As soon as the black rift appeared, the Nascent Soul flicked its fingers toward the black bell in quick succession. With each successive flick of its fingers, the man's face would progressively pale further and further, while the black rift overhead widened incrementally.
After many tolls of the bell, the black rift had already formed a semi-circular opening, within which black Qi and Yin winds swirled, making it impossible for anyone to glean what was lurking within the rift.
An extremely unsettling burst of cackling suddenly rang out from within.
Han Li's pupils contracted as brilliant golden light erupted from his mouth. At the same time, he expelled more Divine Essencefused Light to protect himself.
He didn't dare to get careless in the face of a spirit treasure.
Right at this moment, a peculiar sequence of events unfolded.
Wispy black tendrils suddenly appeared in the air around Han Li, slowly circling around him, but not expressing any urge to attack.
Han Li faltered slightly upon seeing this and before he could figure out what kind of technique this was, the black tendrils suddenly manifested into a black light formation that trapped Han Li right at its center.
"Crap!"
Han Li's heart jolted with shock as his Divine Essencefused Light hurtled toward the formation around him in a frenzy.
However, it was clearly already too late.
Black light flashed from the formation and following a rush of dizziness, Han Li disappeared on the spot along with his giant cauldron and golden lotus flower.
In the next instant, he stumbled into a peculiar space that was lined with black shadows, and unsettling ghostly cries rang out around him in unrelenting waves.
He had been forcibly teleported into that black rift.
Han Li faltered initially upon seeing this, but for some reason, a smile then appeared on his face.
At the same time, the Nascent Soul of his opponent outside the rift hurriedly began to unleash the black bell's power again.
Amid a string of tinkling chimes, the black rift slowly closed, settling to become a thin black line that was over 100 feet in length hovering in the air.
The Nascent Soul then flashed before immediately returning to his body.
Han Li's opponent then opened his eyes as a sinister smile appeared on his face.
That black rift was an independent space opened up by the Thousand Soul Bell. Even though its name suggested that there were only 1,000 souls within the bell, there were actually much closer to 10,000 Yin souls lurking within the treasure. All of these Yin souls were the souls of extremely vicious demon beasts that had been refined using a special secret technique, ensuring that they retained virtually all of the power they had in life.
Furthermore, the main soul within the bell was even a mid-Deity Transformation Stage heavenly spirit beast during its life. His master had only stumbled upon it during its dying moments in a stroke of massive fortune, thereby allowing him to refine it as the main soul of this treasure.
With the assistance from the other Yin souls, the main soul's power could be enhanced by around twofold. Furthermore, there was a restriction that severely debilitated the powers of all beings within the bell aside from Yin souls, so all cultivators who were abducted into the treasure were placed at a severe disadvantage.
As such, even a late-Deity Transformation cultivator would most likely perish in there.
The armor-clad cultivator looked up at the thin black line in the sky and a peculiar light flashed through his eyes, but he didn't take any action.
Meanwhile, Han Li's opponent sat in mid-air with his legs crossed, waiting for the Yin souls within the treasure to devour Han Li so he could end this battle.
After around five minutes, the black bell in the sky suddenly began to tremor violently. At the same time, erratic halos of black light began to emanate from it, and bursts of peculiar cries erupted from within, creating a very bizarre spectacle to behold.
Han Li's opponent was able to use the treasure, but had not forged a spiritual connection with it, so he had no idea what was going on.
The black bell suddenly let loose a grief-stricken chime, following which the massive projection around it abruptly shattered. The projection disintegrated into wisps of black Qi that disappeared into the Thousand Soul Bell in the blink of an eye.
"Impossible! The main soul was destroyed?" The man finally understood what had happened, and an expression of shock and horror appeared on his face.
Right at this moment, a burst of black light suddenly punctured a certain spot in the space overhead, creating a fist-sized black hole.
Spiritual light flashed and a burst of azure light shot forth through the hole, quickly revealing itself to be a humanoid figure.
As a mid-Deity Transformation cultivator, Han Li's opponent seemed to have detected something, and he hurriedly turned toward that direction.
However, the humanoid figure disappeared in the flash before suddenly reappearing behind the man, leaving a trail of afterimages in its wake.
A thunderous roar erupted, making the man's ears ring as a golden fist came flying toward him.
"Argh!"
The man was stunned by this turn of events, and his body suddenly shattered like a mirror, manifesting seven or eight projections at once that all fled toward different directions.
"Hmph! You're not going anywhere!"
That humanoid figure was naturally none other than Han Li. He let loose a cold harrumph as he launched a string of identical punches toward all of the fleeing projections at once, all of which struck the backs of the projections with unerring accuracy.
All of the projections were vanquished and disappeared on the spot, but a small silver shield appeared behind the man's true body, keeping the golden fist at bay.
However, the silver shield only managed to withstand the fist for a split second before it was violently shattered.
