72 projections of small swords shot forth from within her sleeve before disappearing into the bamboo plants in a flash, following which he made a hand seal, and an astonishing scene ensued.
Thunderclaps erupted from all of the Golden Lightning Bamboo plants as the entire plan instantly wilted, then turned into a greyish-white color as they were long dead.
A gentle breeze swept past, and all of the plants instantly disappeared into dust.
What remained in their place were 72 azure flying swords, each of which around a foot in length, hovering in mid-air while shimmering with cold light.
Han Li swept a hand through the air, and one of the flying swords flew toward him before landing in his grasp. Han Li inspected the azure flying sword for a moment, then abruptly flicked a finger onto the flat part of the blade. Azure light immediately shimmered over the surface of the sword, and a long dragon roar rang out as the sword wobbled like a squirming azure wyrm.
Han Li raised an eyebrow upon seeing this, and brilliant spiritual light suddenly erupted from his palm as he held onto the sword, injecting bursts of astonishing spiritual power into the sword.
The sword instantly began to flash erratically with azure light, turning the entire sword into an indistinct blur. Han Li's eyes narrowed as he extended a finger toward the sword, only for his finger to pass through it without any impediment, as if the flying sword were merely an illusion.
Han Li was ecstatic to see this, and he made a hand seal before sweeping his spiritual sense toward all of the flying swords. The 72 flying swords rose up into the air at once, circling around before disappearing into Han Li's body. Han Li then flew out of the medicine garden as a streak of azure light and moments later, he appeared at the foot of the giant mountain where his cave abode was situated.
A streak of azure light then ascended before flying toward the opposite direction of the sea of Black Infernal Mist.
With the powerful spiritual sense of the three Body Integration Stage beings in the distance, there were no concealment measures that Han Li could take that would allow him to avoid detection.
Thus, he made no effort to conceal himself at all as he blatantly flew away into the distance.
Loud rumbling booms were erupting in the distance amid piercing flashes of spiritual light. Even if those two foreign beings wanted to hunt him down, they were currently too busy to do so.
Han Li was only escaping now as he'd identified this as a brilliant opportunity.
In the distance, the white-robed man that had transformed into the massive monster was blasting forth countless arcs of azure lightning from his hands to force back the oncoming skeletal bird. All of a sudden, he turned toward the direction that Han Li was fleeing in, and a cold light flashed through his eyes.
"Don't get distracted, Brother Min; let's kill this thing first. If we pile on a bit more pressure, it won't be able to last much longer," his companion urged, despite also catching sight of Han Li fleeing the scene.
"I don't need you to tell me that," the horned monster harrumphed coldly. A boom thunderclap erupted from the monster's horn, following which a bolt of azure lightning a thick as a water tank shot forth, transforming into a massive lightning blade in a flash before hurtling toward the skeletal bird in a vicious manner.
The bird showed no intention of backing down as it let loose a sharp cry and raised one of its talons. A gargantuan talon projection that was enshrouded in black Qi emerged before directly meeting the lightning blade amid a resounding boom, and the resulting explosion sent shockwaves radiating in all directions. A cruel smile appeared on the crimson-haired being upon seeing this, and he raised the trident in his hand to blast forth an extraordinarily thick ice spear, a gust of gale-force winds, and a bolt of white lightning in unison.
The battle between the three seemed to have intensified even further! Initially, Han Li was flying toward the direction that would take him deeper into Tian Peng Race territory, but after flying for close to 100,000 kilometers, he suddenly looped around and flew deeper into the ocean.
This was a precautionary measure to prevent the two foreign beings from hunting him down if they were to take care of that skeletal bird in a short time.
After throwing what was essentially a feint, Han Li would naturally be a lot safer.
Even so, Han Li still didn't dare to stop for a single instant during the next dozen or so days. Instead, he flew deep into the ocean with all his might, and only after making certain that he wouldn't be chased down by those two beings did he heave a long sigh of relief and change directions yet again.
On this occasion, he was slowly flying parallel to the shore.
Generally speaking, the powerful sea beasts and perils within the sea were more dangerous than those on land. Even after reaching the Spatial Tempering Stage, he had never intended to go so deep into the ocean as he knew just how perilous the sea could prove to be.
However, Han Li no longer planned to remain in the area controlled by the Flying Spirit Race, either. On one hand, he wanted to get away from the Tian Peng Race, and on the other hand, the arrival of the two foreign Body Integration Stage beings struck him with a sense of foreboding, thereby further fueling his decision to get away from this place.
