Chapter 1446: Green Shadow
The Weeping Soul Beast had already attained intelligence, and after communicating with it, Han Li learned that there was a burst of fearsome Yin soul energy lurking deep within those mountain ranges. It seemed that there was a ghostly being in there that was so powerful, even the Weeping Soul Beast felt threatened by its existence.
The Weeping Soul Beast was the natural bane of ghostly souls, so a ghostly being with Yin soul energy powerful enough to threaten it naturally had to be an extremely fearsome being.
That wasn't to say that the Weeping Soul Beast stood no chance against it, but Han Li simply wasn't willing to take the risk.
Thus, he immediately decided against entering the mountain ranges, choosing instead to take a further route, even if it meant spending more time on their journey.
This concerned the secret that was his Weeping Soul Beast, so Han Li naturally didn't explain everything in detail to Lei Lan and Bai Bi; he merely used some rather unconvincing excuses to placate them.
As such, the two Tian Peng Race holy disciples were a little displeased. Han Li merely chuckled coldly in his heart and paid no heed to the two holy disciples. It wasn't as if he planned to stay at the Tian Peng Race for a long time anyway, so he didn't have to care what these two thought about him. Everything would be fine as long as they didn't weigh him down in this trial.
With that in mind, Han Li provided no further explanations to Bai Bi and Lei Lan, and the two holy disciples weren't interested in speaking any further about the issue, either.
Thus, the interior of the carriage became very quiet.
Among the three of them, Han Li stood at the front of the carriage and looked out into the distance, Bai Bi had his head lowered in deep thought, and Lei Lan had her eyes closed as she entered a seated meditative state.
Han Li spurred on the carriage to full speed, and it departed from the mountain ranges in moments, flying into the barren landscape again.
After a while, Han Li's expression suddenly changed slightly as he withdrew his gaze, then turned his attention to the direction behind the carriage with narrowed eyes.
Han Li's actions naturally attracted the attention of Lei Lan and Bai Bi.
The two raised their heads in unison, and Lei Lan opened her eyes to assess the situation.
They cast their gaze toward the direction that Han Li was looking in, only to discover a vast expanse murky greyness everywhere they looked. Due to the restrictions on everyone's spiritual sense present within the earth abyss, neither of them were able to release their spiritual sense to survey the situation, so they could only turn to Han Li with curiosity in their eyes.
Han Li stood expressionlessly at the front of the carriage without saying anything, but there was blue light faintly shimmering within his eyes.
"Brother Han..." Bai Bi was finally unable to repress his curiosity any longer, but in the instant that he opened his mouth to raise a question, Han Li suddenly swept two fingers gently through the air.
A streak of golden light shot forth like lightning, and the scenes that unfolded next gave Bai Bi and Lei Lan a massive fright.
As the golden light flashed through the air, green Qi suddenly flashed, and a cloud of green mist appeared out of thin air, only to be sliced in half by the golden light.
A roar of shock and fury rang out from within the mist as the two halves of the green mist combined as one again.
The green mist then surged and transformed into a strange demonic ape with yellow fur all over its body.
It was none other than the Resentful Ape Beast that had just slain a Flying Spirit Race holy disciple earlier.
It had finally caught up to the flying carriage not long ago, and in its elation, it had attempted to sneak over to the carriage, then enshroud it with poisonous mist to kill Han Li's trio.
However, never would it have thought that not only was Han Li's spiritual sense far superior to that of normal Deity Transformation cultivators, his Brightsight Spirit Eyes were also capable of easily seeing through illusions and concealment techniques, thereby allowing him to immediately glean the demonic ape's presence.
Lei Lan and Bai Bi's hearts jolted with shock at the sight of the demonic ape, and they immediately sprang to their feet before flying out to either side of the carriage.
Even though they were unable to release their spiritual sense, it was still a testament to this demonic ape's concealment and illusionary abilities that it was able to get so close to them without their detection. However, that begged the question of how Han Li had managed to discover them, given that he was also a Spirit General.
The two of them fixed their eyes on the demonic ape with wary expressions on their faces and befuddlement in their hearts.
At this moment, the flying carriage slowly came to a halt at Han Li's behest, and he appraised the demonic ape in an expressionless manner.
"Are you three the ones who ruined my mistress' sacrificial ceremony?" the Resentful Ape Beast asked in a cold voice.
Bai Bi's heart stirred upon hearing this, but he put on a smile as he asked, "Sacrificial ceremony? What sacrificial ceremony? When did we ever do such a thing?"
"Did you destroy a Giant Spirit Flower back in the desert? That flower was being used as part of my mistress' sacrificial ceremony!" the demonic ape continued in a menacing voice.
"No," Han Li immediately replied without even batting a single eyelid.
The calm and concise tone in his voice made even the demonic ape falter, and for a split second, it wondered whether it had pursued the wrong targets. However, it then turned its attention to Lei Lan and Bai Bi, and their facial expressions clearly betrayed Han Li's denial. As such, the demonic ape flew into a thunderous rage.
"You have the essence of the Giant Spirit Flower all over your bodies, yet you still dare to try and fool me? I'm going to eat all of you so I can report back to my mistress!" the demonic ape roared as it transformed into a cloud of green mist that stretched for over 100 feet, hurtling directly toward the trio.
"Insolent beast!" Bai Bi's smile faded as he flapped his wings toward the mist in one powerful motion.
