Currently, Han Li’s party was thousands of kilometers to the west of Jade Blossom Island.
A few days ago, a party of cultivators were ambushed by a grade-eight blue flood dragon. Although the flood dragon was rather cunning and wouldn’t likely stay in the vicinity, the South Sea Sect had sent them on a search regardless to see if they could acquire any unexpected gains.
When in the presence of so many people, Han Li couldn’t fully use his spiritual sense or he would risk attracting the attention of the Nascent Soul cultivator leading their squad. He could only release enough spiritual sense for him to detect traces of the flood dragons ahead of time, which was five kilometers around him and the surface of the ocean.
As the day went on, they finished most of their search, but surprisingly, they weren’t able to find anything.
Suddenly, a cultivator at the front yelled out in surprise, “What’s that!?”
Han Li turned his attention from the sea to the sky after hearing this, catching sight of surging clouds that spanned for over a kilometer flying towards them.
An uproar was raised amongst the group and one of them shouted with delight, “This is good! There should be a high-grade demon beast within. Do not allow it to escape.”
One of the more vigilant cultivators hesitantly said, “Something is amiss. Those flood dragons usually flee as soon as they see us. So then why would they take the initiative to approach us? Do they have some sort of plan?”
The Nascent Soul cultivator leading the squad was a large middle-aged man who wore golden robes. He frowned when he heard the two and unconsciously turned in their direction. However, his face suddenly froze and he loudly shouted, “Be careful! There are demon beasts approaching us from another direction!”
When the group heard this, they were frightened into action. They all spat out their magic treasures and prepared themselves for battle, but as far as the eye could see, they couldn’t find any trace of a demon beast.
The cultivators glanced at one another. Just as they were about to speak, an ear-piercing roar shook the air. Then, various-colored clouds had appeared in the distance. They continuously lurched and revealed the faint silhouettes of flood dragons from within.
But what was most noteworthy were the two particularly large demon clouds in the east and the west, glowing in red and blue light respectively, making for a gorgeous display.
At this close distance, the cultivators could feel the fearsome power of the flood dragons that the clouds contained. Most turned pale with terror, and one of them even lost himself to fear and cried out, “How can this be? Two grade-eight demon beasts…”
Another grade-eight flood dragon had made a sudden appearance. They were no longer satisfied with ambushing them, but now wanted to completely eliminate them. The hunters have turned into the hunted.
The squad leader was still able to keep his calm under the circumstances and he fiercely barked, “Don’t panic! Quickly send word to the other squads! Divide into groups to face the enemy. Do not let them gather together, their strength will become even greater. And don’t even try to escape; with their water movement techniques, they’ll be able to pick us off one by one.”
The orders steadied the group and several immediately released a flurry of voice transmission talismans into the sky.
The leader then sullenly added, “I will go and deal with one of the grade-eight flood dragons. Two cultivators skilled in evasion techniques should tie down the other to keep it occupied for a while. You don’t need to fight it. As for everyone else, go and stall the grade-seven flood dragons.”
But this time, the cultivators looked at each other in dismay.
Although these cultivators couldn’t prove to be their match, they were confident in surviving the grade-seven flood dragons for a time. But wasn’t it asking for too much for only two of them to fight against the grade-eight flood dragon? Even if it were only to stall for time, ordinary cultivators couldn’t last for long.
“If two won’t do, then let’s have three!” Their leader anxiously spoke.
Not long after, thunder sounded out and an astonishing scene had occurred. An unremarkable cultivator from their group suddenly took to the skies with overbearing momentum, turning into a streak of blinding azure light as it flew towards the crimson cloud.
“A Nascent Soul cultivator, at mid-Nascent Soul stage!” Those present shouted out in both surprise and delight.
Their leader also rejoiced. ‘Could it be the South Sea Sect felt that something was amiss and hid a Nascent Soul cultivator in my group?’
With that thought, he turned his sights on the incoming sapphire cloud and charged towards it without another thought.
Seeing that the two biggest threats were being blocked by Nascent Soul cultivators, the squad’s morale rose and they flew off in different directions to obstruct the other approaching demon clouds.
Soon, lights began to shine in every direction, followed by the sounds of distant explosions.
