Chapter 1674: The Return of the Primordial Sword

After the fiery clouds and crimson flames vanished, leaving the sky clear, the colossal toad transformed into an eerie, glowing red entity, resembling a piece of incandescent iron. Its semi-transparent body emitted dazzling fiery light.

It hovered motionless in the air, like a blazing red sun. The scorching heat made everything within several miles feel as if it were inside a blazing furnace.

Han Li, directly below, experienced an even more astonishingly high temperature. The air itself hummed faintly, becoming hazy and indistinct!

Ordinary low to mid-level cultivators would likely have their bodies thoroughly baked by such heat, instantly bursting into flames and turning to ash, with even their primordial spirits unable to escape. However, Han Li, amidst the high temperature, merely frowned slightly and abruptly slapped the top of his head.

With a soft pop, a layer of silver flames instantly surged from his head to his feet, completely enveloping his body.

The scorching heat from the surroundings, as if drawn by a powerful magnetic force, surged into the silver flames.

The air within Han Li's ten-zhang radius immediately became unusually cool again.

Han Li remained suspended in place, arms crossed. He looked up at the colossal crimson entity in the air, not blinking, his expression extremely calm.

In reality, he still had a few misgivings.

Fire-attributed spiritual energy inherently possessed certain demon-warding and evil-exterminating properties. Therefore, fiendish beasts possessing such pure elemental abilities were extremely rare.

Not to mention, this high-level fiendish beast had manipulated fire spiritual energy to such an astonishing degree. Yet, even so, did this demon truly believe such a minor ability could defeat him?

Han Li let out another cold sneer inwardly. Then, he suddenly rubbed his hands together and separated them.

A thunderous rumble erupted. A layer of golden electrical arcs suddenly appeared, coiling around his body, growing thicker and expanding rapidly outwards.

Amidst the astonishing lightning, a massive circular electric net formed, enveloping him.

Simultaneously, Han Li flipped his palms upwards. Strange, golden-glowing runes surged from his hands, disappearing into the surrounding electrical arcs.

An astonishing phenomenon occurred. The golden arcs shattered inch by inch the instant the runes merged into them. After exploding into bursts of golden light, they instantly coalesced back together.

In an instant, a golden halo several zhang in diameter emerged.

Han Li, within the halo, became indistinct, but a chanting sound slowly emanated from him.

As the halo rotated, the runes churned erratically, emitting a buzzing sound that gradually grew shrill!

After a clap of thunder, Han Li revealed his form, with one hand forming an incantation seal.

His other hand, with fingers pointing upwards, held a gleaming golden orb suspended about a foot above his palm.

The orb's surface was uneven, its light dim, as if it were just an ordinary object.

"Evil-Slaying Divine Thunder, Thunder Offering Art!"

The moment the orb, transformed from the Evil-Slaying Divine Thunder, appeared, the colossal toad in the air instantly recognized it with great shock.

Han Li chuckled softly. His fingers, supporting the golden orb, twitched, and the orb spun rapidly in his palm, appearing as if it was about to be unleashed.

The colossal toad, which had originally expended immense effort preparing a formidable secret art, instantly changed its expression upon seeing this, forgetting about all other matters. It moved almost without thinking, immediately transforming into a surging pillar of fire that swept downwards.

Seeing this, Han Li's mouth twitched slightly. The golden orb in his hand leaped, then instantly vanished. He himself suddenly retreated backwards.

The seemingly empty void behind him suddenly erupted with blue light, as numerous green lotuses emerged.

Han Li's seemingly casual step backwards caused him to vanish instantly among the green lotuses.

The pillar of fire crashed down with a rumble, striking the green lotuses below.

The numerous lotuses, however, seemed to be made of paper, immediately disintegrating into scattered points of blue light. But the crimson flames, upon rushing into the blue light, vanished instantly as if swallowed by the sea.

The pillar of fire immediately exploded, transforming into a sea of flames about an mu in size. A red light flickered within it, and the colossal toad's immense body emerged, its eyes still tightly shut. It gazed at the scattered points of blue light ahead, filled with astonishment. However, in the next moment, Han Li's voice suddenly rang out from the surrounding void:

"Now that you've come down, don't even think of leaving. Taste my Spring Dawn Sword Array!"

As soon as his voice fell, spiritual light flickered in the void for over a hundred zhang. A layer of hazy blue light curtain suddenly appeared, completely encompassing the sea of flames.

The colossal toad, which had already sensed something amiss, upon seeing this, immediately let out a furious roar and, opening its mouth, spat out a beam of red light.

With a soft *whoosh*.

The light beam struck the blue light curtain, easily piercing through it, but then it vanished within, leaving no trace.

Upon seeing this, grey light flowed through the gem between the toad's brows. It raised one of its forelimbs and slowly smacked towards the distance.

A series of thunderous roars erupted.

A sheet of red light mist surged forth from the fiendish beast's forelimb, then condensed into a colossal crimson claw. It fiercely swiped downwards at the light curtain ahead.

This claw was truly unlike ordinary mystical technique transformations; even before it made solid contact, the sound of tearing air intensified. Several foot-long red lights flashed, emerging from the giant claw.

