Chapter 1193: The Strange Golden Horn
The massive Narwhal Worm let loose a howl of agony, and a gruesome cavernous mouth suddenly split open on its smooth head. The mouth was filled with sharp vicious fangs, and silver light flashed, upon which a remarkably thick arc of lightning shot forth from within.
The heavenly lightning that had been absorbed by the golden horn like a lightning rod was now being expelled by the demon beast as an attack, and the attack was aimed at none other than Han Li.
"Hmm? It's even attained intelligence? Tsk tsk, looks like this is some kind of mutant spirit beast." As opposed to being alarmed, Han Li was overjoyed to see this.
He rubbed his hands together before raising them at once, and two arcs of lightning as thick as his arm shot forth, crashing into the thick arcs of silver lightning in the blink of an eye.
Following a thunderous boom, the golden and silver lightning intertwined with one another like giant pythons. Thin arcs of electricity flew in all directions and balls of lightning exploded between Han Li and the massive worm, following which all of the lightning completely nullified each other and ceased to exist.
The massive worm seemed to have become even more enraged upon seeing this. Scintillating light radiated from the golden horn on its head, drawing a vast expanse of the heavenly lightning nearby toward it. The lightning was then absorbed into its horn in a frenzy, as if it were accumulating power in preparation for its next attack.
However, Han Li suddenly chuckled coldly before opening his mouth. A small golden sword flew out from within before elongating into a streak of light roughly 10 feet in length, following which it continued to hurtle directly toward the massive worm's head.
The worm seemed to be able to identify this as an extremely powerful attack, and brilliant yellow light emanated from its body as it attempted to squirm back underground. However, the Fire Spirit Thread that had bound its body suddenly flashed with red light and abruptly thickened to form a length of crimson rope.
The rope was as thick as a small tree trunk, and waves of fire surged from the rope, engulfing most of the upper half of the worm's body in the blink of an eye.
The massive worm was plunged into a state of shock and horror as its golden horn suddenly stopped absorbing lightning, blasting out a vast expanse of golden light toward the waves of fire engulfing its body instead.
As the golden light flashed past, large swathes of flames were swept up and also absorbed into the golden horn.
Not only could this giant Narwhal Worm absorb heavenly lightning, it could even do the same to flames.
However, when most of the flames had been absorbed by the giant worm, the golden streak of light that Han Li had unleashed earlier was already upon it. The golden light transformed into a massive sword before crashing down with ferocious might.
The huge worm whipped its head, and its golden horn expanded to more than twice its original size as it met the giant sword.
A loud clang rang out as the sword and the horn came into the contact with one another. Piercing golden light radiated forth, and the giant sword was repelled by the golden horn, while the latter remained completely unscathed.
However, right at this moment, an azure arc of lightning flashed above the massive worm's head, and Han Li emerged out of thin air with the Thunderstorm Wings on his back. He swept a hand through the air, and another burst of golden sword Qi shot forth at an incredible speed, puncturing a large hole with the diameter of a bowl into the beast's body before it could even react.
Green blood began to gush out of the wound, but the worm was simply too massive; a wound that would've proven to be lethal had it been inflicted on a normal cultivator was completely inconsequential to this demon beast, and the pain only made it even more enraged.
The worm let loose an almighty roar as the feelers on the upper half of its body squirmed before transforming into countless long whips, which swept directly toward Han Li up above.
Han Li's expression darkened as he immediately made a hand seal. A dozen or so small golden swords immediately surfaced over various parts of his body before circling through the air, creating a sword barrier that shielded Han Li securely within.
As soon as the feelers came into contact with this sword barrier, they were shredded into mangled flesh intermingled with green blood, and none of them were able to even get close to Han Li.
At this moment, Han Li began to chant something and pointed a finger downward.
The dozen or so small golden swords down below shuddered, and each and every one of them manifested six identical streaks of golden light. The several tens of resulting streaks of light then swept downward in unison at Han Li's behest.
The worm was stunned upon seeing this, and it immediately opened its cavernous mouth to blast out silver arcs of lightning and balls of crimson flames in a frenzy, desperately trying to keep the golden streaks of light at bay.
Loud thumps rang out in quick succession, and a small proportion of the golden streaks of light were eradicated by the lightning arcs and fireballs. However, the rest managed to puncture through the obstructions and reached the worm in a flash.
Before the massive worm could do anything, a loud ringing sound erupted as the streaks of golden light converged, and a golden sword that was over 100 feet in length took shape in the blink of an eye. Golden light then flashed, and the giant sword flew like lightning in a circle around the worm's waist.
An earthshattering howl of anguish erupted from the worm's mouth as an immense quantity of green blood came crashing down like a waterfall.
The worm's massive body had been sliced cleanly in half.
Just as Han Li was about to withdraw his attacks, an incredible turn of events unfolded.
Right after the massive worm was sliced in half, the upper half of its body suddenly flung itself into the air, opening its cavernous mouth as it flew toward Han Li. At the same time, yellow light flashed from the lower half of the worm's body, and countless feelers grew from the surface of its skin, instantly making it completely identical in appearance to the upper half of its body. A loud boom then rang out as the lower half of the worm's body plunged headfirst into the soil and disappeared.
Han Li faltered initially upon seeing this, but he quickly raised his eyebrows as he made a hand seal. At the same time, he quickly uttered the word "explode".
