Just as these thoughts were racing through Han Li’s mind, the devilish ape let loose a low snarl as it opened its mouths. A ball of black and red essential Qi was expelled from within before enveloping the giant purple sword before it.

Brilliant purple light immediately began to radiate from the sword, and the unknown creature within it suddenly swelled in size. It then emerged from the surface of the giant sword, thrashing about in a menacing display.

The giant sword then twisted around so that’s blade aimed directly at Han Li, following which it came crashing down with devastating force.

A purple sword projection that was over 100 feet in length surged forth, slicing through the azure light barrier in a soundless manner.

The sword projection should’ve hurtled through the air at an alarming speed, yet it was extremely slow and sluggish for some reason.

Han Li’s expression changed drastically upon seeing this, and his four golden arms made hand seals in unison before pointing toward the sword formation.

Four pillars of dense golden light shot forth toward the purple sword projection, and a string of resounding booms rang out in quick succession.

The pillars of golden light exploded with astonishing force, but they only stalled the purple light slightly before they were vanquished with ease.

Thus, the purple sword projection continued to fly toward Han Li.

Han Li’s eyelids twitched upon seeing this, and the two shadow puppets behind him immediately slashed their weapons through the air at his behest.

Golden sword projections and saber projections surged forth like a torrential downpour, and at the same time, Han Li abruptly injected a burst of magic power into his sword formation.

Large azure runes instantly appeared on the azure light barrier up ahead, and these runes swirled before forming a series of azure lotus flowers in front of the light barrier.

There seemed to be no end to the sword and saber projections unleashed by the two golden shadow puppets, but all of them destroyed by the purple sword projection with ease, unable to pose any obstacle to it.

In the end, the purple light struck the barrier of azure lotus flowers, and the sword projection took on a form that was identical to the unidentifiable creature within the purple blade segment. The projection then pounced down in a vicious manner, easily tearing through the azure lotus flowers with its claws in a seemingly unstoppable manner.

Han Li’s eyes narrowed upon seeing this, and the magic power within his body instantly poured forth into the sword formation like a surging waterfall.

The fragments of the azure lotus flowers that had been torn apart all converged to form more lotus flowers that stood in the path of the purple projection again.

The purple projection was indeed extremely powerful, but the Spring Dawn Sword Formation was certainly nothing to be scoffed at, either.

With the massive influx of spiritual power being provided by Han Li, countless azure lotus flowers surged forth in a frenzy from all directions.

In the end, purple projection finally exhausted all of its power and vanished around 10 feet away from the azure light barrier.

A hint of surprise flashed through the devilish ape’s eyes upon seeing this.

It was well aware of just how immensely powerful the purple blade segment was, and it was exactly because of this treasure that it had been hunted by multiple powerful beings, thereby reducing it to such a sorry state.

Even though the limitation of its cultivation base meant that it wasn’t able to unleash the treasure’s full power, he had poured forth all of his magic power into that slash, and it was quite astonished that the sword formation had been able to withstand it.

This indicated that the sword formation it had been trapped in was far more powerful than it had initially thought. In this current situation, it really wouldn’t be able to break out of this formation easily.

Come to think of it, one really did have to feel sympathetic toward this giant ape, which was extremely renowned even among holy-grade devilish beasts.

Ever since it had crossed into this realm through the spatial rift in the Golden Devil Mountain Ranges, it had been forced into several fierce battles against both the holy-grade devilish beasts within these mountain ranges, as well as the holy race beings outside of it.

Not only had its cultivation base been severely damaged as a result of these battles, it had almost perished on a few occasions, and several of the extraordinarily powerful treasures it had once possessed had also been destroyed.

Otherwise, even in its current state, it would’ve still been able to force its way out of this sword formation had it still retained those powerful treasures.

However, in this current situation, the devilish ape had no choice but to pause and ponder a viable course of action.

The pressure on Han Li was eased significantly as a result, and he rustled his sleeve to produce a stack of talismans that were shimmering with azure light.

These talismans all appeared to be completely identical; each of them was around half a foot in length, and they were all emitting extremely pure wood-attribute spiritual Qi.

At this moment, Han Li was finally able to confirm that this devilish ape was indeed far from its peak. Not taking into account its powerful spiritual sense and the various secret techniques it had mastered, its magic power was only comparable to a being at the pinnacle of the late-Spatial Tempering Stage. However, that suit of armor and the purple blade segment it was wielding were certainly not to be taken lightly, so it would still be an extremely difficult task to try and kill it.

Thankfully, Han Li was able to restrict its movement techniques with his sword formation, but the fact that the giant ape possessed a spirit eye ability made it a troublesome opponent, nonetheless.

It was most likely the case that the normal illusionary technique conjured up by the sword formation would be completely ineffective against this devilish ape.

Han Li had envisioned this situation back when he first began cultivating this sword formation, and he’d conducted research into tactics against enemies with spirit eye abilities. As such, he developed some new abilities based on the Spring Dawn Sword Formation, and this holy-grade devilish beast was the ideal lab rat for him to experiment with those abilities.

