A Record Of A Mortal's Journey To Immortality

by Srtyi

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

63. 2003

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Initially, these Buddha projections were only just barely visible, but mere moments later, all of them attained substantial forms amid a flash of golden light.

"Golden bodies! No, those are only crude replicas." The Xue Guang clone was initially quite alarmed to see these Buddha projections, but a derisive smile then quickly appeared on his face.

"Even if they're only golden body replicas, 18 of them is more than enough to vanquish a devil like you!" Buddhist Monk Jin Yue said as he abruptly made a hand seal, and a seven-colored halo that was several tens of feet in size appeared behind his head.

The seven-colored halo swept over the 18 golden Buddha projections, and all of them opened their eyes as if they had sprung to life.

Xue Guang's expression darkened upon seeing this, and he laid a hand onto the back of his own head without any hesitation, upon which a giant crimson skull emerged amid a sharp ringing sound.

The skull was around 50 to 60 feet in size, and there were countless wisps of grey Qi revolving around it. As soon as it appeared, it let loose a ferocious roar and released an astonishing baleful aura.

The white-robed elderly man immediately flapped his Sevenflame Fan toward the distance and also tossed the five shimmering Unbroken Rings forward at the same time.

The Sevenflame Fan was the spirit treasure that inspired the creation of the replica Triflame Fan, which Han Li had used back in the human world.

That spirit treasure replica had helped him overcome countless powerful enemies in the past, and the spirit treasure itself was naturally even more formidable.

A rumbling boom rang out as countless crimson runes swept forth from the surface of the fan, then transformed into a crimson fiery bird that was around 100 feet in size.

The fiery bird flapped its wings, and seven-colored flames surged forth from its body, filling the entire heavens with a scorching aura as the flames swept toward the Xue Guang clone.

As for the five silver rings, in the instant that they were tossed forward, they transformed into five giant rings that were arranged into a line next to one another. It was as if five silver full moons had appeared in the sky, and they descended in unison.

Meanwhile, Buddhist Monk Jin Yue had also sprung into action, chanting a profound incantation that caused the 18 golden Buddha projections to vanish in a flash.

In the next instant, golden light flashed around the Xue Guang clone, and the Buddha projections re-emerged in a completely silent manner. Even though they weren't doing anything, bursts of tremendous invisible force were converging toward Xue Guang from all sides.

Xue Guang harrumphed coldly as a crimson devilish cloud emerged from his body, and he swept his sleeves through the air, sending countless balls of crimson light flying in all directions. At the same time, the crimson skull behind him blurred before hurtling directly toward the fiery bird as a projection.

Thus, a fierce battle ensued between the Xue Guang clone and the pair of Body Integration Stage elders.

A rumbling boom akin to an explosive thunderclap rang out, and Han Li's mountains were wrenched out of his grasp while his body was forced back for over 100 feet before he managed to just barely steady himself. A slightly abnormal flush appeared on his face, then disappeared in a flash, and at the same time, the burly devilish man had also been forced back for over 100 feet.

Meanwhile, Han Li's golden body was engaged in a ferocious battle against a mountainous inky-black monster.

Golden light intertwined with black Qi amid a string of rumbling explosions, but both the Provenance Golden Body and the mountainous black monster were able to shrug off each other's attacks with ease. At most, they would be forced back for a short distance before immediately pouncing toward their opponent again, and it was as if they both possessed indestructible bodies.

"Not bad! This is the first time I've encountered someone who's able to match the power of my physical body. However, if this is the extent of your power, then there's no point in continuing this," the burly man said as he flexed his faintly throbbing wrists. The insanity on his face had already disappeared and had been replaced by a frosty expression.

"Don't you think you're spewing too much manure out of that big mouth of yours?" Han Li countered in an expressionless manner as he circulated his own enormous spiritual power, and the slight discomfort he was experiencing was instantly alleviated.

"Hmph, I was trying to allow you to live for a bit longer; seeing as you're interested in accepting my generosity, I'll send you on your way!" the burly man guffawed as the devilish projection behind him instantly adopted a substantial form, revealing itself to be a massive three-headed devilish lion.

As soon as the projection attained a substantial body, its aura was significantly enhanced, and a layer of crimson flames instantly appeared over the surface of the burly man's suit of armor.

The burly man then chuckled coldly as he slowly raised his hands before pointing his fingers toward Han Li and slowly closing his eyes.

Meanwhile, the three heads of the devilish lion slowly opened their eyes, casting their gaze toward Han Li in a completely emotionless manner.

