The Long Journey to Immortality

The spirit swords that make up this sword formation can become even stronger, perhaps even reaching the level of mid-grade spirit weapons.

Even now, this is a sight that many Nascent Soul cultivators with abundant resources cannot achieve.

One hundred and eight low-grade spiritual swords, forming a sword formation inherited from the ancient cultivator Fang Lin, participated in the battle simultaneously.

If Venerable Pot Lamp knew about this, he would probably run away on the spot, regretting that he went to the diviner to find Han Lu's location and came here to die.

But in reality, Venerable Pot Lamp was unaware of this.

He was surprised that his poisonous insects had been discovered, and surprised that Han Lu had stopped playing the zither. At that moment, the Starry Sky Sword Formation slowly began to operate under Han Lu's full-hearted encouragement.

Because the number of times this sword formation could operate was less than that of the "Thunder Formation," Han Lu stopped playing the zither midway and focused all her energy on controlling the spirit sword.

With her hands forming hand seals and her mouth chanting incantations, the twelve spirit swords obeyed Han Lu's command, broke free from the great formation, and launched the first wave of attack in a pincer formation.

After advancing to the Golden Core Realm, Han Lu had more energy to control multiple magical treasures simultaneously.

This made her far more skilled at wielding the "Starry Sky Sword Formation" than she had been when she was in the Foundation Establishment stage, even without any deeper understanding of the sword formation.

The twelve spirit swords formed a medium-sized sword formation, supporting each other.

Meanwhile, within this medium-sized sword formation, the spirit swords were divided into three smaller sword formations, each consisting of four swords.

Two sets of flanking maneuvers formed a pincer movement, while the remaining set of four spirit swords launched a frontal attack, restraining and squeezing the enemy.

If Han Lu, who was only at the Foundation Establishment stage two years ago, had used such a complex coordinated strategy, she would definitely have made mistakes in the rush. It would have been more effective to directly command the spirit sword to fly and attack.

But now, with the spirit swords working together, these twelve spirit swords, aided by the stars and the sword formation, have unleashed at least three times their original power.

Venerable Pot Lamp felt several white lights rushing towards him, and several more white lights swept past him, causing his raincoat to become dull and lifeless.

The earth dragon tendons that woven the raincoat were all severed. The raincoat, made of leaves from some unknown plant, disintegrated into withered leaves with this one blow, and scattered with the wind and sand, disappearing without a trace in the dusty sky.

Heartbroken over the loss of his magical artifacts, Venerable Pot Lamp felt he had lost count of how many cultivation resources he had lost and how much he had suffered in his battle with Han Lu.

"I don't want to end up not being able to recover my losses even if I capture these three true phoenixes and skin them alive."

But then he thought again, Venerable Pot Lamp had his eye on Han Lu's spirit sword.

"There are countless spirit swords forming this sword formation, and they all seem to be magical treasures of the spirit weapon level."

"If we can get half of them intact, then we can guarantee that we will not only get revenge, but also make a great profit on this trip."

After a few thoughts flashed through his mind, Venerable Pot Lamp reacted quickly and did not spend any more time holding a memorial service for the magic treasure that had accompanied him for countless years.

He quickly patted his storage bag and used other magical treasures for defense to prevent Han Lu's spirit sword from launching another counterattack.

Three coffins appeared beside Venerable Pot Lamp, surrounding him completely.

These coffins were half-open, suggesting they were not simply used as defensive weapons.

Venerable Pot Lamp's reaction was actually a bit excessive. He didn't know that the power of the stars borrowed by the Star Sword Formation was more like a stimulant. The twelve spiritual swords that had attacked him earlier had temporarily lost their spiritual power after delivering that shocking blow and returned to the sword formation to recuperate.

Otherwise, Han Lu would have already commanded the spirit sword to severely injure Venerable Pot Lamp.

Han Lu was delighted with her newly achieved victory as she guided the sword spirit back to the sword formation to nurture and recover.

Overjoyed, she did not forget to press her advantage.

Using the same tactic again, the twelve spirit swords temporarily left the sword formation and, under Han Lu's control, attacked Venerable Pot Lamp.

This time the situation is different from the last time.

The first wave of attacks caught Venerable Pot Lamp off guard, but the second wave of spiritual swords had to face the active defense of the coffin magic artifact controlled by Venerable Pot Lamp.

