Han Li stared up at the golden dragon and rainbow phoenix in the air above with an intense unblinking gaze. The two appeared to be completely evenly matched. In that case, wouldn’t this become a prolonged battle of stamina that could rage for days on end?

With that in mind, Han Li cast his gaze toward Ye Ying and Ye Chu, and his expression immediately faltered at the sight that he was greeted with.

Both of the women had their eyes tightly shut while maintaining a hand seal, and five-colored light was swirling erratically over their bodies. Ye Chu was still blasting azure light out of her mouth, which continued to pour forth into Ye Ying’s body, but the color of her skin had already changed drastically.

Her initial green skin had turned translucent and as pristinely white as jade.

She had completely transformed into a seductive beauty who appeared to be in her late teens with a gorgeous oval face and a pair of exuberant eyes.

Ye Chu seemed to have sensed Han Li’s gaze, and she turned her attention to Han Li with a completely cold and emotionless look.

Han Li could naturally sense the hint of anger in her eyes, and he gave her a smile before immediately turning away.

Right at this moment, a peculiar crackling sound rang out in the air above.

Han Li’s heart stirred as he directed his attention upward again.

In doing so, he discovered that the situation up above had taken a drastic turn. The gusts of powerful winds were transforming into blue spiritual light as massive translucent ice lotus flowers blossomed in the air. A burst of glacial power that could congeal the entire heavens had suddenly been injected into the battle.

This burst of glacial power somehow managed to coexist in perfect harmony with the sea of white flames. In fact, not only did these vastly contrasting powers not reject one another, they presented an enhancement effect to each other instead, effectively doubling their respective powers.

Flowers of white flames and blue ice lotus flowers intertwined, spreading over virtually the entire sky and forcing back the lightning wyrms at a steady rate.

The rainbow phoenix had unleashed some kind of strange technique to convert the power of wind into glacial power, thereby allowing it to gain the upper hand in this battle.

"Hehe, so you’re able to convert between powers of the five elements; looks like you’ve finally unleashed the Yin Yang Extreme Mantra. Good, very good! This day has finally come!"The golden dragon in the sky was clearly being forced onto the back foot, but not only was it not flustered in the slightest, it began to chortle with elation instead.

"You know of this cultivation art?" A hint of bewilderment crept into the rainbow phoenix’s voice as it faltered in mid-air.

The phoenix’s voice was identical to that of Ye Ying’s.

However, the giant dragon in the sky completely ignored the rainbow phoenix’s question. Instead, a burst of thunderous chanting erupted from its mouth, following which an astonishing scene unfolded.

The golden light around the dragon’s massive body receded, transforming into a vibrant crimson color instead. The dragon then opened its mouth to blast forth a thick pillar of crimson light.

As soon as this pillar of light came into contact with the air, it materialized into a giant sword that was over 100 feet in length.

The sword was of a translucent crimson color with a dragon hilt and a phoenix blade. An overwhelming aura of blood and gore was surging violently from the sword, inducing within one the urge to puke.

"That’s the Blood Crystal Mohe Sword! To think that this spirit treasure fell into your hands! Could it be that you’re planning..." The rainbow phoenix was shocked at the sight of this sword, and a thought immediately occurred to it, sending it into a state of panic. It abruptly spread its wings and desperately attempted to flee the scene.

"It’s too late to try and run now!" A cold voice sounded from the dragon’s cavernous mouth as it pounced forward. At the same time, its body shrank at a rapid rate, transforming into a streak of crimson light that was around 10 feet in length in the blink of an eye before disappearing into the crimson sword.

Immediately thereafter, the sword tremored before slashing at the rainbow phoenix from afar.

Faint crimson light flashed as a crimson sword projection over 1,000 feet in length swept toward the rainbow phoenix, traveling far too quickly for the phoenix to be able to react to it.

In response to the oncoming attack, the rainbow phoenix let loose a cry of shock and fury. Its enormous body appeared to have remained completely unscathed, but a crimson phoenix projection that was several feet in size had been forced out of its body. The crimson sword projection then swept backward, transforming into a streak of crimson light that enveloped the crimson phoenix projection within. The streak of light then rapidly hurtled backward, disappearing into the sword after just a few flashes.

Brilliant crimson light erupted from the sword amid a dull buzzing sound.

Meanwhile, the rainbow phoenix’s body disappeared as specks of spiritual light amid a dull thump. Only a small swath of crimson light descended from among the specks of spiritual light, disappearing into Ye Ying’s body in the blink of an eye.

Ye Ying shuddered as she opened her eyes with an expression of incredulity and horror on her face.

"The blood of the heavenly phoenix; most of my true spirit blood has been taken by this sword!" Ye Ying’s voice was a little hoarse, and her calm facade had completely crumbled.

The stream of azure light erupting from Ye Chu’s mouth cut off as a frosty expression appeared on her face. "There’s no need to panic, Young Mistress; the blood of the heavenly phoenix is not that easy to take. It’s only been temporarily trapped by that sword at this point. Even if cultivators from the Long Family have manipulated their true dragon blood to enter this sword, they still won’t be able to truly take and assimilate the spirit blood in a short time. If we can take this sword, there’s a chance that we’ll be able to recover the spirit blood and perhaps even take their true dragon bloodline in the process."

After hearing Ye Chu’s words of reassurance, Ye Ying finally recovered some of her composure. After a brief pause, she said, "You’re right, I can still sense the existence of the portion of my spirit blood that was taken, so we still have a chance. Brother Han, I know that you’re no ordinary Deity Transformation cultivator. If you assist me in recovering my spirit blood, I can promise you that the Ye Family would be willing to do one thing for you as repayment, as long as it’s within our realm of capability."

