From the instant that Han Li had transformed into the five-colored phoenix to the moment that he'd unleashed that spatial ability to appear above the Spirit Engulfing Fire Raven and the devilish vulture, only a split second had passed by.
However, the devilish bird down below had already been startled by the fact that the thin needles it had unleashed had completely failed to even reach Han Li, so it had been keeping an eye on him this entire time.
As such, it witnessed the entirety of his transformation process, and a hint of fear appeared on its feminine face.
After all, the heavenly phoenix true spirit was known as the monarch of all birds. Even the Golden Crow, which was also a true spirit being, would suffer from having its powers severely debilitated in the face of a heavenly phoenix.
Of course, Han Li was only using his 12 Awakening Transformations to manifest this rainbow phoenix form, so it was completely incomparable to a true heavenly phoenix. Even so, it was undeniable that he had the true spirit blood of the heavenly phoenix within his body. On top of that, this devilish vulture was only a mutated bird that had inherited part of the Golden Crow's bloodline, so it wasn't a true Golden Crow itself.
As such, in the instant that it sensed the unique aura released by the true spirit blood within Han Li's body, it was struck by a sense of irrepressible fear.
On top of that, the Spirit Engulfing Fire Raven was also a very troublesome opponent to deal with in that it was able to devour Golden Crow True Flames, which was the devilish vulture's trump card that had won it countless battles in the past.
As such, the devilish bird immediately let loose a sharp cry as it blasted forth a pillar of white light, following which the white flames around its body receded as it attempted to flee the scene.
However, the Spirit Engulfing Fire Raven was formed from the spiritual flame within Han Li's body, so it had a closer connection with Han Li than even his bonded treasures.
Hence, it only took a single thought from Han Li for the silver Fire Raven to realize that the devilish bird was trying to escape, and it immediately opened its bead to expel a thin golden and silver thread.
This was none other than the Revolving Evil Spirit Light!
The pillar of golden light was as thick as a large bowl, while the golden and silver thread was as thin as a strand of silk, but as soon as the two clashed, the pillar of light was reflected directly back toward the devilish bird.
The devilish vulture was naturally quite stunned by the fact that its own attack was being used against it, and it abruptly flapped its wings in a fit of shock and fury. Two bursts of white flames erupted from its wings, and only then was it able to just barely nullify the pillar of light.
However, the golden and silver thread had also taken this opportunity to hurtle directly toward it.
The devilish bird had been made aware of the fact that this thin thread possessed some strange abilities, and it immediately tried to take evasive measures.
However, right at this moment, a loud phoenix cry rang out overhead, following which a vast expanse of azure light came hurtling downward at an alarming speed.
Han Li had emerged from the spatial rift in his phoenix form, and as he swept his tail feathers through the air, he'd conjured up the oncoming swath of azure light.
With the speed of the devilish bird's movement techniques, it originally would've been able to evade this attack. However, an enormous force erupted from the silver flames unleashed by the Spirit Engulfing Fire Raven, and the devilish vulture stalled in mid-air as it was caught completely off guard by the impact.
As a result, the azure light reached rained down upon it in an instant. The scorching white flames all over the bird's body instantly melted away in the face of the azure light like snow under the warm sun, and as soon as the light enveloped the devilish vulture, it suddenly felt its body tighten and become extremely heavy and sluggish.
The devilish bird was absolutely petrified by this sudden development, not just because of the restrictive force of the azure light, but also doe to the fact that the golden and silver thread was now too close for it to evade in time.
Han Li and the Spirit Engulfing Fire Raven had collaborated to perfection and placed their opponent into a dire situation.
In its desperation, the devilish bird had no choice but to abruptly draw in a deep breath, upon which the white devilish core nearby suddenly flew back and positioned itself directly in the path of the golden and silver thread.
It was planning to use its devilish core to keep the thin thread at bay, thereby indicating that it was extremely confident in the hardness of its own devilish core.
However, an astonishing scene then ensued.
As soon as the thin thread struck the devilish core, it passed through the object in a soundless manner, puncturing a small black hole at the center of the devilish core.
A shrill cry erupted from within the devilish vulture's beak, and the white flames around its body suddenly swelled drastically once again.
It flapped its wings in a thunderous rage, shattering the restrictive azure light around it before opening up some distance between itself and Han Li.
Immediately thereafter, a pillar of white flames erupted into the sky from its body, and the power of wind was infused into the pillar of flames, instantly forming a sea of white fire.
The devilish bird flapped its wings incessantly within the scorching white flames with a sinister expression on its face. Meanwhile, a massive bird projection that was over 100 feet in length abruptly appeared in the air with the devilish core at its very center.
The projection was entirely golden in color with a pair of inky-black eyes. It bore a strong resemblance to a crow, but it had three talons as opposed to two.
"That's a Golden Crow projection! As expected, this bird really does possess some of the true spirit's bloodline!" Han Li murmured to himself.
At this point, he had already reverted back to his human form, and was appraising the Golden Crow projection within the sea of flames from his vantage point up above.
Right at this moment, the devilish vulture raised its head and let loose a long cry. The scorching white flames around it immediately swept toward the Golden Crow projection before disappearing into the projection.
