Chapter 680: Strange Beings

A faint smile appeared on Han Li's face at the sight of the silver figure's eager display, and he instructed, "Go!"

The silver figure immediately sprang into action, spreading its arms and transforming into a giant silver fire raven as it flew toward the oncoming wave of green fireballs.

Immortal Lord Hot Flame had his back facing Han Li, and he was given quite a fight by the scorching heat that erupted behind him. As he turned around, he caught sight of the silver figure transforming into a fire raven, and he exclaimed, "That's a Flame of Essence!"

An envious look then appeared on his face as he turned his gaze to Han Li, who paid no heed to his reaction.

He had already heard from Ma Liang about just how extraordinary his Essence Fire Raven was. It was an extremely rare being, even in the True Immortal Realm, and it had been a massive waste for him to use it solely for pill refinement all these years.

A string of loud explosions rang out as the Essence Fire Raven swept a wing through the air, releasing a burst of silver flames that caused the green fireballs to explode in rapid succession.

However, Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this as just now, he had clearly sensed an emotion of disgust well up in the Essence Fire Raven's heart.

In the past, it had always been extremely excited to devour any new flame, yet this time, it was clearly averse to these green flames, and that was very abnormal.

As a safety precaution, Han Li hurriedly summoned the Essence Fire Raven back to his side, but to his surprise, it didn't immediately return to him. Instead, it continued to fly through the forest, eradicating all of the strange green fireballs while also evaporating much of the surrounding mist in the process.

Only then did Han Li discover that there were many strange figures littered throughout the forest, previously concealed by the mist.

Most of them were hunched over like elderly men, and behind them were seven or eight giant figures that were each over a hundred feet tall, with a series of sharp spikes all over their bodies.

At the center of these strange figures was another special figure who appeared to be no different from the average person. They seemed to be wearing a long robe, which was gently flapping in the wind.

The figures were all standing completely still within the mist, and it was as if they were one with the mist. If the Essence Fire Raven hadn't evaporated much of the surrounding mist, Han Li wouldn't have been able to detect them at all.

Right at this moment, the Essence Fire Raven flew back to Han Li's side, then landed on his shoulder after reverting back to its humanoid figure, and it was looking a little weary.

𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Han Li examined its condition and was relieved to find that it was only suffering from minor spiritual power overexertion.

"What are those things?" Immortal Lord Hot Flame asked with a puzzled expression as he retreated back to Han Li's side.

Han Li shook his head and offered no response.

Right at this moment, a voice suddenly rang out up ahead.

"I was hoping that those Grave Oil Flames would've been enough to kill the two of you without your detection, but you're more alert than I expected..."

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly, and he noticed that the one who had spoken was the robed figure at the center of the group.

"Who are you?" Immortal Lord Hot Flame asked.

The robed figure offered no response. Instead, it said something in a foreign language, and all of the figures enshrouded in the mist up ahead abruptly sprang into action.

Despite their hunched-over appearance, they were extremely agile, spreading themselves out before springing up into the air to rush over the tops of the bamboo trees, surrounding Han Li's duo from all directions.

Meanwhile, the giant figures behind them were even more direct, simply charging straight at Han Li's duo, destroying all of the bamboo trees in their path.

The only one who did nothing was the robed figure in the middle, who remained still and quickly vanished again into the converging mist.

"Here they come!" Han Li warned as he looked up into the sky with his Infernal Devilish Eyes, and Immortal Lord Hot Flame hurriedly looked up as well.

At this point, the hunched-over figures were already descending upon them, and they were revealed to be around a dozen ape-like creatures, but with completely hairless gray bodies.

On top of that, there seemed to be a pair of fleshy gray wings under their armpits, and they would spread those wings whenever they leaped through the air, allowing them to glide using the air currents.

As they drew close to Han Li's duo, the ape-like creatures launched themselves from the Ethereal Bamboo trees, and Han Li immediately stepped away to the side to evade their attacks.

A resounding boom rang out as the ape-like creature at the forefront of the group slammed forcefully into the ground, causing the earth to tremble and crack violently.

Han Li raised an eyebrow with a surprised expression.

