Ice Lotus and Black Peak

But what happened next was somewhat beyond Han Li’s expectations.

The moment the great sword touched the silk net, the net flashed with azure light. Those slender, crystalline threads proved extraordinarily tough and resilient.

The great sword hacked down several times within the net, but instead of breaking through, the net, under the old man’s control, wrapped around it layer by layer. In just a few moments, it was trapped inside. Though it was not completely immobilized, it could not break free anytime soon.

Han Li’s brow furrowed. Just as he was about to cast another spell, the old man across from him made his move first.

A cold glint flashed in his eyes. His hands began forming a series of strange hand seals at an astonishing speed, each one different from the last. At the same time, beams of colorful magical energy shot out from between his palms, all striking the mass of spiritual light above his head.

The blue spiritual mass immediately began to shrink and warp. Amid an obscure, unintelligible incantation, it suddenly burst apart.

Countless palm-sized, slender ice crystals materialized in the air around the old man, glittering with blue light, covering an area over thirty meters in diameter.

A fierce look appeared in the old man’s eyes. With a wide, sweeping gesture, he pointed at Han Li and spat out a single, ice-cold word: “Go!”

In an instant, the sky-filling ice crystals shot forward like arrows from a powerful crossbow, all streaking toward Han Li in a dense, azure volley. The air was filled with countless blue crystal flashes, completely engulfing Han Li’s position. The sight was absolutely terrifying.

“Is this a Spiritual Art?”

Han Li was startled, a look of surprise crossing his face. But his hands never stopped for a moment. Without even thinking, he sent the blue ancient treasure he had just activated flying out, and at the same time, slapped his spirit beast pouch. A swarm of three-colored Gold Devourer Beetles poured out in a torrent. Under Han Li’s command, they immediately surrounded him.

This time, however, the beetles did not coalesce into any shape. Instead, they simply whirled around him at high speed, forming a dense, impenetrable insect cocoon shield that made Han Li’s form blurry and indistinct.

As for the blue ancient treasure, once it left his hand, it turned into a stream of white Qi, surging forward to meet the sky-filling ice crystals.

The majority of the ice crystals that crashed head-on into the white Qi were swept up and absorbed into it in a single roll.

Seeing this, the other ice crystals seemed to possess a will of their own, splitting left and right to curve around and strike the insect cocoon shield before Han Li.

A series of dull “thud, thud” sounds rang out without pause.

The prismatic ice crystals were blocked by the cocoon shield for a brief moment, but they still tore open small gaps, pouring into the shield one after another. The insect cocoon then returned to its original state, and everything inside was silent and still, as if nothing had happened at all.

Seeing this, the old man surnamed Mu could not help but be taken aback.

His “Ice Crystal Art” might seem similar to the ordinary “Ice Rain Technique” of a common cultivator’s Five Elements magic, just with a greater number of projectiles. But in reality, every single one of these ice crystals was formed from the Profound Yin Cold Qi he himself had cultivated over centuries. They were not only razor-sharp and incredibly tough but also possessed a bone-chilling cold. An unwary cultivator, even if they could temporarily withstand them with a defensive treasure, would never be able to endure the secondary effect of being frozen solid by the cold Qi released when the crystals shattered.

But now, after the ice crystals had shot inside, there was no sound or sign of them at all. How could he not be stunned?

The old man hesitated for a moment. Just as he was about to use his spiritual sense to probe the situation inside the cocoon, a thunderous boom suddenly echoed from above his head.

He felt his ears ring with a sharp “buzz,” and then his vision went dark. Caught off guard, he nearly fell straight out of the air.

Enraged and alarmed, the old man surnamed Mu quickly rubbed his hands together and slapped them several times on his body. A white protective barrier suddenly appeared around him. Only then did he manage to steady himself and look up.

Above his head, the silver great bell had somehow already arrived. The tremendous sound just now had come from this very bell.

At this moment, the bell was flashing with silver light, and a second thunderous boom rang out. This time, however, it was not aimed at the old man, who was now on guard. Instead, it released ring after ring of sound waves, targeting the blue great net to the side and the struggling cyan great sword trapped within it.

“Not good!” The old man froze for a moment, then immediately came to his senses. He hurriedly tried to cast a spell to block it, but he was clearly a step too late.

The blue silk net was struck by the faint silver sound waves, and it began to snap strand by strand. The great sword instantly broke free from its restraints and, without any courtesy, hacked down at the old man once again.

Before the blade even arrived, a tremendous pressure was already bearing down on him.

Although the old man still had his protective barrier, how could he dare to take on such a massive and terrifying sword head-on? His face turning pale, his form blurred, and wrapped in azure light, he shot backward over a hundred meters, dodging the great sword’s strike.

