Chapter 439: Pushed to the Limits
Han Li gave a cold harrumph upon seeing this, and he sped directly toward the azure coiled dragon, leaving a string of afterimages in his wake.
His Heavy Water True Axis was revolving rapidly over the palm of his hand as it swept toward Xiong Shan, who let loose a thunderous roar as a burst of dard red swordlight erupted out of his suit of black armor, instantly destroying the azure coiled dragon around him.
He then raised an arm and swung his longsword heavily down onto the Heavy Water True Axis, and a sharp clang rang out as the azure dragon sword array reverted back into 72 Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords that were scattered in all directions, while Xiong Shan flew back over 1,000 feet before steadying himself.
"Are you trying to compete with me to see who has more swords?" he scoffed with a mocking sneer.
As soon as his voice trailed off, he tossed the longsword in his hand forward, then made a peculiar hand seal and chanted an incantation before sweeping his sleeves through the air.
All of the dark red patterns on his suit of black armor lit up once again, and an antiquated rune appeared on his breastplate.
As soon as that rune emerged, a vast and primordial aura instantly began to emanate out of Xiong Shan's body.
A sense of foreboding welled up in Han Li's heart upon seeing this, and he hurriedly contacted Daoist Xie with his spiritual sense, telling it to prepare to intervene when necessary.
All of a sudden, the entire sky had become deathly silent, and even the sound of the wind had been stifled.
However, a burst of metallic screeching then suddenly rang out, breaking the silence in a very abrupt and disruptive fashion.
Han Li looked down to find that all of the swords on the meadow down below had begun moving again, and every single sword was enveloped in a layer of dark red swordlight, coming together to form what resembled a giant primordial beast that was only just beginning to awaken.
"Let's see you deal with all these swords at once!" Xiong Shan roared with a furious expression, and all of the swords instantly surged through the air at his behest like a swarm of all-encompassing locusts.
Han Li's expression instantly changed slightly upon seeing this. Such a vast barrage of swords coupled with such formidable swordlight was a combination that was clearly too powerful for either his Mantra Treasured Axis or Heavy Water True Axis to oppose.
With that in mind, the only feasible course of action for him was to run.
His sole objective for coming here was just to recover his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords, and now that he objective had been achieved, there was no point in continuing this battle.
Xiong Shan was most definitely going to become a sworn enemy of his after this encounter, but that was something for him to worry about another time.
After making up his mind, Han Li immediately withdrew all of his treasures before making a hand seal, and a golden lightning array quickly took shape around him.
In order to conjure up the lightning array as quickly as possible, he had directly used his Divine Devilbane Lightning rather than drawing upon the power of the Lightning Bird, but even so, he was still too slow.
A streak of dark red swordlight came slashing down from above, and the golden lightning array had only just taken shape before it was destroyed.
Immediately thereafter, Han Li was instantly inundated by countless flying swords of all types of descriptions.
His expression changed slightly upon seeing this, but he remained calm and composed as a streak of silver light flew out of his sleeve, transforming into a silver bell that rose up into the air above him while swaying incessantly from side to side.
A series of dense silver halos spread through the air in all directions, proliferating outward to encompass an area that was several hundred feet in size.
At the same time, he opened his mouth to release the Seven Bright Star Rings, which connected together with one another in a flash to form an even larger ring above his head.
Radiant starlight erupted out of the Seven Bright Star Rings, forming a starlight barrier with countless star designs flashing on its surface, protecting him alongside the waves of silver ripples.
He had only just managed to summon these two treasures when the torrential wave of swords was already upon him, and in the blink of an eye, he was enveloped by swords from all directions.
The silver bell was chiming incessantly, yet the silver ripples that it was releasing continued to be worn down little by little, reducing the size of the safe area around Han Li.
The starlight barrier released by the Seven Bright Star Rings was also screeching incessantly as one speck of starlight was snuffed out after another.
Han Li's brows were tightly furrowed as he swept both sleeves through the air, and his Heavy Water True Axis and Mantra Treasured Axis emerged on either side of him in unison.
He then made a hand seal before thrusting a palm into his Heavy Water True Axis, and the black light on its surface shuddered while a vast torrent of heavy water erupted out of its Water Dao Runes, forming a black water dragon that surged into the wave of countless swords.
The heavy water dragon was enormous, and it resembled a vast river flowing through the sky, quickly blasting an opening into the vast expanse of swords. Han Li immediately flew toward that opening, while Xiong Shan looked on with a cold sneer on his face.
