Chapter 2257: Puppet Army
Chapter 2257: Puppet Army
His nonchalant-looking palm strike was instantly able to pierce through the red light before clashing with the giant crimson hand, which was immediately struck by a burst of devastating force and crumbled into powder.
Despite this, the giant puppet remained completely expressionless, and crimson light radiated from its body as several devilish beastly projections that resembled cow-tiger hybrids emerged before pouncing toward Han Li.
Right at this moment, Han Li opened his mouth to release a streak of azure sword Qi, which instantly reached the puppet before revolving around its massive body. Spiritual light flashed violently from the puppet's body, but it was still sliced in half at the waist and toppled to the ground.
As for the beastly projections that had just been conjured up, all of them disappeared into plumes of smoke.
However, in the next instant, scorching crimson flames erupted from the crystals on the ground, releasing countless translucent threads that abruptly pulled the two halves of the puppet's body together again, and its wounds were instantly healed.
Han Li's expression remained unchanged upon seeing this, and he thrust a hand downward, upon which a shimmering golden hand that was around an acre in size appeared above the puppet before crashing down with devastating might.
The giant puppet was completely immobilized under the tremendous power being exerted by the palm, and countless white cracks appeared all over its body before it exploded into a ball of red light.
A fist-sized ball of golden light erupted out of the explosion before immediately attempting to flee, but Han Li seemed to have already anticipated this, and he harrumphed coldly as he made a grabbing motion with his outstretched hand.
The golden ball of light was immediately enveloped by a burst of enormous power, then drawn into Han Li's grasp, and he looked down to find that it was a golden ball that was riddled with holes and intricate runes.
The ball was virtually weightless, seemingly completely hollow.
"This is most likely the core of the puppet," Han Li said with an intrigued expression as he inspected the golden ball in his hand.
A wry smile appeared on Silvermoon's face upon seeing this.
She knew that Han Li's powers would be unimaginable to her now that he had reached the Grand Ascension Stage, but she hadn't witnessed him in action since his breakthrough, so there was no standard for her to judge just how powerful he was.
However, she knew that she would definitely be no match for that giant puppet, yet Han Li had destroyed it with ease.
This made it clear to her just how massive a disparity there was between her and Han Li, and the realization saddened her slightly.
Just as she was becoming absorbed in her own thoughts, the specks of silver flames in the air converged, and the silver Fire Raven re-emerged.
However, on this occasion, Han Li didn't spur on the Fire Raven to continue onward. Instead, he stowed the golden ball in his hand away before sweeping his spiritual sense through the surrounding area, then immediately made a hand seal.
The Fire Raven raised its head and let loose a clear cry, following which its body began to swell drastically in size.
In the blink of an eye, it had swelled to over 1,000 feet in length, forcing the surrounding sea of flames back to create a massive empty area.
Han Li then pointed a finger up at the silver Fire Raven before uttering the word "absorb"!
A burst of loud rumbling rang out as the Fire Raven flapped its wings to release countless silver runes, and at the same time, a burst of enormous suction force surged forth in all directions.
The surrounding sea of flames instantly converged toward the Fire Raven through around a dozen massive pillars of flames, and as soon as the flames came into contact with the Fire Raven's body, they were instantly absorbed.
As the Fire Raven absorbed more and more crimson flames, its body expanded further and further, and it didn't take long before the entire sea of flames was completely absorbed, thus finally revealing the true appearance of the surrounding area.
Silvermoon quickly inspected her surroundings, and a surprised look appeared on her face.
They were currently situated on a tall platform around 1,000 acres in size that was riddled with crimson crystals.
Around the platform was a boundless trench, within which were countless deep craters of different sizes.
Spiritual light was flashing within all of those craters, and within each of them was a Devil Crystal Puppet.
These puppets were clad in suits of five-colored armor, wielding weapons of different shapes, forms, and sizes, and there were even some menacing beastly puppets among them.
At a glance, it could be estimated that there were close to 100,000 of these puppets.
