Chapter 178: Taking the Clam's Pearl
The violent thunderstorm showed no signs of abating anytime soon.
At the center of the vortex, the shell of the giant clam opened up slightly, releasing arcs of lightning to envelop the purple bead. The arcs of lighting intertwined to form a giant mouth of lightning that was greedily devouring the boundless power of lightning in the surrounding area.
It was clear that this formidable storm was providing the clam with the ideal cultivation conditions.
Right at this moment, a strange cry rang out from the distance.
It was an extremely loud cry that was audible even through the relentless chorus of booming thunderclaps.
The shell of the giant clam suddenly stirred slightly, and a speck of green light appeared within the darkness inside the shell. That seemed to have been the eye of the clam, and it had turned to the direction that the sound had come from.
Far away on the horizon, a black shadow had emerged and was rapidly approaching, appearing on the scene in the blink of an eye.
It was an enormous purple whale the size of an island, and its two massive eyes were gleaming with greed and yearning as it stared intently at the purple bead above the clam.
Furthermore, a tremendous aura that exceeded even the giant clam's was emanating from its body.
However, the clam didn't immediately withdraw its bead. Instead, its shell opened up even further, and two thick bolts of purple lightning erupted out from within, hurtling toward the whale like a pair of lightning dragons.
The space in the wake of the bolts of purple lightning shuddered violently as a charred smell wafted through the air, as if the very space itself had been scorched by the purple lightning.
A solemn look appeared in the giant whale's eyes at the sight of the oncoming bolts of lightning, and it opened its cavernous mouth to reveal a mouthful of massive white fangs before biting viciously down onto the purple lightning.
A layer of black electricity surfaced over its teeth as it brought its jaws shut in a forceful motion, biting the two bolts of lightning into halves.
A resounding thunderclap rang out, and the two bolts of purple lightning were quickly dispelled.
A black hole then appeared on the whale's back, and black light flashed within the hole, following which an inky-black bolt of lightning shot out from within, transforming into a black lightning wyrm that was several thousand feet in length in the blink of an eye. The lightning wyrm sprang through the air in a menacing fashion, reaching the giant clam in the blink of an eye.
The clam let loose a low roar as the purple ball above its head stopped devouring the lightning in the surrounding area, then appeared in front of it in a flash to clash against the oncoming black lightning wyrm.
An earth-shattering thunderclap rang out as the black lightning wyrm exploded into balls of lightning of different sizes, which instantly encompassed the entire surrounding area in a radius of close to 10 kilometers, swallowing up the giant clam in the process.
Bolts of dazzling black lightning flashed through the air as thunderclaps and explosions rang out in unison to produce an astounding commotion.
Right at this moment, the countless arcs of black lightning in the air suddenly converged toward a single spot, then vanished in the blink of an eye as if they had been devoured by something.
As a result, the giant clam was revealed once again, and it was completely unharmed.
At this moment, the purple ball in front of it was flashing with black lightning, and it was clear that it had just devoured the black lightning unleashed by the whale.
The massive whale let loose a roar of fury upon seeing this, and it whipped its giant tail forcefully through the air as arcs of black lightning surfaced over its entire body, following which it threw itself at the clam like a gargantuan cannon ball.
The clam wasn't backing down in the slightest, and arcs of purple lightning emerged over its shell as it threw itself at the whale as well.
A ferocious battle ensued between the two enormous creatures, further contributing to the commotion caused by the wandering serpent thunderstorm.
In the heat of battle, neither of the two beasts had noticed that there was a blurry humanoid figure standing less than 10 kilometers away from them. It was none other than Han Li, who had completely concealed his own aura.
Thanks to the effects of his High Zenith Invisibility Talisman, even if someone were standing right beside him, they wouldn't be able to detect his presence unless their spiritual sense was far superior to his.
At this moment, he was watching the fierce battle taking place before him with an unblinking gaze.
He could clearly sense the astonishing law fluctuations emanating from the purple ball, and there was a hint of yearning in his eyes.
If he weren't mistaken, the ball contained the power of lightning laws. He had previously seen some precious materials that contained law powers, but regardless of whether it was the eye of the Primordial Fei Beast, the Great Earth Fruits, or the Sea Condensing Crystal, none of them contained anywhere near the volume of law powers as what was in this ball.
The giant clam had most likely already spent countless millennia nurturing the ball.
Han Li took a deep breath to suppress his excitement, then continued to slowly close in on the pair of giant beasts while still in his invisible form.
He could sense that the clam and the whale were at the early-True Immortal Stage and the mid-True Immortal Stage, respectively. Of course, this was only relative to human cultivation standards. Given the exceptional immortal aptitude of these immortal spirit beasts, they often possessed far more immortal spiritual power than human cultivators of the same level, and that allowed them to hold their own against cultivators of a superior cultivation base.
Han Li didn't fear the prospect of facing them in battle, but he would rather avoid having to face them if possible.
Hence, at the moment, he was pondering how he could secure the purple ball before fleeing the scene without being forced into a confrontation.
Han Li continued to slowly approach the pair of giant creatures, and before long, he was no more than four kilometers away. However, he failed to notice the extremely faint purple mist permeating through the area around the giant clam, and he inadvertently came into contact with it.
As soon as this happened, the giant clam immediately swung around, and the speck of green light within its shell seemed to have suddenly turned to Han Li.
In the next instant, its shell opened up wide, and a thick bolt of purple lightning came crashing toward Han Li at an incredible speed.
Looks like my cover's been blown!
A cold look appeared on his face as arcs of silver lightning surfaced over his body, and he transformed into a bolt of silver lightning to evade the attack. He then appeared right in between the pair of giant beasts in the blink of an eye before grabbing onto the purple ball.
