Meanwhile, the white devilish bird remained on the spot, appraising Han Li from afar. It seemed to have sensed that something was amiss.
After a brief hesitation, it let loose a sharp cry to try and summon its four subordinates back to its side, but that split-second delay already made it too late.
The sword formation that Han Li had set up was over 1,000 feet in size, and the four devilish birds were flying very quickly, plunging headfirst into the Spring Dawn Sword Formation in the blink of an eye.
Immediately thereafter, azure light flashed, and a light barrier abruptly appeared, ensnaring all four of the devilish vultures within.
The four birds were all stunned by this sudden development, and they circled around before grabbing viciously toward the light barrier with their talons.
As soon as their talons struck the light barrier, it shattered like a pane of glass, giving away without offering any resistance.
The four devilish vultures were ecstatic to see this, but they were then quickly left feeling flabbergasted.
After the light barrier had been shattered, they didn't find themselves outside of the sword formation. Instead, they appeared in a strange space that was filled with azure lotus flowers.
The lotus flowers were only around the size of a human thumb each, but there was no end to their numbers, and they created a seemingly impenetrable barrier.
The four devilish birds glanced at one another before one of them suddenly opened its mouth to blast forth a pillar of white light.
The pillar of light struck several of the azure lotus flowers in a flash amid a dull thump, but as opposed to being destroyed, those few lotus flowers swelled to several times their original size, now comparable to the size of a human fist.
The four birds were all given a massive fright upon seeing this, and following that attack, the might of the entire Spring Dawn Sword Formation had also been activated.
The rest of the light barrier instantly shattered on its own as countless azure lotus flowers appeared in its place. All of these lotus flowers began to rotate, and the four devilish vultures felt their surroundings blur before they found themselves in a forest filled with massive azure trees.
Each and every tree was over 1,000 feet tall, reaching up to higher than the eyes could see, and their lush canopies of branches and leaves obscured virtually the entire sky.
The four birds were situated at the deepest point in the forest.
All of them were quite alarmed by this development. For birds like them, falling into dense forestry or rivers was one of their worst fears as the movement techniques that they relied so heavily upon would be greatly hampered in such terrains.
Thus, all four of them immediately spread their wings in unison, sending four balls of scorching white flames erupting from their bodies. These white fireballs then exploded to form over 100 palm-sized white fiery butterflies that flew toward the surrounding trees.
These white flames were the trump card ability of these devilish birds, so they thought that these trees would be incinerated with ease.
However, the fiery butterflies they'd conjured up merely passed through the trees as if they didn't even exist.
"This is an illusionary technique!"
All of these devilish birds possessed early-Spatial Tempering Stage cultivation bases, so they had enough intelligence to immediately make sense of the situation.
One of them was quite bullish and short-tempered, and it immediately flew toward one of the giant trees.
However, the things manifested by the Spring Dawn Sword Formation were incomparable to those conjured up by other illusionary techniques; they existed in a state that was somewhere in between illusion and reality.
Thus, the bullish devilish bird struck the tree that it was flying toward with a resounding boom before bouncing back like a feathered rubber ball.
Meanwhile, the giant tree remained completely unscathed as if it were entirely forged from steel essence.
The devilish vulture did indeed possess quite a powerful body, but after crashing headfirst into a tree at full speed, it was still struck by a splitting headache.
Its three companions were all flabbergasted upon seeing this.
Meanwhile, outside the formation, the white devilish bird was naturally both shocked and enraged by the disappearance of its four subordinates after they had flown into the light barrier.
It let loose a loud cry before abruptly spreading its wings, and a halo of white light suddenly erupted from its body, following which all of its snowy-white feathers were set alight.
In contrast with the white flames conjured up by the four other devilish vultures, there were silver runes flashing within these white flames, and they were also far more scorching hot in comparison, raising the surrounding air temperature to an incredible degree.
The Spring Dawn Sword Formation that had just been concealed was also forced to reveal itself in the face of such scorching temperatures, and the azure light barrier reappeared.
Xian Xian was initially elated after seeing the four devilish vultures being trapped within the sword formation, but her expression changed drastically at the sight of those strange white flames. "Look out, Brother Han! Those are Golden Crow True Flames; make sure you don't allow it to come into contact with your body! This devilish bird may possess some of the Golden Crow true spirit's bloodline."
"Golden Crow True Flames?" Han Li's expression remained unchanged upon hearing this, but he was internally overjoyed.
At this moment, the devilish bird up ahead had completely transformed into a giant fiery bird as it hurtled directly toward Han Li.
Before it had even gotten close to him, a fierce wave of flames swept forth, and Han Li could see specks of red light appearing in the air nearby, following which countless pea-sized fireballs emerged out of thin air.
The entire space in a radius of several hundred feet around Han Li had been completely ignited!
However, Han Li paid no heed to this as he stood on the spot in a calm manner. All of a sudden, he took a deep breath before opening his mouth, and a silver fireball erupted forth before transforming into a silver Fire Raven that was around a foot in length.
