Reputation Shakes a Region, Dominance Sweeps All Before It

His gaze swept the area ahead. It was utterly empty—not even a ghost in sight. Yet the low, rumbling hum grew louder, as if, in the span of a single breath, it had already arrived at his doorstep.

The woman's handsome face drained of color. She scanned the sky in wild panic, then, as if struck by a sudden realization, spun around and sped away even faster than before.

In that brief moment of delay, from the empty distance where nothing had been a moment ago, a single silver point of light flickered into existence, then vanished again. When it reappeared, it was a mere three hundred feet away.

Within the light was a faint silhouette, a pair of wings on its back. Han Li had caught up.

He watched the woman flee within her crimson light, mildly surprised by her escape speed.

The world is vast, and its strange arts and miraculous techniques truly numberless. A mere Core Formation female cultivator can possess a flight technique of such terrifying speed.

There must be secret arts and treasures in this world even faster than the Wind Lightning Wings.

A trace of contemplation flickered through Han Li's mind, but the wings on his back never stopped. The silver wings beat once more, and he transformed into a streak of light, reappearing directly in the woman's path. He calmly raised a single hand. With his fingers slightly apart, five azure sword-lights shot from his fingertips.

The woman's face turned ashen with terror. "Senior, spare me!"

She cried out, and the crimson light around her blazed to sudden, dazzling brilliance. In an instant, it merged with the trailing azure blades into a thick, solid shield of cyan and red that wrapped around her protectively.

Han Li's brow creased faintly. He regarded her with a flat gaze, saying nothing. The five sword-qi strings struck the shield in a single line.

A series of muffled thuds rang out.

This wind-fire barrier held surprising resilience. It managed to block the first three sword strikes. But when the fourth sword-qi hit, the shield shattered under the woman's despairing gaze.

She had no time to employ any other means. The final two sword-qi pierced straight through her vital points, killing her instantly.

Han Li watched her body plummet. He gave a slight shake of his head. A flick of his finger sent a fireball flying, reducing the corpse to ash. With a casual wave of his hand, her storage pouch and the sash-like magic treasure flew into his grasp.

If I hadn't killed you, the Nascent Soul old monsters of the demonic path would have been hunting me instead.

Han Li sighed. Lightning flashed around him. He vanished, chasing the next target his divine sense had locked onto.

This target was the deepest cultivator among the group: a dark-robed man at the peak of mid-Core Formation, teetering on the verge of late Core Formation.

On the way, Han Li tapped his spirit beast pouch. A swarm of tri-colored Gold Devourer Beetles poured out. Guided by his spiritual sense, they condensed into a dozen tri-colored flying swords and shot off in pursuit of the fleeing Foundation Establishment cultivators.

These low-level cultivators were too slow. Han Li could not be bothered to hunt them down one by one. The beetle-swords would finish them all simultaneously. The few Core Formation cultivators, however, he would handle personally. Their escape speed was not slow, and his beetles lacked the long-range pursuit to reliably catch them. The Gold Devourer Beetles were formidable in close quarters, but over such distances, their speed flagged.

The dark-robed man stood on a jet-black short blade, his expression dark as he flew in grim silence.

We came looking for the one who killed our Sixth Junior Brother, and we ran headfirst into a Nascent Soul cultivator. If that unknown cultivator didn't kill him, he's certainly tied to those Imperial Spirit Sect fellows. And judging by how terrified the Imperial Spirit Sect cultivators were—even more than us when the pursuer appeared—he's probably their enemy. We were just collateral damage.

If he didn't mean us harm—if he wasn't planning to silence us—I wouldn't flee so disgracefully.

But we can't handle a Nascent Soul cultivator. That's for our master.

He dares hunt demonic-path Core Formation cultivators so openly. He's either an old monster from some other faction, or a wandering rogue cultivator. Either way, he's utterly fearless of the demonic path's power.

The dark-robed man was lost in grim speculation when a strange, intermittent thunderclap reached him from the side. His heart seized. He turned his head warily. A flash of azure light, and he knew nothing more.

Han Li expressionlessly waved his hand. The azure giant sword flew back from the distant corpse.

This man had kept his protective shield active even while fleeing. But against the combined strike of several Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords transformed into a single blade, his shield was as flimsy as paper, offering no resistance at all.

Han Li's gaze shifted, sweeping toward another distant direction.

Guided by two emerald-green skull heads, a brocade-robed cultivator nervously scanned his surroundings.

He knew that even though he had fled a great distance, and the Nascent Soul cultivator had not yet given chase, as long as he remained within the range of that monstrous divine sense, he could be hunted down at any moment. So he fled with full force, his divine sense stretched to its limit, his heart in his throat.

When he nervously turned his gaze forward again, his heart sank to its deepest depths.

Hovering in the air not far ahead was a young man in his twenties, clad in a light green scholar's robe. The man smiled warmly at him, revealing a flash of brilliant white teeth.

Before the brocade-robed cultivator could even turn to flee, the young man spoke in a genial tone:

"Fellow Daoist has run such a long way. You must be exhausted. Let Han send you on your way."

As Han Li finished speaking, he flicked his sleeve. Countless golden specks surged out, instantly forming a massive golden cloud that blotted out the sky and swooped down with dreadful purpose.

The brocade-robed cultivator didn't even have time to scream. Man and treasure alike were swallowed whole by the golden cloud. Moments later, the cloud rose again, leaving nothing behind. The cultivator had simply evaporated from the mortal world.

"The further-evolved Gold Devourer Beetles are truly far more formidable than before. They can even devour treasures in an instant. They live up to their reputation as all-consuming." Han Li murmured to himself, his expression unchanged.

He drew a spirit beast pouch from his sleeve. The golden beetles circled the air a few more times before reluctantly flying back inside. Han Li's brow furrowed slightly. He sighed inwardly.

As these insects grew stronger, controlling them was no longer as effortless as it used to be. It was a development that pleased him, yet also gave him pause.

With a rumble of thunder, Han Li vanished within a flash of silver light.

Han Yunzhi rode her snowy-white spirit crane. It had transformed into a white rainbow several dozen feet long, flying forward in haste. Both she and the crane were enveloped in a gentle white light that, against her jade-pale face, added an air of sacred purity.

But her brows were tightly knit. She held a palm-sized green jade disk in her hand, studying it intently. Her expression shifted, uncertain.

The disk was crystal-clear, verdant and lustrous. Its edges were etched with ancient golden and silver runes and deep, mysterious patterns. It emanated a startling green spiritual energy—clearly an extraordinary treasure.

At the disk's center, a mirror-smooth surface held seven or eight red points of light. They flickered intermittently, like fireflies. As she watched, one of those points pulsed once, then vanished from the center entirely.

A flicker of worry crossed Han Yunzhi's face as she bit her lip. She focused even more intently on the treasure, unblinking.

Moments later, two more red points flared and vanished from the disk's surface.

Her expression finally changed drastically.

When another red point winked out, only two points remained—one at the north, one at the south—faintly flickering.

"Besides Sister Liu and myself, four Foundation Establishment disciples died at nearly the same moment. Does this man possess a clone technique? Some other inconceivable ability? I underestimated the power of these Nascent Soul old monsters. The Ghost Spirit Sect cultivators are probably no better off. I should have gathered everyone together and fought it out." She brushed a strand of hair from her forehead and smiled bitterly, her voice barely a whisper.