Chapter 1536: Blood Cloud
The sky in that direction had been bright and clear just a moment ago, but it had suddenly turned into a vibrant red color.
Immediately thereafter, countless crimson clouds swept toward him from that direction, soundlessly reaching the air above his head in mere moments before rapidly extending even further into the distance.
In the blink of an eye, those clouds had stretched to as far as Han Li's eyes could see in all directions, and the air around him reeked of a strong rank odor. It was as if he'd somehow found himself in a completely unfamiliar world.
Han Li sniffed at the air around him, and his face paled slightly.
The scent in the air clearly belonged to that of fresh blood!
How much fresh blood was required to condense into so many blood clouds?
Han Li immediately became extremely wary.
He abruptly stopped mid-flight as a lightning robe appeared over his body, then transformed into a flickering layer of azure and white arcs of lightning. At the same time, golden light shimmered all over his body as golden scales emerged alongside the projection with three heads and six arms.
Meanwhile, Han Li had his arms crossed as he looked up into the sky. He narrowed his eyes, and blue light flashed within his pupils.
The bizarre scenes unfolding around him struck him with the suspicion that something was onto him. Thankfully, with his current cultivation base and the new abilities he'd mastered, he had a decent chance of escaping even in the face of a Body Integration cultivator. Thus, he was still quite calm and collected.
Of course, he'd also immediately unleashed his spiritual sense in all directions, trying to seek out the potential hidden enemies lurking within the blood clouds.
However, the results of his detection immediately made his heart sink.
There was not a single enemy to be found within the vast area encompassed by his spiritual sense. Instead, what he discovered was that the entire sky in a radius of thousands of kilometers around him had been enshrouded under the same blood clouds.
Han Li drew a sharp breath upon seeing this.
Could it be that he'd been targeted by someone or that he was situated within a certain mysterious restriction?
Those were the only conclusions that Han Li could arrive at.
After a period of indecision, he suddenly shot forth as a streak of azure light, disappearing into the distance after just a few flashes.
Regardless of why such a harrowing phenomenon had appeared, it was best to get far away from this place.
At Han Li's current cultivation base, flying at full speed allowed him to cover a distance of over 1,000 feet in an instant, and his speed could almost match that of a Body Integration cultivator.
This was partially due to the fact that Han Li's cultivation base had improved significantly, but the main contributory factor to this was how light his newly refined flying swords had become.
Han Li was able to travel at such high speed as he was flying atop one of his swords.
This came as quite a surprise to him, but it was obviously quite a pleasant one.
However, Han Li's smile soon stiffened on his face as an incredulous look appeared in his eyes.
He had flown for over 500,000 kilometers, but he still hadn't been able to escape from these blood clouds, and there was still no end to them in sight.
Han Li was astonished to see this, and he began to accelerate even further.
After flying for over an hour, the blood clouds remained hanging over his head, and Han Li finally stopped as the azure light around him faded.
At this moment, Han Li wore an extremely dark expression.
It was quite clear that he was situated within some type of profound restriction. Otherwise, something like this definitely wouldn't be happening. However, the size of this restriction was downright staggering.
Han Li hovered in mid-air as he rapidly scrambled for a way to extricate himself from this situation.
However, before he could think of anything, the blood clouds in the air suddenly surged violently, and a series of fist-sized crimson runes emerged from within. These runes swirled through the air before emitting a low buzzing sound, but the noise was growing louder and louder, and slowly becoming quite deafening.
Han Li's heart stirred upon seeing this, and he immediately made a hand seal. Azure light flashed from his body as 72 azure flying swords flew forth from all parts of his body, then circled around him and transformed into 72 azure lotus flowers.
However, that wasn't the end. After releasing his flying swords, Han Li made a grabbing motion, and a black shadow flashed as a miniature black mountain that was several inches tall appeared over his hand.
He tossed the miniature mountain into the air, and it instantly swelled to over 100 feet tall, creating a massive shield above Han Li.
Even though he didn't know what was going to happen, he still instantly set up several layers of defense.
Just as Han Li was looking on with a grim expression, the crimson runes up above suddenly converged toward Han Li in unison as if they'd found a target.
With the massive Divine Essencefused Mountain up above, none of the runes overhead were able to reach him. However, the crimson runes in all four directions and down below were surging toward him in a frenzy.
Han Li's expression changed upon seeing this, and he immediately pointed at the azure lotus flowers around him.
The flowers rotated on the spot before transforming into countless streaks of azure sword Qi that flew toward the oncoming runes.
