Suddenly, the youth flipped his ghostly claw, and a flash of green light erupted. An identical beam of green light shot out, striking the incoming green rainbow head-on.
Instantly, a tremendous crash of thunder erupted!
Black and golden lightning arcs exploded outward, intertwining and crashing into one another, coalescing into a massive sphere of thunder that refused to yield. The deafening cracks shook the entire hall until it hummed violently, the display of power truly terrifying.
Han Li's pupils contracted sharply!
"Heavenly Lightning Bamboo!" The other party actually possessed a treasure refined from Heavenly Lightning Bamboo as well. His heart lurched with shock.
Could it be...
Han Li seemed to recall something, and narrowed his eyes to scrutinize the green light the youth had launched.
Amid the blinding arcs of lightning, a green arrow roughly a foot long was locked in furious combat with the colossal sword formed by his seven Azure Bamboo Bee Cloud Swords. It showed no sign of backing down.
The lightning arcs it discharged were fundamentally different from those on his great sword. Not only was the golden hue nearly absent, but they were laced with a thick, dark-black energy, as though the arrow had been refined through some sinister art.
Even so, these dark lightning arcs possessed extraordinary power, and amid their entanglement with the golden lightning, they actually gained the upper hand.
Seeing this, Han Li let out a soft sigh of relief.
He hadn't expected his earlier suspicions to be true.
The moment he had seen the arrow lodged in the white skull, he had felt an aura that seemed familiar—remarkably similar to his own Gold Lightning Bamboo, cultivated to full maturity. But its slightly darkened color and the occasional wisps of sinister energy leaking from it had made him hesitate.
After all, as far as he knew, Gold Lightning Bamboo had only appeared once in the Scattered Star Seas before vanishing for untold years. What were the chances of running into it here? He had found it almost impossible to believe.
But now it seemed the arrow that had once ambushed his opponent was not only made of Gold Lightning Bamboo—the old ghost had actually refined it into a treasure of his own. The irony was truly exquisite!
A faint smirk played at the corner of Han Li's lips, tinged with undisguised mockery.
But then a thought struck him—what if, back when he had been examining the white skeleton, the old ghost had suddenly sent the arrow flying at him from such close range? He would have been dead for certain!
Once this thought took hold, his unease only deepened. Cold sweat seeped down his back as he shuddered with lingering fear.
As for his Azure Bamboo Bee Cloud Swords being unable to overpower the arrow, that was hardly surprising. These flying swords had been tempered for far too short a time. They relied entirely on the inherent power of the Gold Lightning Bamboo to fight, which naturally fell far short of a fully refined treasure. Had the seven swords been tempered for even a bit longer, they would have been more than a match for a single Gold Lightning Bamboo treasure like this.
But now that the probe was complete and the other party clearly had a way to counter the "Evil-Averting Divine Thunder" of the Gold Lightning Bamboo, Han Li had no desire to fight to the bitter end. After all, from the initial green shadow to this transformed youth, he had never been able to gauge the other's true level of cultivation. Furthermore, this person was cunning beyond measure, and his arsenal of sinister and demonic techniques was bizarre and vicious, impossible to guard against. Even with his trump card of over a hundred thousand Gold Devouring Beetles, Han Li had no certainty of victory.
He figured the other party's sudden proposal to cease hostilities likely stemmed from the same wariness—after seeing Han Li's formidable treasures and unusual techniques, the old ghost had grown wary as well.
With this thought, Han Li silently waved his hand toward the great sword.
With a thunderous boom, the massive sword split apart, reverting to seven small swords that streaked back to Han Li.
The youth's eyes flashed with a cold gleam, but after a brief hesitation, he chose not to let the arrow pursue. Instead, he recalled his treasure as well.
"If you truly are Patriarch Extreme Yin's master, then your age must be approaching a thousand years!" Han Li asked coolly after retrieving his flying swords, his tone suggesting he didn't quite believe it.
"Before I cultivated the Mystic Soul Demon Refinement Technique, I had already lived over six hundred years. After transforming into a Mystic Soul body, I can't say exactly how many years have passed—but at least four or five hundred more. That much is certain. I have only this to thank for: I dissipated my Nascent Soul and cultivated this Mystic Soul body instead. Otherwise, even had my physical body remained intact, I would have long since perished." The youth lowered his gaze to his hands, which had returned to their normal state, and spoke with deliberate indifference.
Han Li listened in silence, at a loss for words.
If what the other said was true, then this person really was a "thousand-year-old ghost"!
At the same time, Han Li couldn't help feeling a spark of interest in the Mystic Soul Demon Refinement Technique. If it could allow one's lifespan to exceed the limits of an ordinary cultivator, the temptation was undeniable.
So Han Li softened his tone and said: "In that case, I really should be calling you 'Senior,' shouldn't I?"