907. Back to the Abode
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While Han Li was pondering about refining his swords, his expression suddenly changed, and he stopped walking. He scanned the black mist and then spoke, his voice sharp.
“Who’s hiding there? Planning an ambush?”
As he spoke, he reached out, summoning golden lightning that coalesced into a bead, orbiting around him protectively.
“You’re not a Heavenbreaker.” A voice echoed from the mist.
“Who are you? And how do you know I’m not a Heavenbreaker?” Han Li retorted, his eyes narrowed.
“Heh heh, if you were a true Heavenbreaker, even a Spirit General, let alone a Spirit Commander, you wouldn’t be so unscathed in this place.” The voice chuckled, laced with a hint of mockery.
“Hmm, you speak as if you know the Heavenbreaker race well. But are you going to keep hiding and just talk?” Han Li challenged, his patience wearing thin.
Before Han Li finished speaking, the lightning bead vanished from the air.
*Kugwang! Kureureung!*
The next moment, golden light flashed within the black mist, followed by a roar. A dark shadow leaped out from the light, revealing itself before Han Li.
The figure was a blue-faced youth with two white, curved ox horns protruding from his head. Han Li paused, carefully examining his opponent.
When he scanned the youth with his spiritual sense, he was surprised to find that he was a Void Refinement cultivator, and he emanated a familiar aura. Han Li delved into his memories and muttered in surprise.
“A Hao Beast! You’re a deceased member of the Hao Beast race! No, judging by the dense Yin energy [Yin energy is associated with darkness, cold, and the underworld] in your body, you’re a Hao Beast who has cultivated in Ghost Dao techniques?”
The ox-horned youth’s expression changed drastically upon hearing Han Li discern his background. His eyes turned fierce, and he shouted with a grim face.
“I was going to let you go since you’re just a young one. But now that you know my identity, whether you’re a Bi Ling or not, you won’t be leaving this place alive!”
The youth opened his mouth and shot out a gray Yin wind. He seemed determined to kill Han Li without hesitation.
Han Li regretted revealing the opponent’s background, but he felt relieved when the opponent reacted this way. It confirmed his suspicions.
Without Han Li doing anything, the gray aura surrounding his body expanded, and the incoming gray Yin wind split in two, passing harmlessly by him.
Seeing this, the ox-horned youth was shocked and immediately struck his head with both hands. The two curved horns silently detached and transformed into white, gleaming curved blades.
*Shwik!*
The youth, holding the curved blades in both hands, smiled confidently and pushed off the ground, rushing towards Han Li.
Realizing that the monster was trying to engage in close combat, golden light suddenly burst forth from Han Li’s body, covering his skin with golden scales, and a golden phantom with three heads and six arms appeared behind him.
The youth flinched at Han Li’s bizarre transformation but didn’t stop, charging forward and swinging the curved blades. Black light shot out from the tips of the blades, intersecting in a cross shape.
Strangely, the surrounding black mist surged in, being frantically absorbed by the black light. The two black lights grew several times larger and rushed towards Han Li.
*Paat.*
Han Li’s hands blurred, and suddenly, two golden longswords appeared in his grasp.
*Shweaek!*
He flicked his wrists, and two golden streaks shot out to meet the attack.
*Pung! Pung!*
The black light scattered like dust and disappeared as soon as it collided with the golden energy.
“This!” The youth exclaimed in surprise.
The black light he had released must have contained a considerable amount of evil or demonic energy. Otherwise, even the sharp Azure Bamboo Cloud Swords wouldn’t have neutralized the attack so easily.
‘You’re just asking for death.’ Han Li thought, his eyes glinting.
Before the youth could move, Han Li spread his five-colored wings behind him, releasing five-colored energy. A dazzling light burst forth, and the five-colored energy rose above Han Li’s body like a miniature sun.
“Hut!”
The half-demon, half-ghost ox-horned youth involuntarily squeezed his eyes shut at the intense light. He felt a sense of foreboding and turned his body, shooting backward like an arrow.
