Chapter 169: Retaliation
The balls of blue spiritual light that Han Li had just released were dozens of array treasures, each of which was several inches in size.
In the next instant, balls of blue light rose up from the surrounding sea, forming a series of profound arrays of different sizes, all of which began to revolve on the spot.
Meanwhile, Han Li flicked his fingers through the air, and a series of near-transparent azure threads shot out of his fingertips before vanishing into the surrounding arrays, causing them to fuse with one another before vanishing once again.
Close to an hour later, all of the surrounding arrays had vanished, following which Han Li made a hand seal, and countless arcs of silver lightning erupted out of his body to form a lightning array beneath him.
Han Li vanished from the spot amid a flash of lightning, then reappeared around 150,000 kilometers away, but he was still situated in the same crimson sea.
Meanwhile, countless kilometers away, Fang Pan and the brocade-robed elderly man were enshrouded within a streak of azure light as they sped through the air like lightning.
The brocade-robed elderly man was holding a golden array plate with one hand while chanting an incantation.
Once every few moments, he would unleash the tracking technique again in order to receive the latest updates on Han Li's location.
"He just teleported again," the brocade-robed elderly man reported.
"In which direction?" Fang Pan asked as his brows furrowed slightly.
"Northeast, but this time, he was only able to teleport less than 150,000 kilometers," the brocade-robed elderly man replied.
"Great! It looks like he won't be able to last much longer." Fang Pan was ecstatic to hear this, and he immediately began flying in the northeastern direction.
This time, they spotted Han Li in the distance no more than four hours later.
Han Li's face was extremely pale as he took a panicked glance behind him, and he conjured up his lightning array once again, but this time, he was only able to teleport himself less than 100,000 kilometers away.
Fang Pan was even more encouraged to see this, and he took a pill to recover his immortal spiritual power before speeding up even further.
Close to three hours later, Fang Pan caught up to Han Li once again.
Han Li frantically accelerated to his top speed, but he was still quite a bit slower than Fang Pan. The distance between the two of them was rapidly shrinking, and soon, they were separated by only a few hundred kilometers.
With a wave of his sleeve, arcs of silver lightning appeared over Han Li's body once again.
Fang Pan's expression darkened slightly upon seeing this. He knew that at this rate, he would be able to hunt down Han Li eventually, but he had already been pursuing Han Li for close to two months, and he had run out of patience long ago, so he wanted to end this as quickly as possible.
"Hurry, Brother Feng!" Fang Pan yelled as countless glowing azure runes arose from his hand, following which he thrust his palm into the brocade-robed elderly man's body.
An azure halo appeared around him once again, and in the next instant, the elderly man reappeared in very close proximity to Han Li.
A vast expanse of crimson flames had already appeared over his body, releasing dazzling crimson light that instantly encompassed the entire surrounding area in a radius of close to 10 kilometers.
At this point, Han Li still hadn't conjured up his lightning array yet, so there was no way that he could get away.
Fang Pan's eyes immediately lit up upon seeing this, and he made a grabbing motion to summon a bright saber into his grasp. At the same time, countless azure runes appeared around him, and his speed increased once again by roughly twofold.
Right at this moment, a burst of silver lightning erupted out of Han Li's body, and he transformed into a silver Lightning Bird that was several hundred feet in size, with thick bolts of lightning crackling and revolving incessantly around it.
The Lightning Bird spread its wings, and it vanished on the spot amid a flash of silver lightning before reappearing hundreds of kilometers away.
"Your struggles are futile!" Fang Pan harrumphed coldly as he appeared beside the brocade-robed elderly man, then grabbed onto his shoulder with one hand.
A burst of azure light appeared around him to envelop both of them, then transformed into a blurry azure shadow that set off in pursuit of the Lightning Bird, appearing directly behind it in the blink of an eye.
The Lightning Bird flapped its wings, and it fled another several hundred kilometers amid a flash of silver lightning, yet Fang Pan's duo were just as fast and remained hot on its heels.
Silver lightning flashed incessantly from the Lightning Bird's body as it unleashed its lightning movement ability over and over again, and each time, it was just a little bit faster than Fang Pan's duo, allowing to escape capture.
Thus, the chase continued, with a bolt of silver lightning and an azure shadow traveling rapidly over the surface of the sea.
The azure shadow remained as bright as ever, yet the arcs of silver lightning around the Lightning Bird were becoming dimmer and dimmer.
With another flash of silver lightning, the Lightning Bird appeared near a crimson island.
At this point, the arcs of silver lightning around it had become extremely dim, and it was flying directly forward, seemingly no longer able to unleash its lightning movement technique.
Even so, it was still extremely, but far slower than the speed its lightning movement technique had allowed it to reach.
The gap between the azure shadow and the Lightning Bird was rapidly shrinking, and Fang Pan's duo was ecstatic to see this.
However, the brocade-robed elderly man's brows suddenly furrowed slightly as he called out, "Hold on..."
However, Fang Pan's attention was completely fixed on the Lightning Bird up ahead, and he sped up once again, closing the gap between himself and the Lightning Bird to less than 1,000 feet.