Within the span of just a few breaths, the massive projection had absorbed all of the Golden Crow True Flames in the surrounding area, and its body suddenly seemed to have taken on a substantial form as a layer of white flames also appeared over its golden feathers.
Within those white flames, silver runes were surging incessantly, and the flames seemed to be several times more powerful than before.
The devilish vulture down below wore a vicious look on its face as it glowered at Han Li, and it was quite clear that it was preparing to unleash a powerful attack with the projection that it had conjured up.
Strangely enough, Han Li glanced at the massive Golden Crow in the sky, then looked down at the devilish bird, and he suddenly chuckled as he pointed a finger at the devilish vulture before uttering the word "fall" three times in a row.
The devilish bird faltered upon hearing this, but it then flew into a thunderous rage as it prepared to spring into action, but right at this moment, an unexpected turn of events suddenly unfolded.
The massive vulture shuddered as a cry of anguish escaped its beak, and it suddenly plummeted from the sky. During its descent, its body curled up into a ball, and it suddenly turned a dark purple color while emitting a putrid odor. In the blink of an eye, it had been reduced to a puddle of purple liquid, and even its soul hadn't managed to escape.
This was all due to the lethal poison contained within the Revolving Evil Spirit Light.
Not only was this poison extremely potent, the target experienced no signs of discomfort in the initial stages following infection.
However, compared to the monstrous moth that Han Li had slain in the past, this Golden Crow was far more susceptible to the effects of this poison. Not only did it completely fail to detect that it had been poisoned for so long, it disintegrated into a puddle of toxic liquid almost as soon as it discovered that it had been poisoned.
Han Li was quite relieved to see this while the silver Fire Raven let loose a cry of elation. Immediately thereafter, it spread its wings and swooped down before devouring the puddle of toxic liquid that the devilish bird had disintegrated into.
Han Li faltered slightly upon seeing this, but he decided against stopping the Fire Raven after a brief hesitation.
The true blood of the Golden Crow was quite precious, but the Golden Crow wasn't part of his 12 Awakening Transformations, so it wouldn't do him much good anyway. As such, it was better to let the Spirit Engulfing Fire Raven devour it; perhaps it would undergo some kind of transformation.
After all, this Fire Raven already possess a high level of spiritual nature, so anything that it was so eager to devour had to be extremely beneficial to its evolution.
After the Fire Raven devoured the toxic puddle, it didn't immediately turn back. Instead, it flew high up into the air.
Curiously enough, after the devilish vulture had perished, the massive Golden Crow projection didn't immediately vanish. Instead, it was merely hovering on the spot, and the only difference was that its inky-black eyes had lost all of their spark, making it appear completely wooden and soulless, just like a puppet.
The silver Fire Raven rushed into the Golden Crows body, then devoured the projection in a frenzy.
Perhaps it had devoured too much Golden Crow True Flames in one sitting, but after the Fire Raven devoured the final wisp of white flames, it reverted back to around a foot in size before immediately flying toward Han Li and disappearing into his body in a flash.
Thus, the white devilish core and the shimmering thin needles of light were the only things that remained down below.
Han Li certainly wasn't going to leave those behind; he swept a sleeve through the air, and a swath of azure light swept forth, upon which the devilish core and the hundreds of thin needles all disappeared in a flash.
At this moment, Han Li turned to glance at the azure light barrier conjured up by the Spring Dawn Sword Formation, and a faint smile appeared on his face.
He made a hand seal, and the azure light barrier shattered, following which the layers of azure lotus flowers disappeared. In the end, they reverted back to the 72 azure flying swords that hung in the air in all directions while emitting a faint ringing sound.
At the center of the area surrounded by the flying swords were the remains of the four devilish vultures, and they'd been diced up into several tens of segments. Just the power of the Spring Dawn Sword Formation had been enough to kill these four early-Spatial Tempering Stage devilish birds.
Han Li wasn't very surprised to see this. He merely flew over to the remains of the birds and paused momentarily before stowing the remains away in his storage bracelet.
He could sense that the Golden Crow bloodline was really thin in the bodies of these devilish birds, but there were still barely detectable traces here and there. In that case, he could wait for the Spirit Engulfing Fire Raven to finish what it had just devoured, then feed it the remains of these four birds as well.
After all, true spirit blood was extremely rare, even in the Spirit Realm, so he wasn't going to waste even a single drop.
After doing all that, Han Li flew over to Xian Xian and Yue Zong as he said in a calm manner, "Everything has been taken care of here; let's keep going."
Yue Zong had been looking on in a flabbergasted manner for a long while.
In his heart, Han Li was indeed quite powerful, but surely he was only comparable to a ninth-tier upper race being at most.
But what had just happened? He was clearly only a seventh-tier upper race being, but he had slain so many high-grade devilish birds with ease in such a short timeframe.
Furthermore, not only was there a ninth-tier upper race being among these devilish birds, this was a mutated devilish bird with true spirit blood in its body!
Yue Zong had truly been stunned to the extreme, and he was still struggling to believe his eyes.
As such, he could only stare blankly at Han Li with incredulity etched all over his face.
