Upon hearing the Young Prince's voice, Han Li's expression shifted slightly, his face turning a shade paler.
But as he slowly turned around, his composure returned, betraying no trace of panic. Instead, a cold smile hung at the corner of his lips, his gaze cutting toward the members of the Black Fiend Sect and the bald Foundation Establishment stage cultivator with an icy edge.
Han Li's calm demeanor steadied the Four Friends of Mengshan as well. Their hearts settled somewhat, and after exchanging glances, they flew in unison to position themselves behind Han Li, forming a standoff against the Black Fiend Sect.
"It's you! Aren't you that man from the Qin family? You're a Foundation Establishment cultivator?"
The Young Prince recognized Han Li's face, and his eyes filled with utter astonishment. The gaunt figure standing beside him, though silent, wore a similarly shocked expression.
Only the bald giant stared fixedly at Han Li, a grave look surfacing on his face. He suddenly spoke:
"Be careful. This man is a mid Foundation Establishment cultivator — an entire realm above me. I'm afraid we'll need to deploy the Black Wind Formation to assist before we can capture him."
Hearing this, the Young Prince showed no worry. Rather, a hint of delight crossed his face as he asked:
"Blood Guard, sir! If that's so, wouldn't offering him as a blood sacrifice to the Sect Master for his cultivation yield even better results?"
The giant let out a dark chuckle and replied:
"Of course. The Foundation Establishment cultivators we caught before were only at early Foundation Establishment. This one's essence blood will be far superior to theirs!"
Having received confirmation from the bald giant, the Young Prince cast a greedy glance back at Han Li, then suddenly burst into hearty laughter.
"Good, very good! No matter what your true purpose or background may be, you will not leave this place alive today."
"Deploy the Black Wind Formation! Attack!"
After his laughter subsided, the Young Prince's face turned cold as he barked the order.
Instantly, the black-robed cultivators drew pitch-black banners from their bodies and flew rapidly to surround Han Li, enclosing him within their circle. They immediately began waving the banners in their hands.
"Just focus on defense. Leave everything else to me," Han Li said flatly to the Four Friends of Mengshan. Then his figure blurred and he vanished from the spot in the blink of an eye.
"Watch out!"
The bald giant, seeing Han Li disappear, turned pale and roared, but it was already a beat too late.
Han Li's figure flickered behind one of the black-robed cultivators and vanished just as quickly. The cultivator who had been waving his banner froze in place, standing dazed. Then, without any warning, his head rolled to the ground. The headless corpse spurted blood several feet high and collapsed to the earth.
And at that very moment, the bald giant's final word of warning had only just left his lips.
The sight sent a chill through the remaining banner-wielding cultivators. Before they could even decide what to do, Han Li's figure materialized once more behind another one. A flash and he was gone again, and this man's head dropped to the ground just the same.
This time, the remaining black-robed cultivators hesitated no longer. They stopped waving their black banners and activated colorful protective barriers and all manner of defensive magical treasures.
But in that brief instant, two more black-robed cultivators who had not yet managed to activate their defenses fell to Han Li's ruthless blade, their bodies lying lifeless on the spot.
"You little brat, courting death!"
The bald giant's eyes flared with a dark crimson glow, and he let out a low roar. His entire body erupted with blood-colored radiance as he charged toward Han Li at breathtaking speed.
Han Li cast a cold glance at the giant hurtling toward him wrapped in that sphere of crimson light, then looked at the black-robed cultivators who had all activated their protective barriers and were watching him with horrified eyes. Without hesitation, he flickered and reappeared beside the Four Friends of Mengshan, dozens of zhang away.
The giant's charge met empty air. He let out a beast-like roar and immediately turned without pause, charging straight toward Han Li and his companions. He still had not deployed a single magical treasure.
Seeing this, the second eldest among the Four Friends of Mengshan saw an opportunity. He raised his hand and sent a tri-blade spike glowing with green light shooting silently toward the giant's face.
The bald giant saw the magical treasure flying toward him, but instead of dodging, a savage grin spread across his face. He didn't slow down in the slightest — he charged straight into it.
The tall, thin second eldest was overjoyed, exclaiming excitedly:
"This fool is doomed! My Green-Glow Spike is a supreme upper-grade magical treasure — it'll surely— How is that possible?! My Green-Glow Spike!"
