Upon hearing this sharp howl, all of the demonic Qi that had been forced back into retreat immediately gathered together, converging to form balls of black Qi.
A series of pitch-black demon beasts and monsters appeared within the demonic Qi.
They were all snarling viciously and came in all shapes and sizes. The largest ones were over 300 feet in size, while the smallest ones were only several feet in size. However, all of them wore the same ferocious expression as they appraised Han Li, who was situated in the middle of the sea of fire.
Han Li's heart jolted upon seeing this.
He cast his gaze out into the distance to find that there were seemingly countless demonic beasts gathered amid the turbulent demonic Qi, stretching as far as the eyes could see.
A sharp howl erupted as these demon beast puppets came pouncing at him from all directions.
Han Li's eyelids twitched as he silently raised a hand, casting several azure Celestial Technique up toward the fire cauldron hovering above his head.
The cauldron tremored before radiating scintillating red light as the entire cauldron was enshrouded in crimson flames, transforming it into a massive fireball.
Countless bursts of scorching flames flew through the air from the cauldron, joining the sea of fire. The air temperature within the entire space was abruptly raised once again as the sea of fire surged forth with even greater ferocity. At the same time, fireballs that were roughly the size of human heads flew out from within the sea of fire.
There was a large Fire Raven encapsulated in each and every ball of fire and they borrowed on the power of the sea of flames to charge toward the surrounding demon beast puppets.
Crimson fireballs of different sizes began to explode within the extremely dense demon beast puppet army. Over 1,000 Fire Ravens danced violently through the air, clashing with the demon beasts around them.
Flames and demonic Qi surged as fiery light and black Qi intertwined with one another. Countless clashes took place in the blink of an eye and an impasse ensued.
It was a rather peculiar situation as the demon beasts were able to materialize their bodies over and over again after being vanquished by the Fire Ravens, while the Fire Ravens were able to be reborn from the sea of fire after being destroyed. It was as if there were no end to either of the two armies.
A frosty harrumph sounded from within the demonic Qi. The sound of chanting then rang out from all directions and it was none other than Old Devil Che's voice.
Han Li's eyes flashed and he suddenly looked upward, upon which his expression abruptly changed.
At the spot in the air where the vortex had originally been situated, demonic Qi began to tumble violently as a massive paw slowly extended from within the demonic Qi.
The paw was pitch-black and reflected an oily sheen. It was around 300 to 400 feet in size and attached to it were five sharp claws, all of which were several tens of feet in length. They were shimmering with a cold sinister light, presenting a very intimidating spectacle to behold.
Even though the massive paw was yet to descend, Han Li was still struck by a powerful sense of pressure and oppression, as if there were nowhere for him to run.
The chanting came to a halt and the massive paw came crashing downward.
A gust of demonic wind was swept up, howling through the air like a hurricane and causing the sea of fire around Han Li to waver and flicker erratically.
Even the massive monk staff was disproportionally tiny in the face of this black demonic paw!
An earthshattering boom erupted as the massive staff clashed with the demonic paw. It wa as if the monk staff had struck a gargantuan fortress constructed from steel essence, and it was only able to slow down the demonic paw for a split second before it was sent flying.
The colossal demonic paw then came crashing down toward Han Li.
Han Li pursed his lips and the 36 golden flying swords around him emitted a ringing sound in unison, before converging above his head at his behest.
Brilliant golden light erupted as the flying swords instantly combined to form a massive golden sword that was 50 to 60 feet in length.
The sound of thunderclaps then rang out once again as a series of thick golden lightning arcs erupted from the surface of the massive sword. The lightning arcs converged to form a dazzling streak of golden light, which hurtled directly toward the descending paw.
The huge sword had been materialized from 36 Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords and with the violent injection of magic power from Han Li, it was able to destroy virtually anything and everything. Golden light flashed and the gargantuan paw was forcibly sliced in half.
A muffled groan sounded from within demonic Qi, seemingly indicating that Old Devil Che had sustained some type of injury from that clash. The two halves of the demonic paw dissipated in the wind and disappeared as balls of demonic Qi.
Upon hearing the muffled groan, blue light abruptly flashed through Han Li's eyes as he stabbed a finger toward the golden streak of light in the sky. The golden light immediately circled around at his behest, transforming into a golden serpent as it bit down on a certain spot in the air.
A loud thump erupted as a ball of piercing black light erupted at that location without any premonition. An inky-black shield then appeared, which the golden serpent was unable to bite through.
Right at this moment, black light flashed from behind the shield as a short figure appeared.
This figure was a small child with three small braids on his head pointing up at the sky and an unidentifiable silver lock hanging in front of his chest. This was the form that Old Devil Che had taken outside the city of ice.
The small child was currently standing behind the black shielding, looking on with a hint of surprise as the golden serpent continued to tear viciously at the shield.
"Auric essence! To think that you added such a rare material into your flying swords; no wonder you were able to break through my Heavenly Demon Paw!"
The small child reverted back to his normal calm expression as he turned to appraise Han Li.
Han Li completely ignored what the small child was saying, and murmured to himself, "Looks like I was right as well; this really isn't your actual body!"
The small child was furious at Han Li's display of arrogance, and he was so enraged that he burst into laughter.