It was even faster than when he had launched his attack.
*Kkwagwang!*
At that moment, a thunderous sound erupted from within the five-colored energy, and a blue-white lightning flashed behind the youth. Han Li appeared within it, and two golden streaks, transformed from his longswords, cut through the air.
The youth seemed not to have expected such an open and fierce attack. He had no choice but to throw the curved blades behind him and form a hand seal.
Then, the ox-horned youth’s skin peeled away, revealing bones that shone like white jade. He shuddered, and the skeleton released a white protective barrier.
*Kwarung! Kwakwang!*
Two thunderous sounds rang out, and the black curved blades briefly blocked the streaks of light that had transformed from the golden longswords. However, Han Li was not surprised at all.
It would have been stranger if a weapon made by tearing apart the body of a Void Refinement-level monster didn’t have this much power. He hadn’t expected to kill the monster with just two flying swords anyway.
The Celestial Fiend Dharma Idol [A manifestation of power] that appeared behind him raised its six arms the moment the flying swords flew out, and countless fist phantoms emerged from all directions like golden lotuses.
*Peopeopeopeok!*
The fists rained down on the monster’s white protective barrier like a storm. Each fist phantom contained Han Li’s immense power, making their force considerable. The surface of the barrier rippled with white and golden light.
*Jjeong!*
Then, it finally shattered with a clear sound. All of this happened in an instant. The monster finally turned its body, widened its eyes, and was astonished.
Its flesh and blood scattered like dust, and it was observing the situation with two green light orbs instead of eyes. When the protective barrier was broken by just a few punches, it panicked and opened its mouth.
Then, pitch-black lights flew towards Han Li, and at the same time, its skull burst open, and a green bead flew rapidly into the sky from within.
The remaining skeletal body separated on the spot and coalesced into a white bone shield, quickly following behind the bead. Seeing that Han Li’s divine abilities were beyond imagination, it chose to flee instead of continuing to fight.
The ox-horned youth had trained in the Black Underworld for a long time, so he thought that if he could create some distance, he would be able to escape. But Han Li had no intention of letting the monster escape before his eyes.
A snort was heard, and a gray aura flashed, engulfing and eliminating the incoming black energies. The golden fist phantoms that had covered the sky disappeared, and the Celestial Fiend Dharma Idol behind him also stopped punching.
*Kwareureung Kwakwang!*
Instead, six thick bolts of lightning appeared on the palms of the Celestial Fiend Dharma Idol. The golden lightning transformed into six lightning spears and shot out directly. The golden spears flew towards the bone shield in the blink of an eye, attacking fiercely with their sharp tips.
*Kwareureung.*
The bone shield unexpectedly blocked three of the golden spears. But when the fourth spear attacked, it could no longer withstand it and exploded, and the remaining three spears flashed and flew towards the green bead.
*Kkwagwang!*
The green bead shattered with a ‘pik’ sound in the lightning.
The phantom of the ox-horned Hao Beast, greatly alarmed, tried to flee, but golden lightning surged in and enveloped the monster’s nascent soul [The core of a cultivator’s spirit]. A miserable scream rang out, and the Hao Beast’s phantom disappeared within the golden lightning.
The monster, who had not been a Void Refinement cultivator for long, died so futilely at Han Li’s hands.
Han Li coldly looked at the white bone remains on the ground and flicked his finger, releasing flames.
*Hwareuk.*
All the monster’s remains disappeared in the flames. Han Li didn’t linger there for long and disappeared back into the black mist. Although he had dealt with it easily, he wasn’t in a good mood because he had wasted a lot of time.
Due to this incident, the intermediary demon beasts of the Black Underworld Mountain Range lost their support, and their plans were about to be thwarted. The Hao Beast demon, with its half-demon, half-ghost body, was the very person who had promised them to eliminate the Heavenbreaker Noh Heun.
