It turned out that although Xuxian Xuanling had displayed extraordinary prowess in their earlier battle outside the Valley, he had never anticipated that the techniques of Huan surname youth and Hengliang Lingjun were complementary and mutually reinforcing. As the combat extended, Xuxian grew increasingly astonished, realizing he had no chance of victory. Thus, without hesitation, he issued a brief call and promptly led the other Ling clansmen in a swift retreat. Otherwise, Huan surname youth and Hengliang Lingjun would not have been able to reach the Valley in time. Upon seeing so many figures, the half-submerged one-eyed giant, who had been observing, suddenly recalled something. With a sudden flash of fierce light in his eyes, he lifted his head and roared with a thunderous sound. Then, lowering his head again, his single eye glowed with a brilliant white light, and countless white filaments surged forth, enveloping Huantianqi and Hengliang Lingjun instantly. "Hmph," he said, "I never thought the setting sun crystal could be completely transformed into essence. Yet, to think that mere streams of fire could harm us—what a delusion!" Huangliang Lingjun snorted, muttering a few words to himself. Then, with a swift flick of her sleeve, the octagonal relic reappeared, expanding instantly to the size of a person and standing before her. As the white filaments struck the mirror, the surface shimmered brilliantly, reflecting the light back toward the giant's massive form. Yet upon touching the giant's body, the filaments flashed and vanished, unable to penetrate or harm him at all. Meanwhile, the Huan youth likewise used his own luminous mirror in front of him to reflect the incoming white filaments. Seeing the single-target attacks fail, the giant roared low, and at once ceased the emission of light filaments from his eyes. With a broad hand, he parted his fingers as if wielding a giant fan, sweeping directly toward Huangliang Lingjun and the two of them. Before making contact, a gale of wind already surged forward. Huangliang Lingjun frowned, then opened her mouth, exhaling a pale, delicate fan of paper. He seized the paper fan firmly and swung it hard against the pressing giant's hand. Instantly, a surge of white wind materialized, colliding directly with the oncoming gale, preventing the storm from drawing near either of them at all. As the giant's hand swept toward him, the boy with the Han surname merely rubbed his palms together, and a gray electric glow appeared spontaneously. This glow subtly transformed between his hands, taking the shape of an unassuming gray long blade. The blade appeared slender and sharp, yet dull and unremarkable. At the same time, the boy murmured softly, yellow hairs sprouting from his refined face, and his eyes instantly turned a deep, eerie green. With a powerful cry, a surge of celestial pressure erupted from his body. He merely lifted the gray blade slightly and swept it once, and a gray line sliced through the air. "Pffft!" The line instantly expanded to a length of several zhang, then flashed and embedded itself into the thumb of the giant's hand. The line was so sharp that the giant's hand only trembled slightly, and the thumb fell silently without a sound. The giant let out a piercing cry of pain, instinctively drawing back its massive hand. The single eye on its forehead swelled to its full size, veins bulging prominently. It fixed its gaze firmly on the young man of the Huan surname, his once-ugly face now flushed with growing rage. After the young man delivered the slash, the gray blade flashed and then vanished entirely, and his own face paled instantly—seeming as though the blow had drained a significant portion of his vital energy. "You've indeed struck a chord with it," said Huang Liang Lingjun, after using his fan to disperse the gust of wind. "It appears you've truly roused its ire. We shall now have to engage it seriously. I wonder, however, how well it has recovered from the injury. If it has fully healed, we may find ourselves in serious trouble." "That need not be said," replied the elder. "I already know. I merely wanted to test its true strength. The fact that it was so easily moved by my single slash suggests it is no more than an ordinary giant. Now, we may proceed with confidence." The Huan family youth stared at the giant's returned palm, speaking softly. But before he had finished speaking, a green glow suddenly surged from the wound on the giant's palm. Within that glow, countless blood vessels and flesh buds rapidly sprouted, and in a matter of moments, a perfectly intact thumb reappeared. The thumb then moved gracefully, clearly functioning flawlessly. The youth was first startled, then drew in a sharp breath. "Immortal Body!" Huang Liang Lingjun also narrowed his eyes, murmuring the words. At that moment, the giant suddenly slammed both massive hands against the sides of the ground, causing the entire valley of chaos to tremble with a deep, resonant roar. The giant's form instantly rose several times taller, finally standing upright from the earth. To the dismay of Huang Liang Lingjun and the human-elf couple, as soon as the giant stood up, he suddenly reached down with one hand and pulled out a dark, solid stone staff from the soil beneath him. The staff was truly enormous, its length nearly equal to half the height of a giant. From the faint emerald glow emanating from its surface, it was clear that the stone staff had been forged from the legendary Qing Ling Sha, a rare material known in ancient lore. This material was not only denser than ordinary refined iron but even heavier than iron of the same volume. Such a formidable weapon, when hurled down, would surely have rendered even non-magical, non-precious artifacts powerless—few cultivators at the Ling Xu stage, even without possessing any spiritual artifacts or divine tools, would dare to absorb its full impact. "It seems we have a weapon at last—this is truly troublesome. Without giving our full strength, we shall be unable to proceed." The Ling Jun Huan's facial muscles twitched slightly. "I need not rely on your words to know this, Huan. I have long