Chapter 1366: Stealing the Fruits
A hint of violent ferocity flashed through the giant's eyes as it immediately tightened its grip around the black club resting on its shoulder. At the same time, brilliant light erupted from the eyeballs all over its body, and all of them began to blink in unison.
The presence of so many blinking eyes on a single body created quite a harrowing sight to behold.
However, Han Li was ecstatic to see this, and he waited with bated breath for the situation to unfold further.
If these two Spatial Tempering Stage beings really did engage in battle with one another, then their objective would be much easier to achieve.
The lizard opened its mouth to blast forth a crimson shadow, following which a ball of silver light exploded within the soil beneath one of its huge paws.
The crimson shadow shit forth and punctured the silver object that had just emerged from the soil, and the latter fell heavily to the ground.
Han Li's heart stirred upon seeing this, and he focused his gaze to discover that the silver object was none other than a silver wyrm puppet.
The puppet's core had been punctured by the giant lizard's fearsome tongue, reducing it to a pile of scrap metal.
It appeared that the puppet's cover was still blown right in the instant that it was about to spring into action, and it had been destroyed by the giant lizard as a result.
The Thousand-Eyed Giant wasn't very intelligent, but it also realized that something was amiss upon seeing this. Immediately thereafter, all of its eyeballs turned toward a certain direction, following which countless threads shot forth from within.
Another resounding boom erupted as the other silver wyrm puppet, which was hiding beneath the giant's body, was punctured by seven or eight black threads at once.
The black threads then separated in different directions to shred the puppet's body as if it were made from soft butter.
Han Li drew a sharp breath upon seeing this.
It appeared that the task he was undertaking was far more dangerous than he had anticipated. However, the Zoysia Dragon Fruit was vital for him to refine Spatial Tempering Stage pills in the future, so he had to take the risk no matter dangerous the situation was.
After all, as long as he could secure the seeds of these fruits, he'd be able to nurture an indefinite number of them.
With that in mind, Han Li's heart settled once again.
The giant let loose a few menacing harrumphs in a show of intimidation before resting its club on its shoulder again.
The giant lizard took a completely expressionless glance at the giant before lying back down onto the ground.
The two colossal creatures returned to their former impasse.
Meanwhile, Han Li stared intently at the two of them, not daring to allow his concentration to slip, even in the slightest.
Seeing as the puppets had failed, they would have to resort to their backup plan, which consisted of Long Dong and the others luring the lizard and the giant away, thereby creating an opportunity for Han Li.
Sure enough, after just the span of a few breaths, the pleasant sound of a lute being stroked rang out above the giant lizard's head. Yellow halos of light then surfaced in the air above, surging directly toward the top of the giant lizard's head. At the same time, white light flashed as two short golden halberds appeared. The halberds swayed before crashing down violently like a pair of powerful golden wyrms.
Almost at the exact same moment, two humanoid figures appeared in the air above at an altitude of several hundred feet. They were none other than Ye Ying and Long Dong.
Ye Ying as gently stroking her spirit treasure replica lute while Long Dong was manipulating two treasures at once with a serious expression on his face.
Despite the lizard's massive size, its movements were extremely agile. As soon as the attacks came crashing down toward it from the air above, it let loose a low roar before immediately rising to its paws. Red light flashed from the crimson horns on its head, following with a vast expanse of red light emanated forth, keeping both the yellow halos and twin halberds at bay.
Immediately thereafter, green light flashed from the massive lizard's limbs. Countless strands of its bristly fur transformed into green streaks of light that hurtled into the air. At the same time, its huge tail swished through the air and it abruptly disappeared, leaving behind only a trail of afterimages in its wake.
In the next instant, the massive lizard's tail, which was over 200 feet long, appeared beside Ye Ying and Long Dong in a flash before sweeping violently toward them. Even though the tail hadn't yet made contact with them, the fierce winds it had swept up were still threatening to blow them away.
As expected of a mutated ancient beast, as soon as the lizard was attacked, it retaliated in an extremely ferocious manner.
Ye Ying and Long Dong were aware that this giant lizard definitely wouldn't be easy to face in battle, but they were still given a massive fright by its fearsome combat prowess.
Thankfully, neither of them had any intention of engaging the lizard in a direct confrontation.
Ye Ying immediately raised a hand to hurl forth a golden talisman, which transformed into a ball of golden light that enveloped her body. Immediately thereafter, she disappeared on the spot before appearing over 300 feet away.
Meanwhile, Long Dong let loose a long dragon's roar as a yellow suit of armor surfaced over his body. The entire suit of armor was constructed from metallic scales, encapsulating his head and limbs in a watertight sheath, and there was even a pair of massive bronze wings on his back.
As he flapped those wings, a series of afterimages immediately appeared in the air around him. From a distance, it appeared that countless humanoid figures had emerged out of thin air up above, creating quite an astonishing sight to behold.
Using their peculiar movement techniques, both of them were able to successfully evade the sweeping tail of the giant lizard.
However, neither of them dared to pause for even a single instant in mid-air as the giant lizard had set off behind them in hot pursuit, stirring up gusts of gale-force winds in its wake.
Even though most of the lizard's attention had been diverted by these two, it was still keeping an eye on its most significant enemy, the Thousand-Eyed Giant. It was afraid that the giant would take this opportunity to take the spirit fruits for itself, but the sight that greeted the lizard was a very reassuring one.
