A Record Of A Mortal's Journey To Immortality

by S.H.A aifu

A poor and ordinary boy from a village joins a minor sect in Jiang Hu and becomes an Unofficial Disciple by chance. How will Han Li, a commoner by birth, establish a foothold for himself in his sect? With his mediocre aptitude, how will he successfully traverse the path of cultivation and become an immortal? This is a story of an ordinary mortal who, against all odds, clashes with

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Han Li raised no objection to the woman and merely asked, "How many spirit medicine seeds did you gather this time. Last time, Fellow Daoist Yan managed to find several. Although they were rare, they didn't have many uses."

The woman sweetly laughed and said, "Don't worry, Fellow Daoist. This time I was able to gather most of the ones you pointed out to me. To tell the truth, if it weren't for the fact that there will soon be a war, I wouldn't have paid such a large price for these seeds. I have other things that I have to worry about. More importantly, I hope you've brought enough myriad year spirit herbs."

Han Li strangely smiled and asked, "We've traded several times before. How would I be lacking in spirit medicine?"

"This time, however, the seeds are exceptionally rare. They are no less valuable than your myriad year spirit herbs. It's only that spirit herbs of that age are hardly seen, or else I wouldn't be doing business with you." The woman sweetly giggled and flipped her hand to produce an emerald green wooden box. She tossed it over to him.

There were simple flower patterns engraved on the box. The faint talisman characters flickering on the box clearly showed it was no common object.

Han Li caught the box with a solemn expression. Without opening the box, he peered inside it with his Brightsight Spirit Eyes. He also searched it with his immense spiritual sense.

For a time, Han Li stood in place with the box in hand.

The demon woman didn't view Han Li's actions as strange and didn't urge him to be faster. She simply stared at Han Li without a word. It was as if she was trying to make out Han Li's true appearance through the silver light.

A short while later, the woman sighed and withdrew her gaze.

There was no doubt she was curious about this person. His identity must be unordinary since he possessed so many myriad year spirit herbs.

If she were to guess, this person most likely belonged to one of the hidden true spirit noble clans. It was most likely he belonged to the Min Clan who were renowned for spirit medicine nurturing.

However, her partner was extremely cautious. She attempted to approach the topic several times, but not only did she come up with nothing, she almost revealed her own identity in a moment of carelessness.

This left the woman incredibly vexed for a long while after.

Although he couldn't find her using the name she'd give her, it completely stifled her intent on finding his identity.

She instead became vigilant in not releasing any more information about herself.

But she couldn't help but be excited at the thought of acquiring the myriad year spirit medicine.

Although she came from a somewhat extraordinary background and possessed some status in her clan, she still wasn't able to acquire many spirit medicines, no matter how many spirit stones she offered.

So long as business here succeeds, she would have enough spirit medicines to have someone refine them into various required medicine pills she needed to break through her bottleneck.

Of course, she was also greatly interested in the spirit medicine seeds that Han Li was collecting, but so long as he paid her as agreed, she was disinclined to delve deep into the matter.

When the demon woman started to feel her heart thump, Han Li finally finished examining the box and nodded with satisfaction. "Not bad. It's most of the seeds that I told you to get. Here are your medicinal herbs. Take a good look at them."

With that, he took out several jade boxes from his body and handed them over to her.

The woman didn't dare to be careless and carefully inspected it as well.

The woman put away the medicine herbs and giggled, "Yes, they really are medicine herbs ten thousand years of age. This will be the last business we'll have for some time to come. If you truly manage to avoid calamity, perhaps there will be another opportunity to meet."

Han Li swept his sights past the other vendors and pensively said, "I hope that's the case. Now that we're done, I'll be taking a look around to see if there is anything good. There should be a few hidden treasures waiting to be found."

"You are quite shrewd. From what I've seen so far, there are many rare treasures. However, I have other things to attend to, so I'll be parting here."

"Please, go ahead," Han Li calmly saluted her.

The woman nimbly turned around and made her way to the exit on the demon side.

After Han Li saw her leave, his lips twitched into a smile.

Originally, the Clear Jade Pills were only supposed to be effective for the early-Deity Transformation stage. Now that he's done several trades with the woman, he collected enough medicines to create two types of medicine pills that would be useful to a mid-Deity Transformation cultivator. It appears he wouldn't have to worry about medicine pills for some time.

With that important matter out of the way, he felt relief and slowly walked past a human vendor that was set up nearby.

After walking around the hall, Han Li frowned.

Although there were many vendors, the treasures they presented were far more previous than he had seen before.

As of current, there aren't many treasures and materials that can easily catch his interest. What most interested him were secret techniques, they were rarely on sale and they weren't guaranteed to be interesting to him either.

He shook his head and slowly departed from the hall.

He took off to the air as soon as he left and went towards his residence in the stone pagoda.

In half a month, there would be the lecture at Deep Heaven Hall, something Han Li definitely wouldn't miss. And even without the lecture, he had other things to attend to that kept him in the city.

When he returned to his residence in the stone pagoda, Han Li took the jade badge that had his merits recorded and he took it to another hall in exchange for a permission token. Then he returned to his squad's base and found a quiet place to rest.

Three days later, he hurriedly left for some part of the city.

Half a day later, he appeared outside the city above a valley.

The valley was lush and verdant. Apart from its natural beauty, there didn't seem to be anything else there.

The azure streak circled in the air and suddenly dropped down onto the valley.

The light faded and Han Li appeared a hundred meters above a stone wall.

He took a look around and found nothing out of the ordinary. Then with a wave of his sleeve, he released a golden talisman that vanished into the wall.

Han Li quietly waited.

A short moment later, something suddenly changed.

A layer of grey light appeared from the surface of the wall and a six-meter-tall passage appeared before him.

The passage was in the shape of a square and was made of grey stone that shined with a faint light.

Han Li smiled and head downward.

After walking over a hundred and fifty meters, he came across the white jade door covered in light.

Without any hesitation, he formed an incantation gesture and muttered an incantation. The light trembled and split open to form a passage that Han Li leisurely walked through.

Behind the door, there was a hundred-meter-wide hall. Apart from twenty-some stone chairs and a large stone desk at the center, there was nothing else.

Furthermore, there were already nine cultivators sitting on the chairs. There were men and women, all of them in different attire, but each of them with cultivation at Deity Transformation and above.

When these cultivators saw Han Li enter, a few of them smiled and called out to him.

"Brother Han had also come!"

"You've come quite early."

"I heard Brother Han managed to capture a green shadow alive. Tch tch, he is the pride of us ascended cultivators!"

Han Li smiled and saluted them. He then went to the corner of the hall and looked for a stone chair.

The other cultivators that didn't call out to him remained calm or ignored him entirely.

Han Li paid no attention to them either and simply closed his eyes.

Not long after Han Li took a seat, more cultivators began to enter the hall and he uttered a greeting to his acquaintances.

Four hours later, there were sixteen cultivators in the hall. No further cultivators entered after a long while, but nobody had any private discussions. There were all quietly waiting in their seats.

A long while later, a man's voice sounded out from the large hall. It appears that everyone that planned on coming has arrived, or they are occupied with a mission. Brother Zhao, let's start."

"Yes, just about everyone has arrived. Let's do as you say, Brother Wen!"

The voice sounded quite familiar. As his heart stirred, he opened his eyes.

Two middle-aged men walked into the hall. One of them was white-robed and had a smile. The other had a pale hairless face and was expressionless.

It was Cultivator Wen who gave Han Li his merit bade not long before and Zhao Wugui who brought him to the city.

When the two Spatial Tempering cultivators entered the hall, they began to stir. It was clear most of them recognized them.

Zhao Wugui swept his sights past them and indifferently said, "Originally, it should've been Fellow Daoist Wen who would take charge over the meeting of newly ascended cultivators. Because an important matter occurred, we'll be taking over. I hope there are no objections."

The cultivators felt their hearts tremble and they remained silent.

When the white-robed middle-aged man saw this, he wore a pleasant expression, "Originally, only Fellow Daoist Zhao was supposed to take charge, but recent affairs have become somewhat peculiar so there are a few important matters I must discuss with you all. That is why I am here."

An old man with a red nose suddenly asked, "Does the peculiar matter Senior Wen mentioned have to do with a possible attack on the city by foreign tribes?"

When the others heard his question, they felt their hearts trembled and they all stared at the two Spatial Tempering cultivators, waiting for an answer.

Zhao Wugui coldly said, "We'll be talking about that matter later. In accordance to common practice, we'll first host the trade meeting and then share cultivation experiences at the end. If anyone has any difficulties in cultivation, we can offer some guidance. But like Fellow Daoist Fan, it will come at considerable cost. Finally, if you believe there is any interesting information, you may report it to us. If it is useful, we'll be rewarding you with spirit medicines such as Earth Cleansing Pills."

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When they heard Zhao Wugui, all the cultivators raised no objections.

Zhao Wugui and Cultivator Wen took a glance at each other and promptly walked to the large stone table in the middle of the hall.

The nearby cultivators promptly stood up and respectfully opened a few seats for them.

The two nodded and they promptly took two of the seats.

After the two Spatial Tempering cultivators sat down, they began the trade meeting without a hitch.

Han Li used Myriad Year Profound Jade to trade for several rare talismans.

As of current, his attainments in talismans were at a crucial point. Although these talismans didn't have any silver runes, they were still quite distinct. He may experience some insight from them under careful studying.

With all trading finished, everyone began to speak a bit about their cultivation insights or their unique experiences with secret techniques.

Although almost everyone spoke in simple or vague terms and a few spoke in detail, any crucial points were deliberately omitted. Those that were interested wouldn't urge them on but send them a voice transmission afterwards. The two would then conduct an exchange for their own techniques or insights.

The two Spatial Tempering cultivators paid no mind to this.

Having recently delved into the Dao of Talismans, Han Li merely spoke of a few shallow areas of his understanding.

However, it was clear there weren't many ascended cultivators in the hall that were interested in talismans. They didn't particularly pay much attention to him.

But when Cultivator Wen and Zhao Wugui heard Han Li mention something related to silver rune talismans, a trace of astonishment briefly appeared on their faces.

Although there were many high-grade cultivators that comprehended silver runes, it would be incredibly difficult to study talismans without direct instruction.

After the group of cultivators finished speaking of their experiences, there were a few people that impatiently raised a few difficulties they experienced in their cultivation to Zhao Wugui and Cultivator Wen.

However, Cultivator Wen only offered a few brief words in response and faintly smiled. As for Zhao Wugui, he gave them a few words in voice transmission.

Whether they nodded or shook their head, the cultivators immediately sat back down and asked nothing else.

These newly ascended cultivators more or less experienced difficulties in their cultivation. Apart from Han Li, all of them were unwilling to abandon the opportunity.

Furthermore, Han Li was cultivating the dual body magic cultivation art, the Provenance True Devil Arts. Although there were areas he didn't understand, no one had cultivated it before, so he was disinclined to ask questions about it. He simply sat at the side.

Two hours later, everyone finished speaking and they began to trade their information to them for medicine pills.

With this, all one would expect from an ordinary meeting was finished.

At that moment, Cultivator Wen sighed and he slowly stood up.

"Alright, since we've finished all minor affairs, we've brought a few orders from Elder Lei Luo. Listen well."

The other cultivators felt their hearts tremble and their faces turned grave.

Deep Heaven City had five human elders. Master Lei Luo and Monk Jin Yue were two of them.

The two were Body Integration cultivators of profound ability and were both ascended cultivators. However, Jin Yue didn't bother with external affairs and spent most of his time in secluded cultivation. Master Lei Luo became the leader of the city's ascended cultivators as a result. He had an unrivaled prestige amongst ascended cultivators.

However, Han Li had yet to see either in person ever since he's arrived at the city. He's seen the other three human elders during their lectures at the Deep Heaven Hall.

Zhao Wugui's cold voice sounded through the hall. "Elder Lei Luo gave a command not long before. He's finally acquired some concrete information. Within ten years, Deep Heaven City will most likely be besieged by various foreign tribes. There is a slight possibility it will be an attack by three or more foreign tribes. Although the odds are next to nothing, there is a slight chance that there will be a repeat of the Hundred Tribe War."

Although many in the hall already anticipated what Zhao Wugui had said, their hearts still sank upon hearing them. Most even turned pale when they heard the mention of the Hundred Tribe War.

Although it had only been about a hundred years since these cultivators ascended from a lower realm, they were still familiar with the legends of the ancient war.

It was a threat that nearly resulted in the extinction of humans and demons.

According to the last war, the fighting took ten thousand years to finish and was cruel beyond imagination.

Sitting in the corner of the room and having spoken little this entire time, Han Li let out a long sigh and wryly smiled.

It appeared these circumstances were far worse than he expected. He'd have to think of a plan to save himself.

Otherwise, if a large war was about to erupt, a Body Integration stage cultivator would have difficulty surviving, let alone a trifling Deity Transformation cultivator.

A barefoot man stood up with a salute and respectfully asked, "Why did Senior tell this information to low cultivation people like us? Wouldn't this secret information leak?"

Zhao Wugui coldly said, "Fellow Daoists, you all cultivated in lower realms with sparse spiritual Qi until you reached this stage. You prevailed against every difficulty to ascend to the spirit realm. Your wisdom is unordinary. So I will make it clear. In these coming years, all ascended cultivators holding positions as dark azure guards will be placed in important positions. If a dangerous matter appears, the panel of elders will choose us to first deal with it. Although an ascended cultivator joins us every several years, most of the high-grade cultivators that died for Deep Heaven City were ascended cultivators like us. In truth, the number of ascended cultivators doesn't even amount to a tenth of the total number of high-grade cultivators in the city. The cultivators native to the spirit realm hold safer positions. Over the past few years, you should've come to realize this. A few of you should've carried out orders for extremely dangerous missions. You might now know this, but your current status is a result of the solidarity of ascended cultivators and the painstaking effort of Elder Lei Luo. Before Monk Jin Yue and Elder Lei Luo entered the panel of elders, it is said that the treatment of ascended cultivators like us was even worse. A small half of ascended cultivators would often perish in the line of duty."

All of the cultivators wore stiff expressions upon hearing this.

All the cultivators felt these worse to be true. Over recent years, they personally witnessed how ascended cultivators were often assigned to extremely dangerous missions where death was likely.

If this weren't the case, there would be more of their number in the hall.

Han Li remained expressionless.

Ever since he became a dark azure guard, he was assigned to the Floating Dawn Swamp and other dangerous areas. And of the squads accompanying him, most of their leaders would also be ascended cultivators.

He long felt suspicion over this.

As a result, when Zhao Wugui sought him out to participate in this meeting, he readily agreed.

As for the native cultivators, he was able to sense a trace of fear they felt towards ascended cultivators. Otherwise, when Old Eccentric Ming and the others failed to acquire the treasure from his spirit land, they wouldn't have left so easily. All the more reason to accept the invitation, when a pillar of support came to find him.

Of course, after he joined these meetings, no other matters sought him out and no different missions were forced on his small squad. Naturally, this was also because the Floating Dawn swamp was already a dangerous area.

Cultivator Wen then said, "The reason why we're telling you this information is that Elder Lei Luo wishes to provide an opportunity to preserve the strength of ascended cultivators before he undergoes greater tribulation."

A woman in azure palace robes and a headscarf felt a spark of joy and said, "Does Senior mean that Elder Lei Luo has a method for us to leave Deep Heaven City and avoid the war?"

A cold light glinted from Zhao Wugui's eyes and he solemnly said, "The attack on the city is related to the survival of the human race as a whole. We may have some conflict with the other cultivators, but we cannot be negligent in our duty against the foreign tribes. If one dares to flee the city and abandon their duties against the foreign tribes, the enforcement squad won't come to find you. We will personally execute you."

All cultivators in the hall were startled on the hall.

The palace-robed woman was still brave. After some hesitation, she asked, "Then what did Senior mean?"

Cultivator Wen chuckled, "Fellow Daoists, don't misunderstand. Elder Lei Luo definitely won't evade his duties. But he also doesn't wish for all of us, the ascended cultivators, to die off either. As such, after some consideration, we've finally come up with a way to preserve our numbers. Although this method is quite dangerous, we've gathered you here to tell you about it. You may choose to participate in this plan."

Discussion quickly spread through the hall and the cultivators couldn't help but look at each other in dismay.

Han Li frowned and narrowed his eyes.

One of them slowly asked, "Before we make a choice, can Senior explain the plan?"

Zhao Wugui coldly smiled, "It's quite simple. Recently, Elder Lei Luo issued comparatively longer term assignments with heavy merits. These missions are extremely dangerous, so native cultivators won't likely accept them. But if you complete these assignments, you will acquire great merits and justifiably avoid the war. If the war doesn't happen, you can return to Deep Heaven City. If your cultivation isn't enough and war does break out, you'll be far from the war and preserve your life as one of our ascended cultivators. Hehe, let's get the ugly talk out of the way first. According to our plans, those on assignments will have a fifty percent chance of survival. Whether or not you will accept them will be entirely up to you. After all, there will only be two choices when the foreign tribes attack. You can carry out the assignment or most likely die in the war. If you try to avoid both and flee the city, you should know what will happen next."

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Chapter 1357: Spirit Insects Completion

When the cultivators heard the two Spatial Tempering stage cultivators speak, they all felt a chill run down their bodies and their faces all changed.

A coin flip for death. This assignment was just too dangerous, but it was only a likely possibility for the foreign tribes to invade. And if it were only an attack by a single tribe, they were confident they would survive.

When that came to mind, the assignment seemed far more dangerous.

Of course, a decision regarding one's own life couldn't be considered simple. They needed to put much consideration over it.

For a time, silence filled the hall.

Cultivator Wen added, "Fellow Daoists, don't need to immediately make a decision. These assignments will continue to be issued for a year. Furthermore, so long as you take the assignment, we'll find someone to take over your original office in the guard. Don't worry if you're on regular assignments."

Han Li raised his head and said, "Senior Wen, even if we finish that assignment, how will the matter of the Earth Cleansing Pill be resolved. Even if we complete the mission, we'll perish to two-colored tribulation."

Zhao Wugui replied, "So it is Nephew Han. You don't need to worry about that. These dangerous missions were meant to be putting everything at stake. Naturally, we will give you all the Earth Cleansing Pills you need, but they will be placed under a restriction.

If you don't truly attend to your mission, these Earth Cleansing Pills destroy themselves, so do not abandon your mission. You should understand the consequences."

"So it was like that. Thanks for the explanation, Senior." Han Li nodded and calmly sat down.

When several people in the room heard this, their faces remained unchanged, but they wryly smiled in their minds.

The last of their hopes were annihilated.

"We've already mentioned this all to you. The first wave of missions will be issued in half a month. If you do plan on taking the assignment, it will be best to prepare. Although Elder Lei Luo chose those assignments for you all in particular, if there are other cultivators that take them, nothing can be done about it.

The meeting is now over. Everyone, return and think well about your choice." With that said, Cultivator Wen ended the meeting with a smile.

He then stood up with Zhao Wugui and they took the first steps out of the hall.

The other cultivators remained still for a moment before heading out as well. Most of them frowned as if heavy thoughts weighed on their minds.

Han Li wasn't in a hurry to leave. Instead, he remained in his seat as his mind wandered.

A short moment later, there were sparsely few in the hall.

"Oh? Is Brother Han tempted to take the assignment?" One person walked up and asked Han Li with a friendly face.

Han Li's expression stirred and he looked at the person who approached him. He beamed and answered, "So it was Fairy Xuan. I am somewhat tempted. The Seniors arranged this choice so it was a method of self-preservation. It is only a bit too dangerous."

The woman in azure palace robes who approached Han Li was a mid Deity Transformation cultivator.

Han Li had seen her several times during the meeting and had spoken to her before. They could be considered acquaintances.

Cultivator Xuan sweetly smiled and said, "I heard on a patrol mission not long before, Brother Han captured a green shadow all by himself. It appears Brother Han's abilities are beyond a late-Deity Transformation cultivator. If Fellow Daoist takes this mission, you should be better off than most Fellow Daoists. How about we join hands and take on the mission together?"

Although an azure scarf covered her face, from her exposed skin and enchanting eyes, she was clearly a woman of outstanding beauty.

Han Li felt some surprise at her proposal. After staring at her face, he slowly shook his head. "You overpraise me. It hasn't been long since I've entered mid-stage. I can't be compared to you. As for taking on the assignment, I still haven't made a decision. It is still too soon." Han LI's words were polite, but they carried a tactful rejection.

Cultivator Xuan betrayed some disappointment from her eyes, but she didn't continue to pursue the topic. After chatting with him for a bit, she took her leave.

Once Han Li watched her leave, he withdrew his gaze and sank into thought.

Although the woman's cultivation wasn't weak and she cultivated the Three Thousand Jade technique that was said to be formidable, he has always acted alone. He didn't want an outsider to know about the treasures he carried.

Even if he took on the mission, he had no intention to team up with anyone. Furthermore, there was an important matter that kept him near the city. Even if the war started tomorrow, he wouldn't be able to immediately leave.

The myriads of Gold Devouring Beetles that he fostered with Rainbow Skirt Grass had finally fulfilled their requirements for maturation a year before. With the maturation technique he acquired from the Endless Sky Saintess, they're finally done.

In several months to a year, the insects will finish their transformation and will become completely mature. How could he depart during a crucial moment of their change? It could result in the failure of their advancement.

As Han Li felt some anxiousness, he eventually took a breath and departed.

He flew up in an azure streak and headed back to the city.

A dozen days later, Deep Heaven Hall would have a lecture, something he wouldn't want to miss.

As such, after he returned to the stone pagoda housing his squad, he immediately sealed himself inside a seclusion room and sat cross-legged on a mat.

Han Li flipped his hand to produce a yellow bottle and tossed out a thumb-sized azure pill before swallowing it.

A layer of faint azure light then lit off from his body.

A glint flashed through Han Li's eyes and he reached out with his hand. His spread out his fingers and slowly shut his eyes.

A light pop sounded. A spiritual light flashed from the top of Han Li's head and a two-inch large Nascent Soul appeared from his head.

The Nascent Soul stood on top of a small cauldron. Dozens of miniature golden swords were flying around him. It had an imposing appearance.

The Nascent Soul lowered its head to look at the body beneath it and it closed its hand together. It blinked and its eyes separately turned black and white before wearing an innocent smile.

It opened its mouth and spat out a silver fireball that struck the top of its palm. With a light bang, the silver flames enveloped the palm.

A strange scene followed.

Black light flashed from the seemingly ordinary palm and the five fingers released five bone rings. Every bone ring had a vividly detailed skull engraved on it.

These skulls twisted their appearances inside the silver flames as if they were alive. They had had differing expressions, ranging from happiness, pain, to nothing at all.

Regardless of their appearance, the ring's shapes continued to fluctuate inside the silver flames. What was even more outrageous was his palm was changing alongside the rings. Furthermore, its flesh had become more crystalline and white as if it were more jade than flesh.

The Nascent Soul tilted its head and opened its mouth to release a fireball, striking the body's other palm.

Silver light brightly flashed and the bewitching flame completely wrapped the hand.

What was most incredible was that the palm changed under the effects of the silver flame. It turned pitch-black and began to char from the heat. A small mountain design appeared from his palm and the back of his hand simultaneously. Grey slightly faintly pulsed from them.

As this strange scene occurred from both these palms, the silver flames and the Nascent Soul blurred, disappearing back into the crown of Han Li's head.

Meanwhile, an azure light lit up from Han Li's body and turned faintly golden. A golden phantom appeared from behind him.

Although the silhouette was vague, it appeared to possess three heads and six arms.

Han Li's naked wrist and cheek had squares of pure gold talisman characters that slowly roamed across his flesh. From a distance, they looked like golden scales.

With golden light radiating from Han Li's body, he looked nearly divine.

A dozen days later, Han Li emerged from seclusion with a calm expression. After attending the lecture of Deep Heaven Hall for three entire days, Han Li walked out from the city and returned to his cave residence.

In addition, a month after Han Li returned to his cave residence, Deep Heaven City's panel of elders suddenly released a set of extremely dangerous and rewarding missions. These missions were related to various foreign clans but most of them required Deity Transformation-grade cultivation.

This aroused commotion in the city.

But because these missions were extremely dangerous, very few accepted them.

During this time, several uninvited guests arrived in Han Li's spirit land and paid him a visit.

Inside his cave residence, these people had a probing chat with him for half a day before quietly departing. This led Han Li with a wavering expression. After spending several days in deep thought in his seclusion room, he finally came to a decision.

Four months later, most of his Gold Devouring Beetles have reached complete maturation, resulting in seven thousand formidable spirit insects.

Han Li promptly collected them and headed to a secret area in Deep Heaven City where the secret missions were being assigned and quietly vanished.

Not long after, Han Li's small squad received an order and had their leader replaced with another Deity Transformation cultivator.

It wasn't rare for cultivators like Han Li to mysteriously disappear. Since he was an ascended cultivator, he was likely to be unaffiliated or a secret disciple of a noble clan.

The sole trait of these people was that they were all Deity Transformation-stage cultivators. In addition, they were all particularly outstanding individuals.

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Book Nine: Races of the Spirit Realm

In an endless crimson forest of twisted trees, there were five young men and women. They were in a hidden part of the forest and were ten meters apart from one another.

One of them was a man about thirty years old. He wore embroidered robes and had snow-white robes with eyes like lightning.

There was a black-robed woman with a slender body, black brows and draped hair. Her face appeared hostile.

The other youth appeared in his late twenties with a blood-red birthmark on his mouth and a handsome appearance. His face wore a faint smile.

The second woman wore white robes and appeared to be eighteen. Her dainty face gave her an innocent appearance.

The last of them was an azure-robed youth in his early twenties with an expressionless face. He was Han Li, who had recently left Deep Heaven City.

The five appeared young, but their cultivation was at Deity Transformation stage and above. Apart from Han Li and the white-robed woman who had mid-stage cultivation, the other three possessed late Deity Transformation-stage cultivation.

However, the black-robed woman happened to be the woman surnamed Xiao from the Black Phoenix Clan, who Han Li first met at the beast wave when his cultivation was lost.

The woman coldly glared at Han Li. Although she said nothing, her eyes were filled with bewilderment.

"I truly didn't think that you humans would send out three cultivators with two of them at mid-stage. Could it be that your race plans on having this operation fail?" The white-browed man coldly asked. Although his voice wasn't very loud, everyone could clearly hear it.

When they heard the youth, the blood-marked youth's brow faintly stirred and his smile faded. Han Li simply blinked and fiddled with a white jade slip in his hand.

As for the young white-robed woman, her black eyes were wandering, but a smile still stuck on her face.

The three didn't reply.

When the white-browed man saw the three's reaction, he was enraged and thought to say something when the woman surnamed Xiao suddenly said, "This mission is related to Deep Heaven City and the safety of both our kind. If we do not sincerely cooperate, let alone the mission, we may even fail to reach the mission's destination. Don't forget, we'll have to spend a year travelling. Since your kind sent three Fellow Daoists, you must be unordinary. Since we'll be spending some time with each other, let's exchange names. I am Xiao Hong and come from the Black Phoenix Clan. This is Fellow Daoist Li from the Profound Hawk Clan."

Xiao Hong spoke with a neutral tone.

When the blood-marked youth heard this, he raised his brow and smiled, "I am Long Dong. It seems your extreme flames come from refining your life flames to an astonishing realm."

"You're a member of the Long Clan!" Xiao Hong's expression changed upon hearing him.

"I didn't think that Fairy would know of my clan." The blood-marked youth grinned and flashed his teeth.

"I am called Xie Ying." The white-robed woman said with a chuckle. Her voice sounded like birdsong.

"Han Li!" Han Li shortly uttered his name and said nothing else."

Xiao Hong looked at Han Li and her voice turned cold, "So it was you. It is no wonder you had those Immortal Vanquishing Beads. You were originally a high-grade cultivator. So you're cultivating a dual body magic art."

When they heard this, the other three appeared alarm.

"I do cultivate such a technique. It has been many years since I've seen you. How is Dai'er doing?" Han Li indifferently asked.

Xiao Hong paused for a moment and indifferently replied, "It was sensible for Dai'er to follow me at the time. She has cultivated at an immense speed and already possesses a golden core. It is only a matter of time before she overtakes both of us."

"Is that so. I am glad she's fine." Han Li let out a faint sigh.

The white-robed young woman, Xie Ying, glanced at the two and asked with a giggle, "What? Does Sister Xiao recognize Brother Han?"

"Know him? Hehe, we can be considered old acquaintances." Xiao Hong coldly laughed.

At that moment, the blood-marked youth glanced at the two and his sights briefly paused on Xiao Hong. He then immediately looked away.

His eyes deeply revealed a trace of greed and no one seemed to notice.

After some thought Xiao Hong warned, "Although this isn't deep in the wilderness, it is already a sign of your strength that you were able to make it here. Our next step won't be as easy as the way here. If we do not unit together, I fear that it will be difficult to safely pass through the Black Leaves Forest. This path contains an immense amount of danger."

When they heard the name of the rest, the other four wore changed expressions.

The white-robed woman asked, "This mission is to scout the movements of the tree spirit clan? Will this mission be concluded once we recover the spies that are placed there and gather their information? That doesn't seem too difficult."

The blood-marked youth sighed and muttered, "That's hard to say. It'll depend a lot on luck. If it goes smoothly, the mission will be simple, but if we encounter trouble and the tree spirits discover us, we'll all likely die. However, this mission is greatly related to our two races. There is certain to be some danger."

The white-browed youth frowned and puzzlingly asked, "Since it is so important, why did they send Deity Transformation-grade cultivators? Wouldn't it be safer to send out Spatial Tempering cultivators?"

The blood-marked youth didn't immediately reply. Instead, he looked at Xiao Hong with a mysterious smile. "Since he's asking questions, it seems your esteemed self should be in charge of him."

The white-robed young woman calmly said, "Since Brother Long is aware of this, it seems you must be in charge of the human side."

The blood mark on the Long Dong's mouth stirred and he vaguely answered, "That's right, I do know a few things."

When the white-robed woman heard this, she curled her lips and turned to look at Han Li.

Han Li remained expressionless as if he hadn't heard their conversation. This caused her to look at him with surprise.

Xiao Hong turned to the white-browed youth and explained, "They've sent Deity Transformation cultivators like us because the Black Leaves Forest is already covered in the Heavenly Wood Dreamnet. If anybody above Deity Transformation-stage were to enter, it will immediately cause alarm."

The white-brow youth nodded and suddenly looked at Han Li and Xie Yin with narrow eyes. "So it was like that, but even if Fellow Daoist Long might do, the other two are mid-Deity Transformation cultivators. Aren't they lacking?"

"Brother Li, please feel at ease, the panel of elders sent both Young Lady Xie and Fellow Daoist Han. They naturally hold you in high esteem as well. They definitely won't disappoint." Long Dong chuckled.

The white-brow youth then sinister said, "Since you're vouching for them, let's leave that alone then. But if they become a burden, I will not save them."

The white-browed man's open disdain, finally caused the white-robed woman's face to sink. "Your cultivation only exceeds mine by a single grade, yet you speak like you're a Spatial Tempering cultivator."

The white-browed youth replied with a cold laugh, "Once you've reached our stage, the difference is negligible."

The white-robed woman felt anger. Just as she was thinking of a reply, Han Li interjected,

"Since Fellow Daoist Long and Fairy Xiao know more about this mission, why not have them give us the details first. When I received this mission, I was only given general details. I didn't think I'd need to cooperate with others. If I had known that, I would've most likely not taken this mission," Han Li said with an indifferent expression. He truly felt somewhat unhappy.

When he found there would be multiple people on this assignment, he knew it wouldn't be simple and he doubts about it. But since the mission was important and he was given vague details about, it would forfeit the privilege of accepting a different mission if he backed out and would need to stay in Deep Heaven City for ten years.

As such, with nothing else keeping him, he had no choice but to take the mission as he needed to leave the city within several years.

As a result, he needed to gather at this location in a month's time. When he saw there were only spirit realm natives instead of other ascended cultivators, he could only wryly laugh.

It appears this assignment's complexity and danger was far beyond what he anticipated.

Didn't Zhao Wugui mention that this mission would only be chosen by ascended cultivators. Could it be he took the wrong mission?

But before he set out, he was already given enough Earth Cleansing Pills and promised to finish his mission. This was the same as what Zhao Wugui had told him.