He then abruptly feigned a grabbing motion and black light flashed in his hand, upon which a murky grey flag appeared in his grasp.
"Hehe! I only displayed 20% of the Myriad Demon Flag's power just then, yet you're arrogant enough to think that you've got the better of me. I'm going to destroy your body and soul with this next attack and show you the true might of the Myriad Demon Flag!"
At the conclusion of his sentence, Old Devil Che unfurled the small flag in his hand seemingly preparing to unleash some type of powerful attack.
A focused expression appeared on Han Li's face as he suddenly pointed a finger at the sea of fire.
All of a sudden, several tens of Fire Ravens shot forth from within the sea of fire, flying directly toward the small child.
The huge golden sword also emitted a long cry as he activated his swords arts, and it tremored before splitting back up into 36 golden flying swords.
Each and every one of the swords was around a foot in length and they were all emanating dazzling golden light. The swords then replicated in the hundreds amid a ringing sound, before circling through the air and flying toward the small child in a wild frenzy.
The child pursed his lips and set aside his flag for now as he pointed a finger toward the small black shield in front of him.
The shield trembled slightly before transforming into a misty barrier of light that encapsulated the small child within.
Golden and black spiritual light began to flicker wildly as countless swords came crashing into the light barrier. However, the sustained assault was only able to send ripples of black light flashing across the barrier, but was unable to even harm it in the slightest.
This unremarkable-looking black light barrier was like an indestructible fortress!
As for the several tens of Fire Ravens flying through the air, the small child completely ignored them and began to activate the small flag in his hand again.
Those Fire Ravens were manifested from fire essence, but they still weren't enough to pose a threat to the small child. In his eyes, his shield would be able to keep these Fire Ravens at bay.
Thus, the small grey flag was waved through the air, upon which the entire space tremored violently. Bursts of murky grey mist suddenly emerged from the demonic Qi around Han Li's sea of fire. This mist-like substance then began to exude a peculiar spatial fluctuation. Four black holes abruptly appeared in mid-air, each of which was around 10 feet in diameter, and it appeared as if something were going to emerge from within.
However, Han Li completely ignored those black holes as a loud thunderclap erupted from behind him. Just as the Fire Ravens were about to reach the black light barrier, silvery-white wings surfaced on his back and his entire body disappeared amid a flash of silver light.
Almost at the exact same moment, the crimson flames gushing out from the beaks of the Fire Ravens struck the black light barrier, where they exploded into scorching balls of fire. All of the golden swords were also crashing into the black light barrier over and over again, but it was just as the small child had anticipated; the black light barrier was able to withstand all of these attacks with ease!
The small child looked on as Han Li disappeared from within the sea of fire and his expression changed slightly, but a cold smile then appeared on his face as his chanting faltered momentarily. He flipped over his other little hand and a length of black rope appeared. He whipped the rope through the air and it shot forth like a snake before manifesting seven or eight more ropes, all of which wound themselves around a certain spot in the air that was around 50 to 60 feet away from the small child.
In the next instant, a silver arc of light flashed as Han Li's body emerged amid a clap of thunder, right at the spot that the black ropes were binding around.
Before he even had a chance to react, a peculiar light flashed from the ropes as they abruptly contracted to completely immobilize him.
A sinister smile appeared on the small child's face as he opened his mouth, within which a black light was flashing. He seemed to be waiting for Han Li to be bound by the ropes before blasting some sort of treasure out of his mouth to attack him.
This development was something that Han Li didn't anticipate. Never would he have thought that his opponent would have such a mysterious treasure that would be able to predict the exact location he would appear at after using his lightning movement technique. Thus, his expression changed drastically as he let loose a low roar before making a hand seal.
Brilliant green light erupted from his body, clashing with the black ropes. Immediately thereafter, Han Li's body disappeared again, leaving only an azure talisman bound within the ropes. Han Li's body then surfaced over 100 feet away and his face was a little pale, seemingly from overexertion.
In that perilous situation, Han Li had expended a vast amount of magic power to use the Spiritform Talisman that he was still yet to refine, thereby using it as a body double to help him dodge that bullet.
The azure talisman wavered within the ensnarement of the ropes before dissipating into specks of azure light. Those specks of light shot forth toward Han Li and disappeared into his body in the blink of an eye.
The small child's expression became a little strained upon seeing that. The black light in his mouth flashed a couple of time, but he still harrumphed coldly before slowly closing his mouth in the end.
Right at this moment, several tens of feet away from the black light barrier in a certain direction, silver light flashed and an azure humanoid figure emerged. It was none other than the humanoid puppet, and it had managed to approach the small child without him noticing.
It raised its hands and the red bow appeared. Dazzling red light erupted, following which countless fiery arrows shot forth from an extremely close range.
At the same time, an inky-black dagger appeared above the small child's head. It was intermingled within the countless streaks of crimson flames and came stabbing downward viciously and silently.
Even though this wasn't Old Devil Che's true body, from a spiritual sense perspective alone, this demon was far superior to the old man that had been transformed from the Azureback Wolf. In the face of this abrupt turn of events, the small child was startled, but he immediately identified the black dagger above his head as the lethal threat. As such, his hand flew up at an incredible speed before slamming into the shield in front of him.
He then raised his head and opened his mouth again, upon which a coin-like treasure was sent flying upward amid a burst of black Qi.