Chapter 1694: Pursuit
Moments later, the Dark Beast Monarch turned to one of the Three-eyed Dark Beasts behind it, and let loose a string of furious snarls.
The Three-eyed Dark Beast immediately responded with a few roars of its own before taking a few steps backward in a respectful manner. After that, it turned around and rushed back the way they'd come, quickly vanishing into the darkness.
The Dark Beast Monarch turned around and continued onward upon seeing this.
In its eyes, outsiders who were infiltrating their Dark Beast Forest were naturally quite abhorrent, but they paled in insignificance compared to the target that it was currently pursuing.
As such, even though it had sensed the deaths of the silver-eyed Dark Beasts it had deployed earlier, it had no intention of turning back, and merely deployed one of its subordinates to carry out its orders.
The other Three-eyed Dark Beasts naturally followed along closely behind the golden Dark Beast.
A loud rustling sound could be heard throughout the nearby forest, and it was quite clear that there was a vast beast pack accompanying this Dark Beast Monarch.
However, if one were to listen carefully, they'd discover that some of this rustling sound was gradually fading away, seemingly indicating that many of the Dark Beasts had detached themselves from the beast pack and were traveling away in the opposite direction...
Han Li hovered in mid-air with his arms crossed. Down below him, the giant dark beast had already been sliced in half, and the two halves of its carcass were disintegrating into specks of black light.
Liu Shui'er and Shi Kun were both staring blankly at Han Li. Even though they were doing their best to maintain calm expressions, there was a hint of fear in both of their eyes.
Due to the fact that the battlefield had been too chaotic as a result of the countless explosions taking place, and the incredible speed of Han Li's movements, they weren't able to see how he had taken care of this giant beast.
All they could see was that a dazzling streak of golden light had swept forth, following which both the beast and the black protective light barrier around it were instantly sliced in half without being able to offer any resistance.
This giant beast's aura was comparable to that of a holy race being, yet it had been slain by Han Li in an instant. That was downright astonishing!
Furthermore, in the instant that the streak of golden light had appeared, both Shi Kun and Liu Shui'er could sense that the world's origin Qi in the nearby area had been drawn violently to the golden light, as if by some kind of immense power. After that, this enormous power vanished right after the golden light disappeared.
Being able to draw upon the world's origin Qi naturally wasn't a feat that was worthy of incredulity. However, for beings like them, drawing upon the world's origin Qi was something that they could only just barely accomplish after making hand seals and chanting for long periods of time.
Even then, they wouldn't be guaranteed to succeed, yet Han Li had just accomplished this feat as easily as if he were taking a stroll in the park.
Could it be that his powers were comparable to that of their masters already? If so, then he was a man who absolutely defied the natural order!
With that in mind, both Shi Kun and Liu Shui'er were appraising Han Li with peculiar looks in their eyes.
In contrast, Han Li's expression remained completely unchanged.
After unleashing his true devil projection and using the blade segment to kill the giant beast, he had immediately withdrawn both the projection and the treasure, not giving his two companions any opportunity to see what had happened.
Han Li had decided to use the blade segment at the expense of a portion of his projection's power as he wanted to see how much power he could unleash with this treasure using his newly refined projection.
Perhaps the amount of power required to unleash an attack with the blade segment was far less than he'd anticipated to begin with, or perhaps his newly refined Provenance True Devil Projection was able to control its power expenditure. In any case, not only was the attack unleashed several times more quickly than what Han Li had been capable of in the past, the amount of power expended was also less than a third of what had previously been required.
During this process, he'd intentionally held back most of the blade segment's power, but this was still quite a pleasing result to him.
Even so, after using the Profound Heavenly Fruit in the Golden Devil Mountain Ranges, he'd expended a lot of his projection's power, and if it weren't for the fact that he'd recovered a lot of this power through the past few years of arduous cultivation, he wouldn't have dared to use that blade segment here.
With that in mind, Han Li made a grabbing motion toward the two halves of the giant beast's body with his inky-black hand, and a vast expanse of grey light immediately swept forth. The grey light absorbed all of the specks of black light that the carcass had disintegrated into, leaving behind four shimmering silver thumb-sized beads.
These were none other than the inner cores of the Three-eyed Dark Beasts.
Han Li raised his eyebrows upon seeing this, yet just as he was about to stow them away, a low roar of excitement suddenly rang out from within his sleeve.
He faltered slightly upon hearing this and contemplated the situation briefly before sweeping a sleeve through the air, upon which a golden shadow flew out from within, leaving a trail of afterimages in its wake.
The golden shadow then revealed itself to be a small beast with golden patterns all over its body.
It was none other than his Leopard Kirin Beast.
After reaching the Deity Transformation Stage, the Leopard Kirin Beast had been cultivating arduously in Han Li's spirit beast bracelet, and after being fed all types of precious pills by Han Li, it had reached the mid-Deity Transformation Stage. In fact, it was already quite close to the late-Deity Transformation Stage.
Even so, at its current cultivation base, it really wasn't much help to Han Li at all, and that was why he hadn't summoned this beast during his previous battles.
