Chapter 297: Destined to Cross Paths
Zhong Luan let loose a low roar as the muscles on his arms bulged, mustering up even more power as he swung his long black saber down onto the Heavy Water True Axis with ferocious might.
A resounding boom rang out, and a jolt of numbness shot through Zhong Luan's arms. A burst of indescribable power surged along his saber, and he was stopped cold in his tracks as if he had hit a wall.
Immediately thereafter, bursts of tremendous water law powers surged toward him, forcing him back and threatening to send him flying.
Zhong Luan's expression immediately changed slightly as he felt the unique aura of the Heavy Water True Axis, and even though he was clearly on the back foot, he suddenly burst into laughter.
"I've been looking for you everywhere, but never did I think I would be able to find you here, Han Li! You've saved me a trip to the Ancient Cloud Continent!"
As soon as his voice trailed off, his eyes suddenly turned an inky-black color, and he opened his mouth to release a glowing black thread that vanished into his saber in a flash.
The black saber began to tremble violently as a layer of translucent black light appeared over its surface, and its weight was instantly multiplied by severalfold.
Zhong Luan let loose a thunderous roar as wisps of black mist began to slowly seep out of his body, and he pressed his saber down with both hands, managing to force back the Heavy Water True Axis.
At this point, Han Li had already emerged from the pond, and he made a beckoning motion to draw the Heavy Water True Axis back to him as he hovered in mid-air while holding his azure longsword in one hand.
He cast his gaze toward Zhong Luan as he asked in a cold voice, "How are you related to Fang Pan?"
Even though he had no idea who this person was, the fact that he was able to unleash the true power of the black saber coupled with the fact that he knew Han Li's true name indicated that he had to have been related to Fang Pan somehow.
After all, Han Li had been using false aliases this entire time in the Immortal Realm, so no one should've been aware of his true name.
The three people that had attacked him all those years ago had been killed one after another, but that person that was able to control those mysterious chains from afar, the original owner of Fang Pan's black saber, and the person who had instructed Fang Pan to come after him were still all people that he had to be wary of.
There was a very good chance that this person was the original owner of the black saber, but Han Li still didn't know how he was tied to Fang Pan.
"That junior martial brother of mine may be an incapable of fool, but I had thought that it would've at least taken a late-True Immortal cultivator to kill him, but the information that I gathered from the Ubiquitous Pavilion told me that you're only an early-True Immortal Stage Profound Immortal. I will admit, you do have some powerful tricks up your sleeve," Zhong Luan remarked as he looked at Han Li from afar.
Han Li's heart stirred slightly upon hearing this, and he said, "So you're Fang Pan's senior martial brother. Have you come to avenge him?"
"I have better things to do with my time than to avenge that idiot, but in order to take you down, he paid a heavy price to borrow this Black Emperor Immortal Slaying Blade of mine, only for you to turn around and sell it. Do you not owe me an explanation for this?" Zhong Luan asked in an unhurried voice.
"That saber of yours is indeed a rare treasure, and my intention was to return it to its original owner, and that's why I put it up for sale in the Transient Guild to see if anyone recognized it. It looks like my efforts paid off and you were reunited with your saber, but there's no need to thank me," Han Li replied.
"It sounds like I owe you a favor if you put it that way! However, the fact that my junior martial brother was so determined to kill you indicates that you must be harboring some important secrets. On top of that, I have to recover the Origin Separation Law Chains on your body for my master, so you'll have to die. Rest assured, I'll grant you a swift and painless death to repay you for returning my saber!" Zhong Luan chuckled.
As soon as his voice trailed off, the black mist that was revolving around him instantly swelled to inundate his entire body.
Immediately thereafter, a gentle breeze blew past, and the black mist was scattered to reveal nothing inside.
Han Li had already released his spiritual sense to encompass the entire surrounding area, but in the instant before the mist was scattered, he was still of the opinion that Zhong Luan had been concealed within it.
In the next instant, a cloud of black mist suddenly began to take shape in the air behind him, and before it had even fully formed, a black saber shot out from within it, piercing directly toward the back of Han Li's chest.
Han Li's Heavy Water True Axis instantly appeared behind him at his behest, and a loud clang rang out as the tip of the black saber struck the Heavy Water True Axis, grating against it with an ear-piercing screeching sound.
Zhong Luan slowly emerged within the black mist with a cold smile on his face, and the wisps of black mist around his black saber formed a series of extremely thin black needles that shot forth along the tip of the saber, piercing straight through the gaps in the Heavy Water True Axis to attack Han Li.
A layer of golden scales instantly appeared all over Han Li's body amid a flash of golden light, and a string of crisp clangs rang out as the black needles struck Han Li's golden scales before being repelled and shattering into black mist again.
Han Li immediately swung around as he slashed his longsword through the air, and with a single sweep of his sword, he was able to slice Zhong Luan's body cleanly in half.