Han Li was immediately struck by a bone-chilling sensation upon seeing this, and he hurriedly made a hand seal, upon which the Provenance Golden Body that was locked in combat with the black monster in the distance abruptly vanished. At the same time, his body swelled drastically in size, and he instantly transformed into a giant golden ape that was over 100 feet tall.

Golden light flashed behind the giant ape, and the golden body appeared before combining as one with the golden ape. As a result, the golden ape's aura was significantly enhanced, and two mountains, one black and one azure, also appeared beside it.

Right at this moment, crimson light flashed from the hands of the burly man, and two extremely dense pillars of crimson light erupted forth. The devilish lion behind him also opened its three mouths to expel three pillars of light, which were azure, black, and white in color.

After just a single flash, the five pillars of light combined as one mid-flight to form an even thicker pillar of four-colored light.

The pillar of light wasn't releasing any sound at all, but the terrifying power imbued within it made even Han Li shudder with apprehension. He immediately placed his hands onto the two mountains beside him, then injected his magic power into them in a frenzy.

The pair of mountains swayed before swelling to several thousand feet in size, forming a massive barricade in front of Han Li.

In the next instant, the four-colored pillar of light struck the pair of mountains with tremendous force, and an earth-shattering boom rang out as a burst of four-colored light rose to over 10,000 feet tall, then completely inundated both of the mountains in its path, as well as the giant ape behind the mountains.

Within the four-colored light, the two extreme mountains rapidly shrank as their surfaces warped and twisted, and they both vanished within the span of just a few breaths.

Without the barricade formed by the two extreme mountains, the fearsome four-colored light was free to surge directly toward Han Li.

The giant golden ape immediately let loose a thunderous roar as a suit of black devilish armor appeared over its body, and the suit of armor released countless black runes, which formed a giant black light barrier that kept the torrent of four-colored light at bay.

A string of resounding booms rang out as the black light barrier strained and groaned, looking as if it could collapse at any moment.

The golden ape let loose another ferocious roar as golden light swirled over its body, and it swelled to over 10 times its original size. At the same time, two more heads and four additional arms appeared on its body amid a flash of golden light, transforming it into a colossal ape with three heads and six arms. As soon as the transformation was complete, Han Li made a grabbing motion upward with all six of his hands, and six balls of piercing golden light emerged in unison before combining as one to form a golden vortex that was around an acre in size.

The golden vortex rotated on the spot, releasing a burst of tremendous power that clashed in a vicious manner with the sea of four-colored light.

Another deafening boom rang out, and powerful shockwaves swept forth in all directions, causing the nearby space to twist and warp, as if it were about to be torn apart.

The burly man's expression changed slightly upon seeing this, and he immediately withdrew the pillars of crimson light being released by his hands.

Furthermore, his face had paled slightly in the wake of that attack, seemingly indicating that he had expended a lot of energy to unleash it.

At the same time, the three-headed devilish lion also closed all three of its mouths to cease its attacks, and the light in its six eyes had dimmed significantly as well.

However, after the dazzling lights faded to reveal what lay in the distance, a look of astonishment appeared on the burly man's face for the first time.

The giant golden ape was still standing, making a series of hand seals with its six hands. Not only had the massive golden vortex in front of it not disappeared, it had swelled to over 10 times its original size, and golden halos were being released from its center.

"That attack I just unleashed was about as powerful as a casual strike from a Grand Ascension Stage being; it seems I really did underestimate you," the burly man said with a hint of surprise in his eyes.

"It would be rude not to reciprocate, so why don't you take one of my attacks as well?" Han Li said in a cold voice as he made a grabbing motion with all six of his hands, and the giant vortex was rapidly compressed into a head-sized ball of golden light.

Han Li then abruptly stepped forward, and his enormous body instantly vanished alongside the golden ball of light.

The burly man's pupils contracted upon seeing this, and he immediately looked up, just in time to see Han Li reappear above him amid a flash of golden light before hurling the golden ball of light viciously downward from above.

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The golden ball of light wasn't very large, but as soon as it was hurled through the air, it instantly reverted back into a giant vortex that came crashing down toward the burly man.

A burst of enormous invisible force erupted out of the vortex, forcing the burly man down into a hunched over position. At the same time, the nearby space twisted and warped, looking as if it were about to crumble at any moment.

