The Sealing Spirit Pillar

In the distance, where the sky met the sea, a colossal insect cloud, hundreds of feet in length, had inexplicably appeared, staining nearly half the heavens a shimmering silver-gold. The thunderous drone emanated from within this very cloud.

Beneath the cloud, Han Li stood, his expression utterly blank as he stared at the strange man. His gaze was icy, looking at the man as if he were already a corpse. He uttered a single word: “Go.”

Instantly, the colossal insect cloud descended upon the man like a dark tempest, covering the sky and blotting out the sun.

The strange man’s limbs turned to ice. This swarm, at least ten times larger than the previous one, was utterly insurmountable. Shock and terror surged through him, and he immediately formed the intent to flee.

His face ashen, he raised a hand, recalling the blue basket which transformed into a stream of white vapor, returning to his grasp. He then shot two bloody incantation seals at the two ghost heads, muttering a cryptic, obscure spell under his breath. Without even pausing to retrieve his entangled flying sword, he turned without a second thought and fled.

The man’s decisive retreat caught Han Li off guard for a moment.

The two ghost heads spewed out a frenzy of fierce phosphorous flames before attempting to flee as well, but Han Li had no intention of letting them slip away so easily.

At his command, the colossal insect cloud instantly engulfed them. No matter how much phosphorous fire they expelled, it was immediately devoured down to the last spark by the tens of thousands of Gold Devourer Beetles.

In moments, the ghost heads themselves were covered in a writhing mass of beetles.

Watching, Han Li knew they were finished. He was about to recall the beetle swarm and pursue the strange man when two tremendous explosions rang out.

The area where the ghost heads had been submerged erupted in violent self-destruction. A searing green flame momentarily enveloped a large portion of the beetle swarm.

Han Li’s heart clenched in alarm, but he quickly relaxed.

Through his spiritual connection, he sensed that aside from the several hundred beetles at the very epicenter that had been destroyed by the strange fire, the vast majority of the swarm was unharmed.

It seemed these beetles, still not fully mature, were not truly invulnerable. They could be destroyed if the force exceeded a certain threshold.

Still, Han Li was more than satisfied. The beetles had forced two incredibly formidable ghost heads to self-destruct with just a single engagement. He was confident that an average Core Formation cultivator would be no match for this swarm.

With this thought, Han Li, without another word, transformed into a streak of azure light, gathered the sky-filling insect cloud, and gave chase to the fleeing man.

His reasoning was simple: having already forged such a deep enmity, he had to eliminate the threat permanently. He couldn’t allow this man to slip through his fingers.

At the same time, Qu Hun, at his mere thought, turned into a beam of yellow light and merged into Han Li’s green rainbow as they pursued together.

As for Hu Yue, Jin Qing, and the others, they could only stand there, exchanging bewildered looks. They seemed unable to process the fact that Han Li, alone, had routed the strange man.

The strange man’s escape technique was quite profound. Even using the full power of his Green Ember Sword to drive himself, Han Li found the distance between them slowly but steadily growing.

In the blink of an eye, they had covered several tens of li, one after the other, and were about to leave the desolate island’s boundaries.

Seeing this, a cold light flashed in Han Li’s eyes. After taking a deep breath, seven palm-sized, emerald-green small swords shot out from within his body.

The swords spun around him once, then combined into a single enormous green sword.

Han Li’s form flickered, and he and Qu Hun were standing on the giant sword.

A brilliant green light blazed forth. Han Li, at a speed nearly half again as fast as before, transformed into an emerald rainbow over a hundred feet long, tearing through the sky.

A quarter of an hour later, Han Li had caught up.

Staring at the black streak of light forging ahead in frantic silence, Han Li’s face was shrouded in cold frost. He raised his hand, and two more identical emerald swords shot forward. Simultaneously, Qu Hun’s Chaotic Yuan Bowl transformed into a beam of yellow light and was released.

The strange man ahead clearly sensed Han Li’s relentless pursuit. As both Han Li and Qu Hun released their attacks, he too unleashed a skull. Its jaws gaped wide as it charged forward to intercept. The man himself didn’t spare it a glance, turning his head and continuing to fly.

In his mind, this skull’s obstruction would buy him at least a little more time.

Han Li’s expression hardened. Without a word, he formed a hand seal. The two flying swords shimmered with green light, suddenly splitting into four indistinguishable sword beams. Two of these, along with the Chaotic Yuan Bowl, shot toward the ghostly skull, while the other two silently merged into a single foot-long flying sword, its speed suddenly surging as it shot straight for the strange man’s back.

