Under Han Li's breath-held gaze, the giant mantis flew several circuits within a radius of several li, then suddenly shot straight toward Han Li's hiding spot.
Han Li's face instantly turned ashen!
With a cold expression, he tightly gripped the "Blood Spirit Drill" in his hand and began to channel spiritual power into it, causing the object to grow faintly warm.
Watching the demon beast about to fly down with a blank expression, Han Li had decided to wait until it was closer before launching his weapon. Only by doing this would he have a greater chance of injuring or killing it.
Of course, the consequences of this approach would be far more dangerous, but the current Han Li had no other choice.
Fifty zhang, forty zhang, thirty zhang...
Han Li's heart pounded furiously. He took a deep breath, ready to flick his wrist and unleash the Blood Spirit Drill.
But a scene that left Han Li stunned unfolded before him.
When the mantis demon beast was about twenty zhang above his head, it suddenly circled and changed direction, diving obliquely toward another spot not far from Han Li. After a couple of miserable beast roars, the giant mantis flew up again from the woods, its front limbs clamping a massive wild boar, and flew away without hesitation along the path it had come from.
Only after the demon beast's figure gradually vanished from sight did Han Li let out a long sigh, sitting down on the ground without a care for a cultivator's dignity.
That situation had truly been a near miss!
If he hadn't planned to attack at close range, he might have ended up like that wild boar—prey in the beast's belly.
His survival this time was purely a stroke of incredible luck!
Han Li silently congratulated himself, feeling for the first time that his luck truly wasn't bad.
After calming his nerves, Han Li thought of the culprit behind all this—the Spirit Command Sect cultivator who had seized Qu Hun's body—and his anger flared up!
Obviously, the supposed message slip in the cave had been a trap set by that person.
No matter how careful he had been, he still couldn't outmatch the other's cunning, and had been thoroughly set up, nearly losing his life.
"Good, very good! Now that I'm alive, you'll get what's coming to you!" Han Li muttered grimly as he rested, his voice filled with resentment.
In his mind, that "Qu Hun" had been hit with three "Soul-Stabilizing Talismans" in a row—it was impossible for them to break free with their cultivation. Once he returned, he would easily take their life.
The moment he felt his strength and spiritual power had recovered, Han Li immediately mounted his flying sword and flew back in the same direction.
However, this time he didn't dare fly high and openly. Instead, he flew cautiously at a low altitude, only a dozen zhang above the ground, afraid of attracting that demon beast's attention again.
On the way back, the cold night breeze blew against Han Li, dousing most of his raging anger and clearing his mind considerably. He began to reexamine his past interactions with "Qu Hun."
Thinking briefly about the Spirit Command Sect cultivator's previous words and actions, and the terrifying mantis demon beast, he began to doubt their original identity as a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
A demon beast this powerful appearing less than a hundred li from Jiayuan City couldn't possibly be wild.
Considering their identity as a Spirit Command Sect cultivator, this giant mantis was almost certainly a spirit beast they had raised.
Such a terrifying spirit beast—Han Li could hardly imagine it being something a Foundation Establishment cultivator could tame. In his view, this mantis spirit beast could easily take on three or four late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators on its own. It was ridiculously powerful.
"Could it be that this 'Qu Hun's' original identity wasn't just a Foundation Establishment cultivator, but a Core Formation..." He couldn't help but speculate.
Han Li was startled by his own guess!
Seeing the small hill ahead, he halted his advance and hovered in the low sky, lost in thought.
How could a Core Formation cultivator end up with their body destroyed and their Primordial Spirit fleeing? They would know that even if they couldn't win against a fellow Core Formation cultivator, they should still be able to escape—unless they ran into a Nascent Soul monster from the Yue Kingdom?
But the Nascent Soul cultivators of the Seven Sects had long since stopped meddling in worldly affairs, and it seemed two or three weren't even in the Yue Kingdom anymore. Han Li hadn't even heard of any Nascent Soul cultivators taking action during the recent clashes between the Demonic Sects and the Seven Sects.
This made it hard for him to imagine what kind of earth-shattering, cataclysmic battles these individuals would engage in.