Chapter 239: Madman

A look of shock and anger appeared in the Cold Swine's eyes, and its roars grew more urgent.

Its innate cold energy was extremely formidable, capable of infiltrating an enemy's body unnoticed, ensuring it was unbeatable from the start.

But this human cultivator before it was completely unaffected by the cold energy.

At this moment, the Heavy Water True Wheel within Han Li slowly rotated, absorbing all the cold energy that poured into his body.

He grabbed with one hand, and the four cyan flying swords instantly blazed with sword light, expanding to nearly a hundred zhang in size, crisscrossing and rotating.

Countless cyan sword shadows emerged, shredding all the blue light that shot toward him.

Then, Han Li made a hand seal with his sword, and the four massive sword lights instantly merged into one, transforming into a thousand-zhang giant sword. Thick golden arcs of lightning suddenly appeared on its surface as it slashed fiercely at the Cold Swine.

The Cold Swine's body trembled, seemingly extremely afraid of the golden lightning. It opened its mouth wide and let out a sharp cry.

Visible ripples appeared in the surrounding void, and wherever the ripples reached, the void suddenly froze, as if bound by a strange force.

Han Li felt his body tighten, unable to move, and the golden lightning sword also suddenly halted in midair.

The Cold Swine let out a low roar, and the bone spurs on its body suddenly brightened. The surrounding black mist immediately shot out, transforming into a thick black python that lunged at Han Li.

A hint of surprise first appeared on Han Li's face, then he snorted coldly. A large amount of black water light suddenly emerged on his body, condensing into a huge circular wheel phantom that spun violently.

A terrifying force surged from the black circular wheel phantom, easily crushing the power that bound the void around him.

The golden lightning sword immediately regained its freedom and slashed down fiercely, colliding with the black python.

A crackling sound rang out!

Golden arcs of lightning wrapped around the black python, and a rumbling noise erupted!

The python let out a mournful cry, and its massive body exploded with a bang, dispersing into countless streams of black smoke.

Seeing this, the Cold Swine's eyes filled with fear. Blue-black light blazed from its body as it turned to flee into the distance.

Hmph!

A cold snort sounded in the Cold Swine's ears, and then its mind suddenly felt a sharp pain, as if stabbed by a red-hot awl. It couldn't help but let out a scream, and its fleeing body came to a halt.

The next moment, a golden sword shadow flashed, entering its mouth and then piercing out through its rear. Blue blood gushed from the two massive wounds, forming two blue fountains of blood.

The light in the Cold Swine's eyes quickly dimmed, turning gray.

Before its nascent soul could escape, it was directly obliterated by the sword energy.

Han Li waved his hand, and the golden lightning sword whistled back, then flashed again to transform into four flying swords that vanished into his body.

Then he waved his other hand.

A stream of blue light shot out, enveloping the Cold Swine's corpse.

With a crack!

A layer of blue ice formed on the surface of the huge Cold Swine's corpse, instantly stopping the bleeding.

The task required retrieving this corpse, so it couldn't lose too much blood.

Han Li waved his hand to store the Cold Swine's corpse, then without pausing, his figure turned into a streak of cyan light and shot into the distance.

…

In the Gu Yun Continent, inside a secret chamber of a residence located in a remote corner of a city.

A middle-aged man in a scholar's robe, resembling a teacher, sat cross-legged with focused expression before a completely red furnace. He manipulated the flames with hand seals, seemingly refining a pill.

The furnace suddenly trembled, and a somewhat muffled explosion sounded from within, followed by a burnt smell spreading out.

The middle-aged man's expression darkened, and then he let out a long sigh.

At that moment, a cyan light suddenly lit up on his body.

Seeing this, the middle-aged man waved his hand to retrieve an object—a fox-shaped cyan mask—and put it on.

As cyan light emanated from the mask, a large light screen condensed before him.

Then, at the center, a flash of light appeared, and a storage pouch materialized.

"Oh? This task was only posted a few years ago, and it's already completed?" the scholar-robed man muttered in surprise. He reached out with one hand to grab the storage pouch from the void, while with the other hand, he flicked his sleeve.

A massive Cold Swine corpse immediately appeared before him.

"Such clean and neat work—even I probably couldn't kill this beast while keeping the corpse so intact... Jiao Fifteen, never heard of this person before. Seems like a formidable character," the scholar-robed man said with some admiration.

…

At the same time.

In the cave dwelling on Red Cloud Peak, Han Li wore the Wuchang Alliance mask. Before him, the cyan light screen flashed, and a storage pouch appeared.

He took the storage pouch, made a hand seal, and waved.

With a clatter, a pile of high-grade spirit stones appeared on the ground.

Han Li quickly counted them, a satisfied expression appearing on his face. After waving his hand to put away the spirit stones, he continued searching for tasks.

…

Somewhere in the Thunderstorm Ocean.

The sky was filled with dense black clouds, and thick bolts of lightning darted through the clouds. From time to time, lightning bolts struck down into the ocean.

Near a black island deep in the ocean, several massive glowing orbs clashed, producing earth-shattering roars that drowned out the nearby thunder.

From time to time, streaks of attacks flew out in all directions, churning the sea and sky into chaos.

