The humanoid figure was an azure-robed young man with a pair of translucent wings on his back. His facial features were quite ordinary, but he wore an enraged look on his face.
The scholarly man swept his spiritual sense toward him, and he faltered momentarily before an elated look appeared on his face. He hurriedly yelled, "Be careful, Senior; that Stone Origin Turtle down below has already attained intelligence and is extremely fearsome!"
"Stone Origin Turtle?"
Only after hearing this did the young man seem to notice that there were beings below him, and he cast his gaze downward before immediately burst into laughter. "The four of you are humans! That must mean Deep Heaven City isn't far away from here, right?"
The young man didn't even bother to take a second glance at the giant turtle, and the ancient beast seemed to have also sensed that this man was quite a formidable being. It possessed quite a high level of intelligence, and it currently wore a hesitant look on its face, not daring to unleash any reckless attacks.
"This place is still some distance away from Deep Heaven City; if you don't mind, the four of us would be more than willing to act as your guides, Senior." The crimson-armored man had also discovered that the young man's cultivation base was completely unfathomable to his spiritual sense, and he was also immediately latched onto Han Li like a life raft.
The scholarly man and the two women eagerly agreed to this arrangement as well.
"I guess it can't hurt to have someone lead the way. However, you'll have to wait for a bit. This Stone Origin Turtle seems to be decently powerful; let me secure its inner core before we set off!" The young man turned to the ancient beast down below with a faint smile on his face.
The Stone Origin Turtle had no idea what they were saying, but it was immediately struck by a chilling sensation at the sight of the young man's menacing gaze. It immediately let loose a low roar and opened its mouth to blast forth a thick pillar of blue light. At the same time, the dozen or so tentacles lashed out in unison, sweeping toward the young man as countless black shadows.
The ancient beast had been struck by the feeling that its life was under severe threat, and it immediately went berserk.
The four human cultivators were quite alarmed by the giant turtle's violent outburst, and they hurriedly activated their treasures to form protective light barriers before quickly backing away.
However, the young man merely smiled at the sight of the rampaging giant turtle. He raised a sleeve, and a grey light barrier instantly appeared in front of him.
The blue pillar of light struck the light barrier, and the former instantly vanished into nothingness amid a flash of light.
The devastating attack had fizzled out like a candle in the wind!
The young man also remained completely unflustered at the sight of the giant tentacle net that came crashing down toward him. All of a sudden, he flapped his wings, and a loud thunderclap rang out as countless arcs of azure and white lightning appeared over his wings before erupting into the air in a frenzy.
At the same time, he extended an inky-black hand out of his sleeve before making a grabbing motion toward the giant net.
An astonishing scene then ensued.
In the instant that he made the grabbing motion, all of the arcs of azure and white lightning converged to a single spot, instantly forming a huge azure and white hand that was around 10 feet in size. The hand was completely comprised of thick bolts of lightning, and all of the tentacles that came into contact with it were torn apart as if they were mere papier-mâché structures.
In the next instant, a huge bolt of lightning appeared above the giant turtle before transforming into a massive palm again. The gargantuan hand swooped down at an alarming speed, and the giant turtle didn't even have a chance to react before the protective azure spiritual light around it was dispelled, and the hand locked itself tightly around the ancient beast's body.
A rumbling thunderclap erupted, and countless arcs of azure and white lightning appeared.
The arcs of lightning were clearly imbued with extremely devastating power as the Stone Origin Turtle's body was reduced to ashes after just a few flashes, and it didn't even get a chance to cry out prior to its demise.
After the lightning in the air vanished, only an egg-sized demon core remained, hovering in mid-air in a stationary manner.
The young man made a grabbing motion, and the demon core was immediately drawn into his grasp. He casually inspected the demon core a few times before stowing it away amid a flash of spiritual light, then turned to face the four human cultivators. "Alright, we can set off now."
The four human cultivators had already been completely rooted to the spot.
They had experienced the powers of that Spatial Tempering Stage Stone Origin Turtle for themselves, and it had almost brought about their demise. However, this young man had slain the giant beast as if it were nothing more than an ant!
This was simply incredible! Could it be his cultivation base was far superior even to what they had imagined?
The scholarly man took a deep breath before hurriedly extending a deep respectful bow. "May I have the honor of knowing your name, Senior? Could it be that you're a Body Integration Stage cultivator?"
"Body Integration Stage? I'm not quite there yet. As for my name, my surname is Han," the young man replied in a calm manner.
This young man was naturally none other than Han Li.
Over 100 years had passed since he had teleported back to the Tian Yuan Continent. Back when he was teleported from the Thunder Continent, he had found himself in an extremely secluded part of the Tian Yuan continent. Aside from a few Heavenly Cloud beings who had been sent there to guard the teleportation formation, there were no other beings around.
After he displayed his identification jade slip to those Heavenly Cloud beings, he was able to depart without a hitch. However, even Han Li hadn't anticipated just how lengthy his journey back to the human race would prove to be.
