However, that split second of hesitation proved to bear lethal connotations.
A burst of spatial fluctuations suddenly appeared several tens of feet away from it. Han Li emerged from thin air with purple flames all over his body before sweeping a sleeve toward the demon tortoise.
36 small swords shot forth from his sleeve at once, transforming into over 100 streaks of golden light in the blink of an eye. The golden light formed a dense net of swords that came crashing down toward the demon tortoise.
"It's you?"
The demon tortoise finally caught sight of Han Li's true features, and it immediately identified him, upon which it let loose a horrified cry as if it had seen a ghost. As the sight of the streaks of golden light hurtling toward it, the demon tortoise immediately turned deathly pale.
It had seen how Han Li had used just a single streak of this golden to slay an eighth grade demon beast, and even his victim's most prized treasure wasn't able to pose any resistance.
The demon tortoise was only an eighth grade demon beast itself and in its intense horror, it let loose several roars in quick succession. At the same time, it took off its long robes, which transformed into a dark cloud that came flying toward the net of swords. At the same time, inky-black demonic Qi materialized over its body as it attempted to unleash a secret technique to get away. However, right at this moment, a bone-chilling harrumph sounded from between Han Li's lips.
The demon tortoise was immediately struck by excruciating pain, as if its spiritual sense were being torn apart. It clasped its hands over its head and let loose a bloodcurdling cry as jets of black blood shot out from his ears and nose.
The demon tortoise then plummeted from the sky.
Meanwhile, the dark cloud was instantly sliced into countless segments by the net of swords, and those segments transformed into fingernail-sized tortoise shell fragments that came raining down from above.
Brilliant golden light flashed and the net of swords descended toward the demon tortoise without any pause.
The demon tortoise had only just recovered slightly from the agony of having its spiritual sense torn apart, and it was completely unable to avoid this net of swords.
In its despair, the demon beast gritted its teeth, and roared, "Brother Gold, this man is the Li-surnamed man from… "
However, before it had a chance to finish its sentence, Han Li's expression darkened as he abruptly activated his sword arts.
The net of swords immediately contracted as countless streaks of golden light flashed past the demon tortoise's body, slicing it into countless pieces. Even the green flames manifested by its soul only flashed once before it was inundated by golden light.
It had only taken Han Li several seconds to slay the demon tortoise. His body swayed and he transformed into a streak of azure light again, covering a distance of several thousand feet in the blink of an eye.
The azure light flashed several times in the distance between completely disappearing from view.
The Golden Wyrm King was naturally unwilling to let him escape, but he was unable to catch up to Han Li, and nor was he confident that he would be able to defeat Han Li in a one-on-one battle. As such, he could only give up in his pursuit and returned to the stone peak with a thunderous expression.
"A man with the surname of Li," the Golden Wyrm King's expression suddenly changed as he murmured to himself.
At this moment, all of the other metamorphosis stage demon beasts gathered around, and their expressions were also quite strained.
A demon whose true features were obscured by the flames all over its body asked, "Brother Gold, who was that late-Nascent Soul cultivator? From his voice and appearance, he doesn't appear to the Archsaint of the Six Paths, and there's no way that the Heavenly Star Sages would leave the Heavenly Star City. Could it be that he's a new great cultivator among the human race?"
"I'm not sure. However, his cultivation arts and treasures are all very unfamiliar, so I know I've never fought him before. It seems that there's no one among the Nascent Soul cultivators of the Scattered Star Seas that fit his description," the Golden Wyrm King replied in a dark voice.
A green-robed demon beast said with a fearful expression, "This man is extremely powerful. Even Fellow Daoist Lan and Fellow Daoist Wu couldn't last more than a few seconds each against him. He's most likely even more powerful than the Archsaint of the Six Paths and the Heavenly Star Sages."
The other demon beasts also wore the same fearful expressions. After all, most of them were eighth grade demon beasts and were no more powerful than the two eight grade demon beasts that Han Li had just slain with ease. If Han Li had set their sights on them, they would've also undoubtedly been killed on the spot. Many of the demon beasts had already made up their minds; if they were to ever encounter Han Li again, they would drop everything and run for their lives!
"I fought the Archsaint of the Six Paths once in the past and this man does indeed appear to be an even more troublesome opponent. At the very least, without employing the use of sneak attacks, the Archsaint of the Six Paths wouldn't be able to kill our metamorphosis stage brethren so easily. However, there's no need to be too fearful of him. This is our first time clashing with him, so his skillset is very unfamiliar to us. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to succeed in his plan so easily," the Golden Wyrm King analyzed calmly.
Upon hearing this, some of the other demon beasts were enlightened, while the others remained silent with contemplatives looks on their faces.
Right at this moment, a ninth grade demon beast-the portly mendicant who had been battling the blue-robed man-suddenly asked, "Brother Gold, what was that about a Li-surnamed man that Fellow Daoist Wu yelled before his death? Have you managed to figure it out? If I recall correctly, back when we attacked the human cultivators on their island near the Unfathomable Depths, we were searching for a cultivator with the surname of Li. Does that man have anything to do with this?"
