The Wind Rises Overseas: Devouring the Flood Dragon

Chapter 560: The Wind Rises Overseas — Devouring the Flood Dragon

Han Li’s eyes narrowed as the scene before him came into focus.

Under the relentless devouring of the Gold Devourer Beetles, the Poison Flood Dragon’s scales had finally collapsed. But the consequence of torn flesh and burst hide was an eruption of countless bloody lights from within its body, turning large swathes of the flying insects into poisonous liquid. Before long, the dense mass of beetles covering the flood dragon was reduced to nearly nothing.

The flood dragon itself was now covered in wounds, oozing great amounts of green blood from its entire body. The hatred in its gaze as it stared at Han Li was bone-deep.

Han Li’s heart tightened. The title “Poison Flood Dragon” was not undeserved.

The Gold Devourer Beetles had evolved to a point where ordinary magic treasures could hardly harm them, yet a single spray of that poisonous light had destroyed them so easily—a testament to the potency of the venom.

But a cold smile crept onto Han Li’s face.

What this demon did not know was that his flying insects were not limited to this number. Even if he had to sacrifice most of the Gold Devourer Beetles, he would still destroy these three demons, one by one.

With this thought, he quickly glanced to the other side, at the turtle demon completely covered by a swarm of insects.

The sound of gnawing, a constant sha-sha, had not stopped for a moment, but the insect pile had become completely still.

If not for the faint demonic aura emanating from within—and the fact that it was still bulging high—he would have almost thought the demon had already fallen.

Though doubt grew in his mind, Han Li had no time to dwell on it. His expression darkened, and with both hands he flung several more spirit beast pouches into the air.

Instantly, the buzzing of wings filled the entire refining chamber. The air above was now blanketed by over a hundred thousand three-colored Gold Devourer Beetles, blotting out the entire ceiling.

Seeing this many flying insects, the Poison Flood Dragon’s expression first changed, then despair flooded its face.

Within the white light, Feng Xi’s expression also shifted sharply, a flicker of fear appearing in his eyes.

After all, swarming spirit insects, compared to ordinary spirit beasts, had relatively short breeding cycles and laid many eggs at once—but even so, each reproduction still took hundreds of years. After being tamed and hatched, they needed decades more of training before they could be truly used. And the more powerful the spirit insects, the higher their rank, the longer the time required.

Thus, in the cultivation world, though many cultivators knew of insect-driving techniques, those who became famous in the Chaotic Star Sea for it were few and far between, especially after Core Formation.

Most insect-driving cultivators would consider themselves lucky if they possessed a swarm of over a thousand insects in their lifetime. Even then, it was often passed down from master to disciple, generation after generation, just to barely maintain that number.

Moreover, compared to other spirit beasts, spirit insects were far too fragile. It was common for an entire swarm to be wiped out in a single battle. This was why, despite knowing the power of spirit insects, few cultivators bothered to practice insect-driving techniques.

Both Feng Xi and the Poison Flood Dragon had witnessed the ferocity of Han Li’s Gold Devourer Beetles. Even as grade-eight and grade-nine demon beasts, they found it terrifying. So seeing Han Li release such an enormous swarm filled them with disbelief.

Of course, they did not know that these Gold Devourer Beetles had not yet evolved into their mature form—otherwise, their expressions would have been even more shaken.

Han Li paid no heed to the fury and venom in the flood dragon’s gaze. With a thought, all the flying insects burst into a deafening buzz, splitting into several streams that hurled themselves at the flood dragon in wave after wave.

In response, bloody light once again erupted from the flood dragon’s wounded body. Any Gold Devourer Beetles caught in the spray dissolved into nothing. But the swarm above the ceiling continued to circle down relentlessly, heedless of death.

After only a few exchanges, the bloody light began to weaken and dim. A short while later, with the demon’s face drained of all color, the light vanished entirely.

Seeing this, Han Li’s eyes lit up.

The swarm did not hesitate—they descended and engulfed the flood dragon in an instant.

Soon, the towering insect pile began to shrink, growing smaller and smaller as it lowered.

With its scales breached, the Poison Flood Dragon could not hold out much longer. It was finally gnawed to death by the swarm.

Witnessing this, Feng Xi’s face briefly changed color, but he quickly regained his calm, fixing a cold stare on Han Li.

Han Li let out a low hum. The insect swarm lifted off, revealing the scattered remains of the flood dragon.

Among the wreckage, a fist-sized blood-red demon core pulsed with faint light.

A strange glint passed through Han Li’s eyes. Before he could act, the demon core flashed with blue light and shot upward, streaking toward the door of the room.

Without a second thought, Han Li flicked a finger. A cyan sword light shot forth, striking the demon core.

