"What kind of illusion?" Han Li was momentarily stunned upon seeing this scene, but soon shook his sleeves, and instantly dozens of golden small sword-fish shot out, swirling in the air. With a subtle mental cue, he caused each sword-fish to slightly blur, then split into several identical beams of swordlight, which then began to spiral and dance in unison. For a moment, the sky was filled with golden light, sword energy sweeping across the battlefield, and monsters within a radius of fifty paces were cut to pieces. The remains of the beasts, along with their thunderous roars, filled Han Li's surroundings. Yet Han Li frowned slightly. Whether it was the sensation of the swordlight striking or the vivid details he observed, everything felt utterly real—these creatures bore no trace of being illusions. There was no hint of artificiality or falsehood to be found. He felt a growing sense of wonder, his expression calm and composed. The swordlight beams, formed by his flying swords, continued to swirl and protect him without pause. Meanwhile, the old monk standing atop the siren-beast smiled with a strangely serene expression. The monstrous creatures rising all around seemed endless, and Han Li's swordlight was sharp and incisive; within moments, hundreds of beasts fell beneath his blade. Yet the shattered bodies of these slain creatures floated in the air nearby, refusing to descend. As a result, the scent of blood grew increasingly thick and sharp, becoming almost unbearable. A short while later, when Han Li noticed something was amiss, the old monk's jade beast beneath him suddenly emitted a cry, and all the floating fragments instantly transformed into dense, dark mist, rushing toward Han Li in a swirling tide. Hundreds of swordlight beams spiraled and danced around, occasionally cleaving through portions of the mist, yet as more mist converged, the swords themselves grew suddenly sluggish and stalled. At the same time, the jade beast, with its massive form, swayed and then subtly transformed into a surge of dark energy, shooting forth and vanishing into the gathering mist. At that very moment, two long streaks of red emerged from the black mist with no prior sign or warning, flashing swiftly before mysteriously arriving before Han Li, one heading straight for his head and the other aimed directly at his chest and heart—moving with the speed of lightning. Had it not been for Han Li's internal cultivation circulating through his entire body, his eyes flashing with blue light, and his clear and refined spiritual vision reaching its peak to counteract the spell, his mere awareness would have been unable to perceive such swift attacks. Han Li's expression darkened. With no magical artifacts employed, a golden glow flashed across his face. His two hands, though appearing slow, moved with decisive speed, reaching out as if grasping. Suddenly, both hands shone with a brilliant golden radiance, resembling solid gold. "Thud, thud"—the two unusual golden hands seized the two long, fresh red tongues, each tipped with a rounded mass, and firmly held them. A powerful force surged up through his arms. Yet Han Li's shoulders only trembled slightly before returning to normal. Witnessing this, the elder monk was startled, his eyes flashing a moment of surprise. To be sure, this xian shen not only possessed a refined and masterful ability of transformation, but also was renowned throughout the shadow clan for his immense strength. The very fact that a mountain peak a hundred zhang high was launched into the air by a single flick of his dual tongues clearly demonstrated his power. This young human clan member, though seemingly unimpressive at first glance, managed to grasp the creature's dual tongues solely with his hands, and did so with an air of ease—quite astonishing indeed. Yet the old master need not have been truly concerned. The xian shen was no mere brute of strength. Indeed, as soon as the dual tongues came into his hands, they remained motionless before suddenly radiating a brilliant white light, transforming instantly into two massive crimson pythons with fierce, gaping mouths. With a sudden surge, they lunged straight toward his head, ready to strike. Han Li felt a tremendous tremor in his fingers, the area he held now cold and slick—seeming as though the serpents were determined to break free. His eyes flashed with a vivid blue glow, and as he waved his golden hands, they unexpectedly turned a striking shade of black and white. Simultaneously, a silver mountain silhouette emerged on the back of the dark, broad hand, and its five fingers swelled dramatically. With a sharp "pffft," blood sprayed out as the hand crushed the serpent into two halves. The translucent, jade-like hand, meanwhile, transformed its five fingers into five white bone skulls. With a strange, sudden snap, it clamped down on the serpent's seven-inch section. The skulls opened wide and sucked in fiercely, causing the serpent's body to shrink and dry out, until its essence and vital fluids were completely drained. This was precisely the result of Han Li integrating the Yuanmagnetic Divine Mountain, the Wuxi Zhongtong Magic, and his own hands into a unified essence. This method, however, was uniquely recorded in the Hundred Meridians' Treasure Cultivation Technique—a specialized cultivation approach. While the process of refining one's limbs into treasures naturally takes an extremely long time, utilizing existing treasures to achieve this through a more efficient, clever path can significantly shorten the duration. With this method of cultivation, not only did he harness the combined power of the two treasures to refine his hands' divine abilities, but when facing enemies, the strength of his two hands and the two treasures merged seamlessly, becoming exceptionally agile and far more potent than when used separately. It was only then that Han Li, unexpectedly, swiftly eliminated the serpent formed from the two tongues of the jelly creature. The old monk had clearly not anticipated such a result; in his shock and anger, before he could take any action, two deep, agonized roars erupted from within the black mist. Then, the mist parted, and the jelly creature surged