It turned out that as soon as these two cultivators had appeared to attack the lizard, two other cultivators had also appeared in the air behind the giant.
One of them rubbed their hands together before raising them to conjure up a storm of black fireballs, while the other grabbed the air to manifest a massive inky-black claw. The claw appeared directly above the giant's head before crashing down with ferocious force.
A burst of rumbling erupted as the giant was caught completely off guard, having been struck on the head by the fireballs as well as the massive black claw in quick succession.
Both Xiao Hong and the white-browed young man faltered slightly upon seeing this before erupting into elation.
However, the sight that they were greeted by next immediately made their smiles congeal on their faces.
Amid the sea of black flames, a roar of intense fury suddenly rang out. Immediately thereafter, all of the silvery-white eyeballs on its body stirred, creating an immense suction force that instantly engulfed the black flames raging around it.
As for the huge black claw that the white-browed young man had manifested, it didn't seem to have hurt the giant at all, either. The Thousand-Eyed Giant casually swatted the air above its head, and the massive claw was immediately vanquished without a trace.
Its display of power was certainly not a welcome sight for the pair of cultivators.
However, their attacks had clearly already enraged this massive monster, so there was no turning back.
A vicious look appeared on the giant's face as it let loose another thunderous roar. After its eyeballs had engulfed all of the black flames, they immediately turned toward the two people in the air above.
Amid a flash of brown light, countless strands of black threads shot forth, encompassing both of them within a dense net.
Both Xiao Hong and the white-browed young man had witnessed the might of these threads of black light earlier, and their expressions changed in unison as they hurriedly took evasive measures.
One of them summoned an object and hurled it down below, upon which it instantly transformed into an azure spike of light. They then immediately ducked into the spike before manipulating it to hurtle toward a certain direction.
Meanwhile, the other transformed into a massive black falcon that was around 10 feet in size before immediately spreading its wings to teleport away.
It was quite clear that these two demonic cultivators had no intention of engaging the giant in direct combat, either.
Thus, all four of Han Li's companions had sprung into action, diverting the attention of the lizard and the giant. They were barely evading the ferocious attacks of the two Spatial Tempering Stage beings while launching their own retaliative attacks whenever the opportunity arose, thereby even further infuriating their assailants.
However, even though the lizard and the giant were relentlessly attacking the four cultivators as if they were pesky flies, neither of them moved strayed far away from their original spot, ensuring that they didn't distance themselves from the spirit fruits.
Otherwise, even if the four cultivators possessed extraordinary movement techniques, there was no way that they'd have lasted so long in the face of the relentless assault unleashed by these two fearsome Spatial Tempering Stage creatures. As things currently were, as soon as any of the four cultivators encountered any danger, they could immediately teleport far away, thereby earning themselves an opportunity to catch their breath.
As such, they were able to continue to pester the lizard and the giant.
The result was that the two creatures were naturally cast into a thunderous rage.
However, neither of them were able to stray away from the spirit fruits, thereby creating an impasse where neither side could do anything to the other.
As the four cultivators continued to annoy the two creatures, more of their attention gradually became diverted away from the spirit fruits.
Meanwhile, Han Li was silently drifting downward. With his current insubstantial body, even the two Spatial Tempering Stage beings completely failed to notice him. This was also the biggest source of confidence Han Li had in undertaking this mission.
Even so, Han Li was still proceeding with extreme caution, to the extent that he didn't even dare to breathe too loudly.
He gradually drew closer to the spirit fruits, from a distance of over 1,000 feet away to around 700 to 800 feet, then to 300 to 400 feet, then to just over 100 feet. As he approached the spirit fruits, he naturally tensed up further and further.
It would undoubtedly be the case that he wouldn't be able to continue to conceal himself in the instant that he plucked the spirit fruits. As such, the lizard and the giant would immediately discover him. He had to do everything he could to ensure self-preservation in such a scenario.
Soon, Han Li had reached a spot where the spirit fruits were right before him. Not only could he smell the faint aroma wafting from these fruits, he could even see their tiny wyrm cores with brilliant clarity.
However, he didn't immediately rush in to grab the fruits. Instead, he swept his hand over his storage bracelet to summon a few items.
He then pursed his lips and suddenly rubbed his hands together before raising them toward either side of his body, sending several shimmering silver balls hurtling toward the two massive creatures.
Immediately thereafter, his hand shot forth like lightning, and the bunch of supple spirit fruits disappeared in the blink of an eye.
In the same instant, his Thunderstorm Wings appeared on his back, and he immediately flapped them, upon which he disappeared into thin air amid a loud thunderclap.
Two earth-shattering roars immediately erupted as a crimson pillar of light and several black threads shot forth at an incredible speed, instantly puncturing Han Li's body.
However, the "Han Li" that had been struck was only an afterimage, and it immediately disappeared on the spot.
Meanwhile, his true body had only barely managed to flee from the scene in time.
A string of thunderous explosions erupted as several balls of silver lightning appeared on either side, each of which was around an acre in size. Countless arcs of electricity that were as thick as large bowls flashed violently within those silver balls, sweeping up violent winds and emitting incessant strings of thunderclaps that drowned out everything else.
It was as if doomsday had arrived!