Han Li felt bewildered when he thought of this.

Long Dong smiled and said, "I'll tell Brother Han and Lady Xie about the mission details on the way. The mission is time sensitive, so we should best set off."

"Brother Long's words are reasonable. We are short on time. Let's head out and then give relevant information on the way." Xiao Hong agreed.

The other two raised no objections.

Han Li paused and slowly nodded.

"Alright, there will be time to talk as we travel."

The blood-marked youth amiably proposed, "In that case, for the sake of carefulness, everyone should take my spirit cloud boat. We won't need to waste any magic power, only use a few spirit stones. The boat is also well hidden. We'll encounter less troubles on the way."

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A ball of faint white light floated out from the forest. It contained a longboat that stretched over sixty meters wide.

The boat was divided into two stories and seemed to be crafted entirely from fine jade. The boat was engraved with simple cloud designs. Gold and silver talisman characters also floated from its surface, producing an unordinary aura.

The jade boat shuddered. Suddenly, the silver and golden talisman characters exploded, turning into a white cloud that wrapped around the boat. The entire boat appeared like an unremarkable white cloud.

The huge cloud soon circled in the air and silently rushed off.

Although the cloud appeared to be gently flying through the air, it traveled at extreme speed, tearing through three hundred meters in an instant. Its speed was comparable to an ordinary Deity Transformation cultivator.

As Xiao Hong stood on top of the boat, she looked around and praised, "Not bad. Although a spirit boat suitable for travel can't be considered rare, one this fast is a top-grade good. As expected for the Long Clan, an owner of a human auction house."

Long Dong politely said, "Hehe, Fairy Xiao praises me too greatly. Your clan is one of the seven great demon clans. You must've seen every kind of treasure. My Spirit Cloud Boat's speed can't be more than acceptable in your eyes. However, the boat does have quite a space. There are at least a dozen rooms. Apart from one person needing to keep watch on the outside, everyone else can rest in a room. If it goes smoothly, we'll arrive in half a year. With some cultivation, it'll pass by quickly."

Xiao Hong nodded, "That is good. We'll take ten days turns keeping watch while the others can do as they wish on the boat. Everyone should select their rooms first."

The others raised no objections and found a satisfactory room on the boat.

Since it was their place to rest and meditate, they placed down other restrictions in the room to protect them from prying eyes.

Then after a short discussion, the watch rotation was decided.

As it so happened, Han Li was the last position in the rotation. That gave him forty days before he had to keep watch.

With all of that arranged, Han Li didn't chat more with the others and headed into his room instead.

The others had done the same, apart from Long Dong, who held the first watch.

With Long Dong alone on board, his lips twitched and he made his way to the front of the boat. He flipped his hand and produced a green mat.

He then sat down on it cross-legged.

The blood marked youth quietly muttered, "Half a year... I look forward to the day that arrives." Then, he slowly closed his eyes and wore an odd smile on his face.

In a room ten meters wide, Xiao Hong and the white-browed youth took a seat across from each other.

"What? You're saying that young girl Xie Ying possesses Heavenly Phoenix Blood and is a disciple of the True Spirit Noble Clan?" The youth said with an astonished face.

Xiao Hong solemnly said, "Why is Fellow Daoist Li so surprised. Your Dark Falcon Clan is also a rare species of bird. You must've felt something. As for our Black Phoenix Clan, although we are a side branch of the phoenix clan, the purity of our heavenly phoenix blood is far greater than what that girl possesses. But there is no doubt about the presence of phoenix blood in her body."

The white-browed sighed and wore an odd expression, "So it was like that! When I first saw that girl, I felt ill at ease, like there was a slight sensation of fear, so I was somewhat at a loss when we entered the forest. So why did Fairy Xiao tell me this?"

"It's just that if the girl has other true spirit blood on her, it would've been fine. But she has the Heavenly Phoenix Blood of the myriad bird king. Brother Li should understand what this means." Xiao Hong sweetly smiled, but her eyes were ice cold.

The white-browed youth grew silent for a moment before letting out a cold laugh. "Of course I understand. But don't forget how important the elders told us to treat this mission. If we let personal matters get in the way of the clan's mission, then our lives are forfeit, regardless if we managed to acquire Heavenly Phoenix Blood."

Xiao Hong chuckled, "When did I say I wanted to attack her before the mission was over. We'll have to first make sure that the mission is completed. Then we'll strike."

"Strike after the mission is over? Oh, if it doesn't affect the mission, that'll be possible. But will the other two help her? Even if we take back the True Phoenix Blood, how will we divide it? The blood can't be evenly divided." The white-browed youth blinked and he shook his head.

Xiao Hong gritted her teeth and said, "The Heavenly Phoenix Blood is useful to us both, but its effects are more pronounced on those from the Black Phoenix Clan. How about this? If Brother Li helped me acquire the spirit blood, I am willing to reward him with three black flame pills. As for the other two, I have a plan to deal with them. Furthermore, the Black Leaves Forest wasn't a safe area to begin with. They might not safely return."

"Three Black Flame Pills? You aren't joking?" The white-browed youth said with delight.

Xiao Hong wryly smiled and said, "I have some status in the Black Phoenix Clan. Although the pills are considered priceless, after many years, I've managed to accumulate enough ingredients for three. I planned on using them to enter Spatial Tempering stage."

After a moment of thought, the youth frowned and said, "So it was like that. I'll lend you a hand after the mission is over. However, the blood won't be easy to take. Especially true blood from the true spirit noble clans. It will be difficult to acquire after they fused it into their human bodies."

"Don't worry, the Black Phoenix Clan have a particular method of extracting true blood. It had been well researched. I have an eighty percent chance at the very least."

When the white-browed youth heard this, he nodded, "Since you are so confident, then fine."

In the other room, the young white-robed woman Xie Ying clasped her hands with an incantation gesture. She was sitting cross-legged on the bed. There was a meter-wide azure halo slowly floating behind her head.

Upon closer inspection, the halo was perfectly round with foot-tall white flames flickered from its edges. There was also a hollow silhouette meditating at its center.

From its appearance through its radiance, it appeared similar to the woman, but was several times smaller. Its eyes were shut and its hand was held in an incantation gesture.

At an unknown time, the young woman's mouth began to stir and an indistinct smile appeared on her face. At nearly the same time, the image in the halo wore a similar expression.

As Han Li paced in the secluded room, he wore an expressionless face and his eyes flickered as if he were lost in thought.

In the corner of the room, there were two small objects on the jade table.

There was a kitten sized leopard with its four legs lazily stretched out on the table next to the items.

Sitting on the small leopard's head was a monkey only several inches tall. Black light lit up from its fur and it looked at Han Li with intelligent eyes.

Han Li suddenly stopped pacing and he flipped his hand to produce a white jade slip and a small bottle.

The bottle was simply decorated and had three ancient characters engraved on it. Under closer inspection, the words read Earth Cleansing Pill.

Han Li stroked the bottle with a finger and then sighed. In a flash of light, the bottle disappeared. All that remained was a jade slip.

The jade slip was something that was given to him by several mysterious cultivators before he left Deep Heaven City.

Han Li fiddled with the jade slip for a while before placing it against his forehead.

The jade slip continued a huge map, but it seemed to be mostly incomplete. The map's lacking areas were shining with faint golden light.

Although he looked through it continuously, Han Li couldn't help but continue as if he was trying to find something inside it.

Countless kilometers away from Deep Heaven City, there was a hidden underground room where a monk and a Daoist sat across from each other next to a stone table.

The Daoist appeared over forty years old. He had big eyes, thick eyebrows, and faintly golden skin.

The monk appeared old and had a white beard that was a half-foot long. Wrinkles littered his face and his eyes were thin lines as if he couldn't open them.

"It is about time for them to meet together and head on their way." The old man said weakly.

"Yes, but there is something that eludes me. Why did Brother Jin Yue suddenly changed from his original plan after he left seclusion? Why did you send those Juniors to a foreign land?

Those people were supposed to be the most outstanding of the newly ascended cultivators. You should clearly understand that the mission to receive intelligence from the foreign land may seem simple, but it is truly dangerous. The demon clans would send equivalent people, but in truth, they seem to have other plans." The Daoist priest spoke with a puzzled face.

"The various races have become restless. You should know this." The old monk said.

When the Daoist Priest heard the old monk, his heart trembled and he wore a solemn expression. "Of course. But there is a newly appeared profound heavenly treasure that is listed on the chaotic myriad spirit roll. Furthermore, it is a profound heavenly treasure that ranks in the top three. The Profound Heavenly Execution Sword!"

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The old monk muttered, "That's right. Originally, it should've been tens of thousands more years before another attack. There is even a possibility of another hundred race war erupting as a result of this."

The Daoist priest spoke with confusion. "Why is Brother Jin Yue speaking in circles? This information is obvious. How is this related to what we were talking about? Aren't the various races fearful of being drawn into this war?"

The old man slowly said, "Fear being drawn in? Hehe, now that this matter has appeared, what race can't? In accordance to the appearance of past profound heavenly treasures, it will provoke a storm of blood before it can be formed. The race that will acquire this treasure in the end can consecrate it to attract a True Spirit-grade existence to protect their clan and turn it into the strongest tribe in the spirit realm. These True Spirit-grade existences are superior to Immortals from the True Immortal Realm. Of course, before a powerful True Spirit appears, the tribe in question will have to protect it. Otherwise, it will only be seized away by others. If the race that acquires this treasure is weak, they may even offer the treasures to a stronger tribe in a request for protection or abandon it in a wild area to prevent the extermination of their own clan."

The Daoist priest didn't understand the monk, but he didn't interrupt him.

The monk paused, and then continued, "It is reasonable to say that with our strength, it is difficult to predict which tribe will receive the Profound Heavenly Treasure. However, the demons have a Body Integration cultivator that has some prophetic abilities. Because they are aware they have no chance of surviving their next tribulation, they activated their potential and used their life's magic power to divine the whereabouts of the next treasure. As a result, it was shown the Profound Heavenly Execution Sword will appear in the northwest portion of what is known to humans as the Feng Yuan Continent. Although the Feng Yuan Continent is the smallest of the three, it has far more races than the other continents. The so-called north-west corner consists of humans, demons, spirit tribe, wood tribe, nightfiend tribe, shadow tribe, and six other races. In other words, the newly appeared Profound Heavenly Treasure can appear in human lands. As of current, only humans and demons are aware of this situation, but it won't be hidden for long. After all, there are certain to be spies from the other races in our ranks. There are no walls where air doesn't pass through. If the other foreign races were to discover this, you should realize what will happen."

When the monk finished, he wore a wry smile.

"What? It was like that? In that case, if we aren't careful, it is possible that we will be exterminated." The Daoist Priest's face turned pale.

The monk sighed, "According to ancient legends, when a great number of powerful beings are exterminated in an area, a mysterious blood offering technique can be employed, forcibly calling down a profound heavenly treasure. Those powerful tribes don't care about exterminating humans or demons. They are only using us as a blood offering. In the last hundred race war, the fourth ranked Heavenform Shield caused turmoil for myriads of years. They swept in most of the tribes on the continents and exterminated the weaker ones in a massacre. So regardless of which tribe acquires the treasure, we will have to launch a war to evade our fate as a blood offering and have other tribes take that place."

"So it was like that... so you had the newly ascended cultivators leave the city to a foreign land..." The Daoist Priest suddenly realized something.

The monk solemnly said, "Profound Heavenly Treasures are heaven-defying treasures able to reverse the realm's laws. But they might not all come from the spirit realm, and could be brought up from a lower realm. Although the possibility of this is extremely slim, there have been suspicious ascended cultivators in the last hundred years. They've all been released from Deep Heaven City on the most dangerous missions to the foreign tribes. Regardless of whether they succeed in their mission, they will eventually discover in a short time that they will not be able to return to Deep Heaven City. Of course, there are also a few suspicious cultivators from natives that were also moved out from Deep Heaven City or were forcefully exiled to the wilderness for whatever reason. Apart from these people, there are also a few with astonishing potential and aptitude that were also sent to the wilderness. This way, if they truly carry the Profound Heavenly Execution Sword, we are effectively moving them away from the source of calamity. If we happen to be defeated in the war, these people will be able to continue the lineage of humans and demons and have them flourish once more."

"There is no need to go through so much trouble. If we investigate whether or not these people truly possessed a Profound Heavenly treasure, we can..." The Daoist priest trailed.

The monk explained, "We can search through the entirety of their spiritual sense with mind-controlling techniques, but what advantage is there if we find out that the Profound Heavenly Execution Sword is on our hands? It is only a source of trouble. Are you able to guarantee that no one from the panel of elders is actually a foreign being taking their form? If this is leaked, not only will our human clan become a target in a short time, even the demon clan may break their alliance with us for self-preservation. Humans will truly be exterminated in that case.

"We aren't some powerful race. We can't hold the treasure until a True Spirit-grade existence comes knocking on our door. Even if we present the treasure to a stronger tribe for protection, I reckon the shadow race and the others won't let this chance pass them by. Instead of feigning ignorance, it'd be best we deal with the coming war. If we don't have the certainty of which race possesses the Profound Heavenly Treasure, it will most likely be the tree tribe and the shadow tribe that attacks us. With the humans and demons manning Deep Heaven City, we will most be able to block them. The spirit tribe and the nightfiend tribe will join in the war with fierce vigor after finding out this information. At worst, great injuries will befall the various tribes and we'll fulfill the blood offering requirement to call upon the Profound Heavenly Treasure. Regardless of who the treasure originally belongs to, so long as the treasure is summoned, we will have survived this calamity. But to prevent those powerful tribes from finding us, we must first achieve victory. I reckon that this battle will be different from the hundred year long city sieges. I reckon that this war will have an outcome in several years that is far more wretched.

"Hehe, the other tribes controlling them most likely think the same. Otherwise, the other tribes would've looked carefully for the Profound Heavenly Execution Sword. They are all preparing for the war," The old monk finally finished.

After the Daoist priest heard this, he remained in place for a long while. Then he unhappily asked, "When did you find this information? Last time, I wasn't told about this. Could it be that the panel of elders have hidden this from me?"

"It's quite simple. We only did this after we found out there was something wrong with your identity. I don't know if I should continue to address you as Lei Luo or as elder purple shadow."

"What purple shadow? What does Grandmaster Jin Yue mean?" The Daoist Priest asked with a frown.

"Hehe, its about time. Let's start." The old monk ignored the Daoist priest and swept his gaze to an exquisite incense burner in the corner of the room. The stick of incense was burned halfway.

"It's about time? Don't tell me, the incense..." A purple light flashed from the Daoist Priest Eyes and his face vastly changed. At nearly the same time, a purple shadow shot out from the Daoist Priest's body and pounced at the old monk.

The monk remained still in his seat and he swept his sleeve.

A bang sounded and golden light flashed. Series of Buddhist texts floated in the air.

The purple shadow struck the wall as if receiving a strike of immense force. Soon after, his body violently trembled and turned into a ball, incapable of any further action.

At that moment, the wall flashed with azure light and an azure jade bowl suddenly appeared. It flipped out and spat out an azure mist, instantly taking in the purple shadow into it.

"Not bad, the Four Spirit Incense is worthy of its reputation in restraining the Shadow Tribe. It even restrains a purple shadow." White light flashed from the wall to reveal a middle-aged scholar. He wore white robes and had a relaxed expression.

"Brother Tian Yuan! Many thanks for your spirit incense. It would've been difficult to deal with this evil creature otherwise." The monk looked at the scholar and stood up, saluting him.

"Grandmaster Jin Yue praises me too greatly. It just happened to cultivate a new ability that allowed me to take notice that Lei Luo was possessed. It is a pity that a genius of Lei Luo's talents had met his end." The scholar glanced at the Daoist priest's body and sighed.

The life from the possessed body soon faded and its flesh became shriveled.

The monk softly chanted with a trace of anguish on his face. Soon after, he flicked his finger and a golden flame shot from his finger.

Suddenly, the body turned to nothing in the golden flames.

"According to common convention, although the purple shadow is of equivalent strength to a Body Integration cultivator, with Lei Luo's abilities, it shouldn't have been easy for him to be possessed. It seemed my old friend was plotted against when he last journeyed into the wilderness a hundred years ago. The purple shadow was extremely devious and kept his cover for many years when he returned to the city. Were it not for the Holy Sovereign's keen senses, I fear that we would still be tricked. The evil creature thought to gather together all the ascended cultivators and send them to their doom under the guise of protection."

The middle-aged man that appeared was the renowned master of Heavenly Origin City, Holy Sovereign Tian Yuan.

The Sovereign gracefully smiled and said, "However, over the past years, my old friends favor the native cultivators a bit too much. It is no wonder ascended cultivators have become resentful."

The monk's face turned sullen. "I've always remained in secluded cultivation these past years and neglected these matters. Now that a great enemy has appeared, I can't deal with these small affairs. It is known how much information leaked after Fellow Daoist Lei Luo's body was possessed. Deep Heaven City's defenses and restrictions must be changed."

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"This is indeed an important matter that will require an extensive discussion between the members of the panel of elders. This purple shadow knows quite a bit; you can interrogate it in further depth, Master Jin Yue," the middle-aged scholar nodded before tossing the jade bowl in his hand through the air.

"Thank you, Holy Sovereign! It's just a pity that the people who were deployed to the territories of the different races have most likely all fallen already." The elderly monk caught the jade bowl with a wistful look on his face.

"Theirs was a necessary sacrifice in order to prevent the enemy from catching wind of what we were doing. The Shadow Tribe will most likely attack them along the way, and we can only hope that they'll be lucky enough to escape alive. However, was what you said earlier true, Master Jin Yue? Is it really the case that the cultivators who ascended in the past century could possess that Profound Heavenly Spiritslash Sword?" the Heavenly Yuan Holy Sovereign asked.

"Of course not; I was only lying just then because I didn't want to waste any more time. Once a profound heavenly artifact takes shape in one world, it can be taken to another world prior to its attainment of sentient will. However, if this treasure is taken away from its world of origin prior to attaining sentient will, it will lose the chance to do so in the future. Profound heavenly artifacts with no sentient will aren't very useful, and there's no way that they'd appear on the Chaotic Myriad Spirit Roll," the elderly monk replied with a faint smile.

"I see. However, I've heard that this desert seems to be a trial ground for the two tribes," Ye Ying suddenly interjected. "I see. As expected, you really are the leading expert in profound heavenly treasures, Master Jin Yue." The middle-aged scholar gave a faint smile, and it was impossible to tell whether the actually believed the old monk or not.

Han Li as naturally unaware of the fact that so many changes would be taking place to the mission that he was on. At present, he and the other four people were skirting around the white clouds, engaging in a ruthless killing spree of the strange birds and ancient beasts there.

Each and every one of these strange birds was around 10 feet in size and possessed four wings. Their bodies were like enlarged versions of bat bodies, yet they possessed the heads of mountain goats. Their pairs of horns were curved backward, and when they opened their mouths, the sharp fangs within presented quite an intimidating sight to behold.

There were several hundred birds of this nature in the surrounding area, and as they flapped their wings, gusts of grey winds would be swept up. They could also blast arcs of lightning that were as thick as large bowls from their mouths, and their individual powers were not inferior to that of the average Core Formation cultivator. Furthermore, these birds all had pairs of black metal talons, so they were dangerous even in close-quarters combat.

If a single normal Deity Transformation cultivator were to encounter such a large flock of these strange birds, they would perhaps avoid them to spare some trouble.

However, in Han Li's party of five, there was were direct lineal descendants of true spirit families, metamorphosis stage demonic cultivators from the seven major demon sub-species, as well as an absolute freak in Han Li. As such, they were able to easily protect their Spiritcloud Ark while engaging in a completely one-sided slaughter of these ferocious birds.

The young man with the red mole was making hand seals, manipulating two streaks of white light that were over 100 feet in length to completely enshroud an area of over 1,000 feet ahead of him. The true form of these streaks of white light had to be some type of wickedly sharp weapon as they were able to cleave through winds, lightning, and birds with no exceptions.

Meanwhile, the young woman in the black dress was situated within a ball of furious black flames. She didn't appear to be unleashing any abilities and was only hovering peacefully in mid-air, but all of the winds and lightning that struck her disappeared without being able to put so much as a single scratch on her. Any of the birds who dared to attack her were also immediately reduced to ashes as soon as they came into contact with even a tiny wisp of those black flames.

Even though these birds were extremely ferocious in nature, none of them dared to approach Han Li's party after having a dozen or so of their brethren destroyed in quick succession.

In contrast, the young man with the white eyebrows was fighting in a unique style of his own. He wasn't relying on any treasures, choosing, instead, to plunge headfirst into the flock of strange birds. A pair of black glistening wings had appeared on his back and his arms had also become extremely thick and bulky, clearly having transformed into a semi-demonic form already.

As his body flashed through the air, one could only see a half-bird half-humanoid shadow crashing through the throngs of birds. All of the birds that were unfortunate enough to stand in his path were split into several pieces, sending a rain of blood falling from the sky.

As for Han Li, his performance was the most mundane of the lot. He merely released all of his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword, transforming them into 72 streaks of golden light that revolved around his body, each of which was several feet in length. Not only did they manage to ward off all of the oncoming attacks, they also slew any birds that dared to approach him.

However, the one who was seemingly the most relaxed and carefree among their party was the white-robed young woman by the name of Ye Ying.

She was holding a green jade lute in her lap, and her slim fingers were gliding over its strings, sending halos of yellow light radiating through the air around her. Any oncoming birds that were struck by these halos would be completely encased in layers of peculiar greyish-white substance. They would then be completley immobilized as a result and plummet from the sky before shattering into countless pieces on the ground below.

This lute possessed the extremely rare ability to turn enemies into stone.

Even though none of the five unleashed their most powerful abilities or treasures, they were still able to make short work of this flock of strange birds within five minutes.

They then withdrew their abilities and disappeared into the giant cloud formed by the spirit ark before landing on the bow of the ark.

"I wonder what these birds are supposed to be; I'm quite surprised that they were able to see through my ark's disguise," Long Dong sighed.

"I've never seen this type of strange bird, either, but the primordial world is an extremely vast place, so it's no surprise that there are many species of ancient beasts that we're unfamiliar with. I'm more surprised by the fact that it took so long for something to see through the ark's disguise," Xiao Hong said in a calm manner.

"This also indicates that we've traveled really deep into the primordial world already, so we can expect more of these scenarios during the rest of our journey. There was a large number of those strange birds, but they were still quite easy to deal with. If we encounter some more powerful ancient beasts, then we might have to abandon this ark when necessary," the white-browed young man said with furrowed brows.

"Of course. If we really do encounter legendary beings like Hundred-Eyed Giants that we can't contend with, then we'll naturally have to prioritize our own survival. Brother Han, you're on duty next. Thanks in advance for your hard work," Long Dong said to Han Li with a smile.

Han Li nodded with a calm expression and didn't say anything.

Meanwhile, the white-robed young woman turned to the woman in the black dress with a smile, and asked, "Big Sister Xiao, the ability you just unleashed is the vast renowned Black Scorching Flames of the Black Phoenix race, right? The legends certainly ring true in this case; those flames are indeed extremely formidable!"

Xiao Hong faltered slightly upon hearing this before her brows furrowed with a hint a peculiar expression as she replied, "Those were indeed Black Scorching Flames, but they're hardly worthy of a mention. However, your lute reminds me of a legendary treasure. It's said that tens of thousands of years ago, a Body Integration Stage senior of the Heavenly Spirit Region refined a Divine Spirit Treasure known as the Lute of Wisdom. It's since staked a place for itself on the Chaotic Myriad Spirit Roll and is capable of turning enemies into stone, melting metals, and sealing objects in ice. Is the treasure you're using somehow related to this spirit treasure, Fellow Daoist Ye?"

"Hehe, I didn't think that Big Sister Xiao would be so familiar with the treasures from our human race. Even though the treasure I'm using isn't that Lute of Wisdom, it's a replica ancient treasure that is only capable of turning enemies into stone. Of course, even that ability is far less potent than what's capable of being unleashed by the true spirit treasure," Ye Ying replied with a dainty smile.

"I see. Even so, this treasure is comparable with the average spirit treasure. After all, the ability to turn enemies into stone is extremely rare and difficult to defend against," Xiao Hong continued.

Listening to the barbed conversation between the two young women, a hint of a smile appeared on Long Dong's face. A thought suddenly seemed to have occurred to him as he turned to Han Li, and said, "Fellow Daoist Han, your flying swords appear to be quite interesting. There are 72 of them, and they look like they're part of a complete set. That reminds me of a senior from many years ago who was also an ascended cultivator. Even though he was only at the late-Spatial Tempering Stage at the time, he managed to set up a formation with 72 swords to match a Body Integration cultivator in battle, thereby forging quite a reputation for himself. However, the swords wielded by that senior were all azure in color as opposed to gold. Do your flying swords also possess a similar sword formation ability, Fellow Daoist Han?"

Long Dong seemed to be quite interested in the Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords Han Li had just unleashed.

Han Li's heart stirred slightly upon hearing this question, but his expression remained unchanged as he replied, "Oh? I wasn't aware of that. May I ask that senior's name and what kind of sword formation he was using? I only refined so many flying swords so I can have more weapons to combat my enemies with; I have no idea about matters such as sword formations..."

"Oh, I've heard about the person that Fellow Daoist Long is referring to. He's a senior by the name of Qing Yuanzi, and he was indeed quite a legendary figure back in the day. I don't know what kind of sword formation he was using, but I heard that he'd invented the formation himself. Unfortunately, it's said that this senior was never heard from again after entering the primordial world many years ago. Otherwise, with his brilliant aptitude, that senior could've very likely reached the Body Integration Stage," the white-robed woman interjected with a smile.

Long Dong showed no signs of anger at being interrupted, and he merely gave a faint smile.

However, Han Li was silent for a long while after hearing this. It appeared that this Qing Yuanzi was the one who had invented the Azure Essence Sword Art. He was rather surprised to learn about this legendary figure from these two. It was just a pity that he had already chosen the path of simultaneous cultivation. Otherwise, he could attempt to obtain this Qing Yuanzi's inheritance and continue to cultivate his Azure Essence Sword Art.

With that in mind, Han Li extended a polite salute toward the others before rising into the air as a streak of azure light, flying to the highest point of the jade ark, where he took a seat with his legs crossed.

Han Li was clearly unwilling to continue engaging in further conversation, and the other four members of the party also bade farewell to one another soon thereafter. Some returned to their silent cultivation chambers while others traveled to other parts of the jade ark for different purposes.

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Even though Han Li's eyes were closed, he naturally wouldn't truly go into a deep meditative state. Instead, he was considering some of the cultivation arts that he had yet to fully grasp in his mind over and over again. At the same time, he was releasing a portion of his spiritual sense to constantly monitor the surrounding area in case more ancient beasts suddenly attacked the ark.

During the following seven to eight days, the spirit ark continued onward under the cover of the giant cloud. Even though a few other types of flying beasts were encountered along the way, all of them simply flew by without attacking. These beasts clearly didn't possess the ability to see through the spirit ark's disguise like those four-winged birds did.

Thus, Han Li reached the ninth day of his shift. At noon that day, he had just fitted a new batch of spirit stones onto the ark and was about to return to his former spot to take a seat again when his footsteps suddenly faltered. He suddenly turned his head and cast his gaze up ahead with a surprised look on his face.

"How could this be? How could something like this appear here?" Han Li's expression darkened significantly as he let loose a long cry.

Even though it wasn't very loud, it was enough to alert the other four members of the party.

Moments later, a few streaks of light shot forth from various locations on the ark before flying over to Han Li.

"What happened? Why have you summoned us, Brother Han? Have we encountered some danger?"

"What's this? Could it be..."

Xiao Hong and Long Dong spoke out in quick succession, except Xiao Hong's words were filled with confusion, yet Long Dong seemed to have immediately detected something as a surprised look appeared on his face.

The white-browed young man and Ye Ying also cast their spiritual sense outward at the same time.

"What's that? Could it be a True Spirit level being?" the young man exclaimed.

Ye Ying didn't say anything, but the shock in her eyes was quite apparent.

In contrast, Han Li had already calmed down at this point. His spiritual sense was lingering in the air several hundred kilometers above them, where a gargantuan black shadow was hovering, obscuring virtually the entire sky in the process.

Black clouds were tumbling incessantly near the black shadow and lightning flashed amid rumbling thunderclaps. Countless gusts of grey winds were being swept up like massive pillars that connected heaven and earth. In the clouds apart, small sections of a grey-scaled body were visible from time to time, but no one could tell what this creature was due to its sheer enormity.

However, from a distance, one could tell that the black shadow was circular in shape. It seemed to be extremely similar to a legendary True Spirit level being.

As such, it was no wonder that all of the people on the ark were so unsettled by it.

Just as everyone was reeling from shock, a strange cry not unlike the moo of a cow erupted from the distance. The rumbling thunderclaps then intensified as if there were countless bolts of lightning exploding nearby. Even from such a long distance away, the thunderclaps were still quite clearly audible to everyone.

Upon hearing this cry, Ye Ying's expression eased as she heaved a sigh of relief, and explained, "That's not a True Spirit; it's an ancient beast, a Lightning Turtle. This thing is one of the largest types of ancient beasts in the primordial world, but it sustains itself by absorbing the lightning in its surroundings with its body and won't attack other living beings unless it's been provoked. However, if you get on its bad side, it's an extremely fearsome being. At the very least, one would have to be at the Body Integration Stage to stand a chance against it in direct combat."

"Lightning Turtle? Is that the legendary ancient beast that's said to be born amid heavenly lightning? I heard that as long as there's a sufficient supply of lightning, these things will continue to expand indefinitely with no upper limit to the size they can reach. They're an extraordinary species and I've heard that the Transport Spirit Turtle of the Xuan Wu Region, which is capable of carrying and transporting an entire city, could be a Lightning Turtle. Even though the one above us is quite massive already, it's still incomparable to that legendary Transport Spirit." Xiao Hong clucked her tongue in wonder.

"I'm not sure if the Transport Spirit is truly a Lightning Turtle or not, but if that really is the case, then this Lightning Turtle is most likely less than a ten-thousandth of the size of the Transport Spirit. Even so, it can still kill us if we were to provoke it, so it's best to avoid this thing," Long Dong said with a smile.

"That's indeed true. We're actually quite lucky to be able to witness such a creature. Lightning Turtles usually burrow deep under the ground and very rarely emerge above the ground, so it's certainly not something you see every day. They usually only emerge from the ground to... Wait, this is bad! If this turtle has appeared here, then it must be the case that a fearsome lightning torrent is about to appear here. Brother Long, pilot your ark away from this area as quickly as possible!" A thought suddenly occurred to Xiao Hong, and her features immediately turned deathly pale.

"Lightning torrent?" Everyone's expressions changed drastically upon hearing this.

Long Dong's expression darkened significantly as his body swayed and he abruptly disappeared on the spot. In the next instant, he appeared on the bow of the ark over 100 feet away before flipping over a hand to produce a badge-like treasure.

He rubbed his hands together with the badge in between them, and the white clouds around the ark suddenly disappeared. The entire ark then faltered before abruptly hurtling toward a certain direction, moving almost twice as fast as its original speed as it shot forth through the air as a streak of white light.

However, the spirit ark had only traveled for a few dozens of kilometers when a layer of shimmering blue light suddenly appeared in the air above the gargantuan black shadow. The blue light then coursed through the air in all directions at an astonishing speed, as if it had been spurred on by some kind of external stimulus.

In the short span of a few breaths, a blue line had appeared in the sky amid a loud rumbling boom. The blue line was imbued with boundless electrical power as it arced through the air directly toward their party of five.

Long Dong drew a sharp breath upon seeing the insane speed at which the blue line was moving, and he hurriedly yelled, "I'd heard that whenever a Lightning Turtle appears, a lightning torrent must follow soon after; looks like that's indeed true. Everyone, come and lend me your assistance."

Even without his sudden outburst, everyone was already feeling extremely tense at the sight of the rapidly approaching blue line.

As such, all four of them immediately made hand seals as piercing spiritual light of different colors emanated from their bodies. Five bursts of spiritual power were injected into the spirit ark in a frenzy!

After joining forces to act as a collective power source, the ark underfoot began to emit a low buzzing sound before shuddering violently, following which the surrounding scenery completely blurred.

Traveling at such an extreme speed, the spirit ark had transformed into a barely traceable blur, and it quickly sped from one side of the sky to the other.