Strings of dull thumps erupted as all of the runes were instantly slashed into clouds of blood mist. The blood mist then attempted to surge through the gaps between the azure sword Qi, only for Han Li to let loose a low cry as the azure and white arcs of lightning around his body swelled, forming a massive lightning net that repelled the blood mist.
Just as Han Li was heaving a faint sigh of relief, all of the blood mist was swept back and disappeared into the crimson clouds in the blink of an eye.
The clouds instantly began to tremor violently, and following an earth-shattering boom, a massive crimson rune that was around 300 feet in size slowly descended.
Even Han Li was quite intimidated by the sight of such a gigantic blood rune.
He took a deep breath before pointing a finger up at the black mountain above his head.
A dull thump immediately erupted from the mountain as countless grey strands of light shot forth, forming a huge grey net in preparation for the descent of the massive blood rune.
However, the scenes that unfolded next had Han Li scratching his head.
The massive rune didn't plummet straight down as he imagined it would. Instead, it slowly swirled beneath the blood clouds, emanating an eerie crimson light in the process.
Han Li stood still on the spot and waited for a full 10 minutes, only for nothing to happen!
His brows furrowed as he pondered what the purpose of this giant rune could be.
However, his expression then suddenly changed, and he seemed to have discovered something as he abruptly swept a hand over the storage bracelet on his wrist.
Azure light flashed, and a jade box flew forth before landing in his grasp.
There were several talismans of different colors plastered to the jade box, but its lid was still tremoring incessantly while flashing erratically with spiritual light.
What was even more incredible was that in the instant Han Li summoned the box, the massive blood rune in the sky seemed to resonate as it began to flash violently.
The talismans plastered to the box suddenly self-ignited and were burned to ashes in the blink of an eye. Almost at the exact same moment, a resounding boom erupted, and the jade box exploded amid a burst of white light, sending countless shards of shrapnel flying in all directions.
If Han Li were a normal cultivator, that alone wouldn't have been enough to severely wound him.
However, Han Li's body had truly reached an extraordinarily powerful state, to the extent that the shrapnel merely bounced off his body in a harmless manner as if they'd struck a statue forged from steel essence.
After the white light faded, the item within the box hovered before Han Li in a motionless manner.
The surface of the item was slightly yellow, but there were dark green patterns running all over it, and it appeared to be a long and thin wooden rod.
It was none other than Han Li's Profound Heavenly Fruit!
As soon as the Profound Heavenly Fruit appeared, the blood rune in the sky tremored violently before disappearing with a dull thump.
An extremely bewildered look appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this.
The situation was far too bizarre! These blood clouds had gathered for his Profound Heavenly Fruit?
Before he had a chance to ascertain what was happening, a loud rumbling boom suddenly erupted from within the blood clouds up above.
Han Li faltered before hurriedly looking upward, and the sight that he was greeted by gave him quite a fright.
Countless projections had been manifested within the blood clouds, most of which were projections of all types of demon beasts, while a small portion of them were foreign beings that Han Li had never seen before, many of which appeared to be Flying Spirit beings.
All of the projections wore twisted expressions, as if they were in extreme agony.
"This is a blood sacrifice!" With Han Li's vast knowledge and experience, he was immediately able to identify what he was seeing.
Right at this moment, the crimson projections converged toward the center of the blood clouds, following which brilliant crimson light erupted, and a crimson formation that encompassed almost the entire sky gradually took shape.
Han Li drew a sharp breath as he abruptly grabbed the Profound Heavenly Fruit, then instantly sped to over 1,000 feet away as a streak of azure light.
The situation clearly wasn't quite right, so he decided to flee the scene right away.
After just a few flashes, he disappeared into the distance.
However, the massive formation was still taking shape in an unhurried manner, showing no signs of stopping due to Han Li's departure.
After a while, Han Li had flown to hundreds of thousands of kilometers away after fleeing with all his might.
He was still enshrouded under the blood clouds, but he'd lost sight of the massive formation long ago.
Han Li heaved a long sigh of relief, and only now did he finally slow down a little.
All of a sudden, a loud rumbling erupted within the blood clouds overhead again.
Han Li's heart sank upon hearing this familiar sound, and he hurriedly raised his head.
The sedentary blood clouds up above suddenly dispersed, and the entire sky warped as crimson light flashed, following which a massive crimson formation appeared.
The mysterious light formation was hovering right over Han Li, and his face instantly paled.
He didn't know the purpose of this formation, but it was definitely not a good thing for such a massive formation to be stalking him.
Thus, Han Li immediately fled into the distance as a streak of azure light again.
Right at this moment, the crimson formation up above suddenly sprang into action!