Chapter 1048: True Colors

At this moment, Lan Yan was holding a weapon resembling a long-handled curved sickle, with three water-blue crystals embedded at the top of the blade, constantly flashing with clear light.

The man standing back-to-back with her held a slender longsword, also embedded with three water-blue crystals, which rippled with layers of water-blue light waves as he swung it.

The two worked together, calmly dealing with two metal beasts shaped like barbarian lions.

“These metal beasts are of no low grade; their cores must contain metallic law power. Why not kill a few more?” Lan Yan said with a smile, water ripples flowing around her.

“Compared to the treasure in this Time Tower, what are these metal beasts worth? We should find a way out as soon as possible; staying here is meaningless.” Lan Yuanzi shook his head and said.

“That works too. So many metal beasts would be troublesome to kill. Let’s go deeper and take a look.” Lan Yan said excitedly.

“Don’t be too careless. These things are not weak in attack; it would be bad if you got hurt by being careless.” Lan Yuanzi, clearly more steady, spoke.

As they spoke, the two barbarian lion metal beasts charged again with roars.

Lan Yan lightly tapped the ground with her toe, and her whole body floated up, leaping into the air.

She raised one hand and pointed into the void, and a vast blue light rippled from her fingertip, condensing into a shimmering water-blue light screen.

On the light screen, circles of ring-shaped runes emerged, emitting a rich water-attribute aura.

The barbarian lion charging at her crashed into the light screen with a tremendous boom.

The water-blue light screen, like a rainstorm, stirred up countless blue droplets on its surface, but it remained unbroken, firmly holding back the barbarian lion metal beast, preventing it from advancing an inch.

Almost simultaneously, the blue curved sickle in Lan Yan’s other hand traced a blue arc through the air, shining like a blue crescent moon.

With a sharp sound, the water-blue light screen Lan Yan had spread split open, and the barbarian lion beast behind it was sliced through by the crescent moon, cleaved in two from the middle.

On the other side, Lan Yuanzi was even more direct, with no defensive moves at all. He shot straight up, and as his water-blue slender sword swept, a spiral of water light spun out from the blade, like a sharp spear thrusting straight at the barbarian lion’s brow.

With a soft “puff” sound!

The head of that beast, condensed from metallic power and supposed to be extremely hard, was pierced by the water light surging from his sword, blasting open a huge gap.

Yu Kuohai, fleeing in panic, saw this and was even more alarmed.

So there were more than one fellow like “Fellow Daoist Shi” who pretended to be clueless. From now on, when encountering those unremarkable-looking people, he would no longer dare to be so arrogant.

Just then, he noticed that “Fellow Daoist Shi” glanced at him, and his heart leaped to his throat. Fortunately, the other only looked once and then looked away, without any other action.

Even so, the uneasy Yu Kuohai instinctively moved away from these three, fleeing toward another direction, afraid that if they took a dislike to him, they would strike him dead on the spot.

Han Li had no time to bother with him at the moment. The reason he had looked this way was that his spiritual sense had detected a more powerful metal beast approaching from that direction.

He shifted his gaze back to the Lan siblings, frowned, and found that the two had disappeared.

Just as Han Li was puzzled, a sharp screech came from above. The golden eagle that had ambushed him earlier, after killing Elder Yang, had now set its sights on him again.

“Annoying!”

Han Li frowned, slightly turned sideways, raised a fist, and punched upward.

The golden eagle, which had been circling for a long time, had just descended when its two steel claws were struck by Han Li’s fist, directly exploding into a dazzling golden light.

With a loud “boom”!

The golden eagle’s steel claws were hit by a surging star force and burst apart.

Its broken body flew sideways and was swallowed in one gulp by a metal beast shaped like a qilin that came charging over.

The qilin roared to the sky, golden light flashing on its back, and two golden wings sprouted from it.

Seeing this beast, Han Li was slightly surprised. The powerful aura he had sensed earlier seemed to belong to this beast.

The qilin metal beast galloped on all fours, charging straight at Han Li.

It opened its bloody mouth wide, and a mass of golden molten liquid spewed out, pouring down toward him.

Han Li turned his wrist, and the Green Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword appeared, which he grasped and swung upward in a torch-lighting-the-sky motion.

“Crackle…”

Golden electric light and green sword qi on the Green Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword mixed together, forming a green sword screen entwined with lightning, surging upward.

As soon as the two sides met, large swaths of golden lightning merged with the golden molten liquid.

Within the golden molten liquid, sharp qi seemed to exist, and in a few breaths, it cut through the golden lightning, turning it into fine, hair-thin electric threads.