As soon as the Fire Raven appeared, the silver flames around its body flashed, and all of the miniature red fireballs that had appeared in the surrounding area converged toward it, ironically, like moths to a flame.
The pea-sized fireballs disappeared into the Fire Raven's body in a flash, and the scorching temperatures in the surrounding area also instantly abated.
Meanwhile, the silver Fire Raven had swelled drastically in size, and it flapped its wings before flying toward the oncoming flaming vulture in a fearless manner.
Even though the Fire Raven had expanded in size, the devilish vulture was still seven or eight times larger than it, but that didn't faze it in the slightest.
In the instant, that the silver Fire Raven appeared, a strange sequence of emotions flashed through the devilish bird's eyes.
There was initially a hint of fear, followed by surprise and elation, but most of all, there was a dominant undercurrent of greed and yearning.
At the sight of the silver Fire Raven hurtling directly toward it, the devilish bird seemed to be rather hesitant about how to proceed, but in the next instant, a deranged look appeared in its eyes as it let loose a loud cry.
The flames all over its body swelled to several feet tall, and it didn't hesitate any longer as it also pounced toward the oncoming Spirit Engulfing Fire Raven.
The two clashed amid a resounding boom, and white and silver flames intertwined with one another as the two fiery birds battled for supremacy over the other.
As soon as the white and silver flames came into contact with each other, a peculiar crackling sound rang out, as if they were the bane of the other's existence.
Despite the silver Fire Raven's diminutive stature, it was able to hold its own as it clashed with the massive devilish bird, and the two types of flames were constantly trying to devour one another.
One moment, the silver flames would have devoured a burst of white flames, only for another ball of white flames to engulf those silver flames.
Han Li only looked on for a short while before his pupils contracted slightly.
He could see that his Spirit Engulfing Heavenly Flames were superior in quality to the devilish bird's flames, but due to the severe disadvantage in quantity, it wouldn't take long for all of the silver flames to be completely devoured.
Of course, he wasn't going to allow that to happen.
Thus, he suddenly made a hand seal before pointing a finger toward the distance, and a thin pillar of azure light shot forth from his fingertip, disappearing into the Fire Raven's body in a flash.
The pillar of light was so dense that it almost appeared to be a pillar of liquid, and it was of an extremely exuberant azure color. It had been manifested from the pure energy within Han Li's body.
An astonishing scene then ensued.
The silver Fire Raven's body began to expand at an alarming rate, first to two feet, then to four, then five, then 10…
Within the span of just a few breaths, the silver Fire Raven had swelled to 30 to 40 feet in size, and as a result, the white flames being unleashed by the devilish bird were instantly forced onto the back foot.
It was now the silver flames that were exerting their dominance over the white flames. An expression of shock and horror appeared on the devilish vulture's face, and it suddenly opened its beak to expel a white bead.
The bead was flawless and of a pristine white color, and it was radiating piercing white light.
This was none other than its devilish core, and it had decided to expel it from its body in the face of this dire situation.
The devilish core was only around the size of a human fist, but as soon as it emerged out of the bird's beak, the light emanating from it transformed into thousands of thin needles that split up into two groups.
One half of those needles instantly shot forth toward the Spirit Engulfing Fire Raven, puncturing countless holes into its body.
Meanwhile, the other half hurtled toward Han Li before crashing into the azure light barrier in a flash.
These thin needles possessed extraordinary power, allowing them to pierce through the azure light barrier with ease before raining down upon Han Li in a torrential downpour.
Han Li raised an eyebrow upon seeing this, but he remained standing on the spot as brilliant crystalline light suddenly radiated from the crystalline shield hovering before him.
As soon as these thin needles of light struck the crystalline shield, they were refracted toward a different direction, thereby completely missing their target.
Almost at the exact same moment, Han Li made a grabbing motion without even turning around, and five skull projections appeared over his five fingers, following which five streams of flames of different colors erupted from his fingertips, all of which converged to form a sea of five-colored flames.
The thin needles were all swept up by the five-colored flames before disappearing in a flash.
On the other end, the Spirit Engulfing Fire Raven's body was being punctured incessantly by the hundreds of thin needles that were flying around it.
The puncture wounds were healed as soon as they were inflicted, but the needles were clearly still having a detrimental effect on the Fire Raven, as exemplified by the fact that the silver flames it was releasing were severely debilitated in power.
Thus, the Golden Crow True Flames were able to hold their own against the silver flames once again.
Han Li's expression changed slightly upon seeing this, and he suddenly made a hand seal before abruptly rolling down onto the ground.
All of a sudden, brilliant five-colored light flashed, following which the loud cry of a phoenix pierced directly into the heavens. After the five-colored light receded, a five-colored phoenix was revealed in the place of Han Li.
The phoenix abruptly swept a wing up ahead, and a thin white line appeared out of thin air.
The white line warped slightly before opening up a white rift, and the phoenix flapped its wings as it disappeared into the spatial rift.
At the same time, an identical white line appeared out of thin air right above the Spirit Engulfing Fire Raven and the devilish vulture.
The white line then split open in a soundless manner, and the upper half of the phoenix's body extended out from it.