Three coffins protect the front, some responsible for blocking, others for lifting the "coffin lids" to try and capture the spirit sword.

All that could be heard was the sound of a sharp object striking wood.

After one round trip, only nine sword pellets remained in the sword formation. The other three were temporarily trapped in a coffin, their connection with the sword formation severed. Relying on their instincts, the sword pellets attempted to break through the encirclement.

This caused a flaw in the originally stable Starry Sky Sword Formation. The starlight in one side of the sky dimmed, and more than twenty spirit swords were affected, losing the blessing of star power before they could be used.

Fortunately, the coffin only had the ability to confine, not to injure. Otherwise, Han Lu would probably feel like her pants were on fire, fearing that her golden core sword pellet spirit sword would be damaged inside the coffin, harming her foundation.

Han Lu was in a bad mood, and Venerable Pot Lamp didn't gain any advantage either.

Except for the one responsible for trapping the enemy, all three coffins were riddled with holes by the spirit sword.

Even the coffin that successfully trapped Han Lu's spirit swords was not in good shape; it only managed to suppress the two spirit swords within the coffin.

The second wave of the offensive has just ended, and the third wave has already begun.

This time, only three spirit swords were deployed, but their target was the coffin that imprisoned them.

Although it gave Venerable Pot Lamp a chance to catch his breath, he destroyed another resource.

With the aid of the power of the stars, the three spirit swords easily shredded the coffin and rescued their "brother" from the coffin.

The spirit sword flew back to the sword formation and repaired the sword formation that had just developed a flaw, but it would take some time to fully activate the star power of the sword formation again.

Feeling that it would be more advantageous for her to catch her breath before launching another attack, Han Lu was in no hurry to press her advantage and spoke up again, engaging in a literary duel with Venerable Pot Lamp.

"Senior Hudeng, I wonder how my moves are? Do they meet your standards? Would you be so kind as to acknowledge their power?"

Venerable Pot Lamp was unaware of the details of Han Lu's sword formation. He was also eager to rest for a while and recover his spiritual energy preparation methods, so he picked up on Han Lu's words, "You junior, you haven't been cultivating for long but you have many supernatural powers and magic treasures. You are indeed quite powerful."

"In my opinion, you are probably only at the late stage of the Golden Core realm. You can barely hold your own against them now."

Chapter 681 Praise, Evil Wind

While Venerable Pot Lamp's evaluation contained some exaggeration, it was not a deliberate attempt to delay the inevitable by praising someone.

In fact, if Venerable Pot Lamp had truly known 70% of Han Lu's many abilities before seeking revenge, he certainly wouldn't have embarked on this revenge journey that now seems most likely to end in failure.

When Venerable Pot Lamp learned of Han Lu's advancement to the Golden Core stage, he only regarded Han Lu as a Golden Core cultivator with some strength in the early stages.

After all, from the traditional perspective of the cultivation world, someone who has only advanced to the Golden Core realm for a year, even if they possess numerous magical treasures and have a true spirit bloodline, certainly won't be that powerful.

It's because a typical cultivator needs to stay at the early stage of the Golden Core realm for at least a hundred years.

"A hundred years is better than a year"—such a high evaluation is already an extremely high assessment of a younger generation by a cultivator who once reached the Nascent Soul level.

However, when Venerable Pot Lamp actually engaged Han Lu in combat, and his first sneak attack failed, he realized that he had made a small mistake in judging Han Lu's strength.

After practical verification, Venerable Pot Lamp slightly revised his judgment and concluded that Han Lu was a top-tier early-stage Golden Core cultivator.

With his abilities, dealing with him would be a little difficult, but defeating Han Lu would be no problem.

This evaluation can only be described as extremely high, but Venerable Pot Lamp soon discovered that Han Lu's strength was far beyond such an evaluation.

He was particularly impressed by the scene where the spirit sword destroyed his raincoat magic weapon with a single combined strike.

Such skill is clearly beyond the capabilities of a cultivator in the early stage of the Golden Core realm. With the help of magic weapons, Han Lu wouldn't be surprised if she said she could defeat a cultivator in the middle stage of the Golden Core realm, Venerable Pot Lamp.

Thus, in addition to Han Lu's true spirit form, which had not yet been used but had already left a shadow in Venerable Pot Lamp's heart by Feng You, there was also the fact that...