However, even at such a phenomenal speed, the blue line behind the ark was still able to keep up and give chase in hot pursuit.

Everyone was quite astonished to see this, and only then did they realize that the tales of how fearsome lightning torrents were really weren't exaggerations.

Thankfully, the five of them were able to join forces to spur on the spirit ark to its maximal speed. If a normal Deity Transformation cultivator whose forte didn't lie in speed were to take their place, there would be no way that they'd be able to escape.

Of course, Han Li and the others weren't ordinary Deity Transformation cultivators. All of them possessed some secret techniques to be used in dire situations, which would grant them speed that was not inferior to the speed of this spirit ark by much. However, using such secret techniques would naturally bring about debilitating after-effects, and no one wished to incur such a risk in this perilous primordial world.

As such, everyone worked together on this occasion, spurring on the spirit ark for tens of thousands of kilometers, all the way until the blue light behind them was nowhere to be seen and the thunderclaps couldn't be heard anymore, either.

Only then did everyone heave a collective sigh of relief before withdrawing the spiritual power.

The spirit ark immediately slowed down as a result.

Long Dong's expression eased as he turned to Xiao Hong with a smile, and said, "That was close! Thank heavens Fairy Xiao reacted as quickly as she did. Otherwise, a slight further delay would've seen us being swept up into that lightning torrent. Even though we may not die in there, it would definitely be very difficult to emerge unscathed."

"I was merely lucky. Even though Lightning Turtles are quite renowned, not many people actually know about their habits and behavior patterns. There just so happens to be a senior from my race who once slew a Lightning Turtle on his own, so he knows a bit about them. Lightning Turtles usually burrow deep within the ground and won't emerge for no good reason. They'll only reveal themselves when a lightning torrent is imminent so they can devour its power of lightning. It's said that mature Lightning Turtles will grow a pair of beads within their bodies, one of which is lightningphilic while the other is lightningphobic. These beads are quite extraordinary and even someone without a lightning spiritual root can easily manipulate the power of lightning using them. The Lightning Turtle that my senior slew hadn't reached full maturity yet, so he wasn't able to obtain those beads. However, the shells of these turtles contain astonishing lightning power and is an exceptional material for refining lightning-attribute treasures. If an extremely powerful being had encountered this Lightning Turtle in our stead, they would be ecstatic rather than horrified," Xiao Hong said with a wry smile.

"The senior you're referring to has to be an elder of your race for him to be able to hunt and kill such a fearsome beast on his own. That would be nothing more than a delusional dream for Deity Transformation cultivators like us. We're already extremely lucky to have survived that ordeal." The white-browed young man still wore an expression of lingering fear as he spoke.

"Indeed. Lightning Turtles' bodies are filled with treasures to be harvested, but it would be suicide to attempt to hunt one down without a Body Integration Stage cultivation base at minimum. Let's continue onward. Hopefully, the rest of our journey will be a bit smoother," Long Dong said in a slightly grave voice.

They had encountered a beast that was more than powerful enough to kill them after less than 20 days in the primordial world, and their hearts were feeling quite heavy as a result.

After that ordeal, everyone was in rather low spirits, so no one was interested in continuing the conservation. As such, after a few more obligatory exchanges, everyone returned to their respective silent cultivation chambers aside from Han Li, who remained standing on the spot.

He didn't contribute so much as a single word to that conversation, but after everyone disappeared, he cast his gaze toward the direction of the lightning torrent with a contemplative look on his face.

After a short while, he heaved a wistful sigh before returning to the highest point of the jade ark, where he took a seat again.

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Unbeknownst to Han Li and the others, not long after they had departed from the lightning torrent area, the black clouds around the Lightning Turtle dissipated to reveal its true form.

Suffice to say the creature was as huge as a massive mountain. Its gargantuan shell was deep grey in color, yet was glistening with a metallic gleam and seemed to be extremely smooth.

What was even more curious was that the turtle's four limbs were exposed, but its head and tail were nowhere to be seen. It appeared that they had been completely withdrawn into its shell.

At this point, the lightning torrent was already raging in full force, and the entire sky had been enshrouded under blue light. Bolts of blue lightning of different sizes were falling like rain from the scintillating sky up above. The smallest ones were only around a foot in length each while the largest were as long as over 100 feet. All of them came crashing down in a frenzy, and explosive thunderclaps were the only sounds that could be heard.

The Lightning Turtle's massive body was naturally able to withstand the countless bolts of lightning raining down from above. As soon as an arc of lightning came into contact with the turtle's body, the former would disappear like sand into an ocean.

What was even more incredible was that the turtle was emanating bursts of white light, which drew the surrounding arcs of lightning toward it like a magnet. As such, a large proportion of the lightning within the lightning torrent was forcibly absorbed by this turtle into its body.

The turtle swam slowly through the air, seemingly thoroughly enjoying itself within the lightning torrent.

All of a sudden, the giant turtle's four limbs faltered before abruptly being withdrawn into its shell.

Almost at the exact same moment, spatial fluctuations erupted nearby as a burst of colorful light shot forth out of thin air. The light then receded to reveal a massive skeletal bird that was radiating colorful light from its body.

This skeletal bird was only just over 100 feet in size, but the aura it was emitting was not inferior in the slightest compared to that of the mighty Lightning Turtle. What was even more astonishing was that there were two humanoid figures standing atop its head.

One of them was around 20 feet tall with black light flashing all over its body while the other was more ordinary in size, but it was entirely enshrouded in a green cloud, making it impossible for anyone to glean its true features.

"Not bad, not bad; I didn't think we'd encounter such fantastic prey as soon as we got teleported here. I just so happen to be refining a Ten-Headed Giant Devil and am missing some materials. This Lightning Turtle will suffice," one of the humanoid figures murmured.

"Brother Tian Miao, you can't just claim this turtle for yourself. You'll only require some of its skeleton to refine your devil anyway; I can assist you in killing this turtle, but I want its two lightning beads," the other humanoid figure chuckled.

"Hmph, that's a lopsided deal if I've ever heard one! The most valuable parts of a Lightning Turtle's body are its two lightning beads; don't you think it's rather unfair for you to claim them like this?" The humanoid figure within the green cloud seemed to be quite displeased with this arrangement.

"Hehe, lightning beads are indeed extraordinary items, but they're not very useful to you at all, yet I have a special purpose for them. How about I offer to exchange the arm bone of a Qilin True Spirit for these two lightning beads?" the tall and broad humanoid figure proposed.

"A special purpose? Oh, I almost forgot that Brother Xuan Wu's Transport Spirit is a Lightning Turtle. You're trying to extend its lifespan by feeding it lightning beads, right?" Tian Miao asked.

"That's right, Fellow Daoist. Extending the lifespan of the Transport Spirit will be immensely beneficial to the human race. It can count as half of a true spirit, and if a large-scale war really was to break out, it would be able to provide great assistance to us. You won't turn me down, will you, Brother Tian Miao?" Xuan Wu asked.

"Seeing as you do indeed have a worthwhile purpose for these lightning beads, I naturally won't decline this arrangement. However, we have to make haste so we don't delay the issue we've actually come here to address. We're not here on an expedition to source materials; don't forget that we've been assigned an important mission. We have to get rid of all of those settlements established by beings of foreign races near Deep Heaven City," Tian Miao reluctantly agreed after a period of contemplation.

"Haha, don't worry, we'll have more than enough time. Our combined powers in conjunction with this puppet you refined from the remains of that primordial rainbow phoenix will be able to take care of this Lightning Turtle in no time," Xuan Wu laughed heartily before rising up into the air with his fists clenched and charging straight into the lightning torrent.

Moments later, an earth-shattering boom erupted from within the lightning torrent, followed by a beastly roar that was just as devastating.

Meanwhile, Tian Miao shook his head with a faint sigh as he stood atop his rainbow phoenix puppet, seemingly feeling rather exasperated by his companion's short temper. However, he still immediately made a hand seal, upon which the skeletal phoenix beneath his feet swelled drastically to over 1,000 feet in size in the blink of an eye. The skeletal phoenix then also plunged into the lightning torrent at Tian Miao's behest.

A hint of horror and rage immediately crept into the voice of the Lightning Turtle as it let loose another ear-splitting roar.

Meanwhile, Han Li and the others continued onward in their journey, completely oblivious to the events that were unfolding within the lightning torrent.

As it turned out, Long Dong had been correct in stating that they would most likely be encountering more hazards throughout their journey. During the next month or so, the spirit ark continued to travel at a high speed while enshrouded in its illusionary cloud, but they were still afflicted by numerous dangerous situations.

For example, on one occasion, the ark was suddenly swept into a strange gust of crimson winds. In reality, these "winds" were swarms of countless crimson insects, each of which was only around the size of a grain of rice.

If it weren't for the fact that all five of them combined their powers once again to quickly evacuate the ark from that area, it would've most likely been completely devoured by those insects in the blink of an eye.

Not long after that, spatial fluctuations suddenly erupted up ahead as a two-headed bird that was over 1,000 feet in length emerged out of thin air.

This bird's body was entirely golden in color and radiating astonishing spiritual Qi. It was clearly a fearsome being that was not inferior in power to that Lightning Turtle. Everyone's hearts leaped into their throats as they waited to see whether the bird had discovered their spirit ark.

As it turned out, it did notice their ark, but it displayed a complete lack of interest in such an insignificant object. As such, it merely flapped its massive wings and flew away.

Han Li and the others heaved a collective sigh of relief before glancing at one another with wry smiles on their faces.

After witnessing the horrors of the primordial world, no one dared to actually cultivate in a deep meditative state anymore, even after retiring to their silent cultivation chambers. Everyone remained on high alert, and their wariness was certainly warranted. During the coming days, they encountered several more crises, all of which were barely averted through everyone's collective efforts.

However, their luck was always going to run out one day.

On that day, the white-browed young man was on lookout duty while everyone else was recuperating in their silent cultivation chambers. All of a sudden, a long cautionary cry erupted from outside, and Han Li's expression immediately changed slightly as he rose to his feet. However, before he had a chance to do anything else, the entire ark suddenly tremored violently, and he was almost thrown off balance.

Han Li's heart jolted with shock, following which violent tremors ran through the ark in quick succession White light then began to swirl erratically around the walls around him, and those walls were gradually beginning to crack.

Han Li's expression darkened as he swept a sleeve up toward the roof of his silent cultivation chamber, upon which a streak of golden light shot forth, puncturing a massive hole into the roof.

Han Li's body swayed before he flew through the hole as a streak of azure light. After a few flashes, he had reached an altitude of over 200 feet above the ark. Only then did he begin to carefully inspect his surroundings.

At this moment, several other streaks of light also quickly hurtled forth from within the ark. Long Dong and the others had also abandoned the ark in the face of this latest crisis.

In the instant after everyone had left the ark, a resounding boom erupted and the entire spirit ark exploded amid the erratic white light, instantly sweeping up gusts of gale-force winds that surged toward the five of them.

All of them were Deity Transformation cultivators, so they naturally weren't fearful of these winds. All of them managed to stabilize themselves before staring at the site of the explosion down below.

Aside from the white-browed young man who was on lookout duty, no one knew what had caused this explosion.

However, even as everyone swept their spiritual sense through the surrounding area, they were unable to discover anything.

As such, all of them were rather bewildered.

"Brother Li, who's attacking us?" Xiao Hong hurriedly asked.

"Have a look for yourselves!" The white-browed young man cast his gaze downward with a grim expression.

Everyone faltered slightly upon hearing this before sweeping their spiritual sense down toward the ground.

After ascertaining the situation down below, Han Li's brows furrowed while the two women let loose cries of surprise.

There was a gargantuan set of mountain ranges down below that seemed to stretch into infinity and beyond. All of them just so happened to be situated above the col between two massive mountains, and in this rather obscure place, there was a vast area that had been cleared out amid a forest with huge trees of all types of colors.

At the center of this area was a giant purple herb that was around 300 to 400 feet tall. Each and every one of the herb's leaves reached directly upward as if they were massive swords, and there were countless extremely sharp-looking thorns growing all around it.

There was a pair of colossal creatures facing off against one another on either side of this giant herb.

One of them was a giant lizard with a body that was around 500 to 600 feet long. its entire body was green and riddled with coin-sized black spots while a pair of crimson horns sat on top of its head.

Its opponent was a primordial giant that was around 300 feet tall. It possessed a set of sinister facial features and a head of yellow hair. It had an inky-black wooden club hoisted up on its shoulder, and everyone drew a collective sharp breath at the sight of this giant.

There were countless silvery-white eyeballs of different sizes all over the giant's body and limbs, all of which were emanating an eerie light.

Both the giant and the lizard were scrutinizing their opponent while appraising the giant herb between them.

Han Li's heart stirred upon making this observation as he also swept his spiritual sense toward the herb, following which his expression changed drastically.

Within the sword-like leaves of the herb, there rested a bunch of purple grape-like fruits, each of which was around the size of a human fist.

The fruits were round and supple, and seemed to be practically overflowing with translucent juices, emitting an alluring aroma. After sweeping his spiritual sense toward these fruits, Han Li discovered that each and every one of them contained an extremely life-like dragon-shaped core. All of those dragon-shaped cores were glittering and translucent, creating quite a spectacular sight to behold.

These miniature dragons didn't possess any signs of life, but they were emanating extremely pure spiritual Qi. Even just by sweeping his spiritual sense through these fruits, Han Li was struck by an immense sense of comfort and relaxation.

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"Zoysia Dragon Fruit!" Ye Ying blurted out the words that had just surfaced in Han Li's mind.

Long Dong and the others also put on expressions of surprise and elation, having clearly also identified these fruits.

"These fruits are the main ingredient for refining the spirit medicine, the Rising Dragon Pill, which can only be consumed by cultivators at or above the Spatial Tempering Stage. The fruits only ripen once every 30,000 years, and even consumption on their own can save one 60 years of arduous cultivation. Looks like this one has only ripened recently; it would be massively fortunate if we could secure this bunch of fruits," Xiao Hong murmured to herself with glowing eyes.

Her expression was also mirrored on Ye Ying and Long Dong's faces. All of them were clearly extremely tempted to step in.

Main ingredients for Spatial Tempering Stage pills were extremely rare, and even most ordinary Spatial Tempering cultivators wouldn't be able to encounter them. Such prized ingredients couldn't be found in normal auctions, either; they were mostly traded between high-grade cultivators for items of equal value. Otherwise, the True Toad Spirit Blood required for refining a late-Deity Transformation Stage pill wouldn't have been so desperately sought-after by those attending the auction.

The pill could take one from the Deity Transformation Stage to the Spatial Tempering Stage, which appeared to be just a single step, but the difference between the two was like heaven and earth.

If a cultivator among them were to secure the Zoysia Dragon Fruits here and take them to a Spatial Tempering cultivator, they would undoubtedly be ecstatic and be willing to exchange a large bunch of Deity Transformation Stage pills in exchange for the fruit.

Even though prized materials and ingredients are extremely abundant in the primordial world, spirit medicines that were effective for Deity Transformation cultivators and above were still considered to be quite rare, and a certain degree of luck was required to find them.

Furthermore, if a spirit medicine were to appear or ripen, it would attract many powerful beings in a short time, so these fruits wouldn't be around for long.

Han Li and his group hadn't even ventured into the primordial world in search of materials and ingredients, yet they've encountered a Lightning Turtle and these Zoysia Dragon Fruits within the short span of a few months; they were certainly immensely fortunate. There would often be high-grade cultivators who stayed in the primordial world for decades at a time, only to remain completely empty-handed.

"Have a look at the situation down below first!" the white-browed young man harrumphed coldly.

"That giant is a Thousand-Eyed Giant; its eyes are all silver-white, which suggests that it's yet to reach full maturity, but it's still a vastly fearsome being. That lizard may not look like much, but for a Thousand-Eyed Giant to be so wary of it clearly indicates that it's also quite powerful in its own right. Both of these beings most likely possess at least early-Spatial Tempering Stage power," Han Li analyzed in a slow voice.

During his days at Deep Heaven City, he'd purchased some tomes related to the primordial world in preparation for his upcoming trip. As such, he was immediately able to identify what this giant was and made a calm assessment based on this observation.

After hearing Han Li's words, everyone else was alerted to the fact that securing these fruits would be an extremely daunting task. However, they simply couldn't bring themselves to leave such a rare and precious ingredient behind. Everyone glanced at one another, but no one was willing to take the plunge, and their expressions all darkened in unison.

Right at this moment, a buzzing sound rang out from the distance, drawing everyone's attention toward that direction.

There in the distant sky, seven or eight massive silkworm-like beings were flying rapidly toward them. They were all around 20 feet in length, and their bodies were radiating lights of all different colors.

They did not appear to be here for a picnic.

Han Li's brows furrowed, but after sweeping his spiritual sense toward them, his expression eased again.

These giant creatures appeared to be quite fearsome, but their auras were rather weak, and they'd pose no threat to Han Li and the others. As such, no one regarded these creatures as a threat, and they were preparing to swat them away once they drew closer.

However, the sequence of events that unfolded next gave them a massive fright.

When these creatures were still over 1,000 feet away from them, they just so happened to be flying right above the massive lizard. The lizard abruptly opened its cavernous, blasting forth something from within.

One of the giant silkworms abruptly disappeared on the spot, sending the entire swarm into a state of panic and disarray. The remaining silkworms circled around erratically in the air, letting loose sharp screeches of shock and rage.

However, their actions proved to be completely ineffective as another giant silkworm disappeared without any premonition.

Long Dong and the others were all quite startled to see this.

Han Li narrowed his eyes as a wisp of blue light flashed through his pupils.

In the instant that the next giant silkworm disappeared, he was finally able to glean what was happening with assistance from his Brightsight Spirit Eyes.

Those giant silkworms weren't actually vanishing into thin air. Instead, their abdomens were being punctured by a close-to-transparent tongue that shot forth from the lizard's mouth at an incredible speed, then dragged into the lizard's massive mouth as food thereafter. It was just that the speed at which its tongue was able to fly through the air was quite absurd, thereby giving everyone the illusion that those giant silkworms were disappearing on the spot.

In the blink of an eye, all of the remaining silkworms were also swallowed by the giant lizard, following which the latter lay down on the ground in a completely stationary manner.

A hint of astonishment appeared in Han Li's eyes as he cast his gaze toward the lizard.

Long Dong had unleashed a certain secret technique, thereby allowing him to also catch sight of the massive lizard's tongue, and he took a deep breath with a grim expression as he said, "This might be a mutated ancient beast. Otherwise, it wouldn't possess such devastating offensive power. Looks like our spirit ark was also destroyed by this thing's tongue."

"But we're standing right here; why hasn't it attacked us as opposed to those giant insects?" Ye Ying cocked her head to the side with a hint of befuddlement on her face.

"Who knows? Perhaps we're too small for the lizard to even bother to consider eating us. Alternatively, perhaps those giant insects just so happen to be its favorite food," Xiao Hong speculated with a faint smile.

Ye Ying nodded in response, seemingly under the impression that Xiao Hong's speculation was quite plausible.

"Let's not waste any more time with idle chatter. None of us want to give up on these Zoysia Dragon Fruits, right? Seeing as such a brilliant opportunity has been presented to us, I wouldn't even be willing to relinquish it even if I was here on my own." A hint of greed flashed through the eyes of the white-browed young man as he spoke.

"There are two Spatial Tempering Stage beings down below; you sure are brave, Brother Li," Ye Ying giggled.

"Hmph, if there was only one Spatial Tempering Stage being around, then I may immediately leave on the spot. However, with two here, we have some chances," the white-browed young man said in a cold voice.

"Oh? Are you saying..." Ye Ying immediately caught on to what he was planning.

"That's right. This mutated ancient beast is quite troublesome to deal with, but that Thousand-Eyed Giant is nothing to be scoffed at, either, even if it hasn't reached full maturity. In a battle between the two of them, both would most likely end up with severe injuries; perhaps even one or both of them would die in the process. If we strike then, we'll have decent chances," Long Dong chuckled as he rubbed his hands together.

"How long will we have to wait before a battle breaks out? What if they don't do anything for months on end?" Xiao Hong shook her head.

"That is indeed something we need to consider. After all, we've been assigned with an important mission and we can't stay here for too long," Long Dong agreed with a slight nod.

"No matter how urgent the situation is, we have at least this much time to waste. These are Zoysia Dragon Fruits! They're definitely worth the delay." The white-browed young man seemed to be determined to get his hands on those fruits.

"Even if those two Spatial Tempering Stage beings do battle one another and end up with severe injuries, if they struggle for their lives, their attacks will not be easy to handle. One or more of us may perish during that process. If you ask me, we should continue onward and not take any reckless detours."

Long Dong was also very drawn to these Zoysai Dragon Fruits, but they couldn't compare to the other major event that he was hiding in his heart, so he naturally didn't want to take any risks, which was why he was advocating for caution above all else.

"I also think that it would not be a wise decision for us to try and secure these fruits. Don't forget that giants are pack-dwelling creatures. These spirit fruits have already ripened, yet this giant and this lizard are still caught in an impasse; perhaps the giant is awaiting its brethren to arrive on the scene and provide it with assistance. The lizard hasn't taken the initiative to attack, so it must also be plotting something as well. If we keep waiting like this, we could get caught up in a massive battle that would endanger our lives," Xiao Hong mused with furrowed brows.

"I don't care what you say; I have to secure those spirit fruits." For some reason, Ye Ying suddenly decided to stand firmly by the white-browed young man's side. Not only did Long Dong and Xiao Hong falter upon seeing this, even the white-browed young man himself was quite surprised by this development.

However, a predicament now arose. There were two people for and two people against, making Han Li's vote the decisive one.

As such, all four of them cast their eyes toward Han Li. Han Li heaved an internal sigh and paid the four of them no heed as he mused, "It is indeed taking some risks for such precious spirit fruits, but it's just as Fairy Xiao has said; we can't spend too much time here. Even if the giant and the lizard refrain from making a move, other powerful beings could b attracted to this place by these spirit fruits. We have to strike within three days."

The other four people all glanced at one another upon hearing this.

"Surely it's not possible to create a suitable opportunity for us to strike within three days." Xiao Hong shook her head.

The white-browed young man and Ye Ying remained silent, but they were clearly also quite skeptical.

"If we leave things as they are right now, then it would indeed be quite unlikely that an opportunity would present itself within three days. However, if we employ some tactics, we might be able to create some chances for ourselves. For example, we can lure them away or enrage them," Han Li proposed with a faint smile.

"So what you're saying is..." Long Dong was beginning to understand what Han Li was plotting.

"That's right! If we can do that, then it's possible to create an opportunity for ourselves in a short time!" The white-browed young man was ecstatic.

"Luring them away won't be easy, but enraging them and urging them to battle one another shouldn't be too difficult," Ye Ying chuckled.

"If there's not much risk involved, then I'm willing to offer my assistance." Xiao Hong seemed to have changed her mind after hearing Han Li's proposal.

Long Dong contemplated the situation for a long while before finally giving a reluctant nod. "Seeing as all of you have made your decisions, it wouldn't be right for me to detach myself from this endeavor. However, the course of action we take has to be a feasible one!"

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"Rest assure, Fellow Daoist Long; we all value our lives, so we won't do anything reckless," the white-browed young man chuckled.

"Do any of you have a plan?" Long Dong asked.

"I can conceal myself and launch sneak attacks against both the lizard and the giant down below. That way, they'll think that they've been attacked by the other," the white-browed young man immediately proposed.

"That's quite a simple plan, but we don't know how powerful the spiritual sense of those two beings are. If your concealment technique is seen through, you'll be in immense danger. I don't think that's a very safe course of action," Xiao Hong said with a shake of her head.

"In terms of concealment techniques, I have two Limpidity Talismans that can allow one to escape detection from mid-Spatial Tempering cultivators and below. I'd be willing to contribute them to this cause," Ye Ying offered with a faint smile.

"Limpidity Talismans? That's a type of beveled silver spirit talisman; they should definitely be effective against these two creatures, but just to be safe, I don't think it would be wise for us to attack them in person."

"I have two silver wyrm puppets, each of which possesses Nascent Soul Stage power. We can plaster the talismans onto them and get them to attack in our stead. That would make things a lot safer for us," Long Dong proposed with an ecstatic expression.

"That would be great! Even if the puppets fail to pit them against one another, we can split up into groups of two to lure the creatures away, then leave one of us who's proficient in both movement and concealment techniques to take advantage of that opportunity and secure the spirit fruits. Once the spirit fruits have been obtained, all of use will unleash secret techniques to get away from here. These two may possess Spatial Tempering Stage power, but if we're intent on escaping, they won't be able to stop us. It's just that the one who's assigned the duty of securing the fruits must possess an extremely fast movement technique. Otherwise, the speed at which that mutated lizard can blast out its tongue will pose quite a major threat," Xiao Hong mused.

"Indeed, Fairy Xiao. The one to secure the fruits will be incurring a massive risk," the white-browed young man said with furrowed brows.

"That will indeed be a dangerous undertaking. Which of us would be willing to volunteer for such a task? Furthermore, we have to gather together once again after the fruits have been secured, so that fellow Daoist will have to do something to convince us that they'll rejoin the rest of the group," Ye Ying said in a slow and methodical voice.

Peculiar expressions appeared on everyone's faces upon hearing this.

It was just as she had said; regardless of which one of them secured the Zoysia Dragon Fruits in the end, they would most likely be attacked by both of the Spatial Tempering Stage beings down below at once, thereby plunging them into great danger. On top of that, how could everyone else ensure that that individual wouldn't simply take the fruits and run away on their own?

With these considerations in mind, no one knew how to proceed.

"If all of you think I'm up to the task, I'm willing to volunteer to be the one to secure the fruits," Han Li offered with a smile.

"Fellow Daoist Han, you're only at the mid-Deity Transformation Stage; isn't that too dangerous a task for you?" Long Dong asked.

"Indeed, Brother Han; your cultivation base is slightly lacking." The white-browed young man also shook his head as he appraised Han Li.

"My cultivation base is indeed slightly below par, but I possess a top-grade teleportation treasure that's very close to a spirit treasure. Additionally, the cultivation arts I'm using are quite special, so I have confidence in my ability to ensure self-preservation," Han Li replied with a nonchalant smile.

Long Dong adopted a serious expression as he continued, "Seeing as Brother Han is so confident, we can certainly assign this task to you. However, how are you going to convince us that you won't run away on your own after securing the spirit fruits?"

"I'm afraid I don't have any good ideas in that respect. Of course, if any of you think you'd be more suited for the task, feel free to step forward and replace me; it doesn't really matter to me either way," Han Li said with a hint of a smile on his face.

Everyone else faltered upon hearing this.

Even though all of them wanted to secure the spirit fruits, no one wanted to be the one to incur the wrath of those two Spatial Tempering Stage beings. If any mishaps were to occur, they could end up with severe wounds or even dead.

"If Brother Han is willing to let me place a restriction on your body, then I have no objections," Ye Ying proposed in a straightforward manner.

"My thoughts exactly!" Xiao Hong chimed in.

Long Dong and the white-browed young man glanced at one another, but neither of them said anything. "Of course you can place restrictions on my body, but that's only if I'm also able to place the same restrictions on your bodies," Han Li retorted with a cold smile.

"Hmph, in that case, if you were to encounter some kind of mishap, wouldn't we have to die with you?" the white-browed young man harrumphed coldly.

"Hehe, that's the whole point," Han Li replied in a brusque manner. In reality, even if the other four were to agree to his condition, he most likely wouldn't be willing to accept such an arrangement.

He was still quite traumatized by the aftermath of the restriction that the Ice Phoenix had placed on him, so he certainly wasn't going to let history repeat itself.

Long Dong and the others glanced at one another with wry smiles upon hearing Han Li's words.

"How about this? We can trust you if you can leave behind your bonded treasure, then allow us to plant a tracking mark on you. That way, we won't have to worry about you running away with the spirit fruits," Ye Ying proposed as an alternative.

Han Li finally nodded after a period of contemplation. "I can accept that, but all of us have to be implanted with tracking marks so I can monitor everyone's locations as well. Hehe, perhaps I won't even need to take this risk if Brother Long's puppets can prove to be effective."

Long Dong and the others all looked at one another before finally agreeing to Han Li's proposal. Planting tracking marks on everyone appeared to be the only feasible method here.

Of course, as a mid-Deity Transformation cultivator, Han Li appeared to be the weakest in the group, so no one was actually afraid that he'd be able to take the treasures; all of this was merely being done as a precautionary measure.

After ascertaining some of the finer details, everyone finally settled on a specific course of action.

Han Li opened his mouth to expel four streaks of golden light, each of which was several inches in length. The streaks of light revolved around him before transforming into four shimmering golden swords that fell into the hands of his four companions.

Long Dong and the others immediately unleashed secret techniques or plastered talismans onto these swords to restrict them, then stowed them away into their respective storage treasures.

After that, four balls of light of different colors emerged from their fingertips before disappearing into Han Li's body in a flash.

Han Li had used his spiritual sense in advance to carefully assess these balls of light, only allowing them to enter his body after ascertaining that they were indeed formed by pure spiritual power and weren't harboring any restrictions.

Han Li also returned the favor thereafter, sending four balls of azure light disappearing into everyone else's bodies.

As such, everyone was feeling a lot more reassured.

After going over the plan one final time, all of them dispersed and flew away in different directions.

The azure streak of light that Han Li had transformed into flew for over 500 kilometers before his body was revealed again.

He hovered in mid-air as he briefly surveyed his surroundings. He then closed his eyes and slowly released his spiritual sense.

After ascertaining that there wasn't anything amiss in the nearby area, he opened his eyes again before making a hand seal.

A thunderclap immediately rang out behind him as a pair of azure and white wings surfaced on his back. He then flipped his hand over to produce a purple talisman; it was none other than his High Zenith Invisibility Talisman.

He was trying to secure a treasure right under the noses of two Spatial Tempering Stage beings, so he didn't dare to get complacent at all, which was why he decided to use this talisman right away.

He plastered the talisman onto his own body, following which he disappeared on the spot amid a flash of purple light and silver runes.

Having done all that, he rose into the air and set off to return to his former location.

Even though he wasn't able to fly as quickly as he could before activating the talisman, he was still certainly not flying slowly, and it didn't take him long to return to his original spot.

The giant lizard and the Thousand-Eyed Giant were still caught in a tense confrontation down below.

Everyone else had also disappeared as far as the naked eye was concerned.

Han Li exhaled as he used his spiritual sense to detect the locations indicated by the tracking marks he'd left on his four companions.

Everyone else returned as a result and hovered in mid-air in the nearby area.

There were two in the air above the giant lizard while the other two were situated behind the Thousand-Eyed Giant.

They were also all using some special concealment techniques, and there would've been no way for Han Li to ascertain their locations with his spiritual sense if it weren't for the tracking marks that had been planted. As for the two silver wyrm puppets that Long Dong had been referring to earlier, Han Li was completely unable to sense them.

He didn't know whether this was due to the effect of the Limpidity Talismans or if they hadn't actually been released yet.

Countless thoughts were whizzing through Han Li's mind, but his gaze remained fixed directly down below.

Everything in the surrounding area was abnormally quiet, akin to the calm before the storm. This peculiar and rather strained atmosphere persisted for a long while, yet nothing changed at all.

Han Li remained completely expressionless, but he was starting to get a little impatient. It seemed that the time they had agreed on was about to arrive soon as well.

Right at this moment, the giant lizard seemed to have felt a sense of discomfort with one of its giant paws, causing it to raise it reflexively before immediately bringing it down again.

However, right in the instant when it brought its paw down, silver light suddenly flashed from the soil beneath the paw, following which a silver thread shot forth, hurtling directly toward the Thousand-Eyed Giant.

This created the illusion that the lizard was using its paw to launch a sneak attack.

The giant faltered upon seeing this before letting loose a thunderous roar of rage. Gale-force winds were swept up around its body as it swept a palm through the air, violently vanquishing the oncoming silver thread.

However, almost at the exact same moment, a blurry and indistinct object flashed through the air beneath the giant's hand. Immediately thereafter, a pillar of silver light that was as thick as a bowl shot forth out of thin air, traveling at an incredible speed and reaching the lizard's massive head in an instant.

The lizard's green eyes flashed as a crimson pillar of light erupted from its twin horns.

Following a resounding boom, the two pillars of light clashed, and both disappeared into nothingness.

