Chapter 2279: Tracking
Chapter 2279: Tracking
The woman had an elegant figure and was wearing a short green dress. Her facial features were particularly seductive, and her bare arms were as fair and delicate as the flesh of lotus roots.
There were several arrow-shaped objects embedded into her arms, and she was appraising the group of creatures before her with a hint of a smile on her face.
The fish demons were all hovering around 10 feet above the ground, and even though they were far more imposing than the woman and letting loose strings of low snarls, all of them wore fearful expressions.
"Are you going to hand over your two brethren, or are you going to force me to take them? If it weren't for the fact that you're still somewhat useful, all of you would've been killed long ago," the woman said in a chilling voice.
There was a tall male fish demon who seemed to be less fearful of the woman than his companions, and he stuttered, "Never! We'll never... hand over... our brethren..."
A hint of surprise appeared on Han Li's face as he listened to this conversation from above.
The two of them were speaking in an ancient language recorded in a tome that he had seen in the Spirit Realm in the past, and this was a pleasant surprise for him.
The woman's expression darkened upon hearing this, and she harrumphed coldly, "Hmph, how impudent. I've only just had a meal, so I didn't want to hunt again, but if you insist on resisting, I wouldn't mind adding another course to my meal."
A furious look appeared in the eyes of the male fish demon, and he let loose a loud roar, upon which the entire group of fish demons descended onto the surface of the lava lake down below before raising their weapons or flailing their arms in a frenzy.
The lava within the lake surged violently, and streaks of scorching red light erupted from it before surging into the fish demons' bodies.
The fish demons immediately swelled drastically to several tens of feet in length, and most of them were giving off Deity Transformation Stage auras, while the male fish demon that was leading the group seemed to have reached the early-Spatial Tempering Stage.
"Looks like you've forgotten the trauma from last time. Is there anything else you can resort to aside from this paltry Flame Bathing Technique? So be it, let me teach you all another lesson," the woman chuckled as her body blurred, and all of a sudden, she appeared right at the center of the group of fish demons.
Countless translucent threads then erupted out of her body at an incredible speed, and many of the fish demons were instantly felled in unison.
The dense-looking protective red light around their bodies was completely unable to resist the translucent threads.
The woman cast her gaze down toward the immobilized fish demons below her, and a sinister smile that belied her beautiful features appeared on her face. She reached out and made a grabbing motion toward a pair of female fish demons, and a burst of enormous invisible force tore the two fish demons' hearts out of their chests before shooting directly toward the woman.
The woman then opened her mouth to release two translucent threads, which pierced through the pair of hearts in a flash before delivering them into her mouth.
"This flavor really doesn't get old no matter how many times I've had it. It's a pity that you Space Fish beings have some pitiful reproductive abilities; in order to avoid unnecessary waste, I'll use those two as sacrifices. Having said that, even though I'm letting the rest of you live, I can't let you go without some punishment."The woman was savoring her meal with a smile on her face, but her voice was becoming more and more menacing.
All of a sudden, she opened her mouth to release a ball of blue light, then plunged a hand directly into it before pulling out a long blue whip that was riddled with extremely sharp hooked spikes.
A vicious look then appeared on her face as she lashed out with her whip, unleashing countless whip projections that hurtled directly toward the fish demons.
The whip seemed to have been refined from some type of material that specifically repressed these fish demons, as evidenced by the fact that it was able to easily tear through their protective spiritual light before leaving deep gashes in their flesh.
A string of roars and groans rang out above the lava lake, and the male fish demon that was the leader of the group received the most whip lashes.
Initially, he was still able to glower at the woman with an enraged expression, but after a while, he was only able to tremble incessantly as he threw his arms over his own head to protect himself, and there was not a single inch of his skin that was left unharmed.
Only then did the woman withdraw her whip as she giggled, "Hopefully you'll remember this lesson for a while. If you know what's good for you, then produce more offspring. Some of you will still be used as sacrifices, but your population will still increase, and our queen will be very pleased to see that; she might even reward you for your efforts. If your population hasn't increased by the time I pay you my next visit, then you won't be getting away with just a lashing."
After delivering those threats, the woman opened her mouth again to release what appeared to be a white bubble, which swelled in size before encompassing the carcasses of the two female fish demons.
She pointed a finger at the bubble, and the bubble shrank down to a tiny size along with the two carcasses within it before flying back into the woman's mouth.
After that, she departed as a ball of white light, while the other fish demons could only look on with fierce resentment in their eyes.
A short while later, the fish demons helped one another to their feet with disheartened expressions, and after a brief discussion, all of them plunged into the lava lake.
Thus, peace and quiet returned, but it only lasted for a few moments before a blurry figure emerged amid a burst of spatial fluctuation.
Han Li had witnessed everything that had just taken place here, and he murmured to himself with an intrigued expression, "How interesting! According to historical records, the Space Fish Race appeared in ancient times for a brief period, and they should be completely extinct in all realms; I didn't think there would be a branch of them left here in the Small Asura Realm. These Space Fish beings seem to possess some type of extremely powerful ability, which is why they were hunted down to extinction, but not many people know exactly what type of ability it is that they possess."
After that, Han Li cast his gaze toward the direction that the woman had just disappeared in with a perplexed expression.
"That woman seems to be an Asura Spider, but she's only at the late-Spatial Tempering Stage. Shouldn't Asura Spiders only be able to attain human forms after reaching maturity? That's rather strange."
Han Li stroked his own chin with a contemplative expression, and only after a long while did he shake his head as he murmured to himself, "I'll think about this another time. For now, I should focus on following that woman back to the lair of the Asura Spiders. Having said that, I can't just leave these Space Fish Beings behind."
Han Li suddenly swept a sleeve through the air as he spoke, releasing a ball of golden light which instantly transformed into a miniature purplish-golden figure that was around half a foot tall.
The figure had no nose or mouth, and its eyes were completely cold and expressionless.
"Keep those Space Fish beings safe until I get back," he instructed.
The purplish-golden figure nodded before plunging down into the lava lake as a streak of golden light.
The purplish-golden figure was none other than the Gold Devouring Beetle Monarch.
Due to the Leopard Kirin Beast's lackluster cultivation base, it had gone into seclusion to cultivate on the holy island and hadn't accompanied Han Li on this trip.
After that, Han Li's body became blurry and indistinct once again as he departed.
With Han Li's current abilities, it was naturally very simple for him to leave a spiritual sense mark on that woman, so he wasn't afraid of losing track of her anytime soon.
Thus, it only took him a short while to catch up to her.
At this point, Han Li's body had turned completely invisible, and the woman was completely oblivious to his presence even though he was no more than 10 kilometers behind her.
After that, Han Li witnessed the woman slay a Spatial Tempering Stage giant black boar-like beast in a swamp, then collected around a dozen golden fruits from a rather obscure valley before continuing onward without pause.
Han Li followed stealthily behind her this entire time.
Even if this woman really were an Asura Spider, there was no way she was powerful enough for her demon core to be able to produce Threads of Time. From the very beginning, his target had been set on the mature Asura Spiders. Otherwise, he would've already attacked the woman back at the lava lake.
Han Li's eyes gradually lit up as a massive mountain range began to appear in the distance.
The woman had slowed down significantly, and was also beginning to descend at the edge of the mountain range.
All of a sudden, a burst of loud rumbling rang out from deep within the mountain range, following which seven or eight massive birds flew out and reached the woman in a flash.
They then descended around her in an affectionate manner before accompanying her in her flight toward the mountain range.
At the same time, an extremely fearsome burst of spiritual sense erupted out of the mountain range, quickly scanning through the entire area and passing virtually right by Han Li.