Chapter 296: Sword and Blade Meet

Before long, Han Li had returned to the valley.

Looking up, he saw the eight beams of light still standing in the sky, with the massive vortex above them still spinning slowly.

The elder surnamed Fang still lay by the pool, showing no signs of waking, while the snow lion puppet stood guard beside him with its head held high, showing no reaction to Han Li's appearance.

After a brief hesitation, Han Li flew down from the sky. Before he even landed, he suddenly felt a strong spatial fluctuation emanating from the white vortex above the pool.

He quickly halted his descent and looked up, seeing the vortex suddenly blaze with white light and begin spinning violently.

Immediately after, a figure flashed out from within and fell down.

The man was clad in tattered green robes, drenched in blood, with wounds so deep that bone was visible everywhere—a miserable sight identical to Elder Fang lying on the ground.

“Fellow Daoist, save me… save me…” the man cried out loudly as soon as he saw Han Li.

Han Li only glanced at him, then frowned and turned his gaze toward the vortex.

Within the vortex, another surge of white light appeared, and a black figure flashed out.

The figure held a black long blade in his hand and laughed heartily: “Why did you abandon your companion and flee first? That doesn’t match your earlier talk of avenging Elder Lu, does it? Haha!”

Han Li looked the man up and down, his gaze settling on the black long blade in his hand.

Wasn’t this the same black blade that Fang Pan had used and that Han Li later sold cheaply at the Myriad Treasures Alliance?

“Oh, there’s another one who slipped through the net? Perfect, I wasn’t done having fun. I’ll take care of you both together.” The man also noticed Han Li and chuckled.

Beneath his black cloak, half of a slightly sallow face was visible, with a metal forehead guard reflecting a dark green light. It was none other than Zhong Luan, one of the three leaders from the Ten Directions Tower.

With that, he twisted his wrist, and the long blade traced an arc in the air as it slashed down abruptly.

The strike seemed casual, but the moment it was delivered, dense spiritual patterns lit up on the blade’s surface, followed by a burst of black light. Hundreds of fierce black light blades flew out densely, shooting toward both Han Li and the green-robed elder.

Of course, most came at Han Li, with only a few heading toward the elder.

The elder, covered in wounds, was terrified out of his wits. As Zhong Luan spoke, he sat up and, using what little immortal spiritual power he had left, sent two silver spheres flying out. With a flash of silver light, they transformed into two silver-armored puppets that stood before him.

At the same time, a flash of green light appeared on his body, and a badly damaged green wooden armor materialized around him.

Han Li frowned, twisted his wrist, and a green long sword appeared in his hand.

Holding the sword with one hand, he swept it horizontally through the air toward the black light blades.

The green sword in his hand blazed with light, instantly transforming into hundreds of green sword beams that scattered and flew out, slashing toward the black light blades.

“Clang, clang, clang,”

A series of metallic clashes rang out in succession. Where the black light blades and green sword beams met, they stirred up rounds of black-and-green sunbursts, then shattered into specks of two-colored light.

“Fellow Daoist, be careful, these black blades…” At that moment, the green-robed elder suddenly shouted.

Before he could finish, a bizarre scene unfolded!

The scattered black specks quickly coalesced again, reforming into black light blades that flew along their original trajectories toward the two.

Their momentum showed no sign of weakening!

The two silver-armored puppets in front of the green-robed elder raised their nine-section steel whips to strike at the black light blades, but were sliced through by dozens of blades and shattered into pieces. Then, their protective light shields burst instantly, and their bodies were riddled with holes as the torrent of black light blades passed through, causing them to collapse.

Next, the green armor on the green-robed elder was struck by the foremost black light blades, its spiritual light trembling violently, on the verge of shattering.

Once the green armor failed, his exposed flesh would likely be reduced to a pile of minced meat by the black light blades.

At this critical moment, the snow lion puppet nearby suddenly pounced and landed in front of the green-robed elder. Its two front arms blurred, and countless claw shadows filled the air.

A loud “hissing” sound erupted!

The claw shadows and black light blades met, and the dense claw shadows immediately dissipated and vanished, but they also blocked many of the already few blades. The remaining ones were stopped by the snow lion puppet’s body.

The elder, already a bloody mess, relaxed slightly, but then coughed up a mouthful of blood and collapsed limply to the ground.

In contrast, Han Li on the other side was much more composed.

He twisted his wrist, swinging the sword freely, and dense sword light shot out, forming a green sword screen around him.

Those bizarre black blades of light continuously struck against the sword barrier, shattering repeatedly, then coalescing again, continuing to hack at the barrier.

Only after many such repetitions did their spiritual light finally exhaust and dissipate completely.