With his current powers, even Body Integration Stage beings weren't all that formidable to him, but the Tian Yuan Continent was simply far too massive. On top of that, there were countless hazards that arose during his journey, and he also had to pass through the territories of some foreign races.
Even though Han Li had been extremely alert and cautious, he still almost perished on several occasions. There was one occasion where he had been chased for several months by multiple Body Integration Stage ancient beasts, and he had only managed to outlast them in a battle of stamina by relying on his abundant supply of spirit pills and spirit stones.
There was also one occasion where he had unwittingly stumbled into a glacial realm and was swept up by a type of strange glacial tide. On that occasion, if it hadn't been for his five-colored glacial flames' ability to absorb this strange glacial power, he would've remained there forever as an ice statue. Even so, it had still taken him around a year to escape from that perilous realm, but the one positive aspect to arise from that experience was that his five-colored glacial flames had evolved from the glacial power they had absorbed.
There was another occasion where he had encountered a group of high-grade foreign beings who thought he would be an easy target as he was traveling alone, and wanted to kill him for his treasures.
During the extremely intense battle that followed, he was forced to bring out even his Gold Devouring Beetles and Profound Heavenly blade segment, slaying eight Spatial Tempering Stage beings and severely wounding two Body Integration Stage beings. However, he had also been afflicted by an extremely troublesome type of poison and barely managed to escape with his life.
Following that battle, he was forced to go into seclusion in an obscure place for over 10 years before he cured himself of that poison and fully recovered.
After those experiences, he naturally became even more cautious, but much to his frustration, he was still regularly beset by perilous situations. He now finally understood why even Body Integration Stage beings were so averse to traveling across an entire continent.
Even with his powers, he had still almost perished on several occasions; a normal Body Integration Stage being would've most likely already died on the journey if they had been in his place.
This was why only the most powerful beings of all races, that couldn't improve any further with normal cultivation, would set off on journeys to explore entire continents. Only through such experiences could unfathomably powerful beings like them refine their mental state and secure an inkling of an opportunity for a breakthrough.
Similarly, even though Han Li had encountered so many ordeals along his journey, he had also reaped unimaginable benefits,
Setting aside all of the precious materials he had obtained from the depths of the primordial realm, just the cultivation arts and secret techniques he had learned in secret from the foreign races he had passed through had benefited him immensely.
In order to avoid being discovered by those foreign beings, he would always limit his activity to the outskirts of their territory and only enter the small cities that weren't guarded by any top-grade beings. In doing so, he was able to minimize the risk he was taking.
Even so, he wasn't always able to circumvent all risk entirely. As he was passing through a small city in the territory of the Ming Race, he encountered a foreign being who referred to himself as Lei Yunzi.
This was clearly only a mid-Spatial Tempering Stage being, but he was able to instantly see through Han Li's disguise, and thus, a fierce battle ensued between them.
Han Li had intended to kill Lei Yunzi in order to silence him, but much to his surprise, he was unable to do anything to this mere mid-Spatial Tempering Stage being.
This Lei Yunzi possessed the legendary Five Lightning Physique, which granted him the innate ability to control five completely different types of powers of lightning. Furthermore, he was also using a lightning cultivation art that had gone missing long ago, and this cultivation art allowed him to freely transition his body between a physical and lightning form at will. He was restricted by his cultivation base so he couldn't maintain the cultivation art for too long, but it was still enough for Han Li to be completely unable to do anything to him.
What was even more damning was that this Lei Yunzi was also a formation master of the Ming Race. He was able to integrate these skills with his lightning abilities to devise a unique lightning formation, which allowed him to transform the lightning within his body into any type of formation at will. These formations included trapping formations, as well as offensive and defensive formations, and their powers and versatility were truly astounding.
Of course, with Han Li's powers, Lei Yunzi also couldn't do anything to him either, and after battling for a month, the two of them eventually became friends of sorts.
Han Li was naturally extremely curious toward Lei Yunzi's lightning powers and lightning formations, while Lei Yunzi was very intrigued by Han Li's Divine Devilbane Lightning, as well as his lightning beads and lightning robe.
Thus, the two of them eventually negotiated a truce and began to exchange cultivation experiences.
As a result, Han Li learned a few very practical lightning formations, and Lei Yunzi also absorbed some Divine Devilbane Lightning from him.
Only then did the two of them part ways, having benefited mutually from one another.
However, either these lightning formations were extremely difficult to cultivate or Lei Yunzi had intentionally omitted some key details, but Han Li was never able to control them as he pleased. Furthermore, it was often the case that some minor issues would arise when he tried to use them, making him feel very frustrated.
After studying these formations in greater depth, Han Li was finally able to ascertain that it was most likely the case that Lei Yunzi had indeed omitted some key details. Han Li was naturally quite disgruntled by this, although he had also given Lei Yunzi a flawed version of the lightning symbol technique, so his success rate when attempting to manifest lightning beads would be less than 10%.