Chapter 219: A Small Display of Prowess

Two days later, in the early morning.

The blazing sun rose from the sea, casting its light across Cloud Lake Island, bringing a trace of warmth to the cold island.

At the center of the island, Cloud-Shrouded Lake was covered in a layer of hazy mist that showed no sign of dissipating even under the morning sun.

Han Li, dressed in blue robes, hovered high above the lake, looking down.

Blue light flickered in his eyes as his divine sense swept across the lake, but the miasma blocked his perception, revealing nothing.

With a flicker of his gaze, he shook his wrist, and a black long blade appeared in his hand.

Light flashed on his body, layers of golden scales rose, and his arm swelled. The black blade in his hand immediately emitted a dazzling black radiance, drawing in spiritual energy from the surroundings.

Countless black runes emerged on the blade, radiating waves of black halos mixed with strong fluctuations of law power, causing even the void to tremble.

He swung the blade in an arc before him, then raised it high above his head and slashed down toward the lake.

A whoosh of wind sounded.

The black blade blazed brightly, and a massive blade shadow over a hundred zhang long extended from the blade, crashing heavily into the lake.

Before the blade shadow arrived, the gale struck first.

A fierce wind swept through, pushing the lake mist together like snowflakes and shoving it to both sides.

Rumble—

A thunderous roar erupted as Cloud-Shrouded Lake stirred up violent winds and giant waves. Two water walls over a hundred zhang high split from the center of the lake, surging toward the shores.

Rolling waves raged wildly, crossing the lake banks and rushing into the surrounding forests like a tsunami.

Who seeks death!

Just then, a furious roar came from the lake bottom.

Following that, a golden light shot out from where the water parted, heading straight for Han Li.

Mirage Beast!

Han Li's gaze sharpened, and he saw a square-faced, dark-purple-eyed middle-aged man in a golden robe, holding a golden sword, thrusting toward him.

The man exuded no trace of beast aura, but Han Li's intuition told him this was the one he sought.

The golden sword gleamed with runes, emitting an unstoppable sharp aura.

A sharp clang rang out.

Without a word, Han Li swung his blade to parry. The blade and sword tip clashed heavily, and the force sent the man flying backward, while Han Li only swayed slightly before steadying himself.

Heh, some unknown minor rogue immortal dares to provoke me? Courting death! I happen to need the essence blood of a human true immortal to break through my bottleneck. Just as I was feeling drowsy, someone brings a pillow! The golden-robed man sneered after stabilizing himself hundreds of zhang away.

As he spoke, he tossed his golden sword forward. The blade flashed, splitting into thousands of golden swords that bloomed like a golden lotus in the sky.

The next moment, a clatter filled the air as the golden swords flew out like a golden dragon, charging at Han Li.

Han Li initially thought the golden swords were mere projections, but when the golden dragon lunged and opened its mouth to bite him, he realized they were all real.

Without hesitation, he raised his blade to block. The black blade was caught between several golden sword teeth in the dragon's mouth, locked tightly.

At the same time, a giant hook claw emerged from below, grabbing his chest, tearing his robe, and leaving several shocking white marks on the golden scales on his chest.

Han Li yanked his blade, scraping golden sparks from the dragon's mouth, then kicked off the dragon's head and flew backward.

But before he could steady himself, a wind sounded behind him.

A strange beast resembling a true dragon suddenly appeared from behind, opening its mouth to bite his head.

The beast had a dragon head but no horns, and a dragon body but no claws.

Han Li's pupils contracted. With a flash of green light, he twisted his body at the last moment, brushing past the beast and dodging.

Yet the next moment, sharp pain shot through his shoulder.

The beast had clamped its jaws on his shoulder. Despite his tough physique, its teeth pierced through, and blood gushed out.

Startled, Han Li realized he had dodged but was still bitten.

He raised his other arm holding the blade to strike the dragon head biting his shoulder, but a sudden strong warning made him stop.

The next moment, a sharp pain shot through his mind—not from an external attack, but from his own mental spike to stay conscious.

With this piercing pain, he glanced again at his shoulder, only to find it empty—where was the dragon head?

If he had struck with that blade just now, he would have made a blunder and hacked off his own arm.

"Impossible! How could a mere early-stage True Immortal see through my illusion?" The golden-robed man hovered hundreds of feet away, his face full of disbelief as he demanded.

Han Li naturally had no intention of answering him, but inwardly he grew highly vigilant.

