Chapter 1023: Bronze Lion

The Heaven-Reaching Spirit Treasure Screen unhesitatingly followed the young man named Xu. As the Saintess of Tianlan, she was well aware of Han Li's formidable power, and rescuing the holy beast clone was an absolute priority.

However, Ge Tianhao and the two other cultivators from the Yin Luo Sect looked uncertain.

Demonic cultivators were often heartless and disloyal. The reason they had acted without hesitation earlier was their belief that, with a late-stage cultivator present, Han Li could be easily subdued. However, they hadn't anticipated the opponent's treasure being so formidable. With just the power of one fan, even the Grand Immortal Master of Tianlan had paled and momentarily retreated.

Although the Grand Immortal Master had spoken reassuringly about the opponent possibly having only one strike left, "possibly" was still just a possibility. What if, when cornered, the opponent used a secret art to forcefully unleash their potential and unleashed several more attacks? The three of them were not confident they could withstand such an onslaught again.

Moreover, from the recent conversation, it seemed the opponent also possessed an even more formidable treasure cauldron. This made the three of them increasingly uneasy. While they all wished to retrieve the Ghost Luo Banner and earn significant merit for their sect, they were naturally unwilling to risk their lives for such an extreme danger. However, to openly cease the pursuit in front of the Tianlan Grassland cultivators also seemed impossible.

For a moment, the three of them hesitated.

"Let's go, we'll follow too," Ge Tianhao finally decided, lowering his voice to speak to the other two. "But if we have to confront that Han fellow directly later, we can just offer a little assistance from the side. As long as we don't directly block that fan and dodge quickly, we should be fine."

After a slight hesitation, the two black-robed elders nodded in agreement.

With that, the three also flew off in pursuit.

The stone steps leading to Kunwu Hall were incredibly long. Even with Han Li exerting his lightning power without reservation, it took a significant amount of time before he finally transformed into an arc of electricity, flashed past the steps, and stopped before an open stone forest.

What was called a stone forest was actually just a vast expanse of stone pillars, several zhang high and of similar thickness, standing on the ground. Their surfaces were intricately carved, inscribed with runes and spell formations that shimmered with faint spiritual light of various colors. It was clear that this stone forest was a grand restrictive formation.

However, what should have been perfectly aligned pillars were now all toppled over, with many reduced to mere half-fragments. The ground was also covered with rubble, stones, and numerous pits of various sizes.

It seemed this restrictive formation had long ago been forcibly destroyed by brute force.

Han Li merely cast a cold glance at the scene. Without a word, he plunged directly into the forest.

After a few flashes through the small stone forest, he appeared at its far edge. However, a sloped stone ramp now lay before him.

The stone ramp was entirely paved with massive bluestones. Scattered across it in disarray were stone statues and various magical artifacts such as halberds and battle-axes.

Han Li frowned slightly, but suddenly sensing something, he looked up towards the end of the ramp.

Over a hundred zhang away, he saw a platform-like area faintly flickering with spiritual light, from which occasional explosions could be heard, as if a battle was taking place.

"Could it be that Old Devil Qian and others have started fighting?" Han Li wondered.

Han Li's heart stirred. Activating his movement technique, he flew straight towards the platform. At the same time, his aura instantly retracted. After a few drifts, his figure suddenly became indistinct, eventually vanishing without a trace.

With Han Li intentionally concealing himself, he silently stepped onto an open space several times larger than the previous white jade plaza.

But after clearly seeing the situation before him, Han Li was taken aback.

Within an enormous white light screen, five white shadows, one yellow shadow, and two green shadows were engaged in a fierce battle.

The five white shadows were naturally Old Devil Qian's Five Demon Child avatars, each spouting gray mist and baring fangs and brandishing claws.

The yellow shadow, however, was a middle-aged cultivator. A giant white bone ring, emitting a yellowish glow, was wrapped around his body. When gray mist occasionally struck it, the yellow light would merely ripple, leaving it unaffected. The middle-aged cultivator himself wielded a red and yellow flying sword in each hand, desperately resisting the attacks of the Five Conjoined Demons.

The two green shadows were two bronze giant lions, each about a zhang tall. They constantly pounced and bit, relentlessly pursuing the Five Demon Children and the middle-aged cultivator. Their movements were as swift as lightning, and occasionally, they would open their mouths to unleash thick blue light beams, as wide as a bowl, which appeared to be quite powerful.

The Five Demon Children and the middle-aged cultivator, while not overly concerned with the bronze lions' long-range attacks, were very wary of their close-quarters combat. Their movements were exceedingly agile, and they did their best to prevent these two puppet beasts from getting close. If they couldn't dodge, they would temporarily abandon their opponents to deliver a fierce blow to the beasts.

However, the two bronze lions glowed brightly with blue light all over their bodies, appearing impervious to blades and spears. No matter if struck by gray mist or flying swords, they seemed completely unharmed, merely stepping back a few paces.

This layer of white light was also somewhat peculiar; silver arcs of electricity occasionally flickered on its surface. Whenever anyone approached its edge, a thunderous roar would immediately erupt from the light screen, and countless arcs of electricity would descend like rain.

Although it seemed the Five Demon Children and the middle-aged cultivator, protected by his strange bone ring, had no problem withstanding these electrical arcs, no one wanted to needlessly endure such a fierce attack.

