Chapter 505: Qi Shadow

Han Li frowned slightly as he looked at the white mist figure whose outline resembled his own.

At the figure's hand, the white mist gently churned, extending and coalescing to form a long sword once again.

"What exactly is this thing?" Han Li wondered, and blue light flickered in his eyes.

With his spiritual eye technique, he saw that the white mist figures were hazy all over, each containing a ball of light that pulsed rhythmically.

The figure fighting Hu Yan was crimson inside, the one fighting Luo Qinghai was water-blue, and the one before Han Li was pale gold.

Apart from that, however, there was nothing else unusual about the white mist figures.

Just as Han Li hesitated whether to summon the Truthful Wheel and use his true vision to investigate, a somewhat weak voice suddenly sounded in his mind.

It was none other than Nanke Meng.

In fact, at that moment, her voice reached everyone's ears:

"Seniors, those white mist figures have no physical form; each contains a law power corresponding to each of you. Above their heads is an invisible white thread connected to the Immortal Envoy's fingers, and on their chests, there is also a thread connected to your backs."

Hearing this, Han Li tilted his head slightly and looked down at Gongshu Jiu's folded arms.

Sure enough, he saw that the five fingers of his left hand were twitching subtly, like a puppeteer pulling strings in a folk puppet show.

While carefully wielding his sword against the white mist figure, Han Li surveyed the battle again and noticed that the figure fighting Hu Yan wielded fire power, while the one fighting Luo Qinghai wielded ocean power...

He raised an eyebrow, suddenly enlightened.

"Fellow Daoists, stop wasting energy fighting these white mist figures. They are all reflections of us created by the Envoy through the Law of Qi, so their aura and form are nearly identical to ours, making them hard to defeat," Han Li transmitted.

"I realized that after Meng'er's reminder, but these things even share our law powers—how can we defeat them?" Luo Qinghai replied.

"Stop wasting law power. These reflections are connected to us through mist channels; they steal the law power they use from us," Han Li continued.

"So that's it! No wonder I felt my fire power draining so fast—more than twice the usual rate," Hu Yan exclaimed in alarm, transmitting back.

"He wants us to exhaust ourselves. When our law power runs dry, we'll be doomed," Jiao San, now in the form of an old woman, transmitted.

"Fellow Daoist Li, since you've found the problem, do you have a solution?" Chi, whose skin had turned dark red as if bathed in blood, asked.

"These white mist figures have no consciousness; they are not autonomous but controlled by the Envoy. After all, this technique is sustained by his Law of Qi. If we temporarily stop using law power and focus our attacks on Gongshu Jiu's true body, we might break the situation," Han Li replied after a moment's thought.

"Good! Rather than wait for death, let's take this gamble!" Hu Yan was the first to agree.

"I'll follow your advice," Luo Qinghai said, glancing at Nanke Meng, who nodded at him.

Jiao San and Chi Lijiao also expressed their agreement.

Once decided, they acted immediately. Hu Yan extinguished his crimson flames, spun in midair like a tornado, and shot straight toward the white mist figure before him.

The figure's flames also died out, and it collided with Hu Yan in the same manner.

They crashed in midair with a thunderous roar.

As Hu Yan was flung back, he used the recoil to rush rapidly toward Gongshu Jiu.

Almost simultaneously, Luo Qinghai and the others also broke free from their white mist opponents and flew toward Gongshu Jiu from different angles.

Gongshu Jiu raised an eyebrow, a flicker of surprise in his eyes.

"So my Qi Shadow Technique has been discovered? I underestimated you... But so what?" he sighed lightly, smiling.

As he spoke, he jerked his left hand back, and the air roared.

The white mist figures were yanked back by a great force, instantly blocking Hu Yan and the others.

"Do you think refraining from using law power will make a difference? You still have no chance of winning..." Gongshu Jiu said with a cat-and-mouse mockery.

But at that moment, golden ripples appeared in the void behind him, and Han Li suddenly emerged, sweeping his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword toward Gongshu Jiu's waist.

Just as the azure blade, crackling with golden lightning, was about to strike his waist, Gongshu Jiu's figure flashed white and vanished, replaced by Han Li's white mist reflection.

He had swapped positions with the white mist figure at the critical moment.

With a crackling sound!

That white mist figure was swept by the sword edge, instantly torn in two amidst the lightning and sword aura, and then dissipated.

In the void not far away, Gongshu Jiu's figure emerged, and seeing this scene before him, his pupils contracted slightly, veins bulging on his face as he finally became truly enraged.

"The power of the law of time... Your surname is Li?" He frowned tightly, looking at Han Li, and asked.