"What's the point? Your struggles are futile!"
Immediately thereafter, he wiped a hand over his own face, and the palm of his hand was instantly stained red.
There was a price that had to be paid for forcibly drawing upon the power of the metal scripture, and he was already beginning to bleed out of all of his orifices, but in his eyes, it would all be worth it if he could kill Han Li and recover those 72 swords.
All of a sudden, Xiong Shan let loose a thunderous roar, and all of the swords on either side of the opening that Han Li had created instantly converged at his behest, closing in around Han Li like a pair of impregnable walls.
The dark red light on the two walls of swords was becoming denser and denser, and Han Li wasn't even able to fly 1,000 feet before the sword array up ahead had already come together again, and the heavy water dragon was also destroyed under the immense pressure, disintegrating into droplets of heavy water that flowed back into the Heavy Water True Axis.
This was an even more dire situation than before, and his silver bell and Seven Bright Star Rings weren't going to be able to afford him much more protection.
It wasn't going to be long before these two treasures would also crumble under the pressure.
A string of faint cracks rang out from above Han Li's head, and a layer of hairline cracks had already appeared on the starlight barrier above, clearly indicating that it wasn't going to be able to hold itself together for much longer.
Han Li made a beckoning motion upon seeing this, and the starry light barrier faded, while the Seven Bright Star Rings flew back to him.
At the same time, the silver bell also shuddered slightly before circling around in mid-air and flying back to him as well.
In the next instant, purplish-golden light erupted out of his entire body alongside a layer of purplish-golden scales, and two additional sets of heads and arms emerged from his body.
Immediately thereafter, Han Li drew his Heavy Water True Axis back to himself, grabbing onto it with one hand like a shield while also clasping each of his other five hands around an Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword.
He was also channeling the Xuanwu bloodline that he hadn't used in a very long time, forming a suit of dark green armor with antiquated runes all over its surface to protect his midsection.
Han Li's physical prowess had always been his forte, and in his current form, his physical constitution was no less resilient than many defensive spirit treasures.
His Mantra Treasured Axis flew back into his body, then immediately began to spin in reverse, and instead of continuing to adopt passive defense, Han Li went on the attack, flying straight into the torrent of swords.
He was moving as fast as lightning, traversing through the sea of swords while leaving a string of blurry afterimages in his wake, and he was constantly swinging his five Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords with tremendous power, releasing formidable bolts of golden lightning with every single swing to scatter the nearby flying swords.
Despite the vast number of swords in the array, it was unable to strike Han Li down.
However, Han Li knew that he wouldn't be able to keep this up for long. Maintaining this form over any extended period of time was simply far too taxing, and the instant that he ran out of immortal spiritual power would be the instant that spelled his demise.
He wasn't flying headfirst into the oncoming torrent of swords as he had lost all sense of rationality and was charging forward out of desperation. Instead, he had done this to buy Daoist Xie some time to recover.
Back when he was conjuring up the lightning teleportation array earlier, he had already tried to call upon Daoist Xie to buy him some time, only to discover that Daoist Xie's puppet body was still recovering from the attack that it had unleashed to vanquish that copper puppet, thereby rendering it unable to help.
Around 15 minutes later, Han Li was clearly beginning to slow down. The suit of azure armor around his body was already riddled with sword marks, and his six arms were also lined with gashes.
Even with his incredibly formidable physical body, it was clear that he was nearing his limits.
"Are you still not ready, Brother Xie?" Han Li yelled internally in an urgent manner.
"I'm going to need a few more minutes," Daoist Xie replied through their spiritual connection.
Han Li's heart sank slightly upon hearing this, but in this situation, all he could do was grit his teeth and persevere.
However, Xiong Shan wasn't willing to drag this out any longer, not because he had seen through Han Li's intentions, but instead because he was also not going to be able to last much longer.
At this point, blood was practically gushing out of his orifices, and he was beginning to feel a little faint from the blood loss.
He shook his head vigorously to clear the foggy sensation in his head, and his facial features became slightly twisted as he roared, "Die!"
As soon as his voice trailed off, he launched himself forward as a streak of crimson light, fusing as one with his bonded flying sword to transform into a giant streak of crimson swordlight that hurtled directly toward Han Li at an astonishing speed.
The streak of crimson swordlight was extraordinarily fast, and all of the swords in its path quickly parted, forming a passageway that led straight to Han Li.
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