However, Zhong Luan merely grinned at him before the two halves of his body disintegrated into a cloud of mist.
A sense of foreboding welled up in Han Li's heart upon seeing this, and he instantly flew back tens of thousands of feet to get away from the cloud of black mist.
However, before he had even drawn to a halt, he suddenly felt a cold sensation running down his back, as if there were a slippery snake slithering down his spine.
He hurriedly made a hand seal, and the protective spiritual light around his body instantly expelled the thing that was adhered to his back, revealing it to have been a small cloud of black mist that resembled a living creature.
There were countless soft feelers that were as thin as strands of human hair on its surface, and those feelers were writhing incessantly, trying to get close to him and burrow their way into his body.
Han Li reached out to conjure a glowing azure palm projection to seize control of the cloud of black mist, and he carefully inspected it to discover that it contained an extremely faint hint of law powers.
It was so faint that he was unable to determine exactly what attribute the law power was, but thankfully, he hadn't withdrawn the layer of protective golden scales over his body, and that had kept the black mist at bay.
All of a sudden, the space around the cloud of black mist began to tremble, and wisps of black mist emerged out of thin air, following which Zhong Luan's body re-emerged without any warning.
The piece of black cloth that was obscuring his face had been removed, revealing a large yellow-skinned face, and he opened his mouth to release a thread of translucent black light that shot directly toward Han Li's face at an alarming speed.
Han Li immediately slashed his longsword diagonally upward, instantly shattering the black thread into a burst of black light upon contact.
Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this, and he immediately shot back in retreat.
As soon as he did so, another black thread appeared at the spot where he had originally been standing, and it began to fly toward him again.
As expected, those black threads can also reform after being destroyed, just like those blade projections from earlier.
All of a sudden, the newly formed black thread was somehow able to connect itself to the azure longsword in his hand from afar, and it darted up along the blade of the sword before shooting into the palm of his hand.
Han Li felt a slight numb sensation in his hand, and he immediately began to inspect his own internal condition, but he didn't notice anything else amiss aside from that fleeting sensation of numbness in his hand.
However, that only made him feel even more uneasy.
Right at this moment, he detected several auras approaching from afar through his spiritual sense, but he was unable to determine whether these were allies from the Holy Puppet Sect or more enemies from the Ubiquitous Pavilion.
Han Li's brows were tightly furrowed, and after a brief moment of contemplation, he made a beckoning motion with both hands to stow his azure longsword and Heavy Water True Axis away.
Regardless of whether the people approaching the scene were from the Ubiquitous Pavilion or the Holy Puppet Sect, he was planning to leave this place.
His opponent's abilities were extremely troublesome to deal with, and he seemed to have been able to wield some type of law power related to mist. Furthermore, Han Li was unable to go all-out here, and that placed him at a severe disadvantage.
With that in mind, he made a hand seal with both hands, and arcs of silver lightning sprang out of his body, forming a huge lightning array around him in the blink of an eye.
A loud thunderclap rang out as several thick bolts of silver lightning erupted out of the center of the array, and in the next instant, Han Li vanished from the spot, leaving behind only a faint charred odor in the air.
"Interesting! I guess I can play with you for a while longer," Zhong Luan mused with a cold smile, following which his body disintegrated into a cloud of black mist once again.
……
Meanwhile, the battle on the plaza on the main island was still raging, but the commotion had already died down significantly.
Almost all of the Holy Puppet Sect's puppets had already been destroyed, while the majority of the surviving disciples were carrying injuries and had been trapped in a far smaller encirclement than before.
What was quite moving was that despite the dire nature of the situation, not a single one of the Holy Puppet Sect cultivators surrendered or fled the battlefield. Instead, all of them continued to fight on with determination in their eyes.
One reason for this was that all of the people that had chosen to remain behind in the sect had already resolved themselves to defend the sect with their lives, while the other contributing factor was that all of them had relatives that had already been evacuated from the sect.
As long as those people remained safe, they were able to fight without any qualms.
In contrast, the Ubiquitous Pavilion cultivators hadn't been able to gain much of an upper hand at all. Not only had the majority of them already perished or sustained injuries during the battle, many of them had departed in advance just like Patriarch Cold Flame, so there weren't all that many of them left on the plaza.
At this point in the battle, everything had slowed down significantly.
All of the Ubiquitous Pavilion cultivators who had managed to survive to this point were quite cunning, and they knew that a cornered beast was more dangerous than anything else, so they couldn't afford to be overly aggressive in this situation.
Instead, it was much better to maintain the status quo and slowly grind down the Holy Puppet Sect cultivators so that they could secure an easy victory later.
As a result, the Dao Warriors released by Xue Han had become the main force that was battling the remaining Holy Puppet Sect cultivators, and they were at the forefront of the encirclement.
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