When the old man saw that the scroll was in tatters, his face greatly paled. It was clearly ruined beyond use.

“What a pity!” The black-robed figure spoke with a trace of regret, “If Fellow Daoist Ku Yao hadn’t been in such a rush to break free and used his fire spirit’s vitality to stall of time, that cultivator’s magic power would’ve been exhausted and he would’ve taken the initiative to dispel the formation diagram regardless.” 

The shriveled cultivator pondered for a moment before he found himself agreeing.

With the spell warrior broken free, Old Man Ma’s complexion turned sickly pale as he grasped onto the scroll. He quickly placed it away in his storage pouch, and viciously gazed at Ku Yao. Ku Yao snorted in response and had the flood dragon beneath him surge once more with flames and red light. 

The shriveled spell warrior suddenly shouted from above, “Sage Ku Yao, cease!” He then turned to the Heavenly South cultivators and said, “How about ending this battle in a draw? Both of their magic power is nearly exhausted. Nothing will result from having this battle continue.”

The bald man was somewhat surprised to hear this. After exchanging a look with Gu Shuangpu, he nodded his head, “That is fine. Let’s have this battle end.”

Although Old Man Ma felt somewhat opposed this decision, he knew that it would be futile to continue the battle and flew back without any better option. Ku Yao also felt gloomy at this decision and begrudgingly recalled his flood dragon before flying back into the spell warrior ranks.

Old Man Ma returned down below and received a few consoling words from the bald man, easing the tension from the old man’s face.

But at that moment, the black-robed spell warrior and the shriveled old man was muttering something to each other. As a result, the black-robed figure gently floated in the air and arrived at the location of the previous battle.

He gloomily swept his gaze past the other cultivators and a trace of contempt was revealed from his eyes. In his hoarse voice, he said, “This time, you will be fighting me, but I will say this first. This battle will last until someone is dead. Don’t have any delusions of stopping this battle while it is in progress.”

The black-robed figure’s arrogant words infuriated Gu Shuangpu and the bald man. However, the two didn’t dare to rise up to the challenge. They both knew that two Nascent Soul cultivators have already perished at the hands of this strange spell warrior. As they still greatly valued their lives, they were hesitant.

“Let me try him on.” Han Li indifferently said.

The bald man blinked in surprise upon seeing Han Li take the initiative to fight, but soon, he inwardly sighed with relief. “Ah! Fellow Daoist Han wishes to go? You must take care. If there is something amiss, we will naturally go to rescue you.”

Han Li smiled and said little else. Azure light glowed from from his body before he streaked across the skies. In the blink of an eye, he arrived before the black-robed figure, and expressionlessly stood in the air with his hands held behind his back.

The black-robed figure appraised Han Li for a moment before his eyes began to turn from black to green in what appeared to be a monstrous display.

Han Li narrowed his eyes and asked, “Are you demon or ghost?”

“You don’t think this old man is human?” The black-figure coldly chuckled. At that same moment, inky threads of black Qi began to wrap around his body. Ghostly wails soon began to howl, followed by gusts of Yin wind.

Han Li took a short breath and calmly said, “So you were originally a man, but it seems that you’ve cultivated the Dao of a demon or ghost.”

“Humph! Junior, you speak too much rubbish. There is no need to examine me any further as you will soon die by my hand. Don’t waste your effort.” With that said, black Qi suddenly surged around his body, nearly hiding him entirely from sight.

“As I don’t have the patience to play with you, I’ll be taking your life now.” The black-robed old man sinisterly laughed and formed an incantation gesture with his hands. Suddenly, he grew to giant about six meters in height.

Although the vortex of Yin Qi surrounding him mostly blocked him out of sight, one could faintly make out two horns poking out from the robes and two fangs as well. It was no wonder so many cultivators believed this unfamiliar spell warrior was a transformed oddity.

Han Li’s eyes shined with blue light, revealing the huge man’s ferocious appearance. 

