Chapter 1624: Human-faced Vultures
As for Xian Xian, she was still enveloped within a ball of golden light, but eight palm-sized copper mirrors had appeared outside the golden light, and were revolving around her body.
These mirrors had antiquated patterns on their backs while their mirror surfaces were shimmering with a cold light.
Aside from these treasures, the two of them were also holding other things with their hands concealed up their sleeves.
It was quite clear that the two of them were also aware that this misty area was potentially quite a perilous place, and they'd both made some preparations.
Even Han Li was holding several azure lightning beads in one of his hands that was hidden up his sleeve. If they were to encounter any powerful enemies, he'd be able to immediately attack them with these lightning beads.
The murky white mist around them was similar in nature to normal devilish Qi, but it was naturally a lot less potent than the black sea of mist down below.
At the very least, they didn't have to worry about devilfication for the time being.
However, Han Li's spirit eye ability was also greatly restricted here, cutting visibility down to only around 500 meters.
As such, even though Han Li appeared to be quite calm, he didn't dare to grow complacent in the slightest. At the same time as he was scanning his gaze throughout the surrounding area, he had also released his spiritual sense to encompass an area with a radius of several hundred feet in case any devilish beasts proficient in concealment were to try and approach him.
Thus, the conversation between the three of them gradually petered out as they entered the sea of mist, and the trio continued onward in silence.
To them, the ideal outcome would naturally be to pass through this area without alerting the devilish beasts that were potentially lurking within this mist.
After flying for around an hour, their surroundings were still entirely enshrouded in faint white mist, and there were no signs to suggest that they were anywhere near making it out of this area.
Han Li remained relatively unfazed in the face of this situation, but Xian Xian wore a rather concerned expression, and Yue Zong was also clearly feeling quite tense as he cast his gaze toward the strange insect in the box with increasing regularity.
After flying onward for a while longer, a burst of short and sharp urgent screeching suddenly rang out from behind him.
He paused in his flight upon hearing this before turning around to find that bright silver light was radiating from the box in Yue Zong's hand. At the same time, the strange insect had raised its upper body, and its head was thrashing about violently as it screeched in a distressed manner.
Not only were the silver spots on its body shimmering with bright silver light, even the ghostly image on its head had become an extremely vibrant crimson color.
Yue Zong's expression changed drastically as he warned, "This is bad! High-grade devilish beasts have appeared within five kilometers, and they're flying extremely quickly toward us."
"Tell me which direction they're coming from," Han Li instructed in a calm manner.
After listening to the insect's screeching for a while longer, Yue Zong hurriedly answered, "From the southwest, and there are five of them in total."
"Five, eh? That will indeed be rather troublesome to deal with. I wonder what kind of high-grade devilish beasts these are," Han Li murmured to himself as he cast his gaze toward the southwestern direction.
All of a sudden, he rustled a sleeve, and 72 azure swords short forth amid a crisp ringing sound. After that, he began to chant something before rapidly pointing at these flying swords.
All of the small swords shuddered before abruptly disappearing on the spot.
Immediately thereafter, a series of azure lotus flowers appeared out of thin air, and they were multiplying at an alarming rate.
Specks of azure light began to appear high up in the air, and the azure lotus flowers rotated in unison before swelling to around 10 feet in size each. They connected to form an azure light barrier than obscured the entire sky nearby.
An area with a radius of around 1,000 feet had been enshrouded under the light barrier.
This was one of the Han Li's most powerful abilities, the Spring Dawn Sword Formation.
Only with this sword formation was Han Li confident that he'd be able to trap several high-grade devilish beasts at once.
He was naturally confident in his ability to kill these devilish beasts even without this sword formation, but he wouldn't be able to guarantee Xian Xian and Yue Zong's safety in that case. If a mishap were to occur or a high-grade devilish beast or two were to slip through and bypass him, those two would be in grave danger.
Both of them were imperative to this journey, so Han Li naturally used the safest method.
"This a sword formation!"
With Xian Xian's vast wealth of knowledge and experience, she was able to immediately identify the nature of the ability that Han Li had unleashed, and she faltered momentarily before an elated look appeared on her face.
Yue Zong was also ecstatic to hear this, clearly aware of how powerful sword formations were as well.
Meanwhile, Han Li swept a sleeve through the air in an expressionless manner, and a swath of azure light swept forth. The light barrier up above blurred slightly before turning transparent, then vanishing without a trace as if it had never even existed.
The mystique of this Spring Dawn Sword Formation further boosted Xian Xian and Yue Zong's confidence in Han Li.
They glanced at one another before flying closer to Han Li, hovering directly behind him.
Han Li didn't turn around, but he could sense that the two of them were still over 200 feet away and hadn't been impudent enough to draw too close to him.
Right at this moment, Han Li suddenly heard a string of strange cries coming from afar, and as soon as this sound reached his ears, he was struck by a sense of irritation that made it difficult for him to concentrate.
He was rather startled by this development and immediately activated his Great Development Technique, thereby quickly restoring a sense of clarity into his mind.
