Chapter 182: To Yang Wei
Like a confluence of warmth, her whole body felt hot. She had already reached the cusp of physiques between Power Born and Evolved levels. Soon enough, she would gain a [Below-Average Power Birth Physique].
Evolved top-tier strength bodies could withstand even normal blades, and they could topple trees with their best attacks. Han Li could also topple trees now. He hadn\'t tested himself after forging his Bones, but he knew he could easily destroy mountain boulders with a punch.
But regardless, that was nothing compared to even the weakest [Below Average Power Born Physiques].
Suddenly, Hua Yu\'s eyes constricted to pins, and her nerves bulged like thick snakes coursing through her skin. She trembled, her teeth grinding against each other as she fell on the wall and squirmed.
Han Li calmly looked at her and took a sip of wine from the flagon of thick alcohol in his hand. She looked to be in pain, he noted calmly as his gaze moved to the distance. Far away, a dust cloud was rising, and he could tell why that must have happened.
His eyes darkened.
Exactly ten minutes later, heaving, puffing in pain, Hua Yu stood up with a sweaty body. Her green dress was now soaked from head to toe, giving her an extremely alluring appearance, with her twin mounts an especially sweet sight for those who adored feminine beauty.
With a groan, she snatched the flagon from Han Li\'s hand and downed several sips before looking at the dust cloud—a serious expression cast over her excited face. "Your conjuncture was indeed the right one," she said.
Han Li nodded.
According to Hua Yu\'s quick information hunt, The Clan Heads of Rock, Raven, and Starlight Clan were all in their own places, cultivating. But what about the enemy and the place where Li Shuanwei would spawn?
As far as Han Li knew, a Power Born woman had captured Li Shuanwei before he entered the Demon World, and Li Xingguang had chased after that woman in rage, yelling and revealing himself in the middle of Han Li\'s marriage.
But. But!
He had not been saved, and that woman Power Born, Li Shuanwei\'s captor, had not been put down. That woman, Demonic Ice Fairy, was still out there, exactly where the cloud of dust was rising from.
A silent sigh left Han Li.
Only People at the Power Born level could raise such a ruckus. Even the ground was slightly shaking.
"Do you feel strong?" he asked, looking into Hua Yu\'s emerald eyes.
The woman took a deep breath and clenched her hands. "I feel invincible. Three or four punches, and I can destroy this fortress wall of the Southern Lust city. I am strong. Beyond my own expectation."
Han Li flourished his dark sword and struck it at her. She didn\'t dodge.
It was sharp. It would cut anyone at the level of Evolved like Tofu, but striking her neck, it stopped and just vibrated with a "Shing!" sound. It couldn\'t move even a centimeter into her skin. She had a body stronger than iron.
She smirked.
He smiled, too.
"Strong indeed. A Power Born is indeed on their own level."
But then, their eyes became slightly downcast. Both Han Li and Hua Yu looked towards the dust cloud with a silent and defeated back. No matter how strong they could be, there were always bigger mountains with deeper foundations.
If no one among the Power Born Clan Heads was fighting the Demonic Ice Fairy, it was obvious why the fight had suddenly begun out of nowhere. It was painfully obvious.
It was around time for Li Shuanwei to return from the Demon World, and he should have returned. Exactly there, the man who had chopped his mother\'s hand with nary but a single wave of his hand, utterly inconceivable. That guy was fighting a Power Born.
Demonic Ice Fairy, while not being as strong as the Starlight Clan Head in a fight, was still better than Hua Yu. And Li Shuanwei himself could fight her. But Han Li also noticed more things.
Ordinarily, Power Birth Stage cultivators fought their battles in the sky, but they were fighting on land. Since Ice was a power that would have more advantage on land if Li Shuanwei was a Power Born himself, he should have flown up to the sky and fought, but since he didn\'t, it just meant that Li Shuanwei couldn\'t fly.
But he could no longer judge the man. That guy was far too much of a mystery.
Suddenly, another man flew up and landed beside them with starlight lingering on his path.
Hua Yu looked at him with a curious gaze and asked, "Your son really is something. Even more monstrous than the little guy beside us. What age was he again? 30?"
Li Xingguang laughed, unlike himself. "He is my pride, my arrogance. I used to worry about him all the time, but I no longer have to." He then snorted. "What Demonic Ice Fairy, my son would defeat her and show her her true worth. But just in case, come, the other two, Raven and Rock, are also pissed at the woman for ruining our peace, and we plan to encircle and kill her for sure this time.
Let\'s go, fulfill your promise for me."
Hua Yu looked at Han Li.
Han Li looked at Li Xingguang with a veiled gaze full of meaning. If Han Li himself had come back from 500 years in the future and was still just at the level of meager evolution, what was then that made Li Shuanwei so special?
"Clan Head certainly is blessed with a great heritage. Do I know when Brother SHuanwei broke through to the Power Birth Stage?" He asked with a smile. "I would like to congratulate you if so, but wouldn\'t that bring you trouble? After all, such a young Power Born… I can see my own type of issues but more inflated happening for him."
The Clan Head sighed. Seeing the probing intention.
"Power Birth, Evolved…" He flew towards his son, floating a meter away from Han Li. He said, "I wouldn\'t have told this to anybody else, but you are from my own lineage. As much as Shuanwei is my blood, you could also be considered a distant blood of mine. Let me give you one advice: if you leverage on it, it\'s up to you."