All this takes long to tell, yet it happened within just two or three breaths after Chongluan's single slash.

"Didn't expect you to be different from those wastes—you actually have some skill! Fine, let's see how long you can hold out!" Chongluan watched this scene, licked his lips, and let out a strange laugh.

As his words fell, his gaze suddenly turned cold. He changed from holding the blade with one hand to gripping it with both, and a dark light flickered all over his body.

Then, a layer of black radiance emerged on the surface of the black blade, and golden threads appeared within, forming clusters of ancient runes that emitted waves of terrifying, heart-stopping energy.

In the nearby void, fierce winds arose out of nowhere, swirling toward the blade, drawing in surging天地 spiritual energy that all poured into the black blade.

For a moment, the spiritual tide surged, ceaseless and unending, like the ebb and flow of the sea.

As the天地 spiritual energy continued to pour in, the golden threads on the black blade grew ever brighter, and the runes they formed shone more intensely, as if about to protrude from the blade itself.

Waves of dazzling golden-black halos radiated outward, interwoven with intense fluctuations of law power, causing the entire void to tremble.

Han Li frowned at the sight before him, a hint of doubt rising in his heart.

It was clearly the same black blade, yet in this man's hands, its might was far beyond what he or Fang Pan could match.

Could it be that he was the original owner of this black blade?

At that moment, Chong Luan suddenly let out a fierce shout, twisting his body high in the air, using the rotational force to spin the blade as he slashed down toward Han Li.

A sharp clang rang out!

A colossal golden-black blade light, a hundred zhang long, descended from the sky, the void on either side of the blade trembling, the world's spiritual energy swept away, and an oppressive, terrifying pressure surged forth.

A gleam of light flashed in Han Li's eyes; with one hand forming a sword seal and the other holding his sword, he slanted it upward.

The spiritual patterns on the long sword blazed brightly, humming incessantly, as layers of cyan light flowed out like a tangible substance. In a flash, one became two, two became four, and in an instant, dozens of cyan sword lights materialized.

Then all the sword lights converged together, condensing into a hundred-zhang-long cyan sword shadow that slashed toward the giant blade light.

This single sword strike seemed to change the color of heaven and earth, and wherever it passed, it appeared to split the void itself.

From high in the sky came a tremendous roar that shook the heavens!

Blade light and sword shadow met head-on in a narrow path, colliding with a thunderous impact.

A nearly apocalyptic shockwave caused the entire main island of the Sacred Puppet Sect to tremble violently, so much so that the combatants on the island square briefly faltered before plunging back into bloody slaughter.

Even Yun Ni and the others, who were battling the Golden Immortal of the Ten Directions Tower high above, sensed the disturbance on the main island. However, their current fight was too perilous to allow any distraction, so none of them diverted their attention to investigate.

"It seems the Sacred Puppet Sect still has some tricks up their sleeve. I just wonder if they can withstand the havoc wrought by that madman Chong Luan," the scar-faced man chuckled to himself, speaking with a relaxed tone.

By the deep pool in the valley, the old man in the green robe lying behind the snow lion puppet, under the impact of this immense force, finally spat out a mouthful of blood, his vision went black, and he fell unconscious.

Before losing consciousness, his heart was filled with infinite regret.

Having witnessed Han Li's strength, he had long realized that if he had not sent Han Li away earlier but instead taken him into the forbidden area, perhaps the other two elders would not have died, and that immortal puppet would not have been taken by that person.

But no matter how much he regretted it, it was useless. He could only hope that the fellow daoist from the Wuchang Alliance could defeat this man.

With a deafening boom that shook the heavens and the earth!

Han Li's figure plummeted straight down from the high sky, crashing into the deep pool within the valley like a meteorite.

The dark green pool water instantly erupted as if hundreds of underwater mines had been detonated, sending up dozens of towering waves over a hundred zhang high.

Within the deep pool, a massive crater fully a hundred zhang in diameter was formed, causing the water level to drop sharply and exposing a large expanse of the pool bed covered with blue stones.

Meanwhile, Chong Luan's figure in the high sky was also jolted by the rebounding air current, involuntarily rising into the depths of the sky.

His expression gradually turned solemn. After barely stabilizing his form, he immediately turned back, stepped on the void, and swiftly swooped down toward the deep pool in the valley.

His hands tightened on the blade as he slashed down once more at the still-rippling water surface.

Just then, a rumbling sound suddenly came from beneath the pool water.

Following that, a black dharma wheel spun violently as it burst out of the water.

On the surface of the wheel, a water-attribute dao pattern radiated brilliant light, surging forth together with half the pool's water, like a great azure river flowing upstream, hurtling toward Chong Luan with immense force.