Chapter 296: Intense Clash
Before long, Han Li was already back in the valley.
He looked up to find that the eight pillars of light were still standing, as was the giant vortex in the sky.
The elder with the Fang surname was also still laying beside the pond in an unconscious state, while the snow lion puppet was on guard duty by his side, and it displayed no reaction to Han Li's arrival.
After a brief moment of contemplation, Han Li descended out of the sky, yet before he landed on the ground, he felt a burst of formidable spatial fluctuation erupting out of the white vortex above the pond.
He hurriedly stopped in his tracks, then looked up to discover that the vortex had begun to revolve rapidly while radiating dazzling white light.
Immediately thereafter, a figure plummeted out of the vortex with their body riddled with wounds that were deep enough to expose bone, while their azure robes were completely drenched in blood.
He appeared to have been in just as horrific a condition as the unconscious Elder Fang, and as soon as he spotted Han Li, he immediately yelled in a frantic voice, "Save me, Fellow Daoist!"
Han Li only took a brief glance at him before turning his gaze to the vortex with tightly furrowed brows.
Another burst of white light surged within the vortex, following which a black figure emerged from within.
The black figure was holding a long black blade, and he chortled, "Why did you abandon your companion? Weren't you talking about avenging Elder Lu not long ago?"
Han Li's gaze immediately fell upon the long black saber in the black figure's hand, and he discovered that it was none other than the saber that had been previously used by Fang Pan before being sold by him in the Transient Guild.
"Oh? Looks like there's someone else here. I wasn't really satisfied yet anyway, so I'll take care of you as well," the black figure chuckled as he spotted Han Li.
Beneath the figure's black hood was a slightly yellow face with some type of metallic headgear on his forehead, and it was none other than one of the three leaders of the Ubiquitous Pavilion cultivators, Zhong Luan.
With a flick of his wrist, he slashed his black saber toward Han Li.
It was a very casual-looking swipe, but in the instant that the saber was sent sweeping through the air, all of the spirit patterns on its surface instantly lit up, following which hundreds of extremely formidable black saber projections erupted through the air, with the majority of them hurtling toward Han Li, while only a minority were aimed at the azure-robed elderly man.
The azure-robed elderly man was horrified to see this, and he injected what little remained of his immortal spiritual power into a pair of silver balls before hurling them forward, and the silver balls instantly transformed into a pair of silver puppets that situated themselves in front of him.
At the same time, a suit of already severely ravaged azure wooden armor appeared over his body amid a flash of azure light.
Han Li's brows furrowed slightly as he flipped a hand over to summon an azure longsword, then slashed it at the oncoming blade projections.
Hundreds of azure sword projections instantly erupted out of the longsword before scattering far and wide to clash against the black blade projections.
A string of metallic clangs rang out as the black blade projections clashed against the azure sword projections, all of which exploded violently into a vast expanse of black and azure light.
All of a sudden, the azure-robed elderly man yelled, "Look out, Fellow Daoist! That black blade..."
Before he had a chance to finish, a peculiar turn of events began to unfold.
The black blade projections had already disintegrated into specks of black light, but they quickly reformed into more black blade projections that continued to hurtle toward Han Li and the azure-robed elderly man, and their power hadn't been diminished in the slightest.
The two silver puppets in front of the azure-robed elderly man were wielding jointed steel whips that they lashed out at the black blade projections with, but they were no match for the oncoming blade projections, which shredded their whips before punching countless holes straight through their bodies to destroy them on the spot.
Immediately thereafter, the suit of azure armor that the elderly man was wearing also began to tremble violently in the face of the black blade projections, looking as if it could be torn apart at any moment.
This suit of azure armor was his final line of defense, and if it were to also be vanquished, then his demise would immediately follow.
In this dire situation, the nearby snow lion puppet suddenly pounced forward, landing in front of the azure-robed elderly man before swiping its front paws through the air to unleash countless claw projections.
As soon as the claw projections came into contact with the blade projections, they were immediately destroyed, but most of the blade projections were also nullified, while the snow lion puppet withstood the rest with its body.
A relieved look appeared on the azure-robed elderly man's face upon seeing this, but he then threw up a mouthful of blood before slumping to the ground.
In contrast, Han Li was far more calm and collected.
