Chapter 1496: Escape Plan
The crimson-robed figure's expression changed upon seeing these giant blades, and brilliant crimson light erupted from its body as it prepared to unleash another ability.
However, right at this moment, the five giant blades suddenly twisted outward before disappeared on the spot. In the next instant, they appeared at the edge of the cloud of blood mist like five massive doors, emitting a vast expanse of five-colored light.
The five-colored light swept the crimson cloud aside without any impediment, and a horrified look finally appeared on the crimson-robed figure's face.
He didn't have time to unleash any other secret techniques, so he could only hurriedly sweep his sleeves through the air while opening his mouth at the same time.
A small azure shield, a thin crimson veil, and a round bowl were blasted forth at once.
The three treasures were radiating scintillating light, and it was quite apparent that they were all extraordinarily powerful treasures.
As soon as they were unleashed, they transformed into three barriers of light of different colors, shielding the crimson-robed figure within.
After doing all that, the crimson-robed figure abruptly inhaled before expelling a few mouthfuls of blood essence, then raised a hand to summon a purple talisman. The talisman disappeared into the ball of blood essence in a flash, following which the ball exploded to form a cloud of blood mist that settled over the crimson-robed figure.
Immediately thereafter, a suit of purple armor surfaced over his body.
This suit of armor was extremely intricately crafted, and there were arcs of electricity crackling over its surface, making it appear as if it were some kind of ethereal otherworldly treasure.
At this moment, the five-colored light had brushed aside the cloud of blood mist and reached the crimson-robed figure.
Following a few crisp cracks, the three protective light barriers that had been set up were also shattered in quick succession before the five-colored light crashed heavily into the crimson-robed figure's body.
The purple suit of armor flashed with brilliant light, and it finally kept the five-colored light at bay...
But only for a split-second!
In the next instant, the five-colored light began to revolve around the suit of armor, and it was sliced in half at the waist.
The crimson-robed figure possessed countless abilities, but none of them stood a chance against this seemingly unstoppable streak of five-colored light.
A hint of despair flashed through the crimson-robed figure's eye as over 100 talismans and a dozen or so treasures of different forms erupted from his body. However, his last-ditch efforts proved to be futile in the end, and all of these objects were pulverized in mere moments by the five-colored light.
A bloodcurdling cry rang out as the five-colored light completely inundated the crimson-robed figure, and not even his soul had been able to escape.
A cold light flashed through the puppet's eyes upon seeing this, and it murmured to itself, "The main forte of the Five Dragon Chopper is its unmatched cutting power; it's nothing more than a laughable delusion to think that you can withstand its attack using those treasures."
It then made a grabbing motion, and the five massive blades in the distance transformed into five wyrm projections before flying back toward it.
In the end, the five wyrm projections converged overhead, to form that shimmering silver chopper again, then descended from above.
A hint of elation flashed through the crimson-armored puppet's eyes and it raised a hand to catch the chopper, but the light in its eyes suddenly dimmed, and its body swayed unsteadily as it almost tumbled out of the sky.
Thankfully, it managed to right itself amid a flash of spiritual light, but a resigned look appeared in its eyes. It heaved a faint sigh before catching the silver chopper in its grasp again.
It gently swept a hand over the chopper's mirror-like surface, and a burst of ringing erupted from its blade.
"This treasure is indeed extraordinarily powerful, but the rate at which it exhausts my spiritual sense is just as staggering. Looks like I'll have to put an end to everything the next time I unleash its power," the puppet mused to itself with a contemplative look on its face.
At this moment, ferocious Yin winds were swept up in the distant sky. A vast expanse of dark clouds descended and suddenly encompassed most of the entire sky.
Several high-grade ghostly beings descended amid gusts of Yin winds before landing in front of the puppet.
"Have you done everything I asked?" the puppet asked. "Rest assured, Master, we've set up everything required. As soon as you enter the divine pond, we'll immediately seal off the area using the formation. Even if someone manages to emerge alive from in there, they won't be able to immediately get away, and we'll be able to trap them for some time," a zombie-like high-grade ghostly being replied in a careful manner.
"Half of you, come with me; the other half, stay behind and take care of the formation. Those people have managed to divert one Infernal Lightning Beast away, but what they don't know is that there's not just one Infernal Lightning Beast guarding, but a couple instead, consisting of one male and one female," the crimson-armored puppet chuckled coldly.
The zombie-like ghostly being seemed to possess a high level of intelligence, and it wore a hesitant look as it said, "Even though those Infernal Lightning Beasts were left behind to guard this place by the elders of your Mayfly Race, we'd most likely be attacked by them as well, seeing as we don't carry any badges with us to grant us entry."
"Don't worry, those people went in ahead first, so the Infernal Lightning Beast will attack them first. All you have to do is sneak over and land the killing blows when the opportunities present themselves. With this Five Dragon Chopper alone, I wouldn't be overly optimistic about my chances. However, with this Infernal Lightning Beast to assist me, it'd be strange if any of them could escape this place alive. As for the other Infernal Lightning Beast, it's a pity that it was lured away, but had it not been for the fact that it had been drawn away, those people wouldn't have ventured into divine pond. It wouldn't be difficult to defeat them on the outside, but killing them all would be very difficult, but now..." the puppet chuckled in a sinister manner.
All of the other ghostly beings immediately fell silent upon hearing this.
A thought then suddenly occurred to the crimson-armored puppet, and it said, "Having said that, we can't just ignore the Infernal Lightning Beast that was led away, either. We need to send people after it, and if that man it's pursuing is quickly killed or if something else happens to make it return in advance, then we have to be informed right away through our Myriad Distance Talisman."