The core spun wildly in place, then a clump of blue light burst forth from within, revealing a miniature flood dragon less than an inch long—the Poison Flood Dragon’s soul.

The moment the dragon soul saw it had been exposed, panic flashed across its form. It flickered with blood light and instantly vanished from sight.

A cold light flashed across Han Li’s face. He suddenly tapped a spirit beast pouch at his waist. A green light shot out from the pouch, landing on the ground to reveal a small, lazy-looking monkey—the Crying Soul Beast, looking somewhat displeased.

Han Li had no time to care about the beast’s mood. He gently patted its head, and the Crying Soul Beast, unable to resist, let out a loud sniff. A beam of yellow light shot forth, circled in the air, and locked onto an empty spot nearby.

With a flicker of yellow light, the blood-red miniature dragon soul was exposed.

The yellow light then curled back, pulling the flood dragon soul toward the Crying Soul Beast’s nose.

The dragon soul naturally refused to walk into the tiger’s mouth. Midway, it blazed with blinding blue light, resisting the yellow glow and holding its ground.

It was, after all, a Heaven-and-Earth spirit beast at the transformation stage—its soul power was far stronger than that of a grade-six or grade-seven demon beast.

Of course, this was also because the Crying Soul Beast was still in its infancy. Otherwise, it would have been a bit shameful given its fearsome reputation.

But Han Li’s original intention had never been to let the Crying Soul Beast actually absorb the dragon soul.

The soul of an eighth-grade demon beast was an extremely rare treasure in this realm. He had no intention of wasting it.

So, while the yellow glow of the Crying Soul Beast and the flood dragon soul were locked in stalemate, Han Li’s form flickered and appeared to one side. Expressionless, he reached out with five fingers, wrapping them in cyan light, and grabbed the helpless dragon soul with unerring precision.

The inch-long dragon soul struggled desperately within his grip, thrashing wildly. But with his other hand, Han Li flipped his palm, producing a prepared jade bottle.

With a flick of his wrist, the dragon soul, wrapped in cyan light, was sent straight into the bottle with a swoosh.

Han Li quickly capped the bottle and carefully stored it in his storage pouch before letting out a slight breath of relief.

Without wasting a moment, he turned and walked toward the direction of the turtle demon.

But just then, a sharp cracking sound came from above. The light barrier had finally shattered under the repeated strikes of the two giant swords.

Han Li did not even look up. With a single hand, he released a flood of cyan light, instantly wrapping around the exposed Wind Lightning Wings and pulling them back into his grip.

Without sparing a glance, he shoved the treasure into his storage pouch.

This action nearly made the Wind Spirit Beast watching from the side spit blood. The calm she had barely restored was now once again filled with venomous resentment.

But Han Li’s gaze fell on the towering insect pile. He let out a low chirp, and the swarm rose into the air, revealing the turtle demon beneath.

What he saw made Han Li draw in a cold breath.

The demon was covered in wounds, its flesh a bloody mess. But a faint yellow light emanated from its entire body, and the exposed flesh was writhing—right before Han Li’s eyes, it was rapidly healing.

In an instant, most of the wounds had already closed.

“Self-Healing Body,” Han Li muttered, a look of astonishment on his face, followed by a bitter taste in his mouth.

So-called “Self-Healing Bodies” were not rare among demon beasts.

Many low-grade demon beasts possessed this ability—to heal wounds and even regenerate lost limbs.

But such instinctive talents were very rare among high-grade demon beasts. In all the grade-six and grade-seven demon beasts Han Li had slain, he had never encountered one with this regenerative ability.

And now, this eighth-grade demon turtle was one such beast—a major surprise.

This meant Han Li had a serious problem on his hands.

Unless he could chop off the turtle demon’s head in a single blow or shatter its demon core, relying on the Gold Devourer Beetles alone would not kill it anytime soon.

At the very least, until the demon exhausted its natural ability, Han Li would be unable to do anything to it.

Unfortunately, his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords had only been forged for a few decades, and the time spent tempering them was even shorter.

Thus, even though the swords were made from “Heavenly Thunder Bamboo,” one of the three divine woods, and later reinforced with the extremely rare “Refining Crystal,” the individual power of each sword was not particularly strong compared to the life-bound treasures of cultivators of the same rank.

In the past, when he used these swords to slay grade-six and grade-seven demon beasts, it was mostly due to the sheer number of swords that allowed him to succeed at once. When several swords—or even a full set of twelve flying swords—were combined into one giant sword, the power naturally became incomparable. This was the fundamental strength of a complete set of magic treasures.

But this time, it seemed that even his Giant Sword Technique was not enough to breach the demon bodies these two eighth-grade demon beasts had cultivated.