As day after day continued passed of the continued pursuit, the intervals at which the wind spirit energy flared grew increasingly further apart. At the start, it would trigger once every six hours which became once every twelve, and eventually, only once per day. Furthermore, the flares grew increasingly more weak each time. In the end, the wind spirit energy finally ceased flaring up altogether. It seemed the Windbreaker Beast had finally given up on the chase.

Han Li was naturally delighted. Regardless of whether the wind spirit energy had failed to activate due to the great distance or due to Feng Xi having ran into trouble, Han Li was finally given the opportunity to truly escape. Han Li took another drop of spirit liquid without any hesitation and identified his bearings before flying through the skies without worry.

On a small, desolate island several tens of thousands of kilometers away from Han Li, the Windbreaker Beast was sitting in an empty cave with an ashen expression. During the long, relentless pursuit, he had exhausted the entirety of his magic power and could no longer restrain the strange poison inside his body. As he had no method to instantly recovering his magic power, unlike Han Li with his Myriad Year Spirit Milk, Feng Xi could only helplessly stop on an island and spend some time to thoroughly rid himself of the poison afflicting him before continuing his pursuit of Han Li. Having expended so much of his time and effort on refining the Thunderstorm Wings, he was dead-set on getting them back.

The demon cultivator vowed to accomplish this with bone-burning hatred before closing his eyes and entering a meditative state of selflessness.

…

A month later, Han Li found himself at an unfamiliar, abandoned island.

Upon seeing that there were neither cultivators nor high grade demon beasts nearby, he descended onto the island and quickly carved out a crude stone cave.

After placing down several concealment spell formations, he hurriedly entered this cave and took out the Thunderstorm Wings.

Han Li glanced at the small, palm-sized wings in his palm with unconcealed delight.

Since the wings possessed both wind and lightning attributes and Feng Xi only possessed wind spirit power, the wings only required either lightning or wind to drive them. With the Divine Devilbane Lightning within his body, Han Li should be able to control the magic treasure. If they were as miraculous as the demon had said, then the sooner he could utilize them, the more likely his survival.

However, as Han Li examined the wings, he saw that the white feathers were faintly distorting.

Upon seeing this, Han Li immediately knew that this was because the treasure hadn’t finished refining. Although they had been greatly weakened, they had managed to last this long despite Feng Xi’s claims that all of their efforts would’ve been in vain.

Han Li didn’t reveal the slightest alarm and calmly made a small cut on his fingertip. After a drop of blood essence gathered onto his fingertip, he clutched his hand in an incantation gesture and conducted the master recognition rites.

After dropping the blood essence onto the wings, a cold glint flashed from Han Li’s eyes and he tossed the Thunderstorm Wings into the air. They then motionlessly floated.

Han Li held out his fingers towards them, shooting out slender arcs of lightning from his fingers onto the wings.

Han Li’s face grew solemn as the arcs of lightning shot from his hands with increasing density.

Not after, the Thunderstorm Wings became enveloped in a layer of golden lightning. Sounds of thunder echoed out from within the net of lightning.

Han Li felt relieved as he saw the Thunderstorm Wings slowly begin to absorb the lightning from the net of Divine Devilbane Lightning that surrounded them.

Over the following ten days, Han Li used the Divine Devilbane Lightning to gradually stabilize the wing’s feathers. Additionally, because they absorbed the Divine Devilbane Lightning, their silver color was tinged with a faint gold. Unless one was carefully examining the wings, the gold tinge would be difficult to perceive.

Having finished the Thunderstorm Wings in place of the demon cultivators, Han Li ceased his lightning. He then spouted a mist of azure light onto the wings, and absorbed the wings into his body. Soon after, Han Li left the stone cave and flew off the small island, preparing to test both the Thunderstorm Wing’s usability and miraculous capabilities.

Han Li took a deep breath as he floated high up in the sky. He then activated the Thunderstorm Wings that were contained inside his body. Puff, puff. He felt spiritual Qi swell within his back before a pair of meter long wings emerged from it. The wings were silver white with a slight tint of gold.

Han Li turned his head to look at them. When he thought to move them, the wings lightly waved without the slightest resistance as if nothing were there.

He curiously extended his hand to feel the wings, and was startled to discover that they had a rough texture.

