Chapter 1002: Fist Falls

Jin Chuan suddenly swept his sleeve, and under the bright sun, countless raindrops materialized out of thin air, densely pouring down, instantly covering an area of a thousand zhang around Han Li.

Han Li narrowed his eyes and saw faint flickers of blue and purple light within the seemingly gentle raindrops.

"Poisonous..."

He thought to himself, and with a single hand, he threw a punch.

White starlight surged from his fist, pushing upward like a barrier of starlight, driving back the countless raindrops a hundred zhang until they vanished into the void.

Just as Han Li was about to leap into the air to pursue, he suddenly felt his feet tighten and found himself unable to move.

Beneath his feet, a layer of cyan water had somehow gathered, coiling upward in rings, tightly binding his legs in place.

The cyan water glowed with an emerald-like luster, and within it could be faintly seen strange patterns resembling dao marks, containing an unexpectedly rich law of water.

Han Li abruptly lifted his legs, only to find them incredibly heavy, as if they had grown together with the entire earth, unable to move an inch.

"Brother Tao, my Water Binding Technique is connected to the underground water veins. To break free, one must contend with hundreds or thousands of underground rivers. He absolutely cannot escape within a quarter-hour. Strike quickly, and..."

Before Jin Chuan could finish his words, his voice abruptly ceased, and the smug expression on his face instantly turned to terror.

A figure suddenly flashed before him; the fluctuations of the Time Law power on his body had just dissipated when an unimaginable surge of flesh-and-blood power swelled forth.

Han Li's over nine hundred profound apertures all lit up, and the Heavenly Fiend Prison Suppression Art within him operated at full power. As his arm shot out, the void itself seemed about to shatter, producing a series of explosive booms.

Jin Chuan was greatly alarmed, and without any visible movement, a patch of rippling water appeared before his chest. A green light water screen directly emerged in the void, undulating with layers of shimmering ripples.

Han Li's fist smashed into the green light water screen, and he felt his fist tip pulled by a strange force. Though it clearly struck the surface, he had the illusion of punching into empty air, unable to unleash his fist's power or reach Jin Chuan's chest.

"Now! Hurry!" Jin Chuan shouted with a tense expression.

Almost as soon as the word 'hurry' left his mouth, Tao Ji's figure flashed into the void less than a hundred zhang behind Han Li, his body wreathed in crimson flames. He formed hand seals before his chest and bellowed.

"Go!"

With a resounding boom, the nine emblem patterns on the golden flying sword all lit up. In addition to the seven layers of colored flames enveloping the blade, two more layers of black and white light flames appeared on its surface.

With just two extra layers of flames, the aura of the flying sword surged several times over, almost comparable to a fifth-grade immortal artifact.

The flying sword shot forward explosively, reaching behind Han Li in an instant.

Almost at the same time, golden light erupted behind Han Li, and a golden hollow treasure wheel emerged, spinning rapidly. Golden rays burst forth from it, shrouding the surroundings.

As soon as the blazing flying sword entered the range of the golden rays, its speed plummeted sharply, nearly freezing in midair.

The flying sword trembled violently, its surface surging with nine-colored flames that continuously burned and consumed the surrounding golden rays. Yet it could only maintain its forward momentum without slowing, unable to break free from the golden light's restraint.

Tao Ji, who had expected to land a decisive blow, stood frozen in disbelief.

And Jin Chuan, who was closest and had witnessed the scene with his own eyes, felt even his divine sense solidify.

"It seems you really can't pull off any tricks. How disappointing..." Han Li sighed as he activated his true spirit bloodlines simultaneously.

A bloody red light emanated from his body, and his form suddenly swelled, transforming in an instant into a three-headed, six-armed shape.

Of the three heads on his neck, one resembled a furious golden ape, another a majestic true dragon, and the third a giant bird with golden pupils. This was the three-headed, six-armed form manifested by combining the Heavenly Fiend Prison Suppression Art with his true spirit bloodlines.

After assuming this form, one of Han Li's fists remained sealed by the water curtain, while another dragon-clawed hand covered in golden scales suddenly shot out from under his ribs, piercing through the strange water curtain and plunging directly into Jin Chuan's chest, ripping out his heart.

Without even glancing at the throbbing bloody heart, Han Li clenched his five fingers and crushed it with a single squeeze.

Jin Chuan spewed blood from his mouth, his soul trembling in his dantian. Before he could flee, Han Li struck again with a punch, shattering both his dantian and soul into fragments.

At the same time, Han Li spun around, and the two large hands from his lowest pair of arms shot out, grabbing the golden flying sword that had been trying to break through the True Word Treasure Wheel's light.

A scorching force transmitted through his hands into his body, causing a burning sensation within him. It felt as if even his blood was about to boil, somewhat similar to the backlash of his true spirit bloodlines.

Han Li sneered dismissively. His two large hands, covered in fine scales, clamped down on the sword like hooks. Enduring the relentless assault of rolling flames, he suddenly twisted with all his might.

