the old man saw Han Li move so quickly, he was greatly frightened. Unable to do anything else, he hastily erected a wall of azure light from his shield and the purple fireball burst as it struck the wall of light.
With a crackle, the purple flames rapidly spread across the wall of light, quickly covering the wall in a layer of thick ice and sealing the old man's azure shield within it.
The old man couldn't help but shout in terror, "What is this tyrannical technique?"
Then, the golden streak of light arrived.
With a crack, the golden streak disappeared the instant it struck the wall, only for it to suddenly arrive in front of the old man.
The old man quivered and unconsciously attempted to lean to the side with all his might. Suddenly, he felt a shock run through his shoulder, followed by unbearable pain.
He quickly glanced at his side in terror and found that his arm had been torn off by the golden streak. If he hadn't reacted as he did, he feared it would've been his head instead.
After slicing off the old man's arm, the golden streak circled in the air before shooting into the sky, revealing its true form as an inch-long golden sword.
The old man then turned around and saw a tiny hole in the wall of ice. He found it hard to believe that the golden sword was sharp enough to pierce through both the wall of light and the ice covering it without the slightest resistance.
The old man let out a gasp of surprise from what had happened and his heart was filled with furious alarm.
He quickly slapped a talisman onto his body and sealed the wound from his missing arm. Then he gritted his teeth as he glared at Han Li, wanting to repay him a thousand fold for cutting off his limb. But just as the old man looked at him, Han Li suddenly disappeared without a trace.
"Not good!" When the old man saw this, he felt his heart drop into an icy abyss. He looked around, only to catch no trace of Han Li, and quickly reached for his storage pouch to release a protective treasure.
However, he was too late.
The old man heard a nearly indiscernible sound from behind him and the light protecting his body was completely broken, followed by a palm covered in purple flames bursting out of his chest. Purple ice condensed around his body and completely sealed him within.
The old man felt sharp pain stab through his body, but he wasn't able to move in the slightest, filling him with complete terror.
Afterwards, Han Li withdrew his hand from the old man's body and enveloped the frozen body in a net of lightning with a casual flick of his sleeve. The lightning ruptured and inch-large chunks of purple ice rained from the sky. Then, a Nascent Soul wrapped in black light suddenly flew out from the scattered ice, attempting to flusteredly escape with instant movement.
However, Han Li was already prepared for this and spat out a bolt of lightning. In an instant, the Nascent Soul was trapped by a net of lightning before it could activate its instant movement.
Han Li smirked with icy intent and formed an incantation gesture with both his hands, ordering the golden net to contract and rupture. Then in the resulting flashes of golden light, the old man's Nascent Soul had turned into nothing.
The old man had launched a sneak attack on Han Li with the scorching halberd, but Han Li responded ruthlessly and exterminated him in only a moment, leaving no opportunity for the other two to rescue him.
When the others saw how Han Li easily deal with a fellow mid-Nascent Soul grade cultivator, they blanched with shock.
Master Wild Sand sent out a few voice transmissions after seeing this. Then, he and Lord Heavenwind withdrew their magic treasures and completely abandoned the battle. After entering the cloud of sand behind them, they disappeared without a trace.
King Glorious Blaze was at a large disadvantage due to his heavy injuries, but with the tenacity of his Heavenly Corpse Body, he was able to receive the attack of the magic treasures without the slightest injury. But when he looked in Han Li's direction, he wore an odd expression and felt ill at ease as a result.
He couldn't help but wonder whether or not he would be able to deal with a similar grade cultivator with such ease even if he were in his peak condition inside his tomb or if he would be able to cleanly deal with their Nascent Soul as well.
Be it Han Li's abilities or his use of them, they both caused King Glorious Blaze to view them with trepidation.
King Glorious Blaze thought to ask if Han Li was a late-Nascent Soul cultivator, but after taking another look at him, he reaffirmed that Han Li was only a mid-Nascent Soul cultivator. This youth possessed grand abilities that exceeded what his cultivation would suggest.
When King Glorious Blaze thought this, he felt his blood run cold. Fortunately, he had only sent his incarnations to find this person; otherwise, he might've found himself slain in the exact same manner as that azure-robed old man.
Since he wasn't able to sense his two incarnations after returning to the mountain range, he came to the conclusion that Han Li had killed them and grew even more unconsciously wary of him.
