Chapter 249: Making an Enemy Out of the Immortal Palace
After the azure figure forced back Han Li's trio, he didn't press his advantage. Instead, he descended beside the body of the white-haired elderly man, then swept a sleeve through the air to release a burst of azure light that enveloped the lifeless body, seemingly trying to save him.
However, the white-haired elderly man's soul had already been completely destroyed, leaving only a spent husk behind, and he was as dead as dead could be.
The azure figure turned to Han Li's trio with a look of thunderous rage on his face as he roared, "How dare you Transient Guild bastards come after members of our Immortal Palace!"
Han Li's heart jolted slightly upon hearing this, and he turned to Qilin 9 as he asked, "What's going on here, Fellow Daoist Qilin 9?"
Qilin 17 also turned to Qilin 9 with an accusatory look on his face.
"Please don't misunderstand, fellow daoists, I wasn't aware of this, either, and I can assure you that I didn't try to intentionally deceive you. The person who released the mission never revealed the identity of our target to me," Qilin 9 said with a sullen look on his face.
Han Li carefully observed Qilin 9's expression, and after determining that he didn't seem to have been lying, he immediately withdrew his gaze as he contemplated how to proceed.
In the face of such a formidable foe, he couldn't afford to panic.
Right at this moment, the azure figure made a hand seal, and bright azure light surfaced over his body alongside a series of azure patterns.
All of the specks of azure light that were the scattered remains of the three balls of azure light instantly converged toward him in a frenzy before surging into the azure patterns on his skin, causing him to swell drastically in stature to over 1,000 feet feet tall in the blink of an eye.
Han Li's trio immediately swept their spiritual sense over the azure-armored giant before them, and all three of them were extremely alarmed by what they detected.
The aura that the giant was giving off wasn't inferior in the slightest compared with that of the elderly man after he had consumed the Nascent Incinerating Blood Pill. In fact, the giant's aura was slightly more powerful in comparison, and the hearts of Han Li's trio immediately sank upon detecting this.
"This is Spiritual Origin Restoration! Look out, fellow daoists, we're dealing with an avatar of a Golden Immortal!" Qilin 9 exclaimed.
Han Li already suspected this to be the case, but he was still quite alarmed to have had his suspicions confirmed.
Having already been a member of the Blaze Dragon Dao for many years, he had accumulated a great deal of knowledge, and he had learned that one of the most prominent abilities of a Golden Immortal was Spiritual Origin Restoration.
Golden Immortals possessed far superior control over immortal spiritual power than True Immortals, and they were able to recover their spiritual power that was scattered during the course of battle, thereby significantly reducing their immortal spiritual power expenditure.
Judging from the powers that the azure figure had displayed thus far, he was clearly a Golden Immortal who had mastered some type of wood-attribute laws, allowing him to draw upon the wood-attribute spiritual qi in the surrounding area to unleash his attacks. If they were powerless to stop him from recycling his immortal spiritual power over and over again, then they would be in a world of trouble.
Right as these thoughts were running through their minds, the azure-armored giant pounced forward at an extraordinary speed despite its enormous frame, reaching Han Li's trio in the blink of an eye before slamming a giant fist straight down upon Qilin 9.
A burst of invisible fluctuations erupted forth amid a rumbling boom, and immensely powerful law fluctuations swept through the surrounding area like gusts of ferocious wind.
Instead of flying back in retreat, Qilin 9 made a hand seal, and the golden millstone in front of him began to glow brightly as it instantly swelled to the size of a small mountain, revolving rapidly as it rose up to meet the azure-armored giant's fist.
An earth-shattering boom rang out, accompanied by an explosion of golden and azure light, and the golden millstone was sent flying, as was Qilin 9.
However, the golden millstone was also quite a powerful treasure, and the repulsion force from the clash forced the azure-armored giant back a few steps, while the azure light radiating from hi fist also dimmed slightly. However, the azure patterns on his arm lit up once again, and all of the scattered azure light began to surge back to him.
Before he had a chance to fully recover, Han Li and Qilin 17 abruptly appeared on either side of the azure-armored giant.
Han Li's Heavy Water True Axis expanded even further at his behest, swelling to the size of a house, and it began to revolve rapidly while giving off tremendous law power fluctuations.
Immediately thereafter, the Heavy Water True Axis came crashing down toward the azure-armored giant as a streak of black light.
Meanwhile, Qilin 17 was making a series of hand seals before summoning a square seal that was giving off an earthy yellow glow. A yellow dragon was coiled on top of the seal, giving it hte appearance of an imperial jade seal from a mortal empire.
Qilin 17 quickly chanted an incantation before pressing his palm forward, and the yellow seal instantly swelled to countless times its original size.
A giant yellow dragon projection also emerged within the blinding yellow light around it, and it came crashing down upon the azure-armored giant.
Thanks to their earlier battle against the white-haired elderly man, the three of them had developed a decent amount of chemistry.
The azure-armored giant remained completely unfazed as he reached out with both hands, grabbing toward both the Heavy Water True Axis and the giant yellow seal.nove-Lb.In
Bright azure light radiated from his hands as countless azure runes surged forth in a frenzy, forming around a dozen layers of azure ripples that clashed against the opposing treasures.
A string of loud cracks rang out as the giant yellow seal broke through several layers of azure ripples in succession, but these azure ripples were extremely resolute, and with each layer that was breached, the seal would noticeably slow down.
Finally, after breaking through eight layers of ripples, the momentum of the giant yellow seal was completely exhausted, and it was stopped in its tracks before being caught in the grasp of the azure-armored giant.
At the same time, Han Li's Heavy Water True Axis was also clashing against the azure ripples, and a string of loud cracks rang out in succession as all of the layers of azure ripples were torn apart by the Heavy Water True Axis with ease.