The lizard then immediately threw back its head and let loose an earth-shattering roar. It tensed its four limbs and its massive body immediately rose up as it opened its cavernous mouth to reveal rows of intimidating fangs.

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A hint of violent ferocity flashed through the giant's eyes as it immediately tightened its grip around the black club resting on its shoulder. At the same time, brilliant light erupted from the eyeballs all over its body, and all of them began to blink in unison.

The presence of so many blinking eyes on a single body created quite a harrowing sight to behold.

However, Han Li was ecstatic to see this, and he waited with bated breath for the situation to unfold further.

If these two Spatial Tempering Stage beings really did engage in battle with one another, then their objective would be much easier to achieve.

The lizard opened its mouth to blast forth a crimson shadow, following which a ball of silver light exploded within the soil beneath one of its huge paws.

The crimson shadow shit forth and punctured the silver object that had just emerged from the soil, and the latter fell heavily to the ground.

Han Li's heart stirred upon seeing this, and he focused his gaze to discover that the silver object was none other than a silver wyrm puppet.

The puppet's core had been punctured by the giant lizard's fearsome tongue, reducing it to a pile of scrap metal.

It appeared that the puppet's cover was still blown right in the instant that it was about to spring into action, and it had been destroyed by the giant lizard as a result.

The Thousand-Eyed Giant wasn't very intelligent, but it also realized that something was amiss upon seeing this. Immediately thereafter, all of its eyeballs turned toward a certain direction, following which countless threads shot forth from within.

Another resounding boom erupted as the other silver wyrm puppet, which was hiding beneath the giant's body, was punctured by seven or eight black threads at once.

The black threads then separated in different directions to shred the puppet's body as if it were made from soft butter.

Han Li drew a sharp breath upon seeing this.

It appeared that the task he was undertaking was far more dangerous than he had anticipated. However, the Zoysia Dragon Fruit was vital for him to refine Spatial Tempering Stage pills in the future, so he had to take the risk no matter dangerous the situation was.

After all, as long as he could secure the seeds of these fruits, he'd be able to nurture an indefinite number of them.

With that in mind, Han Li's heart settled once again.

The giant let loose a few menacing harrumphs in a show of intimidation before resting its club on its shoulder again.

The giant lizard took a completely expressionless glance at the giant before lying back down onto the ground.

The two colossal creatures returned to their former impasse.

Meanwhile, Han Li stared intently at the two of them, not daring to allow his concentration to slip, even in the slightest.

Seeing as the puppets had failed, they would have to resort to their backup plan, which consisted of Long Dong and the others luring the lizard and the giant away, thereby creating an opportunity for Han Li.

Sure enough, after just the span of a few breaths, the pleasant sound of a lute being stroked rang out above the giant lizard's head. Yellow halos of light then surfaced in the air above, surging directly toward the top of the giant lizard's head. At the same time, white light flashed as two short golden halberds appeared. The halberds swayed before crashing down violently like a pair of powerful golden wyrms.

Almost at the exact same moment, two humanoid figures appeared in the air above at an altitude of several hundred feet. They were none other than Ye Ying and Long Dong.

Ye Ying as gently stroking her spirit treasure replica lute while Long Dong was manipulating two treasures at once with a serious expression on his face.

Despite the lizard's massive size, its movements were extremely agile. As soon as the attacks came crashing down toward it from the air above, it let loose a low roar before immediately rising to its paws. Red light flashed from the crimson horns on its head, following with a vast expanse of red light emanated forth, keeping both the yellow halos and twin halberds at bay.

Immediately thereafter, green light flashed from the massive lizard's limbs. Countless strands of its bristly fur transformed into green streaks of light that hurtled into the air. At the same time, its huge tail swished through the air and it abruptly disappeared, leaving behind only a trail of afterimages in its wake.

In the next instant, the massive lizard's tail, which was over 200 feet long, appeared beside Ye Ying and Long Dong in a flash before sweeping violently toward them. Even though the tail hadn't yet made contact with them, the fierce winds it had swept up were still threatening to blow them away.

As expected of a mutated ancient beast, as soon as the lizard was attacked, it retaliated in an extremely ferocious manner.

Ye Ying and Long Dong were aware that this giant lizard definitely wouldn't be easy to face in battle, but they were still given a massive fright by its fearsome combat prowess.

Thankfully, neither of them had any intention of engaging the lizard in a direct confrontation.

Ye Ying immediately raised a hand to hurl forth a golden talisman, which transformed into a ball of golden light that enveloped her body. Immediately thereafter, she disappeared on the spot before appearing over 300 feet away.

Meanwhile, Long Dong let loose a long dragon's roar as a yellow suit of armor surfaced over his body. The entire suit of armor was constructed from metallic scales, encapsulating his head and limbs in a watertight sheath, and there was even a pair of massive bronze wings on his back.

As he flapped those wings, a series of afterimages immediately appeared in the air around him. From a distance, it appeared that countless humanoid figures had emerged out of thin air up above, creating quite an astonishing sight to behold.

Using their peculiar movement techniques, both of them were able to successfully evade the sweeping tail of the giant lizard.

However, neither of them dared to pause for even a single instant in mid-air as the giant lizard had set off behind them in hot pursuit, stirring up gusts of gale-force winds in its wake.

Even though most of the lizard's attention had been diverted by these two, it was still keeping an eye on its most significant enemy, the Thousand-Eyed Giant. It was afraid that the giant would take this opportunity to take the spirit fruits for itself, but the sight that greeted the lizard was a very reassuring one.

It turned out that as soon as these two cultivators had appeared to attack the lizard, two other cultivators had also appeared in the air behind the giant.

One of them rubbed their hands together before raising them to conjure up a storm of black fireballs, while the other grabbed the air to manifest a massive inky-black claw. The claw appeared directly above the giant's head before crashing down with ferocious force.

A burst of rumbling erupted as the giant was caught completely off guard, having been struck on the head by the fireballs as well as the massive black claw in quick succession.

Both Xiao Hong and the white-browed young man faltered slightly upon seeing this before erupting into elation.

However, the sight that they were greeted by next immediately made their smiles congeal on their faces.

Amid the sea of black flames, a roar of intense fury suddenly rang out. Immediately thereafter, all of the silvery-white eyeballs on its body stirred, creating an immense suction force that instantly engulfed the black flames raging around it.

As for the huge black claw that the white-browed young man had manifested, it didn't seem to have hurt the giant at all, either. The Thousand-Eyed Giant casually swatted the air above its head, and the massive claw was immediately vanquished without a trace.

Its display of power was certainly not a welcome sight for the pair of cultivators.

However, their attacks had clearly already enraged this massive monster, so there was no turning back.

A vicious look appeared on the giant's face as it let loose another thunderous roar. After its eyeballs had engulfed all of the black flames, they immediately turned toward the two people in the air above.

Amid a flash of brown light, countless strands of black threads shot forth, encompassing both of them within a dense net.

Both Xiao Hong and the white-browed young man had witnessed the might of these threads of black light earlier, and their expressions changed in unison as they hurriedly took evasive measures.

One of them summoned an object and hurled it down below, upon which it instantly transformed into an azure spike of light. They then immediately ducked into the spike before manipulating it to hurtle toward a certain direction.

Meanwhile, the other transformed into a massive black falcon that was around 10 feet in size before immediately spreading its wings to teleport away.

It was quite clear that these two demonic cultivators had no intention of engaging the giant in direct combat, either.

Thus, all four of Han Li's companions had sprung into action, diverting the attention of the lizard and the giant. They were barely evading the ferocious attacks of the two Spatial Tempering Stage beings while launching their own retaliative attacks whenever the opportunity arose, thereby even further infuriating their assailants.

However, even though the lizard and the giant were relentlessly attacking the four cultivators as if they were pesky flies, neither of them moved strayed far away from their original spot, ensuring that they didn't distance themselves from the spirit fruits.

Otherwise, even if the four cultivators possessed extraordinary movement techniques, there was no way that they'd have lasted so long in the face of the relentless assault unleashed by these two fearsome Spatial Tempering Stage creatures. As things currently were, as soon as any of the four cultivators encountered any danger, they could immediately teleport far away, thereby earning themselves an opportunity to catch their breath.

As such, they were able to continue to pester the lizard and the giant.

The result was that the two creatures were naturally cast into a thunderous rage.

However, neither of them were able to stray away from the spirit fruits, thereby creating an impasse where neither side could do anything to the other.

As the four cultivators continued to annoy the two creatures, more of their attention gradually became diverted away from the spirit fruits.

Meanwhile, Han Li was silently drifting downward. With his current insubstantial body, even the two Spatial Tempering Stage beings completely failed to notice him. This was also the biggest source of confidence Han Li had in undertaking this mission.

Even so, Han Li was still proceeding with extreme caution, to the extent that he didn't even dare to breathe too loudly.

He gradually drew closer to the spirit fruits, from a distance of over 1,000 feet away to around 700 to 800 feet, then to 300 to 400 feet, then to just over 100 feet. As he approached the spirit fruits, he naturally tensed up further and further.

It would undoubtedly be the case that he wouldn't be able to continue to conceal himself in the instant that he plucked the spirit fruits. As such, the lizard and the giant would immediately discover him. He had to do everything he could to ensure self-preservation in such a scenario.

Soon, Han Li had reached a spot where the spirit fruits were right before him. Not only could he smell the faint aroma wafting from these fruits, he could even see their tiny wyrm cores with brilliant clarity.

However, he didn't immediately rush in to grab the fruits. Instead, he swept his hand over his storage bracelet to summon a few items.

He then pursed his lips and suddenly rubbed his hands together before raising them toward either side of his body, sending several shimmering silver balls hurtling toward the two massive creatures.

Immediately thereafter, his hand shot forth like lightning, and the bunch of supple spirit fruits disappeared in the blink of an eye.

In the same instant, his Thunderstorm Wings appeared on his back, and he immediately flapped them, upon which he disappeared into thin air amid a loud thunderclap.

Two earth-shattering roars immediately erupted as a crimson pillar of light and several black threads shot forth at an incredible speed, instantly puncturing Han Li's body.

However, the "Han Li" that had been struck was only an afterimage, and it immediately disappeared on the spot.

Meanwhile, his true body had only barely managed to flee from the scene in time.

A string of thunderous explosions erupted as several balls of silver lightning appeared on either side, each of which was around an acre in size. Countless arcs of electricity that were as thick as large bowls flashed violently within those silver balls, sweeping up violent winds and emitting incessant strings of thunderclaps that drowned out everything else.

It was as if doomsday had arrived!

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These were none other than the lightning beads that Han Li had refined, and he had tossed out four of them at once. Having been refined using the lightning symbol techniques, each and every one of these beads were imbued with power akin to the full-force attack of a Spatial Tempering cultivator. Additionally, the nature of the power itself possessed the lightning attribute, which was why the beads were so devastatingly powerful.

It appeared that he had made the right decision in using them.

If it weren't for the fact that those treasures had delayed the lizard and the giant, he wouldn't have been able to get away even with his Thunderstorm Wings.

After the spirit fruits were stolen, the massive lizard and the Thousand-Eyed Giant were absolutely furious, but they were temporarily trapped by the power of the lightning beads.

Long Dong and the others were also given a fright by the immense power of Han Li's lightning beads, but all of them then immediately unleashed movement techniques to flee the scene in elation.

During the process, they also unleashed concealment techniques to hide themselves from view.

Thus, everything had disappeared from the nearby area aside from the two Spatial Tempering Stage beings, which were still trapped within the explosions from the lightning beads.

Han Li was flying as quickly as he could using his Thunderstorm Wings, disappearing into the distance after just a few flashes.

In order to ensure safety, Han Li even threw up a mouthful of blood essence to unleash his Bloodshadow Evasion Technique, thereby further enhancing his speed.

After expending an extensive amount of effort to break free from the explosions, the lizard and the giant let loose a string of thunderous enraged roar upon discovering that all five cultivators had disappeared, along with the bunch of Zoysia Dragon Fruits.

Several hours later, a dull thunderclap rang out atop a mountain peak tens of thousands of kilometers away. Immediately thereafter, Han Li emerged amid an arc of azure and white lightning.

He then took a glance behind him, and a faint smile appeared on his face.

The task that he had undertaken had been quite dangerous and he'd been forced to expend quite a bit of energy, but he had thankfully managed to secure the spirit fruits.

As a safety precaution, Han Li released his spiritual sense to carefully scan through the surrounding area. After ascertaining that nothing was amiss there, he descended onto the mountain's summit.

He flipped a hand over to produce a jade vial, and he poured out two crimson pills, which he quickly consumed.

Even though he had only used his Bloodshadow Evasion Technique for a short time, the primordial world was quite a perilous place, and it was best to constantly maintain prime condition when possible.

After swallowing the pills, a stream of cool and refreshing energy immediately began to circulate through his meridians.

Han Li's expression eased as he summoned a jade box, which was as translucent as ice.

He carefully removed the lid of the box to reveal a bunch of exuberant fist-sized purple fruits.

He appraised the spirit fruits with an unblinking gaze before gently picking up a spirit fruit between two fingers and carefully assessing it.

After a while, Han Li exhaled and nodded to himself. These were indeed Zoysia Dragon Fruits.

This type of spirit fruit was one of the few Spatial Tempering Stage pill ingredients that produced seeds, thereby allowing it to be nurtured and reproduced. It was a type of spirit medicine that he'd had his eyes on for a long time, which was why he had been willing to take such a massive risk for it.

Now that the spirit fruits had been secured, a smile finally appeared on Han Li's face.

If he could find another ingredient known as the Soaring Cloud Glue, then refine those two ingredients along with some other secondary medicines, he'd be able to produce Soaring Dragon Pills, which were extremely alluring even to Spatial Tempering cultivators.

A flash of excitement appeared in Han Li's eyes as these thoughts ran through his mind.

However, his brows suddenly furrowed at this moment, and he turned toward a certain direction as his expression turned neutral once again.

Moments later, a white streak of light approached Han Li from that direction.

After a few flashes, the white streak of light appeared above Han Li's head. The light then receded to reveal a young man; it was none other than Long Dong.

At this moment, his suit of yellow scale armor had already disappeared. As his gaze fell on the spirit fruits in Han Li's hands, an elated look immediately appeared on his face.

"Haha, your abilities really are quite astonishing; to think that you'd truly be able to snatch the fruits away from those two fearsome beings! Let me see if they're really Zoysia Dragon Fruits."

As soon as Long Dong landed on the mountain summit, he began to approach Han Li.

"There's no hurry, Brother Long; let's all take a good look when the other fellow Daoists also arrive." A faint smile appeared on Han Li's face as spiritual light flashed within his hands, upon which the jade box disappeared.

A hint of barely detectable killing intent flashed through Long Dong's eyes upon hearing this, but a thought then occurred to him, and his expression smoothed out. "You're right, Fellow Daoist Han. I was too hasty there."

Thus, a smile appeared on his face as he made his way over to a large rock that was over 100 feet away from Han Li, and he sat down upon it with his legs crossed.

Meanwhile, Han Li remained standing on the spot with his hands clasped behind his back, silently awaiting the arrival of the others.

A short while later, Xiao Hong and the white-browed young man arrived on the scene, and both of them were also overjoyed that Han Li had actually been able to secure the spirit fruits.

However, there was still one more comrade left to come, so they could only repress their excitement and emulate Long Dong, sitting down in silent meditation.

Fifteen minutes later, just as everyone was beginning to speculate internally about whether something had happened to Ye Ying, a ball of golden light shot forth from the distance before landing on the mountain.

"Sorry for making all of you wait, fellow Daoists. As I was passing through a forest, I just so happened to find a Myriad Year Green Spirit Wood, and it took me some time to dig it up from the ground," Ye Ying explained with a smile.

"Myriad Year Green Spirit Wood? That's a superb material for refining wood-attribute treasures; you sure are quite lucky, Fellow Daoist Ye." Xiao Hong was rather surprised to hear this.

"Hehe, surely you jest, Big Sister Xiao; a Green Spirit Wood can't even begin to compare to Zoysia Dragon Fruits. Brother Han, you managed to secure the fruits, right?" Ye Ying chuckled before turning her attention to Han Li.

"I have, indeed. Everyone can gather around and have a look." Han Li nodded before sweeping a hand over his storage bracelet. The jade box appeared once again, and he carefully removed the lid to reveal its contents.

A faint pleasant aroma wafted through the air, and everyone immediately turned their eyes toward the bunch of spirit fruits with expressions of rapt focus on their faces, trying to ascertain its authenticity with their spiritual sense.

"It should be real." A flash of elation appeared on Xiao Hong's face as she made her assessment first. Moments later, everyone else also withdrew their spiritual sense with satisfied nods."Seeing as we've verified that the fruits are real, let's go ahead and split them. There are six fruits in total here, so there'll be one leftover after we each take one," Han Li said in a calm voice.

Everyone's brows furrowed upon hearing this.

"Six spirit fruits will indeed be rather difficult to split among us, but let's set that aside for now and distribute one fruit each to everyone first." The white-browed young man was growing a little impatient.

"You're right, Brother Li. Fellow Daoist Han, please distribute the first five spirit fruits for now," Xiao Hong chimed in with a daint smile.

Long Dong and Ye Ying naturally had no objections to this arrangement, either.

A faint smile appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this.

He carried the jade box with one hand and made his way over to Xiao Hong first. He plucked one Zoysia Dragon Fruits with two fingers and offered it to her.

Xiao Hong was ecstatic and immediately produced a wooden box to accept the fruit.

However, Han Li refrained from releasing the fruit, and was appraising her with a meaningful smile.

Xiao Hong faltered slightly upon seeing this before quickly coming to a realization. She immediately swept a sleeve through the air, and a small golden sword with two talismans plastered onto its appeared in her hand.

She tore off the talismans and tossed the sword directly toward Han Li. This was none other than one of his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords. Han Li opened his mouth, and the small sword disappeared down his throat as a streak of golden light.

At the same time, he released the spirit fruit, and it fell into Xiao Hong's wooden box.

As Xiao Hong began to appraise the spirit fruit with elation twinkling in her eyes, Han Li had already made his way over to the white-browed young man with another spirit fruit caught between his two fingers.

After witnessing the exchange that had just taken place, the young man naturally knew what to do already. He also produced another small golden sword and removed the restriction on it before tossing it to Han Li.

As such, after a short while, Han Li only had a pair of spirit fruits left.

After pocketing one of the fruits, he placed the jade box onto the ground before backing away as a disinterested bystander.

Just one of these spirit fruits was enough for him, and a second one wouldn't really benefit him much at all. However, this was naturally unbeknownst to the other four cultivators, and all of them appraised him with much friendlier expression for his willingness to back down in such a situation."There's only one spirit fruit left now; how about we hold an impromptu auction for it? Whoever can offer the most spirit stones gets to take the spirit fruit, and the spirit stones spent will be split among everyone else," Long Dong suggested.

"Hmph, isn't that too lopsided of an arrangement, Fellow Daoist Long? Everyone knows that your Long Family is a family with immense wealth. Even the four of us combined most likely won't be carrying as many spirit stones as you are," the white-browed young man rejected with a cold harrumph.

"Oh, then do you have a better idea?" Rather becoming enraged by the young man's blunt refusal, a smile appeared on Long Dong's face as if he were open to suggestions. "A fruit as valuable as this naturally has to be exchanged for using other items. Regardless of whether it's using pills, ingredients or materials, the one who gets to take the fruit has to offer something that is roughly equal in value to the spirit fruit, and can be split among everyone else. What do you all think of this arrangement?" Xiao Hong suggested with a seductive smile.

The white-browed young man immediately nodded in agreement.

Ye Ying cocked her head to the side and contemplated this notion for a while before also giving a nod of approval.

Han Li naturally had no objections, either.

"Seeing as Fairy Xiao's suggestion has garnered the most support, we'll do as you say." Even though Long Dong was reluctant to agree to such an arrangement, the other four had all expressed their approval, so he could only comply with a forced smile on his face.

Two hours later, a flying azure carriage that was over 100 feet in length appeared high in the air above the mountain. It then shot forth toward a certain direction as a streak of azure light.

Within the span of a few breaths, the carriage had covered a distance of several thousand feet, and after just a few more flashes, it had completely disappeared.

Han Li was sitting near the rear of the carriage, fiddling with a small section of cylindrical green wood.

This section of wood was only around a foot in length, but its surface was glimmering with faint spiritual light. Upon closer inspection, one would notice that there were indistinct silver threads flashing within the section of wood.

This Green Spirit Wood could prove to be quite useful!

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Much to everyone's surprise, the final spirit fruit fell into the hands of Ye Ying.

The treasures she offered were more extravagant than everyone else could produce, so they could only reluctantly allow her to take the spirit fruit.

This small section of the Myriad Year Green Spirit Tree was Han Li's compensation of choice.

This piece of wood was as light as air and immune to the effects of water and fire. It was one of the most ideal materials for carving formation spells onto, and as it aged, it would develop a certain degree of immunity toward the power of the five elements.

As such, this type of wood was most often used to refine large treasures like spirit arks, beast carriages, and things of that nature.

After fiddling around with the section of wood for a while, Han Li stowed it away before glancing at his surroundings.

The flying carriage had been supplied, once again, by Long Dong, and even though it wasn't as comfortable nor as stealthy as the spirit ark that had been destroyed earlier, it was able to fly at a greater speed than the ark.

Speaking of which, the spirit ark's concealment ability would've been next to useless in the face of powerful ancient beasts. As such, this faster flying carriage was a superior option anyway.

If they were to encounter some minor hindrances, they could simply accelerate and shake them off.

At this moment, the flying carriage was whizzing through the air as an azure blur, hurtling along at an incredible speed.

Aside from Long Dong, who was piloting the carriage, everyone else was sitting in silence.

Han Li withdrew his gaze before suddenly turning his attention to Ye Ying, upon which his eyes narrowed slightly.

The person in the group whom he was most wary of and found to be the most mysterious was this woman, who appeared to possess the same cultivation base as he did.

This woman appeared to be quite young and spoke in a very simple and straightforward manner, but having completely mastered the Great Development Technique, Han Li's instinctive senses had already been honed to an incredibly sensitive degree, and those senses told him that this woman was the most dangerous one among the four, even more so than Long Dong from the so-called True Spirit Family.

Just as Han Li was contemplating these matters, Ye Ying suddenly opened her eyes and met Han Li's gaze.

Han Li's heart jolted upon seeing this, and before he had a chance to react, Ye Ying pursed her lips with a faint chuckle.

Han Li gave a rather awkward smile before immediately turning away. In doing so, he missed the hint of amusement that flashed through Ye Ying's eyes in response.

During the following half a month, their journey was remarkably smooth, and they didn't encounter any trouble at all.

Everyone was quite relieved by this peaceful spell, praying that the rest of their journey would be just as smooth and placid.

Several days later, the scenery around them transformed as a vast expanse of desert appeared before them, sending gusts of scorching wind sweeping toward their carriage.

A hint of a surprise appeared on the white-browed young man's face as he mused, "Could it be that we've already reached the Southern Skyline?"

"Indeed, this place is the Great Southern Desert, and it's the simplest path through which one can reach the territory of the Wood Tribe," Long Dong replied in a grave voice.

"I've heard many things about this place. The legends say that it's impossible to go around this desert; is that really true? There are often Wood Tribe and Shadow Tribe beings traveling through this desert; isn't it still a little too dangerous for us to go directly through it?" Xiao Hong asked with a frown on her face.

"Fairy Xiao, the environment here certainly isn't the best, but it's much safer than the other two alternative routes we can take. As for going around the desert, that would be next to impossible. On one side of the desert is the renowned Zenith Beast Mountain Ranges, which is teeming with countless high-grade ancient beasts. Even most of the Spatial Tempering cultivators who venture into those mountain ranges never return. On the other side is the even more treacherous Wyrm Abyss Canyon. There are over 100 vicious wyrms at or above the Spatial Tempering Stage lurking in there, including even several tens of Body Integration Stage Wyrm Monarchs. A few Deity Transformation cultivators like us would simply be offering ourselves up as food if we were to take either of those paths. As for skirting around even further to avoid those areas, that would lengthen our journey to an enormous degree, and it would most likely take us around a year or so to get to our destination. The war is imminent, so there's no way that Deep Heaven City would allow us to delay the completion of our mission for so long," Long Dong explained with a wry smile.

"I see. However, I've heard that this desert seems to be a trial ground for the two tribes," Ye Ying suddenly interjected.

"My seniors also cautioned me about this before my departure." The white-browed young man had also adopted a rather cautious stance.

"In that case, I don't think we should continue traveling on this flying carriage; we'd stick out like a sore thumb. Let's all conceal ourselves before continuing onward. Even if everything goes as smoothly as possible, it'd still take us around a month to pass through this desert," Long Dong suggested after a brief period of contemplation.

Xiao Hong contemplated the notion before exchanging a glance with the white-browed young man, following which she nodded, and agreed, "We'll do as you say."

"I have no objections, either; traveling on the flying carriage really will make us stand out far too much for comfort," Han Li said with a smile.

Ye Ying was the only one who expressed a neutral stance, willing to comply with the most popular course of action.

Thus, after a brief discussion, everyone emerged from the flying carriage before unleashing concealment techniques to obscure themselves. Long Dong stowed the flying carriage away, and everyone ventured carefully into the desert.

Not long after entering the desert, Han Li immediately sensed that this desert was unlikely any that he'd ever seen, in that the temperatures here were simply far too high.

Even while flying at low altitudes in the air, he could still feel the bursts of scorching heat emanating from the ground. He felt as if he were flying over a massive volcanic crater rather than a desert.

Han Li looked up at the seven scintillating suns in the sky above, then down at the ground below. He swiped a hand through the air, sending an ice spike hurtling downward.

Prior to even making contact with the ground, the ice spike had already completely melted and evaporated into nothingness.

Han Li heaved a faint sigh upon seeing this.

All of a sudden, white light flashed beside him, and Ye Ying appeared with a dainty smile on her face. "Fellow Daoist Han, I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but the Great Southern Desert once consisted of a vast expanse of volcanic craters."

"Is that so? I didn't know that," Han Li replied in an indifferent voice.

"It was said that a heavenly phoenix, which possessed dual wind and earth-attribute powers, once battled a True Spirit level Fire Crocodile that inhabited the volcanoes down below. Their battle raged for over a month, and during that process, the phoenix used its abilities to conjure up countless sandstorms, burying all of the volcanoes down below and forming this desert," Ye Ying continued.

"I see. No wonder this desert is so peculiar. True Spirit level beings really are capable of unfathomable feats," Han Li murmured, seemingly in response to Ye Ying, but also seemingly to himself.

"Indeed. Human cultivators like us may be able to combat some of these True Spirit level beings once we reach the Grand Ascension Stage, but we're still no match for the truly powerful beings at the True Spirit level, such as true dragons and heavenly phoenixes. I wonder what it would be like for a human to attain True Spirit level power," Ye Ying chuckled before flying onward, leaving Han Li behind.

A hint of surprise appeared on Han Li's face as he looked on at her departing figure, but he quickly recomposed himself and focused on forging ahead in his journey.

Over 10 days later, Han Li and the others were still flying along at low altitudes. Even though they were all Deity Transformation cultivators, flying for so long under such scorching heat was making them rather exhausted.

"Let's find a place to rest after a further half a day of travel," Long Dong suddenly proposed.

"We do indeed need to find a place to rest and recover our magic power," Xiao Hong replied with a nod, and the weariness in her voice was quite apparent.

"Huh? What's that?" A low cry of surprise suddenly sounded.

The one who had spoken was none other than the white-browed young man.

Han Li reflexively cast his gaze toward the direction that the young man's attention was focused. However, he discovered that there was nothing there.

Han Li raised his eyebrows as he swept his immense spiritual sense toward that area, upon which a peculiar look appeared on his face.

At this point, everyone else had also scanned through the area with their spiritual sense, and all of them also adopted peculiar expressions.

"Looks like there's a small town there, which is inhabited by humans. I'm not seeing things, am I?" Han Li mused in a skeptical manner.

After releasing their spiritual sense, everyone discovered that there was a relatively large oasis situated up ahead several tens of kilometers away. Within that oasis was a small town, and it appeared that there were many humans and cultivators living there.

"This place is so secluded and it's so close to foreign races; how could there truly be humans living here? Something seems a little fishy here," Xiao Hong mused.

An indecisive look appeared on Long Dong's face, and he raised his eyebrows, but refrained from immediately offering a response.

"Let me send over an avatar to investigate," the white-browed young man offered.

He then laid a hand on the back of his head, and a silhouette flashed as a small falcon that was around a foot in size emerged. The falcon was entirely black in color, and it circled through the air before flying toward the small town in the distance.

The white-browed young man then closed his eyes to forge a connection with the small falcon with his spiritual sense in case any mishaps arose.

Xiao Hong and Long Dong exchanged a glance with one another, but they seemed to also be of the opinion that this was the best course of action, as evidenced by the fact that both of them refrained from stopping the white-browed young man in what he was doing.

Han Li continued to appraise the small town in the distance with befuddlement in his heart.

Ye Ying was also doing the same with an intrigued look on her face.

The small falcon flew extremely quickly, and it was back within five minutes.

When the falcon disappeared into the back of the white-browed young man's head again, the latter opened his eyes. "There's no mistaking it; there really are humans inhabiting that small town, and there are many high-grade cultivators among them. There are seven or eight Deity Transformation cultivators, but I didn't see any Spatial Tempering cultivators."

Everyone was even more perplexed upon hearing this.

"In any case, it would be best to continue in our journey and avoid any unnecessary trouble," Han Li said in an indifferent voice.

"I don't think that's a good idea. The existence of this small town is really peculiar; perhaps something happened recently in the desert. I think it would be best for us to inquire about the situation before continuing onward in case we inadvertently plunge headfirst into peril," Long Dong said with a shake of his head.

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Han Li's eyes flashed upon hearing Long Dong's words, but he didn't say anything. Xiao Hong and the white-browed young man exchanged a glance with one another, and they also offered no objections, seemingly of the opinion that Long Dong's suggestion was more reasonable.

In contrast, Ye Ying sided with Han Li, and said, "It really is quite strange that other cultivators would appear in this place. I think it would be best to continue ahead and spare ourselves from any potential trouble."

Long Dong contemplated Ye Ying's words for a short while, but still shook his head in the end. "It's exactly due to the abnormality of the situation that we should ascertain why these people have appeared here. As a safety precaution, we can ask the people outside of the city rather than entering the city. Brother Li just said that there are no Spatial Tempering cultivators in the small town, so we have nothing to fear anyway. We'll reach the Skyline in a few more days, and the environment there is extremely perilous. If we go in without gathering all of the information we can, we could quite possibly all die in there. I still think we should proceed with as much caution as possible."

"It really does sound like we should try and gather some information. How about this? We'll survey the town from afar without alerting the cultivators there to our presence for now. If there really is an issue that requires further inquiry, we can just show ourselves then." Xiao Hong offered a compromise between the two proposed courses of action.

"That's a good idea." Long Dong nodded in response.

Han Li stroked his chin while Ye Ying offered a dainty smile, and neither of them said anything else.

Thus, everyone concealed themselves once again before flying soundlessly toward the small town.

Even though they had decelerated quite significantly in order to prioritize stealth above speed, with their cultivation bases, it still didn't take them long to cover the distance of several hundred kilometers to the small town.

At first, the oasis was only a smudge of green in the distance. After drawing closer, they discovered that it was indeed a relatively large area. Not only were there shrubs of different heights in the surrounding area, there was even a lake with a radius of several kilometers situated at the center of the oasis.

Beside this lake was a small town that was surrounded by white stone walls that were several tens of feet tall. Directly up ahead was a massive city gate that was over 100 feet wide, and there were a dozen or so yellow-robed cultivators standing guard there, all of whom were at around the Foundation Establishment Stage.

Outside the small town, near the lake, there were mortals who didn't possess any magic power milling around in a bent-over manner, seemingly planting something.

Han Li paused in mid-air before sweeping his spiritual sense toward the small town in a stealthy manner.

Long Dong and the others also stopped as they unleashed detection secret techniques of their own.

"The inhabitants of this town are indeed all humans, and the mortals, as well as the cultivators, all seem to be normal as well. There are quite a few cultivators in the town, with about seven or eight of them at the Deity Transformation Stage. There are either no Spatial Tempering cultivators in there or they've concealed their auras in order to not be discovered," Xiao Hong concluded after a short while.