forward, only to suddenly blur and vanish into transparency as it moved. The creature even possessed the ability to become invisible. Moments later, Han Li heard the creature's roars echoing around him, making it impossible to determine its precise location. Even as he scanned the surroundings with his eyes flashing blue light, he could not discern a single detail of its form. Seeing this, Han Li simply smiled lightly. The two large sleeves swept outward and then waved, instantly emitting a resonant hum from within. Immediately, countless golden light spots surged forth. As soon as these golden points shot out, they rapidly expanded, transforming into massive, half-shi-sized beetle-like creatures. These were the mature Golden-Feeding Beetles, finally perfected after countless efforts by Han Li. A total of over a thousand such giant beetles burst forth, filling the surrounding airspace with their flight. In an instant, the monstrous creature was struck by several of these beetles, which collided with it and revealed its true form. Without any further prompting from Han Li, all the Golden-Feeding Beetles emitted a resonant hum and surged forward, instantly enveloping the monster in a dense cloud of golden light. The Sea-Beast emitted a piercing, agonized cry, but soon, with a sudden *pffft*, its massive body dissolved into a swirling mass of dark vapor and fled. Ordinary insects, encountering such an intangible form, were naturally helpless. Yet, an astonishing scene unfolded! The black mist was about to surge forth through the gaps of the gold-devouring beetles, but several of these monstrous insects, with a flash of golden light from their multiple claws, adhered firmly to the mist and immediately lowered their heads to gnaw wildly. As thousands of such colossal beetles simultaneously devoured the mist, even though the black mist had expanded greatly, it was reduced by a tenth or more within a single breath. A series of piercing, desperate cries erupted from the mist, which then surged and shot out ten long, slender serpents of silver and gold, each measuring a dozen feet in length. They swiftly swallowed ten of the giant beetles whole in a flash. With a mere flick of their heads, another ten golden beetles vanished from within the serpents' mouths. However, immediately afterward, each of the ten silver-gold serpents emitted a sharp cry and then rolled over, collapsing instantly and reverting back into clusters of black mist. One by one, the golden giant beetles emerged unharmed from the mist, spiraled gracefully, and then reattached themselves to the mist, continuing to devour more. These spirit insects showed not the slightest sign of injury. Then, the black mist swiftly transformed into several specialized beast forms designed to combat insect life, yet none of them could inflict even a single wound upon the gold-devouring insects. In fact, during this brief delay, nearly half of the black mist was torn away, and the speed at which the mist transformed into beasts became noticeably sluggish. From the moment Han Li released the insect swarm until the black mist was nearly extinguished, it had only taken a few breaths. A distant elder stared, wide-eyed, fixedly at the massive golden insects, his face gradually assuming a strange and unusual expression. "Mature gold-devouring insects!" he murmured twice, then suddenly, without hesitation, raised his hand and struck his own head. A flash of red light erupted, and a crimson streak shot forth from his forehead, spiraling before suddenly becoming a brilliant, dazzling streak of light that retreated hundreds of paces. After a few more flickers, it vanished completely into the horizon. The elder himself, remaining in place, turned into a dry, lifeless corpse. A gentle breeze swept past, carrying the body away until it turned into a heap of fine ash. "Hm," said Han Li, who remained still, his eyes fixed on the direction where Jing Hong had vanished, his expression shifting between surprise and uncertainty. "Even this rare beast was overlooked—does the mature form of the Golden-Feeding Beetle truly hold such a distinguished reputation?" After murmuring this thought, Han Li turned his head and glanced at the nearly consumed black mist. He stroked his chin, then suddenly raised his hand, and instantly, the Golden-Feeding Beetles from afar took flight, spiraling before shrinking down to the size of rice grains, and then vanishing into the folds of his robe. As he finished these actions, Han Li turned to prepare to take flight, only to suddenly stiffen, his body swaying several times before he stumbled, nearly falling straight downward from the sky. "Impossible! How could my awareness have been consumed so completely, nearly affecting my spirit?" Han Li quickly turned inward, his face now pale with growing astonishment. His nearly equivalent to a Lianxi-level divine awareness, which should have been ample, now consumed seven-tenths of it, nearly depleting itself. Yet this process unfolded silently, and he noticed absolutely no anomaly. "Could it be..." How could one fail to immediately think of the mature-bodied Gold-Eating Insects he had just summoned? With his expression growing increasingly grave, a faint sense of anticipation stirred within him. Suddenly, he shook his sleeve once more, and a flash of golden light shot forth, then expanded into a massive armored insect that began to hover and circle around him with its wings spread. Immediately, he focused his divine awareness inward. Yet just as the great insect emerged, he found himself stunned, frozen in place. At the very moment the insect appeared, his spiritual awareness began to dissipate at a visibly slow pace. Though the rate seemed moderate, this was only a single Gold-Eating Insect. Should hundreds or even thousands be activated simultaneously, the consumption of his awareness would be staggering. With his current Lianxi-level divine awareness, he simply could not sustain such a level of strain for even a brief period. Even more terrifying was that, unless he used his divine awareness to internally observe, this kind of consumption happened silently and imperceptibly—he could hardly notice it at all. (First update!)