In a moment of hesitation, he thought to have a few words with Han Li when he felt an astonishing change in the sand spell formation surrounding them.
The faint waves of yellow sand had completely disappeared in the distance. Instead, nearly indiscernible grains of black sand had replaced them, similar to the ones that had earlier attacked Han Li's flying swords. The black sand wasn't as densely gathered together as the yellow sand, but they shined with an icy black light and were arranged in the sand cloud with a strange appearance.
Following the appearance of the black grains of sand, ghostly wails sounded out and the black sand rushed towards Han Li and King Glorious Blaze at their center with overbearing momentum.
King Glorious Blaze's expression trembled and he hastily called out to Han Li, "Not good! That old ghost Wild Sand released the entirety of his Soulfall Sand into the formation. Fellow Daoist, this isn't something that common magic tools can block. We'll only be able to block the sand with our own cultivation. However, his magic power will certainly be strained from controlling this much Soulfall Sand and can't keep this up for long. So long as we endure these several attacks, nothing else will come of it."
Both he and Han Li were now in the same boat, and he had no wish for such a powerful ally to encounter mishap. Although Han Li had managed to scatter the black sand the first time with his golden lightning, he wasn't sure that Han Li would be able to block an attack of this intensity.
As Han Li floated in the air, he muttered expressionlessly, "Soulfall Sand? From the dense Yin Qi the sand possessed, it seems to be a magic treasure refined with souls. It is no wonder why they possess such might."
When King Glorious Blaze saw that Han Li hadn't made the slightest move to protect himself, he found it odd, but he couldn't afford to pay any more attention to Han Li as the black sand was approaching.
He opened his mouth and spout out fist-sized balls of light grey corpse flames. The flames condensed together into a huge fireball and protected him from the incoming sand. He could only rely on the corpse flames he had cultivated for countless years to block the oncoming storm of Soulfall Sand.
Shortly after, a cloud of black sand covered him. Shining black sand and grey corpse flames flickered with light upon collision and occasionally released explosions of great intensity.
As King Glorious Blaze prepared himself, Han Li was slowly withdrawing from the center of the formation. A moment later, he found that he couldn't move any further away and slapped one of the pouches on his waist with a raised brow, releasing a black streak of light. The black streak circled in the air before landing in front of him to reveal a black monkey that was several inches tall and wore an expression of dissatisfaction.
It was the Weeping Soul Beast that Han Li had forcibly called out. It was in a poor mood from having its cultivation interrupted while it was still absorbing the corpse flames inside the vajra barrier.
But after the Weeping Soul Beast sniffed at the air and swept its gaze all around, it revealed sudden delight.
Without the need for a command from Han Li, it beat its chest and let out a low-pitch whistle. Blinding black light shined from its body and it massively grew in size, transforming into an enormous ape over thirty meters tall. The image of the ghost face could be clearly seen on its back and it moved around the Weeping Soul Beast's body as if it were alive.
Be it King Glorious Blaze who was striving his hardest to block the sand or the other two that were waiting for an opportunity in the distant cloud of sand, they were all shocked upon seeing the astonishing appearance of the Weeping Soul Beast.
Just as they wondered why Han Li had summoned this mysterious spirit beast, the huge ape snorted and released a cloud of yellow light from its nose. The cloud circled in the air and spread out, enveloping both Han Li and the ape inside of it.
The cloud of black sand eventually arrived beside them in overbearing fashion and completely surrounded them. Then, the sand immediately released a mass of dense black Qi around the cloud of yellow light.
As soon as the black Qi was released, the previously-hidden shining black grains of sand were completely revealed from the cloud of sand. When the huge ape saw this, it couldn't help but grin as it puffed out a beam of golden light from its nose.
The beam of light swept past the cloud and absorbed the grains of black sand without the slightest resistance before shooting back into the large ape's nose.
Then in the blink of an eye, beams of golden light swept past the cloud of black sand several times and completely scattered it. The cloud's Yin Qi was absorbed by the yellow cloud of light and wasn't capable of approaching Han Li in the slightest. The large quantities of black sand and Yin Qi ended up being gradually replaced with yellow light.
Hidden in the cloud of sand nearby, Master Wild Sand and Lord Heavenwind watched all of this unfold with dumbfounded shock.