"It really does look like everything is normal. Has anyone else discovered anything amiss?" Long Dong asked following a prolonged silence.

"There doesn't seem to be any restrictions or formations set up around the town, and the only noteworthy feature about the place is that the temperatures there seem to be a lot cooler than it is everywhere else," the white-browed young man said.

"That is indeed rather abnormal, but the fact that an oasis exists here is already quite incredible in itself, so that doesn't really tell us anything," Xiao Hong mused.

All of a sudden, an unfamiliar voice sounded in the air above. "There's no need for so much speculation; why don't you all come to visit our town and find out everything for yourselves?"

Everyone's hearts jolted with shock upon hearing this, and they instantly dispersed without any hesitation. All of them fled to several hundred feet away before carefully looking up into the air above.

It turned out that all of them had failed to notice an elderly purple-robed Daoist priest who had appeared overhead. At this moment, he was looking down at everyone with a benevolent expression on his face.

What was most shocking to everyone was that this Daoist priest was a mid-Spatial Tempering cultivator. If it weren't for the fact that he was a human cultivator, all of them would've immediately fled the scene.

Long Dong cast his gaze toward the Daoist priest, and there was a hint of disappointment intermingled with the surprise in his eyes.

"We pay our respects to this esteemed senior! Senior, who are you and why have you come to this place?" Xiao Hong asked in a wary and respectful voice.

"Ah, so you're a fellow Daoist from the Black Phoenix Race. I am Master Purple Cloud, and I was the one who built this town. I can see that all of you are quite confused, but this is not the place to talk. How about all of you pay my city a visit and we can have a chat there?" The elderly Daoist priest smiled before extending a gesture of invitation.

"Master Purple Cloud?" Xiao Hong was quite alarmed by the fact that this elderly Daoist priest had managed to identify her origins right away, and she immediately exchanged a cautious glance with Long Dong.

Neither of them had ever heard of a Master Purple Cloud, so they were naturally rather hesitant to accept his invitation.

The elderly Daoist priest could see the caution in everyone's eyes, and he adopted a benevolent smile as he said, "There's no need to be overly cautious, fellow Daoists. I've always been living in seclusion and very rarely come into contact with anyone, so barely anyone has heard of me. I presume that all of you are trying to get to the Skyline, right? If that's the case, then it would be very much to your benefit to take some advice from me. Some changes have recently taken place at the Skyline, and it would be quite dangerous if you were to rush ahead without learning about what's happened first."

Master Purple Cloud's words naturally couldn't completely erase everyone's wariness, but their caution was slightly alleviated. Upon hearing that something had indeed taken place on the Skyline, everyone's expressions changed minutely.

"Seeing as you've extended such a warm invitation, it would be rude of juniors like us to refuse." Even though Long Dong had changed his mind, and the last thing he wanted to do now was to enter this town, he couldn't just reject such a polite invitation from a Spatial Tempering cultivator outright. As such, he could only muster up his courage and nod in agreement.

Han Li and the others naturally couldn't contradict Long Dong's words, so all of them also agreed to visit this small town.

Master Purple Cloud's smile became even warmer and more benevolent as he guided everyone toward the city gates.

Everyone could only follow along behind the elderly Daoist priest upon seeing this.

There seemed to be a vast distance between themselves and the city gate, yet it didn't take them long to approach their destination. After a short while, they had already reached the oasis, and they could even clearly see the children playing happily beside the lake.

"I only moved to this place recently with my clan, and I had to bring the mortals within my clan to this place as well. There isn't a whole lot here, but we do produce some spirit fruits that are quite rare in the outside world, and you must taste them before you leave," the elderly Daoist priest explained with a smile.

Everyone was enlightened by this explanation.

A short while later, everyone had reached the city gates. The Foundation Establishment cultivators atop the city walls extended respectful bows toward their group before stepping off to the side to allow everyone passage.

The elderly Daoist priest led the way into the town.

Long Dong and the others glanced at the cultivators guarding the city gates to find that all of them wore respectful expressions. Nothing seemed to be amiss, so he also entered and followed along behind Master Purple Cloud after a brief hesitation.

Han Li passed by a couple of Foundation Establishment cultivators, and everything seemed to be completely normal.

However, right at this moment, a crisp cry suddenly erupted in the air above. A ball of silver flames suddenly shot forth, striking one of the nearby cultivators.

Silver flames immediately completely engulfed that cultivator.

Long Dong and the others were all flabbergasted to see this.

"What do you think you're doing? I've extended a kind invitation to all of you, yet you're attacking one of my juniors?" Master Purple Cloud's expression abruptly darkened as he rushed toward Han Li. He raised a hand, conjuring up a massive hand constructed from red light, which came crashing down toward Han Li.

Han Li initially wore a rather perplexed look on his face, but he instantly understood everything as soon as the silver flames enveloped that Foundation Establishment cultivator. However, this wasn't the right time to be mulling over his discovery. The massive red hand was crashing down toward him, and a vast invisible force was squeezing his body at the same time, making him feel as if a mountain were weighing down upon him.

If a normal cultivator were in his shoes, they wouldn't even be able to utter a single sound. However, Han Li was walking the path of simultaneous cultivation, and following the enhancement effects from the Dragon Scale Fruits, Heavenly Corpse Bead, and Bone Tempering Arts, his body was significantly more powerful than even the likes of Xiao Hong and the white-browed young man even without using the Provenance True Devil Arts.

As such, the immense force that was clearly supposed to completely immobilize him was shrugged off with ease, and he abruptly disappeared on the spot. In the next instant, he appeared over 200 feet away.

He had unleashed his Nine Gale Transformations. With the state of his current body and his cultivation base, he could easily unleash the Nine Gale Transformations even without using his Thunderstorm Wings.

"Get away from here! They're all puppets who have been possessed by Shadow Tribe beings!" Han Li roared as he hurtled through the air as a streak of azure light.

At the same time, the cultivator who had been engulfed by silver flames let loose a bloodcurdling howl as a grey shadow suddenly shot forth from his body. However, as soon as the shadow came into contact with the silver flames, it was devoured into nothingness.

Only a split second had passed from the moment that the silver flames had erupted from Han Li's body to the instant that Han Li had escaped from the elderly Daoist priest's sudden retaliation.

Everyone was initially completely puzzled and didn't know what was happening, but after hearing Han Li's cautionary words and witnessing the puppet within the silver flames, they immediately understood what was happening, and their faces turned deathly pale.

"Run!"

Spiritual light immediately erupted from their bodies as they fled into the distance.

The elderly Daoist priest was quite surprised that Han Li was able to escape from his attack, but he recovered from his brief stunned stupor. He immediately let loose a cold harrumph as he swept a sleeve toward one of the fleeing cultivators.

Countless red threads abruptly shot forth from within his sleeve, binding themselves tightly around that streak of light and forcing it to descend from the sky above.

The light receded to reveal a cultivator with an expression of shock and rage on his face, having already been completely bound by the countless red threads.

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The one who had been captured was the white-browed young man.

Black light was flashing around his body as he desperately tried to keep the red threads at bay, but his efforts proved to be futile.

A sinister look appeared on the elderly Daoist priest's face as he slowly made his way toward the young man.

At this moment, a few sharp cries erupted from within the city as several streaks of light of different colors hurtled toward this location.

The white-browed young man was naturally aware that more Shadow Tribe beings were converging toward the scene. Upon arriving at this realization, an expression of horror appeared on his face as he let loose a thunderous roar. The black light around his body began to circulate rapidly as his body swelled drastically in size. At the same time, a pair of inky-black wings appeared on his back, and his hands transformed into a pair of black metal talons.

In this dire situation, he had transformed into his half-demon state and was preparing to fight for his life.

For demonic cultivators like them, their best weapons were naturally their powerful bodies. Furthermore, the Dark Falcons were one of the seven major demon sub-species, so they were certainly no slouches. He swiped his sharp talons through the air around him, and streaks of black light erupted forth, tearing through the red threads around him.

The white-browed young man was naturally ecstatic to see his talons proving to be so effective.

He was confident that as long as he could sever all of these red threads, he'd be able to escape using the movement techniques that were unique to his Dark Falcon Race.

However, before he had a chance to continue swiping his talons through the air, his expression changed drastically, and his face was drained of all color.

All of those severed red threads joined together again in a flash, and it was as if nothing had been done to them in the first place.

A deriding sneer appeared on the elderly Daoist priest's face, and his body blurred before he appeared in front of the white-robed young man, seemingly out of thin air. He then laid a hand on the back of his own head, and a vibrant red shadow slowly emerged.

"A crimson shadow! You really are from the Shadow Tribe!" The white-robed young man was plunged into complete despair at the sight of the crimson shadow.

Crimson shadows of the Shadow Tribe were comparable to Spatial Tempering Stage beings among human cultivators. This was not an opponent a Deity Transformation demonic cultivator could stand up against.

"Hehe, you possess quite a powerful body. I'll be taking it from you now. Don't worry, though, none of your companions will be able to get away. All of them will join you on the other side soon." Red light flashed within Master Purple Cloud's eyes as a sharp and unfamiliar voice escaped from his mouth. The crimson shadow above his head then flashed before pouncing viciously toward the young man.

At the same time, the red threads punctured the protective black light around his body, binding him in an inescapable snare.

Despite his immense strength, the young man was unable to move, even in the slightest, and could only look on as the crimson shadow flew toward him. "Don't even think about it!"

The white-robed young man was in complete despair, and he knew that there was no way for him to survive this ordeal. A hint of insanity appeared in his eyes as he abruptly clamped his teeth together, biting off half of his own tongue in the process. He then opened his mouth to blast forth a thumb-sized black bead that was encased in black blood.

As soon as the bead left his body, the young man's eyes immediately became dull and lifeless. At the same time, his body began to shrivel and shrink, and he was instantly reduced to a white-haired elderly man.

That bead was none other than the demon core that the young man had been arduously cultivating for countless years.

The bead was emanating an extremely violent aura within the black blood before expanding and shrinking, then detonating on the spot.

An expression of shock appeared on the elderly Daoist priest's face, and not only did the crimson shadow above his head hurtle back in retreat, his body also rushed back along with it.

An earthshattering boom erupted as a fist-sized ball of black light appeared. The ball of light flashed once before expanding to over 100 feet in size, and it was still swelling with all its might, sweeping up gale-force winds that whipped up the desert sand into the sky to create several yellow wind dragons.

The elderly Daoist priest's body swayed before stopping over 100 feet away, and his eyes narrowed with a cold expression on his face.

The black light immediately came surging toward him. The elderly Daoist priest's expression darkened as he suddenly let loose an unintelligible cry.

A massive red shadow appeared out of thin air without any premonition amid a resounding boom. The shadow then plunged into the black light before shrinking like lightning.

A peculiar turn of events unfolded immediately thereafter!

The yellow wind dragons were instantly vanquished, and the black light disappeared without a trace along with the white-browed young man. It was as if they had never even appeared here.

Only then did the elderly Daoist priest heave a sigh of relief, but a frustrated look immediately appeared on his face.

He didn't anticipate that the white-browed young man would still have the ability to self-detonate his demon core even after being captured by his restriction.

Right at this moment, a few streaks of light appeared nearby before receding to reveal eight cultivators.

"There was a minor mishap, and they didn't fall for the trap, so it's going to be a little troublesome. However, I released the shadow incense earlier, and all of them have been affected by it to a light degree, so the effects should persist for around two hours. I'll be taking the Shen [1. In Chinese mythology, the Shen beast is a shapeshifting dragon or sea monster believed to create mirages.] beast with me to chase down that accursed brat who foiled our plans. I'll leave the other three to all of you," the elderly Daoist priest instructed in a sinister manner.

"Yes, My Lord!" The eight cultivators bowed in response before splitting up into three groups, flying off in pursuit of Long Dong, Xiao Hong, and Ye Ying.

In contrast, the elderly Daoist priest wasn't in a hurry to set off. Instead, he let loose a relentless ghastly roar that could be heard even in the heavens above and made the surrounding air vibrate audibly.

He then swept a hand toward the city gate, following a dozen or so grey shadows emerged from the bodies of the Foundation Establishment cultivators there, all of which disappeared into his body in a flash. Those cultivators slumped to the ground as soon as the grey shadows left their bodies.

Immediately thereafter, an incredible scene ensued.

All of the mortals and children beside the lake vanished like illusions amid his thunderous roar. The entire small town also began to shimmer like a mirage as countless streaks of black Qi rose into the air from countless different locations. Soon, the ground and all of the city walls had been obscured under the black Qi, and a piercing cry erupted from within.

The elderly Daoist priest's roar drew to a halt as he swept a sleeve expressionlessly toward the black Qi, blowing it away in the blink of an eye by sweeping up gusts of violent winds.

A two-headed monster that was over 100 feet in length then appeared before him. It had two golden and silver snake heads and the green body of a frog. Its four crimson eyes were extremely unsettling, and the mere sight of them was enough to send chills running down the beholder's spine.

The golden snake head opened its mouth and spat out the remains of a body.

The white-browed young man's body and beast core had been devoured by this beast, and the small town, along with the mortals as well as most of the cultivator there, had been manifested by this beast.

The elderly Daoist priest's body swayed, and he abruptly disappeared on the spot. However, in the next instant, he reappeared atop one of the snake heads.

"Go!" He delivered a cold instruction.

The two snake heads of the giant beast immediately let loose frog croaks as it leaped into the air, transforming into a burst of black Qi that streaked into the distance.

It was traveling in the direction toward which Han Li had fled.

A crimson streak of light was hurtling through the air, within which a beautiful young woman wore a grim expression as she fled for her life.

All of a sudden, her expression changed as she rustled her sleeve to produce an azure jade badge, upon which was embedded a white bead. However, the item was shattered and appeared to have been completely ruined.

The young woman took a deep breath before flicking a slim finger toward the bead, upon which, the bead exploded into a white powder before disappearing.

She then stowed away her jade badge, and the red light emanating from her body brightened as she accelerated even further.

However, after an hour had passed, her expression suddenly changed as she abruptly cast her gaze behind her. There, in the extremely far distance, two streaks of spiritual light were flashing rapidly toward her.

The two then combined as one, and they were clearly traveling at a far faster speed than she was.

An indecisive look appeared on her face, but as the streak of light drew closer and closer, a cold light flashed through her eyes as she abruptly stopped cold in her tracks.

As such, it didn't take her pursuers long to appear just several hundred feet away from her. The spiritual light then receded to reveal a man and a woman.

Both of them were quite young, and the man was extremely handsome while the woman was exquisitely beautiful. Furthermore, both of them bore a close resemblance to one another, but they were wearing stiff and wooden expressions on their faces.

Seeing as she already knew that these were merely puppets possessed by the Shadow Tribe beings, Xiao Hong naturally wasn't going to pay any heed to their outward appearance. She merely glanced at them were a frosty expression before immediately making a hand seal. All of a sudden, two balls of black flames emerged from her sleeves before transforming into a couple of Fire Ravens that hurtled directly toward her two assailants.

The Shadow Tribe duo harrumphed coldly in unison as several streaks of grey light shot forth from their backs at the same time, heading directly toward the black flames without any hesitation.

The grey light and black flames clashed amid a resounding boom.

Xiao Hong raised her eyebrows as she suddenly rolled onto the ground. Brilliant black light then began to emanate from her body, and it was so bright that it was impossible for one to look directly at her.

The cry of a phoenix then rang out as a massive spirit bird emerged from the black light, circling around in the sky before spreading its wings to attack the two Shadow Tribe beings.

This bird was completely glossy black in color with a brown crest on its head. Its eyes were like bright emeralds, and it was none other than a black phoenix that was around 30 to 40 feet in length.

Expressions of shock appeared on the faces of the Shadow Tribe duo, and after exchanging a glance at one another, both of them laid a hand on their own heads at the same time. Immediately thereafter, two green shadows appeared before pouncing directly toward the black phoenix.

Spiritual Qi erupted violently as resounding booms rang out incessantly.

Almost at the exact same moment, Long Dong was also being pursued by a pair of cultivators.

In the face of the two green shadows that had ditched their physical bodies, a deriding sneer appeared on his face as yellow light flashed from his body. The suit of yellow scale armor that he had used once before surfaced again, along with the pair of bronze wings on his back. He then rubbed his hands together, and a peculiar crimson longsword suddenly appeared within his grasp.

The sword was three feet in length with a dragon hilt and a phoenix blade. Crimson light was circulating over the entire sword, making it appear as if it had been manifested from fresh blood.

The crimson mole on the corner of Long Dong's lips appeared to be especially vibrant in that instant, and he wore a serious expression as he gently slashed his longsword toward the two oncoming green shadows.

The sword sliced through the air soundlessly, but the two green shadows suddenly let loose howls of anguish. Countless white threads then surfaced all over their bodies, and spiritual light flashed as both shadows were instantly reduced to countless fragments.

Long Dong slashed his longsword through the air once again, and the white threads flashed before those fragments completely vanished.

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Long Dong exterminated the two green shadows with ease and wordlessly waved his crimson sword.

Suddenly, the sword dissolved into a deep red cloud of blood essence and flowed back into his palms where it soon vanished.

He let out a long sigh and his face turned dark red, followed by a bloodless white as if he had lost much blood.

He quickly took out a scarlet bottle from his storage bracelet and tossed out a scarlet medicine pill into his mouth. Then without further delay, he quickly sped off.

At another corner of the desert, a young white-robed woman was standing at the top of a desert mound. Ten meters away, there were four ice-cold corpses.

There wasn't a single wound present on any of the bodies. They simply laid there without the slightest trace of life.

The woman stroked a slender jade bottle in her hand and wore a cute mysterious smile on her face. Suddenly, her body soared into the air in a golden streak. Several flashes later, she vanished.

In an area myriads of kilometers away, azure-white lightning repeatedly sparked through the air. A black cloud several kilometers away chased after him. Although it didn't appear very fast, it was able to accurately follow the lightning no matter the distance.

In the blink of an eye, the chase continued for a couple of hundred kilometers. Suddenly, the black cloud trembled and disappeared. A moment later, the black cloud blinked forward half a kilometer and continued its pursuit.

Suddenly, the azure-white lightning jumped forward and disappeared in white light. It traveled half a kilometer away and widened the gap once more.

The pursuit continued relentlessly.

Of course, the winged figure riding the lightning was Han Li.

He was tightly frowning and his gaze appeared gloomy.

Not long ago, he discovered the old Daoist was chasing after him in a cloud of black Qi. He then immediately spread his Thunderstorm Wings and made use of his Nine Gale Transformations to their fullest extent.

However, the black cloud was not only amazingly fast, but it also could blink forward.

The two remained in pursuit despite the vast distance they traveled.

Although the desert was vast, foreign tribes often roamed it. With Han Li being so closely pursued, it would be incredibly troublesome if he caught the attention of other foreign tribes.

As for the vitality intensive Blood Shadow Evasion, he had already used it once. He was unwilling to use it again unless he absolutely needed to. After all, the desert is filled with dangers. He would need to preserve his vitality in preparation for when he was past the Southern Skyline.

It appeared he would have no choice but to battle with the shadow tribe being.

The shadow being had possessed the body of a mid-stage Spatial Tempering cultivator, clearly illustrating his high position in the shadow tribe. He was most likely a crimson shadow, a being equivalent to a Spatial Tempering cultivator.

If it were the high-grade being from another tribe, he might feel some fear, but he had many abilities that were effective against them. He had some confidence in fighting them.

Furthermore, after he entered Deep Heaven City, he cultivated and refined several techniques and treasures. He had yet to test their might. He figured he would test their effectiveness on this crimson shadow.

With that thought quickly appearing in his mind, he blinked again and his wings trembled. He suddenly came to a stop.

As a result, the black cloud quickly arrived three hundred meters behind Han Li. It appeared that the cloud planned on directly pouncing at him.

This came as no surprise.

The shadow tribe's most powerful techniques were consuming the primal souls of other tribes and directly controlling their bodies. They would also be able to use a majority of the body's techniques.

Of course, Han Li wasn't about to allow the shadow to arrive near him. Without a word, he slapped his hands together and opened them.

A heaven shaking thunder roared. A bowl-sized bolt of lightning ruptured from his hands, directly targeting the oncoming black cloud.

A yelp sounded and the black Qi suddenly blinked, disappearing into a nearby spatial void.

Han Li coldly snorted and suddenly split open a crimson slit from his forehead. His law Law Destruction Eye opened and released a black light that vanished in a flash.

A deafening rupture sounded, violently shaking a space a hundred meters away. Wrapped in the black Qi, the old Daoist blurred and reappeared. He shouted in surprise, "The Law Destruction Eye! You actually cultivate that ability!?"

Han Li's lip twitched and he remained silent. Suddenly, he cast a spell seal and the dense bolt of lightning curved, fiercely striking at the old Daoist when he least expected it.

The old Daoist cursed and thought to dodge when Han Li's eyes brightly flashed blue. He could only let out a sharp breath in response.

The sound wasn't loud, but he felt as if the ringing of a huge bell was echoing through his eyes. He felt tearing pain through his mind and his body slowed.

Thunder clapped. Golden lightning struck the black Qi, spreading thousands of thin arcs through it. In an instant, the black Qi grew violently unstable.

At that same moment, a huge frog's croak sounded from the black Qi.

The black Qi roiled and condensed underneath the old Daoist, turning into a strange two-headed beast with snake heads and a frog's body. Its four crimson eyes glared at Han Li with rage.

Han Li couldn't help but pause upon seeing this.

The black Qi protecting the old Daoist was actually a transformed beast.

After receiving the lightning strike, the old Daoist's body recovered and he eerily glared at Han Li, "Good, very good! A trifling Deity Transformation cultivator was able to shock my mind. That ability was quite surprising. You may as well try to use it again!"

Han Li frowned. His full-powered lightning bolt was received by the strange beast, not the shadow tribe being. If the strike hit the shadow being, he definitely would've been harmed.

As for the Soulfright Thorn, he wasn't foolish enough to use it again. It was only effective in a surprise attack. As the shadow being's soul was stronger than his, it wouldn't have any effect.

Han Li didn't say anything further. He raised his hand and revealed a pitch-black palm. He pointed it in the old Daoist's direction.

Suddenly, the space above the old Daoist began to warp and a small black mountain appeared.

The mountain twirled in the air, abruptly turning three-hundred-meters tall. It brightly shined grey and released rings grey light downward.

A harsh expression appeared on the old Daoist's face and he waved his sleeve. A transparent crystalline half-foot-long blade appeared.

The blade sliced at the air, releasing a dazzling streak.

Zap. The blade streak fiercely cut through the grey rings and struck at the base of the huge mountain.

A loud drone sounded like a gong being struck.

The mountain didn't move and the blade streak vanished.

The old Daoist's face stirred. Before he could do anything else, Han Li stretched out his other hand, revealing a pure-white palm. He stretched his fingers, releasing five bone skull rings.

Five huge skulls appeared around the old Daoist. They simultaneously opened their mouths and spat out an icy flame. They merged into five-colored light and instantly submerged the old Daoist's body.

The old Daoist wore a smirk, but after the flames drew close his body, his face vastly changed. Myriads of red streaks burst out from his body, wildly chopping at his surroundings in form of a red lotus.

As the lotus stirred, the rainbow flames were split apart, unable to approach the old man in the slightest.

Han Li's expression sank and he formed his hands together. He harshly roared and suddenly, his body wildly grew several times in size and pounced at the red lotus.

Several harsh streaks sounded. As the five skulls charged to the edge of the red lotus, five dazzling blade streaks chopped at the skulls, splitting them into two like bolts of lightning.

Soon after, the crimson lotus was thoroughly opened.

The rainbow flames were thoroughly extinguished by the red light and the old Daoist reappeared with a calm face.

With a loud ghostly wail, the five cleaved skulls became whole once more.

But they continued to wail as if they held the old Daoist in great fear.

Han Li took a shallow breath and gravely pointed at his pitch-black mountain a distance away.

The huge mountain rumble and fell straight down.

As the huge mountain pressed downward, the old Daoist appeared unfazed. He simply tapped his foot on the huge beast below him.

The two serpent heads widely opened their mouths and apt out a dense red blur at the huge mountain falling above them.

With a violent crack, the huge mountain swayed and began to fall to the side.

Han Li narrowed his eyes at the sight of this and his face grew unsightly.

The two serpent heads were able to spit out their tongues at such a great force, they were able to knock away his Essensefused Mountain.

Han Li gloomily reached out for the black mountain and five skulls, causing them to vanish.

Black and white light lit up from his palms, returning the color of their skin to normal.

"Hehe, Brat, you have many treasures, but you are delusional to face me with your meager magic power. It appears you have no other methods. Hand over your body to me." The old Daoist seemed to be impatient, but he took no further action. Instead, the serpent heads of the beast let out a sharp shriek.

Invisible waves scattered around them, spreading several kilometers away.

Rainbow light continued to flash nearby and soon, countless rare beast images began to take form. A few as large as a hill with some only ten meters long. Each of them looked ferocious and smelled strong. They all surrounded Han Li and stared at him with evil eyes.

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"An illusion technique?" When Han Li saw this, he was startled, but he waved his sleeves nonetheless. Tens of small golden swords swam around him like fish, each turning a foot-long in a blur.

He commanded them in his mind, and they each created several copies of themselves, adding more to the swarm.

Golden light filled the air. The swordstreaks weaved around, slicing apart the beasts in a hundred-meter radius.

Beast blood, howls, and corpses, filled Han Li's surroundings.

He tightly frowned!

Be it the feedback from the swords or what he saw with his eyes, he sensed it all to be real. He couldn't distinguish these illusions from reality.

Despite his bewilderment, none of it showed on his face, and his swords continued their rampage and kept him safe.

Standing on top of the Shen Beast, the old Daoist wore an odd smile.

There were seemingly countless beasts surrounding Han Li. With the sharpness of Han Li's swordlight, they cut down several hundred beasts in the blink of an eye.

However, the strange beast corpses seemed to float in the air rather than falling to the ground. It caused the bloody scent to grow increasingly dense and pungent.

Soon, just as Han Li felt something was amiss, the Shen Beast let out a cry. The chopped corpses turned into pitch-black fog and roiled underneath Han Li.

The several hundred swordlights continued to flutter around Han Li, occasionally chopping away at the black fog, but as more of the black fog tangled with the flying swords, they became sluggish.

Meanwhile, the Shen Beast's giant body blurred and silently shot forward in a streak of black Qi, vanishing into the black fog.

A moment later, two long red shadows shot out from the black flog. In a blur, they strangely arrived in front of Han Li. One of them aimed for Han Li's head while the other went for his chest, both striking at lightning speed.

Were it not for Han Li employing his full techniques to protect himself, including his Brightsight Spirit Eyes, he wouldn't have reacted fast enough to block the attacks if he relying on his spiritual sense alone.

His face sunk. Without using any of his magic treasures, golden light flashed from his face and he smoothly whipped his hands in seemingly slow motion.

His hands turned sparkling gold as if formed of pure gold.

Bang, bang. The two golden hands grabbed the two scarlet tongues in a ball of flesh. Then, an immense force pulled at his arms.

His shoulders simply blurred as if nothing happened.

The old Daoist looked at this with shock.

The Shen Beast's transformative abilities had not only reached perfection, but its immense strength was renown in the shadow tribe. A display of this strength was when it used its tongues to fling away the giant mountain from before.

Now, this unremarkable human youth was able to use his hands to grab ahold of the Shen Beast's tongues with ease. It was rather inconceivable.

However, the old Daoist wasn't truly worried. The Shen Beast had more than just brute force alone.

As expected, the two tongues remained motionless in Han Li's grasp. Suddenly, white light glowed from them and the two tongues turned into huge scarlet pythons. They fiercely opened their mouths and they both aimed for Han Li's head.

Han Li simply felt a huge tremble through his fingers as if the tongues became cold and slick, and they both attempted to go for Han Li's head.

Blue light brightly flashed from his eyes and his golden hands blurred, each of them separately turning black and white. His black hand had a silver mountain image on its back and his fingers grew several times thicker.

Pop. Scarlet blood scattered. The hand squeezed down on one of the pythons, splitting it into two.

The large white hand had a white skull appear from each of its fingers. With a flick, all of the skulls bit seven inches deep.

The skulls began to wildly inhale, soon turning the serpent's body into a husk drained of blood essence.

These were the results of the Divine Essensefused Mountain and the Unbreakable Cinque Devils being condensed into his two hands.

This method was only one cultivation technique that was mentioned in the Hundred Meridians Treasure Refinement Mantra.

The process of cultivating his body into treasures was an incredibly long process, but it allowed him to make use of his treasures ingeniously and several times quicker as well.

The cultivation of this not only condensed the power of the two treasures into his hands, but it fused the power of the treasures into one. It was incredibly flexible and their combined power would grant him greater odds of victory.

This surprise attack resulted in the Shen Beast's tongues being eliminated.

The old Daoist clearly hadn't expected this to happen. Before he could act from rage, two painful howls sounded from the black fog. Soon after, the black Qi parted and the Shen Beast emerged in the blur. Its body turned vague as it traveled through the air and it turned transparent.

The beast also possessed invisibility.

A short moment later, Han Li was able to hear the beast's howls from all around him, hiding its concrete position.

Even with his Brightsight Spirit Eyes working at full force, he wasn't able to see through it.

Even so, Han Li smiled.

He waved his sleeves around him, followed by buzzing. Countless golden specks rushed out from them.

These golden specks flew out and immediately surged in size. They turned into half-foot-long beetles.

They were the fully matured Gold Devouring Beetles that Han Li spent painstaking efforts to nurture.

These beetles numbered over a thousand and flew out nearby.

In the blink of an eye, the beetles spread through the sky and several of them knocked against the Shen Beast, revealing it.

Without needing Han Li's command, the Gold Devouring Beetles buzzed and pounced at it. A cloud of beetles instantly drowned it.

The Shen Beast let out screams of pain, but with a pop, the beast's body flew out in a black mist.

Normally, insects wouldn't be able to do anything against an intangible body, but something extraordinary occurred.

Just as the black mist flew out from gaps of the Gold Devouring Beetles, the fearsome beetles' claws flashed with golden light and firmly stuck onto the black mist, violently gnawing on it without any hesitation.

With over a thousand beetles, the huge black mist was reduced by a tenth in the blink of an eye.

Screams of pain continue to sound from the mist as the mist continues to roil. Then, ten slender silver serpents shot out from the mist, each of them three meters wide. They all swallowed ten of the beetles at lightning speed.

As the serpents blurred, another ten beetles disappeared into the serpent's mouth.

But immediately after, the silver serpents hissed and they fell, turning back into clouds of black mist.

All the beetles flew out from the mist without the slightest damage and they circled around the mist to consume it.

Soon after, the black mist quickly turned into several beasts specialized in dealing with insects, but none of them were able to wound the beetles in the slightest. In a short moment, the black mist was torn away, quickly slowing down the speed at which these strange creatures appeared.

The beetle swarm had the black mist at its mercy in only the span of a few breaths. As the old Daoist watched from a distance, he stared at the beetles with an odd expression on his face.

"Gold Devouring Beetles! Fully matured Gold Devouring Beetles!" The old Daoist muttered. He slapped his head without the slightest hesitation.

Red light flashed and a crimson shadow emerged from the crown of the body's head. It flew in a circle and suddenly turned into a fierce streak, blurring several times as it disappeared off the horizon.

The old Daoist's body remained in place, now a shriveled corpse. With a gentle wind, the corpse scattered to ash.

"Yi!" Han Li remained motionlessly in place and stared in the direction that the crimson shadow fled. His expression wavered.

"He actually abandoned his exotic beast. Could it be that Gold Devouring Beetles are that famous?"

With that said, Han Li turned his head and looked at the black cloud. The beetles had consumed the black cloud in near entirety. Han Li stroked his chin and waved his hand, recalling the beetles. They circled around him and turned back into small pellets before going back into his sleeves.

With that done, Han Li wanted to fly over, but his complexion vastly changed and his body shook several times. He nearly plummeted from the air.

"How is this possible? My spiritual sense is so exhausted, I nearly injured my soul." Han Li quickly looked inside him and his face paled.

He consumed nearly the entirety of his Spatial Tempering-grade spiritual sense. In the battle, he didn't sense this in the slightest.

"Could it be..."

Han Li was reminded of his recent use of the Gold Devouring Beetles and his face grew unsightly.