However, to his surprise, the ball was extraordinarily heavy despite the fact that it was only the size of a human head, and it refused to budge, even in the face of his enormous strength.
Both the clam and the whale flew into a thunderous rage upon seeing this, and they immediately joined forces to turn on Han Li.
Two bolts of purple lightning and one bolt of black lightning were sent hurtling toward Han Li in unison.
On top of that, a flurry of purple lightning began to spiral around the purple ball, striking Han Li's palm like a series of purple lightning blades.
Han Li's expression darkened slightly, but he displayed no intention of taking evasive measures.
He let loose a low roar as bright golden light appeared over his entire body, and he instantly took on his Giant Mountain Ape form. At the same time, countless golden scales appeared over his body and the palm of his hand.
The purple and black lightning struck the golden ape in unison, causing it to stumble in an unsteady manner.
The scales on the parts of its body that had been struck by the lightning had been broken to reveal the charred skin and flesh underneath, but the wounds weren't very deep.
Meanwhile, the purple blades of lightning around the purple ball had also sliced through the scales on the palm of his hand, causing him to bleed profusely.
The giant ape paid no heed to these injuries as it made a forceful grabbing motion to lock the purple ball firmly in its grasp, following which it shot back in retreat as quickly as it could.
At the same time, dazzling golden light erupted out of the palm of its hand to envelop the purple ball, attempting to forcibly sever its connection with the giant clam.
The purple ball began to struggle violently while flashing with purple lightning, illuminating the giant ape's hand into a semi-transparent purple color as it attempted to break free.
The giant clam roared with fury as it sprang out of the vortex on the surface of the sea, pouncing toward the golden ape like a living mountain.
After launching itself up into the air, its shell sprang open, and dazzling purple lightning appeared on its surface as countless bolts of lightning came crashing down from the dark clouds up above before converging onto its shell.
A burst of light surged over the shell, and all of the purple electricity transformed into a layer of dark purple light that struck the beholder with a sense of foreboding.
The clam shell then moved once again, and two crescent-shaped streaks of purple light were sent flying through the air, hurtling rapidly toward the golden ape while leaving ripples that were visible even to the naked eye in the space in its wake.
The lightning whale also pounced at the giant ape with a furious roar, and countless arcs of black lightning had already gathered together in its cavernous mouth.
Immediately thereafter, around a dozen massive balls of black lightning shot out of its mouth, hurtling rapidly toward the golden ape as well.
The giant ape's pupils contracted slightly upon seeing this. It was already retreating at an incredible speed, but the attacks from the pair of lightning beasts were even faster, catching up to the giant ape in the blink of an eye.
However, the golden ape remained calm and collected as dazzling golden light erupted from its body, and several massive projections, including that of the Golden Dragon, the Five-colored Phoenix, the Lightning Bird, and the Azure Luan Bird had appeared behind it before instantly fusing into its body.
Immediately thereafter, the giant ape's body swelled drastically in size as it transformed into a devilish deity that was over 10,000 feet tall in the blink of an eye. Countless purplish-golden scales had appeared over its body, and it was giving off an almighty aura of destruction.
A burst of tremendous power erupted out of its body, causing all of the oncoming purple lightning and balls of black lightning to stop cold in their tracks.
At the same time, bright purplish-golden light glowed from the hand of the devilish deity that was holding the purple ball, and a dull cracking sound rang out as the lightning around the purple ball was forcibly crushed, severing the connection between the ball and the giant clam.
The clam shuddered as a look of vicious resentment appeared in its eyes, and it let loose an enraged roar as around a dozen bolts of purple lightning were sent hurtling toward the devilish deity at once.
The devilish deity flipped a hand over to stow the purple ball away, and at the same time, the black saber that he had acquired from Fang Pan appeared in his hand.
A layer of dazzling black light appeared over the surface of the black saber, and all of the world's origin qi in the nearby space shuddered before beginning to surge into the saber, forming a massive vortex of energy.
The black saber immediately swelled drastically in size, transforming into a giant black blade that was over 1,000 feet in length.
Countless black runes appeared all over the surface of the saber, and rings of black light proliferated through the air in all directions, carrying powerful law fluctuations that caused the surrounding space to tremble and shudder.
A hint of surprise appeared in Han Li's eyes upon seeing this.
The black saber had been quite formidable in Fang Pan's hands, but it definitely hadn't been this fearsome. Could it be that his Holy Nirvana Physique had better synergy with the power of laws contained in the black saber?
This thought only appeared in Han Li's mind for a moment before he refocused on the battle at hand, and the muscles on his arm bulged as he slashed the saber viciously through the air.
A resounding boom rang out as the black runes surged violently, and a crescent-shaped black saber projection that was several thousand feet in length was unleashed, clashing against the oncoming purple lightning and balls of black lightning.
The black saber projection was able to destroy the oncoming attacks with ease, and its power wasn't diminished in the slightest as it continued to sweep toward the pair of massive lightning beasts.
A tremendous burst of law powers came crashing down upon the two lightning beasts, and the space around them had abruptly turned as hard as a block of metal.
The pair of massive beasts immediately stopped cold in their tracks, seemingly quite wary of the oncoming attack.
The giant clam hurriedly closed its shell, and purple lightning flashed all around it, forming a massive ball of purple lightning that served as a protective barrier.
Meanwhile, the lightning whale let loose a thunderous roar as it released a millstone-sized black ball out of its mouth, and the ball was giving off an enormous aura with arcs of black lightning flashing around it.
As soon as the black ball emerged, it rapidly swelled to the size of a small mountain to shield the lightning whale behind it.