Ye Chu faltered upon hearing this, while Han Li’s brows furrowed, clearly hesitant about accepting this offer.

"Don’t hold on to the false hope that the Long Family will allow you to escape. If we’re killed here, you’ll have to face them on your own. Besides, you’ve clearly sided with us, so even if by some immense stroke of luck, you manage to flee back to the three human regions, the Long Family will only continue to hunt you down. Only with protection from our Ye Family will you be able to survive this ordeal," Ye Chu said in an expressionless manner.

"Do I have any other choice?" Han Li stroked his chin in a resigned manner.

"Why do you sound so reluctant, Brother Han? There are countless cultivators in the human race who would love to establish ties with our Ye Family," Ye Ying chuckled before rising up into the sky as a ball of golden light. Ye Chu also transformed into a streak of azure light and followed closely behind her.

As the azure light swirled around her body, her skin turned green again, and from afar, she appeared to be identical in appearance to a Wood Spirit.

Meanwhile, Han Li also rose into the air toward the crimson sword up above with his body enshrouded in a ball of azure light.

Due to the disappearance of the golden dragon and the rainbow phoenix, all of the lightning, glacial lotus flowers, and white flames in the overhead had disappeared, revealing clear blue skies.

If it weren’t for the massive crimson sword hanging in the air, it would almost appear as if the battle from earlier had never taken place.

Han Li was naturally well aware that his opponents wouldn’t allow him to attack the crimson sword in an unobstructed manner. As expected, just as he was flying toward the crimson sword, spatial fluctuations erupted on either side of the sword, and two middle-aged cultivators who bore a strong resemblance to one another appeared amid flashes of brilliant silver light.

Both of them wore brocade robes with their hair tied up using lengths of purple string, and the two of them appraised Han Li’s trio with cold expressions on their faces.

"Long Yu and Long Lin!" Ye Chu exclaimed as her pupils contract drastically.

Ye Ying’s heart also jolted upon seeing Ye Chu’s reaction, and she stopped in mid-air over 1,000 feet away from the crimson sword. She then swept her spiritual sense toward the two middle-aged cultivators, and a hint of shock appeared in her eyes.

"Do you know these two, Big Sister Chu?"

Ye Chu nodded with a grim expression, and replied, "Over 1,000 years ago, these two were early-Spatial Tempering cultivators, just as I was, and we met once during a gathering between the true spirit families. These two are proficient in nurturing ghosts and controlling devils, and they’re not ordinary cultivators. The fact that the Long Family deployed these two suggests that they’re intent on securing your true spirit blood, Young Mistress."

"Cultivators with such abilities are indeed quite troublesome to deal with." Ye Ying’s heart also sank upon hearing this.

The two middle-aged cultivators glanced at Ye Chu, and one of them chuckled as he said, "The two of us were wondering who had been deployed by the Ye Family to the Wood Tribe as a spy; turns out it’s Fairy Chu. Back in the day, just as you were forging a brilliant reputation for yourself, you suddenly disappeared, and we always thought that to be quite strange. We can see that you’ve now reached the pinnacle of the Spatial Tempering Stage; looks like you must’ve encountered some miraculous opportunities in the Wood Tribe."

"The two of you have reached the mid-Spatial Tempering Stage in just over 1,000 years; that’s also fantastic progress, but don’t you think you’re biting off more than you can chew by attacking my young mistress here?" Ye Chu retorted in a frosty voice.

"Haha, our young master is about to succeed in his ploy, and he’s going to possess the true spirit blood of both the dragon and the phoenix. With such a brilliant foundation, he’ll be sure to reach the Body Integration Stage soon, so what’s the point in bickering over such trivial details?" the middle-aged man chortled with glee.

"Did you intentionally sell the Yin Yang Extreme Mantra to me? Otherwise, even with the Blood Crystal Mohe Sword, how could the blood of the heavenly phoenix have been separated so easily from my body?" Ye Ying interrogated with a cold expression.

The two Long Family cultivators glanced at one another upon hearing this, but they refrained from answering her question.

"That’s enough chit-chat! With the two of us here, you two can give up on trying to reach our young master."

"Talking is getting us nowhere, Young Mistress; let’s take them down," Ye Chu harrumphed coldly. Green light then flashed from her body as green halos radiated forth, within which projections of trees and flowers were indistinctly visible.

She made a hand seal, and green light instantly shot forth into the air, surging toward the two middle-aged cultivators.

The duo swept their sleeves through the air almost in perfect unison upon seeing this. One of them summoned an antiquated crimson book while the other produced an inky-black scroll.

One of them raised a hand and pointed at the crimson book, flipping through the pages of the book as countless crimson runes surfaced. Those runes then transformed into crimson devil projections, all of which opened their mouths to produce streaks of crimson light that hurtled toward the azure light rising up from below.

Meanwhile, the other middle-aged cultivator unfurled his black scroll, and a gust of black wind whistled forth from within amid a swath of mist before also hurtling toward the azure light.

As the crimson light and black winds intertwined with one another, keeping the oncoming azure light at bay. The opposing forces clashed and explosions rang out incessantly.

Ye Ying’s expression darkened upon seeing this, and she flipped both hands over to produce a shimmering golden saber in one hand, while a green ring appeared in the other. She waved both hands through the air, and the two objects flew through the air.