He suddenly waved his sleeve and summoned a single beetle. It fluttered its wings and flew around nearby.

He immediately peered at his spiritual sense and soon, he stood still in shock.

At the same moment he released the beetle, his spiritual sense was slowly consumed. Although it didn't appear harmful, it was only the result of a single Gold Devouring Beetles. If he were to command over a thousand of them, they would cause a bigger drain.

With his vast spiritual sense, he would hardly be able to sustain it for five minutes.

What was even more frightening was that he wasn't even aware of this immense drain.

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Han Li felt gloomy.

The original joy he felt from witnessing the Gold Devouring Beetles's strength was mostly gone.

Although he had eight thousand fully matured Gold Devouring Beetles, if he released the lot of them, he feared his spiritual sense would run dry before his beetles confronted the enemy.

Bafflingly enough, the beetles had no drain on his spiritual sense when they weren't fully matured.

This left him perplexed.

He couldn't ignore this sudden development. He would have to find what caused this at the very least.

Otherwise, he wouldn't dare to use the beetles in battle.

With that in mind, he waved at the beetle.

The beetle circled in the air before landing on his palm.

He released a thread of spiritual sense and wrapped it around the beetle. As a result, he found nothing out of the ordinary.

He took a shallow breath and narrowed his eyes in thought. Suddenly, something came to mind and he waved his hand. The beetle flew back into the air and he wrapped his spiritual sense around it once more.

A short moment later, his face vastly changed.

The spiritual sense that coiled around the beetle's body became gradually weaker and continued to enter the huge beetle's body.

Han Li now realized everything.

The reason why his spiritual sense was decreasing was that the mature Gold Devouring Beetles were expelling it as they flew. It was no wonder why his spiritual sense was worn to such a degree without any knowledge.

Know that he knew the problem, he frowned in thought for a long while and felt that he couldn't come up with a good answer.

Although the exhaustion of his spiritual sense was only temporary, typically recoverable with a day's rest, it would be fatal if this occurred in battle.

Regardless of the secret technique or magic treasure, they needed large quantities of spiritual sense to sustain them.

Until he could figure out a method to resolve this, he would keep the beetles as a reserve measure.

However, the sight of the beetles alone was enough to scare away the crimson shadow. Even in the spirit world, the Gold Devouring Beetles possessed a truly infamous reputation.

The exotic insect ranking he acquired from the Devil Dao cultivator in the mortal world was no longer relevant in Han Li's eyes.

Given the experiences of a low-grade cultivator, there were many mistakes to be had. The rankings were particularly useless in the spirit realm.

The power of the fully mature Gold Devouring Beetles was far beyond Han Li's expectations.

With that thought in mind, Han Li didn't dare to linger for much longer and promptly made certain of his bearings before flying off.

If the others hadn't died, they would likely show up at the meeting point. Although the spiritual Qi markers they placed on one another had disappeared, they had another method of contact. So long as they weren't too far away from another, they could establish a mutual connection.

Two weeks later, an azure streak silently flew across the desert sky.

Although the streak was azure, the flight light had become dim and lightless through some technique. One wouldn't be able to spot it if they weren't looking closely.

This, of course, was Han Li.

In the two weeks, Han Li hadn't encountered anything, nor did any more shadow tribe beings pursue him.

It was as if the crimson had been scared away by the Gold Devouring Beetles.

With his heart at ease, he focused his mind on travel.

As he continued to travel, his exhausted spiritual sense was restored to completion.

At that moment, he was fiddling with a glossy jade bottle. The words "Earth Cleansing Pill" was engraved on the surface of the bottle in ancient script. It also contained all the Earth Cleansing Pills that were given to him by Deep Heaven City.

This was one of his rewards for taking on the dangerous mission.

They said so long as he assisted the others in completing the mission, he would be granted complete freedom.

Not only him, but the other ascended cultivators that undertook dangerous missions were also given sufficient Earth Cleansing Pills.

But in order to protect them from abandoning the mission or half-heartedly undertaking the mission, the medicine bottle had a formidable restriction placed on the bottle.

They attempted to break the restriction forcibly, the bottle would rupture and destroy the pills they contained.

So long as he finished his assignment, he would be sent a Myriad Distance Talisman to dissolve the restriction, after multiple methods of verification of course.

Han Li stroked the bottle for a moment and his expression stirred. Spiritual light suddenly flashed from his hand and he put away the bottle.

At an unknown time, a flock of giant cranes had appeared before them. They had light yellow wings and had purple warts on their heads.

The birds clearly discovered Han Li and were screeching as they dived towards him in various directions.

As the birds grew closer, Han Li sighed. Light flashed from his body and he vanished. A moment later, he appeared at the center of a group of thirty yellow birds.

Before Han Li took any action, a robe of sparkling light appeared around him.

The robes wildly flashed and countless golden-silver arcs of lightning sparked, completely enveloping the surrounding three hundred meter area.

With an astonishing roar of thunder, golden and silver lightning violently flashed, vaporising the nearby birds in an instant.

The surrounding air was left clean.

Han Li expressionlessly looked around him and continued on his way.

The giant half-broken pillars and the remains of the three meter stone walls marked by gales clearly marked they didn't belong to any ordinary construct as they still remained standing despite the countless years.

In the heart of the ruins, there sat a black-robed woman sitting against a wall. There was also a purple-robed youth that was pacing back and forth. They were both silent and wore solemn expressions.

The two were Xiao Hong and Long Dong.

The youth's face appeared ordinary. It appeared he quickly recovered from the large quantity of blood essence he had burned to rid himself of his pursuers. It was unknown if this was a result of medicine or through some sort of secret technique.

Otherwise, it would've normally taken him several years to recover from at the very least.

A moment later, the two sensed something and they turned to look at the sky.

They saw a golden blur silently appear and fly in their direction.

It flashed several times and the light faded to reveal the white-robed young woman.

"Older Sister Xiao, Fellow Daoist Long, did you wait for long? I see that you two are doing fine." the young woman giggled. She didn't appear injured in the slightest.

Xiao Hong forced a smile and a flash of joy appeared from Long Dong's face.

The youth sighed and said, "I knew that Lady Xie is quite clever and that nothing would happen to her. There are still two others that have yet to appear. On that day, I fear that they had done more to Brother Li after he was captured. As for Brother Han, he had yet to contact us. I fear something has happened to him in the shadow clan's pursuit."

The white-robed woman pursed her lips and her eyes flickered. Eventually, she decided to keep silent.

The young woman slowly drifted down from the sky and stood before the two. She leisurely said, "Brother Li might've only been captured, but Fellow Daoist Han isn't so simple. We may as well wait a few more days."

Xiao Hong insipidly said, "Wait a few more days? This is the time of the year where the Southern Skyline Sandstorm is at its weakest. If we miss it, we'll lose too much time. We can only wait two more days at most.'

"Two days should be enough." The white-robed woman said little more and readily agreed. Soon after, she sat at a clean corner and meditated.

As half a day slowly passed, a buzz sounded from the sky and caught the three cultivators' attention.

Their expression faintly changed and they glanced at one another. Long Dong said, "I'll activate the location plate. How fortunate! Nothing has happened to Brother Han!"

Soon after, the blood-marked youth shook his sleeve and the azure spell plate appeared in his hand. He struck it with a spell seal.

It brightly lit up and the blood-marked youth closed his hands. The plate then disappeared.

With that done, the youth stood up and held his hands behind his back.

Several hours later, an azure streak silently appeared. It flashed several times and appeared before the three cultivators. It circled in the air and the light disappeared to reveal Han Li.

Long Dong smiled, "Brother Han, it is good that you are well. It is good fortune that we all made it out of the shadow tribe's ambush."

"It is also fortunate that you are well!" Han Li swept his gaze past them and smiled.

Xiao Hong calmly proposed, "Since Brother Han has arrived, let's go. If we're slow, we'll be tangled with the shadow tribe."

Long Dong shook her head. "Fairy Xiao's words are reasonable. This isn't a place we can stay for long."

Han Li and the white-robed woman also raised no objections.

Half a day later, the party flew off and traveled with diligent attention.

This time, they flew for thousands of kilometers before slowly appearing before a storm. It was violently stirring. Not long after, the party flew into the sandstorm. They were surrounded by yellow debris and countless gales of sand brushed past them.

Were it not for the protective light surrounding their body, he feared that the yellow winds would've forcefully landed them.

After traveling straightforward for a thousand kilometers, Long Dong, the one in the lead, came to a sudden stop. Soon after, the rest of the party heard a voice transmission from him, "We've arrived. We've arrived at the Southern Skyline. Hehe, were it not for the two Wind Steadying Beads they've given us, I fear even Spatial Tempering cultivators wouldn't dare to rush here. With these beads, we can safely head in. However, everyone should be careful about the wind wyrms that live here. If we aren't completely cautious, we will chance encounter one despite how large the Southern Skyline is."

Xiao Hong added with a serious expression, "Fellow Daoists will also need to be careful of other dangers that exist. After all, the shadow tribe was already waiting for us outside. They could be inside as well. If we truly encounter something, you'll have to depend on yourselves for survival."

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Han Li didn't react to their words. His eyes simply glowed blue as his gaze penetrated the dense sandstorm. He was able to see into the far distance.

Fifty kilometers away, an inconceivable omen suddenly appeared.

At the very edge of the vast horizon, he saw a black sky, yellow earth, and a white line right in between. The white line seemed to have no end and stretched out as far as the eye could see.

But as it was too far away, the image was vague.

Han Li raised his brow and the spirit light faded from his eyes.

At that moment, the party resumed their flight and headed towards the omen marked area.

A short moment later, the party saw something strange.

Originally, the black mist roiled in the sky and yellow winds stormed below it. A huge channel of white light appeared where they touched. Then, the black mist and the yellow winds parted to reveal a crack. No matter how much the black mist and yellow sands blew into the crack, it all vanished as if they entered an abyss.

"That's the Southern Skyline? How interesting!" The young white-robed woman smiled at the sight.

Long Dong examined the scene for a moment and sullenly said, "Let's go. The sandstorm is at its weakest. If we wait a few more days, we'll have to spend great effort just to make it to the entrance."

Soon after, he flipped his hand and a fist-sized azure bead appeared in his hand.

He flicked his finger and the bead spun before shrinking several times.

Long Dong then swallowed it.

The others took out a similar bead and swallowed it in the same method.

A layer of strange light surrounded their bodies and soon a whistling gale brushed past them. When they touched the lustrous light, the gales seemed to vanish.

They were Wind Steadying Beads that the upper echelon of Deep Heaven City had specially prepared for them.

Without any further consideration, the party already took off, arriving three kilometers away from the skyline. Without using any of their flight light, an invisible force suddenly appeared around them. Several streaks of light flashed as they were pulled into the crack.

Once Han Li entered the crack, he felt the attractive force relax and felt that his freedom was restored. However, countless white wind blades then appeared and he heard sharp icy screeches. Inside the crack, the huge winds were incredibly harsh.

Were it not for the wind beads they consumed, they would immediately release their magic treasure to protect themselves.

This would've consumed quite some magic power.

Now, the wind blades disappeared upon contact with the lustrous light.

Han Li swept his gaze around him and discovered that his spiritual sense wasn't able to leave his body. He could only use his Brightsight Spirit Eyes to look three hundred meters around him. As for the others, they had disappeared from his perimeter.

He frowned. Without any hesitation, the light around him glowed brightly and he shot forward in an azure streak, disappearing into the storm.

Several days later, the entrance to the skyline suddenly flashed with light and two streaks of light flew into it.

The light faded away to reveal two embroidered-robed middle-aged cultivators.

They were dressed similarly and there was a purple band worn on their heads. A shining light radiated from their eyes. Upon closer inspection, the two had faces that somewhat resemble Long Dong. However, one of them was rather pale while the other had torn robes as if they had gone through a battle.

The two carefully examined the huge crack and they spoke in voice transmission. They then entered the crack in each other's embrace.

Not long after, a crimson shadow entered the sand storm, but it stopped in front of the skyline. It resentfully let out howls of rage as it flew in circles before it returned.

Soon, there was no one else that appeared apart from howling winds.

Several months later, on the top of a small green mountain, Han Li stood alone on a huge stone. He was looking off to the distance.

About ten kilometers away from the small mountain, there was a giant endless forest.

The forest was odd in truth. Regardless of the type of tree, their leaves would carry a few black designs. From a distance, it caused all the leaves to appear black and green.

The location was Han Li's objective. It was the location of the Wood Tribe's farthest border, the Black Leaves Forest.

After looking at it for a long while, Han Li withdrew his gaze and frowned in thought.

His passage through the Southern Skyline had taken much time, but it went smoothly. He encountered no surprises.

However, the other three had yet to arrive, leaving him somewhat worried. They were either lost or they encountered mishaps. He emerged from the skyline several days before and hadn't encountered anyone since.

After cautious deliberation, he decided to no longer wait and bluntly tread forward.

On the way, he did encounter a few small problems, even exterminating several waves of low-grade tree beings before arriving at the mountain.

Before this, the blood-marked youth and Xiao Hong had already given them the details of their assignment.

Han Li clearly understood what he had to do.

According to what was said, the people that were dispatched to the Wood Tribe, Han Li included, were of high status. Their purpose was to conceal themselves deeply in the Black Leaves forest and collect information as they remained hidden. Afterward, they would observe the movements of the Wood Tribe and see if there were any large movements.

The mission sounded simple, but half of the danger was making it to the Wood Tribe territory through the wilderness. The other danger was to remain undetected in the Black Leaves Forest.

Of the surrounding tribes, the Wood Tribe had the least contact with humans. They would only know what was happening with the Wood Tribe from what they gathered from Black Leaves Forest. The humans and demons needed information on them or they wouldn't dare to wage war on them.

Han Li quietly waited there for a month and saw no others had come. The deadline to start the assignment was drawing closer and closer.

With the deadline running close and the possible encounter with trouble, he could no longer stay there.

Han Li pondered for a long while before he raised his head to look at the distant sky.

It was the four suns that have been shining for three months. Soon, the sky would become dark.

According to his information, the Wood Tribe beings innately lacked their five senses. When they came into contact with enemies, they relied on their spiritual awareness. As such, the high-grade cultivators that gave them this assignment gave them a suggestion. When they entered the Black Leaves Forest, it would be best to move during night and stay hidden by day. It was safer that way.

Han Li took another look at the distant forest and eventually resolved himself. Regardless of whether the others would arrive, he was determined to unlock the bottle of Earth Cleansing Pills. He feared he would have to finish the mission alone.

Having resolved himself, Han Li immediately sat down on the rock and closed his eyes. Several hours later, the sky turned dim. Han Li waited until the forest was dark and silent like a predator lying in wait.

Han Li opened his eyes and suddenly shot forward in a burst of light. Then in a flash, the light became lightlessly dim.

He formed an incantation gesture and his body turned into a blur as if he were only an illusion.

In truth, Han Li already employed a concealment technique by the time he was in the air. Under the cover of night, he slowly made his way forward.

Tens of kilometers away, Han Li flew as quietly as he could. An hour later, he appeared at the edge of the forest.

With the forest's endless expanse, it was impossible for him to make his way past every location with Wood Tribe beings. However, Han Li didn't dare to take the risk.

Normally, it is said that inside the Wood Tribe being's sphere of influence, there was always a Dream Sifting Spirit Tree.

This was the Wood Tribe's sole protective tree. It had a range of control and commanded a number of other trees. It also possessed various other inconceivable abilities.

Of course, each Dream Sifting Tree had a different sized area they could monitor and a different number of trees they could command.

The Dream Sifting Trees in the Black Leaves Forest was already made certain by the scouts of Deep Heaven City.

Because Black Leaves Forest was at the very border of the Wood Tribe's lands, the Dream Sifting Trees were particularly alert and had wide monitoring areas, filling various places in the forest. But on the other hand, the Dream Sifting Trees didn't control a large number of trees. Also, they could only perceive existences at Spatial Tempering stage and above.

Of course, if there was a foreign tribe that dared to brazenly fly above the forest and escaped notice by the Dream Sifting Trees, there would be other Wood Tribe beings that would sense them.

Therefore, Han Li not only completely concealed his aura, but an empty shadow always appeared wherever his feet touched the ground. As soon as he entered the forest, he was an invisible blur.

With the overbearing power of Han Li's flesh body, he used the Nine Gale Transformations and the Smoke Sifting Steps together to become a ghost-like existence.

He appeared to flicker in appearance with every step and treat fifty kilometers deep into the forest in the blink of an eye.

As Han Li heard the winds whistling through his eyes, he calmly pondered.

According to the mission details, if everything goes smoothly, he would arrive at the determined location in three days. So long as he acquired the information, the mission was already mostly complete. Finding out further information on the Wood Tribe was only supplementary. In truth, it wouldn't be a problem if he did nothing more at that point.

He briefly stopped and blurred, strangely disappearing from atop a large tree.

Meanwhile, heavy footsteps sounded from his front and slowly approached his direction.

It seemed to be a giant creature.

At that moment, Han Li already concealed himself in exceptionally dense foliage and remained absolutely still.

A moment later, two thirty-meter-tall green ape-like beasts boldly passed by, each of them carrying a huge copper prong.

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At first glance, the two huge beasts appeared to be giant apes. But their green fur was exceptionally long and they had three black eyes. They were continuously flickering around out of vigilance.

Han Li calmly observed them as they walked past. After they were farther away, he blurred and arrived at a distant tree.

When he watched them disappear, a trace of bewilderment appeared on his face.

The two patrolling beasts weren't wood tribe beings. Why would they appear in the forest? They were intelligent as they were carrying huge copper prongs.

Could it be another unknown tribe?

After some thought, Han Li couldn't help but shake his head.

According to what he knew, the wood tribe was extremely xenophobic. They wouldn't allow other foreign tribes to boldly strut in their territory. Could it be beasts of war bred by the wood tribe? Han Li thought.

So-called beasts of war were spirit beasts of another name. Like humans and demons, through secret techniques these foreign tribes were able to control spirit beasts. Other foreign tribes understood they could put ancient beasts to their own devices after training them with medicine or anything else.

Of course, various races had differing talents. The beasts they could train and control differed. Not all of them could tame the same beasts.

The shadow tribe's two-headed Shen Beast was a powerful war beast exclusive to their tribe. He also reckoned only the shadow tribe had a method of taming it.

As for the wood tribe, he wasn't aware that they had any war beasts. Could this be a new development?

Han Li held curious thoughts for half a day before eventually putting the matter away.

Since the two beasts with long green fur passed him by without discovering him, he reckoned, they would be the king to have thick flesh and skin. He had nothing to fear.

As a result, Han Li's body blurred and he vanished.

A day later, below a huge tree in the forest, Han Li was sullenly looking at eight long-furred beasts in front of him.

They were different from the two ape-like beasts he had seen before. Not only were their bodies smaller by half, but their bodies were fire-red and their furred hands carried sparkling black wolf fangs, not copper prongs.

These eight huge beasts were all glaring at Han Li with bared fangs.

Han Li smirked.

Originally, he believed the beasts to have extremely dim spiritual senses. But when the pack of beasts brushed past him, they discovered him hiding behind a tree and immediately surrounded him.

Han Li looked at the black-lit third eye on the beasts' forehead and frowned. He faintly sensed something.

When he saw those green-haired beasts, their third eye was closed.

At that moment, the eight red beasts let out a roar and leaped at him. They fiercely waved their fangs.

Their fangs immediately lit up in a layer of green light released fierce winds in Han Li's direction.

Han Li raised his brow but showed no intention of blocking them. He simply waved his sleeve.

Eight small golden swords appeared and they blurred, quickly coiling around each of the beasts.

Pfff. Their heads rolled off like cabbages.

When the eight swords trembled and returned to Han Li, the corpses were already pooling their green blood on the ground.

Han Li waved his other sleeve at the corpses and released fireballs upon each of the corpses.

In a few crackles, the bodies immediately turned to ash.

With that done, Han Li expressionlessly blurred and he left a string of afterimages as he headed deeper into the forest.

But not long after he left, two green streaks appeared on a huge tree near what had happened. They were two foot-long green eyes. The green eyes emotionlessly looked around and stared in the direction that Han Li disappeared.

In an area myriad of kilometers away, under the concealment of other unremarkable trees, another pair of green eyes opened.

The pair of green eyes silently stared at the air three hundred meters away. A man and a woman were standing shoulder to shoulder. The man wore green robes while the woman wore black robes. They were Long Dong and Xiao Hong.

The two were communicating something through voice transmission. On the ground near them, there were a dozen green and red-furred beasts.

"Brother Long, those creatures seem weak, but they can see through our concealment techniques. My Illusion Haze Flag is supposed to conceal me even from similar grade cultivators." Xiao Hong said through voice transmission.

With a trace of bewilderment on his face, Long Dong replied, "It should have something to do with their third eye. Beasts that are born with multiple eyes tend to carry particular abilities. In that case, we should be careful."

"That is most likely it. Let's go. We need to catch up with that girl. Otherwise, it'll fall into her hands." She said with a sullen face.

Long Dong strangely smiled and eerily said, "Hehe! I didn't expect you and that girl to take on this assignment with a secret plan. It is a pity the item has little value to our Long Clan. However, Fairy should forget about our previous agreement. The item goes to you, but she goes to me."

Xiao Hong snorted and said, "Although I am also interested in her Heavenly Phoenix Blood, the item is significant in the eyes of the clan. I know what is more important."

"Hehe, that's good. Let's go!" Long Dong chuckled.

After the two blurred, they disappeared.

Off in another direction, a strange white image was quickly shooting past the forest floor. It was travelling at unbelievable speeds.

The Black Leaves Forest was a secretive place with many layers of restrictions. Under a silver tree that paled in size to the rest of the rest, several dark figures were sitting cross-legged. One of them suddenly opened their eyes, revealing dark green eyes that shined with golden light. It let out short strange cries.

The other figures opened their eyes as well. Among them was a figure that was far taller than the others. It let out a dignified tone as if it were asking something.

The figure that first screeched immediately crouched down and began to respectfully. answer.

With that done, the towering figure uttered a string of commands.

The others immediately rose and surrounded the small tree.

The towering figure let out a roar and pointed at the small tree next to him. A green light suddenly shot out and entered the tree.

Suddenly, the silver tree trembled and several silver eyes opened from it. At the same time, it released several bowl-sized silver beams of light, striking each of the figures.

When the beams of light struck them, their bodies grew vague and they disappeared.

Han Li naturally was unaware of what was happening in other parts of the forest. He was stealthily traveling.

His path forward became extraordinarily smooth. Apart from occasionally encountering long-furred beasts, he didn't see anything else, wood tribe beings included.

While this was cause for joy, Han Li couldn't help but feel somewhat suspicious.

But after a brief thought, he believed this to be nothing out of the ordinary, given the grand size of the forest.

And as the assignment was the key to his much needed Earth Cleansing Pills, he couldn't abandon the mission now that he was this deep into the forest.

So even with a trace of unease in his mind, Han Li continued forward with a somewhat cautious attitude.

Two days later, Han Li stopped on top of a thin tree branch. His body seemed to weigh nothing more than a calm wind. He looked at a three hundred meter tall hill not far away.

There were sparsely any trees or vegetation on the hill. All the trees were ancient as well.

Han Li stared at the hill for a long while before flipping his hand, summoning pitch-black triangular spell disc.

The heart of the spell plate flickered with white light.

He lowered his head to look at the plate for a moment and then looked at the hill in the distance. He then struck the plate with an azure spell seal.

Black light suddenly lit up from it and a white light speck flew out and circled the plate. It released a thin white thread, pointing at an ancient tree on the hill.

Han Li's eyes stirred.

The ancient tree indicated was half shriveled. It was over a hundred meters tall and its surface was scorched black as if it were struck by lightning. The bottom half of the tree was yellow and its roots were green.

Han Li looked at it for a moment and narrowed his eyes. He slowly released his spiritual sense and examined his surroundings.

A short while later, he opened his eyes and wore a trace of relief.

He was alone.

Han Li didn't immediately set off. He narrowed his eyes in thought, deciding to wave his sleeve first. He summoned several balls that shimmered silver and opened his mouth to spit out fist-sized silver firebirds.

The birds circled his body and turned a foot long. They flew into his palm and consumed each of the silver beads. Then in the flash, they burrowed into the ground.

With that done, Han Li swept his hand over his storage bracelet, producing a set of azure spell flags. He wordlessly tossed them in front of him.

Eight green streaks shot out and disappeared all around the hill.

Han Lie continued, forming a hand gesture and softly uttering an incantation.

A layer of green light surrounded the hill, but soon, Han Li commanded it with a spell seal, and it turned invisible with a few flashes.

When Han Li saw this, he sighed and he leaped off. Blurring several times before arriving at the edge of the hill.

In a green flash, he disappeared.

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From a distance, the hill looked ordinary as if there were no changes to it at all, but it was actually just an illusion.

Han Li was standing on the hill, right in front of the half-charred ancient tree.

When Han Li looked at it, he recalled what Long Dong and Xiao Hong had mentioned.

According to what they said, if it was possible, they could meet a spy planted by the humans and demons and receive information that was difficult to record. But if it was too dangerous, and they personally couldn't make the trip, the spy could be disregarded.

Now that he swept his spiritual sense past the area, it appeared that no one had come.

In this case, the assignment was actually quite simple. So long as he removes the item, the mission will be considered complete for him.

With that decided, Han Li extended his finger and swiped it at the ancient tree.

A crackle sounded and an azure sword streak shot forward, cleaving the tree into two.

It contained a white jade slip there.

Han Li's face lit up with joy and he reached out for it, summoning it into his hand.

At that moment, a muffled sound traveled through the air. A golden light suddenly pierced through the illusion, directly shooting towards the jade slip.

Han Li's face slightly changed. Without another thought, azure light flashed from his hand. A hand of azure light appeared in the air and swiped at the golden light.

A sweet giggle sound from the golden light. It broke through the azure hand like it was an illusion. The jade slip that was flying in Han Li's direction stopped and a faint white blur appeared to the side. She raised her hand and nimble took the jade slip.

"Fellow Daoist Ye!" Han Li narrowed his eyes, recognizing the true figure wrapped in white light. It was Ye Ying, the young white-robed woman.

"Brother Han. It appears you've arrived here smoothly and easily." The young woman flipped the jade slip in her hand and chuckled.

"What do you mean? Did Fairy Ye encounter trouble on her way here? When I left the Southern Skyline and arrived at the edge of the forest, I waited for you all for a while and I received no messages. What happened to you?" Han Li asked with an odd expression.

"It's quite simple. Fellow Daoist Long and I encountered a group of wind wyrms in the skyline. We had no choice but to split off. To escape them, we had no choice but to change direction. There were a few other problems along the way. That is why you didn't see us." The young woman sweetly smiled with significant grace.

Han Li felt his heart tremble. He faintly made out something from her words.

Just as he was about to ask her something, a green light flashed from the sky and charged towards them. The light faded away to reveal a man and a woman.

They were Long Dong and Xiao Hong.

"It's you!"

"As expected, you arrived here first!"

The two spoke with a tone of surprise.

When Xiao Hong saw Han Li's unharmed appearance, she revealed a trace of surprise, but when Long Dong saw the white-robed woman, he revealed joy.

The white-robed woman looked at the two and casually said, "So it was Brother Long and Fellow Daoist Ye. I wasn't fast, you were just slow."

"Did Lady Ye already grab ahold of the item?" Long Dong glanced at the young woman's hand and wore a mysterious smile.

Xiao Hong glanced at the jade slip in the white-robed woman's hand and her expression faintly changed.

The young woman let out a bright laugh and leisurely said, "That's right. I have it in my hand. In truth, Fellow Daoist Han came here first, but I was still a step ahead of you two."

Xiao Hong paused for a second and suddenly asked, "Brother Han, was there only one jade slip here?"

Han Li's heart stirred, but he nodded with a calm expression.

Xiao Hong fell silent upon hearing Han Li's answer; Long Dong looked at the white-robed woman silently; and the white-robed woman simply looked down while fiddling with the jade slip in her hand.

For a time, silence filled the air. The heavy atmosphere was an omen for a coming storm.

Xiao Hong's expression relaxed and she wore a pleasant face. She asked, "Junior Sister Ye, could you let me take a look at the jade slip? The spies we sent to the wood tribe included those from my clan. Perhaps they have some information for my clan."

The white-robed woman pursed her lips and then sweetly smiled, "I'm afraid I can't. I'll be open and say that the spies had people from my Ye Clan as well. Why don't I take a look at it first and then tell you about it?"

Xiao Hong's expression vastly changed and her smile froze. Her gaze became sullen.

Long Dong calmly said, "Since you already have it, we shouldn't stay here for much longer. Let's hurry away and talk about it when we leave the forest."

"I agree." The white-robed woman said.

Xiao Hong's lip stirred but she raised no objections.

Han Li naturally agreed as well. The young woman smiled and her bright eyes flickered around. Just as she was about to put away the jade slip, a silver streak shot out of the ancient tree behind her. It quickly and silently streaked towards the center of her back.

Although the white-robed woman was faced around, she snorted and her body stirred. Her body grew vague and she disappeared.

A moment later, she appeared over thirty meters away, but there was a silver streak that shot then shot up from the ground.

This time, the young woman's expression faintly changed.

Her shoulder suddenly blurred and she shot ten meters to the side as if there were a spring underneath her, allowing her to avoid the attack.

But at that moment, the sound of tearing air blew past her.

A near indistinct line of transparent line shot out of a sprace nearby her. The target wasn't the young woman, but the jade slip in her hand.

Alarmed, the young woman suddenly pulled back her hand, but she was too late.

Bang! The jade slip immediately ruptured, turning into countless shards. In the young woman's fury, her face warped and she grabbed ahold of the transparent line and fiercely pulled it towards her.

Clang. She dragged out a huge transparent beetle out from the void.

This insect was a meter-long and resembled a huge silkworm, but there were a pair of cicada wings on its back. It fluttered for its life to break free. The end of it that spouted out the thread seemed to be its mouth.

At that moment, the young woman pulled, keeping the insect there.

In the instant the jade slip was destroyed, Han Li and the others were blank in surprise.

At nearly the same time, the remaining ancient trees lit up in green light. Soon after, the ancient tree's hollow images were dissolved to be replaced with several green silhouettes. It appeared as if they were born from the trees.

A towering silhouette swept their gaze past Han Li and spoke human words in a harsh tone, "Hehe, I didn't expect that it was hidden there. If you weren't guiding us, we wouldn't have found it. Our clan won't have to worry about later consequences."

Han Li glanced at the figure's appearance and his eyes narrowed.

The person resembled a human, but their skin was green and their eyes were purple. Other than that, they appeared human. Two of the slender figures resembled women.

These silhouettes were wood tribe beings.

What was most astonishing to Han Li was the orange belt they wore at their waist around their long robes.

The belt of the towering being was yellow orange with a silver stripe.

According to what he knew of their grades, Han Li felt his heart plummet.

"A silver tier! You're a silver tier tree spirit!" When they recognized the towering figure's belt, the young woman's expression turned unsightly.

"I am the lower silver tier spirit master Mu Rui. Since you've arrived here, there is no need to leave. Allow my clan to welcome you!" The towering figure spoke expressionlessly and waved his hand.

The other orange belted tree beings crouched down and placed their hands against the ground.

A layer of green light suddenly shot out from the hill in every direction at inconceivable speeds.

Han Li and the white-robed woman immediately took off from the ground without another thought.

A huge rumbling sound shook the air and the illusion restriction Han Li placed down was effortlessly destroyed.

Once the illusion was dispersed, the hill's surroundings were made clear.

Wherever the green light passed, green trees would turn into towering furred beasts. They had a variety of weapons on hand. Their fur had many differing colors as well. There were even monstrous winds that blew into the sky.

Upon closer inspection, there were several thousands of beasts that densely surrounded the hill.

Long Dong and Xiao Hong's face turned bloodlessly pale.

Han Li wryly smiled. Only the white-robed woman sullenly glared at Mu Rui. It was unknown what she was thinking.

Mu Rui wore a stiff expression, but he spoke with a derisive tone, "These are the Tree Ape Beasts that our tribe spent a thousand years researching. If you looked through that jade slip, you should've had information about them, but now..."

"Attack!"

An unfamiliar voice suddenly sounded. Before Han Li and the others realized what was happening, the white-robed young woman suddenly opened her mouth and released a crimson blood light. Suddenly, it turned into several threads and directly shot towards the wood spirits excluding the silver-tier wood spirit.

