Chapter 1420: Pig Demon and Young Beast

The woman surnamed Xiao had already plunged headfirst into the massive light formation. Immediately, the entire formation's humming intensified severalfold, and intense spatial fluctuations emerged nearby.

The space enveloped by the massive light formation began to twist and deform, clearly indicating that the teleportation array was about to activate.

The numerous flying swords that had formed the sword array immediately reverted into seventy-two small swords and flashed back into Han Li's body the moment he rushed out of it.

However, at this moment, due to the spatial distortion, the green rainbow Han Li had transformed into faltered, and his escape speed involuntarily slowed significantly.

Han Li's expression changed. Before he could even activate the newly refined Mortal Wind-Thunder Wings on his back, the Yaksha King's attack had already reached him.

A distant punch, accompanied by a booming sound, transformed into a massive jade-green fist shadow that struck directly beneath the light formation, with Han Li finding himself enveloped by its power.

Han Li knew that he couldn't escape without first dealing with this attack. He immediately took a deep breath, raised both hands, and unleashed over ten golden-silver light orbs. Only then did he flap the wings on his back, vanishing from his spot in a flash. The next moment, he appeared right beside the center of the light formation, and with a flicker, plunged into it without hesitation.

At this moment, another streak of blood-light, though originating later, struck first, flashing upwards and fiercely cleaving a corner of the massive light formation.

Simultaneously, the golden-silver light orbs struck the fist shadow, and both exploded at once.

One attack, a burst of blood-light, unexpectedly caused the entire massive light formation to ripple open with a single cleave.

The other explosion, with an earth-shattering roar, suddenly conjured a massive golden-silver thundercloud, spanning a hundred zhang wide and stirring up a sky-reaching hurricane.

In an instant, the hurricane engulfed everything.

As spatial fluctuations appeared at the edge of the thundercloud, the two Yaksha Kings reappeared. Confronted by immense power equivalent to the combined attack of over ten Void Refinement cultivators, even with their formidable abilities, they were forced to momentarily retreat. This development stranded their original plan to instantly teleport over and seize Han Li and the other person from the light formation.

Slightly hindered by the thundercloud, the light formation in the air pulsed brightly as it swayed. After several frantic flashes, the entire formation shattered piece by piece and vanished completely.

Working together, the two Yaksha Kings forcibly dispersed the golden-silver thundercloud with their divine abilities in an instant. They then flashed and appeared directly beneath where the light formation's center had been.

There, only a white disc, its surface covered in cracks and completely devoid of spiritual energy, floated motionlessly.

One Yaksha King grabbed the disc, surveying it with a grim expression for a long moment before silently tossing it to the other.

"There's a trace of True Spirit energy inside," the second Yaksha King said after examining the disc, sighing. "It seems we still underestimated these two human cultivators; to think they possess such a long-distance teleportation ability out of thin air."

"Even this King didn't anticipate it," the Yaksha named Wumie said with a cold sneer. "Fortunately, my last strike also shook their teleportation array. Whether they truly managed to teleport safely is still up for debate. Perhaps they fell into some spatial rift along the way and have already vanished from this realm."

"We can only hope so, then," King Zhuanlun said, his brows furrowed deeply. After a long moment, he nodded. "However, we don't know where our respective rampaging minions were teleported. It will be quite troublesome to find them."

"It's nothing," Wumie replied. "Our rampaging minions aren't unintelligent beings. As long as they weren't teleported to another continent, they'll find a way to locate us. What's more important is that we must immediately formulate a plan for the allied army we discussed earlier, otherwise..."

Although greatly surprised by Han Li and the other person's escape, the two Yaksha Kings quickly dismissed it from their minds and immediately began discussing more crucial matters.

Meanwhile, countless miles away, the vast Yaksha army continued its majestic advance towards Tianyuan City, the stronghold of the human race.

***

Han Li felt his head splitting with pain and his eyes spinning. The fact that even with his current powerful state, he still experienced such intense sensations after the teleportation indicated that what seemed like an instantaneous transfer was undoubtedly an ultra-long-distance one.

After keeping his eyes closed for a long while, Han Li slowly opened them and surveyed his surroundings.

It appeared to be a field of scattered rocks, with the ground everywhere covered in gray-white, circular stones of varying sizes.

Not far away, patches of gray mist obscured the view, making it impossible to see very far.

His mind was still buzzing. He couldn't tell if there was some restriction in this place or if he simply hadn't yet recovered from the long-distance teleportation, as his spiritual sense was temporarily unable to leave his body.

With a slight frown, Han Li turned his head to look around, blue light flickering continuously in his eyes.

Han Li's expression suddenly changed. Forming hand seals, he transformed into a green rainbow, shot into the air, and plunged headfirst into the mist.

About fifteen minutes later, Han Li appeared by a stream several zhang wide, his hands clasped behind his back. He gazed at the clear, translucent water at his feet, his eyes slightly narrowed.

With a single downward grab, a small cluster of stream water was immediately levitated into the air, forming a fist-sized orb that hovered gently in his palm.

Han Li focused and examined it for a moment. After confirming there were no issues with the stream water, he opened his mouth, and the water orb immediately transformed into a stream that was completely absorbed into his mouth.

