Leaving thunder in his wake, Han Li flickered over sixty meters away.

When he reappeared, he looked in the direction of the dazzling eruptions with a solemn expression.

With his Brightsight Spirit Eyes, he was able to clearly see what was happening through the blinding display..

The Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords should’ve been incredibly sharp considering they were tempered with Auric Essence, but when they struck the Silver-winged Nightfiend’s golden barrier, they were easily repelled. It almost felt as if the swords were being deflected before they could even strike.

As for the python formed from Divine Devilbane Lightning, it simply shook the barrier with its attacks, but it didn’t appear to cause any damage.

The purple flames on the other hand...

With a cold glint flas.h.i.+ng from his eye, he saw that a huge chunk of faintly purple ice had covered the golden light barrier and was slowly freezing it over.

The Silver-winged Nightfiend was still safe within the light barrier, but there was clear astonishment on his face. He hadn’t expected the purple flames to be this potent.

But since the ice was freezing the barrier rather than himself, it was an easy matter to escape it.

The Silver-winged Nightfiend pressed his hands against the golden barrier and had it s.h.i.+ne with countless rays before creating a slender hole in the ice.

The entirety of the purple ice then slowly began to break apart.

Han Li’s heart trembled. With a wave of his hand, he had all of his flying swords return to revolve around him.

Soon, the nightfiend blurred and reappeared outside the scope of the purple ice.

He looked at Han Li with a gaze that could almost kill and raised his hand, summoning a ball of gold in a flash.

Han Li then finally spoke, “I am now certain that apart from earth and wind movement, you are also capable of metal-attribute techniques. Spa.r.s.ely few cultivators are capable of them. Legend has it that Gold-clad Lunar Corpses are the only refined corpses capable of these techniques. Could it be you’ve already begun to evolve?”

With that said, Han Li took a long gaze at the faintly golden scales on the nightfiend’s body.

The nightfiend was somewhat surprised by Han Li’s question, but he soon snorted and maliciously grinned, “I begun my evolution ten thousand years ago. If all of you had fought me together at the start, you might’ve had a chance. But now you are alone, a single tree standing against a storm.”

The Silver-winged Nightfiend lightly waved his wings and were shed of their disguise, revealing a faintly golden color. An astonis.h.i.+ng heavenly Qi then erupted, shaking even the light barrier that trapped them.

Han Li narrowed his eyes at the sensation. This spiritual Qi was even stronger than what he experienced from late-Nascent Soul cultivators. Even the three grand cultivators of the Heavenly South couldn't compare. The only ones close to this pressure would be the two Elder Devils he encountered in Devilfall Valley.

Inwardly shocked, Han Li maintained a calm expression and probingly said, “Even if you’ve begun to evolve, you are trapped in this skyless place. No matter how long you cultivate, your evolution will not be completed without Moon Yin Essence. At most, you can only display a superficial level of metal-attribute techniques. Unless you encounter magic tools and treasures refined with metal-attributed materials, you won’t be able to employ them.”

With that said, Han Li thought of the black-robed woman’s s.h.i.+eld and his own flying swords. He felt that this would be quite troublesome as magic tools and treasures of this age would almost always be refined with some sort of metal.

“Hehe, is that so? I’ll have to properly educate you on the matter...”

The Silver-winged Nightfiend brought the conversation to a close and held out his hand, summoning a ball of blinding golden light. Then, he raised his other hand into the air and released beams of grey light to the dried corpses chained to the stone pillars.

In the blink of an eye, the beams entered the many corpses without a trace.

Han Li wasn't able to stop this and his heart sank, knowing that matters were far from good.

The chains all fell to the ground with reverberating clings. The freed dried corpses all opened their dark green eyes before taking several unsteady steps towards Han Li.

When the corpses came to a stop, they all stared at Han Li without emotion.

Standing in place with arrogant bearing, the nightfiend imposingly said, “These incarnations were refined with Baleful Corpse Qi. You have no chance of winning. If you obediently hand over your life, I might spare you the pain of having your soul refined!”

Han Li looked at the dried corpses all around him in silence before eventually letting out a long sigh.

“I truly didn’t expect that there would be an opportunity to use this treasure. I don’t know if you are just unlucky, or if I am!” With that muttered, Han Li slapped a particularly exquisite storage pouch that hung from his waist. Wind blew, followed by a fist-sized ball of light flying around him before falling into his hand.