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About half a month later, at the edge of the mist, the black mist churned, and a figure surrounded by gray energy leaped out. Rising high into the sky, he revealed himself as he reached the top of Mount Hwang.
It was Han Li, who had escaped from the Black Underworld. Finally free from the black mist, he stood on a white rock, excitedly whistling a long tune. His whistle echoed through the vicinity, and even the clouds in the high sky rippled.
He looked around and then transformed into a streak of blue light and flew away. He reappeared in the deep mountains covered in white mist.
The place was exactly the same as when he had left. He took a long breath and formed a hand seal, and the white mist in front of him surged, creating a passage.
Han Li didn’t rush and transformed into a streak of light, entering the passage. After entering the cave, he first checked the herb garden. Fortunately, the spirit herbs and spirit trees he had planted were growing well.
Then, he went straight to his bedroom and fell asleep. Although he had rested at Elder Kang’s abode, there was no place as comfortable as his own cave.
He slept soundly for two days and nights. When Han Li opened his eyes again, he felt no fatigue at all. Now, all he had to do was check his gains and take the True Essence Elixir to focus on his cultivation.
‘I need to raise my magic power to the peak of the late-stage Transformation Realm to aim for the Void Refinement Realm.’
The consciousness within the Heavenbreaker relic also had to be refined as soon as possible to find out the secret formulas for refining the blood of the True Dragon and the Heavenly Spirit. Only then would he be able to fuse the remaining blood of the True Spirits. However, the newly acquired sword techniques and the refinement of the flying swords were not urgent matters, so there was no need to make a hasty decision.
Han Li touched the back of his head, and a black light flew out, transforming into a small figure in front of him. It was his second nascent soul. And then, he shook his sleeves, and the Soul Devourer and the Spirit Beast appeared.
Han Li smiled and threw the mysterious bottle to his second nascent soul and left. The second nascent soul received the bottle with a smiling face and gave orders to the two spirit beasts.
* * *
Shortly after, Han Li entered the secret chamber and scanned the surroundings. But then, three grayish-white stone blocks placed in a corner of the secret chamber caught his eye.
They were the strange foundation stone fragments he had brought from the Azure Flood Dragon’s cave a few years ago. He had used the Gold Devouring Beetles to disassemble them and bring them here, but he hadn’t had the time to pay attention to them because he had been focusing on cultivation.
Originally, he had thought about refining them into powerful treasures, but the Gold Devouring Beetles that had gnawed on the stone blocks had unexpectedly mutated, so he had left them as they were. It was rare for adult Gold Devouring Beetles to mutate, and most of the time, the mutation was in a positive direction, but there were also cases where it wasn’t.
Except for their bodies becoming more solid and their weight greatly increasing, there was nothing special about the mutated thousand or so Gold Devouring Beetles. Moreover, it was generally difficult for a spirit insect that had mutated once to mutate a second time.
So, he hadn’t fed all the Gold Devouring Beetles the stone blocks at the time, and he still hadn’t decided on their use.
Also, now that he knew about the existence of the Gold Devouring Beetle King, he couldn’t recklessly mutate the adult Gold Devouring Beetles any further. If he found out the cultivation method later, but they were already mutated and couldn’t become the Gold Devouring Beetle King, how frustrating would that be?
Also, while he was away from his abode this time, he had come up with a good way to use these strange stones.
Han Li shook his sleeve and revealed a small mountain in his black palm. The black mountain burst with gray light and instantly grew to the size of a palm.
The phantom with three heads and six arms appeared behind Han Li, and with his shout, the six arms of the dharma idol simultaneously clenched their fists towards the stone blocks in the corner of the secret chamber.
A few years ago, without having consumed the Kun Peng and Five-Colored Peacock True Blood, he wouldn’t have been able to pull the grayish-white stone blocks. But now that he had reached the late-stage Transformation Realm and consumed the two types of True Blood, the strength of his body was vastly different from before.
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