Han Li was furious!
Not because he'd gone soft and intervened to save Senior Brother Wang, forcing him to use the Gauze Mist Footwork and fight the enemy head-on — but because Liu Jing and the others were wasting precious time instead of seizing the opportunity to eliminate the other Blood Servants still mid-transformation. Once all three of them completed the shift, that would be when things truly spiraled out of control.
Moments ago, he'd spotted Senior Brother Wang about to fall victim to the Ice Demon's killing blow. Considering how the man had lent a hand during the fight against Qing Wen, Han Li had blinked over and snatched him to safety in the nick of time.
After that, the demon apparently decided Han Li had ruined his plans and latched onto him relentlessly, forcing Han Li to keep defending himself. But before long, Han Li had to admit the Ice Demon was genuinely dangerous to the other sect members — better to finish him off personally. After all, if any more of their own fell in battle, they'd be dangerously short-handed for the fight ahead.
He'd pinned the demon down, but to his exasperation, everyone else just stood there watching his duel instead of attacking the three remaining cocoons. What a colossal waste of an opening!
Still, he could more or less guess why they hesitated. It wasn't that they didn't know they should act — it was the Ice Demon's eerie invisibility and the death it had already claimed that scared them. The prospect of facing other semi-demonic Blood Servants had them frozen with dread. So even though they knew fully transformed Blood Servants would be far worse, they lingered in uncertainty, possibly already entertaining thoughts of retreat.
But Han Li hadn't come here merely to purge the Black Fiend Cult. He had his own objective, and he wasn't about to retreat so easily. Moreover, this semi-demonic Ice Demon, dangerous as it was the moment it burst free, wasn't all that terrifying if you were careful. In Han Li's eyes, this creature wasn't even as formidable as the bald giant from earlier — the one he'd found harder to deal with.
All this demon could really do was turn his body transparent, move at extreme speed, and manipulate threads of cold energy. Even the so-called invisibility was nothing more than an optical illusion born of sheer velocity — the same principle behind Han Li's own Gauze Mist Footwork. The only difference was that the demon's translucent body made him even harder to track.
But this ghostly movement style was only effective on the ground. Once everyone took to the air and created distance, deploying wide-area techniques, they could force him to reveal himself. After all, physical-body speed could dominate in close quarters, but over any real distance, a cultivator riding a flying artifact would outpace it every time.
Liu Jing and the others had simply never experienced this kind of close-range, blade-to-blade melee combat. To them, the demon seemed utterly spectral — impossible to fight. But Han Li had extensive experience fighting this way and knew exactly how to handle it.
With that thought, Han Li swung his silver sword to bash aside the demon's claws, suddenly materialized, and called out loudly: "Senior Brother Liu, fly up into the air right now and keep attacking the three Blood Servants! I won't let this demon get away to harass you!" Having said this, Han Li's figure flickered and vanished once more. In truth, the silver sword in his hand moved so fast it was invisible, pressing the Ice Demon back step after step with no chance whatsoever to take to the sky.
The silver sword Han Li wielded was a spoil from the Blood Color Trial — tough enough to clash directly with the demon's claws without a scratch. But equally, the blade couldn't cut through those icy claws either, which secretly amazed Han Li.
Liu Jing heard Han Li's words and, after a brief moment's thought, understood the plan. Yet a look of hesitation crossed his face. His mind was in turmoil.
Though Liu Jing came from a prominent cultivation family, he had been abducted by a sinister cultivator as a young boy and endured a dark period of torment and abuse that nearly cost him his life. He was eventually rescued by his family and taken in as a disciple of Li Huayuan, where he honed his skills to a formidable level.
But the shadow of those childhood horrors never left him. Liu Jing harbored an implacable hatred for sinister cultivators, adhering to a ruthless principle of killing every single one he encountered and never sparing anyone who practiced dark and twisted arts.
The result of this approach was deeply satisfying to him — and it also earned him enormous prestige. Even cultivators from the Seven Sects who outranked him in power would look at him with a measure of respect.
Outwardly, Liu Jing kept his composure, but inwardly he had grown gradually addicted to the feeling of being revered.
So much so that his later campaigns to root out sinister cultivators were, more than half the time, simply for the pleasure of basking in others' admiration!
Of course, Liu Jing carefully concealed this sentiment deep in his heart, maintaining his outward demeanor as the righteous, injustice-hating, iron-willed "Senior Brother Liu" everyone knew.
And the Black Fiend Cult before them was unquestionably the largest sinister organization he had ever encountered — the most deserving of annihilation. But at the same time, their strength was greater than any he had faced before. He simply had no confidence that ordinary magical artifacts alone could finish off the remaining three Blood Servants. A half-hearted assault would only trigger their semi-demonic transformation ahead of schedule.
If just one semi-demon was this hard to handle, what would happen when three more appeared? The few of them here wouldn't stand a chance — they'd likely lose their lives.
But if they retreated now, this mission would be nothing but a wasted provocation, a total failure. The Black Fiend Cult would vanish underground again, disappearing without a trace. All the reputation he had painstakingly built over the years would go down the drain.
The mere thought of the scornful looks others would cast his way made Liu Jing feel as though his chest was caving in — choking, suffocating despair.
Han Li's urging had pushed him right to the brink of decision.
"Senior Brother Liu, should we pull back first?" Senior Brother Wang — the one Han Li had rescued — sidled over with a hesitant expression and whispered. "The Black Fiend Cult's power is far beyond what we expected. If we don't leave now, it'll be too late." From the man's darting, evasive eyes, Liu Jing could clearly read the cowardice within.