been aware of the situation. Let us act now—this dangerous object must not be allowed to leave this place." The young man named Huan spoke with calm composure, then opened his mouth and emitted a low hum. Almost immediately, a flash of colorful clouds appeared in the sky, revealing a large flying moth, roughly the size of The young man slightly bent his body, yellow fur sprouting from his skin to a few inches in length, while his form rapidly expanded, his mouth and nose transforming into more beastly, fierce shapes. In a moment, he had become a half-beast, half-human half-divine being. One after another, shimmering, tangible claws of light materialized out of thin air, rushing in dense waves toward the giant, tearing through the space with an unusual crackling sound. As the creature transformed into a streak of light, it suddenly dissolved into the claws, vanishing mysteriously. The giant roared in fury, its single eye projecting beams of crimson light, while simultaneously swinging a stone staff with a solid blow aimed directly at the massive seal falling from above. With its other hand, it reached out toward the ground or sky, scooping up a large mound of earth that materialized in its grasp; after a flash of yellow light, it transformed into a colossal stone several dozen feet in diameter. With a simple gesture, the stone was hurled forward with a roaring sound, aimed precisely at the opposing Lingjun, the Spring and Beam. The claws of light and the crimson beams collided, producing a thunderous explosion, followed by another colossal crash as the iron staff struck firmly against the great seal—thus, the battle officially began! Han Li watched from above, his brows furrowed in concentration. No wonder it was the clash between a Xuangong-period cultivator and the legendary ancient giant—under the sensitivity of his divine awareness, every movement of the three stirred the celestial and primordial qi of the world. Especially after the Yuan婴 of Huanliang Lingjun detached from his body, the great seal under its command drew in vast amounts of surrounding qi before each strike, amplifying its power nearly in half. Otherwise, even though the seal itself was immensely potent, it would have been utterly unable to withstand several powerful blows from that massive stone staff. The half-divine young boy, whose form shimmered like a translucent stream of light, seemed to flicker and appear and disappear, creating the impression of a colossal vortex that continuously absorbed ambient qi. As for the one-eyed giant, simply opening and closing its mouth, it unconsciously inhaled and exhaled large quantities of qi. While the volume of qi it exchanged far surpassed that of the two Huanliang and Lingjun figures, in terms of purity, it still fell short of the human and divine beings. For the first time, Han Li observed so closely a confrontation between two Xuangong-period cultivators, and naturally compared it with the principles and techniques of his own cultivation practice. As a result, he made remarkable gains. While Han Li was intently focused, his face suddenly shifted, and he turned sharply toward a certain spot in the empty space. Though nothing seemed to be there—his spiritual awareness detected no presence—the pair of eyes, having been repeatedly cleansed and refined by spiritual elixirs, still faintly perceived a blurry, translucent figure standing there, gazing down at the ongoing battle. "Xu Tian!" Although Han Li's eyes still couldn't render the figure clearly, it seemed only the being from the spiritual race could remain undetected and hidden in this spot. Han Li murmured in quiet satisfaction. To him, the more chaotic the situation, the greater his opportunities. As Han Li gazed silently at the translucent figure, the figure stirred and suddenly raised its head, glancing directly toward Han Li's position. Han Li felt a sudden sense of alertness. Fortunately, the shadow soon lowered its head again—either it had truly sensed Han Li's presence, or the brief glance earlier had simply been accidental. Han Li narrowed his eyes, his expression shifting between gloom and uncertainty. The great battle below lasted for nearly half a day. Under the relentless assault of the giant and the two cultivators at the Lingxu stage, the entire Hongtu Valley had been transformed beyond recognition. The ground was littered with deep craters, many exceeding a li in diameter. The once hazy, misty atmosphere that had pervaded the valley had been completely dispersed by the overwhelming spiritual pressures of the three beings. Moreover, due to the intense disturbance of the celestial and terrestrial vital energies, the skies above fluctuated dramatically: at times shrouded in dense clouds with torrential rains, at others clear and bright under a blazing sun; at times battered by fierce winds and swirling wind blades, and at others drenched in hailstones, mud, and debris falling like rain. Only a few cultivators at the Huasheng stage—such as the lady in the palace attire—could still observe the battle from a distance. Everyone else had already evacuated the valley, fearing they would be drawn into the chaos and lose their lives. The one-eyed giant still appeared fiercely aggressive, his attacks with stone clubs and thrown boulders showing no signs of abating. Yet Han Li observed clearly: under the deliberate maneuvers of the two Yellow-Rice Immortals, even with the replenishment of celestial and terrestrial spiritual energies restoring his strength, the giant had now reached the point of exhaustion. Whether swinging his club or hurling massive stones, his movements were far slower than at the beginning—his defeat was inevitable. Indeed, when the boy of the Huan surname, now wielding the sharp claws of a half-divine creature, struck again and severed a toe of the giant's foot while the giant was momentarily pulled off balance by attacks from the Yellow-Rice Immortal, the giant roared in pain, yet no emerald glow emerged at the wound to signify the regeneration of limbs. Both the Yellow-Rice Immortal and Huan Tianqi instantly brightened, recognizing that the battle had finally reached its conclusion.