Chapter 1264: Return to Eight Plains Mountain

"Stop being so stubborn. At this rate, you're going to get both of us killed, so why not release me? At the very least, those two little lackeys of yours will still have a chance to survive," the wicked corpse soul goaded.

Han Li was still very hesitant, but he didn't have much time left.

His body was about to reach its limit, and finally, he gritted his teeth as a look of finality appeared on his face, following which the Origin Separation Law Chains around the wicked corpse soul began to unravel.

"Good choice!" the wicked corpse soul cackled with glee, yet its triumphant cackling abruptly cut off as it discovered that Han Li had only unraveled half of the Origin Separation Law Chains around it.

"I can borrow your power, but I don't have to borrow all of it," Han Li said with a conniving grin, and the wicked corpse soul was furious.

With half of the Origin Separation Law Chains unraveled, half of the unopened immortal acupoints in Han Li's body opened up on their own, and a burst of power also surged into his body.

With this influx of power, Han Li was able to continue accumulating more lightning between the palms of his hands.

A stunned look appeared on Yue Qing's face upon seeing this, and he had no idea how Han Li had accomplished this. All he could do was shrink his spirit domain so that it formed a protective barrier around his own body, and at the same time, slid a hand over the blade of his giant sword.

A burst of immense earth law powers surged into the sword, and the seven mountain runes reappeared on its surface.

Immediately thereafter, he swung his sword down upon Han Li with a thunderous roar, and heaven and earth were split apart by a gargantuan streak of swordlight.

Seven majestic mountains appeared within the streak of swordlight, and each one was etched with a giant rune that was giving off an unfathomably dense and heavy aura.

Right at this moment, Han Li suddenly brought his hands apart as if he were drawing a bow, and a bow of golden lightning appeared in his grasp, nocked upon which was a golden arrow that was aimed directly at Yue Qing.

𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

In the blink of an eye, the arrow of heavenly lightning pierced through the first mountain, and the remaining mountains didn't fare much better, either.

The golden arrow ran through all seven mountains in rapid succession, arriving before Yue Qing in a flash.

As a late-Great Encompassment cultivator, Yue Qing's reflexes were extremely sharp, and he raised his giant sword in front of himself as a protective barrier while dodging to the side to ensure that none of his vital regions were in the arrow's path.

The arrow was so incredibly fast that only after it had struck the giant sword did a string of resounding booms ring out in rapid succession from the seven mountains that it had pierced through, and it tore straight through the giant sword before piercing into the left side of Yue Qing's chest.

Yue Qing was sent flying back like a cannonball by the force of the impact, traveling tens of thousands of feet before crashing into the ground like a meteorite.

A massive cloud of dust rose up from the ground as the surrounding earth collapsed violently, forming a giant crater that was over ten thousand feet deep.

High up in the sky, Han Li was also looking rather worse for wear. His entire body was charred black, while blood was flowing from all of his orifices, and he swayed unsteadily for a moment before falling from the heavens.

With what little remaining power they had, his thirty-six Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords converged to catch him before lowering him to the ground.

Wuhui and Pofeng were astonished by this turn of events. Never had they anticipated that the late-Great Encompassment Stage Yue Qing would have so much trouble against an opponent two cultivation ranks his junior, and thoughts of retreat were beginning to arise in their hearts.

Jin Tong and Xiaobai pounced on the opportunity to force back Wuhui and Pokong before flying to Han Li's side, while Wuhui and Pokong rushed to Yue Qing's aid.

"Uncle!" Jin Tong called out in a concerned manner as she helped Han Li up into a seated position.

Han Li was so feeble that even after summoning a pill, he didn't have the energy to bring his hand to his own lips.

Xiaobai hurriedly took the pill before feeding it to him, and after swallowing the pill, Han Li immediately said, "We have to get out of here."

Jin Tong hoisted Han Li onto her back without any hesitation upon hearing this, yet right as the three of them were about to depart, a furious voice rang out from afar.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Han Li cast his gaze toward the direction that the voice had come from to see Yue Qing slowly approaching them.

He was still carrying his giant sword, but a fist-sized hole had appeared on its blade, and its spiritual nature had clearly been significantly compromised.

The suit of armor that he was wearing was in an even more wretched state, and a massive, corkscrew-shaped wound could be seen on his exposed chest. Golden blood was flowing out of the wound, while the surrounding area had been charred black, presenting a horrific sight to behold.

"As expected of a late-Great Encompassment cultivator," Han Li praised with a resigned sigh.

"You are the first and only early-Great Encompassment cultivator to have inflicted such severe injuries upon me. For that, I'm going to repay you a hundredfold!" Yue Qing spat through tightly gritted teeth.