“What?” Han Li was shocked by the demonic appearance of the huge man. His current appearance was exactly the same as the one of the phantoms of the Six Apex Devils he encountered when he fought the disciple of Archsaint Six Paths.

[] Chapter 573

“What relation does your esteemed self have with Archsaint Six Paths?”

The huge man evilly grinned after a moment of surprise. “Who is this Archsaint Six Paths? Don’t think that your nonsense will allow you to stall for time. Accept your death!” He then raised his hand and scattered some of the black Qi, suddenly shooting a black object towards Han Li. However, the object flashed with black light as soon as it left the cover of the black Qi and disappeared from sight.

Han Li’s expression sank and suddenly shot back ten meters. At that same moment, a huge ghost claw appeared where he was originally standing. The attack was so sudden, it seemed to have materialized out of thin air.

“Yi!” The huge demonic figure yelped in surprise at seeing his attack miss.

Han Li stared at the ghost hand and indifferently said, “Not bad at all. Although you aren’t a ghost Dao cultivator — as you cultivate Devil Dao techniques — your methods of attack are quite similar to ghost cultivators. If one were to truly regard you as a ghost cultivator, they would definitely suffer.” 

The large demonic man stayed still as it coldly glanced at Han Li.

At that same moment, Han Li frowned and he moved about ten meters to the side in a blur. As a result, yet another green ghost claw had silently struck where he once stood.

The huge man was no longer able to keep his calm after missing a second time and asked, “Since you’ve already dodged two of my attacks, could it be that you’d seen other ghost cultivators in the past?”

“Of course I have. How else could I have so easily dodged your attacks?” Han Li replied smilingly with a half-truth.

“Humph! Your esteemed self is actually a vastly experienced individual. Regardless, even if you know that I use Devil Dao techniques, what will come of it? With the might of the Heavenflash Devil Arts, you will be dead in only a moment.” The huge man spoke sinisterly. He then abruptly released an intense, ear-piercing whistle that was capable of even splitting stone.

When Han Li saw this, his calm expression turned stern.

The black Qi enveloping the huge man began to rapidly revolve in place. Soon after, an astonishingly powerful wave of devilish Qi suddenly erupted out of thin air, and the huge man shot out from the black Qi, instantly arriving before Han Li as he left afterimages in his wake.

With a slight movement of his arms, an impenetrable flurry of black-green claws immediately surrounded him. It seemed that he intended to use his claws to cut Han Li into countless pieces.

Han Li took a deep breath and wore an odd expression as he remained in place. He slapped his hands together before spreading them out, summoning a net of golden lightning around him. With thunder ringing in the air, Han Li glanced at the claws around him with complete fearlessness.

Without any further thought, the huge black figure then ordered the claws to strike Han Li without mercy.

From the huge black figure’s point of view, common devilish arts might be subdued by lightning attribute techniques, but the Heavenflash Devil Arts is by no measure common. It wouldn’t be stopped by some trifling lightning. However, the cultivator he faced seemed to know quite a bit, much to his unease; he felt it best to immediately dispose of him.

But before the black figure finished his thoughts, he suddenly felt his own claws grow hot, soon followed by an unimaginable pain. Golden light then brightly chined from before him. The golden lightning net had actually broken through the claw phantoms and was making its way to envelop him.

Unable to protect himself from behind and trapped by the net of golden lightning, a legend he once heard suddenly appeared in his mind. In the past when he was learning of this devilish art, his master had repeated warned him of the greatest nemeses of the Heavenflash Devil Arts. But because he had never encountered any equal opponents after cultivating this devilish art, he had forgotten about this matter!  

“Golden lightning? It can’t be! It’s so similar. Don’t tell me —” The black figure’s expression grew completely tense and he felt his heart drop. Unwilling to remain idle in the oncoming danger, he immediately howled and had his tall stature suddenly shrink in size, becoming a dwarf that was only a meter tall, buying him more time before the golden net struck him.

In that time that he bought, his shrunken body suddenly fluctuated in size before hastily erupting into countless threads of black light — scattering in every direction.