An unhealthy flush appeared on the burly man's face, and his body was also trembling slightly under the fearsome pressure exerted upon him by the vortex, but he refused to be crushed. A vicious light flashed through his eyes as he let loose a loud roar, and a burst of piercing crimson flames erupted over his suit of battle armor, while an extremely formidable aura surged out of his body.

The crimson flames charred the nearby space black, and the tremendous force weighing down upon him was alleviated, allowing him to stand up straight again before making a grabbing motion upward.

The three-headed devilish lion above him instantly exploded into a cloud of black mist amid a dull thump, and the mist swept toward his hand before forming an inky-black devilish spear that was around 10 feet in length.

The entire spear was shimmering with black spiritual light, and the spearhead was split up into three prongs, all of which were covered in blue spiritual symbols and engraved with the image of a fierce lion's head.

A ferocious look appeared on the burly man's face as he hurled the spear through the air, and it instantly vanished into the center of the vortex.

In the instant that the spear vanished into the enormous vortex, the latter instantly shattered amid a dull thump, then disintegrated into countless specks of spiritual light.

The burly made a grabbing motion again, and the inky-black devilish spear re-emerged before he tossed it through the air a second time without any hesitation. On this occasion, the spear was targeting the three-headed giant ape in the distance, who was rooted to the spot in the wake of the golden vortex's abrupt destruction.

The spear reached Han Li in a flash, and his heart jolted as he immediately swung his six arms through the air. Six shimmering golden heavy weapons instantly appeared in his hands before being swung viciously toward the black spear.

An earth-shattering boom erupted as golden light and black Qi intertwined before both were vanquished at the same time.

Han Li's pupils contracted upon seeing this, yet before he had a chance to do anything else, the burly man repeated the same grabbing and hurling motion, sending yet another devilish spear flying toward Han Li.

Han Li harrumphed coldly as he conjured up six golden weapons in his hands again, and just like last time, the golden weapons and black spear canceled one another out again.

It was now the burly man's turn to be rooted to the spot.

During this split-second delay, Han Li let loose a low roar as he conjured up another set of six weapons before hurling them forward all at once. His three heads began to chant in unison, and bright golden light emanated from the six weapons as they rapidly released one projection after another. In the blink of an eye, several thousand golden projections had appeared, and all of them were raining down from above, creating a magnificent sight to behold.

The burly man's expression darkened upon seeing this, but he wasn't panicked in the slightest. Instead, a cold smile appeared on his face as he expelled a ball of purple light out of his mouth.

As soon as the ball of purple light emerged, it rotated on the spot before self-detonating, sending countless threads of light flying in all directions to create an enormous net.

The golden projections hurtled into the net in a torrential downpour, and a rapid string of explosions ensued. Golden and purple light intertwined as the entire net tremored and flashed violently, looking as if it could be torn apart at any moment.

However, the burly man paid no heed to this at all as he chanted something before flicking his 10 fingers rapidly through the air. With each flick of his finger, the crimson flames burning over his body would dim slightly, but the net of light up above would swell further in size as a result.

Moments later, the giant net had swelled to several times its original size, transforming into a boundless purple cloud.

The purple cloud swept up all of the oncoming golden projections at the burly man's behest, then transformed into a purple ball of light that descended from above.

The burly man waved a hand through the air, and the ball of light instantly landed in his grasp. However, as he cast his gaze upward again, his expression immediately darkened.

He discovered that Han Li had vanished from his original spot, yet before he had a chance to do anything, spatial fluctuations abruptly erupted behind him, following which a shimmering golden beastly paw sprang forth out of thin air.

The paw was over 100 feet in size and came crashing down toward the burly man like a small mountain. Each sharp nail on the paw was like a giant golden blade, and several of them were converging toward the burly man at once.

The burly man harrumphed coldly as brilliant crimson flames erupted from his hand, and he reached out to retaliate the giant golden paw without any fear nor hesitation.

There was an enormous size difference between the two, but as soon as the burly man thrust his hand through the air, it swelled to over 100 times its original size.

The golden paw and crimson palm clashed, and the former was instantly destroyed by a burst of incredible power. At the same time, a golden shadow shot backward, revealing itself to be a small shimmering golden beast.

The beast was only several feet in size, but it was giving off a Body Integration Stage aura; it was none other than the Leopard Kirin Beast.

Han Li had surreptitiously released the beast so that it could sneak over to the burly man and launch a sneak attack, but that plan seemed to have fallen through.

In the instant that the Leopard Kirin Beast was sent flying, silver light flashed beside the burly man, and a streak of silver light sprang forth to bind the burly man's body in a completely unexpected manner.