Han Li cupped his fists, and his eyes turned sharp inwardly.
"There are many things in this world that are not always as they seem. There are many powers inside even the most normal of cultivators. Heart Qi, Dao Crystals, Magic Powers, Weapon Proficiency… they are all scattered and never one part. The day all of it combines into one perfect thing is when a cultivator reaches his apex."
"Uh?" Han Li\'s face turned into a confused mess.
All of those were different facets of one cultivator.
What was this old man on about?
Was this a misleading tactic to change their attention from his son\'s brilliance?
There was nothing like all powers becoming one. Even among the Transcendent Stage, Heart Qi was Heart Qi, Proficiency was Proficiency, Body was Body, and Magic Powers were Magic Powers. There was not even a point in making it all one.
In the first place, how does someone even fuse the powers of thoughts like Proficiency, which lets them cut deeper to something substantial?
"Clan Head must be joking…" Han Li rubbed the back of his head.
Li Xingguang sighed. "Even I think I am joking, but this was advice from my son. Do what you do with it." He glanced at Hua Yu. "Demonic Ice Fairy won\'t go down without at least taking one of our limbs or even heads; be prepared. I will go, I can\'t wait for you, but I hope you arrive in ten minutes or so."
With that, he flew away, and Hua Yu looked at Han Li.
Han Li asked, "Do you care for honor and meeting your promises?"
"I don\'t care for the promise I gave Li Xingguang, at least." SHe wasn\'t bound with Heart Qi to do that after all, it was just a verbal promise and not going through with it would only make her name a bit bad at the worst.
Han Li stretched, and his bones started breaking out of their languidness. He took out a small blue vial from his Empty Space and downed the liquid inside it. A second later, he vomited a drop of water, which kept floating in the air.
"Come, let\'s bail." He said, and Hua Yu carried him down the wall back to his home.
This time, Liyue immediately noticed him upon entry, and the wooden spear in her hand fell out. She walked towards Han Li and gently placed her hand on his chest. She took a deep breath and asked, "Where is Mother Yue?"
Han Li patted her head, "Not the time for this. We\'ll talk."
She was reluctant but silent; she didn\'t say anything and just nodded. Her eyes kept breaking out tears, but she sniffed and, keeping his hand tightly in hers, followed him. She really, really had thought of many things that could have gone wrong in his nearly week-long trip. The relief was like a stuck blade taken out of her heart.
They then also met Li Yao, who looked at Han Li with a sigh of relief and gave him a long embrace. Hua Feilan asked Hua Yu something from the side.
Li Yao said, "I saw your mother in the room a second ago, but I didn\'t tell Liyue. Yue Li looks roughed up. You guys seemed to have gone through some serious stuff…"
Han Li sighed and, with all of them, and a quickly caught chicken with him, returned to the room where his mother was sleeping.
Then, he woke her up once more; still rather fuzzy in the head, she put all of them—Liyue, Li Yao, Hua Feilan, and the chicken—into her Empty Space before once again falling asleep a bit later onto Han Li\'s chest. Han Li had also made her put the important stuff, like extra Magical Resources in their hands, into her Empty Space.
The room was once again deadly quiet. Only him, Hua Yu, and his mother were here now.
Han Li looked at Hua Yu. "That was really a humbling experience… I had overestimated myself and also The Trials. There was no chance that Nu Kai and I stood a chance against Li Shuanwei. He is someone we can\'t judge."
But there was no reason to fight him now.
Even now that he had forged his bones, Li Shuanwei was beyond him.
"Nu Kai?" Hua Yu frowned.
"Someone I know. Anyway, let\'s go." He took his mother in a princess carry and looked at Hua Yu with a deep breath.
She could carry them and fly. That would be their way of travel.
"Any plans?" She asked. She had many ways of her own to avoid a chase.
Han Li smiled. "There is a friend of mine, Yang Wei. Let\'s move towards him; you can\'t interfere in this, and nor can we move too close, but if I invite him, he should come to me on his own. I have a bit of frustration to release, and he seems like an opportunity that is ready for the picking."
Hua Yu corked her eyebrows.
He smiled, and they both walked out of the house. Floating at the level of the rooftops of the homes, Han Li looked down at the city from his vantage point. Everything was shaking slightly due to the fight in the distance.
"I have a route in mind. One where no one can chase us…" Han Li said. He had not much of a reaction to being afloat, and Hua Yu was not physically carrying them; her soul sense was at the level of psychokinesis, and it was hefting them.
"To which route?" She asked.
She preferred moving in her own hidden route, but maybe he had more ideas of better routes.
"There is an underwater cavern, and through it, we can reach another part of the continent. No one would chase."
They moved quickly and were soon far away from the city. Moving towards Yang Wei with a letter of challenge.
After 3 hours, the battle in the distance ended, and four figures flew and landed on the wall where Li Xingguang had parted with Han Li. Their faces were filled with frustration and even pity.
"If that Hua Yu actually helped, we would have killed the Ice Fairy!" The Raven Head spat.
As all of them began to bicker, though, Li Shuanwei, who was silently standing beside his father with a calm gaze, paused and looked at a small floating glob of water in front of them and frowned.
"…What is this?" he asked and frowned.