“Go!” Han Li shouted, pointing at Eccentric Jin. The blue flame bird unfolded its wings and shot forward in a streak of blue light.
When Eccentric Jin saw this, anger suddenly appeared on his sullen face. Han Li didn’t release any magic treasures, but simply sent a single firebird to attack; he was looking down on him far too much. But Eccentric Jin’s anger was soon replaced with a smile and he quickly formed incantation gestures to activate his most formidable sword technique, intending to win the battle in a single blow.
Each of the three golden streaks revolving above his head cried out with dragonic roars and suddenly disappeared to be replaced by a golden thread. Not only was it extremely thin but it was also ten meters long.
Then golden light successively flashed in front of Eccentric Jin, followed by more and more golden threads. In the blink of an eye, over a hundred golden threads densely gathered in front of him. They shined brilliantly in a beautiful display.
‘Swordthread transformation!’ A cold glint flashed from Han Li’s eyes and astonishment appeared on his face. Although he knew Eccentric Jin was a sword cultivator, being able to create so many sword threads in an instant was something rarely heard of. He was truly deserving of his title as grand elder of the Ancient Sword Sect.
When the spectating cultivators saw Eccentric Jin make use of this ability, their expressions revealed shock.
The Hundred possibilities pavilion elders couldn’t help but speak amongst each other.
“Spring Thread Execution!”
“The older, the wiser! He wants to finish the battle in a single decisive blow!”
“I suspect Fellow Daoist Han will suffer a bit from his carelessness.”
As for the middle-aged cultivator that arrived with Eccentric Jin, a trace of joy appeared on his face. Lu Luo appeared slightly shaken, but Senior Martial Brother Cheng and Lady Brightscent were completely unperturbed.
At that moment, Eccentric Jin loudly yelled and released a string of spell seals onto the sword threads in front of him. Spirit light wildly flashed and the sword threads weaved a huge golden net before moving to envelope the blue flame bird.
The golden net was over forty meters wide and the flame bird was only half a foot long. To the spectators it appeared as if the bird would be destroyed with excessive force, but what followed came as a huge shock to them.
As soon as the blue flame bird and the golden net made contact, an eruption sounded out and light wildly flashed. A lotus of blue light emerged from the flames and began to slowly turn and unfold its petals. The countless golden sword threads attempted to cut the lotus flower down, but all of their attacks were repelled. They simply caused the light surrounding the lotus to ripple.
The cultivators who were familiar with the incisiveness of the Spring Thread Execution were dumbstruck by the sight of this. Eccentric Jin was particularly struck with disbelief and furious alarm when he saw this and hastily commanded the sword technique with his hands.
The several sword threads released a series of flashes before growing even thinner and glowing with blinding radiance. Then, they begun another assault onto the blue light, cutting through the lotus’ surrounding light and making its way to strike directly at the center of the flower.
But then, the lotus petals began to bloom. A cold blue mist of light began to scatter around the lotus and enveloped everything sixty meters around it in a blinding radiance.
Eccentric Jin immediately felt the connection to his flying swords sever. Reeling from the absence of his swords’ presence, he looked over in shock.
A short moment later, Eccentric Jin’s expression turned extremely unsightly. The lotus had already disappeared without a trace, only to be replaced with a huge glacier of blue ice. His three flying swords were sealed inside, incapable of making the slightest movement.
‘Not good!’ Eccentric Jin cursed and slapped his storage pouch, summoning a white jade pendant into his grasp. But before he could activate it, he suddenly heard thunder from behind him.
In Eccentric Jin’s shock, he instantly thought to fly to the side, but the light protecting him was easily shattered in an instant. Immediately after, a palm glowing with blue flames pressed against his shoulder, and he immediately felt half his body turn cold and lose sensation.
“Fellow Daoist Jin! From the way I see it, our battle has already come to an end. What do you think?”
Eccentric Jin grew sullen at being completely restrained in a single move, but he promptly said, “As expected, Fellow Daoist Han’s abilities are great. I concede defeat!”
“Brother Jin was going easy on me!” Han Li smiled and lightly slapped Eccentric Jin’s shoulder before withdrawing his hand.
With the slap, Eccentric Jin felt his shoulder warm up and return to normal. He then hastily turned around in alarm and saw Han Li calmly standing three meters away from him. At an unknown time, a pair of silver wings with lightning arcing off of it had appeared on his back.
Eccentric Jin let out a long sigh. Han Li’s amazing ability to use glacial power with such subtlety was truly beyond belief. However, he had heard that Han Li’s main magic treasures were a set of flying swords, and it appeared that his main cultivation art wasn’t ice-attributed. He found it incredibly that a secret technique Han Li casually made use of to be so powerful.