With a flick of his wrist, he swung his longsword through the air, unleashing a string of sword projections that formed an azure sword barrier around him.
The black blade projections struck the sword barrier in a relentless barrage before exploding and reforming over and over again.
Only after many cycles of this did the blade projections finally run out of spiritual power and disintegrate for good.
Up to this point, only a few seconds had passed since Zhong Luan unleashed his initial attack.
"Looks like you're not quite as useless as those idiots! Very good. Let's see how long you can last!" Zhong Luan cackled as he licked his own lips.
As soon as his voice trailed off, he closed both of his hands around the hilt of his saber, and bursts of black light began to appear over his body.
Immediately thereafter, a layer of black light appeared on the surface of the black saber alongside a series of thin golden lines, forming numerous antiquated runes that were giving off terrifying energy fluctuations.
Gusts of ferocious wind were swept up in the surrounding air as the nearby world's origin qi surged toward the black saber in a relentless wave.
With the injection of the world's origin qi, the golden lines on the black saber glowed brighter and brighter, as did the runes on its surface, which looked as if they were about to emerge from the blade itself.
Waves of black and golden light surged through the surrounding area, carrying tremendous law power fluctuation that caused the entire space to tremble and quiver.
Han Li's brows furrowed tightly with befuddlement upon seeing this.
It was the same black saber, but this man was able to unleash far more formidable power with it than he and Fang Pan had been capable of, and Han Li couldn't help but wonder if he was the saber's original owner.
Right at this moment, Zhong Luan suddenly let loose a loud roar, then spun around in mid-air, using the momentum of his pirouette to slash his saber at Han Li.
A sharp clang rang out as a black and golden saber projection that was over 10,000 feet in length came crashing down from above, devouring all of the world's origin qi in the area while giving off a burst of terrifying spiritual pressure.
A solemn look appeared in Han Li's eyes as he made a hand seal with one hand while slashing his sword diagonally upward with the other.
The spirit patterns on the longsword were glowing brightly as it released wave upon wave of surging azure light, which transformed into dozens of azure sword projections in the blink of an eye.
Immediately thereafter, all of the sword projections combined as one to form a huge azure sword projection that was over 1,000 feet in length before hurtling toward the giant saber projection.
The sword projection was threatening to tear the very space apart, and an earth-shattering boom rang out in the sky as the pair of enormous blade projections clashed against one another.
Devastating tremors were sent sweeping across the entire main island of the Holy Puppet Sect, to the point that all of the people battling on the plaza were stopped cold in their tracks for a moment before the battle resumed.
Even Yun Ni and the Ubiquitous Pavilion Golden Immortals detected the disturbance taking place on the main island, but the battle that they were engaged in was too perilous for them to get distracted, so none of them released their spiritual sense to check what was happening.
"Looks like the Holy Puppet Sect still has some more tricks up its sleeve, but I wonder if they'll be able to contain a madman like Zhong Luan," Xue Han chuckled with a relaxed expression.
Beside the pond in the valley, the azure-robed elderly man was struck by a burst of tremendous shockwaves resulting from the clash, and he threw up a large mouthful of blood before finally falling unconscious.
In the instant before he lost consciousness, his heart was filled with immense regret.
After witnessing Han Li's power, it occurred to him that if he had chosen to bring Han Li into the restricted area with him instead of diverting him away, perhaps the other two elders wouldn't have died, and the immortal puppet wouldn't have been taken.
However, there was no point in crying over spilled milk, and at this point, he could only pray that Han Li would be able to overcome his opponent.
An earth-shattering boom rang out as Han Li was sent plummeting out of the sky before crashing into the pond in the valley.
Dozens of enormous waves instantly erupted out of the pond, while a massive crater was smashed into its bottom, causing the water level in the pond to drop rapidly, revealing large patches of the pond bed as a result.
As for Zhong Luan, he was also sent flying back by the clash and involuntarily rose up much higher into the sky.
A grim look appeared on his face, and after steadying himself, he immediately shot back toward the pond in the valley at an astonishing speed while slashing his saber downward once again.
Right at this moment, a burst of loud buzzing suddenly rang out from within the pond, immediately following a black wheel treasure emerged from the water while revolving rapidly.
The Time Dao Rune on the surface of the wheel was glowing brightly as it rose up with half of the water in the pond, ascending toward Zhong Luan with incredible power.
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