Han Li frowned at this and put some strength into his hand, only for them to easily pass through the wings.

“This is...?” Han Li was shocked and immediately gazed within himself.

The palm-sized Thunderstorm Wings were safely contained inside his Dantian and faintly shined with white light. The wings outside of his body weren’t the treasure’s true form but were instead a manifestation of spiritual power, much to Han Li’s surprise.

After concentrating for a moment, Han Li started to pour magic power into the wings’ true form, causing the exterior wings to flash with silver light. Then with a flap of the wings, Han Li easily sped through the air.

After flying several circles around the island, Han Li stopped and started to mutter to himself as he grasped his chin. Their speed wasn’t particularly impressive. In fact, it wasn’t much different from his ordinary speed. It seemed that he would have to pour either wind or lightning spiritual power into them to see their true capabilities.

With that thought, Han Li drove his divine lightning into the wings without hesitation, sending two sparks of faint golden lightning into the interior wings. In that same instant, lightning was released from the wings behind him. Han Li hastily turned his head around to see the wings flicker with silver lightning and unconsciously unfolded them. They now released a strange aura.

With a mental command, thunder rang as he reappeared thirty meters away in a flash of silver light.

“Lightning movement!”

Han Li blankly stared for a moment before being filled with ecstasy. Then with another flap of his wings, he reappeared a hundred meters away in the wake of more thunder.

In the following moments, Han Li transformed into a bolt of silver lightning, travelling three hundred meters away in an instant. His erratic and instantaneous movements were beyond extraordinary.

After reappearing in an arc of silver lightning, Han Li joyously caressed the wings and muttered, “Lightning movement is worthy of being called the most profound of all movement techniques. It is incomparable to the common movement techniques of the five elements! Perhaps with even more tempering, this magic treasure could become even more incredible. It was no wonder Feng Xi expended so much time and effort in refining them. There are few things in the world that are capable of such speeds. With these wings, there would have been practically no one in this world capable of killing him.” Afterwards, the wings dissipated with a pulse of silver light.

Han Li didn’t plan on staying in the Outer Star Seas for long, as he wanted to return to the Inner Star Seas as soon as possible. Although he might’ve shaken off Feng Xi for the time being, with his fantastical speeds as a Windbreaker Beast, he would come chasing down Han Li from the nearby seas soon enough. Han Li had no intention of obediently waiting for the demon to come knocking on his door.

As the Inner Star Seas were under the dominion of humans, it was likely that regardless of how mighty of a demon he may be, he wouldn’t be able to follow too deeply. After Han Li had returned to the Inner Star Seas and condensed a Nascent Soul, he would no longer hold any fear of the demon.

As for the Heavenvoid Cauldron, those Nascent Soul eccentrics should’ve ceased their pursuit by now, given what had developed in the many years that has passed. Furthermore, after Han Li became a Nascent Soul cultivator, he should be able to flee from Zenith Yin and the others without problem, so long as he didn’t come across anyone as fearsome as Man Huzi.

With that thought, Han Li returned to the island’s cave and quickly examined the storage pouches of the demon tortoise and Venomous Flood Dragon. He unexpectedly found many demon beast cores within them along with a few extremely precious materials.

Two particularly valuable material were a fist-sized, jet-black tortoise shell and a batch of over a hundred crimson scales. These should be parts that the two demons shed during metamorphosis. They were a delightful surprise, and could be refined into armor that was no less powerful than Man Huzi’s Royal Scale Plate.

However, now was not the time to deal with these items. Instead, he retrieved the formations he had placed on the island and departed in the direction of the last known location of the Exquisite Sound Sect’s hidden city.

He reckoned that the transportation formation should’ve already been constructed by the time he arrived. Regardless of whether he had to use coercion, bribes, or brute force, he planned to use the transportation formation and arrive at the Inner Seas.

Although Han Li didn’t know the current location of where the Exquisite Sound Sect’s hidden city was, he only had to find out from some well informed human cultivators.

But little did Han Li know, at that very moment, the demon tortoise had arrived at a cave over a kilometer deep in the seas. Here he informed a nearby flood dragon clan elder about the killing of the Venomous Flood Dragon. This particular elder was a mid stage, grade nine Inferno Flood Dragon.