But unlike the others, the cloud in front of Han Li remained motionless as a sea of scarlet inferno burned around him. He was protected by a layer of faint purple flames, and it would only let out the crackle of an occasional singe, a sound that was nothing in comparison to the thunderous booms echoing from the other battles.
A hundred meters in front of him, there was a transformed half-human demon beast. He was surrounded by a pillar of flames and was coldly glaring at Han Li. Although the demon appeared to be mostly human, his body was covered in sparkling fist-sized scarlet scales and variously-sized threads of flame were streaming out from his body.
Han Li widely smiled and said, “So it was actually a Scarlet Flame Flood Dragon, I was right in coming. Your scales will prove much more effective than a grade-seven one.”
“You’re going to fight me?” The transformed scarlet flood dragon blankly stared at Han Li before widely grinning, revealing snow-white fangs. Then with a green glint from his eyes, the flame pillar surrounding him surged with an astonishing pressure.
Despite the flood dragon’s fierce display, he truly felt anxious.
The cultivator who charged towards him was not only at mid-Nascent Soul stage, but his purple ice-attribute flames were profoundly lethal. These weird flames restrained his own diligently cultivated demon flames, and that will greatly restrict his own abilities.
Furthermore, Han Li’s calm attitude had caused his heart to tremble for some unknown reason. The flood dragon faintly felt that disaster would soon befall him, and became even more uneasy.
Han Li chuckled and indifferently said, “The reason why I came here was because I heard that there were grade-seven flood dragons. Now that you’re here, I no longer have any interest in those minor prizes. However, I also don’t have much of an interest in killing you since you were able to cultivate to this stage and am willing to let you go. How about you take the initiative to hand over the vital scales on your neck and have the other flood dragons depart?”
“My vital scales? Your tone is truly bold. Does a trifling mid-Nascent Soul cultivator dare to be so arrogant? Let's see if your attitude will persist after you turn to ash.” Han Li’s words had thrown the flood dragon into a rage.
Vital scales were something that a flood dragon kept since they were born and were irreplaceable. As they aged, much of their magic power and vitality would be cultivated into their scales, similar to a demon core. If lost, they would lose nearly half of their cultivation.
Enraged, the half-human flood dragon began to distort and a soft bang sounded out. The flame pillar surrounding it scattered, revealing a twenty-meter-long and meter-thick scarlet flood dragon. The original fear in his mind was replaced completely by a thirst to rend Han Li to shreds.
As soon as the beast revealed its demon form, it opened its mouth and spat a stream of crimson lava towards Han Li.
When he saw this, he raised his brow and muttered, “Concentrated Flameslag! This demon flame has been well cultivated. It seems I’ll have to personally take action.”
With that said, Han Li didn’t dare to tarry. Slapping the back of his head, he spat out the Snow Crystal Pearl.
As soon as a pearl appeared, it immediately expanded to the size of a fist and directly flew forward to meet the attack. At the same time, Han Li softy spoke and pointed at the pearl before muttering a short incantation. The pearl ignited in a purple blaze, quickly forming a three-meter-long flood dragon of raging flame with the pearl held in its mouth.
As soon as the purple dragon took shape, it charged forward to meet the lava steam.
With a loud snap, a white mist suddenly filled the air and enveloped the two of them. The purple flame dragon was using the pearl in its mouth to spit out a stream of purple flames, slowly pushing back the lava.
When the scarlet flood dragon saw this, a hint of fear was betrayed from his face. But soon, an ominous gleam shined from his eyes and scarlet light glowed from his body as he let out a fierce screech.
The sea of flames surrounding Han Li was roused by the noise and began to form two thirty-meter-tall waves of flame to crush him from opposing directions.
Han Li coldly smiled when he saw this. He slapped his hands together and then separated them to point at the waves of lava.
Purple light flickered in front of him and a clear ring sounded out. A sparkling hundred-meter-tall mountain of brilliant ice suddenly condensed around him, firmly blocking the incoming tides of lava.
Upon this, the flood dragon blurred and reduced his body to a mere three meters in length.
As soon as that happened, the beast ceased spewing lava and shot towards Han Li in a scarlet streak. He traveled sixty meters in the blink of an eye and began to swipe its claws down.
Now that the flood dragon saw that its inferno was ineffective against Han Li, he planned on striking him down with his claws.
