Copper Statue

The sword lit up, and red flames burst out to color the sky.

Han Sen combined his phoenix techniques with Aero, which put him at an advantage. The greatsword's power was almost as strong as Han Sen, it just fell a touch short.

Han Sen used his gold raven for the pursuit and evasion. Nothing else compared to its advantages there, but it did prevent him from using a multitude of other skills. The abilities he frequently used in battle were off-limits, so using the gold raven for actual combat was fairly pointless.

"Humanoid Shapeshifter beast souls are better; I'd do well to find one of those," Han Sen thought to himself.

But for now, Han Sen blazed through the streets like a phoenix. When choosing to engage with Holy-Sword Emperor, he struck from a dizzying array of different angles.

With the speed at which Han Sen came for Holy-Sword Emperor, the spirit could do little to fight back, and so he was forced onto the defensive, using his greatsword to block each attack.

When the time for him to attack did come, though, each hit was like a wave against Han Sen. Fortunately, he was able to slice and deflect each attack with his wings.

He then used Dongxuan Aura to scan the shelter. Aside from Holy-Sword Emperor and the two super creatures, there really was nothing else living there.

"Where has everything gone? Has he evacuated the shelter of its inhabitants, in the knowledge he was going to die?" Han Sen frowned.

With his fight against Holy-Sword Emperor starting to look like a stalemate, Han Sen decided to fly off in search of the spirit hall.

The shelter was very large, but at the speed his transformation allowed him to travel, locating it would not take long at all.

Han Sen's blood-wings burnt everything in their path, and if he wished to look inside buildings, he simply sliced the roofs of houses off.

Han Sen's gleeful destruction of the shelter infuriated Holy-Sword Emperor all the more, and while the spirit tried to pursue his feathery nemesis, he could never catch up.

After a few miles of flying, Han Sen found a hall which contained a peculiar statue. In its chest was a sword-shaped spirit stone—undoubtedly Holy-Sword Emperor's, Han Sen thought.

Delighted with his quick discovery of it, Han Sen made his way over.

A look of shock came over Holy-Sword Emperor's face, and realizing he had no other option, he brought out the item he had taken from the treasury vault. He said, "If you won't allow me to live, then we can die together."

Han Sen paid no heed to what was spoken. With the spirit stone directly in front of him, he wasn't willing to give it up now.

Holy-Sword Emperor, seeing no change in Han Sen's course of action, destroyed the item in his hands.

The item was black, and it was shaped like an egg. Upon breaking it, something came out.

It was like a black liquid, and it gushed out from the remains of the impossibly small, egg-shaped item. Quickly, it began to dye the entire hall black.

"The spirit stone is mine!" Han Sen suddenly saw black, as if something had turned off every light in the world.

This was unexpected. Even in the darkest of nights, Han Sen could see fairly well. He tried scanning the vicinity but found nothing. Strangely, he then began to feel something pulling his body.

When Han Sen regained control, he was able to see clearly again. He was still in front of the statue, as if nothing had changed.

But when Han Sen raised his head, he was frozen.

Han Sen saw a giant face in front of him that was bigger than the palace itself. It smiled as if it were a Buddha.

But its facial features most certainly weren't like that of a Buddha. It was a woman's face, curtained by long, delicate strands of hair. The woman's face looked as if it could swallow Han Sen whole at any second.

Strangely, though, it wasn't alive. It was just a statue, one that had been made from copper.

Han Sen tried not to think too much of its sudden appearance, so he leaped back up and grabbed the spirit stone before doing anything else.

Holy-Sword Emperor, seeing his stone taken, stood there saying, "I was going to try and grab Xie Qing King, too. But you have been a thorn in my backside for as long as he has. You will do. See you in h*ll, squirt."

After that, Holy-Sword Emperor's sword gleamed before his body exploded in a haze of light.

The moment he exploded, the spirit stone shattered in Han Sen's hands.

All Han Sen could present was a wry smile, as it had been a while since he had last seen a spirit kill itself.

All of a sudden, Han Sen's figure returned to that of a human again. He floated upwards to get a look at his surroundings. Judging from what Holy-Sword Emperor had told him, nothing good looked set to happen.

When Han Sen reached the sky, his face became glum at what he saw.

A large portion of the shelter had been torn away, as another part of the shelter was lifted into the sky by the statue's hand. The statue was unbelievably massive.

And now, Han Sen could what this statue of a woman looked like in full. She was clad in armor, and she possessed wings. A strange light glowed around the statue, with a skirt of black mist around that.