Chapter 557: Lightning Release Technique

As days passed, the intervals between Han Li's Wind Spirit Qi outbreaks grew longer. From initially occurring every few hours to once every half day, it eventually took a full day for Han Li to suppress it once. Moreover, the intensity of each outbreak gradually weakened.

Finally, after an outbreak that occurred two days later, the Wind Spirit Qi settled down, and the Ripping Wind Beast apparently gave up on controlling it.

Han Li was naturally overjoyed.

Whether it was because the beast was too far away for its spell to work or because it encountered some other trouble, this was the perfect opportunity to escape.

Han Li unhesitatingly drank a drop of spirit liquid, chose a direction, and shot through the air without further hesitation. He flew far away from the nearby sea area.

On a small island tens of thousands of miles away from Han Li, the Ripping Wind Beast sat cross-legged in an uninhabited, desolate cave, meditating with a grim expression. After such a long period of pursuit, its magic power was finally exhausted, making it unable to suppress the foreign object within its body.

This beast could not afford the luxury of instantly restoring its spiritual power with ten-thousand-year spirit liquid, unlike Han Li. Out of necessity, it had to stay on this island, intending to spend some time to completely resolve the major internal problem before resuming the pursuit of Han Li. It was determined to retrieve the Wind-Thunder Wings, which it had painstakingly refined.

After the Level Nine Ripping Wind Beast swore a venomous oath filled with bitter hatred, it bitterly closed its eyes and entered a state of spiritual trance. More than a month later, Han Li also appeared on an unfamiliar desolate island.

After confirming there were no human cultivators or high-level beasts in the vicinity, he plunged onto the island and quickly excavated a very simple stone cave. After setting up several concealment formations at the entrance, he hurriedly entered the cave and sat down, then took out the pair of Wind-Thunder Wings.

Han Li looked at the wings in his hand, which had shrunk to palm size, and couldn't help but reveal a joyful expression. Since these spirit wings required wind and thunder power to be activated, and the Level Nine demonic cultivator Feng Xi only possessed wind power, it implied that one didn't need both wind and thunder power simultaneously; possessing just one would suffice to use this treasure. Han Li himself could manipulate the Evil-Wardning Divine Thunder, so he naturally had the ability to control this treasure. If this item was truly as wondrous as the Ripping Wind Beast claimed, mastering it even a day sooner would greatly benefit his future ability to preserve his life.

However, upon closer inspection of the spirit wings Han Li held, the silver-white long feathers on them subtly showed signs of instability and slight trembling. Han Li instantly understood. This was because the treasure had been taken out too early, before it had fully stabilized and solidified. Although this didn't mean all previous efforts were wasted, as the other party had alarmingly claimed, prolonging the process would indeed significantly reduce its power.

However, Han Li showed no signs of panic. Instead, he immediately used his fingernail to make a small cut on his index finger. He dropped a drop of vital blood onto the wings. Then, using a spell chant, he first completed the master-recognition ceremony. Watching the wings absorb the vital blood, a cold glint flashed in Han Li's eyes, and he tossed them into the air with one hand.

The Wind-Thunder Wings were directly thrown into mid-air, where they floated motionless as if weightless. Han Li flicked his ten fingers without even looking, sending out fine electrical arcs. They shot forth from his hands, striking the spirit wings and unleashing bursts of low thunderous roars. Han Li's expression was solemn, and the golden arcs emanating from his hands became increasingly dense.

Soon, a light golden electric arc barrier appeared in the air, enveloping the Wind-Thunder Wings. The thunderous roars immediately subsided from loud to low. Watching the Wind-Thunder Wings within the electric barrier slowly absorbing the arcs of Evil-Wardning Divine Thunder, Han Li finally felt a sense of relief.

Over the next dozen days, Han Li, using the divine thunder in his hands, gradually stabilized the wind and thunder feathers on the spirit wings. Moreover, because they absorbed the Evil-Wardning Divine Thunder, some golden threads appeared within the silver long feathers. They were barely discernible to the naked eye without close inspection.

After completing the stabilization of the magic treasure, which the Ripping Wind Beast and other demons had failed to finish, Han Li immediately withdrew the electric arcs, and a burst of green light erupted. He then rolled up the Wind-Thunder Wings and absorbed them into his body.

Afterwards, he exited the stone cave. He flew above the island, preparing to test the treasure's usage and abilities. Standing high in the air, Han Li took a deep breath and secretly channeled his magic power to activate the Wind-Thunder Wings inside him. He felt a surge of spiritual energy behind him, followed by two "thump-thump" sounds, and a pair of wings, about a zhang (3.3 meters) long, materialized out of thin air behind him. They had silver-white long feathers, subtly embedded with faint golden light.