Only Venerable Pot Lamp could make such a startling statement and give Han Lu such an exaggerated assessment.

Nothing is more comforting than hearing praise and high regard from one's "enemy."

Hearing this, Han Lu chuckled and said, "Senior Hudeng, since you're praising me like this, I won't hold back."

"However, if you are willing to surrender voluntarily, allowing me to set a restriction on your sea of ​​consciousness to imprison your spiritual power and take you back to the wilderness for my father to decide your life or death, then I can be a good person and treat the prisoner kindly."

After all, Venerable Pot Lamp was once a Nascent Soul cultivator, and Han Lu was certain that he had some tricks up his sleeve.

The performance of those three coffins in the sword formation had really caught her eye.

In her eyes, resolving this undeserved disaster was more important than winning a fight.

In Han Lu's view, given Feng You's personality, he most likely wouldn't take Venerable Hu Deng's life. However, Venerable Hu Deng, who had dominated the Central Plains cultivation world for at least a thousand years, didn't have the habit of entrusting his life to others.

In fact, he felt that Han Lu's words were a complete insult to him and showed no sincerity whatsoever.

"Han Lu, you've gotten so cocky just because I said a few nice words to you?"

Feeling that he had recovered most of his strength, Venerable Pot Lamp roared, "It seems I have to teach you a lesson so you'll know what it means to be arrogant and ignorant."

Venerable Pot Lamp was determined to capture Han Lu here, even if it meant lowering his cultivation level by another realm.

Han Lu did not doubt Venerable Pot Lamp's words, but she was not afraid either.

"Alright, I want to see if the cultivators of Xuan Yang Valley are all talk and no action."

Feeling confident that she still had many tricks up her sleeve, and that she hadn't even transformed into the true spirit phoenix form yet, Han Lu remained full of confidence.

"If we really can't beat them, we can just run away."

Besides being confident in her combat power in her phoenix form, Han Lu also felt that her flight speed after transforming into the Three-Winged True Phoenix was far superior to that of Venerable Pot Lantern.

She wasn't afraid of losing face. While escaping, she also activated the "calling for help" ability given to her by her parents, which she considered an option.

Enraged, Venerable Pot Lamp slammed his hand on his storage bag and took out two small blue flags, one in each hand, waving them vigorously and rapidly.

Suddenly, a fierce wind arose within the sword formation, and two azure tornadoes appeared out of thin air, clearly not to be trifled with.

Even the sword pellets and spirit swords that Han Lu formed in each part of the sword formation seemed to be about to lose their souls and spirits due to the evil wind.

Silently reciting the incantation, Han Lu circulated her cultivation technique to stabilize the sword formation, while rapidly changing the positions of the spiritual swords in the formation to ensure that none of them would lose their spirituality due to prolonged proximity to the demonic wind.

Venerable Pot Lamp used this magic weapon primarily to suppress the sword formation and attempt to break it.

He could tell that Han Lu's many sharp sword techniques were mainly achieved by relying on the power of the sword formation. Destroying the sword formation was the only way to temporarily silence Han Lu.

These unorthodox methods did indeed have some effect.

Faced with the azure demonic wind summoned by the banner, Han Lu couldn't figure out its strength for the time being and could only let it grow stronger within the sword formation.

In less than ten breaths, the demonic wind increased from two to a hundred. Even Venerable Pot Lamp himself was caught in the raging wind, his clothes fluttering wildly, barely managing to keep his balance.

Faced with this situation, Han Lu, whose sword formation had already been partially broken, did not hesitate any longer.

"Just give it a try. Even if it fails, as long as the sword pellet returns to the body in time, there won't be any loss."

The spirit sword formed from the sword pellet was exceptionally sturdy; under the influence of the demonic wind, it only lost its spirituality without suffering any substantial damage.

Han Lu spewed frost from her mouth, attempting to dispel the demonic wind with her Ice Phoenix Divine Power.

The formless demonic wind was unaffected by the frost and continued to roam freely within the sword formation, transforming the original desert into a world of ice and snow.

Judging from the changes in the environment alone, it seems that Han Lu's methods have been effective.

But in reality, the demonic wind was not affected by the frost. Instead, the stars in the sky were extinguished one by one as the sword formation made its great movements.

Han Lu's meticulously arranged "Star Array" is about to be destroyed.