With that in mind, Han Li took advantage of the devilish ape’s hesitation to raise a hand into the air, and the stack of azure talismans instantly shot forth as streaks of azure light, then disappeared into the sword formation in a flash.

At the same time, Han Li began to chant something, and his other hand gently raised the golden bead into the air, which then abruptly shot forth into the air above the sword formation as a pillar of golden light.

Immediately thereafter, a massive golden rune shot forth from within into the air above, then vanished on the spot.

The devilish ape within the sword formation, instantly sensed something, and it looked up with a dark expression.

A resounding boom rang out as fierce winds were swept up in the air above the sword formation. Dark clouds then began to gather, and a golden sun was barely visible through the clouds. A devastating aura that threatened to destroy heaven and earth was emanating from the golden sun, and countless arcs of lightning were flashing erratically over its surface.

At the same time, a continuous string of dull thunderclaps rang out, creating quite a menacing atmosphere.

"That’s the Lightningwield Technique!" the devilish ape murmured to itself as the five-colored runes flashed within its eyes.

It then harrumphed coldly as it waved a hand toward the giant purple sword up ahead, which instantly returned to his grasp as a streak of purple light.

The giant ape then raised the sword as it prepared to slice through the golden sun up above.

Divine Devilbane Lightning was already extremely potent against devilish Qi, and now that it had been enhanced by the Lightnignwield Technique, the giant ape definitely didn’t want to withstand an attack from it, even with the suit of armor that it was wearing.

However, before the ape even had a chance to swing its giant sword through the air, brilliant azure light suddenly flashed around it, following which its surroundings blurred, and in the next instant, it found itself in a lush azure forest.

There were massive trees that were several hundreds of feet tall around, yet the devilish ape merely activated its spirit eye ability as it cackled, "Hmph, that’s a nice little party trick!"

𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

However, before it had a chance to find a chink in the illusionary technique with its spirit eyes, all of the giant trees around it suddenly began to radiate azure light. They then twisted and warped before transforming into huge azure-armored warriors that were each around 100 feet tall.

Immediately thereafter, azure light flashed in the air above, and all of the armored warriors made grabbing motions as a variety of weapons appeared in their hands, including the likes of sabers, swords, axes, and halberds.

The dozen or so armored warriors that were situated closest to the devilish ape raised their weapons before bringing them down without any hesitation, sending a dozen or so massive black shadows hurtling toward it amid gusts of fierce winds.

The devilish ape was given quite a fright by this sudden development, and it had no choice but to ignore the Divine Devilbane Lightning for now as it slashed its giant sword through the air.

A purple streak instantly fanned out in a circular formation, and the dozen or so huge blades were all destroyed, along with the armored warriors in the surrounding area.

"Wait, these things aren’t entirely projections!" As opposed to being elated by how easily it was able to vanquish these armored warriors, the devilish ape was instead quite bewildered.

When the purple streak had sliced through the giant weapons, he could clearly sense that they had been imbued with a lot of spiritual power.

However, before the devilish ape had a chance to make sense of the situation, rumbling footsteps rang out in all directions around it, and more armored warriors rushed toward it in a frenzy, brandishing their giant weapons along the way.

The devilish ape harrumphed coldly, yet on this occasion, he didn’t use his purple sword to retaliate. Instead, he stomped a foot heavily onto the ground, and an earth-shattering boom rang out as black and red shockwave proliferated outward in all directions.

The armored beings that were struck by this shockwave tumbled to the ground, and they were all eradicated in the blink of an eye.

Han Li’s expression darkened upon seeing this, and he suddenly switched to another hand seal.

All of a sudden, countless specks of azure light appeared out of thin air before transforming into azure arrows, each of which was around a foot in length.

The arrows whistled through the air, hurtling toward the giant ape in a torrential downpour.

However, the devilish ape wasn’t flustered in the slights this time. It merely patted its suit of purple armor, and a purple light barrier emerged from it.

After doing that, it narrowed its eyes as it unleashed its spirit eye ability before looking up at the oncoming azure arrows.

However, it then furrowed its brows, and a hint of confusion appeared on its face. His spirit eye ability told him that all of these arrows were imbued with spiritual power, and none of them were mere projections.

Before the devilish ape could make sense of the situation, the oncoming barrage of arrows struck the purple light barrier before exploding like fireworks. The light barrier tremored and flashed erratically in the face of this downpour of arrows, but it remained completely stalwart and unmoved.

The devilish ape was quite relieved to see that even though these arrows weren’t projections, they weren’t all that powerful, either. However, at the same time, he couldn’t help but speculate about what Han Li’s intentions were.

Right at this moment, a resounding boom suddenly erupted from the ground beneath its feet, following which a giant azure hand emerged before crashing down toward the devilish ape with mountainous force.

The giant ape naturally wasn’t going to back down, and it raised its huge sword in preparation to slice the massive hand in half. However, it suddenly seemed to sense something, and it abruptly raised its head, just in time to see a golden pillar of light crash down from the golden sun formed by the Divine Devilbane Lightning.

The pillar of golden light descended in a completely soundless manner, but it reached the devilish ape in a flash, and the ape’s expression instantly changed drastically.