He was going to keep flying along the seashore until he flew out of Flying Spirit Race territories.
Powerful sea beasts from deeper in the ocean general wouldn't come so close to the short, and most Flying Spirit beings detested the ocean, so it was rather unlikely that he'd encounter any of them here.
Thus, he'd be able to avoid a lot of trouble by taking this course of action.
Having made up his mind, Han Li flew toward the east.
At his current cultivation base, even though he wasn't flying at full speed as he was trying to be more cautious in his journey, it was still no issue at all for him to cover millions of kilometers in a single day.
As he flew along, he pulled out one of his azure flying swords and stroked it with a finger while wearing a contemplative look on his face.
All of his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords had been converted to pure wood-attribute treasures, and they'd all become as light as air. Furthermore, injection of magic power could make the swords transition between a substantial state and a light form.
Han Li held onto the hilt of the sword and injected his magic power into it.
A vast expanse of azure light immediately erupted before him like a peacock spreading its tail, but as he flicked his wrist through the air, all of the azure light instantly converged to form an azure longsword. The speed at which these transitions took place was quite astounding, and Han Li was naturally ecstatic to see this.
He swung his sword through the air a few times, and couldn't feel any weight nor resistance, which indicated that his flying swords were light and sharp to an extraordinary degree.
In that, he could use these flying swords to instantly kill someone at a whim from several kilometers away.
However, Han Li's brows then furrowed slightly.
For these flying swords to become so light and singular in terms of attributes surely meant that they wouldn't be as resolute as they'd been in the past.
With that in mind, Han Li hesitated momentarily before flipping over his other hand to produce another identical flying sword.
The two swords flashed through the air before clashing with one another amid a flash of azure light, following which a crisp crack rang out.
"Crap!" Han Li was given a massive fright, and after the azure light faded, the sight that greeted him made his expression darken slightly.
The two flying swords had both snapped in half following their clash, and their four segments were currently hovering in the air before him.
His newly refined Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords were even more brittle and fragile than he'd feared.
"Wait, these Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords are my bonded treasures; how could I have remained unscathed despite the fact that these swords have been damaged?" Han Li was feeling rather bewildered as he tossed the four segments of the two flying swords into the air before making a hand seal.
A peculiar scene then ensued.
The four segments of the swords joined together again before reverting back to form two completely unscathed swords again.
"That's the voidform ability!" Han Li exclaimed as his eyes lit up. The fact that the flying swords had taken on a blurry and indistinct form when he'd injected his spiritual power into them had raised his suspicions about this, and he could completely confirm those suspicions now.
This was an extraordinary ability that was rumored to exist among sword cultivators of the human race. Han Li had heard of it on many occasions, but he'd never witnessed any flying swords that possessed such an incredible ability, and he didn't think that his flying swords would attain an ability like this after his sword-planting experiment.
It was said that flying swords with such an ability could take on a completely insubstantial form and be recover back to their original form even after being pulverized into countless segments.
As such, his flying swords were essentially indestructible, and there was no need to worry about them being damaged unless he came up against some special treasures.
Of course, this was only true in theory. Every time the flying swords reconstructed themselves after being shattered, they would still incur a slight amount of damage, and the process would also expend a lot of the wielder's magic power.
If they were broken too many times or the wielder's magic power ran out, then even with the voidform ability, the flying swords would still be completely destroyed.
Even so, Han Li was still overjoyed.
He was finally beginning to understand why the elderly man had been so critical of his decision to add materials of other attributes into his flying swords.
The man's flying swords most likely possessed this extraordinary ability as well. However, he hadn't employed the sword-planting method, so it would've certainly taken him countless years to develop that ability within his flying swords, unlike Han Li, who was able to achieve this in a mere century or so with the assistance of his Golden Lightning Bamboo and the small vial.
He opened his mouth to expel a burst of azure light, and the two flying swords instantly shrank down to less than a tenth of their original size within the azure light, reducing them down to around an inch in size each.
The azure light then swept back into Han Li's body along with the flying sword.
If he wanted to continue to refine his flying swords to truly achieve oneness with them, he wouldn't be able to do so through the use of any external items; he'd only be able to use his own power to slowly nurture them.
Thus, Han Li was in high spirits as he continued to fly through the air while studying the Spring Dawn Sword Formation.
Time passed by one day after another, and Han Li flew along the seashore for over half a year…
On this day, a few of Han Li's flying swords had just flown forth at his behest to strike down a sea python that was attempting to attack him, when his expression abruptly changed as he cast his gaze toward a certain direction.