Countless strands of golden threads shot forth, instantly puncturing the mist and filling it with holes.
However, green light swirled around the mist, and it made a full recovery in the blink of an eye.
On the other end, Lei Lan could sense that this opponent was quite troublesome to deal with, and she immediately made a hand seal. Two thick bolts of silver lightning shot forth from within her sleeves, striking the green mist before exploding with a resounding boom.
After the two bolts of lightning disappeared, the green mist faltered in mid-air, and two gaping holes that were each around 10 feet in size had appeared.
However, before Lei Lan had a chance to celebrate, the deriding cackling of the demonic ape rang out from within the mist.
The green mist managed to quickly regenerate once again before swelling in size and closing in with ferocious might.
Bai Bi and Lei Lan's expressions both changed in unison. They had sensed that this demonic ape was a being to be wary of, but they didn't think that a mere Resentful Ape Beast would pose such a stern challenge. The two of them immediately sprung into action again. One of them flipped a hand over to produce a green wooden comb, while the other made a hand seal, and arcs of lightning began to crackle in the air in preparation for another attack.
However, Han Li merely harrumphed coldly at this moment, and finally joined the fray.
Azure light shimmered behind him as a massive azure bird projection appeared, then opened its huge beak.
An azure pillar of light shot forth from within its beak amid a dull thump, puncturing the center of the green mist in a flash.
The pillar of light then split up into countless azure threads before exploding in all directions.
Gale force winds were swept up as a violent hurricane wreaked havoc through the mist. All of the green mist was swept up by the gusts of wind before vanishing on the spot.
It was as if the green mist had been blown into oblivion by the wind.
Lei Lan and Bai Bi both faltered upon seeing this.
Could it be that this demon beast they'd found so troublesome to deal with had been destroyed by Han Li with a single attack?
However, Han Li showed no signs of stopping. A peculiar look appeared on his face as he abruptly summoned eight streaks of golden sword Qi, which struck eight different spots in the air behind him.
Eight unsettling cries erupted in unison, following which eight clouds of green mist emerged out of thin air, having just barely evaded the streaks of sword Qi.
Eight indistinct green projections of light that were even shorter than the demonic ape from before appeared in mid-air, and one of them exclaimed, "You really are capable of detecting our presence!"
Han Li's body blurred and in the next instant, he had turned around to face the green projections as he asked, "It shouldn't be any surprise that I'm able to see through such crude concealment techniques. What kind of demon beast are you? You're not Resentful Ape Beasts, right? There's no way that resentful ape beasts could possess these abilities."
Only then did Lei Lan and Bai Bi realize that there were enemies behind them, and they hurriedly turned around with shock and bewilderment in their hearts.
It was quite plain to see that these two possessed powerful cultivation bases and abilities, but they were sorely lacking in practical combat experience. It was no wonder that the Tian Peng Race elders weren't optimistic about their chances of completing the trial on their own.
"Hehe, don't even think about trying to goad me into telling you my origins! I may not be able to do anything to you on the surface, but here in this earth abyss, even if your cultivation base far outstrips mine, you're definitely no match for me!" Another one of the green projections had spoken on this occasion, and eight projections threw their heads back and burst into raucous laughter in unison. Immediately thereafter, green light flashed and eight completely identical demonic apes were manifested.
Green light flashed from these apes' hands, and all of them summoned green machetes as they rushed toward Han Li's trio.
Han Li raised an eyebrow as he abruptly raised a hand. The hand turned into a pristine white color, and he spread open his fingers to blast forth a swath of five-colored flames. The flames sped forth at a phenomenal pace, sweeping up the eight demonic apes in the blink of an eye.
Brilliant five-colored spiritual light then erupted from the flames, and the eight demonic apes were slowed down to less than a tenth of their original speed.
Han Li took this opportunity to expel a ball of shimmering silver flames out of his mouth.
The silver flames exploded at his behest, splitting up into eight silver flaming arrows that shot forth in a flash.
The eight silver arrows then punctured the bodies of the restricted demonic apes in an instant. These demonic apes were indeed quite powerful in the earth abyss, but never would they have thought that he would possess such a strange ability capable of slowing them down so significantly.
Thus, they were completely caught off guard, and even though all of the demonic apes could see the oncoming flaming arrows, they were simply far too slow to evade. They only had time to let loose a collective roar of shock and fury before fist-sized holes were punched into their chest, following which silver flames erupted to engulf their bodies.
All of the demonic apes were reduced to plumes of smoke by these silver flames in the blink of an eye.
They hadn't even managed the vast majority of their abilities before they killed, and not even a single wisp of their souls had managed to escape.
The silver flames converged to form a Fire Raven that reentered Han Li's body, and by that point, Lei Lan and Bai Bi were already completely flabbergasted.
Even though they had only had a brief clash with the demonic apes, they could tell that these demon beast were fearsome creatures, and that a prolonged and arduous battle would be required to kill them.
However, Han Li had slain these demonic apes in mere moments, and the stark contrast between expectations and reality had them in complete shock.
Only then did they truly understand the gulf between Han Li and themselves, and their expressions were rather strained as they looked at him.
"Let's go. That ape mentioned a mistress earlier, and she most likely won't be as easy to deal with," Han Li said in an indifferent voice before stepping onto the flying carriage again.