“Youngster Han, you made good use of my advice.” Monarch Soul Divergence chuckled from the back of Han Li’s mind, “But it is a pity that your main cultivation art isn’t ice-attributed given how well you can control the Celestial Ice Flames.”
“Please don’t joke around, Senior. Although the Celestial Ice Flames are powerful, it isn’t to the point that Junior should change his cultivation art.” Han Li calmly responded and withdrew his Thunderstorm Wings. Then, he flew to the huge glacier in a streak of azure light.
With a casual wave of his sleeve, azure mist shot out and dissolved the blue ice, condensing it back into a sparkling blue lotus flower. The lotus then flew back to Han Li and disappeared as it entered his forehead.
As for Eccentric Jin’s three golden swords, they regained their freedom and flew back to him with a weakened appearance. Although they were only sealed in the blue ice for a short while, their spiritual nature had been weakened, much to Eccentric Jin’s gloom.
At that moment, Han Li floated down to the mountain where the other cultivators were watching.
From restraining Eccentric Jin’s flying swords with the lotus of Celestial Ice Flames to using the Thunderstorm Wings to restraining Eccentric Jin directly, Han Li’s easily acquired victory had taken only a single instant, much to the disappointment to the spectators wishing for a grand battle. However, this display caused them to hold Han Li’s abilities in fear. Han Li’s refusal to use a magic treasure only further demonstrated the gap in power between him and his opponent.
When Han Li landed on the mountain, the cultivators all warmly welcomed him despite whatever they truly had in mind.
“Fellow Daoist Han’s abilities are as profound as expected. It is exactly as rumor had it.”
“Congratulations to the Drifting Cloud Sect for becoming the number one sect on the Dreamcloud Mountains!”
The ones speaking were naturally the elders of the Hundred Possibilities Pavilion. Although their ranking had sank to the bottom, they didn’t seem to care in the slightest. Rather, they spoke with great enthusiasm.
As for the middle-aged man from the Ancient Sword Sect, his expression grew unsightly, but with respect to Han Li’s display of power, he could only force a smile despite not managing to congratulate him. As for Lady Brightscent, she appeared completely unperturbed apart from a momentary display of shock.
Of course, Senior Martial Brother Cheng and Lu Luo were overjoyed by this outcome. This battle likely cemented the Drifting Cloud Sect’s position over the other two sects for the next thousand years.
The Nascent Soul Elders were now crowding around Han Li and asking him about the abilities he had just used. Appearing as calm as ever, Han Li simply gave a few brief words about the Celestial Ice Flames and Thunderstorm Wings. Of course, the others didn’t dare to further pursue the topic.
A short moment later, Eccentric Jin also floated down from the sky. At this point, he had recovered his composure as if the battle hadn’t occurred and smiled as he chatted with the others. This calm composure caused Han Li to feel a slight trace of admiration towards him.
With the division of the Dreamcloud Mountain’s resources changed, the eccentrics began to exchange their own cultivation experiences and began to trade rare materials that they had no use for. While small-scale trades didn’t capture Han Li’s interest, he had learned much from their experiences, particularly a few things he had overlooked during his own cultivation. This had convinced Han Li that he may as well participate in these meetings in the future as they could prove greatly beneficial towards his own cultivation.
With a majority of the day passed by, the meeting came to an end. Han Li then took the initiative to ask for a tour of the Hundred Possibilities Pavilion’s Earth Lung Fire reservoirs. Surprised, Eccentric Pyre agreed. When Han Li saw the unfathomably deep vein of Earth Lung Fire, he couldn’t help but sink into his thoughts.
After a long while passed, the visiting cultivators each bid their farewells and departed from the Hundred Possibilities Pavilion.
Han Li and his senior martial brothers flew back in the direction of the Drifting Cloud Mountains, but on the way, Lu Luo continuously spoke in high spirits with Senior Martial Brother Cheng about the spirit stone mines and areas that produced other rare resources. These areas belonged to both the Ancient Sword Sect and Hundred Possibilities Pavilion, but soon a portion of them will be handed over to the Drifting Cloud Sect.
Although Senior Martial Brother Cheng wasn’t as excited as Lu Luo, he was also in a very good mood.
Han Li wasn’t interested in the topic and simply smiled as he heard the two speak. But just as they were about to arrive at the sect, Senior Martial Brother Cheng suddenly turned to Han Li and said, “Junior Martial Brother Han, this is all thanks to you! Having our sect be the number one sect in the State of Xi had been the dream of our sect elders for many generations. Now that this has been accomplished, I can consider my life to be fulfilled. As I have discussed with you both before, I plan to pass away in meditation. As for the position of the sect’s grand elder, how about I hand it over to Junior Martial Brother Han?”
