The Long Journey to Immortality

Han Lu felt an invisible pressure coming from all directions, as if countless hands were pressing down on her body, trying to bind her to the spot.

Having figured out the magical effects of the Zhongli Bronze Mirror, Han Lu thought to herself with disdain, "A trivial skill."

She did not use any special abilities as a true spirit; she simply flapped her wings with all her might.

True Spirit's powerful physical strength allowed her to instantly break free from the shackles of the Bronze Mirror's divine power, shattering the invisible force controlling her.

This simple and brutal method of escape was beyond Zhong Lili's expectations.

He only saw the phoenix soar into the air with seemingly effortless flight, and then the bronze mirror in his hand trembled, the image that had just become clear became blurry again, and he temporarily lost the ability to use his supernatural powers.

Zhongli Li's expression hardened, and he thought to himself, "The True Spirit is actually this powerful?"

The bronze mirror in his hand was one of the few magical treasures that allowed him to leverage the immense spiritual power of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

He was quite surprised that Han Lu had broken his spell so easily.

"Then try this one..." Zhongli swallowed, then patted his storage bag and took out another magic weapon that he quite liked.

Three yellowish-brown nails, roughly the length and thickness of a middle finger, appeared in Zhong Lili's hand.

With his fingers pinching up three nails, Zhongli Li, as if throwing a flying knife, flicked his wrist and shot the three nails at the phoenix circling in the air.

"go with!"

In the blink of an eye, the three nails vanished, only to reappear in front of the phoenix in the next instant.

Having transformed into a true spirit, Han Lu's five senses became several times more sensitive than in her human form. When Zhong Lili threw out the "nail projectiles," her small phoenix eyes caught the trajectory of the three nails as they flew.

Han Lu knew very well that these three nails were definitely magical tools, so instead of flapping her wings to dodge them, she used her true spiritual powers to deal with them.

A chilling aura erupted from the phoenix, and the three earthen nails, which had just approached but had not yet struck the phoenix, were frozen into ice blocks, losing their sharpness.

The ice block that froze the three soil nails was no ordinary ice block; it also had the function of isolating spiritual energy.

Having just been frostbitten, the three soil nails broke free from Zhongli's control.

The phoenix casually flapped its wings, rolling up and sending the three "ice blocks" back the way they came.

Seeing three tiny white dots rushing towards him, Zhongli hurriedly manipulated the spirit sword beneath his feet to dodge in a sorry state.

All three ice blocks passed by him without harming Zhongli Li's fur.

With yet another tactic easily thwarted, Zhong Lili finally felt a surge of anxiety.

The borrowed power could only last for less than five more minutes on him. Although he still had a few magical artifacts in his storage bag, he couldn't think of any way to deal with the phoenix that Han Lu had transformed into.

The "old man" in the ring was also giving Zhongli advice, "You brat, since you can't deal with that True Spirit for now, go and cause trouble for that little girl named Wen Erya."

Zhong Lili rejected the suggestion without even thinking about it.

This is a moment.

Zhongli had the advantage of mobility when facing Han Lu in her human form.

But now, Zhongli Li doesn't think he can outrun Han Lu, who has transformed into a phoenix, by flying on his sword.

If he really follows the "old man's" advice and starts by taking action against Wen Erya.

Whether he can defeat Wen Erya in one or two moves is another matter, but Han Lu will definitely find a loophole in him and defeat him even faster.

Using someone as a scapegoat is not Zhongli's fundamental goal in borrowing power from the "old man".

What he wanted to sacrifice his future for was to defeat Han Lu and Wen Erya here and seize the many ancient cultivation treasures they possessed.

Seeing that Zhongli Li was no longer making trouble, Han Lu, who had originally intended to fight a protracted battle, decided to take the initiative.

Unable to speak fluently, Han Lu could only suppress her desire to engage in a verbal battle and restrain her thoughts of mocking and teasing the other party. Instead, she chose to communicate with the other party through a battle of wits.

"Watch closely, now it's my turn." Han Lu thought to herself, and began to mobilize the spiritual power in her body, preparing to use various methods to teach Zhong Lili, this bastard who dared to injure Wen Erya, a lesson.

Chapter 226 The Old Man Stepped Forward

Han Lu, who had transformed into an Ice Phoenix, called out to Wen Erya, who was not far away. Wen Erya understood what Han Lu meant.

She quickly summoned two defensive magical artifacts to completely protect herself and then affixed two "Iron Armor Talismans" to her body to prevent herself from becoming an innocent bystander in the fierce battle between Han Lu and Zhong Lili, given her serious injuries.

Wen Erya's injuries were serious but not fatal. If she had taken proper precautions, she could have survived the impact of the battle between the man and the bird.

Seeing Wen Erya's stance, Han Lu was finally relieved and could focus all her attention on fighting Zhong Lili.

Although a full year and several months have passed since Han Lu was able to transform into a true spirit, she has not actually comprehended many true spirit supernatural powers during this long period.

One reason is that the true spirit bloodline in her body is not as strong as that of a true spirit.

Secondly, Han Lu is not the kind of genius who can learn supernatural powers and magic without a teacher.

If Han Lu hadn't spent nearly an hour with Yu Fengrubing and gained some inspiration from her use of spiritual power, she wouldn't have even been able to comprehend and master the move "Frozen Thousand Miles".

Therefore, when fighting as a phoenix, Han Lu either relies on the instincts of her true spirit body, mobilizing spiritual power through movements to unleash "turtle punches".