With a ripping sound, the crimson giant claw instantly tore open a large section of the blue light curtain.

But behind the light curtain, a deep, dark void appeared, seeming unfathomable.

The crimson giant claw swung again without hesitation, and several claw lights instantly flashed, slashing into the void.

Blue light flared, and in the previously empty void, numerous green lotuses suddenly appeared, densely packed. In just a few flashes, they covered the entire void.

The red lights, upon slashing into them, were immediately swallowed.

Upon seeing this, the colossal toad's face showed surprise, but it immediately activated its incantation.

Instantly, the crimson giant claw swelled several times in size. Then, with a buzzing sound, it split open.

A dazzling red halo emerged, spreading out rapidly with a thunderous roar. In an instant, it grew to over ten zhang in size.

The nearby green lotuses, upon contact with this halo, astonishingly transformed into wisps of blue smoke, vanishing without a trace.

This red halo was surprisingly overbearing. With a rapid spin, it flew forward, seemingly intent on instantly annihilating all the green lotuses.

But at this moment, silver flames flashed above the red halo. A fierce silver firebird, only about a foot in size, appeared. Spreading its wings, it plunged into the red light below.

The red halo trembled throughout. A series of strange crackling sounds emanated from its center. Subsequently, the halo eerily shrank at an astonishing speed.

After a short while, the halo shrank to several feet in size. The red light finally dispersed, revealing the silver firebird once more.

The firebird absorbed the remaining red light. It then proudly craned its neck and let out a clear cry, but instantly, with a *bang*, it transformed into scattered silver flames and vanished.

Seeing this, the colossal toad below showed great fury. After another low roar escaped its mouth, the pair of ink-black wings on its back suddenly flapped.

Instantly, a black demonic wind appeared seemingly out of nowhere nearby. It began to swirl around the fiendish beast, growing larger. In just a few flashes, it transformed into an extraordinarily violent hurricane.

At the same time, the colossal toad chanted, and surging flames also appeared on its body.

The wind fueled the fire, and the fire amplified the wind. Incredibly, the two merged into a single pillar of black and red wind-fire that shot up into the sky.

The colossal toad wasn't finished; as its chanting suddenly ceased, it abruptly opened its mouth and spat out a misty purple flying sword.

With just a flicker, this flying sword transformed into countless palm-sized thin blades, which flashed and disappeared into the wind pillar.

Instantly, a shrill whistling sound erupted from the wind pillar. Countless purple rays suddenly appeared on its surface, and it rapidly grew thicker at an astonishing speed.

It seemed that with each passing second, the wind-fire pillar grew a full circle thicker.

Its momentum was utterly astonishing!

However, at this very moment, a different scene was unfolding on Han Li's side.

He was seen forming an incantation seal with one hand, activating the entire Spring Dawn Sword Array.

Outside the sword array, countless five-colored light spots gathered, densely packed, desperately surging into the blue light curtain.

In the nearby sky, five-colored light formed by the essence of heaven and earth spread across the entire expanse, stretching as far as the eye could see.

Han Li had, at some unknown point, gathered as much of the surrounding heaven and earth essence as possible. At this moment, a cold glint flashed in his eyes, and he abruptly urged the sword array.

Within the array, a strange scene unfolded.

Within the high-altitude light curtain, after a slight blur, a vine-like plant suddenly emerged, hanging upside down.

When it first appeared, it was only a few inches in size. But in moments, it rapidly grew to over a zhang in length. The vine quickly bent, flowered, and bore fruit, forming a vibrant green gourd.

At this moment, an ethereal glow circulated within the surrounding light curtain, transforming into countless green lotuses.

The lotuses bloomed simultaneously. With a tremor, they sprayed out foot-long sword shadows, which flashed and disappeared into the gourd.

A faint blue sword mark suddenly appeared on the gourd's surface, extremely faint. But immediately, large amounts of five-colored light mist emerged from the light curtain and, coiling down along the vine, poured into the gourd.

The mark instantly became remarkably clear and shimmered with five-colored light.

This was precisely the Spring Dawn Sword Array's trump card: the Essence Sword.

This powerful divine ability could only be barely unleashed with a large supply of heaven and earth essence.

Therefore, at the beginning, he did not activate the Spring Dawn Sword Array's signature illusion art. Instead, he focused his spiritual sense on mobilizing the surrounding heaven and earth essence for his own use.

He had originally prepared for the opponent to seize partial control of the heaven and earth essence. But unexpectedly, the opponent was solely focused on preparing their own divine ability and did not interfere with his.

As a result, the Essence Sword successfully condensed. It continued to absorb external heaven and earth essence, ensuring its power rapidly increased.

The colossal toad sensed the dense heaven and earth essence outside the sword array and witnessed the strange scene unfolding in the air. Its heart was somewhat appalled!

However, it seized this opportune moment to complete its secret art preparation. Therefore, it let out a low roar and, taking a step, focused its gaze upwards with newfound gravity.

But at this moment, Han Li's faint voice suddenly came from high in the sky.

"Slash!"

The gourd inverted. Light swirled within its mouth, and with a flash, it spat out a beam of light, a sword.

It was about a foot long, flickering with five-colored spiritual light!