Chapter 574: Approaching the Limit

Above a huge canyon in the wilderness, the void suddenly fluctuated violently, and streaks of silver lightning like long snakes emerged, then coalesced into a lightning formation in midair.

With a thunderous boom, Han Li's figure appeared in the center of the lightning formation.

He swept his gaze around, then waved his hand to summon the jade flying carriage. Pinching his fingers, the carriage instantly transformed into a green streak, speeding forward with incredible swiftness.

Having done this, he summoned the Crab Immortal, instructing him to control the carriage, while he himself sat cross-legged nearby, continuing to cultivate the Spirit Refining Art.

In the void countless miles away from Han Li, the Grand Unity Golden Devourer emitted a blinding golden light like a scorching sun, flying forward at lightning speed, its eyes flickering with golden light.

Compared to its earlier fury, it had now calmed down considerably.

Clearly, it had grown accustomed to the other being's behavior of sometimes concealing its aura and sometimes accelerating its flight, and it had devised its own countermeasure: to keep pursuing relentlessly.

With its cultivation and the special physical strength of a Grand Unity Golden Devourer, such a degree of consumption of its origin power was nothing.

…

Half a month later.

As the Grand Unity Golden Devourer approached again, Han Li had no choice but to once again expend his magic power to activate the lightning formation and teleport away.

…

Six months later, in a boundless gray sea of mist, the jade flying carriage sped forward swiftly.

The gray mist roiled like angry waves in the sea, greatly hindering the carriage's speed.

Over a dozen terrifying gray lizard-like beasts pursued closely behind the carriage, each exuding a vast aura at the Golden Immortal level, and among them, one gray lizard more than twice the size of the others had reached the Grand Unity level.

These lizard beasts let out excited roars, spewing blinding gray beams from their gaping maws at the jade flying carriage ahead.

Han Li's face was ashen, and he strained to propel the carriage forward while doing his best to dodge the falling gray beams.

Jin Tong, Pi Xiu, and the Crab Immortal stood at the rear of the carriage, blocking some of the falling gray beams.

Millions of miles behind the jade flying carriage, a dazzling golden light pursued like lightning.

…

Two years later.

In a stretch of yellow desert, a furious wind howled, and towering, colossal tornado pillars that connected the sky to the earth stood everywhere, roaming and sweeping across the land.

Inside the wind pillars, flashes of yellow light flickered, emitting a terrifying sound of wind and thunder. Wherever they passed, the void trembled, and ripples of spatial fluctuations rolled wildly outward in all directions.

Sometimes, when two massive wind pillars collided, spatial cracks directly appeared in the void.

A mass of green escape light and a mass of golden light chased and fled one after the other across the desert. Both sides tried their best to avoid those wind pillars, struggling to weave their way forward.

The golden light was clearly much faster than the green escape light ahead, quickly narrowing the distance between them to within ten thousand li.

Suddenly, streaks of golden lightning appeared on the green escape light ahead, condensing into a golden lightning formation.

With a thunderous roar, the green escape light vanished without a trace.

…

Thus, with pursuit and escape, more than ten years passed in the blink of an eye.

Somewhere in the wildlands, above a boundless swamp, a dim green light mass sped forward rapidly.

Although this light mass was green, its color was not uniform; rather, it was a blend of various greens—dark green, light green, emerald green, gray-green, and so on.

Such a mixture of diverse colors, however, strangely made the light mass very inconspicuous, merging with the surrounding void, making it difficult for anyone to detect its presence.

Inside the dim light mass was a green flying chariot, with Han Li and the others riding atop it.

The color of the flying chariot was vastly different from before. Its body, once as clear and green as water, now appeared an ugly mottled green, matching the surrounding light mass, as if coated with some kind of substance.

Although this layer of material was ugly, the mottled green light it emitted almost completely concealed the spiritual power fluctuations of the flying chariot, even masking the intense spiritual power fluctuations from the hexagonal formation on the chariot.

This layer of mottled green material was a resin from a spiritual tree that Han Li had obtained by chance from a tribe in the wildlands, saving him a lot of trouble during these years of escape.

Han Li's expression was somewhat grim at the moment. He formed hand seals with both hands, striving to control the flying chariot as it sped forward rapidly.

Beside him, Gold Boy had a pale face, clutching a spiritual treasure as he gnawed on it to recover.

The Pixiu lay on the other side, faint white light shimmering on its body, clearly also recuperating and recovering.

“Only a hundred thousand li left,” Gold Boy suddenly raised his head and said.

This remark seemed abrupt and without context, but Han Li clearly understood what it meant.

He glanced behind him, a blue light flashing in his eyes, then turned back, took a deep breath, and moved his ten fingers in rapid succession.

Bolts of golden lightning shot forth, forming a lightning array around the flying carriage, with countless golden lightning runes dancing within it.

With a deafening thunderclap, the lightning array suddenly flared, and Han Li and the others in the center of the array vanished along with the flying carriage.

No sooner had Han Li and the others disappeared than a mass of golden light shot over from afar and hovered at the spot where their flying carriage had vanished.