These creatures weren't very large, but they were extremely fast and strong, but what was truly surprising to Han Li was the deathly gray color of their eyes.

Before he had a chance to think about anything else, several more figures came pouncing down at him from above, and all of them were wielding clubs that they were swinging at him from different directions.

Han Li raised a hand to summon two balls of lightning, one golden and one silver, and they flew up into the air before clashing against each other and exploding in unison.

A vast expanse of golden and silver lightning spread through the air, and from within it emerged a giant ring of golden lightning that erupted outward in the form of an incredibly formidable shockwave.

An acrid, charred odor instantly wafted through the air, and plumes of smoke rose up from the bodies of the ape-like creatures as they were sent flying back before tumbling toward the ground.

Meanwhile, the crimson fan in Immortal Lord Hot Flame's hand was flashing incessantly, and it was releasing a steady stream of fireballs to strike the ape-like creatures. However, he was also only able to keep them at bay, but was unable to inflict any severe injuries upon them.

Right at this moment, Han Li abruptly vanished from the spot, then appeared in front of one of the ape-like creatures that had just fallen to the ground before plunging his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword forcefully down toward it.

The creature was clearly quite startled by this, but it reacted very quickly, raising its gray club to defend itself.

The tip of Han Li's sword struck the gray club, and in the next instant, a faint crack rang out as the club split open to release a burst of dense, black baleful qi that surged directly toward Han Li's face.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly as he sent the ape-like creature flying with a kick, and it crashed into one of the oncoming giant figures.

The giant creature was over a hundred feet tall, and its entire body was covered in gray scales, much like those of a crocodile. Its head resembled that of a giant lizard, but it had no pupils, and its cavernous mouth was filled with sharp and serrated teeth.

It wasn't able to move very quickly with its short and stubby legs, and it swatted the oncoming ape-like creature away with its powerful arms, then opened its mouth to blast a giant green fireball directly at Han Li.

In response, Han Li raised a hand to pat the silver figure perched on his shoulder, and the latter immediately spread over his entire body like a film of liquid, forming a suit of fiery silver armor that left no part of his body exposed.

Han Li then grabbed onto the hilt of his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword with both hands and stepped forward while channeling his Reversal True Axis, slicing the fireball into two with a single slash of his sword before bursting straight through it under the protection of his Flame of Essence.

A streak of golden light erupted out of the two halves of the fireball before striking the scaled creature, following which a large golden lock appeared around the creature's neck without any warning.

A burst of radiant golden light erupted out of the lock to form a giant golden rune, which emblazoned itself directly upon the creature's cheek, and it was instantly completely immobilized and rooted to the spot.

Han Li continued to rush at the creature as arcs of golden lightning began to emerge over his sword, and a drop of golden liquid emerged at its tip as he thrust it toward the creature's head.

Right as the tip of the sword was about to pierce into the creature's head, a burst of green light suddenly erupted out of the creature's mouth, even though it had already been immobilized by the golden lock.

The burst of green light sprang forth as a green fireball, and at this point, Han Li was too close to the creature to take evasive measures.

Hence, he could only allow the fireball to strike him on the chest, and he was sent flying back like a cannonball before crashing heavily down onto the ground.

The green flames immediately reared up in an attempt to spread over the rest of his body, but they were instantly snuffed out by the Flame of Essence around him.

Han Li rose up from the ground, then took a glance at Immortal Lord Hot Flame, who was being attacked by around a dozen ape-like creatures and one of the giant scaled creatures. Despite this, he appeared to be quite calm and composed.

He then turned to look at the scaled beast that had been immobilized by the golden lock immortal treasure, and he discovered that there was currently a white-robed human-looking young man standing on its shoulder, looking at him with a faint smile on his face.

This was the mysterious robed figure that had been enshrouded in mist earlier.

At first glance, he appeared to be very handsome, but there was something strange about his appearance, as if his face had been pieced together by different facial features taken from different people, presenting a very unbalanced and disharmonious appearance. What was even more surprising to Han Li was that his eyes were gray in color, indicating that he was a Gray Immortal.