Red light immediately flashed from the thick fiery rope binding the worm's body before it self-detonated.
Following a burst of rumbling, a gigantic mushroom cloud appeared, completely engulfing the upper half of the worm's body, and a burst of bloodcurdling screeching escaped its massive mouth. The golden horn on its head simply wasn't able to absorb such ferocious flames in a short period of time.
At the same time, the massive sword down below circled through the air, slashing past the mushroom cloud like lightning.
The screeching within the mushroom cloud immediately came to a halt as green blood fell from the sky like rain.
Two massive charred chunks of flesh emanating a foul acrid odor also came plummeting from the sky before crashing heavily onto the ground.
Only then did Han Li sweep his spiritual sense toward the ground in an unhurried manner. Upon doing so, he discovered that the other half of the worm wasn't traveling very quickly, having only burrowed itself several kilometers into the ground.
As for whether this was the worm's normal speed or if its speed had been drastically hampered due to its injuries, Han Li didn't know.
However, there wasn't really any point in pondering this matter. Seeing as it hadn't managed to get very far away, it would be quite convenient for Han Li to hunt it down.
Thus, he patted the spirit beast pouch hanging from his waist, and countless bursts of golden light shot forth from within. Amid a loud and insistent buzzing sound, a cloud of golden beetles appeared above his head.
Han Li pointed toward the ground expressionlessly.
The cloud of beetles immediately flew downward and just when they were about to make contact with the ground, they split up into countless spots of golden light amid a dull thump, and those spots of golden light all disappeared into the soil down below.
Han Li turned his attention away from the ground, and pointed to the mushroom cloud nearby.
The massive mushroom cloud abruptly began to shrink at a rapid rate, reverting back into a thick fiery rope in the end.
However, it was apparent that the fire shimmering along the rope had dimmed compared to its former brightness.
Han Li waved a hand toward the length of rope, and fiery light flashed as it split up into ten thin fiery threads, each of which was around 20 feet in length, and they gently hovered in the air.
Han Li opened his mouth to expel a burst of azure light, which swept the ten Fire Spirit Threads within. He then gently inhaled, and the Fire Spirit Threads were drawn into his mouth along with the azure light.
Only then did Han Li look down at the charred body on the ground below with furrowed brows, and he waved a hand through the air.
A streak of golden light flew out from the charred carcass down below, whizzing directly toward Han Li.
However, the streak of golden light suddenly came to an abrupt halt when it was only about 10 feet away from Han Li. This was none other than the strange golden horn on the worm's head.
The horn didn't appear to be very large when compared to the size of the massive worm's body, but it was actually around five to six feet in length. The horn was shimmering with golden light and there were some mysterious runes that were indistinctly visible on its surface.
Han Li examined the horn through narrowed eyes. Even though he was very curious about this object, he knew that this wasn't the time to be conducting a close and thorough examination. As such, he thought about it briefly before casting a few incantation seals onto the object.
Spiritual light flashed over the surface of the golden horn, and it shrank down to roughly half a foot in length in the blink of an eye.
Han Li then plastered a restriction talisman to the golden horn and placed it into a wooden box, which he stowed away into his storage pouch.
After doing all that, Han Li clapped his hands together with a pleased look on his face.
Just as he was about to turn his attention toward the Gold Devouring Beetles, a certain patch of earth over five kilometers away suddenly began to tremor violently. The half of the massive worm that had escaped shot forth from the ground, but there were countless spots of golden light all over its body. There were thousands of Gold Devouring Beetles crawling all over its skin, and they were rapidly devouring the worm's body.
The half of the worm cried out in agony as its massive body crashed heavily onto the ground, where it rolled and writhed violently desperately trying to remove the beetles from its body.
However, the golden beetles seemed to have taken root on the surface of its body and were proving to be irremovable. They began to tear open the hard skin on the surface of the worm before quickly squirming into its body.
As a result, the massive worm was struck by inexplicably excruciating pain, aking to have thousands of tiny blades slicing through its body.
It was driven insane by its agony, squirming into the ground before flying into the air over and over again. However, no matter how much it struggled, it was unable to shake off the golden beetles.
A short while later, just as it had flown into the air and was convulsing spasmodically, its body suddenly completely stiffened before crashing onto the ground, where it lay, completely stationary.
Han Li heaved a faint sigh upon seeing this before directing his gaze toward the Endless Sky Beast.
Arcs of heavenly lightning were still falling incessantly for the sky above, and Han Li's Thunderstorm Wings were also flashing relentlessly with arcs of azure lightning. Any lightning nets that drew close would be swatted aside by the Thunderstorm Wings, so none of them could come into contact with Han Li's body.
Compared to the beginning of the eighth wave of lightning strikes, there were significantly fewer lightning nets in the sky. The Endless Sky Beast had finally withstood the eighth wave on its own, and it seemed to be time for Han Li to step in.
However, prior to doing so, Han Li hurriedly raised his head as blue light flashed within his eyes. He was staring up into the sky with an intense unblinking gaze, as if he were searching for something.
When the lightning strikes completely ceased, a peculiar fragrant scent came wafting from within the dark clouds. Immediately thereafter, the dark clouds tumbled and surged, and a massive full moon with the appearance of a jade plate suddenly appeared.
The full moon was extremely pristine and was emanating a faint white light. That fragrant scent also seemed to be emitting from none other than that moon.