Han Li quickly swept his gaze through the surrounding area, and he discovered that most of the puppets were at the Core Formation Stage and Nascent Soul, and around 10% of them were at the Deity Transformation Stage and Spatial Tempering Stage.
However, what was most eye-catching were the dozens of top-grade puppets that bore a strong resemblance to the one that Han Li had just destroyed.
Those Devil Crystal Puppet hadn't reached the late-Body Integration Stage yet, but they were all still at the early and mid-Body Integration Stage.
If this army of puppets were to appear in the outside world, it would be powerful enough to raze many major powers to the ground.
"Looks like Sacred Ancestor Qi Ling was a master in refining Devil Crystal Puppet; that's quite a pleasant surprise," Han Li said as he stroked his own chin with a faint smile.
Silvermoon was already completely dumbstruck by what she was seeing, and only now did she return to her senses as she asked, "What do you plan to do with these puppets?"
"I'm going to take them all away, of course. What else would I do? Leave them for someone else?" Han Li replied without any hesitation.
"Alright, I'll help you collect them," Silvermoon said in an excited voice.
Han Li nodded in response, and Silvermoon immediately rose up into the air, flicking her wrist to release several storage bracelets toward all of the puppets in one direction.
Han Li also swept a sleeve through the air to release dozens of storage bracelets that surged toward the other directions.
Spiritual light of all colors surged out of these storage bracelets in a frenzy, and all of the Devil Crystal Puppet swept up by the spiritual light quickly disappeared.
There was an astonishing number of puppets present, but the two of them were able to collect the puppets quite quickly by working together.
However, when attempting to collect the dozens of Body Integration Stage puppets, the puppets suddenly released light barriers to keep the storage bracelets at bay.
As opposed to being enraged by this, Silvermoon was quite elated, and she immediately began flicking incantation seals of different colors through the air, all of which vanished into the bodies of these top-grade puppets in a flash.
The giant puppets' bodies shuddered slightly before they relinquished their resistance and were also stowed away into the storage bracelets.
After the final puppet had been collected, the entire platform suddenly began to sink into the ground on its own amid a burst of loud rumbling.
Silvermoon hurriedly flew back to Han Li's side upon seeing this, while Han Li raised a hand to withdraw the silver Fire Raven before standing on the spot with his hands clasped behind his back.
Only after the entire giant platform had sunk over 1,000 feet into the ground did the violent tremors cease.
Right at this moment, Han Li and Silvermoon's attention were both drawn toward the same direction, where an azure stone door was situated on a grey stone wall.
"Let's go. I can't sense any restriction fluctuations in there, so that must be where Sacred Ancestor Qi Ling's true treasure is stored," Han Li said with a smile.
Silvermoon nodded in response with a hint of excitement in her eyes.
Thus, the two of them immediately made their way toward the stone door.
Once they were no more than several tens of feet away from the stone door, Han Li thrust a hand through the air, and the door was pushed open by a burst of enormous power.
A massive hall was revealed behind the gate, within which were a series of long stone benches with various items placed upon them.
A hint of elation surfaced in Han Li's eyes, and he immediately strode into the hall with Silvermoon in tow.
After entering the ball, Han Li inspected his surroundings to find that jade boxes of different sizes had been placed all over the stone benches alongside treasures of different descriptions.
All of these treasures were either glowing with scintillating light, or were dilapidated and completely unremarkable in appearance.
However, judging from their auras, all of them were top-grade treasures that could easily start a war in the outside world.
Despite this, Han Li didn't display much interest toward these treasures. Instead, his gaze was drawn toward the three stone platforms in the hall, which stood taller than all of the stone benches.
Atop these three intricate stone platforms were three different items, comprised of a rusty azure halberd, a yellow gourd, and an inky-black flying ark that was only around half a foot in length.
Han Li swept his spiritual sense toward the three treasures, and his expression immediately changed slightly.
Silvermoon's attention had also been drawn entirely to those three treasures.