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In the wood spirit's fright, green light flashed from their bodies as they summoned wood armor, shields, or green mist to block the crimson threads.

But the crimson threads pierced through their defenses as if they were passing through air and burrowed into their bodies.

The wood spirits glowed crimson and were then captured in a crimson net, rendered incapable of moving.

At that same moment, the sword Qi that Han Li used to chop the ancient tree had turned into two faintly golden blurs, chopping towards the silver-tier wood spirit, Mu Rui.

Mu Rui coldly snorted and pointed at them.

Two silver lights flashed as they streaked forward to meet the golden blurs.

Muffled clangs sounded and the golden blurs ruptured in countless golden specks. The specks then covered Mu Rui.

Then as the ground roared, a spell formation made of golden talisman characters suddenly lit up around Mu Rui. Its radiant glow covered the high-grade wood spirits in balls of light.

The purple light in Mu Rui's eyes withdrew. He closed his hands together and balls of silver light appeared from his palms. Afterwards, countless silver streaks erupted.

A rumbling explosion sounded. Silver light and golden talisman characters intertwined. The golden talisman characters possessed some sort of odd ability that allowed them to block the strikes of the silver-tier wood spirit. Only a small portion of the talisman characters was dispersed.

Mu Rui felt furious at the sight of his attacks being ineffective.

Without another thought, silver light appeared from his hands and condensed balls of silver light that were even more dazzling than the last.

But at that moment, all of the wood spirits, Mu Rui included, were completely enveloped by the golden light. Although Han Li and Long Dong were astonished, they weren't about to continue a battle to the death. They each used their own life-saving measures to immediately fly away.

Xiao Hong clutched her hands in an incantation gesture and her body sank towards the ground, instantly turning into a beautiful phoenix wrapped in black flames. She charged at the army of wood apes and turned their bodies and weapons to ash as she brushed past them.

In the blink of an eye, the phoenix traveled over three hundred meters.

Long Dong's expression turned harsh and he swallowed a rainbow medicine pill. Soon after, he chanted an incantation and summoned a set of winged armor on his body.

The wing spread out and a golden dragon phantom appeared from the armor.

The dragon let loose a long cry and circled once around Long Dong before entering his body.

Soon after, golden light brightly shined from the blood-marked youth and he tore through the sky in a thirty-meter-long golden streak. The image of a soaring five-claw dragon could faintly be seen in the golden light. Anything that obstructed the light turned into a cloud of blood and gore.

Like their abrupt world-shaking speed, Han L silently put his own technique into action. He unfolded a pair of azure and white wings in a clap of thunder.

He opened his mouth and spat out several crimson blood mists. They spiralled around his body before submerging his entire body in the blood mist.

The blood mist pulsed several times and shrunk, releasing a crimson streak. It blinked several times and appeared in the vast horizon, making his way past the wood ape beasts as if he were a host.

Then in another flash, Han Li's crimson figure disappeared once more.

At Deity Transformation stage, Han Li's Bloodshadow Evasion was several times quicker than even Long Dong's and Xiao Hong's movements.

When the two looked at Han Li, they couldn't help but be dumbstruck.

As for the young white-robed woman, she waved her hand and summoned a sparkling red broken blade. Without making any flashy movements, she simply waved the blade in the direction where the wood apes were the most concentrated.

All of the worldly essence Qi in the vicinity trembled and crimson blade light over three hundred meters long and leisurely traveled through the air.

The blade light inspired an uproar at the wood apes that were targetted. They all thought to flee in their terror.

But before the wood apes could flee, their bodies trembled and they combusted, instantly turning to bursts of red flame, soon turning to ash.

A clear path was now made where the apes had been.

Before the huge blade light touched anything, it had strangely disappeared.

At that moment, a fist-sized green flame bird shot out from the bottom portion of the damaged tree that hid the jade slip. It flew into the young woman's body in a green streak.

The white-robed young woman was overjoyed when she heard this. Her body disappeared in a blur. Then she appeared in the direction of the opened passage in a flash. Then, in another blur, she reappeared at the end of the cleared passage.

Afterwards, she turned into a white streak as she tore through the air. The flight light was indistinct, but over the span of a few breaths, she already made her way past the horizon.

The speed of her flight seemed no different than Han Li's Bloodshadow Evasion.

At that moment, Mu Rui's silver light suddenly burst forth from the formation of golden talisman characters.

The silver light was clearly more powerful than before. In a single strike, most of the golden talisman characters had scattered with only a remaining few revolving around him.

The wood spirit's face turned expressionless, but a purple light wildly flickered from his eyes. Suddenly, he raised his head and a series of clear screeches sounded.

At that moment, the wood ape beasts stirred and they immediately turned into several clouds, each chasing after one of the cultivators.

Meanwhile, in the distant areas of the other Black Leaves Forest, a similar screech was sounded.

Han Li hadn't used the Bloodshadow Evasion to travel far. Once he saw no more beasts in sight, he withdrew the crimson light and continued to fly as an azure streak.

Even so, his face had still become bloodlessly pale.

It appeared that two consecutive uses of the Bloodshadow Evasion took a heavy toll on his vitality.

But when he thought of the possibility of being pursued by silver-tier wood spirits, he didn't dare to be careless. Those wood spirits were equivalent to Body Integration-stage cultivators. Despite the confidence in his heaven-defying abilities, there was far too great a difference in their realms. He didn't dare to hope he could win, even if it was a lower silver-tier being.

Were it not for the hidden people who assisted them and used a secret technique to restrict the silver-tier wood spirit, he feared they wouldn't have had the opportunity to flee.

However, it was clear that the golden talisman restriction wouldn't hold them for long. Thus, they hurriedly fled. As it was possible any of them could be pursued by the silver grade wood spirit, he didn't dare to linger.

Although he couldn't use the Bloodshadow Evasion again, the Thunderstorm Wings on his back continued to flack. With each flash, his speed abruptly increased. With a dozen more, his speed would be equivalent to a Spatial Tempering cultivator.

But even so, Han Li didn't dare to turn around and focused on moving forward as quickly as he could.

Winds tore from beneath him and soon after, several gales shot towards him at immense speed.

Han Li's expression sank and his flight came to a sudden stop.

Three azure light appeared from underneath him, each of them only a meter away from his body.

If Han Li hadn't stopped, he feared he would've been skewered.

The three azure lights circled in the air and they turned into three wood tribe beings. All of them blocked his way forward.

Han Li swept his sights at the three and discovered they wore faint yellow belts at their waist and he felt relief.

They were only equivalent to Nascent Soul cultivators. He had no need to worry.

Unwilling to use his various treasures, he simply flapped his wings and he shot forward in azure-white lightning.

The speed of lightning was instantaneous. He arrived in front of the center wood spirit in a blur.

The wood spirit didn't show any emotion, but purple light quickly circled from its eyes. Then, it fearlessly stabbed its wood spear into Han Li's abdomen.

Before the spear touched him, countless azure thorns ruptured from it, wanting to turn Han Li into a pincushion.

Han Li's eyes godly glinted and golden light flashed from his hands, instantly covering his body in transparent golden scales. The azure thorns clanged and bounced off upon impact, leaving no damage.

Then, his arms strangely reached out and grabbed the tip spear. The wood spirit tried to pull it back with all its might, but the spear didn't move in the slightest.

Azure Qi lit up from the wood spirit's face and then it released the spear, quickly fleeing back like a shooting star.

However, Han Li's other hand suddenly burst forward as sharp cracks sounded from it. It instantly arrived at the wood spirit's chest and sank his fingers through like a sword.

A clear ring sounded. The wood spirit's body was torn like paper by Han Li's powerful strength. Then, he tore out a faint yellow crystal from the wood spirit's body.

This entire attack only took a single instant.

When the other two wood spirits saw this, they let out a strange screech. They spat out a yellow mist and waved their spears, creating countless phantoms to surround Han Li.

Han Li sneered and twisted his arms, wanting to use them to battle.

But something outside his expectations occurred.

With one hand in the wood spirit's body and the other grasping the spear, green light brightly shined from the wood spirit's body and he feels an inconceivable attractive force.

His hands blurred, and soon, he found he couldn't move them in the slightest.

In that slight delay, yellow mist instantly covered his face and countless phantoms released azure streaks at him.

Han Li's face strangely twisted and his lips moved as if he were about to say something.

Suddenly, golden light brightly shined from his body. Four indistinct golden arms suddenly appeared through the ribs of a few of the phantoms.

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The four arms blurred, punching through the mist surrounding him. Two of them flashed through the phantoms, easily blocking them with dense golden palms.

Meanwhile, the other two golden arms flicked their fingers at the two wood spirits, releasing ten golden streaks of them.

The wood spirits were alarmed, but a set of azure wood armor appeared from their bodies. They also had yellow wooden shields to protect themselves.

However, the ten swordstreaks were formed from Han Li's Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords.

In a single flash, the two wood spirits were slashed apart into several pieces.

However, Han Li didn't stop there. Of two of the summoned arms, he flicked their palms without end. They launched a dense barrage of swordlight, instantly submerging the wood spirits in golden light.

Han Li took a deep breath and caused his struck arms to tremble. A series of golden ripples strangely appeared from them.

The two stuck arms in the wood spirit's body and the azure spear were slowly freed after touching the golden light and trembling. The wood spirit and the spear eventually scattered into azure wood fragments and disappeared.

Han Li stretched his arms and golden light suddenly withdrew from his body. The four golden arms he summoned disappeared as well.

Using the second portion of his Provenance True Devil Arts to deal with these Nascent Soul-grade wood spirits was beyond excessive.

However, he only cultivated the technique to a shallow degree and wasn't able to use its true abilities. He still couldn't use it to face powerful enemies and could only use it to catch them off guard.

However, once he reached Spatial Tempering-stage and cultivated the third portion of the dual cultivation technique, he was confident the Provenance True Devil Art's power will reach an inconceivable stage. It will definitely be comparable to a top-grade technique.

With that in mind, Han Li turned into an azure streak and shot away.

Along the way, Han Li was encountered by several more waves of wood tribe beings.

However, their cultivation was mostly at Nascent Soul-stage. There were even a few that were weaker.

Han Li was able to evade these wood spirits with ease. If he couldn't, he quickly dealt with them as he couldn't afford to tangle with them for long.

However, despite his mad rush, he eventually came across a large problem half a day later.

He encountered two wood spirits with purple belts. One was tall and sturdy while the other was slender. They appeared to be a man and a woman.

Behind the two were four wood ape beasts that were twenty meters tall. They had silver fur and large yellow rods in hand.

The four wood apes had bright eyes and looked at Han Li with intelligence, giving Han Li the impression that they were dangerous. In fact, Han Li felt about the same threat from them as the two wood spirits.

These purple grade wood spirits were equivalent to Deity Transformation-stage cultivators and wouldn't be easy to deal with.

Now that Han Li is at the edge of the Black Leaves Forest, he wanted to immediately leave and avoid any battles. However, the wood spirits and apes were looking at him with an air of hostility, and Han Li's face turned ice cold.

Suddenly, he slapped the back of his head. A large wave of grey light suddenly soared to the sky, circling once before turning into a grey ring at least a hundred meters wide. It whirled once in the air and attracted the attention of his opponents.

Meanwhile, his other sleeve stirred as he silently summoned seventy-two small swords and sent them off in every direction.

He first planned on using the Divine Essensefused Light to occupy them. Then, the Aureate Sword Formation would exterminate them.

Meanwhile, Xiao Hong was floating in midair with a pale complexion. She was staring at several green blurs that appeared.

The three were wood spirits that wore purple belts!

Off in a different direction, Long Dong's golden light continued to fly. A pure golden wood ape was carrying a huge black axe chasing after him. Rainbow light continued to wander around its body as it chased after him like a shooting star.

Most of the five-clawed golden dragon phantom had already dispersed. However, when he looked at the ferocious gold-furred wood ape chasing after him, he showed no intention of fighting him and continued to rush forward.

In a few hundred kilometers, he would soon arrive at the edge of the forest.

A white streak let out a piercing whistle as it tore through the air. A few kilometers behind her, a silver light closely chased after her. The two streaks intermittently flashed and they soon arrived several kilometers away.

The white streak hadn't been able to shake off the silver light and the silver light wasn't able to catch up to the white streak.

The two lights continued to flutter as they rushed out of the forest and into the distance.

As Han Li floated in the air, he saw the countless golden threads from the sword formation condense in a ball. Eventually, it reached the last of the silver-haired wood apes and easily tore it into pieces. He then let out a sigh and held his hands together in a spell gesture. He uttered, "Withdraw."

Several hundred golden lights suddenly appeared from the air and let out a clear ring. In a bright flash, they returned to their forms as seventy-two small swords.

The sword quickly spun around him and quickly shot into his sleeve.

Then with a tremble of his sleeve, the swords vanished.

At the very heart of where the sword formation used to be, there was a mist of blood that had yet to disperse.

Han Li blinked. The genuine Aureate Sword Formation formed with the seventy-two swords were far more deadly than he anticipated. In a moment of surprise, he trapped the two purple-grade wood spirits and four troublesome silver wood apes. The sword formation released golden threads that easily slew them without the slightest resistance.

When he recalled Long Dong mention Qing Yuanzi, a Spatial Tempering cultivator, was able to use a grand sword formation to block a Body Integration-stage cultivator, it appeared he was telling the truth.

With that in mind, he didn't stay there for any longer. With the flying swords put away, he quickly headed off to the edge of the forest.

An hour later, Han Li finally arrived at the edge.

When he was fifty kilometers outside the forest, he immediately placed a High Zenith Invisibility Talisman on his body.

Suddenly, his body turned to void.

When he saw this, he let out a massive sigh of relief. Afterwards, he suddenly changed direction.

Not long after he departed, two yellow streaks arrived from behind him. Their light disappeared to reveal two wood spirits wearing yellow orange belts.

The two were the wood spirits that originally accompanied the silver-tier wood spirit. The white-robed woman had used a high-grade technique to trap them.

They circled the location where Han Li originally stopped and whispered to one another. After finally making sure there were no further tracks of Han Li, they could only resentfully return.

Han Li couldn't have known that his careful actions had allowed him to escape calamity.

Otherwise, two Spatial Tempering-grade orange belt wood spirits would've started pursuing him. It would've been impossible for him to safely escape them.

After flying for myriad more kilometers, Han Li became certain that he had escaped the wood tribe's pursuit and he pinched his hands together. Suddenly, talisman characters flashed from his body and his body returned to normal. At that same time, a ball of spiritual light flew off from his body and turned into the High Zenith Invisibility Talisman.

He waved the talisman between two of his fingers and made it vanish.

Then, he carefully looked around him before carefully landing on a small mountain. He began to ponder with a sullen face.

At that moment, he felt rather gloomy.

The wood tribe beings destroyed the jade slip in a moment of surprise. Could it be he had failed the mission? In that case, he wouldn't be able to acquire his needed Earth Cleansing Pills. Wouldn't he need to return to Deep Heaven City?

No! Whoever suddenly retrained the silver-tier wood spirit was clearly the spy the humans and demons had placed in the wood tribe. In that case, the jade slip might've not been genuine. Perhaps information on the wood tribe is still on their body. So long as he finds this person, the mission will be complete.

With that, he suddenly sensed a glimmer of hope.

He seems he would have to find the white-robed young woman. Now, how would he find her?

Han Li's face stirred and a strange smile appeared on his face.

His sleeve trembled and a transparent ball shot out. It circled him and turned into a palm-sized leopard.

It was the Leopard Kirin Beast.

The beast glanced at Han Li with its adorable green eyes and let out a soft purr.

Without speaking, a light flashed from his hand and he summoned an azure spell plate. He chanted a few words and he swiped the plate through the air.

Suddenly, a pea-sized white light flew out from the plate. It floated half a foot high from the plate and silently kept still.

Han Li whistled and waved his hand at the small beast.

The Leopard Kirin yawned and remained still as if it were lazy.

Han Li was dumbfounded. On the way to the wood forest, he let the beast mingle with the Weeping Soul beast for a few days. Could it be that it adopted the Weeping Soul Beast's sleepy nature?

However, now was not the time to bother with this. He stroked his hand past his storage bracelet and took out a small green bottle. He poured out a scarlet medicine pill and tossed it at the leopard.

The lethargic leopard kirin immediately felt its spirit roused and it left an afterimage as it pounced into the air and swallowed the medicine pill. It wagged its tail as it purred and fawned over Han Li as if to get another.

Without speaking, Han Li pointed at the spell plate's white light.

Without needing to speak, he passed over his thoughts to the beast through spiritual sense.

The small beast stirred without any further hesitation. In a moment, it strangely appeared on top of the spell plate and looked at the white dot several times. It tilted its head and then swallowed it.

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The Leopard Kirin Beast shut its green eyes for a while before opening them again. It then let out a soft growl.

Han Li smiled.

Ever since he acquired the small beast, he discovered in addition to its quick speed and durable body, it also had extraordinary tracking abilities.

So long as the beast sensed something, no matter if the target was alive, dead, or behind a myriad of restrictions, it could find the item accurately.

This kind of tracking doesn't merely use the physical senses; it was an inconceivable ability related to spiritual sense.

At the very least, the beast was able to track Han Li down while he used the High Zenith Invisibility Talisman and stood still.

As for the spell plate and the speck of white light, it was obviously linked to the young white-robed woman. He also had a speck of pure spiritual Qi for the other cultivators as well.

The small beast looked all around and tilted its head as if in thought. Soon, it stirred and shot off into a faint yellow blur.

Han Li didn't immediately chase after it. Instead, he formed an incantation gesture and suddenly struck an azure light at the ground.

As a result, a faint ring sounded from the ground. A ball of silver flame suddenly burst from the ground. A faint flame raven fluttered around it.

Originally inside Black Leaves Forest, he had concealed a Spirit Devouring Flame raven in the ground.

For the sake of carefulness, when Han Li escaped, he hadn't taken back the flame. Fortunately, the flame was already completely refined. Even at the speed he was traveling, he was still able to command it to follow him.

Of course, the flame raven wasn't a true spirit beast. It needed to use a bit of magic power to maintain its shape. However, it was such a little amount to his current cultivation that he didn't mind.

When he saw there was no problem with his flame raven, Han Li nodded. Then he pointed and the bird disappeared into the ground.

It was still quite dangerous there. He may as well keep it prepared just in case.

With that done, Han Li summoned light around himself and flew off in an azure streak. With a few blinks, he quickly chased after the Leopard Kirin Beast.

The small beast was heading north. After a long while, it eventually changed direction.

Han Li was startled, but he kept silent and changed direction with it.

Afterwards, the Leopard Kirin Beast changed directions several more times.

This caused Han Li's face to turn solemn.

This illustrated that the white-robed woman, Ye Ying, was continuously shifting movements, likely because she was still being pursued. She wouldn't have sharply changed direction so many times if this were not the case.

However, this wouldn't stop him.

With his current abilities, so long as he wasn't heavily surrounded or faced an opponent with vastly superior cultivation, he was confident he'd be able to preserve his life.

As he needed this woman to acquire his Earth Cleansing Pills, he couldn't leave her alone.

Expressionless, Han Li closely followed the Leopard Kirin and chased after it like azure lightning.

The chase continued for three entire days, but Han Li had yet to catch sight of her.

But on the morning of the fourth day, he arrived at the edge of vast blue waters with no end in sight. The Leopard Kirin Beast suddenly stopped.

With roused spirits, Han Li arrived at the beast's side in a flash of azure light.

The beast turned its raggy head and softly whimpered as if it were trying to say something.

If it were anyone else, they wouldn't be able to understand, but Han Li happily said, "You mean they aren't far away? We've arrived? You can have this. Go ahead and return."

Han Li flicked his finger and tossed another scarlet medicine pill.

The small beast blurred with delight and caught the medicine pill in midair. It spat out a white speck of light and flew back into Han Li's sleeve in a chain of afterimages.

Han Li flipped his hand and took out a spell plate, absorbing back the white speck. Then, light flashed from his hand and he summoned a High Zenith Invisibility Talisman.

When Han Li saw its dim light, he frowned and hesitated. He then summoned an identical talisman with a flip of his hand.

However, the purple talisman he produced was brimming with dazzling light.

For his trip into the wilderness, he spent great effort to refine an additional two High Zenith Invisibility Talismans.

He had already spent most of the power of the first talisman. For the sake of carefulness in the face of unknown danger, Han Li had best used the fresh talisman.

After putting away the dim talisman, his new talisman blurred and silver characters flashed. His body disappeared.

Soon after, he formed an incantation gesture and his body blurred. He easily flew in the direction that the Leopard Kirin pointed at.

It was unknown if the water belonged to a huge lake, or if it were the edge of a sea. After he flew for over six hundred kilometers, he didn't spot any land. He did eventually come across a small unremarkable island.

The island was five kilometers long and was dense with vegetation. It appeared to be entirely uninhabited.

Han Li glanced at the island and then raised his head, looking around. He quietly flew towards the center of the island.

According to what the Leopard Kirin said, it should be the island.

There was a small basin at the heart of the island with a few grey-white stones stacked on top of one another.

A white-robed young woman with a pale complexion sat on a huge stone cross-legged. There was a wood tribe woman respectfully standing at attention in front of her.

When Han Li saw this, he was alarmed and he came to a sudden stop. He examined the unfamiliar woman with narrow eyes.

The woman's flesh was exactly the same as a common wood spirit, a shallow green. Also, she wore an orange-yellow belt, revealing herself to be a tree spirit at Spatial Tempering stage. But under closer examination, Han Li discovered the woman appeared much different compared to an ordinary wood spirit.

When the tree spirit faced the white-robed woman, she wore a dignified and respectful expression different from the wooden expressions of other wood spirits. Furthermore, Han Li was able to sense a vastly powerful fire spiritual power from the woman's body, despite not releasing his spiritual sense. Only pure wood spiritual Qi should be present in a wood tribe being.

This person wasn't a wood spirit!

Han Li quickly came to this conclusion. Afterwards, he looked at the young woman.

He discovered in addition to the young woman's deathly pale complexion, there was a fist-sized bloodstain on the young woman's chest. It was as if a blood flower had blossomed, a clear indication of a wound.

When he saw this, Han Li hesitated, considering whether he should reveal himself.

At that moment, the young woman raised her head and smiled at him. "Brother Han, since you're here, how about you join me and rest?"

Han Li felt deeply shocked when he heard this.

How was it possible for her to see through his invisibility.

The High Zenith Invisibility Talisman might not be effective against Body Integration-stage cultivators, but it could definitely hide him from Spatial Tempering-stage individuals. Could it be the woman was pretending? But the woman smiled in his direction, clearly showing his position.

The only explanation he could think of was that she had a spiritual sense equivalent to a Body Integration cultivator.

Han Li felt bewildered. After some thought, silver talisman characters flickered from his body and his body slowly came into view.

Soon after, he slapped his body and summoned a purple talisman into the air and then his hand.

With a calm appearance, Han Li descended to the ground."Fellow Daoist Ye, who is this Fellow Daoist? Could you introduce me to her?"

"Sure. This is the spy that the humans and demons placed in the wood tribe, Fellow Daoist Ye Chu. It appears Fellow Daoist had escaped the wood tribe's pursuit." The young woman said with a smile. She then examined Han Li with a smile. When she saw that Han Li was in good health, she couldn't help but betray her surprise.

"Ye Chu? Is she a human or a demon?" Han Li glanced at the green-skinned woman and narrowed his eyes.

The woman calmly glanced at Han Li and said, "Your eyes are quite sharp. I am a human, but my body possesses Wood Phoenix Spirit Blood. I can be considered half-demon." Her voice was somewhat hoarse.

"A Wood Phoenix? Yi! You have Spatial Tempering cultivation!" When he heard her name, he swept his spiritual sense past her and his face changed.

Ye Ying answered with bright eyes, "Older Sister Chu comes from our Ye Clan. She possessed early Spatial Tempering cultivation when she was sent to spy on the wood tribe. After many years had passed, she has completed the cycle of Spatial Tempering and is bordering the Body Integration stage."

"This is thanks to a few benefits I acquired from the wood tribe, or else I wouldn't have reached this stage. However, I didn't expect that the young master would personally come here." Ye Chu spoke with a modest tone and stood in front of the young woman with a helpless appearance.

Han Li felt a chill facing a person with such fearsome cultivation. With a respectful expression, he said, "So it was like that. If Senior hadn't come to rescue us, I fear we would've been completely wiped out."

"Let's get to that later." Ye Ying's smile faded and her face turned serious, "Because I was chased too quickly, I have yet to ask what happened. Older Sister Chu, why did we fall into the wood tribe's trap. Where are the others?"

The green-skinned woman answered, "Apart from me, all the others were killed. About a hundred years before, the wood tribe acquired information on our spies. It was only because of my Wood Phoenix blood that I was able to escape detection. The others were caught and tried to escape, but they were caught one by one."

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The green-skinned woman continued her answer, "As for why you were ambushed, it was because the wood tribe's higher echelon altered the scope of the Dream Sifting Tree's detection. I fear they detected you as soon as you entered. Fortunately, the upper echelon of the wood tribe doesn't view Black Leaves Forest with much importance. It only sent a single lower silver-tier wood spirit to oversee it. Otherwise, it would've been difficult for you to escape them."

The young white-robed woman, Ye Ying, slowly said, "So it was like that! Older Sister Chu, these last thousand years must've been hard on you."

"It's nothing. These past few years in the wood tribe haven't been spent in vain. I've grasped many of their secrets. I've even made connections in the tribe, but I am certain I am now exposed. I cannot continue to stay here."

Han Li felt his heart stir.

Ye Ying smiled, "Deep Heaven City is possible on the brink of another war. Even if nothing happens, the clan master plans on calling you back. With your current cultivation, there is no point in continuing to hide here."

However, her smile seemed to provoke her injuries and she coughed several times, causing her face to turn paler.

"Is the young master alright? How about you take another Phoenix Spirit Pill?" Ye Chu proposed with a tense expression.

"No need! There aren't many left. I'll leave them for something else." Ye Ying shook her head.

"What? Is Lady Ye heavily injured?" Han Li blinked.

Ye Ying curled her lip and unhappily said, "That silver-tier tree spirit landed a clean blow. Would you say the injury is grave?"

"If it is an ordinary internal injury, I have several medicine pills for that. Perhaps they'll be useful." Han Li said with a calm tone. He then waved his sleeve and summoned several medicine pills in her direction.

Ye Ying raised her brow. She reached out for the air and summoned them into her grasp. She then opened them and took a few whiffs.

Having some medicinal knowledge, she wore an astonished expression and immediately uttered their names, "Wondrous Grass Pill, Hundred Blessings Pill, Returning Spirit Water... Brother Han is quite generous to present these sacred medicines to me. In that case, I won't hold back."

With her status, Ye Ying could've prepared a few of them, but she felt disbelief that a Deity Transformation cultivator could take out so many of them in a single breath.

The young woman blinked and promptly opened the bottles, swallowing several of the pills, revealing her trust in Han Li.

Han Li felt some admiration for her decisive actions.

Of course, she most likely had some sort of secret technique, so she had no fear there was something wrong with the medicine pills.

After she swallowed the pills, color returned to Ye Ying's face. Then, she glanced at Han Li and asked, "Ah yes, how did you find me? If I'm not mistaken, your invisibility talisman seems to be a silver rune talisman. Might I know its name? This is the first time I've seen such a high-grade silver rune talisman."

"I have a bit of experience with tracking techniques. As for the talisman, it is called the High Zenith Invisibility Talisman. It is something I unintentionally came across. Its effects are truly marvelous. I was quite astonished when you were able to see through it. May I know how you did it? I fear even a Spatial Tempering cultivator would have trouble seeing through it." Han Li smiled and returned her question with a question.

"I cultivate a technique that happens to penetrate most concealment techniques. It wasn't odd that I could see through it. Brother Han need not take it to heart." Ye Ying pursed her lips into a mysterious smile.

When Han Li heard this, he could only wryly laugh.

Although he knew her answer was false, it was difficult to continue asking her about it.

Ye Ying then said, "There is still another matter! Older Sister Chu, you should be carrying the information on the Wood Tribe. We should take advantage of this moment to send it over to Deep Heaven City in case of any surprises."

"Yes, Young Master." The green-skinned woman promptly replied.

Han Li wore a calm expression, but he felt slight.

Ye Ying reached for her storage bracelet and took out a sparkling silver square plate. The green-skinned woman then opened her mouth and spat out an emerald jade slip.

Han Li also possessed a plate. It could transport exquisite objects to Deep Heaven City. After a single use, the spell plate would be destroyed.

Since Ye Ying used her own teleportation plate, Han Li didn't need to do anything else. According to the tool refinement masters of Deep Heaven City, it was something that had been recently developed. Otherwise, if Ye Chu originally brought one, Han Li and the others wouldn't have needed to make the journey.

Ye Ying waved her hand and struck the spell plate with a white spell seal. Suddenly, it brightly shined white.

She then tossed the spell plate in front of her and it turned into a foot-large spell formation. It spun throughout the air and began to hum.

"Let's be quick. Although it is only a small-scale spell formation, it can alert the Wood Tribe," Ye Ying quickly said.

Ye Chu tossed the jade slip without another thought. When it landed inside the light formation, it floated in midair.

Ye Ying then struck the plate with another spell seal.

Silver talisman characters suddenly appeared from the spell formation and it roiled. The jade slip then disappeared with a clear ring.

Soon after, the light formation vanished and the silver plate returned to normal.

However, the plate's engravings had completely disappeared and the plate was thoroughly cracked.

Han Li felt joy and he flipped his hand to produce an azure jade talisman. He stared at it with complete attention.

It was the Myriad Distance Talisman that Deep Heaven City's higher echelon had given him before he set off for the mission.

Ye Ying smiled when she saw this and put away the destroyed plate. Then she took out her own Myriad Distance Talisman and attentively looked at it.

Ye Chu remained expressionless and stood still.

For a time, silence filled the air.

When the time it took to finish a cup of tea had passed, Han Li's and Ye Ying's Myriad Distance Talismans brightly shined and they released a string of talisman characters.

Han Li's heart fluttered as he committed each of the characters to memory.

The characters densely covered the entire jade talisman. Then, light withdrew and the jade slip turned dim once more.

At that moment, Han Li smiled.

What Deep Heaven City had sent over was clearly the method to dissolve the restriction on his bottle of Earth Cleansing Pills. It appeared the city had recognized that their mission was completed and that they were granted freedom.

Feeling ecstatic, Han Li turned his sights on Ye Ying.

When the woman stared at her Myriad Distance Talisman, her lips curled, clearly satisfied with the contents of what was displayed.

Han Li's heart stirred.

The woman didn't need Earth Cleansing Pills. It was unknown what the city's higher echelons pledged to her to make her brave this danger.

The young woman finally looked through the contents of the jade talisman and she put it away. She then giggled at Han Li and said, "What? Brother Han should've acquired what he wanted as well."

"That's right," Han Li replied with a smile.

The young woman said with a deep tone, "In that case, let's hurry away. Even if you have other plans, you can't possibly want to stay in the Wood Tribe's territory either."

Han Li stared at the young woman for a long while and slowly nodded.

When she saw Han Li's answer, he felt happy and gave the green-skinned woman a command.

Ye Chu acknowledged her and released a treasure from her hand.

It was a foot-long yellow wooden bird puppet.

Ye Chu cast a spell seal and the bird rose into the air. Meanwhile, light quickly radiated from it. In the blink of an eye, it turned over forty meters wide.

It appeared vivid and true to life.

Ye Ying and Ye Chu wordlessly jumped on top of it. With some brief surprise, Han Li followed after them.

Ye Chu shouted a command and the bird's huge wings unfolded, instantly surrounding them in a ball of yellow light as they streaked through the sky.

Ever since Han Li grouped up with the two, none of them had yet to mention their other teammates. It was as if they hadn't existed.

When the wooden bird flew for half a day, a silver streak shot off from the horizon and flew several circles around the island where the cultivators were. It then flashed, hurrying off in the direction where the wooden bird fled.

A month later, a ball of yellow light swept across the wilderness. It was the wooden bird, carrying Han Li and the other two.

Ever since they set off, Ye Chu had been utilizing the wooden bird with her entire power. They were as fast as lightning and she had no intention of slowing down.

In this case, they were able to arrive at the entrance of the Southern Skyline in such a short amount of time.