However, the excited reaction of this beast naturally drew Han Li into releasing it out of his spirit beast bracelet, and as soon as the Leopard Kirin Beast appeared, it shot forth in a flash, leaving another trail of afterimages in its wake before swallowing all four of the Dark Beasts' inner cores at once. It then rushed back and landed on Han Li's shoulder before rubbing its furry head against Han Li's neck in an extremely affectionate manner.
Han Li's expression changed slightly upon seeing this, and he flipped his hand over to produce three more identical inner cores amid a flash of silver light.
The Leopard Kirin Beast's eyes immediately lit up before it pounced onto the three inner cores and swallowed them as well, then hovered above Han Li's hand and roared with elation.
A faint smile appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this. The Leopard Kirin Beast had displayed no reaction at all to the inner cores of normal Dark Beast, so he didn't know why it was suddenly so interested in the inner cores of these silver-eyed Dark Beast. However, consuming these inner cores could only prove to be beneficial to the beast.
Thus, Han Li swept a sleeve through the air, and a burst of azure light surged forth from within before sweeping up the small beast, which then vanished in a flash, having returned to the spirit beast bracelet again.
As for just what kind of effect those inner cores would have on the Leopard Kirin Beast, that was something that he'd only be able to find out after the beast refined the inner cores within its body.
Liu Shui'er and Shi Kun exchanged a glance upon seeing the Leopard Kirin Beast devouring the inner cores before finally hovering over to Han Li.
However, they stopped several tens of feet away, and Liu Shui'er smiled as she said, "Thank you for stepping in to save us, Brother Han. Those silver-eyed Dark Beasts were very troublesome to deal with, even on their own, and with their ability to fuse together, Fellow Daoist Shi and I would've most likely perished by their hands."
"Indeed. Your immense power truly puts the two of us to shame, Brother Han. If it weren't for the fact that this realm strictly prohibits the entry of holy race beings and above, I would seriously be considering whether you were a holy race senior in disguise," Shi Kun chimed in with a wry smile.
Both of them were subconsciously speaking to Han Li in a more respectful manner.
Han Li turned toward the two of them with a smile, and replied, "There's no need to be so modest, Fellow Daoists. I was only able to kill these Dark Beasts so easily as you two had drawn most of their attention. Even though we've eradicated all of our enemies here, this is not a place we should stay at for any longer than we have to. I'm sure there will be other Dark Beasts coming after us soon, so it's best to get away from here as quickly as possible."
Liu Shui'er expression changed slightly upon hearing this, but she then quickly agreed, "Indeed, Brother Han, we should continue onward right away."
Shi Kun naturally had no objections to this, either, and he quickly in response.
Thus, after a brief discussion, the three of them continued on their journey.
Five or six days later, within a lush forest, Han Li was making a hand seal in an expressionless manner, and several tens of azure flying swords were revolving around his body. These swords then transformed into azure lotus flowers that descended toward a Three-eyed Dark Beast up ahead, and azure sword Qi flashed as the Dark Beast was instantly sliced into countless pieces.
Standing behind him was Doll, and it was waving its blue jade fan toward a normal Dark Beast.
Blue light surged forth from the jade fan, freezing the Dark Beast and two black projections it had conjured up in a flash, completely immobilizing them by sealing them in a blue mountain of ice that was over 100 feet tall.
Further in the distance, loud explosions were erupting incessantly as spiritual lights of different colors flashed in an erratic manner.
Over there, Liu Shui'er and Shi Kun were also taking care of a few other Dark Beasts.
This was already the seventh group of Dark Beasts they'd encountered after leaving the central region of the forest.
Each group consisted of at least five or six Dark Beasts, while the largest groups consisted of seven or eight of them.
Thankfully, there were no silver-eyed Dark Beasts among them, so the most powerful ones Han Li's trio encountered were only ordinary Three-eyed Dark Beasts, and none of them were capable of fusing their bodies together.
As such, they were naturally no match for Han Li and the others, and were slain with ease.
Even so, Han Li and the others inevitably had to slow down over and over again to take eradicate these groups of Dark Beasts, and in contrast with the previous groups they'd encountered, this group consisted of a dozen or so Dark Beasts.
If it weren't for the fact that Han Li and the others had all unleashed some of their trump card abilities, it wouldn't have been easy for them to quickly secure victory.
Han Li waved a hand through the air, and a faint buzzing sound rang out from the azure lotus flowers. Immediately thereafter, they hurtled through the air as several tens of azure threads, puncturing the body of the Dark Beast that had been sealed in the blue mountain of ice.
He then turned expressionlessly toward Liu Shui'er's battlefield, and all of the azure threads shot forth toward that direction.
10 days later, thee humanoid figures were hovering motionlessly in the mid-air at the edge of the Dark Beast Forest while facing the forest up ahead.
There, over 30 Dark Beasts had gathered, and close to half of them were Three-eyed Dark Beasts.
Liu Shui'er and Shi Kun both wore grim expressions, and Han Li's brows were also slightly furrowed.