An explosive boom rang out, and the space before Han Li suddenly collapsed as the world's origin Qi in the surrounding area funneled into the green sword in a frenzy, releasing a terrifying doomsday-like aura.

This was the first time that Han Li had unleashed the full might of his Profound Heavenly Spiritslash Sword after reaching the Grand Ascension Stage.

A green crescent sword projection flew out of the collapsed space, and countless translucent runes surged out of its surface in a frenzy.

The collapsed space and the green crescent then exploded in unison, and the countless runes and green light combined to form a long near-transparent thread before abruptly vanishing.

The translucent thread seemed to be very ordinary, but in the instant that it appeared, the entire sky dimmed, and the surrounding space began to warp in a rhythmic manner.

All of the space was warping toward the translucent thread, as if it were bowing in reverence.

"Impossible! That's a thread of laws!" the little girl exclaimed as a stunned look appeared on her face, and a layer of black flames suddenly surfaced over her body as she donned a suit of bone armor that was riddled with countless sharp spikes.

Countless grey runes surged incessantly within the black flames, and each bone spike was as translucent as jade.

Innumerable silver patterns could be seen on the surface of the armor, and in the next instant, the translucent thread emerged right before the little girl amid a burst of spatial fluctuations.

She was immobilized by the spirit domain, so she could only watch as the thread of laws surged toward her.

Her bone armor and that layer of black flames managed to pose a slight hindrance to the translucent thread, but they were both breached in the end.

The little girl let loose an agonized cry as her body was sliced in half through the waist, and all of a sudden, thin gashes appeared all over her body before she was split up into countless chunks.

"Nice!"

Bao Hua was ecstatic to see this, and she immediately made a hand seal, upon which the massive floral tree shrank down to only around half a foot tall.

Halos of rainbow light then surged forth from the miniature tree, and Bao Hua grabbed onto it before sweeping it rapidly through the air down below.

The branches and the countless flowers on the tree instantly withered away, and at the same time, countless giant crimson flowers appeared around the chunks of the little girl's dismembered body.

Each crimson flower opened up its petals before enveloping one chunk of flesh, then exploded into balls of pink light.

Once all of the explosions concluded, nothing remained of the little girl's body.

At this point, Bao Hua's miniature tree had clearly exhausted all of its power as well, and it shuddered before vanishing into thin air.

The entire spirit domain also surged violently before disintegrating.

Thus, Han Li and Bao Hua were the only ones that remained in this space.

"I didn't think that you'd be capable of unleashing a thread of laws, Brother Han; your mastery of your Profound Heavenly Treasure is truly extraordinary," Bao Hua said with a peculiar expression.

"So that thing's known as a thread of laws? As expected, it's far more powerful than what I was able to unleash in the past," Han Li mused as he glanced down at his green longsword.

Bao Hua was rather taken aback to hear this. "Is this your first time manifesting that thread, Fellow Daoist Han?"

"Indeed, it is. I was only trying to maximize the power of this Profound Heavenly Treasure to the best of my abilities just now," Han Li replied.

"I don't know what to say. Could it be that this Profound Heavenly Treasure has been nurtured within your body from the very beginning? Otherwise, it's virtually impossible to manifest a thread of laws using a Profound Heavenly Treasure. Countless owners of Profound Heavenly Treasures have refined and nurtured their treasures for over 100,000 years, but are still unable to even begin to grasp a thread of laws," Bao Hua said with a wry smile.

"It sounds like I was quite lucky, then. In comparison, I'm more interested in the Profound Heavenly Spirit Domain; would you be able to tell me about that?" Han Li asked.

"This Profound Heavenly Spirit Domain is something that I only managed to attain after expending countless efforts and referencing an incomplete ancient tome. However, there are still many parts that require further refinement, and it can't compare with a true spirit domain. If you're interested, I'd be happy to tell you about it some time," Bao Hua replied.

"That would be great. Setting that aside for now, have we really managed to destroy the Stemborer Queen's clone? Why is it that I still feel rather uneasy?" Han Li asked with furrowed brows.

"A clone of the Stemborer Queen should be nowhere near as powerful as the true Stemborer Queen itself, so there's no way it would've been able to survive our combined attacks. However, the feeling of unease in my heart hasn't abated, either," Bao Hua said as her expression darkened slightly.

"Does that mean the clone isn't actually dead, but is merely unable to appear before us due to its injuries?" Han Li asked.

"I'm afraid that's most likely the case," Bao Hua replied with a wry smile.

"In any case, it's a good thing that we managed to severely wound the clone; let's take this opportunity to find the body of the Stemborer Queen," Han Li said.

A faint smile appeared on Bao Hua's face, yet just as she was about to reply, a sharp voice suddenly rang out from the spot where the little girl had just vanished not long ago.

"You think you're safe now just because you beat Stem One? What a joke! Stem Two will have some fun now."

As soon as the voice trailed off, a gargantuan claw appeared up above before grabbing viciously down toward Han Li and Bao Hua.

The claw spread its five fingers, encompassing virtually the entire sky, and each claw was over 100 feet in length with azure light flashing from their sharp tips.

As the claws swept through the air, five long spatial rifts instantly appeared, as if the entire sky had been torn apart. "Slow down, Stem Two; save some fun for Stem Three as well." Another unsettling voice rang out in all directions.

In the instant that Han Li heard this voice, a peal of laughter suddenly rang out in his ears, resembling the seductive panting of a woman.

His consciousness involuntarily faded for a split-second, and his movements also faltered.

At the same time, a massive bolt of grey lightning came crashing down toward him from above.

With Han Li's enormous spiritual sense, he was able to almost immediately recover from his moment of disorientation, and his expression immediately changed slightly at the sight of the grey lightning overhead.

He hurriedly withdrew his green longsword, completely disregarding the giant claw above him as he conjured up around a dozen identical projections that shot forth in all directions.

However, the bolt of grey lightning also split up into the same number of arcs before surging toward the projections as if it had a mind of its own.

Right at this moment, Bao Hua let loose a fierce cry, and her Earth Emperor Nail swelled to over 10,000 feet in size before crashing toward the giant claw up above.

In response, the giant claw unleashed five massive azure blade projections that swept down with ferocious might, seemingly completely unfazed by the massive nail.

An earth-shattering boom rang out as the nail and blade projections clashed, and the two attacks appeared to be evenly matched in power.

Meanwhile, the grey lightning was pursuing Han Li's projections relentlessly, and it seemed that the lightning would never fade until it killed its target.

"Do you really think this baleful lightning will be enough to bring me down?" Han Li's enraged voice rang out from all of the projections, and each of them released a bolt of golden lightning that clashed with the grey lightning before immediately disintegrating.

As for the grey lightning, it remained completely unaffected aside from the fact that it had dimmed slightly, and it continued to surge toward Han Li's projections.

In the instant that the projections came into contact with the grey lightning, the former self-detonated into countless golden runes that seemed to be evenly-matched against the grey lightning.

However, one of the projections was the real Han Li, and purplish-golden light revolved all around his body as he threw a vicious punch at the oncoming bolt of grey lightning.

An earth-shattering boom rang out as a white pillar of light was unleashed to clash with the grey lightning.

In the instant that the lightning came into contact with the white pillar of light, it was completely devoured by the white light as if it had encountered the bane of its existence.

However, the purplish-golden light surging over Han Li's body also dimmed quite noticeably, clearly indicating that he had expended a lot of energy to unleash that attack.