Han Li turned his head to look, and with a thought, the wings gently flapped twice. They felt completely weightless, as if they were nothing. He curiously reached out his palm and touched one of the Wind-Thunder Wings. It felt cool and slightly tingly. Seeing this, Han Li frowned, and slightly tightened his grip with his five fingers. His entire hand easily slipped into the wing.

"What is this?" Han Li paused in surprise, and immediately performed an internal inspection of his body. The palm-sized Wind-Thunder Wings were still securely resting above his Dantian, faintly emitting white light. The wings that appeared externally were not the treasure's true form, but rather wings entirely transmuted from spiritual energy. This somewhat surprised Han Li.

After composing himself, Han Li began to inject magic power into the wings. His wings behind him instantly shimmered with silver light. With a slight flap of his wings, he darted forward with a "whoosh," effortlessly gliding through the air. After flying a few rounds back and forth, Han Li stopped and stroked his chin, pondering for a moment.

The speed was nothing remarkable, not significantly faster than before. It seemed he truly needed to inject lightning power to test it. Thinking of this, Han Li no longer hesitated to activate the Evil-Wardning Divine Thunder. Two light golden electric arcs flowed into the spirit wings within his body. Immediately, thunderous sounds emanated from behind him. Han Li quickly glanced back, seeing silver-white electric arcs flickering on his wings, which involuntarily spread out to the sides, exuding an eerie aura. With a shift of Han Li's divine sense, a muffled "boom" sounded, a silver light flashed before his eyes, and he instantly appeared more than ten zhang away, as if teleporting.

"Lightning Evasion Art!" Han Li was initially startled, then filled with delight. Subsequently, with a gentle flap of the wings on his back, he again appeared at another spot twenty to thirty zhang away amidst thunderous roars. For the following period, Han Li transformed into a silver electric arc, instantly covering hundreds of zhang in the high sky, appearing far away one moment and vanishing nearby the next. His movements were erratic and ghostly.

"Truly worthy of being the most mysterious of evasion arts, the Lightning Evasion Art!" Han Li, who had just reappeared amidst a silver arc, stroked one of the wings with a joyful expression and murmured. "Its speed is incomparable to ordinary Five-Element evasion arts! I wonder how much more heaven-defying this magic treasure will become after prolonged cultivation. No wonder the Level Nine Ripping Wind Beast went to such great lengths to refine this treasure. Given its already rare speed in the world, if supplemented by these Wind-Thunder Wings, I reckon the human cultivators and demons capable of slaying it would be few and far between." Then, after a flash of white light around him, the wings dissipated on their own.

Han Li had no intention of staying here for long, but planned to swiftly leave the Outer Star Sea and return to the Inner Sea. He knew very well that although he had temporarily shaken off the Level Nine Ripping Wind Beast's pursuit, with its abnormal speed, it would soon scour the nearby sea areas and resume its chase. He certainly wouldn't obediently remain in place, waiting for the beast to find him. The Inner Star Sea was primarily human cultivators' territory. Even if the beast possessed immense abilities, it would surely not dare to venture deep into it. Once he formed his Nascent Soul in the Inner Star Sea, he would no longer need to fear this beast. As for being chased by those Nascent Soul old monsters because of the Void Sky Cauldron, three or four decades had passed since then, so the commotion should have largely subsided. Furthermore, with his late Core Formation stage cultivation, as long as he didn't encounter formidable figures like Madman Hu, even if he couldn't overpower Extreme Yin and others, he could still manage to escape.

After making his decision, Han Li returned to the stone cave on the island and briefly checked the storage bags of the turtle demon and venomous flood dragon. They surprisingly contained numerous demon beast cores and extremely rare precious materials. Particularly among these materials, he also found a fist-sized, jet-black turtle shell and over a hundred blood-red scales. These were likely shed by the two demons during their transformation, making them extraordinarily precious. This gave Han Li an unexpected pleasant surprise! If these two items were refined into armor, it would certainly be no worse than Madman Hu's Imperial Scale Armor.

However, Han Li naturally wouldn't busy himself with this now. Instead, he retracted the formation flags at the cave entrance. He then left the island and headed directly towards the sea area where the Wonderful Sound Sect's market was located. Since the Wonderful Sound Sect had already constructed a teleportation array, after such a long time, it should be nearly ready. At that time, whether by persuasion and coercion, or by force, he would use this teleportation array to travel to the Inner Sea.

Han Li didn't know where the Wonderful Sound Sect's market would be relocated, but he believed he could find it by simply locating a well-informed human cultivator. What he also didn't know was that the escaped turtle demon, deep within an underwater cave several thousand zhang beneath the sea, was currently informing the patriarch of the Flood Dragon clan in the nearby sea area, a Level Nine Li Fire Flood Dragon whose cultivation had also reached the mid-transformation stage, about his killing of the venomous flood dragon.