A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality Chapter 774: Battle at the Border (8)

With a sweep of his spiritual sense, Han Li found that the large embroidered-robed man actually possessed a late Nascent Soul cultivation; he was a Moulan Divine Sage. Wasn’t it said that the Moulan only had three Divine Sages?
Before Han Li could recover from his shock, the large embroidered-robed man had grabbed the air in the direction of the incoming lightning bead.
In Han Li’s alarm, he hastily pointed to the lightning bead and had it change direction, but it was too late. A large azure hand suddenly appeared and grabbed onto it with indomitable might, holding it firm in place.
Han Li raised his brow and instantly formed an incantation gesture with his hands, detonating the lightning bead’s restrictions. Gold and azure light ruptured from within the large hand, scattering both itself and the hand without a trace.
The large embroidered-robed man coldly snorted, but with a flicker of azure light, his expression returned to normal. Han Li remained in place, staring at him in silence.
The large embroidered-robed man watched him and asked, “Are you Han Li, the cultivator that wields the Golden Lightning Bamboo?”
Rather than answer, Han Li asked, “The Moulan should only have three Divine Sages. Who are you?”
The large embroidered-robed man said in an indifferent tone, “Good! Since you know that I am a Divine Sage and you are able to remain calm, it seems you are the one that Divine Sage Zhong spoke of. My name is Tian Zhong, the fourth Moulan Divine Sage!”
“The fourth Moulan Sage? This is the first time I’ve ever heard of this. Regardless, that manifested hand of yours seems incapable of restraining that lightning of bead. It seems you haven’t entered late Nascent Soul stage for long, and have yet to consolidate your cultivation!”
Han Li spoke without restraint as he stared at Tian Zhong. In that same moment, he casually pointed to the various swordlights in front of his body, gathering them together to form a sheet of azure light guarding him.
“It's true that I’ve only entered late Nascent Soul stage for a few years, but do you think you can be a match for me? Your arrogance is quite great.” Tian Zhong sneered.
“If he were alone, that’d be the case. But I am also here!” A woman suddenly spoke, and Han Li soon rejoiced.
“Who are you?!” In the spell warrior’s surprise, a stern glint appeared in his eyes.
“I didn’t expect that after I hadn’t seen you for a hundred years, Fellow Daoist Tian would actually enter late Nascent Soul stage. You’ve greatly surprised me. Let’s see whether or not your abilities have grown.” Soon after this was said, white light flashed to reveal a red-robed beauty floating in the air. She was coldly staring at Tian Zhong.
When he saw her, his expression stirred. “So it was Lady Feng, but you came here by yourself. Aren’t you afraid that something will happen to Long Han? You and your husband have always fought together.”
“No worries, my husband is being protected by over a thousand cultivators. Even if you Divine Sages were to personally attack him, you wouldn’t be able to touch him. That’s why I came over to test the abilities of the fourth Divine Sage. Fellow Daoist Han, go ahead and rescue the others.”
Once this was said, she raised her arm and extended her fingers, summoning a bottle of crystalline flames into her palm. Before she even began to cast her techniques, the bottle was already shining with red light as a raging flame flourished within it.
“The Firespirit Bottle!” Tian Zhong wore a grave expression. As for Han Li, he flew away in a streak of azure light after hearing her.
Tian Zhong’s expression grew solemn and he tossed a spirit beast pouch into the air. In a flash of rainbow light, the pouch released two identical winged beasts. They had an azure eagle’s body and tiger heads.
“Heavenly Tigers!” Han Li was alarmed by the beasts’ appearance and couldn't help but shout out their name. It was an extremely rare flying beast located in the Moulan Plains. It was capable of both wind and earth attribute magic techniques and was incredibly difficult to deal with. Although the two of them only possessed late Core Formation cultivation, they weren’t to be underestimated.
At that moment, the two Heavenly Tigers roared, unfolding their wings. In a flash of azure light, they disappeared and reappeared near Han Li, glaring at him as if he were their prey.
At that moment, the light surrounding his body disappeared and he came to a sudden stop.
“Instant movement!” Han Li inwardly cursed. He had long heard of demon beasts capable of instantaneous movement, but he didn’t expect it to be true. It won’t be easy to break free of these two beasts.
Tian Zhong didn’t stop with the two demon beasts. In a blur, he created an identical doppelganger of himself and it began to move as if it were true to life. The only difference was that the doppelganger was completely enveloped in a screen of azure light, and his appearance was brimming with dazzling light as if he were a hollow image.
“External incarnation!” Lady Feng shouted in alarm, a strange expression on her face. It came as no surprise that he was capable of an external incarnation, but she hadn’t seen one so strange before.
The azure light doppelganger quickly shot towards Han Li without any obstruction from Lady Feng. At that moment, she was fully occupied with Tian Zhong. After Tian Zhong spat out a sparkling rainbow wheel, he said, “This way, I’ll be able to properly test the might of the both of you.” With that said, he pointed to the colorful wheel, causing it to fly over to Lady Feng as a rainbow mist.