However, the golden molten liquid also lost most of its power from the lightning, and was then torn apart by the green sword qi.

Han Li flew up through the gap torn by the sword qi, charging straight at the qilin metal beast.

The latter, seeing this, flapped its newly grown wings vigorously, and golden winds swept out from under them, like golden blades, cutting the void into pieces.

With his path blocked by the golden wind, Han Li’s foot made a “bang” sound.

He stepped on the void, rising step by step, passed over the golden wind area, and arrived above the qilin’s head. He suddenly raised a fist and smashed downward.

“Boom, boom, boom…”

The void shook violently, and a powerful oppressive force generated from Han Li’s fist, forcibly pressing down the golden light permeating the surrounding void, landing a heavy blow on the qilin’s head.

With a loud “rumble”!

The qilin’s enormous body could not withstand it; its four legs splayed, and it fell directly to the ground.

Its huge head, though not yet cracked, wobbled unsteadily, as if it could barely hold itself together.

Han Li landed on its head, a look of hesitation on his face.

After a moment, he raised two fingers and touched his brow, then pulled outward.

A white crystalline thread, as fine as a hair, slowly extracted from it, winding around his fingertip like a floating spirit snake.

“Go!”

Han Li pointed with his fingers, and the white crystalline thread shot out, striking the qilin metal beast’s head and sinking in.

After the crystalline thread disappeared, the qilin’s still-shaking head drooped completely, as if it had fallen asleep.

Light flashed on Han Li’s right hand, and a huge silver light door appeared before the qilin.

“Go in, and from now on, guard my home well.” With that, Han Li leaped back and kicked the qilin’s rump, sending the massive creature tumbling into the light door.

Then he closed the Flower Orchard Cave Heaven, turned his gaze, and looked in a certain direction.

There, a water-blue light screen rippled through the golden light, and a pair of handsome and beautiful men and women, like a fairy couple, walked out side by side.

Han Li looked closely and saw it was the Lan siblings.

“That’s a genuine Cave Heaven treasure! No wonder you could plunder such a large secret realm. But even scraping the ground clean—Fellow Daoist Han, your table manners are really unsightly.” Lan Yan covered her mouth and laughed.

“When did you discover my identity?” Han Li frowned slightly and asked.

“Fellow Daoist Han has been secretly spying on us siblings; how could we not notice you?” Lan Yuanzi said calmly.

“Lan siblings… you?” Han Li looked at their intimate manner and felt somewhat uncomfortable.

Lan Yan’s expression turned slightly unnatural, and she said angrily:

“My brother and I are fellow disciples. We were both picked up by our master in our early years and took his surname. Only someone as rude as you would think such filthy thoughts.”

Lan Yuanzi, however, looked natural, showing no abnormality.

“What you are is none of my business. I thought if you didn’t cause trouble, we could avoid a fight. Now it seems… that’s not possible?” Han Li shifted his gaze and said.

“Avoiding a fight is possible too. If Fellow Daoist Han surrenders and returns to Nine Yuan Temple with us after this secret realm exploration, awaiting the ancestor’s judgment, that would work.” Lan Yuanzi chuckled and said.

“Do all you people from Nine Yuan Temple like to make such jokes? The last person who said that was named Dongfang Bai. Do you know him?” Han Li smiled helplessly and asked calmly.

“You…” Lan Yan was furious.

She hooked her sickle, ready to attack Han Li, but Lan Yuanzi reached out and stopped her.

“Don’t let him provoke you. This man killed Dongfang Bai in the upper immortal palace; he’s no simple character. Even we must be careful.” Lan Yuanzi advised.

Lan Yan’s expression softened slightly, her eyes fixed on Han Li, and she raised her long-handled curved sickle a bit, switching to a two-handed grip.

“Since Fellow Daoist Han insists on a fight to see the outcome, let’s settle it with our skills.” Lan Yuanzi’s expression turned serious, pointing his longsword to the ground and making a light sweep in front of him.

As he spoke, a light shone on him, and a water-blue spherical light domain expanded, covering an area of several hundred zhang around them.

Han Li frowned slightly, noticing that the metallic power in the surrounding void seemed to thin out considerably, and the metal beasts were driven away by this domain, fleeing far from the area.

As for the cultivators from Wangyou Pavilion and Lingxiao Sect, they were already mostly dead or wounded, with few remaining.

“Your domain is quite special. Though spread out, it hasn’t shown any killing power yet, but it can drive away those metal beasts.” Han Li remarked in wonder.