The azure pearl flew above her head and she struck it with a spell seal. It immediately shined with radiant light before releasing countless threads of azure light that swept past the green mist. With violent sweeps, the wind of light scattered the surrounding mist, leaving an area of three hundred meters around her entirely clear.

She spotted a youth standing a hundred meters away, silently observing her without the slightest emotion. He was Han Li who had been waiting quite a while for her.

A cold glint appeared in the woman’s eyes and her bright gaze flickered. Once her spiritual sense swept her surroundings, she frowned and glanced at the sky. About a hundred meters above them, there was a cloud of silver and gold silently floating there.

When she saw the true appearance of the golden cloud, her expression vastly changed with the icy intent in her eyes only growing denser. The woman muttered, “Gold Devouring Beetles! It turned out that you were the cultivator who possessed them!”

Han Li was surprised she had recognized them, but he managed to retain his calm. “There seems to be many spell warriors amongst the Moulan that recognize these insects. I am truly surprised. Did the spell warrior who last saw me inform you?”

Rather than answer his question, she asked, “The Heavenly Wind Tribe’s Sage Mu had his body destroyed by your hand?”

Betraying not the slight vigilance that grew in his heart, he flatly said, “Sage Mu? The spell warrior that pursued me with the Wind Riding Chariot? If that is the one, then yes; I am the one who destroyed his body. Were it not for his Nascent Soul fleeing so quickly, I would’ve been able to exterminate both spirit and body. Could it be you wish to take vengeance on his behalf?”

Since this woman already knew of the Celestial Ice Flames and the Thunderstorm Wings, he wouldn’t be able to catch her off guard, turning her into a somewhat troublesome opponent. All of his battles at Nascent Soul stage so far, barring one, had been handled by first catching his opponents off guard with the Thunderstorm Wings and later using the Celestial Ice Flames to freeze them through.

“Sage Mu’s body didn’t possess particularly deep cultivation, so its loss isn’t anything to complain about. However, you possess many mystical abilities and are able to even control the Gold Devouring Beetles; therefore, you will not be escaping me alive.” The green-clothed woman’s expression sank and she quickly formed a hand incantation. With white light flashing around her, a white ribbon suddenly floated from her body as it fluttered with the wind.

She then twirled her palm and a faint yellow cauldron appeared in her hand. It was refined from some unknown wood, was four inches large, and appeared rather antiquated, with cryptic talisman characters carved on its exterior.

When Han Li’s spiritual sense swept past it, his expression changed.

“Your Gold Devouring Beetles may be an exotic insect from antiquity and nurtured to a stage of invulnerability and ravenous gluttony, but it just so happens that it is capable of being restrained by wood-attribute magic treasures, like my Yellow Spirit Cauldron. In the past, I’ve fought against a Soaring Tribes cultivator who commanded Gold Devouring Beetles, and I sought this cauldron in preparation to deal with him when I met him again. But I didn’t think that I’d first meet a Heavenly South cultivator that used them rather than him. Were this not the case, I would’ve found such a large number of Gold Devouring Beetles difficult to deal with, regardless of how mature they were.”

Once the green-clothed woman finished speaking with a cold tone, she stroked the small cauldron with her delicate hand and caused it to magnificently shine with light. A translucent light barrier faintly appeared

When Han Li heard this, he curled his cheek and soon wore a grave expression. “There are others that use Gold Devouring Beetles?”

“You don’t know of it? Gold Devouring Beetles are the sacred insects of the Soaring Tribes, our arch-enemies. Their ancestors spent an immense amount of time before finally nurturing several tens of fully mature Gold Devouring Beetles. Only the most distinguished of their cultivators were allowed to inherit them. But ever since those times, an unknown number of spell warriors were devoured by them, becoming a target of hatred amongst the Moulan.

Since you possess so many of them, I cannot allow you to pass them down, regardless of how mature they may be.” With that said, she expressionlessly tossed the small cauldron above her.

The small cauldron circled once above her and in a flash of light, it shot a pillar light directly towards the cloud of beetles in the sky.

Han Li was dumbstruck to hear that there already existed fully mature Gold Devouring Beetles in this world, but when he heard her malicious tone, he regained his bearings and tossed the matter to the back of his mind.

His heart sank upon seeing her use the cauldron to directly attack the beetles with wood spirit Qi. With a fierce expression momentarily appearing on his face, he pointed to them and had the golden cloud disperse into countless golden petals. In the blink of an eye, the beetles could hardly be seen.