Han Li did not reply, but felt some regret inwardly that he had failed to strike him down with one blow.

"I heard that the one who killed Elder Tao's son Tao Yu in the Candle Dragon Sect was surnamed Li and also cultivated the time-based technique 'True Word Wheel Sutra'. Could it be that it just happens to be you?" Gongshu Jiu's tone grew colder and colder as he asked slowly.

"That's right, I killed that guy." Han Li grinned and admitted generously.

"You can still smile now, but when I take you back to Elder Tao, you won't be able to smile anymore. His specialty is extracting Nascent Soul essence to refine Infant Soul Lamps. Then he'll place you on Tao Yu's spirit tablet altar, where you'll burn for at least a hundred thousand years. That feeling... how should I put it? Perhaps, by comparison, you'd rather be refined into a Golden Soul Pill." Gongshu Jiu's previously amiable expression changed, his smile becoming more sinister as he spoke in a low voice.

"I've tasted the flavor of a Golden Soul Pill before, but I wonder what kind of pill a Jade Immortal's Nascent Soul could be refined into? And what would that taste be like?" Han Li's expression remained unchanged as he said with a smile.

With that, he actually stepped forward, swung his longsword, and took the initiative to attack Gongshu Jiu.

"Arrogant!"

Gongshu Jiu's face suddenly darkened. He hooked the fingers of his left hand, continuing to control the white mist figure to entangle Hu Yan Dao Ren and the others, while his right hand grasped the void, seizing a slender sword as white as jade.

As his longsword swept through, a hazy stream of air seemed to surge in the void, transforming into a thin blade comparable to sword aura, slashing toward Han Li.

A blue light shone brightly in Han Li's eyes, allowing him to clearly see the trajectories of these air blades and also sense the fluctuations emanating from them.

He swung his longsword repeatedly, layers of cyan sword aura enveloping him like protective spiritual light, blocking all those air blades three feet away from his body.

Han Li couldn't help but marvel inwardly. The power of laws had its strengths and weaknesses, as did those who wielded them. This man before him could actually apply the law of air to such a level—truly not something cultivators at their Golden Immortal level could match.

Due to the suppression of Gongshu Jiu's spirit domain, Han Li expended considerable effort and only narrowly managed to break through the layers of air blades, closing the distance to Gongshu Jiu.

He formed a sword seal with one hand, and his longsword danced in midair. Layers of cyan sword aura condensed into sword shadows, blooming like a lotus, then shot toward Gongshu Jiu like a violent storm.

Gongshu Jiu frowned slightly, held his sword horizontally before him, twisted his wrist, and swept the blade in a fan shape in front of him. A huge white air wall suddenly emerged in the void.

"Clang, clang, clang..."

Within the great hall, a constant clanging of metal rang out.

Green sword shadows struck the white qi barrier, sinking three inches into it but unable to penetrate, all blocked behind it.

"It seems I overestimated you..." Gongshu Jiu said, somewhat disappointed at the sight.

Han Li, however, curled a hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth and lightly flicked the blade of the Green Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword.

With a thunderous boom,

all the green sword shadows simultaneously blazed with light and exploded.

A violent surge of qi, mixed with green and white, instantly expanded into a huge arc, sweeping in all directions.

Where the qi wave passed, the void trembled violently, shaking the entire hall with great force.

This domed golden hall had originally been centered around the jade cauldron, but since the cauldron had been eaten by Jintong, the inscribed arrays within the hall were mostly destroyed. Now, under the impact of the immense force, faint cracks even began to appear on the walls.

Gongshu Jiu, being closest to the explosion, was pushed back by the qi wave, unable to help staggering several steps backward.

Before he could steady himself, a crimson figure suddenly flashed behind him.

Gongshu Jiu focused his mind, twisted his body in an odd arc, and looked intently, only to see Huayan Daoist wielding a flaming sword, slashing down at his head.

He immediately raised the slender sword in his right hand to block Huayan Daoist's descending strike.

With a sharp clang!

Blazing crimson flames and invisible currents clashed violently, sword qi surging and sparks flying.

Just as their blades met, another change occurred.

Suddenly, from the bundle on Huayan Daoist's back, a bright red light flared, and a crimson gourd flew out swiftly, its mouth slanting downward, aimed at Gongshu Jiu, stopping above their heads.

Ancient seal characters flickered on the gourd's surface, its entire body glowing translucent red, emitting waves of scorching heat.

"This is..." Han Li's heart stirred, and he murmured.

Before he finished speaking, the mouth of the crimson gourd made a soft "pop" and opened by itself.