The golden light converged, revealing a huge golden beetle—the Taiyi-stage Devouring Immortal Beetle.

It looked around, sneered, and with a surge of golden light, continued shooting forward.

Meanwhile, a million li away, above a dense forest, the void rippled as a mass of golden lightning emerged and rapidly expanded outward, forming a golden lightning array.

Han Li and the others, along with the green flying carriage, flickered into view.

Han Li waved his hand, sending out a spell seal. The light radiating from the green flying carriage surged, and it continued flying forward.

Although they had once again widened the distance from the Taiyi-stage Devouring Immortal Beetle, his face showed no sign of relief; instead, his brows furrowed even more tightly.

Over the past decade or so, he had exhausted himself in fleeing, and besides the Taiyi Devouring Immortal Beetle clinging to him like a bone-deep maggot, he had faced various other crises without end.

Not only was he chased by savage beasts roaming the wilds, but he also occasionally encountered true spirits of terrifying power, and once, due to a moment of carelessness, he stumbled into a dangerous region.

If not for his powerful divine sense, his cultivation of the law of time, his numerous treasures, and the aid of Gold Boy and Pixiu, he would likely have died in the wilds long before the Taiyi-stage Devouring Immortal Beetle caught up.

Of course, among all these dangers, the Taiyi Devouring Immortal Beetle remained the greatest threat.

By now, he had used every means at his disposal, even deploying the set of ultra-long-distance Ju Thunder Wood teleportation arrays, or trying to trap the Taiyi Devouring Immortal Beetle using certain dangerous terrains.

But the Taiyi-stage Devouring Immortal Beetle was no weakling; the savage beasts along the way posed no threat to it, and all of Han Li's other tactics were countered one by one, with it nearly catching up more than once.

Each time he was pushed to the brink, Han Li would use the lightning array to narrowly escape, buying time.

He carried the bloodline power of the Roc, the Evil-Cleansing Divine Lightning within the Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords, and the assistance of Crab Immortal. With an ample supply of immortal essence stones, the lightning power within him could barely hold out.

But even so, there were times when it ran out.

Although Han Li tried his best to recover after each use of the lightning array, converting immortal spiritual power into lightning power took considerable time, and despite his full efforts, he could not keep up with the expenditure.

Especially recently, the Taiyi-stage Devouring Immortal Beetle seemed to have guessed Han Li's internal state and pressed the pursuit even harder. With repeated activation of the array, the lightning power within him had nearly bottomed out.

At this rate, the lightning power would soon be exhausted.

Han Li sighed, and a dazzling golden light radiated from his body.

Within the golden light, the Wheel of Truth appeared.

Clusters of brilliant time dao patterns flickered on it, most of which had already brightened again.

Seeing this, a trace of relief finally flickered in Han Li's eyes. With these time dao patterns, even if the Taiyi Devouring Immortal Beetle caught up, he would at least have some confidence.

"Uncle, I'm ready." Just then, Gold Boy suddenly stood up.

Hearing this, Han Li stopped controlling the flying carriage, and Crab Immortal, standing by, immediately took over.

Gold Boy walked over to Han Li and sat down cross-legged.

Han Li placed one palm on Gold Boy's brow and began to chant incantations.

A layer of crystalline light appeared on his brow, gradually brightening as he chanted, flowing out along his body and merging into Gold Boy's head through his palm.

On Gold Boy's forehead, crystalline runes emerged, faintly glowing and emitting a subtle fluctuation of soul force.

After a while, Han Li withdrew his hand.

On Gold Boy's forehead, a cloud-like pattern appeared, very similar to the one when the Soul Armor Talisman was used earlier.

The Soul Armor Talisman required some high-grade rare spiritual materials and was expensive. Even though Han Li was immensely wealthy, purchasing them over the long term was unsustainable. So he later delved into studying the talisman and discovered that its principle was to condense divine sense power into a solid form through a secret technique, then transform it into a shield-like form sealed within the talisman for others to use.

After uncovering some clues about the talisman, he immediately tried to imitate it.

Moreover, in his spare time over the years, he had devoted himself to cultivating the fourth layer of the Divine Refining Art.

Whether because he was truly suited for cultivating this art or because the constant danger over the years had stimulated his potential, his progress in the fourth layer of the Divine Refining Art had been rapid, and it was now near completion, with his divine sense power having doubled.

With his immensely powerful divine sense and sharp mind, although he could not yet produce the Soul Armor Talisman himself through deliberate imitation, he could now apply soul protection to Gold Boy.

Gold Boy opened his eyes, transformed into a streak of golden light, and flew into Pixiu's body.

Han Li took over the flying carriage from Crab Immortal and immediately changed direction, speeding away.

In the void a million li behind, the Taiyi-stage Devouring Immortal Beetle once again lost its sense of Gold Boy. It snorted lightly, showing no concern.

It could sense that those ahead were nearing their limit; just a little more effort and it would catch them.

With this thought, the golden light on its body intensified, and it flew forward at an even greater speed.