As a result, the battle within the light screen became even more intense.

"What is this? Is it a gladiatorial arena?" Han Li sighed, observing the scene.

He could tell at a glance that the middle-aged cultivator, who was only in the Nascent Soul mid-stage, would have long been pounced upon by the Five Demon Children and had his vital essence drained if not for the strange bone ring protecting him. As for the two bronze giant lions, they looked exceedingly fierce, but they were merely two unmanned puppets. The middle-aged cultivator and Old Devil Qian simply didn't want to waste their attention on them; otherwise, once they had a moment to spare, either of them could easily deal with them.

Muttering to himself, Han Li swept his gaze to both sides.

This light screen almost covered the entire platform. Shimmering lights flickered on both sides of the platform, clearly indicating other formidable restrictions that prevented passage.

As a result, Han Li's path was blocked.

But when he looked forward, he discovered that behind the light screen, there was faintly a giant mountain gate, appearing to be the entrance to Kunwu Hall.

Han Li's brow furrowed unconsciously.

He naturally wouldn't stop here. Otherwise, the young man named Xu and the others would catch up in a moment.

He subtly flicked his sleeve, and the Three Flame Fan, hidden within, slid back into his palm.

He planned to rely on the fan's power to temporarily break through, then swiftly pass through the light screen to the other side. Although he would certainly be discovered by the two battling within the light screen, he had to take this risk, as this place was definitely not suitable for him to fight others.

Just as Han Li took a deep breath, about to inject his magic power into the treasured fan, he suddenly turned and looked towards a giant stone block at the edge of the platform, a hint of surprise simultaneously appearing on his face.

Was it an illusion? How could he feel a trace of unusual spiritual fluctuation there? The fluctuation was truly minuscule; if he hadn't already released his full divine sense due to being in a dangerous situation, he probably wouldn't have detected it at all.

Puzzled, a blue light flashed in his pupils as his Spirit Eye ability was unconsciously activated.

As a result, Han Li saw a pair of faintly glowing red demonic eyes behind the stone block.

"A Silver-winged Yaksha!" Startled, he instantly recognized the owner of these demonic eyes and immediately, without hesitation, channeled his internal spiritual energy intensely into his eyes.

Finally, with his Spirit Eye's power greatly enhanced, Han Li saw a blurry shadow behind the red eyes, faintly resembling a Silver-winged Yaksha. However, this demonic creature was not looking towards Han Li; instead, it was staring intently at the battle within the light screen. It seemed that due to the mountain's restrictions and Han Li's superb nameless aura concealment art, it hadn't detected Han Li's presence beforehand.

However, Han Li felt no complacency; instead, his heart sank.

This was because, next to the Silver-winged Yaksha's shadow, there were surprisingly two other blurry figures. Even with his Spirit Eye ability fully activated, he couldn't see them more clearly. He only faintly felt that one of them seemed to be the Lion-Bird Beast that had appeared once down the mountain, while the other, though humanoid in form, was very unfamiliar.

These demonic creatures were actually lurking here and seemed to be working together. "Could they also be interested in some treasure within Kunwu Hall?" Han Li's thoughts raced like lightning.

Just then, Han Li's expression suddenly changed, and he hastily looked back.

He saw faint spiritual light flickering in the stone forest below the ramp; the young man named Xu and the others were about to exit the stone forest and would soon catch up to him.

Seeing this, Han Li no longer hesitated. The spiritual fan in his hand emitted a soft crackle, suddenly enveloped by a layer of three-colored flames. Then, the treasured fan silently slashed down onto the light screen like a blade.

After a muffled "boom," although Han Li had controlled the fan's power, the moment the three-colored flames touched the restriction, they still erupted with dazzling spiritual light.

Whether it was the three demons, including the Silver-winged Yaksha, lurking behind the stone block, or Old Devil Qian and the middle-aged cultivator ceaselessly battling within the light screen, all were greatly startled and looked towards Han Li.

Seeing that his presence was exposed, Han Li no longer concealed anything. With a leap, he transformed into a dazzling green rainbow and flew through the freshly opened hole, shooting straight towards the other side of the light screen.

Forcibly extracting magic power to counter the anti-flight restriction, the green rainbow was as fast as lightning! In a blink of an eye, it had flown dozens of zhang away, about to sweep across the center of the platform.

"How dare you!" Old Devil Qian roared. Three of the five white shadows currently besieging the middle-aged cultivator suddenly flickered and vanished from their original positions.

The next moment, they mysteriously appeared before Han Li, six chilling green eyes simultaneously staring at him.

"Get lost!" Han Li's fierce shout came from within the green light. Immediately, with a crack of thunder, a thick golden arc shot out from his escape light. After a roll, it transformed into a golden electrical dragon, fiercely pouncing on the three white shadows.

"Exorcism Divine Thunder!" Upon seeing the golden electrical arc, Old Devil Qian's voice, filled with shock and fury, suddenly rang out; he had actually instantly recognized the origin of the Exorcism Divine Thunder.

The three avatar demon children, who were originally spewing demonic energy to block Han Li, hurriedly flickered and vanished from their original positions again.

The golden dragon struck empty space, while the green rainbow, seizing this opportunity, flashed past the area in an instant and shot to the vicinity of the light screen's other side.