When she saw this, she solemnly struck the Firespirit Bottle with a spell seal. The bottle trembled for a moment before red light flourished from within, releasing countless threads of raging flame. These flames appeared completely unordinary and moved as if they were alive. One moment, they were scattered, while in another, they were together. But then, the flames roiled, transforming into several huge crimson snakes before rushing to meet the rainbow light mist.
Hearing an explosion nearby, Han Li immediately knew that Tian Zhong and Lady Feng have already begun to fight without having to look, not that he could. He was watching the two Heavenly Tigers that were glaring at him as well as the azure doppelganger. He wouldn’t be able to free the other cultivators like this.
With the two famous characters battling behind him, it seemed there would be no further attention spared on this part of the battlefield. Having thought that, he gave several lightning beads to Silvermoon so that she could sneak off to free the other cultivators, but there wasn’t any opportunity for that now. He would have to first defeat the three opponents in front of him before he could consider other matters.
With that thought, Han Li reached for his waist and released his own spirit beast pouch, summoning a large swarm of glistening Gold Devouring Beetles. They formed a large revolving cloud above him.
Han Li clutched a hand incantation and disappeared into the beetle swarm. Then with a loud buzz, azure light flashes several times from within, splitting the golden swarm into three divisions, each of them rushing towards a different enemy.
“Gold Devouring Beetles! If they were fully mature, I might’ve had something to fear.” The azure light doppelganger coldly snorted and spoke with a voice similar to Tian Zhong’s. As for the two Heavenly Tigers, they spread their wings upon seeing the Gold Devouring Beetles and retreated seventy meters away, revealing an expression of fear.
At that moment, the azure doppelganger opened his mouth, releasing three bowl-thick beams of light towards each mass of Gold Devouring Beetles. With each beam, the azure light doppelganger turned a fraction darker. It even appeared a few inches shorter as a result.
The three beams of light extremely quick and accurately struck each of the beetle swarms. With each flash of azure light, a three-meter-wide sphere of azure light appeared, trapping each of the three clouds of beetles.
In his alarm, Han Li pointed to the three swarms, having them each line the walls of the barrier in an attempt to devour them. But a short moment later, Han Li’s expression grew unsightly. The barrier was exceptionally durable, and the Gold Devouring Beetles were slow in breaking it down. Since the three azure light barriers were all made of pure wood-attribute spirit Qi, it could trap the Gold Devouring Beetles for quite a while.
With the combined abilities of the azure doppelganger’s restriction abilities and the Heavenly Tiger’s instantaneous movement, Han Li sensed this battle would be difficult to deal with. Could it be that the fourth Divine Sage was prepared to deal with him? As Han Li pondered about this, he felt a sense of dread.
His guesses weren’t far from the truth. When the Moulan’s higher echelon had discussed the matter, they had given the task of killing Han Li over to Tian Zhong. As a result, Divine Sage Zhu and the others had given him the Heavenly Tiger along with several other treasures capable of restraining Han Li.
When the battle started, the Moulan hadn’t anticipated that Han Li would join the wagered battles. As such, Divine Sage Tian Zhong had tossed the matter to the back of his mind. But when Han Li reappeared, exterminating a group of spell warriors and the body of a sage, Tian Zhong immediately noticed Han Li.
Regardless of whether he was being blocked from rescuing the other trapped cultivators or being killed to fulfill the Yin Sifting Sect’s exchange, Han Li had no choice but to fight. But he also didn't expect that Long Han would risk sending his wife Feng Bing to assist Han Li once he noticed that Han Li broke free. If Han Li truly managed to save the trapped cultivators, the war would shift in the Heavenly South’s favor.
Seeing that the Gold Devouring Beetles had yet to make any progress in escaping, Han Li was filled with gloom. Before he could do anything else, the two Heavenly Tigers regained their courage upon seeing the Gold Devouring Beetles be restrained. In a series of azure flashes, the two spirit beasts disappeared from sight.
Han Li coldly smiled in response and flung his sleeve, summoning a blue shield in front of him. At that same moment, he pointed to the swarm of swords in front of him. They surged with sword Qi and began to revolve around Han Li, forming an impenetrable barrier.
Soon, azure light flashed next to Han Li, revealing the two Heavenly Tigers. They opened their mouths and each spat out a blinding orb of light. Han Li wore a stern expression upon seeing the attack and had his swordlights part into two to meet the incoming orbs of light. Two muffled explosions sounded out as the swordlights easily shattered the orbs of light. Afterwards, they swept their way to the two spirit beasts. When the Heavenly Tigers saw this, cunning shined from their eyes before they teleported a distance away.
In his fury, Han Li was about to command the swordlight to pursue them, but the azure doppelganger suddenly attacked.
Just as Han Li’s battle with the doppelganger continued, both Long Han and the shriveled old spell warrior gave the command for their armies to unleash their killing maneuvers. Seven white-haired Nascent Soul cultivators flew out from behind Long Han with a calm expression, each of them wielding an ancient treasure. As for the spell warriors, a troop of Nascent Soul spell warriors flew out, the woman surnamed Le amongst their ranks. Under the shriveled old spell warrior’s signal, she carefully took out a bronze lantern from her storage pouch and held it in her hand.