The axis wasn't even slowed own in the slightest as it continued to forge ahead, and the azure-armored giant seemed to have been rather taken aback to see this as it clenched its palm into a tight fist, while the azure patterns on the surface of his hand began to glow.
All of the destroyed layers of azure ripples were instantly drawn back into the azure fist, giving it a more substantial form and lending it more power as it was launched through the air.
Han Li let loose a loud roar, and his face suddenly turned bright red as he made a rapid string of hand seals.
The Water Dao Rune on the Heavy Water True Axis instantly lit up with dazzling radiance, and a row of incredibly bright water blades emerged on the edge of the axis. The Heavy Water True Axis rapidly revolved as it clashed against the giant azure fist, and a resounding boom rang out as the azure fist, which was still yet to fully recover, was split into two.
The Heavy Water True Axis continued to rapidly revolve as it sliced all the way up the giant's arm, aiming to split the azure-armored giant's entire body in half.
The azure-armored giant's expression changed drastically upon seeing this. It clearly hadn't anticipated that the Heavy Water True Axis would be so formidable, and it opened its mouth to release a thin, yet blindingly bright azure thread.
The azure thread was giving off powerful law fluctuations, and it wrapped itself around the Heavy Water True Axis at an incredible speed.
The Heavy Water True Axis was instantly stopped cold in its tracks, and all of the water blades on its surface were shattered upon making contact with the azure thread.
The azure-armored giant took advantage of this opportunity to rush back in retreat, but before it could do so, Han Li abruptly switched to a different hand seal, and numerous black runes appeared on the surface of the Heavy Water True Axis to destroy the azure thread, but were also destroyed themselves in the process.
Immediately thereafter, the axis resumed slicing up the azure-armored giant's arm, managing to slice its arm off cleanly at the shoulder before it was able to get away. The axis then continued to revolve relentlessly, shredding the severed arm into balls of azure light.
The azure-armored giant came to a rest in the distance, then turned to look at its missing arm with slightly furrowed brows.
"Looks like I may have underestimated you earlier."
The azure-armored giant took a glance at Han Li, and it was clear that it was still furious, but it was also clearly far calmer than before.
A layer of azure light appeared at the spot where its arm had been severed, and the azure light that the severed arm had disintegrated into instantly surged back into giant's shoulder, where a new arm emerged, except the azure patterns on this one were dimmer than before.
Han Li made a beckoning motion to draw his Heavy Water True Axis back to him, and his face had turned very pale. It appeared as if he had exerted himself quite severely, and he flipped a hand over to produce an Immortal Origin Stone to replenish his immortal spiritual power.
Using the Heavy Water True Axis had been quite taxing on his immortal spiritual power, but not to such a severe extent. However, he didn't want to make himself appear excessively powerful in the face of Qilin 9 and Qilin 17.
Qilin was put slightly at ease by the sight of Han Li's labored display.
Han Li's Heavy Water Tru Axis had been astonishingly powerful, but it was clear that using it had also severely depleted Han Li's immortal spiritual power reserves, and that was quite reassuring to Qilin 9.
As for Qilin 17, he wasn't paying much attention to Han Li. Instead, he was making a string of hand seals in an attempt to recover the giant yellow seal that was still locked firmly in the grip of the azure-armored giant's other hand.
Yellow light was flashing urgently from the seal, but no matter how much it struggled, it was unable to break free.
After taking a moment to compose himself, Qilin 9 turned to the azure-armored giant and said, "May I ask which Golden Immortal Stage senior of the Northern Glacial Immortal Region you are? We only came here to carry out a mission, and we have no intention of making an enemy out of the Northern Glacial Immortal Region. Could it be that there's been some type of misunderstanding?"
From the series of clashes that had just taken place, he was able to determine that even though the azure-armored giant was a Golden Immortal avatar, it didn't possess the power of a Golden Immortal. Instead, at the very most, it was only at the pinnacle of the True Immortal Stage. Otherwise, the three of them wouldn't have had any chances.
The azure-armored giant offered no response as it opened its mouth to release a ball of azure light that contained countless dancing azure runes, and the ball of light instantly vanished into the giant yellow seal in its grasp.
Light flashed erratically on the surface of the sea, and it was instantly enveloped in a layer of faint azure light.
Qilin 17's expression changed drastically as he discovered that his mark in the seal had been erased. His spiritual connection with the seal had instantly vanished, meaning that the treasure no longer belonged to him.
"How dare you!"
Qilin 17 was furious, and he immediately pounced forward.
The seal was an extremely important treasure to him that was virtually equivalent to his bonded treasure, and having it taken away was no less severe a loss than having an arm severed.
Qilin 9 wanted to stop him, but it was already too late.
Qilin 17 swept a sleeve through the air to release five yellow beads, which transformed into five earthy yellow mountains in the blink of an eye, each of which was around 1,000 feet in size.
The five mountains then instantly fused into a single giant mountain that was over 10,000 feet tall, and it was giving off dazzling yellow radiance while countless yellow runes had appeared on its surface.
A burst of extremely heavy law fluctuations erupted out of the enormous mountain, and everything with a radius of several hundred kilometers instantly became countless times heavier than before.
He's mastered the laws of gravity!
Han Li's body also sank downward, but this amount of gravitational force was simple for him to withstand, and he immediately recovered as a layer of azure light flashed over his body.
The light radiating from the giant mountain grew even brighter as it came crashing down upon the azure-armored giant while releasing an incredibly destructive aura.
Han Li and Qilin 9 exchanged a glance before pouncing forward in unison.
Just like before, the two of them split up to flank the azure-armored giant from either side, and the Heavy Water True Axis and the golden millstone were giving off dazzling light as they hurtled toward the azure-armored giant.
At this point, negotiation was clearly no longer an option, so all they could do was fight.