"Rest assured, Master, we've already sent White Ghost after them. She's the one who's most proficient among us in concealment and movement techniques, so she'll definitely be up to the task," the ghostly being hurriedly replied.
"White Ghost? Is that the one who managed to escape with only one arm amputated despite facing the most powerful being among the intruders?" The crimson-armored puppet asked.
"That's right."
"Hmm, if she was sent out, then we should indeed have no issues. Let's go, the intruders have most likely entered the underground palace below the divine pond already," the crimson-armored puppet instructed.
All of the ghostly beings immediately heeded its command, and three of them entered the blue passageway with the puppet while the other two high-grade ghostly beings remained outside.
One of them let loose a long howl, and countless black skeletons appeared from within the nearby dark clouds.
...
Han Li waved a hand through the air, and seven or eight bolts of golden lightning erupted behind him, heading straight for a ball silver lightning situated over 1,000 feet behind him. It was none other than the Infernal Lightning Beast that had been pursuing it for an immeasurable distance already.
At the sight of the oncoming arcs of golden lightning, the beast wasn't intimidated nor fearful in the slightest. Instead, it immediately opened its mouth to expel a burst of silver light.
As soon as the Divine Devilbane Lightning came into contact with this silver light, it was swept up in a soundless manner before being devoured by the beast.
The Infernal Lightning Beast licked its lips as bursts of dull rumbling erupted from within its stomach, and its eyes lit up as if it had just enjoyed a rare delicacy.
Han Li was able to take advantage of this delay to open up some distance between himself and the Infernal Lightning Beast.
However, the beast wasn't flustered in the slightest upon seeing this. It merely snarled as silver arcs of lightning revolved around its four limbs before setting off in pursuit again.
Han Li didn't even have to turn around to know what the beast was doing as it had done the same thing countless times along this chase.
This beast was a sliver fast than him even when he was flying as quickly as he was capable of, so even though he was able to open up some distance, it didn't take long before the beast narrowed the gap again.
After that, it would begin to attack him from afar.
In the beginning, it would blast bolts of astonishingly powerful silver lightning out of its mouth. However, Han Li possessed his Divine Devilbane Lightning and lightning robe to protect himself, so he was able to handle those attacks with ease.
The Infernal Lightning Beast immediately stopped blasting lightning out of its mouth upon seeing this, and instead switched to unleashing azure claw projections.
The projections started off at around the size of human hands, but not long after leaving the beast's claws, they would swell to around 10 feet in size. Several of those claw projections hurtling through an area at once could even suck away all the air in that area, giving one a sense that escape was impossible.
If it weren't for Han Li's Thunderstorm Wings allowing him to combine wind and lightning movement techniques for short periods of time, he would've most likely been severely wounded by those claw projections already.
Even so, the situation was still extremely perilous for him, and he was even dealt a glancing blow by a claw projection not long ago, which had almost resulted in catastrophic circumstances.
Thankfully, the All-encompassing Flag the white-haired beauty had given him took effect on that occasion, manifesting a gigantic Yin-yang projection that nullified most of the power from the attack.
Even so, his suit of resentful armor was completely destroyed, and he had suffered some minor injuries.
As such, Han Li naturally didn't dare to let the beast draw any closer. Every time the beast drew too close for comfort, Han Li would unleash his Divine Devilbane Lightning to stall its pursuit.
The Infernal Lightning Beast seemed to have realized that Han Li was a consistent source of Divine Devilbane Lightning, so it wasn't in a hurry to kill him, and merely stalked him as if it were toying with its prey.
Close to an hour had passed, and Han Li had already taken this beast out of the grey mountain ranges.
He had only been able to last this long as he possessed far more magic power than other beings of the same cultivation base, he was proficient in movement techniques, and he had a large amount of Divine Devilbane Lightning at his disposal. If another Deity Transformation Stage or even Spatial Tempering Stage being were in his position, they would've most likely fallen prey to this beast already.
It was no wonder that Liu Zu and the others weren't optimistic about his chances of survival.
In order to break the restriction on the infernal river, Han Li had already used up a lot of his Divine Devilbane Lightning, and without a large supply of that lightning left, Liu Zu and the others would naturally be led into thinking that he wouldn't last very long at all.
Han Li was keeping a constant eye on the Infernal Lightning Beast behind him while thinking of a way to escape, seeing as the demon monarchs had most likely already broken through the restriction on their end and no longer had any spare capacity to try and track him down.
There was definitely no way that he'd be able to escape from this fearsome demon beast through normal methods. The only things he could rely on were his lightning beads, the two new types of talismans he'd refined, and his mature Gold Devouring Beetles.
The first two of those three trump cards were disposable items, so he was planning to use them against the demon monarchs, but unleashing the Gold Devouring Beetles was extremely taxing on his spiritual sense. As such, he would refrain from using them unless he was in a truly dire situation.
Countless thoughts raced through Han Li's mind as he tried to find a solution.
He couldn't unleash too many Gold Devouring Beetles as the after-effects would essentially cripple him. However, he could try releasing just a few to impede the Infernal Lightning Beast behind him.
The beetles didn't have to harm the beast; all they had to do was slow it down slightly, and he'd be able to escape.
As a safety precaution, he could use his new talismans to assist him in that process, thereby even further elevating his chances of success.
After much painstaking thought, Han Li finally managed to devise a course of action that was just barely feasible.
He immediately took a deep breath and injected his spiritual sense into the spirit beast bracelet hidden on his body.