Published: September 9, 2025
Chapter 815: The Lava Land
As several puppets scattered and fled, the three figures hidden behind them—Han Li and the others—could not help but hold their breath.
Although Han Li spoke confidently, whether it would actually work was another matter.
In truth, even Han Li himself wasn’t entirely sure. After all, everything he knew about the Ten Absolute Poisons came from ancient texts. He had never personally conducted such a test.
But after a moment, all doubts vanished from the three of them.
Only to see, as the giant ape puppets flew a few dozen yards away, several strange, noisy cries suddenly echoed from the once quiet mountaintop.
The moment that eerie cry entered his ears, Han Li felt his blood surge violently, his head suddenly heavy, almost causing him to fall from the air.
Alarmed, he quickly circulated spiritual energy throughout his body to stabilize himself. Slightly turning his head, he used his spiritual eye to see the two marquises of Nanlong beside him.
They were no better off, their bodies swaying before regaining balance.
Han Li frowned deeply, inwardly shocked.
This strange cry’s attack didn’t seem to target spiritual awareness; it attacked directly at the true essence within the body. No matter how strong his spiritual awareness was, he was powerless against such a bizarre assault.
That purple-patterned scorpion really had an unusual innate talent — truly surprising.
It seemed the records in the ancient texts couldn’t cover everything.
Just as Han Li was musing silently, thirteen or fourteen dark purple streaks shot out from the mountaintop, flashing like lightning as they chased after the giant apes.
Han Li quickly urged with his spiritual awareness, and one of the distracted giant apes immediately activated its top escape speed, transforming into several white streaks that shot toward the distance.
Even in that brief moment, thanks to his strong spiritual awareness, Han Li roughly discerned what those purple streaks were.
Besides being terrifyingly large — each about three meters in size — they were shiny black-purple all over and sported a pair of transparent wings. Otherwise, they looked no different from ordinary scorpions.
However, the leading flying scorpion was much larger than the rest, measuring almost six meters in size. It seemed to be the leader of this group.
Seeing its ferocious face spewing yellow mist, Han Li couldn’t help but slightly narrow his pupils.
The giant apes’ escape speed was clearly inferior to those purple streaks, but in this chase-and-flee sequence, they still managed to lead the purple-patterned scorpions far away for the time being.
In the blink of an eye, they shrank to tiny black dots.
A moment later, a loud shout came from high above: “Run! A puppet has triggered some restriction. We’ve been caught!”
With those words, spiritual light flickered around Han Li as his concealment spell vanished, and he surged forward through the air.
The other two immediately transformed into golden streaks, shooting toward the mountaintop.
All three knew these purple-patterned scorpions came and went like the wind. If they didn’t quickly pass the mountain ahead, serious trouble would follow.
Fortunately, all three had impressive escape speeds, and even though Han Li wasn’t using his Wind Thunder Wings, his profound cultivation base—far beyond others of his rank—allowed him to quickly fly past the mountain.
At that moment, the giant ape puppets Han Li had been tracking suddenly lost contact.
Alarmed, Han Li dared not linger for even a moment and swiftly flew more than ten miles away from the purple-patterned scorpion nest.
Only when they stopped briefly on another mountaintop did the three finally relax.
“This time, it’s all thanks to Brother Han’s Jade Pigeon Poison and mechanical puppets. Otherwise, how could we have passed this stage? It really would’ve been a headache,” the Marquis of Nanlong said repeatedly with a beaming smile.
“It’s nothing—just a coincidence,” Han Li replied coolly, glancing at the marquis without revealing much.