Meanwhile, Yue Zong and Xian Xian displayed different reactions in response to these strange cries.
Yue Zong's eyes suddenly became glazed over, and his cheeks became unnaturally flushed. His hands balled up into tight fists involuntarily before relaxing again, and he seemed to be quite confused.
As for Xiao Xiao, a layer of azure light flashed past her face, and she remained completely immune to the effects of this strange sound.
However, she was also quite alert in that as soon as she noticed that these were no ordinary cries, she immediately cast her gaze toward Yue Zong. After assessing his condition, her expression darkened slightly, and following a brief hesitation, she suddenly raised a hand.
A talisman that she'd hidden in her hand in advance shot forth in a flash, then transformed into a burst of white glacial Qi.
"Argh!"
Due to the fact that Yue Zong's reflexes had been dulled due to his confused state, he completely failed to react to Xian Xian's surprise gesture, and his entire body was instantly enshrouded within the glacial Qi.
An icy cold sensation then traveled down his body from head to toe, and the sense of irritation that had welled up in his heart instantly disappeared.
After returning to his senses, Yue Zong was naturally aware of what had just happened, and he cupped his fist in a grateful salute as he said, "Thank you for your help, Fairy Xian."
"It's alright, but you have to be more careful, Brother Yue," Xian Xian replied with a smile.
After recovering full control over his cognitive abilities, Yue Zong found this situation to be rather strange. His cultivation base far outstripped that of Xian Xian, yet she'd remained completely unaffected by those strange cries despite the fact that even he'd fallen prey to them. Could it be that she was carrying some kind of calming treasure of an extremely high caliber?
Just as these thoughts were running through Yue Zong's mind, the thin mist in the southwestern direction suddenly tumbled and surged violently, following which several black shadows appeared in a menacing manner, each of which was around 10 feet in size.
After just a few flashes, they rushed out of the mist amid a burst of unsettling cries, revealing themselves to a pack devilish beasts that resembled vultures.
However, all of these devilish beasts possessed faces of human women, yet each of them had four green eyes as opposed to two eyes that one would normally expect to find on a human face.
As such, the beautiful female faces were given an extremely sinister appearance instead.
Among the five devilish beasts, there were four with black and white feathers, and they possessed early-Spatial Tempering Stage power. As for the final beast, this one had snowy-white feathers, and it was also the most powerful being in the group with a late-Spatial Tempering Stage cultivation base.
"Kuku! Look what we have here! Spirit Realm beings! This is great; the last time I had a Spirit Realm being was several hundred years ago." The most powerful white vulture beast was able to speak in an indistinct human voice that was extremely coarse and unpleasant.
Han Li's expression remained completely unchanged, and he merely stood still on the spot as he appraised the devilish birds with a cold look in his eyes.
However, this late-Spatial Tempering Stage devilish vulture seemed to possess an extremely high level of intelligence as it didn't immediately attack Han Li's trio with its four companions. Instead, it was flapping its wings gently as it hovered in mid-air, appraising Han Li's trio from afar with its four green eyes to ascertain their power levels.
Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this, and he suddenly raised a hand.
Five azure beads immediately shot forth, all of which transformed into fist-sized balls of azure light that reached the devilish birds after just a few flashes.
The devilish vultures were slightly surprised by this sudden development, but all of them then dispersed following a command from their leader, trying to avoid having to face these attacks head-on.
After all, all devilish birds were far faster than most land-dwelling beasts, and this was something that they were more than willing to take advantage of.
However, a cold smile suddenly appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this, and he abruptly made a hand seal.
After missing their targets, the five balls of azure light suddenly changed directions at his behest, hurtling toward an area of empty space between the five devilish birds.
All of a sudden, a string of resounding booms rang out as the five balls azure light clashed before exploding in unison.
Loud thunderclaps rang out as countless arcs of azure lightning flashed through the air, instantly covering an area of several acres. The five devilish vultures were completely caught off guard and swept up in the explosion.
The arcs of lightning crashed down viciously onto their bodies, inundating them in azure lightning in the blink of an eye.
Yue Zong was ecstatic to see this as he stood behind Han Li, and he was just about to say something with a loud cry suddenly erupted from within the azure lightning.
Immediately thereafter, five pillars of white light shot forth from within, one of which was thicker than the other.
The pillars of light swept through the vast expanse of lightning, quickly nullifying the latter, following which the five devilish birds rushed out of what little remained of the azure light in a violent manner.
All of them were letting loose enraged cries, having clearly been infuriated by Han Li's attack, and it was no wonder that this was the case; aside from their leader, which had only suffered a bit of charring on one of its wings, the other four devilish vultures were all riddled without wounds and reeked of an acrid burning odor.
They had managed to withstand that attack, but each of Han Li's lightning beads possessed power equivalent to a full-force attack from a Spatial Tempering Stage being, so they certainly weren't going to emerge unscathed after being caught in an explosion of several such lightning beads at once.
Thus, the four devilish birds that had suffered severe burns all pounced toward Han Li with irrepressible rage in their eyes, looking as if they'd like nothing better than to tear him into shreds before devouring his body.