Immediately thereafter, spatial fluctuations erupted as Han Li re-emerged, and as soon as he appeared, he swung the six golden weapons in his hands toward the burly man with tremendous force.

At the same time, he opened all three of his mouths to expel three balls of silver flames, which transformed into three Fire Ravens that flew directly toward the burly man.

In the face of these powerful attacks, the burly man remained completely unflustered. The crimson flames over his body swelled to destroy the silver streak of light that was binding him, following which the black spear reappeared in his hand amid a surge of black Qi.

The spear was then immediately hurled toward Han Li, and it split up into nine identical devilish spears mid-flight.

Six of them hurtled directly toward the six golden weapons, while the remaining three were aimed at the three silver Fire Ravens.

The six golden weapons and three silver Fire Ravens were all instantly vanquished by the nine spears, and Han Li's expression changed slightly upon seeing this, as he quickly shielded himself with his six arms.

The space in front of his arms instantly warped and twisted, following which another black spear shot forth out of thin air. However, before it could strike Han Li's arms, black gauntlets appeared on his arms amid a surge of black runes, and both the gauntlets and the spear instantly vanished upon coming into contact with one another.

Han Li heaved an internal sigh of relief upon seeing this, but a peculiar look suddenly appeared on the burly man's face as he uttered the word "destroy" in a bone-chilling voice.

Black light flashed from where the black spear had just vanished, and a miniature spear that was only around half a foot in length sprang forth in a completely silent manner.

Under the disguise of the larger spear, even Han Li's enormous spiritual sense completely failed to detect this miniature spear, and he didn't have a chance to do anything before the spear struck his bare arms and exploded violently.

A giant ball of black light that was over 10,000 feet in size appeared in mid-air, completely enveloping Han Li's body like a black sun.

Han Li only had time to conjure up a layer of golden light around himself before he was completely inundated by the inky-black light.

Meanwhile, the black devilish sun was still expanding at a rapid rate, and everything in the surrounding area that was swept up into it was instantly reduced to dust.

The burly man chortled with glee upon seeing this. "Haha, no one's been able to survive my Nine Devilish Hierarchical Spears yet; you should be quite proud of yourself for forcing me to unleash such an ability."

The giant black sun finally began to shrink before vanishing after a few more flashes, and the burly man's laughter was abruptly cut off as an astonished look appeared on his face.

"Impossible! How could this be?" the burly man said in a voice that was trembling slightly.

There in the distance, a golden ball of light was hovering in mid-air. Within the golden light was a giant golden ape, a five-colored phoenix, and a massive silver bird.

The giant golden ape had its hands pressed against the golden light, injecting bursts of golden spiritual light into it in a frenzy.

The five-colored phoenix and giant silver bird remained still on the spot, but the five-colored light and silver lightning being released by them surged out of the golden light and formed two additional protective barriers.

The giant ape, colorful phoenix, and massive bird all wore completely wooden expressions that were devoid of spiritual nature; it was as if they were a trio of puppets.

The burly man was stunned to see this, and he hurriedly cast his gaze around himself as if to try and find something, but there was nothing to be seen.

He harrumphed coldly as he suddenly waved a hand toward the distance, and a black object instantly appeared beside him; it was none other than that black ghostly monster that had been battling the Provenance Golden Body earlier.

The black Qi around the monster faded, revealing it to be a black wooden puppet with countless golden and silver runes inscribed onto the surface of its body.

The puppet had an extremely menacing appearance with four remarkably long limbs, and faint crimson light flashing in its eyes.

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What was most harrowing to behold was the faint purple human face on the back of the puppet's head. The face appeared to be quite ordinary, but its eyes were tightly shut, and just the mere sight of it struck the beholder with a bone-chilling sensation.

As soon as the burly man summoned the puppet to his side, a change suddenly began to take place within the golden light in the distance.

In the area between the giant ape, colorful phoenix, and silver bird, specks of golden light flashed before forming a faint golden infant with a completely identical set of facial features as Han Li. Its body was encased in a suit of inky-black devilish armor, and there were several tens of miniature azure swords revolving around it; it was none other than Han Li's Nascent Soul.

As soon as the Nascent Soul, the three creatures around it immediately shot forth toward it in unison.

Piercing golden light erupted, and a huge humanoid figure with three heads and six arms appeared.

The humanoid figure's entire body was of a shimmering golden color, and the entirety of its skin was covered in a layer of golden scales. There was a single azure horn on its head, and an inky-black demonic eye on its glabella.