The golden fist struck the man on the back without any hesitation, but right as it made contact with the man's body, a layer of azure armor suddenly appeared over his skin.
A resounding boom erupted as the fist struck the suit of armor in a violent manner amid a flash of intertwining golden and azure light.
The azure light tremored violently as the fist sank several inches into the man's body, sending him flying through the air amid a howl of agony.
However, Han Li was not satisfied with the outcome of that attack. His fist had been imbued with immense power, but he felt as if he had struck a wall of feathers, and only a small proportion of that power had actually impacted his opponent's body.
Otherwise, that punch would've been enough to inflict a severe wound.
In the instant that he was forcibly teleported into the Yin soul space, Han Li finally sensed his opponent's killing intent, so he naturally wasn't going to hold back in his attacks.
Even though he was surprised by the fact that his punch seemed to have been buffered, he didn't allow his surprise to slow him down in the slightest as he instantly appeared above his opponent. He grabbed the air with a single hand, upon which a golden longsword suddenly appeared in his grasp.
Just he was about to plunge the sword into his opponent's body, the latter suddenly let loose a desperate cry.
"Stop! I concede!"
Han Li's lips twitched upon hearing this, but he completely disregarded this plea for mercy as he brought his sword down without any hesitation.
With the insane sharpness of his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword, he would definitely be able to slice the man's body cleanly in half, even with that suit of azure armor he was wearing.
Spatial fluctuations suddenly erupted nearby as a swath of yellow light shot forth, sweeping up Han Li's opponent and causing him to vanish on the spot.
As such, Han Li's sword struck empty air.
Han Li's expression changed slightly as he turned toward a certain direction. There, over 200 feet away, a ball of yellow light suddenly erupted, following which two humanoid figures emerged from within.
They were none other than the armor-clad overseer of the match, as well as Han Li's opponent.
The former remained expressionless as usual, yet the latter's face was deathly pale, and his suit of azure armor was stained with blood as he glowered at Han Li with resentment in his eyes.
It appeared that even though Han Li's punch had been buffered significantly by the suit of azure armor, his opponent had still suffered internal injuries, to the extent that he had thrown up a mouthful of blood. The fist indentation on the back of his armor was quite apparent.
Han Li glanced at his opponent expressionlessly before stowing away his longsword and extending a salute to the armor-clad cultivator.
"Thank you for stepping in, Senior. I was unable to withdraw my attack in time and almost wounded Fellow Daoist Weng there!" Han Li said with an earnest expression.
His opponent almost threw up another mouthful of blood upon hearing this.
Unable to withdraw his attack in time? He clearly had no intention of withdrawing his attack at all! He was striking to kill!
A peculiar look flashed through the armor-clad cultivator's eyes, following which a hint of a smile appeared on his face.
"It's easy to get caught up in the heat of the moment in a battle, so that's very much understandable. In this battle for the Spirit Land, Fellow Daoist Weng has conceded, so Fellow Daoist Han is naturally the victor and will take possession of the Spirit Land. Do either of you have any objections?"
Han Li smiled upon hearing this; he naturally wasn't going to pose any objections.
His opponent wore an indignant expression and opened his mouth several times, but refrained from saying anything in the end.
Seeing as neither of them said anything, the armor-clad cultivator nodded before extending a hand toward Han Li. "Hand over your Dark Azure Pendant!"
Han Li immediately flipped his palm over upon hearing this, summoning the azure jade pendant, which he then tossed over to the armor-clad cultivator.
The latter caught the jade pendant before bringing it toward a thumb-sized green crystal in his other hand that he had already prepared in advance. The small stone immediately disappeared into the jade pendant right as the two made contact with one another.
"Alright, the coordinates of the Spirit Land have already been injected into your Dark Azure Pendant. Unless you voluntarily relinquish this plot of Spirit Land, you won't be able to participate in the battle for the Spirit Lands that's held once every century. You two can leave now; the next match is about to begin soon."
The armor-clad cultivator returned the jade pendant to Han Li before waving a dismissive hand at both of them. At this moment, an opening had already appeared in the white light barrier around them.
Han Li didn't say anything further as he cupped his fist in a salute toward the armor-clad cultivator, then disappeared into the distance through that opening as a streak of azure light.
Meanwhile, his opponent wore a thunderous expression as he also flew away from the venue. However, he paused nearby and glowered at the direction that Han Li had left in before flying toward the opposite direction.
Even though he had sustained internal injuries during that recently concluded battle, he was still flying quickly. After a short while, he had appeared high in the air over an unfamiliar place, upon which he came to an abrupt halt.
"Why is your aura so chaotic? Were you injured in the battle for the Spirit Land?" A familiar cold voice sounded, following which azure light flashed in the air nearby. That miniature green wyrm appeared and inspected the man with a cold expression.