Layers upon layers of saber projections were released by the saber in his hand, and he was just about to lash out when his surroundings suddenly turned into a complete blur.
The Lightning Bird up ahead had vanished, and he found himself situated in a blue space.
As soon as he entered this blue space, he immediately felt a burst of vortex-like suction force surging forth from beneath him. The suction force wasn't very powerful, but it was constantly acting upon him, forcing him to decelerate.
A string of afterimages appeared in his wake as he abruptly shot forward, trying to break out of the blue space, but a dull thump suddenly rang out as a burst of strange ripples suddenly appeared in the space up ahead, and a watery blue barrier appeared to stop him cold in his tracks.
Fang Pan immediately lashed out with the black saber in his hand, releasing a massive black saber projection that struck the barrier up ahead with a resounding boom, leaving a long crack on its surface.
A cold sneer appeared on Fang Pan's face upon seeing this, and he raised his saber to strike the barrier once again, only for the barrier to instantly return to its original state amid a flash of blue light.
The brocade-robed elderly man arrived by his side, and his brows were slightly furrowed as he said, "This is a high-grade water-attribute array that can draw upon the vast power of water of the sea to constantly replenish itself. It's renowned for being difficult to break through, and brute force along won't be enough to break it."
"He's become even more troublesome to deal with than 300 years ago," Fang Pan spat through gritted teeth.
"Having said that, it seems like he's close to exhausting all of his power of lightning, and he set up this array as a last resort to try and slow us down. Once we break through this array, it won't take us long to hunt him down," the brocade-robed elderly man said.
"I'll be counting on you, Brother Qian," Fang Pan replied with a nod.
With that, the brocade-robed elderly man rose up into the air, hovering directly above the center of the blue space as he began to make a series of hand seals while chanting an incantation.
A burst of red light flashed around him, and crimson flames were ignited over his body.
However, right at this moment, silver lightning suddenly began to crackle above his head, and Han Li swooped in from outside the array.
While it was true that he had expended a huge amount of his power of lightning, he hadn't completely run out, and he had only made it appear as if that were the case in order to lure Fang Pan's duo into his trap.
He made a hand seal with one hand, then thrust it down downward, and the True Water Pouch in his other hand instantly began to bulge. A burst of black light erupted out of the opening of the pouch, and boundless heavy water came gushing out like a turbulent river through a broken dam, transforming into an inky-black heavy water wyrm that pounced directly toward the brocade-robed elderly man.
The heavy water wyrm was as heavy as a mountain, and the entire space beneath it began to tremble violently under its enormous weight.
At this moment, the elderly man resembled a crimson sun, and he was at a critical juncture in his Blood Incinerating Breath secret technique. If he were to be cut off here, then not only would all of his prior efforts go to waste, he would be severely injured by secret technique backlash.
He hurriedly summoned an antiquated dark azure suit of armor onto his body, and at the same time, he yelled to Fang Pan, "Help me, Brother Fang!"
Even before the cry for help, Fang Pan had already sprung into action, conjuring up a series of clones, one of which slashed its black saber viciously through the air.
Meanwhile, two other clones rose up into the air, leaving trails of afterimages in their wake as they sped directly toward Han Li.
Han Li completely ignored Fang Pan's attacks as he quickly made a hand seal, and the heavy water wyrm accelerated in its descent toward the brocade-robed elderly man at his behest.
In contrast with refining Heavy Water Veined Lightning, which required meticulous and precise control over heavy water, wielding such a massive volume of heavy water like this was more of a test of one's immortal spiritual power reserves and powers of concentration.
The heavy water wyrm came crashing down from above, and the first thing that it struck was Fang Pan's black saber, but it immediately swallowed up the saber with a dull thump.
In the next instant, the wyrm crashed directly into the crimson sun that was burning around the brocade-robed elderly man.
A thunderous boom rang out as the elderly man's body came plummeting directly downward as if a mountain had fallen onto his head, and all of the crimson light around him instantly disintegrated. The suit of armor that he had donned was releasing countless dark azure runes, all of which were hurtling up toward the heavy water wyrm.
A string of dull thumps rang out in rapid succession as the heavy water wyrm's body was completely scattered by the dark azure runes.
However, not only was Han Li not dismayed in the slightest to see this, a triumphant smile had appeared on his face. Lightning flashed around him as he just barely evaded the attacks from the oncoming Fang Pan clones, then rapidly shot back in retreat.
A hint of foreboding immediately welled up in Fang Pan's heart upon seeing this, and all three of his clones fled toward the outskirts of the blue space as quickly as they could.
Meanwhile, 20 or so fist-sized black balls had emerged without any warning from in the wake of the destruction of the heavy water wyrm's body. The balls were hovering in mid-air, not giving off any spiritual power fluctuations.
As for the vast expanse of heavy water that the wyrm had disintegrated into, it rose up toward Han Li in a black wave before vanishing into his body.
Right at this moment, the silver patterns on the black balls suddenly began to light up, and thin arcs of lightning appeared within them.
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