The humanoid figure was none other than Han Li, but in this current form, he gave off a very dangerous and unsettling aura. His eyes were completely emotionless, and there was a hint of blue light flashing within them.

The burly man looked into Han Li's eyes, and his own eyes were immediately struck by a sharp pain, as if needles were being driven into them, and his heart jolted with shock as he instinctively closed his eyes.

Right at this moment, Han Li suddenly raised a hand before pressing it gently into the air up ahead.

A dull thump rang out in front of the burly man without any warning, and a burst of enormous force crashed toward him like a volcanic eruption.

The burly man hadn't reopened his eyes yet, but through his spiritual sense, he could still sense just how fearsome this burst of power was. His expression changed drastically as crimson flames swept forth from his body. At the same time, an inky-black badge suddenly appeared in his hand, and it quickly swelled to several tens of feet in size before positioning itself in front of him like a huge shield.

In the next instant, both the barrier formed by the crimson flames and the enlarged black badge were destroyed with ease by that burst of power, and it came crashing toward the burly man without any further impediment.

The burly man opened his eyes with an incredulous look on his face, but that was immediately replaced by a ferocious expression as he stomped his feet into the air down below before thrusting his hands forward violently.

Two black fist projections erupted forth amid a flash of golden light, then swelled drastically like a pair of balloons before crashing into the oncoming burst of power.

A dull thump rang out, and the two fist projections were also instantly destroyed, following which the burly man flew backward like a tossed rag, and only after flying back for over 100 feet did he just barely manage to steady himself.

At this moment, the burly man's face was completely red, as if he were heavily inebriated, and he couldn't help but throw up a mouthful of inky-black blood.

The attack that Han Li had just unleashed seemed to be quite nonchalant, but it was actually imbued with incredible power and instantly managed to wound this number one devilish lord.

"You're using the Myriad Origin Power of the Holy Nirvana Physique! That's impossible! How could a mere human master the peerless ability of our holy realm?" The burly man was too stunned to even wipe the blood from the corners of his lips, and he was staring intently at Han Li as if he were looking at a ghost.

At the same time, Han Li swayed slightly, and he also threw up a mouthful of blood, but this blood was golden in color and instantly vanished into nothingness as soon as it exited his mouth..

"Myriad Origin Power? I guess that's what it is. Seeing as you've forced me to unleash this ability, there's no way I can allow you to live." The golden scales on Han Li's face receded to reveal a set of pale facial features.

"You're suffering backlash! You haven't mastered the ability; you're only forcibly using it! It looks like you won't be able to unleash many more attacks of that caliber," the burly man said as his expression eased significantly.

"That is indeed true, but I'll only require one more attack to kill you," Han Li said in a cold voice.

As soon as his voice trailed off, countless golden runes surged forth from his body. At the same time, he laid a hand onto the back of his own head, and five balls of golden light flew forth before transforming into five different projections, comprised of a giant ape, a colorful phoenix, a silver bird, a vibrant peacock, and a golden dragon.

As soon as these projections appeared, all of them let loose long cries before vanishing into Han Li's body in a flash.

In the next instant, a layer of golden light flashed over Han Li's face, and he let loose a roar of agony as he made a hand seal, upon which his body swelled to over 100 feet in size. At the same time, a golden head and two golden-scaled armors appeared on his body, giving him two heads and four arms.

The second head also had an azure horn and a third demonic eye, and the golden scale on his massive body fused in a flash to form a suit of intricate golden armor. The armor had no chinks at all, and there were countless silver ruins on its surface. Furthermore, it was giving off a strong primordial aura, as if it had been created alongside heaven and earth.

"Second Nirvana Transformation! Have you gone insane? You can't even control First Nirvana Power, yet you're forcibly using Second Nirvana Power? You're going to self-detonate before you can kill me!" the burly man exclaimed as a horrified look appeared on his face for the first time.

"Even if I self-detonate, it'll be after you die!"

Bluish-golden light flashed through Han Li's eyes as his aura swelled dramatically, and he slowly raised his four arms before thrusting them toward the burly man.

Heaven and earth dimmed as faint golden light flashed, and four giant golden palms appeared above the burly man's head in unison.

Each palm was imbued with power that was no less potent than that of the previous attack, and they combined as one in a flash to form a mountainous palm that was several thousand feet in size before crashing down from above.

The mountainous golden palm was falling in a completely silent manner, but it had already locked onto the burly man's devilish soul, making it impossible for him to evade and forcing him to take the attack head-on.

