"It doesn't matter who I am. The real question is why you're being so stubborn? Hand over the Heart Trapping Technique restriction token, and we'll let you leave immediately. As for this so-called Blood Demon Sword, I don't know what it is, but it doesn't concern me in the slightest. I'd advise you not to place your hopes on it!" Han Li's unhurried voice echoed through the great hall.
"Doesn't concern you? Do you even know what the Blood Demon Sword is, to speak so brazenly? Fine — I'll kill you first, and Junior Sister Nangong will come to her senses." The cold-faced woman stared at Han Li, pressing her lips together as she spoke with vicious determination.
She then bit down hard on the tip of her tongue and spat a mouthful of vital blood onto the buzzing crimson short sword, her hands weaving a series of hand seals.
The sword, merely inches long, blazed with scarlet light, swelling to a full three feet in length. It glowed an eerie, baleful red, and the stench of blood it emitted was so overpowering it made one want to retch.
The cold-faced woman paid it no mind. Her slender hand reached out and grasped the sword's hilt. Then her entire body blazed with spiritual light as she poured all of her spiritual power into the blood sword.
"Not good — attack now! We absolutely cannot let her strike first!" Nangong Wan's face could no longer maintain its composure, and she cried out urgently to Han Li.
Nangong Wan knew all too well how terrifying the Blood Demon Sword was, and she naturally didn't believe Han Li's claim that it was nothing to worry about.
Disregarding the fact that the Reincarnation Divine Light she had been condensing wasn't yet fully formed, she jabbed a finger toward the massive halo of light hovering above her head.
The full-moon-like halo trembled, then began spinning rapidly. Moments later, an eerie, elongated beam of rainbow light shot out from within — brilliant and magnificent as an emerald arc across the heavens — and in the blink of an eye it was upon the cold-faced woman.
Seeing this, the cold-faced woman casually tossed the triangular banner she had produced earlier without so much as looking at it.
The moment the banner left her graceful hand, it transformed into a vast expanse of ghastly green mist that surged forward to meet the attack.
After a flash of radiance, the rainbow beam plunged into the green mist, and muffled booms erupted from within.
Like a flood dragon bursting from the water, the rainbow beam immediately gained the upper hand upon contact. It churned and twisted through the mist, struggling to break through in a single thrust. But the green mist clung to it like maggots to bone, layer upon layer wrapping around it under the cold-faced woman's spiritual sense command, and for a moment it couldn't break free.
At the sight of this, Nangong Wan's face changed drastically, while a flicker of joy crossed the cold-faced woman's features.
Then the woman swung the blood-colored sword horizontally, bringing it down in a devastating slash aimed at the space above Han Li's head, its weight as crushing as a thousand jin.
Violent spatial fluctuations suddenly erupted above Han Li's head, and a massive sword qi ten feet long materialized there.
The sword qi was crimson as blood, radiating an overwhelming aura of evil, and it descended without the slightest mercy.
On the other side, after delivering that single slash, the cold-faced woman appeared as though much of her vital energy had been drained — her face flushed red several times in rapid succession. With a flash of light in her hand, the blood sword shrank back to its original size and floated gently back into her grasp.
The sword qi had fallen only halfway when the ambient spiritual energy for miles around was sucked into it like ten thousand rivers pouring into the sea.
Han Li felt his entire body grow tight. His figure was instantly locked in place — not only could he not weave hand seals or cast techniques, he couldn't even move a single finger. All he could do was watch helplessly as the sword qi descended, unhurried, slicing steadily downward.
The stench of blood surged toward him.
Nangong Wan's face had gone white as snow, while a look of mockery flashed across the cold-faced woman's features.
Just as both of them believed Han Li was doomed this time, Han Li — staring fixedly at the descending crimson sword qi — took a deep breath.
Thunder boomed, golden light flashed wildly, and a layer of pale golden lightning arcs materialized across Han Li's entire body.
The cold-faced woman was stunned for a moment, and before she could react, the crimson sword qi had already plunged into the net of lightning.
A tremendous boom erupted as lightning and blood energy became tangled together.
The seemingly overwhelming sword qi, caught within the golden arcs' embrace, flickered wildly and thrashed in every direction — yet it couldn't cut through the deceptively slender arcs of lightning.
Instead, it was gradually enveloped layer by layer, like a great fish caught in a net, struggling desperately but unable to free itself.
The restriction binding Han Li's body vanished the instant the golden arcs of Evil-Warding Divine Lightning appeared.
He looked up at the clash between the sword qi and the golden net, a trace of surprise flickering across his face.
If his senses were correct, the golden net formed by the Evil-Warding Divine Lightning had trapped the crimson sword qi, but the lightning itself was being consumed at an alarming rate by the sword qi's struggles. Had he not released nearly a third of his stored lightning all at once, whether it could have contained this bizarre sword qi at all would have been very much in question.
An evil weapon of the demonic path that even the Evil-Warding Divine Lightning couldn't completely suppress — this was genuinely the first he had ever heard of.
Even so, if things continued like this, the crimson sword qi and the divine lightning above would likely end up destroying each other simultaneously.
He naturally wasn't about to just sit and watch that happen.
With that thought, Han Li's expression turned grim. He raised both hands upward, and two incredibly thick arcs of golden lightning erupted from his palms, punching straight through the golden net to strike the crimson sword qi head-on.
Under the furious bombardment of the golden lightning, the sword qi let out a mournful wail and finally disintegrated, dissolving into a small wisp of blood mist that hovered motionlessly in the air.