He had barely finished speaking when the scene before him froze him in shock, and he cried out involuntarily.
The tri-blade spike had barely touched the blood-colored radiance surrounding the bald giant when that crimson light seemed to come alive. It suddenly coiled around the weapon and dragged it inside, and no matter how wildly the spike darted and twisted, it could not escape by even half a step.
"Ha ha ha! A glimmer of rice-grain light, and you dare show it off!" The giant roared with laughter, reached out with a blood-red hand, and seized the tri-blade spike in a crushing grip. Then he twisted his hands, and the weapon's green glow scattered in all sparks as its spiritual energy drained completely — it was thoroughly destroyed.
At this, not only did the Four Friends of Mengshan show expressions of great fear, but even Han Li felt his heart skip a beat. This bald giant was definitely not practicing an ordinary cultivation technique. Nine times out of ten, it was a supreme devilish art of the same class as the one practiced by the Young Master of the Ghost Spirit Sect.
The bald giant had no intention of giving Han Li and the others time to think. In the blink of an eye, he stood before them and raised a massive blood-red fist, smashing it down upon the combined protective barrier projected by the Four Friends of Mengshan.
With a tremendous boom, the barrier — the joint effort of four Qi Condensation stage cultivators — buckled deeply under the blow, dimming drastically.
The Four Friends of Mengshan's faces changed drastically. A fist this powerful would crush even ordinary defensive magical treasures into scrap if it connected head-on.
"Senior, what should we..."
The dark-faced elder hastily turned his head, hoping Han Li might have some way to stop the enemy.
Under such an assault, their combined barrier would not last more than a few more strikes.
Han Li said nothing, but with a wave of his hand, a small shield radiating dazzling white light shot from his palm. In an instant it swelled to several times its size and positioned itself firmly before the barrier, meeting the bald giant's other blood-red fist head-on.
CLANG!
A deafening, ear-piercing crash rang out, shaking heaven and earth. Nearby cultivators who had not braced themselves were staggered and nearly fell to the ground.
The Four Friends of Mengshan were similarly dizzy for a long while. The only ones whose expressions remained unchanged were Han Li and the bald giant.
Han Li stared at the White Phosphorus Shield with an unchanging face. Though it had absorbed the giant's blow, a slight dent marred its once-smooth surface. He felt a secret chill run through him.
He knew exactly how resilient the White Phosphorus Shield was, and his wariness of the giant only deepened.
With this thought, Han Li no longer hesitated. He slapped his storage pouch.
Two streaks of dark light and six streaks of golden light shot out simultaneously, hurtling mercilessly toward the giant. The combined roar of so many high-grade magical treasures working in concert sent out a terrifying, sky-shaking force that made the bald giant's face betray a flicker of fear.
He let out a wild roar, and the blood-colored radiance on his body suddenly intensified, enveloping his entire form in a sphere of crimson light. It swelled into a massive blood-colored orb two or three zhang tall, floating motionless in the air.
Han Li's — Gold Light — stabbed toward it, but what followed left Han Li feeling an eerie sense of unease.
No matter how his magical treasures slashed and stabbed at the sphere, there was no movement from within. And once a weapon penetrated about half a chi, it could not advance a single inch further — something like a protective barrier was blocking every attack with brute force.
Growing slightly anxious, Han Li suddenly remembered something and hurriedly looked around. What he saw made his killing intent surge.
Under the direction of the Young Prince and the masked man suspected to be Steward Wang, the black-robed cultivators had reorganized and were once again closing in on them, waving their black banners frantically. The banners had already begun emitting ghostly wails, and strange black mist billowed from them, swirling endlessly around each banner.
This scene reminded Han Li of the Azure Yang Devil Fire he had encountered at the spirit stone mine — the ritual to summon it was strikingly similar. He would never allow them to complete theirs.
With this thought, Han Li pointed a finger and recalled the White Phosphorus Shield. Without a word, he pressed it into the hands of the dark-faced elder and said coldly:
"Borrow this for now. I'll deal with the others first."
Then Han Li's figure flickered, and he appeared outside the protective barrier. The magical treasures that had been stabbing wildly at the blood-colored sphere whistled back to his side automatically, orbiting around him as they hummed and buzzed.