The Triflame Fan was made of feathers, several inches large, and colored gold, silver, and red. Talisman markings and spirit patterns densely covered its surface in multiple layers, resulting in intermittent fluctuations in the color of its spiritual aura. Whenever multiples of these many markings appeared simultaneously, it made for an entrancing sight.

At that moment, the Silver-winged Nightfiend had already finished casting his technique and rushed to be the first to attack.

With a shout, he launched the ball of light from his hand into the air.

As it spun, it released golden rays in every direction.

When these rays of light emerged, they immediately took the form of needles, circling once around the ball before rus.h.i.+ng towards the crown of Han Li’s head.

Golden light filled the air and struck down at Han Li like falling rain. However, Han Li made no attempt to dodge.

As for the dried corpses, they simultaneously raised their hands and gathered together countless Ghostfiend Threads, weaving together near the ground.

In the blink of an eye, a huge net suddenly appeared below him and moved to trap him.

Such a large net contained an astonis.h.i.+ng amount of baleful Qi. Ordinary cultivators would lose control of their magic power and bodies from the sheer proximity to such great baleful Qi. But since Han Li’s body was previously afflicted with baleful Qi and tempered with the Bright Jade Arts, it hadn’t affected him in the slightest.

Regardless, the net closed on him with such great momentum that even Han Li was surprised.

Then, his expression turned grim and he clasped his hands together, expanding the Triflame Fan to the size of a meter in a flash.

Holding the fan with a single hand, Han Li concentrated the entirety of his body’s magic power into it and firmly waved it.

What followed left him in complete astonishment. He sensed the fan absorb most of his body’s magic power in an instant, nearly causing him to throw it away in fear.

Fortunately, the fan eventually ceased absorbing his magic power and let out a phoenix’s cry. The fan trembled and a tri-colored flame surged out, condensing into a meter-wide phoenix with feathers of gold, silver, and red.

This strange scene left Han Li at a loss. He originally thought to wave the fan once more at the golden needles, but his current magic power was quite lacking. Instead, his flying swords flared with golden light and quickly fluttered in the air, creating the image of a blooming lotus around him.

Not stopping there, he spat a mouthful of blood essence on the Snow Crystal Pearl above him. It violently trembled before releasing a deep purple flame.

Under the control of a spell seal, the deep flames nimbly formed a circle around him, crackling as temperatures suddenly dropped.

The flames dispersed to suddenly form a thirty-meter-tall wall of ice. It glowed with purple light and surrounded him.

At that moment, the countless golden needles struck the ice wall.

Upon impact, gold and purple light flared together with each impact letting out a clear ring. Specks of golden light lit the wall and holes that were several inches deep riddled it, but continued to hold firm against the repeated waves of a.s.sault.

While the wall was only three-meters-thick, the damage had already shredded a foot, much to Han Li’s concern.

Although Han Li didn’t know it, the nightfiend was quite astonished as well.

Although his golden needles were refined with metal-attribute spiritual Qi, they weren’t created from replenishable materials. They were slowly refined from a chunk of unknown metal he had found long ago.

After being tempered for several thousands of years in corpse flames, their might was quite significant. They were much more penetrating than other needle-type magic treasures.

Now that his overwhelming attack was being effectively resisted, he was dumbstruck. Not long ago, he had managed to break a piece of purple ice with his golden light.

Of course, the Silver-winged Nightfiend couldn't have known that the flames Han Li had summoned with his blood essence weren’t ordinary Purple Apex Flames. Rather, it was a thread of ice flame essence he had purified with the a.s.sistance of the Snow Crystal Pearl after he took the Snow Soul Pills. 

As the coldness of these flames couldn't be compared to his ‘ordinary’ Purple Apex Flames, they also required significant magic power to control, but under the circ.u.mstances, Han Li had to resort to blood essence.

Then, the tri-colored phoenix struck the huge grey net underneath him.

The huge net flashed and released a myriad of grey threads of capture the phoenix, instantly covering it from view in a dense volley.

Upon seeing the incoming attack, the phoenix let out a melodic cry and circled once in the air, leaving mysterious halos of light around it. Then, tri-colored light continuously glowed from within the halos, bursting with profound colorful talisman characters in a gorgeous display.

When the Ghostfiend threads entered the halos, an inconceivable event resulted!