Jin Tong set Han Li down behind her with a grim expression, then positioned herself in front of him and Xiaobai.

"Do you take pride in picking on early-Great Encompassment Stage juniors like this?"

Right at this moment, a cold voice rang out without any warning, and it echoed throughout the entirety of Raised Flagon Mountain.

"Who's there?" Yue Qing yelled as he stopped in his tracks and looked up into the sky with a wary expression.

In the next instant, the bright and clear sky suddenly turned pitch black, as if night had suddenly descended.

An elated look appeared on Han Li's face as he looked up to discover an enormous figure descending from the heavens, shrinking as it did so before ultimately taking on the form of a burly man in a hooded cloak.

The man was none other than the Sky Roaming Kun Peng, Yue Mian.

"Uncle Yue! What are you doing here?" Xiaobai exclaimed in an ecstatic manner, and even Jin Tong was struck by a sense of awe and veneration at the sight of Yue Mian.

"If I didn't come, you would've lost your life here because of Han Li!" Yue Mian snapped as he took a disgruntled glance at Han Li, and the awe and veneration in Jin Tong's heart instantly faded away upon hearing this as she glowered up at Yue Mian with a furious expression.

"It's not Master's fault! I was the one who insisted on coming with him!" Xiaobai protested.

"We'll talk about this later," Yue Mian said with a dismissive wave, then turned his gaze to Yue Qing's trio.

"To think that even the elusive Sky Roaming Kun Peng has made an appearance. Looks like I really am dealing with someone quite important," Yue Qing remarked as the surprise in his eyes began to fade.

"Piss off before I change my mind!" Yue Qing replied in a concise manner.

Yue Qing had already suffered severe injuries from Han Li's previous attack, and he naturally wasn't going to throw his life away against a Dao Ancestor like Yue Mian.

"Don't forget the lesson that the primordial land had to learn the hard way," he said in a thinly veiled threat, then promptly departed with Wuhui and Pofeng.

At this point, Han Li had already recovered somewhat, and he rose to his feet as he cupped his fist in a grateful salute.

"Thank you, Senior."

"Take some more time to rest. With me here, no one would dare to interrupt you," Yue Mian said.

Despite what he had said, he didn't truly blame Han Li, and he had only raised a complaint out of concern for Xiaobai's safety.

Han Li did as he was told, sitting down to rest and recuperate.

Not only had he severely overexerted himself during the battle just now, he had also been forced to unravel half of the Origin Separation Law Chains around his wicked corpse soul, thereby reducing the amount of time he had to prepare for his corpse soul severance.

"The two hundred years were almost up, so I decided to come and pick you up early. On the way here, I sensed that you had used the golden talisman given to you by Bai Ze, so I immediately sped up and got here as quickly as I could," Yue Mian explained.

"You came here because you were worried that I wouldn't be willing to go back at the agreed-upon time, right, Uncle Yue?" Xiaobai asked.

Yue Mian didn't confirm or deny this.

"Don't worry, Uncle Yue. During this period of time that I spent with Master, I've come to realize just how lacking my powers are, so after I go back, I'll go into seclusion right away, and I won't come out until I've completely inherited the power passed down to me by my father," Xiaobai promised.

"It seems like you've grown and matured," Yue Mian said with a pleased nod.

Around two hours later, Han Li finally awakened from his meditative state, and Yue Mian bade him farewell before preparing to depart with Xiaobai.

"Please wait a moment, Senior Yue Mian," Han Li hurriedly said.

"What is it?" Yue Mian asked.

"If you're returning to Eight Plains Mountain, would you be able to take me with you, Senior?" Han Li requested.

"Oh? You also want to go to Eight Plains Mountain?" Yue Mian asked with a puzzled expression.

"That's right. Would that be alright?" Han Li asked.

In the wake of his Nine Origins Temple adventure, he had become even more desperate to elevate his own powers.

Given his involvement in the recent events, he was now most definitely a wanted fugitive in all of the immortal regions, leaving him with nowhere to hide. Hence, Eight Plains Mountain was perhaps the safest place for him.

"Of course," Yue Mian replied with a smile and a nod, then swept a sleeve through the air, conjuring up an azure storm that lifted Han Li involuntarily up into the air.

Han Li was slightly alarmed by this, and he was just about to channel his time law powers wot steady himself when his feet landed on a solid surface, and a burst of gentle yet irresistible power swept over him, causing him to stumble into a seated position.

He looked around to discover that he was sitting on the back of a gargantuan, azure bird that completely concealed the entire landscape down below like a boundless, azure continent.

This was Yue Mian's true form, and compared with it, Han Li was like an insignificant speck of dust.

At this moment, Xiaobai was sitting beside Han Li with a mixture of astonishment, excitement, and longing in his eyes.