Chapter 271: Slaying

The moment the Tianmeng cultivator died, the hundreds of small rulers, deprived of spiritual power, instantly shattered into green light. They then converged, revealing their original talisman form and gently floating to the ground, landing precisely between Han Li, Xuan Le, and the blood-colored spider.

Xuan Le stared at Han Li expressionlessly, making no move. Han Li glanced at the blood spider, then at Xuan Le, and silently raised his hand, summoning the white scale shield. Simultaneously, eight beams of white light appeared around him, as eight puppet beasts materialized by his side.

Xuan Le's expression finally shifted slightly. He raised a hand, recalling the small yellow bell, and said faintly:

"I truly didn't expect, Junior Brother Han, that you would also be skilled in puppet techniques. However, your cultivation seems a bit lacking. Do you think these few puppets can really be my opponents?"

Han Li's expression remained unchanged as he coldly asked:

"Did you deliberately release the spider?"

"Indeed!"

Xuan Le admitted it readily, and with a flick of his hand, a light red veil, resembling a cloak, appeared in his grasp.

"Aren't you afraid of shooting yourself in the foot and ending up killed by this demonic beast?" Han Li licked his somewhat chapped lips and sneered.

"Haha! Kill me? With just this Level 4 demonic beast, which is only slightly tough and possesses some brute force?" Xuan Le mocked, his face full of disdain.

"Nevertheless, you should enjoy playing with this crystal spider! I hope you can keep your life!"

With that, he draped the veil over himself. Although his figure remained, all traces of his aura vanished completely in an instant.

Han Li was a little surprised and couldn't help but gaze intently at the veil for a few moments.

Meanwhile, Xuan Le, smiling, slowly retreated to a corner of the cave, appearing completely detached. Han Li's thoughts raced. He immediately deduced the veil's purpose, and his expression changed. He quickly looked towards the spider.

He saw the blood spider glaring at him with a malevolent gaze, its two fangs gnashing once more, having identified him as its prey.

Han Li pondered for a moment, then his body blurred. He rapidly darted towards the corner where Xuan Le stood.

However, seeing Han Li move, the blood spider immediately flared with intense crimson light and charged towards Han Li as well.

But the already prepared puppet beasts opened their mouths and alternately fired beams of light that flashed by, striking the blood spider and continuously sending it tumbling several times, making it temporarily unable to pursue Han Li.

Xuan Le's heart tightened as he saw Han Li charging rapidly towards him.

He was greatly wary of Han Li's lightning-fast movement technique, and dared not let Han Li get close. Without hesitation, he tossed the small bell in his hand towards Han Li. At the same time, his body shone brightly as a fiery red leather armor materialized on him. The veil had naturally lost its effect and was put away.

As Han Li saw the large bell approaching, he raised his hand, and a small mirror appeared in his palm. Simultaneously, a hazy green light shot out, instantly reverting the bell, which was about to enlarge, back to its original form and freezing it in mid-air.

"The Azure Condensation Mirror!" Xuan Le exclaimed in surprise. How could he not recognize this famous top-tier magic tool of their sect!

Instantly, Xuan Le became flustered!

One must understand, he had expected the "Sky-Shrouding Bell" to at least buy him some time, but Han Li had charged straight at him without the slightest pause. How could he not become flustered?

Fortunately, the opponent was still over ten zhang away. Xuan Le threw out an 'Ice Rain Technique' talisman he had just drawn, which immediately transformed into a dense shower of ice cones, raining down fiercely. In his mind, as long as Han Li used his white shield to block, his movement speed would definitely slow down, which would be enough time for him to activate a powerful magic tool he had just acquired.

Han Li saw a large barrage of ice cones approaching, and a cold glint flashed in his eyes. Instead, he waved his hand, putting the small shield back into his storage pouch. Simultaneously, his speed suddenly doubled, and his entire body twisted and deformed in an incredible manner, allowing him to pass through the volley of ice cones completely unharmed.

Upon witnessing this scene, Xuan Le's composed expression vanished entirely, and his face turned deathly pale.

Seeing Han Li arrive in front of him in the blink of an eye, he had no choice but to abandon activating any other magic tools. He could only pour all his spiritual power into the fiery red armor, hoping to rely on the effects of this top-tier defensive magic tool to withstand the immediate crisis.

Han Li saw the opponent's armor emit a dazzling light, and murderous intent surged in his eyes. He opened his mouth, and a dark, sharp object he had already prepared was unexpectedly spat out. With a shrill shriek, it rapidly pierced into the opponent's armor, followed by a deafening roar.