As a result, the yellow light had missed its mark. The woman was stunned, but something soon came to mind and she swept her spiritual sense into the mist nearby.

A short moment later, she frowned and an icy aura enveloped her face. “You actually commanded the Gold Devouring Beetles to attack the other spell warriors. You believe that you can afford to be distracted?” Before she even finished speaking, she had already flung her white ribbon towards Han Li.

The ribbon shined with dazzling white light as it circled in the air before transforming into a snow-white hawk that spanned about six meters in length, with eyes of flame and jet-black claws. It flapped its wings and it instantly disappeared in a flash of white light, reappearing a moment later above Han Li’s head. Then with a caw, it swooped down with its razor-sharp claws aiming at it.

The huge hawk was extremely fast. In Han Li’s alarm, he raised his hand out of instinct, shooting several ten arcs of golden lightning from his palm, forming a large golden net to meet in the incoming hawk.

When the white hawk saw this, its eyes ominously glinted and its wings trembled. The wind boomed. Countless blades of wind shot out in a dense barrage to meet the incoming net of golden lightning.

Explosions sounded out as golden and white light intertwined. Upon contact, the golden net had blocked a majority of the blades of wind, but they were too strong. The net of lightning was cut through, and several tens of wind blades shot towards Han Li with the huge hawk closely following after them.

“Yi!” Despite the astonishment betrayed from his eyes, the rest of his face remained expressionless.

He flicked his fingers, releasing over ten azure swordstreaks to meet the blades of wind. Soon after, he flipped his palm and a small blue shield appeared in his hand. With a slight tremor, the blue shield grew several times larger, extending to three meters in length. Lustrous blue light fluidly wandered from its surface as if it were truly made of liquid, making for an exceptionally odd sight.

At that moment, the azure swordstreaks had shattered the blades of wind and were about to strike the hawk. The hawk showed no fear and flapped its wings, sweeping away the azure Qi before continuing its sweep down towards the huge blue shield.

Han Li coldly snorted and pointed to the shield, causing it to shine with greater magnificence. Consequently, the hawk’s claws struck an icy surface, leaving only ripples behind.

But in that instant of delay, an icy glint flashed from Han Li’s eyes and he raised his hand. A black light suddenly emerged from his palm, transforming into a black-red hand that was three meters wide. It shot out at a speed greater than lightning and forcefully grabbed the huge hawk.

Woosh. Yin flames suddenly emerged from the hand and enveloped the hawk in pitch-black flames. The hawk attempted to escape its grasp as it miserably wailed and fiercely picked the hand.

Han Li grew relieved at the sight of this and turned his head towards the woman.

The woman didn’t appear to mind that her hawk was captured. Instead, she was muttering an ancient incantation with a solemn expression. Upon closer inspection, Han Li wasn’t able to understand it in the slightest, much to his shock.

Soon after, the woman spread out her fingers in the style of a lotus flower and white light began to flicker, forming what seemed to be a white lotus.

Although Han Li didn’t know what she was planning, she was still a mid Nascent Soul-stage cultivator. Anything that took an incantation this long was certain to be powerful. He couldn’t allow her to smoothly succeed.

𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Once that was thought, Han Li flung out his sleeve with a grave expression, summoning several tens of azure flying swords in a swarm. They then condensed together into a mist and charged towards the green-clothed woman.

Taking advantage of this delay, Han Li raised his other arm towards the huge hand that was tightly gripping the bird. The black-red hand suddenly gripped with further force and instantly dragged the bird before him.

Without a thought, Han Li spat a sliver of blue icy flame onto the struggling bird.

Crackling, the blue flame instantly covered the bird in a layer of sparkling frost. The resulting ice sculpture captured its desperate struggle in a lifelike image.

A trace of satisfaction appeared on his face. But just when he thought to collect it, he heard a series of divine rings in front of him. Blinding white radiance suddenly erupted from the woman, covering the surrounding area of three hundred meters under a layer of white light.

Han Li inwardly cursed and hastily looked at the strange scene from across him.

The green-clothed woman had finished her incantation, but now, the white lotus had left her hand and was floating three meters above her head. It continuously unfolded its petals as it shined with dazzling light.

As for the cloud of sword Qi that he unleashed, it was stopped about forty meters away from her as it attempted its hardest to make its way towards her. It seemed to be blocked by something invisible.

Han Li unconsciously narrowed his eyes.