The flying sword struggled violently, trying to break free from his hand, but it was utterly futile.

Under the impetus of the Heaven Punishment Hell Suppression Art, the power unleashed by the three true spirit bloodlines of the Mountain Ape, True Dragon, and Kunpeng was not something a fifth- or sixth-grade immortal sword could contend with!

With a series of metallic clangs, the flame-wreathed flying sword gradually twisted and deformed, finally letting out a bang as it shattered into pieces.

Clusters of flames shot out, and scorching waves of heat rolled forth. The giant Kunpeng hand transformed by Han Li was charred black, exuding the smell of burnt flesh.

He casually tossed it aside, retracted the blood light from his body, reverted to human form, and smiled as he looked at Tao Ji in the distance.

The moment the flying sword shattered, Tao Ji had already spat blood, turned around, and fled like lightning.

Crimson flames surged from his body, trailing a long line of fire behind him like a flaming arrow shooting into the distance.

However, Han Li's time domain had already sealed off a hundred li of space, and Tao Ji was only a little over a hundred zhang away from him. Bound by the golden light of the Truth Wheel, even if he used some secret technique to temporarily break free, his movements could not be very fast.

"It's too late to leave now!" As soon as Han Li finished speaking, he retracted the wheel into his body and instantly reversed it.

At the same time, he suddenly lifted his foot and stomped heavily on the ground. His body instantly shot up, and in the high sky, a flash of silver lightning coiled around him as he vanished without a trace.

The moment Tao Ji realized Han Li's figure had disappeared, even his divine sense could not accurately lock onto his position. His expression changed drastically, and his terror reached its peak.

He could no longer care about anything else. He formed hand seals and activated a blood-burning secret technique, doubling his speed as he fled into the distance.

"Elder Tao, why are you leaving so soon? Weren't you just saying you would make Han suffer soul annihilation?" Just then, a flash of lightning appeared beside him, accompanied by Han Li's voice.

Tao Ji's eyes were filled with terror; he dared not reply and simply fled with all his might.

Yet Han Li seemed to be deliberately toying with him, always keeping pace but not attacking, saying to him:

"If it weren't for Tao Yu bullying me when I first arrived in the Immortal Realm, attacking me and nearly forcing me into a death trap, how would you father and son have met with today's calamity? If you want to blame someone, blame yourself for not teaching him well..."

Tao Ji's eyes were bloodshot; he had pushed the blood-burning secret technique to its limit, but still could not break free.

"However, I am still merciful. Unlike Elder Tao, who has the hobby of refining souls into lamps, I merely kept Tao Yu's soul by my side to play with for a while. If only Elder Tao could have found him back then..." Han Li continued.

"You dog thief, don't push me too far!" Tao Ji could no longer bear it. He stopped fleeing and halted in place.

As soon as he spoke, the fire light on his body blazed up intensely. His flame domain enveloped the surroundings but rapidly contracted to a hundred zhang, within which clusters of crimson fire clouds hung in the air, their internal temperature soaring.

At the same time, a red glow emanated from his dantian, and cracks like magma appeared on his skin. An invisible aura contracted to the extreme and finally erupted.

A thunderous explosion rang out!

A violent wave of air, carrying wisps of fire-attribute law power, swept in all directions. Rolling, raging fire waves surged outward, scorching and distorting the surrounding void.

Han Li had long sensed this and had already retreated far away.

However, as he retreated, his gaze was fixed on the center of the explosion, his eyes flickering with a faint purple light.

"Hmph, a petty trick!" After watching for a moment, Han Li let out a cold laugh.

With that, his body shot out again, heading straight for the center of the explosion.

Scorching waves rolled through the void as Han Li flew through, but he found that the law power contained within was very weak, far from the power that a true self-destruction should have.

He focused his gaze and saw among the漫天 flames hundreds of fist-sized fire clusters. Unlike ordinary fireballs, they did not scatter but sped in one direction, merging with each other as they approached.

A smile curled at the corner of Han Li's mouth. He pointed forward with two fingers, and a wave of fluctuation stirred in the void. Eighteen streaks of cyan light shot out, transforming into eighteen flying swords that flew straight ahead.

"Crackle..."

A patch of golden lightning exploded, turning into a golden electric net that enveloped all the fire clusters, shattering them into countless tiny flames that scattered and fell.

Seeing this, Han Li waved his hand and recalled all the flying swords.

One of the swords flickered with emerald green light, and a storage ring was still hanging on it.

"If you want to fake your death and escape, at least have the decency to destroy your storage device along with everything else. If you can't bear to part with even that, you lack the necessary boldness." Han Li said with a smile, pinching the storage ring in his hand.

With that, he put away the storage ring and flew back to clean up the battlefield at the green mountain col.

A long time later, a single spark lit up on the crown of an ancient tree in the forest below, drifting upward with the wind and disappearing far into the sky.