The mendicant's speculation sent a stir running through the rest of the demon beasts present.
However, the Golden Wyrm King's brows furrowed as he replied, "I don't think so. Back then, I was wounded by a sneak attack from a Core Formation human cultivator, and that was why I deployed forces to hunt him down. However, that man was a late-Nascent Soul cultivator; how could it be the same person? Unless this man is a once-in-100,000-years freak prodigy, how could he have become this powerful in less than 200 years?"
"That's not necessarily the case. I slew a Nascent Soul human cultivator once, and after using a soul search technique on him, I discovered that the so-called number one treasure in the human world, the Heavenvoid Cauldron, had appeared, and was obtained by a Core Formation cultivator with the surname of Han. However, after an extensive investigation by many Nascent Soul cultivators, they discovered that this man was at our outer seas for a long time, posing as a man with the surname of Li. The Heavenmend Pill in the Heavenvoid Cauldron is vastly renowned. With the assistance of this pill and the other unknown ancient pills in the cauldron, it's not impossible for this man to have progressed to the late-Nascent Soul Stage so quickly," the mendicant chuckled.
All of the demons beasts were flabbergasted upon hearing this, and some of them immediately began to chat among themselves again.
The Golden Wyrm King also fell into deep thought upon hearing this. After a long while, a cold light flashed through his eyes, and he said, "If you're correct, then that man may well be the same cultivator who had attacked my son all those years ago. If that's the case, then I definitely won't let him get away with this. He killed my son close to 200 years ago and now, he's responsible for the death of Fellow Daoist Wu and Lan. Furthermore, he's also taken our top-grade spirit stone and possesses a supreme treasure like the Heavenvoid Cauldron. That only gives us even more reason to capture him and offer him as a blood sacrifice."
The mendicant shook his head as he said in a cautious voice, "But this man is a late-Nascent Soul cultivator and he's extremely powerful. Unless we force him into a dire situation and have more than three brethren with cultivation bases comparable to Brother Gold's, we won't be able to do anything to him."
"This man is indeed not someone to be scoffed at. We'll have to devise a plan and invite Brother Jie and Fellow Daoist Bi to assist me. But there's no need to hurry. As long as that man remains in the Scattered Star Seas, we'll always have chances. Overall, this was still a triumphant trip for all of us. Even though two of our fellow Daoists have fallen by the hands of that man, we slew six Nascent Soul human cultivators and all of the spirit stone mines on the Green Spirit Island belong to our sea race now. Even though that top-grade spirit stone had been taken, there may be other top-grade spirit stones that have yet to be excavated in the mines, so there's no need to overly frustrated. Our top priority is to set up the restrictions again and gather more troops in case the human cultivators launch a counterattack. The Starfall Coalition and Star Palace won't be willing to accept defeat so easily, so we have to be prepared for them."
The Golden Wyrm King didn't seem to be very interested in the subject of revenge, and he immediately changed the topic to focus on the spirit stone mines.
These mines were going to benefit all of the demon beasts present and as expected, their attention was entirely drawn to this new topic of discussion. Only that mendicant wore a concerned expression with his brows furrowed, seemingly still a little unsettled.
At this moment, around 5,000 kilometers away, Han Li unleashed his spiritual sense to verify that there were no pursuers within a radius of several hundred kilometers before slowing down significantly.
Of course, Han Li wasn't going to return to that so-called Lightning Sky Island. Instead, he was heading straight back to Silver Shark Island.
As he flew through the air, he couldn't help but pull out that azure storage pouch before tipping out its contents with an excited look on his face.
A burst of white light erupted from the storage pouch as a green thumbs-sized spirit stone appeared in his hand.
Han Li cradled the spirit stone in one hand and began to carefully assess it.
There was spiritual light revolving erratically over the surface of the spirit stone, and the brightness of the green light emanating from it was oscillating sporadically, as if it were a living being. There also seemed to be tiny white substances flowing out from the surface of the spirit stone. However, the white substance was extremely minuscule and Han Li was struggling to identify it.
Han Li's pupils contracted upon seeing this and blue light abruptly flashed through his eyes, finally allowing him to clearly see the substance within the green light.
They were spots of white light that somewhat resembled snowflakes, but also appeared to be runes.
These spots of light were relentlessly pouring out of the spirit stone before self-detonating, transforming into traces of pure wood-attribute spiritual Qi in the process. There was simply an excessive amount of spiritual Qi contained within this spirit stone, thereby forcing it to expel some out from its surface.
Han Li was both shocked and elated to see this.
This was definitely a legendary top-grade spirit stone, and it just so happened to be a wood-attribute one, so it was perfect for him.
When he thought about it, it made sense that this was a wood-attribute spirit stone. The spirit stone mines on Green Spirit Island had always yielded an abundance of wood-attribute spirit stones, so it was only to be expected that this top-grade spirit stone followed that trend.
Han Li closed his eyes and briefly sensed the wood-attribute spiritual Qi emanating from the spirit stone.
After a while, he hesitated momentarily before azure light flashed from his five fingers as he attempted to absorb the immense spiritual Qi within the stone.