Followed by a green sword qi appearing out of thin air. With a flicker, Han Li was already standing before Xuan Le.

Xuan Le stood motionless. His fiery red armor had a fist-sized hole in the chest area, rendering it useless as all spiritual energy had been lost. And his head, without any warning, suddenly rolled off. Han Li had broken through his armor and then directly severed his head with the Azure Essence Sword Aura. His storage pouch at his waist was, of course, also conveniently taken by Han Li.

Han Li gazed at the storage pouch in his hand, a complex feeling welling up within him.

A cultivator at the late Foundation Establishment stage had been killed just like that. He must have found it hard to believe before he died!

However, Han Li clearly understood why the opponent died by his hand: partly due to surprise, and entirely due to the restrictions of the narrow terrain.

In a normal aerial battle between cultivators, the opponent would never have given him a chance to get close. At a distance of several tens of zhang, and with the opponent flying using magic tools, their speed would be no worse than his own extreme movement technique.

Moreover, to destroy the opponent's armor this time, he had used a one-time self-detonating magic tool refined from a young black flood dragon horn, effectively sacrificing it to destroy the opponent's armor.

Speaking of this young horn, the shop owner who refined the magic tool for him had continuously lamented, saying that if the black flood dragon horn had grown for another twenty or thirty years, it could have been refined into an extremely powerful magic tool, instead of having to be made into a consumable item because its quality was too fragile from being newly grown.

But now, it seemed extremely worthwhile to use this item to kill a late Foundation Establishment cultivator!

Just as Han Li put away the Azure Condensation Mirror and the opponent's small bell, a series of explosive sounds erupted behind him. This made him pause, then without thinking, he slapped his storage pouch, and immediately several more Level 2 puppet beasts flew out from it. The original eight, meanwhile, had finally been overtaken by the blood spider and were torn to pieces after a few attacks.

Now, the blood spider turned around and charged at Han Li once more!

Han Li raised his hand, and a pair of Black Dragon Grabs, upon being released, suddenly became enormous, blocking the giant spider in mid-air.

The puppet beasts' light beam attacks followed, continuously striking the demonic beast's crimson body, finally pinning it down in one spot, preventing it from advancing.

In desperation, the blood spider continuously spat out several mouthfuls of spider webs. Unfortunately, as soon as Han Li saw the beast employ this move, he immediately flickered and evaded. As for the puppet beasts, if any were caught even slightly by the silk due to slow evasion, Han Li would immediately recall it into his storage pouch and release another one, without interrupting the puppet beasts' continuous attacks.

However, Han Li immediately had to abandon the idea of summoning a talisman treasure to kill the opponent. After all, it would be unwise to directly block the opponent's spider webs with a protective barrier or magic tools.

Helpless, Han Li sighed, and had no choice but to maintain this level of assault on the spider, not daring to relax for a moment.

After a quarter of an hour, just as Han Li had predicted, the crimson color on the blood spider's body gradually faded, and pitted scars began to appear on its exoskeleton. Clearly, the demonic beast's true essence was running low, and it could no longer use spiritual power to cover its entire body and resist attacks.

As a smile appeared on Han Li's face, the spider also seemed to realize its predicament. It tried several times to escape Han Li's offensive range and dart towards the cave entrance, but each time it was forced back by a volley of rapid light beams from the puppets. In the end, it was trapped and killed by Han Li right there.

When the spider demonic beast's last shred of true essence was exhausted, it could only curl into a ball, completely unable to retaliate. Han Li, meanwhile, switched to the incredibly sharp Silver Radiance Sword, and with a few steps forward, he severed the spider's head with a single strike. Indeed, though the beast's exoskeleton was tough, without magical energy protecting it, it was easily pierced by the silver sword.

Then, Han Li sat down on the nearby ground, speechless for a long while.

After some time, he surveyed the many deceased cultivators around him. For the first time, he felt the fragility of a cultivator's life, which made him feel a little sad. Perhaps one day, he too would die at the hands of another cultivator, or be devoured by some demonic beast?

Once he had rested sufficiently, Han Li first picked up the small ruler talisman treasure. Then, he searched every corpse for storage pouches.

Finally, he cautiously approached the teleportation array, his gaze flickering as he examined the five-colored skeleton and the token it held.

"'Grand Teleportation Token!' That's what Lu Tianmeng called this token!" Han Li mused, lost in thought.