Han Li and the two women couldn't help but feel relief.

But at that moment, storms suddenly surged in front of them and thunder roiled. The sky turned incredibly dark as dark clouds roiled around them, covering over half the sky. Faint howls could be heard past the cooming thunder.

The howls weren't loud, but they were muffled, giving them an imposing presence. The two women's expressions vastly changed when they heard them.

"This is..." Han Li narrowed his eyes and wore hesitation on his face.

At that moment, several huge silver arcs flashed from the dark cloud and thunder rang from it. Like a huge mountaintop penetrating the clouds, two faintly golden eyes opened from the black sky. It rigidly stared at the wooden bird from a distance.

Under the darkness, Han Li sensed an icy Qi suddenly crawl up his back and instantly envelop his body. For a time, he wasn't able to move his body in the slightest.

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"That's the head of a dragon! The head of a true dragon; definitely not the head of a mere wyrm!" Han Li was shocked as he looked up at the gargantuan creature in the distant sky.

The massive head in the sky was completely identical to the heads of true dragons he'd seen in tomes. Furthermore, the entire head was a shimmering golden color, as if it had been constructed entirely from gold. There were also a couple of tree-like golden horns on its head, and it was quite an intimidating being to behold.

"But it's not a true dragon? Its aura does indeed possess the might of a true dragon, but the spiritual power within its body is only comparable to a mid-Body Integration demonic cultivator at most. How could a True Spirit level being possess such paltry spiritual power?" Ye Chu exclaimed.

A cold light flashed through Ye Ying's eyes upon hearing Ye Chu's words, and she murmured to herself, "It's not a True Spirit level being, but it can reveal the body of a true dragon, which means its forcibly activating the blood of a true dragon, thereby allowing it to manifest such a form."

"The blood of a true dragon? Then the Long Family must be involved here." Ye Chu's brows furrowed with a cold expression.

"That is indeed most likely the case. I've always found it strange that the young master of the Long Family was assigned this mission not long after I was assigned the same mission. It looks like he's coming after me," Ye Ying chuckled coldly.

"He's coming after you, Young Mistress? Could it be because of that rumor..." A thought occurred to Ye Chu, and a stunned look appeared on her face.

"What rumor?" After activating his Great Development Technique, Han Li had finally recovered from that indescribable sense of intimidation, and he turned to Ye Ying with a dark expression.

"Hehe, all you have to know is that the young master of the Long Family is behind this, and that he's after the heavenly phoenix spirit blood in my body. However, seeing as they've decided to attack me here, they naturally aren't intending to let me escape alive. Our true spirit families had set up an agreement long ago, strictly prohibiting true spirit families from going after the true spirit bloodlines of other such families. If caught doing so, all of the other true spirit families would join forces to destroy that family. No matter how bold the young master of the Long Family is, there's no way he'd dare to attack me in human territory, which is why he followed me all the way to this place before setting his scheme into motion. However, a Deity Transformation cultivator like him won't be capable of activating true spirit blood alone. It's most likely the case that other Spatial Tempering cultivators from the Long Family have also come to this place," Ye Ying analyzed in a remarkably calm manner.

After hearing this and thinking back to the special attention Long Dong had paid to Ye Ying along this journey, he was mostly convinced that Ye Ying had struck the nail on the head.

"I can understand it if he was going after some type of normal true spirit blood, but for ancient true spirit families like our Ye Family and his Long Family, the spirit blood has already been deeply entrenched in our family bloodlines for countless years, so theoretically, there's no way for it to be taken. The Long Family should also be aware of this." A hint of befuddlement flashed through Ye Chu's grave eyes.

"I'm not sure what's going on, either, but seeing as the Long Family is attacking us right now, I can only assume that they've worked out some type of solution to this predicament. However, even if that's the case, they'll have to be able to defeat my heavenly phoenix body first. I'll require your assistance to activate my spirit blood, Big Sister Chu. Brother Han, I'll have to trouble you to protect me during this process," Ye Ying said with a grave expression.

"Seeing as I can't detach myself from this matter, I'll be sure to assist you to the best of my abilities." A wry smile appeared on Han Li's face as he looked at the approaching dark clouds and that massive dragon head.

All of them remained completely unflustered, as if they weren't wary of that supposed true dragon body at all.

"I'm glad you understand the situation, Brother Han. I'll set up a formation first, then activate my spirit blood to battle this true dragon body. Let's see if the power of our Ye Family's heavenly phoenix is superior or if the true dragon blood of the Long Family is purer," Ye Ying said as her expression eased slightly.

She then swept a hand over her storage bracelet, and a thick stack of formation flags of all different colors appeared. She swept a hand through the air, and several tens of streaks of light shot forth in all directions before disappearing into the nearby ground.

A purple layer of light had appeared out of thin air in the blink of an eye before circling around in the air above.

For the time being, Han Li was unable to identify what kind of abilities this formation possessed.

At this moment, Ye Ying sat down with her legs crossed at the center of the formation in a casual manner. She then opened her mouth to expel five balls of light, all of which were of different colors, and those balls of light began to circle around her body.

Each ball of light was roughly the size of a human fist, and they contained miniature treasures of different forms. Those treasures consisted of a flute, a zither, a lute, a saber, and a ring.

Among them, the lute in the yellow ball of light was none other than the Lute of Wisdom that Han Li had seen once before. He had witnessed the power of this treasure in person, and he knew that this was a rare spirit treasure replica.

As such, those four other treasures were most likely treasures of the same caliber as the Lute of Wisdom. If that was indeed the case, then Ye Ying truly was incredibly wealthy.

Just as these thoughts were racing through Han Li's mind, Ye Ying summoned a pristine white jade vial with a grim expression. She removed the lid of the vial, and an extremely pleasant-sounding phoenix cry erupted from within. Immediately thereafter, a miniature rainbow phoenix that was only around an inch in size emerged from the vial, then attempted to fly away into the distance.

However, Ye Ying opened her mouth to blast forth a burst of five-colored light, which immediately ensnared the phoenix.

The brightness of the five-colored light intensified, and spiritual light flashed all over the rainbow phoenix's body, following which it reverted back to a five-colored spirit pill that was emanating a strong fragrant aroma.

Ye Ying pointed a finger at the pill in an expressionless manner. The five-colored spirit pill immediately flew toward her, and she swallowed it before closing her eyes.

At this moment, Ye Chu appeared beside her in a flash and also sat down onto the ground. She then made a hand seal and opened her mouth at the same time, expelling a yellow pillar of light. The pillar of light was filled with extremely pure wood-attribute spiritual Qi, and it was injected directly into Ye Ying's body.

Almost at the exact same moment, azure spiritual light began to emanate from Ye Ying's body, following which an azure halo that was several feet in diameter appeared above her head before slowly rotating on the spot.

Not only was this halo of a remarkably circular shape, there were also white flames flashing along its edge, rising up to around a foot in height. At the very center of the halo was a humanoid projection seated with its legs crossed. It bore a slight resemblance to Ye Ying, but it had been shrunk down several times, and it also had its eyes closed while making a series of hand seals.

The projection within the halo abruptly opened its eyes to reveal five-colored light swirling within its pupils, presenting an extremely peculiar sight to behold.

At this point, the dark clouds in the distance were only several kilometers away from them. Right at this moment, Ye Ying's skin began to take on a remarkably red hue. A layer of extremely vibrant light surfaced over her face before surging into the halo in a frenzy as wisps of light.

The azure halo in the air above immediately shuddered before instantly being stained red, making it as exuberant as blood.

As soon as the projection in the halo came into contact with this crimson light, it instantly absorbed the light into its body, and five-colored spiritual light began to simultaneously emanate from its body.

Following the vast influx of crimson light, the five-colored spiritual light swelled and began to become more dazzling and piercing to behold.

The entire projection was transformed into a piercing five-colored sun.

All of a sudden, the cry of a phoenix pierced directly into the heavens, and the halo swirled before completely disappearing into the five-colored sun. Immediately thereafter, brilliant five-colored spiritual light began to radiate from the artificial sun, and it transformed into a five-colored rainbow phoenix that was around 10 feet in size. The phoenix let loose a clear cry before spreading its wings and flying directly toward the dark clouds.

Along the way, its body swelled drastically, virtually doubling in size with each and every flap of its wings. Following just a few flaps, the entire rainbow phoenix had swelled to over 1,000 feet in length. An intimidating aura that was not inferior to a giant dragon's also began to emanate from its body.

The giant phoenix appraised the dragon head amid the dark clouds with a frosty light in its silver eyes.

In the instant that the giant rainbow phoenix appeared, the golden dragon head's roar abruptly cut off, and it adopted a solemn expression, as if it were preparing to face a powerful foe. The dark clouds and lightning flashed, following which a golden body that was over 2,000 feet in length was finally revealed.

This true dragon body appeared to be around twice the size of the five-colored rainbow phoenix.

Even though the phoenix was clearly significantly smaller than its enemy, it wasn't fearful in the slightest as it flapped its wings.

Gusts of gale-force winds were swept up as thick pillars of wind rose into the air. Meanwhile, countless specks of white light surfaced close to one of its wings. Following a rapid string of spluttering sounds, the specks of light transformed into balls of white flames that quickly began to swell in size, forming a sea of white flames in the blink of an eye.

As such, a peculiar scene appeared.

With the rainbow phoenix's wings as a boundary, one half of the sky was filled with howling winds and violent azure wind-attribute power, while the other half of the was ignited by a sea of tumbling white flames, emanating scorching temperatures that made the air shimmer and warp.

Upon seeing this, the golden dragon's aura also abruptly became more chaotic and violent. Loud thunderclaps erupted from within the dark clouds up above, and countless bolts of lightning came crashing down. These bolts of lightning transformed into silver lightning wyrms, each of which was over 100 feet in length, and countless such lightning wyrms began to gather around the golden dragon.

Just as Han Li was looking on from down below in a flabbergasted manner, the roar of a dragon and the cry of a phoenix rang out in unison. The golden dragon opened its mouth to blast forth a golden pillar of light, and the silver lightning wyrms around it also immediately surged toward the phoenix. Meanwhile, the rainbow phoenix swept both wings forward at once, sending forth an azure typhoon and a white sea of flames in retaliation.

Explosive rumbling booms instantly rocked heaven and earth as the two true spirit bodies finally clashed.

Han Li looked on at the battle unfolding up above with narrowed eyes, but most of his spiritual sense had been released to the area near the formation in case any unforeseen circumstances were to arise.

The silver arcs of lightning, azure gusts of gale-force winds, and white flames intertwined with one another. Amid the clash of the three different types of powers, glimpses of the bodies of the golden dragon and the rainbow phoenix could be gleaned from time to time, and they were engaging in a physical brawl just as normal beasts would.

Of course, their powers and abilities were far beyond those of normal beasts. As the golden dragon swept its claws through the air, it was able to easily tear through space, while the rainbow phoenix was able to make space twist and deform with a flap of its wings.

Resounding booms rang out incessantly between the two creatures, and it was as if the entire sky could be torn apart at any moment.

Han Li was feeling quite astonished as he witnessed this battle.

If these so-called true spirit bodies were already this devastatingly powerful, then just how unfathomably destructive would true dragons and heavenly phoenixes be?

The records on the tomes suggested that true dragons and heavenly phoenixes were beings that defied the natural order, and that they didn't even have to fear the true immortals of the True Immortal Realm. It appeared that those claims could indeed be true.

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Han Li stared up at the golden dragon and rainbow phoenix in the air above with an intense unblinking gaze. The two appeared to be completely evenly matched. In that case, wouldn't this become a prolonged battle of stamina that could rage for days on end?

With that in mind, Han Li cast his gaze toward Ye Ying and Ye Chu, and his expression immediately faltered at the sight that he was greeted with.

Both of the women had their eyes tightly shut while maintaining a hand seal, and five-colored light was swirling erratically over their bodies. Ye Chu was still blasting azure light out of her mouth, which continued to pour forth into Ye Ying's body, but the color of her skin had already changed drastically.

Her initial green skin had turned translucent and as pristinely white as jade.

She had completely transformed into a seductive beauty who appeared to be in her late teens with a gorgeous oval face and a pair of exuberant eyes.

Ye Chu seemed to have sensed Han Li's gaze, and she turned her attention to Han Li with a completely cold and emotionless look.

Han Li could naturally sense the hint of anger in her eyes, and he gave her a smile before immediately turning away.

Right at this moment, a peculiar crackling sound rang out in the air above.

Han Li's heart stirred as he directed his attention upward again.

In doing so, he discovered that the situation up above had taken a drastic turn. The gusts of powerful winds were transforming into blue spiritual light as massive translucent ice lotus flowers blossomed in the air. A burst of glacial power that could congeal the entire heavens had suddenly been injected into the battle.

This burst of glacial power somehow managed to coexist in perfect harmony with the sea of white flames. In fact, not only did these vastly contrasting powers not reject one another, they presented an enhancement effect to each other instead, effectively doubling their respective powers.

Flowers of white flames and blue ice lotus flowers intertwined, spreading over virtually the entire sky and forcing back the lightning wyrms at a steady rate.

The rainbow phoenix had unleashed some kind of strange technique to convert the power of wind into glacial power, thereby allowing it to gain the upper hand in this battle.

"Hehe, so you're able to convert between powers of the five elements; looks like you've finally unleashed the Yin Yang Extreme Mantra. Good, very good! This day has finally come!"The golden dragon in the sky was clearly being forced onto the back foot, but not only was it not flustered in the slightest, it began to chortle with elation instead.

"You know of this cultivation art?" A hint of bewilderment crept into the rainbow phoenix's voice as it faltered in mid-air.

The phoenix's voice was identical to that of Ye Ying's.

However, the giant dragon in the sky completely ignored the rainbow phoenix's question. Instead, a burst of thunderous chanting erupted from its mouth, following which an astonishing scene unfolded.

The golden light around the dragon's massive body receded, transforming into a vibrant crimson color instead. The dragon then opened its mouth to blast forth a thick pillar of crimson light.

As soon as this pillar of light came into contact with the air, it materialized into a giant sword that was over 100 feet in length.

The sword was of a translucent crimson color with a dragon hilt and a phoenix blade. An overwhelming aura of blood and gore was surging violently from the sword, inducing within one the urge to puke.

"That's the Blood Crystal Mohe Sword! To think that this spirit treasure fell into your hands! Could it be that you're planning..." The rainbow phoenix was shocked at the sight of this sword, and a thought immediately occurred to it, sending it into a state of panic. It abruptly spread its wings and desperately attempted to flee the scene.

"It's too late to try and run now!" A cold voice sounded from the dragon's cavernous mouth as it pounced forward. At the same time, its body shrank at a rapid rate, transforming into a streak of crimson light that was around 10 feet in length in the blink of an eye before disappearing into the crimson sword.

Immediately thereafter, the sword tremored before slashing at the rainbow phoenix from afar.

Faint crimson light flashed as a crimson sword projection over 1,000 feet in length swept toward the rainbow phoenix, traveling far too quickly for the phoenix to be able to react to it.

In response to the oncoming attack, the rainbow phoenix let loose a cry of shock and fury. Its enormous body appeared to have remained completely unscathed, but a crimson phoenix projection that was several feet in size had been forced out of its body. The crimson sword projection then swept backward, transforming into a streak of crimson light that enveloped the crimson phoenix projection within. The streak of light then rapidly hurtled backward, disappearing into the sword after just a few flashes.

Brilliant crimson light erupted from the sword amid a dull buzzing sound.

Meanwhile, the rainbow phoenix's body disappeared as specks of spiritual light amid a dull thump. Only a small swath of crimson light descended from among the specks of spiritual light, disappearing into Ye Ying's body in the blink of an eye.

Ye Ying shuddered as she opened her eyes with an expression of incredulity and horror on her face.

"The blood of the heavenly phoenix; most of my true spirit blood has been taken by this sword!" Ye Ying's voice was a little hoarse, and her calm facade had completely crumbled.

The stream of azure light erupting from Ye Chu's mouth cut off as a frosty expression appeared on her face. "There's no need to panic, Young Mistress; the blood of the heavenly phoenix is not that easy to take. It's only been temporarily trapped by that sword at this point. Even if cultivators from the Long Family have manipulated their true dragon blood to enter this sword, they still won't be able to truly take and assimilate the spirit blood in a short time. If we can take this sword, there's a chance that we'll be able to recover the spirit blood and perhaps even take their true dragon bloodline in the process."

After hearing Ye Chu's words of reassurance, Ye Ying finally recovered some of her composure. After a brief pause, she said, "You're right, I can still sense the existence of the portion of my spirit blood that was taken, so we still have a chance. Brother Han, I know that you're no ordinary Deity Transformation cultivator. If you assist me in recovering my spirit blood, I can promise you that the Ye Family would be willing to do one thing for you as repayment, as long as it's within our realm of capability."

Ye Chu faltered upon hearing this, while Han Li's brows furrowed, clearly hesitant about accepting this offer.

"Don't hold on to the false hope that the Long Family will allow you to escape. If we're killed here, you'll have to face them on your own. Besides, you've clearly sided with us, so even if by some immense stroke of luck, you manage to flee back to the three human regions, the Long Family will only continue to hunt you down. Only with protection from our Ye Family will you be able to survive this ordeal," Ye Chu said in an expressionless manner.

"Do I have any other choice?" Han Li stroked his chin in a resigned manner.

"Why do you sound so reluctant, Brother Han? There are countless cultivators in the human race who would love to establish ties with our Ye Family," Ye Ying chuckled before rising up into the sky as a ball of golden light. Ye Chu also transformed into a streak of azure light and followed closely behind her.

As the azure light swirled around her body, her skin turned green again, and from afar, she appeared to be identical in appearance to a Wood Spirit.

Meanwhile, Han Li also rose into the air toward the crimson sword up above with his body enshrouded in a ball of azure light.

Due to the disappearance of the golden dragon and the rainbow phoenix, all of the lightning, glacial lotus flowers, and white flames in the overhead had disappeared, revealing clear blue skies.

If it weren't for the massive crimson sword hanging in the air, it would almost appear as if the battle from earlier had never taken place.

Han Li was naturally well aware that his opponents wouldn't allow him to attack the crimson sword in an unobstructed manner. As expected, just as he was flying toward the crimson sword, spatial fluctuations erupted on either side of the sword, and two middle-aged cultivators who bore a strong resemblance to one another appeared amid flashes of brilliant silver light.

Both of them wore brocade robes with their hair tied up using lengths of purple string, and the two of them appraised Han Li's trio with cold expressions on their faces.

"Long Yu and Long Lin!" Ye Chu exclaimed as her pupils contract drastically.

Ye Ying's heart also jolted upon seeing Ye Chu's reaction, and she stopped in mid-air over 1,000 feet away from the crimson sword. She then swept her spiritual sense toward the two middle-aged cultivators, and a hint of shock appeared in her eyes.

"Do you know these two, Big Sister Chu?"

Ye Chu nodded with a grim expression, and replied, "Over 1,000 years ago, these two were early-Spatial Tempering cultivators, just as I was, and we met once during a gathering between the true spirit families. These two are proficient in nurturing ghosts and controlling devils, and they're not ordinary cultivators. The fact that the Long Family deployed these two suggests that they're intent on securing your true spirit blood, Young Mistress."

"Cultivators with such abilities are indeed quite troublesome to deal with." Ye Ying's heart also sank upon hearing this.

The two middle-aged cultivators glanced at Ye Chu, and one of them chuckled as he said, "The two of us were wondering who had been deployed by the Ye Family to the Wood Tribe as a spy; turns out it's Fairy Chu. Back in the day, just as you were forging a brilliant reputation for yourself, you suddenly disappeared, and we always thought that to be quite strange. We can see that you've now reached the pinnacle of the Spatial Tempering Stage; looks like you must've encountered some miraculous opportunities in the Wood Tribe."

"The two of you have reached the mid-Spatial Tempering Stage in just over 1,000 years; that's also fantastic progress, but don't you think you're biting off more than you can chew by attacking my young mistress here?" Ye Chu retorted in a frosty voice.

"Haha, our young master is about to succeed in his ploy, and he's going to possess the true spirit blood of both the dragon and the phoenix. With such a brilliant foundation, he'll be sure to reach the Body Integration Stage soon, so what's the point in bickering over such trivial details?" the middle-aged man chortled with glee.

"Did you intentionally sell the Yin Yang Extreme Mantra to me? Otherwise, even with the Blood Crystal Mohe Sword, how could the blood of the heavenly phoenix have been separated so easily from my body?" Ye Ying interrogated with a cold expression.

The two Long Family cultivators glanced at one another upon hearing this, but they refrained from answering her question.

"That's enough chit-chat! With the two of us here, you two can give up on trying to reach our young master."

"Talking is getting us nowhere, Young Mistress; let's take them down," Ye Chu harrumphed coldly. Green light then flashed from her body as green halos radiated forth, within which projections of trees and flowers were indistinctly visible.

She made a hand seal, and green light instantly shot forth into the air, surging toward the two middle-aged cultivators.

The duo swept their sleeves through the air almost in perfect unison upon seeing this. One of them summoned an antiquated crimson book while the other produced an inky-black scroll.

One of them raised a hand and pointed at the crimson book, flipping through the pages of the book as countless crimson runes surfaced. Those runes then transformed into crimson devil projections, all of which opened their mouths to produce streaks of crimson light that hurtled toward the azure light rising up from below.

Meanwhile, the other middle-aged cultivator unfurled his black scroll, and a gust of black wind whistled forth from within amid a swath of mist before also hurtling toward the azure light.

As the crimson light and black winds intertwined with one another, keeping the oncoming azure light at bay. The opposing forces clashed and explosions rang out incessantly.

Ye Ying's expression darkened upon seeing this, and she flipped both hands over to produce a shimmering golden saber in one hand, while a green ring appeared in the other. She waved both hands through the air, and the two objects flew through the air.

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The golden saber swayed before slashing through the air as a saber projection that was over 100 feet in length. The other green ring let loose a clear ringing sound before transforming into a massive green projection, and it also hurtled toward the crimson sword.

"Don't even think about it!" one of the Long Family cultivators yelled upon seeing this. He then patted a jade pendant that was hanging from his waist, and it transformed into a streak of white light that rose up into the air before manifesting a white barrier of light that enshrouded the crimson sword.

The saber and ring projections struck the light barrier with a resounding boom, and the barrier tremored violently. Countless runes surfaced over the barrier in response, keeping the oncoming treasures at bay.

Ye Ying's expression changed slightly as she immediately raised a hand and cast an incantation seal toward the golden saber. At the same time, she began to chant something, and brilliant light erupted from the saber as it slashed toward the light barrier.

Her actions appeared to be quite gentle and harmless, but a massive saber projection that was over 1,000 feet in length abruptly appeared in the air above the light barrier like a heaven-splitting blade.

The saber projection slowly descended, causing the surrounding air to tremor violently amid a piercing buzzing sound.

It was quite apparent that the saber projection would most definitely vanquish the light barrier if it were allowed to fall.

Right at this moment, the other Long Family cultivator harrumphed coldly and abruptly tore his own robes away, revealing a harrowing sight to behold.

His body appeared to be quite normal when sheathed in robes, but it was now revealed that there were seven or eight fist-sized crimson ghostly heads chomping down on various parts of his body, squirming incessantly in the process.

He let loose a sharp shriek, and three of the ghostly heads hanging from his body opened their large mouths before disappearing on the spot.

In the next instant, three balls of Yin Qi erupted forth above the white light barrier.

Within the inky-black Qi, three red ghosts with crimson hair that were around 50 to 60 feet tall emerged.

The three malicious ghosts looked up at the massive sword projection in the sky and, and two of them suddenly transformed into a pair of crimson longswords, which fell into the grasp of the ghost at the center.

The Yin Qi then swirled before disappearing into the two longswords as well as their ghostly wielder.

The malicious ghost immediately let loose an earsplitting howl as its body swelled to seven or eight times its original stature, reaching over 300 feet in size. It then raised the crimson swords in its hands, which had both also been enlarged to the same degree, and lashed out at the saber projection up above.

Red and golden light intertwined amid an earthshattering boom.

The descending saber projection was kept at bay by the two longswords, despite the stark contrast in size.

The saber projection was then completely vanquished and disappeared following the clash.

In contrast, the two ghostly swords and their ghostly wielder suddenly crumbled without any premonition, forming clouds of red mist that refused to disperse.

Right at this moment, a projection circled around in the air above before crashing down toward the malicious ghosts.

In the face of the oncoming attack, the crimson-haired ghost at the center remained completely unflustered. The clouds of crimson mist swirled to manifest the twin longsword as well as their ghostly wielder once again, and it appeared that they were completely unscathed.

The projection hurtled downward, but was easily kept at bay by the two swords before being swatted flying.

Ye Ying's face paled slightly as she witnessed this from afar.

She gritted her teeth and rustled her sleeve to summon three fist-sized balls of light that were yellow, red, and white respectively. The light then receded to reveal a flute, a zither, and a lute.

Ye Ying then pointed her fingers at the three treasures in rapid succession, and they began to shimmer with lights of different colors again as they shot forth through the air. During this process, they fused as one to form a three-colored streak of light, which hurtled toward the malicious ghost.

However, the streak of light had only traveled through the air for a short distance when four balls of Yin Qi erupted up ahead once again, following which four more crimson-haired malicious ghosts appeared.

In the face of the oncoming streak of three-colored light, they opened their mouths in unison to blast forth four bursts of black Yin Qi, all of which struck the streak of light, resulting in an evenly-matched impasse.

Ye Ying's heart jolted with shock upon seeing this, yet just as she was about to unleash another technique, a crimson shadow suddenly appeared in the air overhead. The shadow swept both arms through the air, and two thick bursts of sword Qi came crashing down with ferocious might.

The red ghost that was situated on the white light barrier had torn through space without her noticing, and silently teleported to a spot right above her head.

In a fit of shock and fury, Ye Ying's body swayed as she transformed into a streak of golden light, narrowly evading the attack as she hurtled back in retreat. At the same time, she waved a hand through the air, and the golden saber, as well as the green ring in the distance, immediately flew back toward her before launching a series of powerful attacks against the malicious ghost overhead.

The ghost displayed no signs of weakness, either, as it swung its pair of swords through the air to protect itself.

As such, Ye Ying was able to combat the seven ghosts with her five extraordinarily powerful treasures, but she didn't have any spare capacity to attack the giant crimson sword in the sky.

On the other end, Ye Chu had also released a dozen or so flying swords that sported an azure and yellow color scheme. These swords were currently locked in an intense battle against a horde of devilish heads released by the two Long Family cultivators.

All of these devilish heads were comparable in size to human heads, but they possessed no bodies, and were extremely sinister in appearance. All of them were blasting purple devilish Qi out of their mouths, creating a vast expanse of mist in the surrounding area with a radius of around 1,000 feet.

Even Ye Chu had been swept up in this devilish mist and despite unleashing several powerful abilities in quick succession, she found herself unable to extricate herself from this mist in a short time. As such, she could only release a layer of protective azure light to shield herself from the mist.

She cast an urgent glance around her, and her heart immediately sank as she witnessed the situation that Ye Ying was in. However, a thought then suddenly occurred to her and she turned her gaze toward another direction, upon which her expression faltered slightly.

The place that she was looking at was exactly where Han Li was situated.

At this moment, he had his hands clasped behind his back and remained completely stationary as he hovered in mid-air.

It wasn't that Han Li didn't want to join in on the action, it was just that there was a young woman in a black dress standing in his way with a hint of a smile on her face.

She was none other than Xiao Hong of the Black Phoenix Race.

Han Li seemed to be rather wary of her, and didn't dare to recklessly spring into action.

"This is a matter concerning our human race; are you trying to look for trouble by intervening in this conflict between our two true spirit families?" Ye Chu yelled in a cold and threatening voice.

"I can stand aside and detach myself from all this as long as you're willing to hand over your heavenly phoenix feather. If you're willing to do so, I'll leave this place right away," Xiao Hong chuckled.

Ye Chu's expression changed slightly upon hearing this, and she immediately denied, "What heavenly phoenix feather? How would I have something like that?"

"Hehe, have you forgotten that a member of our demon race was also to the Wood Tribe as a spy? He sent news back to the demon race many years ago, stating that the Wood Tribe was in possession of three heavenly phoenix feathers, which could be used by a heavenly phoenix for resurrection purposes. Otherwise, why would a Spatial Tempering cultivator like you be willing to stay in the Wood Tribe as a spy for so many years? Now that even Young Mistress Ye has appeared here in person, you must've secured the heavenly phoenix feather already, right?" Xiao Hong said with a faint smile.

Ye Chu and Ye Ying both fell silent upon hearing this.

Xiao Hong chuckled coldly before turning her gaze toward Han Li again. "Brother Han, I know that you possess some extraordinary abilities, but it won't be easy for you to defeat me. How about we stand by and wait for the outcome of their battle to be decided before taking any further action?"

Han Li had naturally already gleaned the situation that the two Ye Family cultivators were in, and following a brief silence, he suddenly chuckled, "I really don't want to fight you either, Fellow Daoist, but if I wait for that Young Master Long to fuse the true spirit bloods, I'm going to be in great peril. Seeing as we were comrades for a while, I'll give you one last chance. Are you going to step aside or not?"

Xiao Hong's expression darkened, and her voice cooled as she replied, "I'll have to refuse!"

"Fine!" Han Li abruptly stepped forward, and his body blurred as he somehow covered a distance of over 200 feet in the blink of an eye. When he reappeared, he was only several tens of feet away from Xiao Hong, and he raised a hand to sweep a finger through the air, seemingly in a completely harmless manner.

Golden light flashed and a golden thread shot forth toward Xiao Hong. This attack appeared to be quite simple, but was actually quite troublesome to deal with. Han Li had only been able to unleash such an assault after unleashing his Shifting Smoke Steps and Nine Gale Transformations to their maximal extents. Even as a demonic cultivator, Xiao Hong was still given a massive surprise by Han Li's wraith-like movement techniques.

The golden thread was constructed from a burst of sword Qi, and it was so fast that it afforded her no time to evade, nor adopt any defensive measures. In this urgent situation, Xiao Hong could only abruptly open her mouth to expel a ball of black flames.

A dull thud erupted as the black flames were forcibly dispersed, but the sword Qi was also slowed down slightly as a result.

With this brief split-second respite, Xiao Hong was able to rapidly take evasive measures and as a result, the golden thread was only able to slice off a small piece of fabric from the hem of her dress. Meanwhile, she had already hurtled back for around 70 to 80 feet.

When she arrested her momentum and stabilized herself again, her eyes were filled with incredulity as she cast her gaze toward Han Li.

Han Li withdrew the streak of sword Qi without uttering so much as a single word, and at the same time, he laid a hand onto his own head. Grey Divine Essencefused Light rose up into the sky, hurtling toward his opponent at his behest.

At the same time, he pressed the palm of his other hand into empty air, and five white skulls immediately appeared around Xiao Hong. The five skulls opened their mouths to blast forth five types of glacial flames of different colors, all of which immediately combined to form a sea of five-colored flames.

After doing all that, a thunderclap erupted from Han Li's back as the Thunderstorm Wings appeared. An arc of azure and white lightning flashes, following which he disappeared on the spot.

When he reappeared, seemingly out of thin air, he was standing directly above Xiao Hong, and he swept his sleeves through the air to summon several tens of streaks of golden light.

As soon as Han Li had sprung into action, he had unleashed a ferocious storm of attacks that crashed down like a torrential downpour.

Xiao Hong was still slightly unsettled by Han Li's initial attack, and her heart was filled with shock and rage at the sight of the perilous situation that awaited her.

Without any pause for thought, Xiao Hong rotated on the spot and a vast expanse of black flames immediately erupted from her body, sweeping toward the five-colored flames. She then opened her mouth to summon an antiquated black mirror, from the face of which a swath of black light surged forth in a frenzy, keeping the oncoming Divine Essencefused Light at bay.

As for the streaks of golden sword Qi that were crashing down toward her with ferocious might, Xiao Hong raised both hands up into the air in response, sending forth a plume of white threads that created a massive protective net.

A cold light flashed through Han Li's eyes upon seeing this, and he activated his sword arts as the several tens of streaks of sword Qi multiplied to several hundred before sweeping downward in a frenzy.

The streaks of sword Qi presented a vastly intimidating sight to behold, and they seemed to be threatening to puncture the entire heavens.

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