They can either rely on their powerful physical bodies to fight in a way similar to external martial arts cultivation, just like when they dealt with Yi Qiyan.

Alternatively, one could simply use their true spirit body to enhance the power of their spells by relying on the Ice Phoenix bloodline's stronger affinity and control over water elemental power, thus enabling them to unleash the cultivator's spells.

Each of the three combat styles has its own advantages and disadvantages.

But at this moment, Han Lu prefers to use the first method, so that she can start the second phase of her battle with Zhongli Li more as a true spirit.

As always, it let out a cry, but this time, Han Lu used the innate divine power of the Illusionary Phoenix to mix illusion into the sound.

The sharp cry of the phoenix had just entered Zhongli Li's ears when he felt as if eight hundred gongs and drums were ringing in his head, making him completely dizzy and almost causing him to fall off the spirit sword.

Having just regained his balance, Zhongli felt as if the scenery before him had multiplied, and for a short time his brain completely lost the ability to think.

If it weren't for the "old man" in the ring secretly exerting his strength and repeatedly calling upon Zhongli's power through spiritual communication, he would probably have been defeated by Han Lu with just this one move.

This situation was within Han Lu's expectations.

After all, although Zhongli's spiritual power has been temporarily raised to the level of the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, his soul power's resistance to illusions remains at the level of a Qi Refining cultivator.

Without any deliberate precautions, he was struck by Han Lu's illusionary attack, which could damage the soul, and naturally had no strength left to resist.

The enemy was affected by the chirping and was in a state of confusion, so Han Lu naturally wouldn't just fly by and wait for the enemy to recover.

With her extensive experience in combat, she gave Zhongli Li not a moment to catch his breath.

Its wings spread out, and two feathers fell from each wing.

Four strangely shaped, pure white feathers, under Han Lu's control, shot towards Zhong Lili's location, just like the three earthen nails that had been shot at her earlier.

Compared to the earth nail magic tool that Zhongli Li had just used, these four feathers were not only as flexible as wings under Han Lu's control, but the enemies they attacked were currently powerless to fight back.

Four feathers attacked Zhongli from four directions.

When Lingyu arrived at Zhongli Li's side, Zhongli Li, who had just regained consciousness, had no time to cast any spells or use any magical tools for defense.

Fortunately, there was an "old man" secretly helping him.

A faint green flame ignited on the ring on Zhongli Li's hand.

The flames clearly divided themselves into four groups, rushing towards the feathers that Han Lu was shooting at.

The feather was ignited in mid-air. In the blink of an eye, this feather, which could be used as an excellent material for refining Qi, was burned in the air and finally turned into specks of green light and disappeared into the air.

"This is..." Han Lu was shocked. Having the memories of Xiaoyaozi, she naturally recognized the origin of this strange flame. "This must be the infant fire that only Nascent Soul cultivators possess."

"Very similar, about 90% similar..." Recalling the feeling when the feather was ignited, Han Lu wondered to herself, "Could it be that Zhongli Li also had some extraordinary encounter that allowed him to possess these tiny specks of infant fire?"

Zhong Lili had another trick up his sleeve, which made Han Lu even more wary.

Although the Infant Fire is not used for combat, it is difficult for her to deal with given her current cultivation level.

Han Lu didn't want to actually be burned to a bald head.

"However, since we're only using this trick now, there are probably many limitations. It's best to avoid it for a while."

Han Lu's guess was 90% correct.

After using the Infant Fire to help Zhongli Li out of his predicament, the old man in the ring was panting heavily and complaining loudly in Zhongli Li's sea of ​​consciousness.

"You brat, wake up quickly, or I'll exhaust my soul power and leave you before you even die."

The "old man" inside the ring did have some effect.

After being stunned for three or four seconds, Zhong Lili finally came to his senses.

Han Lu's backup plan is already in the works.

A pure white, frozen beam of light shot out from the phoenix's mouth and struck Zhongli Li.

Even from nearly fifty meters away, Zhongli could feel the extreme cold.

Seeing this, Zhongli quickly took out a large red umbrella from his storage bag and opened it in front of him.

The magical implements were infused with spiritual power, and the red color on the surface of the large umbrella became even more vibrant.

In an instant, a human face suddenly appeared on the umbrella surface, which was originally only a monotonous color.

The human face opened its mouth wide and swallowed the "absolute freezing gas" that Han Lu shot out.

However, the "absolute freezing gas" released by Han Lu was not an easily digestible food.

Just three breaths after swallowing the white light, a layer of ice suddenly formed on the originally red fan surface.

The ice spread rapidly, soon crossing the fan-shaped surface and reaching the umbrella handle.

Startled, Zhongli quickly released his grip to prevent the virus-like chill from freezing his hands.

When he was "observing" from the sidelines in the sword formation, did he notice the difference between Han Lu's water-attribute spells and those of other cultivators?

He dared not be negligent in the slightest when Han Lu transformed into a true spirit and unleashed her water-attribute divine power.

In this back-and-forth exchange, Han Lu could be said to have the upper hand.

Not only did it cause Zhongli a minor injury, it also wasted a lot of time.

In fact, Zhong Lili can only barely maintain his current state for three minutes now.

In less than three minutes, he will not only temporarily lose all his spiritual power and become no different from an ordinary person, but also his future path of cultivation will be "dim and gloomy" due to the overdraft of his foundation and talent.

Looking at the phoenix flying in the sky not far away, Zhongli felt that he was trapped in a dead end, unable to move forward or backward.

A sense of despair arose from my heart.