Without further hesitation, he waved his hand at the orb floating in the air. The treasure immediately shot back to hover above his head. He spat a mouth of vital breath onto it, and a new curtain of light spread out to cover him. Only then did the old man, his expression grim, carefully examine the situation across from him.

His face suddenly changed, turning a ghastly pale.

The insect cocoon shield in front of him had already dissipated with a buzzing sound, transforming back into a cloud of insects hovering above Han Li’s head.

And Han Li himself was standing there with one hand, holding a palm-sized, azure-blue ice lotus, looking calmly in his direction.

When their eyes met, the icy coldness in the other’s gaze sent a shiver down the old man’s spine. But then his gaze shifted, not looking at Han Li, but staring fixedly at the small ice lotus in Han Li’s hand, his face revealing a mixture of shock and uncertainty.

Under the sunlight, the ice lotus was crystal clear and exquisitely beautiful. But none of this mattered to the old man. What he cared about was that, despite the distance between them, and despite having cultivated ice-attribute Spiritual Arts for centuries, he could sense an astonishingly pure and cold spiritual power from the ice lotus. Though it felt somewhat unfamiliar, it also evoked a strange sense of awe in him. This secretly terrified him.

After a moment of hesitation, the old man pursed his lips and spoke, his voice unpleasant:

“Was it with this object that you, sir, broke the Spiritual Art I just cast? What kind of treasure is this? Could you, Fellow Daoist, be willing to enlighten me?”

Hearing this, Han Li let out a light laugh.

“A treasure? You could call it that. As for what this thing is, if you, sir, are willing to tell me about that Spiritual Art just now, I wouldn’t mind telling you a thing or two.” After a brief laugh, Han Li said calmly.

“Oh? So even you, as a cultivator, are interested in our Dharma Warriors’ Spiritual Arts? That is rather interesting!” The old man’s expression of shock gradually faded, and he returned to his cold and gloomy demeanor.

But Han Li could see in his flickering eyes a clear wariness of the ice lotus in his hand. A cold smile curled at the corner of his mouth, and he wore an expression that suggested he couldn’t be bothered to answer.

Seeing Han Li’s demeanor, the old man was enraged.

He let out a cold snort. Slapping his storage pouch, a black light flickered in his hand, and a small object suddenly appeared. It was pitch black, and it looked like a tiny miniature mountain.

Han Li was taken aback. Before he could get a good look at it, the old man had already begun to chant. He then tossed the small mountain into the air. Immediately, a black light began to swirl across the mountain’s surface, and its size expanded rapidly. In the blink of an eye, it had grown to several hundred meters in size, and it was still getting bigger.

Seeing this, Han Li drew a sharp breath.

Without a second thought, he pointed at the cyan great sword. With a clear ringing sound, the great sword transformed into a cyan rainbow that shot directly to a point above the small mountain. It then fell fiercely, striking the mountain’s peak head-on.

A thunderous “boom” echoed as rubble flew and light blazed. Cyan light and black radiance clashed and intertwined.

Han Li squinted his eyes. On the peak of the black mountain, the sword had hewn a gap over twenty meters long and several meters deep. But it was clearly far from splitting the mountain in two.

However, right before his eyes, the gash began to mend at a visible speed. Before a second blow could fall, it had already restored itself by more than half.

By this time, the mountain had already swelled to over three hundred meters in size, indistinguishable from a real mountain. Even with Han Li’s boldness and composure, staring at the black peak towering before him, his eyelids twitched uncontrollably, and his expression turned ugly.

He didn’t need to guess to know that if he were hit head-on by this mountain, no insect cocoon shield or insect armor would be able to withstand it. He would be crushed into dust instantly.

At this point, Han Li’s great sword slashed at the mountain a few more times, but it was completely futile.

The old man let out a sinister laugh. He then pointed a single finger at the mountain.

With a “whoosh,” the mountain instantly appeared above Han Li’s head the very next moment. It then came crashing down with tremendous force.

Han Li was greatly shocked. He didn’t have time to ponder how something so massive could possess a teleportation technique. A thunderclap sounded from behind him, and wrapped in a flash of silver light, he vanished without a trace.

In the next instant, Han Li’s form reappeared over a hundred meters away. On his back, a pair of silver-white Wind Lightning Wings had materialized.

“Eh!” It was the old man’s turn to be startled by Han Li’s instantaneous disappearance.

His expression changed drastically. His form shot backward again, increasing the distance between them, a picture of extreme caution. His gaze at Han Li was now filled with shock.

It was at this moment that the old man surnamed Mu finally understood one thing: the man before him was no ordinary early Nascent Soul cultivator. With instant-teleportation abilities like that, it would be impossible for him to trap Han Li. This trip would most likely be for nothing.

After all, with his cultivation level, he could only perform the instant teleportation technique with such a massive black peak a few times at most.

Each time he cast the spell, it cost him a significant amount of mana. He did not dare to use it excessively.