It was exceptionally sweet.

Han Li nodded with satisfaction. Just as he was about to draw more water, he suddenly raised an eyebrow, and with his other hand, he abruptly clenched his fist and struck the empty space behind him.

A tremendous, invisible force erupted.

With a loud "boom," the mist behind him churned. The immense force seemed to have struck something, as not only were there sounds of stumbling footsteps falling backward onto the ground, but also soft grunts.

Han Li's figure blurred slightly, and he ghost-like spun around, shaking his sleeve towards the mist behind him.

It was unclear what incantation he secretly cast, but a fierce gust of wind surged from his sleeve, instantly dispersing the gray mist within several dozen zhang ahead and revealing a monster about a zhang tall.

Even with his vast experience, Han Li was momentarily stunned upon clearly seeing the monster's appearance.

The monster before him was extremely peculiar in appearance: it had small eyes, a long snout, a pig's head, and a human-like body. Its upper body was encased in a green tortoise shell, which was firmly stuck to its frame.

At this moment, the monster lay on its back with its limbs flailing upwards, clearly knocked to the ground by Han Li's earlier punch, and was grunting, desperately trying to struggle back up.

However, because its back shell was too convex and its limbs were more than half shorter than a normal human's, it couldn't immediately flip itself over, resembling a massive, overturned tortoise.

"A Turtle-Pig Demon!"

A thought flashed in Han Li's mind, and for some reason, this bizarre name popped into his head. He couldn't help but chuckle softly.

The aura emanating from this pig demon wasn't strong, merely equivalent to a human cultivator at the Qi Condensation stage.

Given such a weak aura, Han Li naturally felt a sense of relief, but he was also somewhat surprised that this pig demon could withstand his earlier powerful strike.

His gaze flickered, landing on the tortoise shell worn by the pig demon. On the shell's underside, there was clearly an inch-deep fist print.

A look of surprise flashed across Han Li's face. He extended one hand and grabbed at the empty space above it.

Spiritual light burst forth, and a green hand, about a zhang in size, appeared in mid-air above the pig demon. With a scoop downwards, it grabbed the edge of the tortoise shell and lifted the entire pig demon.

Before Han Li could carefully examine the tortoise shell, the Turtle-Pig Demon suddenly contracted its body with unusual agility, dropping out of its shell. It transformed into a brown wild boar and darted into the nearby mist, vanishing from sight.

In an instant, only an empty tortoise shell remained in the large green hand, a true embodiment of the "golden cicada shedding its shell" stratagem.

Han Li's mouth twitched; he was a bit speechless.

Judging by the pig demon's swiftness when it escaped, its previous clumsy act of falling and failing to get up was actually a move to mislead its enemy.

This Turtle-Pig Demon appeared foolish, but it was exceptionally cunning and likely possessed a high level of intelligence.

Han Li naturally wouldn't pay much attention to a mere low-level Qi Condensation stage creature, nor was he bothered to chase after it. He simply drew the tortoise shell towards him and examined it repeatedly, a look of surprise gradually appearing on his face.

"It's just the shell of a hundred-year-old giant tortoise, yet it can actually withstand my punch," Han Li murmured to himself. "What kind of spirit tortoise shell is this, to possess such magical properties?" After a moment of hesitation, he temporarily put the tortoise shell into his storage bracelet.

After that, Han Li didn't rashly go anywhere else. He simply sat cross-legged by the stream, closing his eyes to meditate and recover.

The stream side was silent, but the surrounding mist gradually began to thin. After an unknown period of time, when the mist had mostly dispersed, a group of deer-like, horse-like beasts had gathered by the stream, extending their tongues to drink. Several of the young beasts were only about a foot long, clumsily stumbling and playfully wrestling with each other by the stream.

As Han Li had concealed his aura, he surprisingly drew no attention from the group of beasts, resembling an inanimate rock. One young beast even bumped directly into him.

The young beast seemed to sense something. It turned around and eyed Han Li with its two beautiful light-blue eyes. After curiously circling him a few times, it boldly brought its furry head close to Han Li's face and sniffed a few times, then couldn't help but extend its pink tongue and lick him once.

Suddenly, Han Li's eyes opened without any prior warning. The small beast, unusually clever, was startled and immediately leaped back, trying to escape. But at that very instant, a green light flashed, and a pill, carrying a medicinal fragrance, shot out from Han Li's sleeve, accurately flying into the small beast's mouth. It immediately dissolved into a flavorful essence that filled the small beast's mouth.

At the same time, Han Li's faint voice echoed in the small beast's ears.

"Since we share a small karmic connection, I'll give you this Spirit Enlightenment Pill," Han Li's voice said. "However, whether you can truly awaken your intelligence in the future will depend on your own fortune."

This voice, however, startled the small beast, causing it to let out a bleating sound like a sheep. Instantly, the other adult beasts nearby also discovered Han Li's presence. They immediately rushed forward, positioning the young beasts in the center, and then warily pointed their sharp horns in Han Li's direction.

Han Li remained unmoving. He simply calmly stared at the small beast for a couple more glances, then slowly closed his eyes again, no longer paying attention to the herd.