The newly formed sword was incredibly fast, arriving behind the man in an instant.

But the strange man seemed to sense something. He suddenly turned his head, catching a glimpse of the flash of emerald light a mere five or six zhang away.

In an instant, his face drained of all color.

Thinking quickly, he opened his mouth and spat out a cloud of black gas towards the oncoming sword, then hurriedly tried to veer his escape light to one side.

Driven by Han Li, the flying sword plunged into the black gas without a moment’s hesitation. A faint, golden arc of lightning suddenly erupted from within the sword, instantly dispersing the black gas.

Then, a flash of green light. The emerald flying sword, meeting no further resistance, plunged straight into the strange man’s chest.

Still unwilling to believe it, the strange man looked down at the sword with an expression of utter disbelief. Before he could utter a single word, the golden arcs of lightning danced across his body, reducing him to ashes in a flash.

Han Li hastily lunged forward. His form flickered several times as he snatched three items from the air. He steadied himself to examine them.

There was the strange blue ancient treasure, a storage pouch, and a radiant, crimson scroll. Based on the power of the spiritual energy it held, it was either a Primordial Ancient Treasure or, at the very least, no ordinary magic tool.

With concealed delight, Han Li gently unrolled the scroll to take a look. He froze, stunned.

He stared at the painted object for a long time. Only then did he slowly roll the scroll back up, a look of deep contemplation on his face.

Suppressing the storm of questions in his mind, Han Li silently flew over to the skull.

Without its master, the black skull floated motionless in the air. Though its baleful aura had not diminished in the slightest, it had completely lost its former sentience.

After examining it, Han Li frowned slightly.

To be honest, this was the first time he had encountered something so sinister. He had a vague feeling this object was nothing good, but he was also somewhat reluctant to discard it. After a moment of hesitation, he decided to store it in a separate jade box.

After circling the area one more time, Han Li headed back with Qu Hun, only to meet Jin Qing and the others en route, who had come to assist them.

Upon seeing Han Li and Qu Hun returning unscathed, they immediately surrounded him with looks of pleasant surprise.

“Brother Han, what of that demonic man? Did he escape?” Jin Qing couldn’t help but ask.

“I’ve already eliminated him,” Han Li stated impassively.

“Eliminated him? Excellent! I could see his aura was dreadfully evil. If he had been targeting us, it would have been a constant nuisance.” Jin Qing let out a long sigh of relief.

But Hu Yue and the Jian-acquainted cultivator’s expressions shifted subtly. The way they looked at Han Li now held a hint of newfound awe and respect.

After all, in the world of cultivation, the strongest are always revered.

The group immediately flew back to their original location, where Fairy Shi Die was anxiously waiting for them.

Reunited, they held a brief consultation and decided it was best to break the formation quickly, to avoid any further unexpected complications.

Thus, they took their positions once more. After calming his state of mind, Han Li reactivated the array flags and plates.

The process of dismantling the final restriction went smoothly. When the fiery red light shield finally shattered, not a single “Chi-E” managed to escape, all of them slaughtered by the water-attribute magical tools the group had prepared.

Their faces beaming with delight, everyone turned their gaze to the peculiar stone pillar lying bare in the center of the formation.

With no restrictions blocking their spiritual sense, they could clearly see every detail of the pillar, even from a distance.

The runes on the pillar were extremely strange. From top to bottom, it was engraved with eight enormous, archaic characters, along with countless bizarre patterns. The pillar was also inlaid with many rare Yin-Yang jades, evenly distributed, glowing with a faint, alternating black-and-white light.

Everyone was baffled at first. After exchanging puzzled glances, they fell into deep thought, racking their brains for any relevant information.

“A Sealing Spirit Pillar…”

It was Shi Die, the weakest in cultivation among them, who gasped and blurted out the pillar’s name after only a moment of thought.

Hearing this name, Han Li and the others were first startled, then exchanged looks of profound shock and doubt.

“Fairy Shi, are you sure you’re not mistaken? This is truly a Sealing Spirit Pillar?” Hu Yue asked, his voice a little dry.

“Absolutely not! I have a formation manual in my cave dwelling that specifically introduces Sealing Spirit Pillars. This one’s shape and runes are an exact match. Don’t let its appearance as an ordinary stone pillar fool you; it’s actually cast from a mixture of over a dozen precious refining materials. This single pillar alone is worth five or six thousand spirit stones!” Shi Die’s eyes gleamed as she stared at the pillar, her face full of excitement.