One side of the fierce battle consisted of five masked True Immortal cultivators, all wearing Wuchang Alliance masks—two with cyan masks and the other three with blue masks.

The other side was a group of lightning bats, nearly a hundred in number, each dozens of zhang long, surrounded by purple lightning. Every single one exuded an aura no weaker than a Mahayana cultivator, spewing thick bolts of lightning from their mouths as they clashed with the five Wuchang Alliance cultivators.

Though the lightning bats were numerous, the five Wuchang Alliance cultivators were formidable, wielding immensely powerful treasures. They held the upper hand, continuously striking down one lightning bat after another.

A black light flashed, and a black spear pierced into the body of a lightning bat. Silver arcs of electricity danced along the spear, surging into the bat's body through the wound.

With a loud bang!

The lightning bat's body exploded, revealing a translucent purple orb.

A man in a green robe arrived like lightning, waved his hand to catch it, and put it away.

He wore a cyan ox-head mask with three small characters: Jiao Fifteen.

Without pausing, he flickered and plunged into the nearby swarm of lightning bats, shaking his arm.

The black spear blazed with lightning and thrust out fiercely, instantly piercing another lightning bat's body.

Squeak, squeak, squeak!

The nearby lightning bats grew enraged, hissing in fury.

Thick purple lightning bolts shot down from all directions, striking fiercely at the green-robed man, leaving no room to dodge.

His expression unchanged, he waved his hand to collect the lightning crystal from the bat's body, while a silver lightning shield flared around him, enduring the barrage of lightning strikes.

The silver shield trembled violently, yet, due to some unknown technique, it showed no signs of breaking.

The green-robed man flickered and lunged toward the next lightning bat, his black spear transforming into countless spear shadows.

He was like a tiger among sheep, killing four or five more lightning bats in a few breaths.

The other four were astonished at his ferocity.

Individual attacks from these lightning bats were not strong against them; even being hit by four or five at once was manageable, but any more than that was different, as the combined lightning power was not to be underestimated.

Nevertheless, the green-robed man's reckless charge threw the bat swarm into chaos.

The four quickly joined in, taking the opportunity to hunt down isolated bats.

Half an hour later, a black spear shadow flashed, piercing the last lightning bat.

With a bang, the bat's body exploded, revealing a purple orb, which the green-robed man collected.

Thus, all nearly a hundred lightning bats were slain by the five.

However, nearly half of the Thunder Bats were killed by this green-robed man.

The green-robed man let out a light breath, not sparing a glance at the others. With a flash of silver lightning on his body, he shot off into the distance.

The other four exchanged glances and, without a word, each departed.

At a certain spot in the Thunderstorm Ocean, a silver electric spark flickered, and the figure of the green-robed man materialized. The mask on his face blazed with green light, coalescing into a green light screen.

The man waved his hand, sending out a spell seal. A beam of green light shot out from the light screen, condensing into a blurry phantom.

"Forty-seven Thunder Bat Crystal Beads." Han Li waved his hand, and a small pile of purple Thunder Beads appeared.

"Good. According to the mission rules, that is forty-seven Immortal Origin Stones." The blurry phantom nodded.

A hint of joy appeared in Han Li's eyes. He waved his hand, and the small pile of Thunder Bat Crystal Beads flew into the formation at the center of the light screen, vanishing in a flash.

Moments later, light flickered in the formation, and a small pile of Immortal Origin Stones appeared.

Han Li waved his hand to collect the Immortal Origin Stones, then looked again at the missions on the green light screen.

…

One day, three years later, at Red Cloud Peak.

A beam of green light shot over from afar and, after a few breaths, silently landed on the peak. The light converged to reveal Han Li's figure, his complexion slightly pale.

Without alerting anyone, he went straight into his cave dwelling.

Sitting cross-legged in the secret chamber, he took out the Wuchang Alliance mask, and a green light screen appeared.

Han Li then took out three black tokens, each engraved with a black demon pattern.

These were the spoils from his latest Wuchang Alliance mission.

He waved his hand, sending out a spell seal, and then transmitted the three tokens away.

After a short while, over thirty Immortal Origin Stones were transmitted back.

Han Li swept his divine sense over them briefly, then put away the Immortal Origin Stones, but a peculiar expression flickered in his eyes.

The objective of this mission was to eliminate a group of heretical cultivators entrenched in a border region of Guyun Continent. This group was adept at manipulating array formations and secret techniques, making them quite troublesome. Hence, a total of six members from the alliance acted together, mostly senior members with green masks.

During the execution of the mission, under his observation, he incidentally discovered a situation.

Among these people, most were cultivators from Candlestick Dao, especially the team leader of this mission, who had displayed a set of supreme flying sword techniques and easily killed a mid-stage True Immortal heretic leader.

Regarding this team leader, Han Li vaguely felt a sense of familiarity. In particular, the other's flying sword techniques reminded him of Vice Dao Master Xiong Shan.

Although the other had concealed his aura with the Wuchang Alliance mask, he still had this premonition.

But Han Li only pondered briefly before casting the thought aside, not dwelling on it further.

Whether that person was Xiong Shan or not had nothing to do with him.