He flicked his wrist downward, his figure suddenly lunging forward, and the black longsword traced an arc through the air before the blade turned and slashed straight at the opponent.

"You're asking for death!"

Seeing this, a cruel glint flashed in the golden-robed man's eyes.

His hands swiftly formed seals before his chest, and a cluster of five-colored radiance burst from between his fingers, spreading into a dreamlike, illusory five-colored light that reflected in Han Li's eyes, making him feel dizzy.

At the same time, a metallic grinding sound arose as the golden sword-dragon chased from behind again, lunging at Han Li's back.

Han Li instinctively raised one hand to shield his eyes, while the other hand holding the blade suddenly swept backward.

A crescent-shaped blade light shot through the air, striking the sword-dragon heavily, forcing it to recoil as its blades clashed together in a series of clanging sounds.

Just then, from within the five-colored illusory light ahead, a huge hand like a five-colored crystal diamond suddenly reached out and grabbed Han Li's body in its palm.

Han Li immediately felt his chest squeezed by an immense force, making it difficult to breathe.

Coupled with the incessant flickering of the five-colored illusory light ahead, he grew somewhat dizzy and his reactions slowed by a beat.

"Die for me!" A furious shout came from behind the five-colored illusory light.

The sword-dragon, which Han Li had just repelled, came hurtling through the air again. Two golden sword blades on the dragon's head suddenly lengthened, sprouting several sharp spikes that stabbed toward Han Li's back like two thorny vines.

A blue light flickered unceasingly in Han Li's eyes, but he still couldn't see through the illusory light before him, and his consciousness began to blur.

With a furious roar, golden light suddenly flashed around his body, and his muscles rapidly swelled as he transformed directly into a hundred-zhang-tall golden giant ape.

The giant hand gripping his body could no longer hold on and shattered with a bang.

The moment he broke free, Han Li, now a mountain-like giant ape, gripped the black longsword, which had also grown to several tens of zhang in length, and slashed fiercely at the five-colored illusory light ahead and the golden-robed man hiding behind it.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh"

A howling gale arose.

The patch of colorful illusory light instantly scattered under the fierce wind stirred up by the long blade. The golden-clad man standing behind it also retreated in terror.

However, the black long blade had a vast range, and he could not escape it in such a short time.

Just as the blade was about to fall upon him, the golden-robed man suddenly smiled eerily, stopped retreating, and let the blade cleave him in two.

The split body of the golden-robed man twisted in the void and then vanished directly.

At this moment, the massive sword dragon that had been pursuing Han Li from behind suddenly spoke in human tongue: "Let's see how you dodge this time..."

With that, its speed doubled, and it thrust straight toward Han Li's back.

Han Li, with his back to it, took only one step forward, unable to flee in time or turn to face it.

Just as the sword dragon was about to pierce his back, a faint green light suddenly flashed in the void between him and the dragon, and with a flicker, it vanished from its spot.

The next moment, the golden sword dragon's forward momentum abruptly slowed, and then it plunged straight down toward the lake's surface.

A faint smile curled at the corners of Han Li's mouth. His body rapidly shrank, transforming back into human form as he pursued the golden sword-dragon below.

A continuous clanging of metal rang out in midair as golden swords detached one after another from the golden sword-dragon's main body and fell, revealing the figure of a man in a golden robe.

But now, a very conspicuous bloody hole had appeared at the center of his forehead, and his eerie violet eyes had lost their luster, turning a dull gray-white.

The nascent soul hidden within his cranial cavity had also been annihilated.

Han Li reached out with one hand and grasped. The scattered golden swords all turned into a flash of golden light and vanished, leaving only a single sword that remained solid, falling into his hand.

He gave the golden longsword a brief glance before storing it into his storage bracelet.

At that moment, from the bloody hole in the golden-robed man's forehead, a sudden flash of green light shot out—a tiny green sword no more than an inch long. It streaked through the air in a blur, then rapidly expanded, returning to its original size.

It was none other than Han Li's Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords—not just one, but seventy-two of them.

After so many years of internal refinement, the vast sword energy that this sword had devoured back then had all been fully absorbed and put to use. The quality of each individual flying sword had barely reached the level of a post-natal immortal artifact.

And when they combined into one, they could truly rival a genuine post-natal immortal artifact.

Previously, within the Candle Dragon Sect, for fear of being discovered, he had never used this sword, nor had he ever summoned it out of his body in front of others. Today, for the first time, he employed it in actual combat, testing its edge, and it truly gave him no small surprise.