Chapter 263: Testing Out the Mantra Treasured Axis
A resounding boom rang out as the nine serpentine heads struck the azure light barrier in unison before being repelled, while the light barrier remained completely unmoved.
Han Li made a hand seal, and all of the streak of azure swordlight instantly turned their tips downward in a uniform manner, and a menacing aura of killing intent began to spread through the air.
Looking at the vast sword array that Han Li had conjured up, Hu Zhen and other disciples felt as if their All-encompassing Sword Array had been nothing more than a ragtag bunch of bandits compared with a formidable regular army.
All of the streaks of swordlight plummeted out of the heavens at Han Li's behest with glowing azure tails behind them, making it appear as if a spectacular storm of shooting stars were descending from above.
The nine serpentine heads had already retreated back into the dense mist, sensing the danger that was afoot.
However, the streaks of swordlight continued to pursue them, flying into the mist as well.
A string of earth-shattering booms rang out as several floating mountains were destroyed by the storm of swordlight, and there were naturally countless white ghosts that fell to the formidable barrage as well.
Moments later, a string of seven or eight agonized roars rang out from deep within the mist, and a cold smile appeared on Han Li's face as he descended toward the mist himself.
He had only just descended into the mist when his brows furrowed ever so slightly. As it turned out, this mist was capable of keeping out spiritual sense.
Up above, all of the disciples were feeling extremely reassured at the sight of Han Li descending gracefully into the mist, and Luo Tang couldn't help but praise, "Elder Li truly is a formidable sword immortal..."
For some reason, Hu Zhen was suddenly reminded of a rumor that had been spreading in the sect for many years.
Apparently, there had always been a mighty sword immortal who referred to themself as the "the number one sword cultivator of Heavenly South" hiding in the Blaze Dragon Dao.
However, this thought only flashed through his mind for a moment. After all, it was a completely unsubstantiated rumor, and most of the people in the sect regarded it as a tall tale as none of the immortals in the sect even had any idea of where this Heavenly South was.
Inside the dense mist, Han Li's eyes were flashing with blue light as he sped downward, quickly descending several hundred kilometers. There were countless massive chunks of rocks hovering in the air around him, all of which were mountains that had been destroyed by the storm of swordlight he had just unleashed.
The canyon was far deeper than he anticipated, and even after descending for another several hundred kilometers, he still wasn't able to see the bottom.
The surrounding area was extremely dim, and the mist was incredibly dense, severely limiting his spiritual sense so that he was only able to detect things in a radius of around 10,000 feet.
If it weren't for his Brightsight Spirit Eyes, he wouldn't have been able to see anything.
Looking at all of the massive blurry shadows around him, he realized that there were massive mountains floating in the mist as well. In fact, there seemed to have been even more mountains in the misty canyon than above it.
Even though the nearby mountains were completely enshrouded in mist, he could still see countless shadows scurrying over them, but he wasn't sure if those shadowy figures were the remaining white ghosts.
He continued to plunge downward, getting closer and closer to his flying swords, and finally, after passing by yet another huge mountain, he spotted a glimmer of azure light deep within the mist.
The nine azure flying swords were enshrouded within a massive azure sword projection, which had been plunged into a massive black mountain.
Before Han Li had a chance to get close, a low roar suddenly rang out, and Han Li took a closer look to find that rippling black light was being reflected from all of the azure flying swords.
Thanks to the azure light radiating from the swords, he was able to see that an enormous serpentine body had wound itself around the entire mountain, and the nine giant serpentine heads were all pressed against the ground in a submissive fashion with a flying sword protruding out of each of them.
Only then did Han Li discover that what he had been hunting was a nine-headed serpent, rather than nine individual serpents.
At this moment, all of the heads of the giant serpent had already been pierced by swords, and the light in all of its eyes had already faded with the exception of one pair of eyes, which were still giving off a faint golden glow, but it didn't appear as if it was going to last much longer, either.
Han Li made a beckoning motion with one hand, and the nine flying sword plunged into the serpentine heads instantly flew back, then combined into a single azure longsword in mid-air before returning to his side.
He grabbed onto the hilt of the sword as he descended in front of the serpentine head that still held some signs of life, and he peered into its eyes.
All of a sudden, Han Li's brows furrowed slightly as he used the serpentine head as a launchpad to send himself flying back in retreat.
In the next instant, the serpentine head exploded violently, and a black shadow sprang out from within, closing in on Han Li at an incredible speed.
Han Li focused his gaze on the approaching assailant to find that it was a young man clad in a suit of black scale armor.
The young man had a pale face and a pair of extremely thin and long eyes that almost extended into the hair on his temples. He had a pair of pronounced cheekbones and only four sharp fangs in his mouth, nestled between which was a bright red forked tongue. Furthermore, there were four fist-sized fleshy lumps on each of his shoulders, giving it the appearance of a hideous demon beast that hadn't fully manifested a human form yet.
The creature was hurtling through the mist at an incredible speed, holding a white bone spike that it was driving directly toward Han Li's chest.
Han Li lashed out with his longsword at the white bone spike, and right as the two weapons were about to clash, the serpentine man suddenly sprang to the side, following which its neck elongated to over 10 times its original length, and it opened its mouth with the intention of sinking its fangs into Han Li's neck.
A crisp clang rang out as the white bone spike was shattered by Han Li's sword, but at the same time, the serpentine demon's fangs had also reached Han Li's throat.
Right as the creature was about to sink its fangs into Han Li's neck, Han Li's Mantra Treasured Axis suddenly appeared behind him amid a flash of golden light.
There were 24 semi-transparent Time Dao Runes glowing on the axis, and it was releasing a burst of extremely pronounced law fluctuations that instanty encompassed the entire surrounding area in a radius of 100 feet.
All of a sudden, everything in the surrounding area seemed to have fallen completely still, and even the dense mist seemed to have congealed.
A horrified look appeared in the serpentine demon's eyes. It didn't feel as if it were being bound in any way, but somehow, its movements had become extremely slow, and its fangs were inching toward Han Li's neck at an agonizingly slow rate. It could only watch helplessly as Han Li casually moved back to avoid the attack.
"Not bad," Han Li remarked to himself with a pleased smile, then closed a hand around the serpentine demon's neck while raising his other hand to deal the killing blow.
He had intentionally allowed the serpentine demon to get close to him as he wanted to test out the power of his Mantra Treasured Axis. Otherwise, if he had gone all-out from the beginning, the serpentine demon would've already been long dead.
A sound akin to a watermelon being smashed open rang out, and it was also significantly elongated.
Han Li pulled a black nascent soul that was still yet to be fully formed out of the serpentine demon's broken head, then crushed it in between his hands.
After that, the Mantra Treasured Axis behind him slowly fused back into his body amid a flash of golden light.
Only then did everything in the surrounding area return to normal. The dense mist began to flow at the same speed as before, and the serpentine demon's body also began to fall, but it was prevented from doing so as Han Li's hand was still locked around its neck.
"Looks like the 24 Time Dao Runes haven't affected the axis's effective range, but its slowing effect has become far more potent. I'd say it's currently able to slow things down to less than a tenth of their original speed," Han Li murmured to himself.
It had taken him a great deal of effort to open the twelfth acupoint, and it had taken as much time to open this single acupoint as it had taken him to open the 11 previous ones combined, and that that was only after he had taken a copious amount of precious pills to enhance his cultivation. Otherwise, it would've definitely taken at least 100 times the amount of time to achieve the same outcome.
Now that he had reached the mid-True Immortal Stage and mastered the first level of the Mantra Axis Scripture, he could finally begin trying to master the laws of time.
While these thoughts were running through his mind, Han Li made a beckoning motion to draw the serpentine demon's body to his side, then pulled a slightly rank and odorous dark golden bead out of its chest before stowing it away.
After that, he casually tossed the serpentine demon's body into the canyon, and it didn't take long before the sound of a fight began to ring out.
It seemed that there were even more living creatures lurking deeper in the canyon, and they were fighting over the serpentine demon's body.
Han Li peered into the depths of the canyon for a short while before withdrawing his gaze and making his way to the mountain that the nine-headed serpent was still coiled around. The carcass of the nine-headed serpent had already become dry and shriveled, transforming into a massive nine-headed slough.
By Han Li's estimates, the serpentine demon was already close to the early-True Immortal Stage, but for some reason, it had only recently begun to shed its skin and adopt a human form. In order to accomplish this, it had to devour a massive number of white ghosts for sustenance, and it had even come out of the canyon to hunt for Blaze Dragon Dao disciples.
After being wounded by Han Li's Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords, it had no choice but to forcibly adopt a human form, following which it was slain.
With a sweep of Han Li's sleeve, the slough was drawn into his storage bracelet. The slough was extremely sturdy and had some medicinal properties, so it was going to be very useful for pill refinement or to be used as a material for a suit of armor.
With the slough removed, the floating mountain down below was revealed, and patches of blue light appeared on its surface.
Han Li flew in for a closer look, and he discovered that there were several dozen crystalline blue plants growing on the mountain. They were very similar in appearance to orchids, except their leaves and petals were glittering and translucent.
However, they weren't giving off any pronounced spiritual power fluctuations, and it seemed that they were only ordinary plants.
Right at this moment, the leaves of these glowing blue plants began to vibrate in unison, producing an extremely faint buzzing sound that was quickly growing louder and louder.
Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this, and he suddenly recalled that each time the mist rose up from the canyon, it would always be accompanied by this strange sound.
After a brief moment of contemplation, he collected all of the blue spirit plants from the mountain, and after checking through the canyon briefly to ensure that there were no other spirit plants of the same type around, he turned and began flying back up through the mist.
However, right as he was about to fly out of the mist, he suddenly stopped in his tracks, then began flying toward the floating mountains that had been destroyed.
These mountains were originally outside of the mist with many spirit medicines growing on them, and now that they had been swallowed up by the mist, the spirit medicines on them would've gone to waste if he didn't collect them.
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