"I can't die here!" the burly man roared as a deranged look appeared on his face. He raised both of his arms into the air to release a dozen or so balls of light of different colors, all of which were top-grade treasures that hurtled directly toward the giant golden palm.

At the same time, piercing crimson flames erupted over his body, and a giant blade that was shimmering with golden and silver light appeared in his hands. He swung the blade upward with all his might, and a golden and silver blade projection swept forth before striking the golden palm before all of the top-grade treasures.

An earth-shattering boom rang out, and the blade projection instantly exploded, sending streaks of golden and silver light sweeping through the surrounding air and slicing rifts into the nearby space. However, it hadn't been able to leave even the slightest trace on the golden palm.

Right at this moment, the dozen or so top-grade treasures also struck the golden palm, and the burly man let loose a desperate roar as all of the treasures self-detonated in rapid succession.

The enormous power generated by the detonation of the top-grade treasures instantly inundated the entire golden palm, and the resulting energy fluctuations sent gusts of fierce winds sweeping in all directions.

However, the burly man was still in a panicked frenzy as he slashed the golden and silver blade in his hands wildly up into the air over and over again.

One blade projection after another swept into the giant golden palm, and a relentless string of resounding booms rang out, shaking the entire heavens.

Such a fearsome barrage of attacks naturally required a tremendous amount of magic power output, and the burly man's face was becoming paler and paler.

However, the golden palm only tremored slightly in the face of his attacks, but continued to descend at an even pace.

The burly man's horror became even more pronounced at the sight of the approaching golden palm, and he immediately decided to make one final roll of the dice.

Black devilish Qi erupted from behind him as that three-headed black devilish lion projection appeared once again, then plunged into the black wooden puppet beside him.

A string of cracks and pops abruptly rang out from within the puppet's body, and halos of black light proliferated through the air.

A layer of black light swirled over the surface of the puppet, and it transformed into a true three-headed devilish lion with a substantial form.

The lion raised all three of its heads at once to send three pillars of light of different colors erupting up into the air, then fled the scene as a ball of black light.

The giant golden palm continued to crash downward, destroying the pillars of light and blade projections with ease, then instantly reduced to the burly man's body to nothingness.

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Almost at the exact same moment as the burly man's body was destroyed, Han Li also gave a muffled groan, and the additional head and pair of arms he had attained instantly disintegrated into specks of golden light. The golden suit of armor he was wearing also quickly disappeared, along with the azure horn on his head.

His giant body then reverted back to its original size, and he was back to his normal human force. However, at this moment, his face was completely pale and devoid of color, and his aura was also rapidly on the wane.

In the instant that he reverted back to his human form, Han Li flipped both hands over to produce several small vials, and he opened all of them before tipping the pills in the vials into his mouth without exercising any discretion.

An unhealthy flush then appeared on his face, and it was only alleviated after a layer of azure light flashed over his face.

Han Li exhaled as his expression eased slightly, and he cast his gaze toward the spot where the burly man had been standing just a moment ago. The giant golden palm had disappeared in the instant that he had reverted back to his human form, so there was nothing to be seen in the distance.

However, just as Han Li was about to withdraw his gaze, spatial fluctuations suddenly erupted, and a ball of black light appeared, containing the three-headed devilish lion puppet that had only just barely managed to escape the massive golden palm.

It also cast its gaze toward the spot where the burly man's body had just disappeared, and its three heads let loose thunderous roars of fury in unison.

"I've been cultivating that physical body for over 100,000 years; how dare you destroy it! I'm going to tear you into shreds and torture your soul for all of eternity!"

The devilish lion then instantly pounced toward Han Li as a streak of black light. It knew that in Han Li's current severely debilitated state, there was no way that he could be a match for this puppet. Thus, in its fit of fury and resentment, it was determined to kill Han Li as revenge for destroying its physical body.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this, and he murmured to himself, "So he abandoned his physical body to save his soul. If he's only possessed a puppet, then he should be nowhere near as powerful as he normally would be."

As soon as his voice trailed off, he immediately stomped a foot onto the ground down below, and a small white light formation appeared, upon which his body began to blur.

"I won't let you get away!" the devilish lion roared in an urgent voice at the sight of the teleportation formation, and it sped up significantly, reaching Han Li in a flash before slashing its claws toward him in an attempt to tear his body apart.

However, it was already too late. A buzzing sound rang out from the formation, and Han Li vanished amid a flash of white light.

The devilish lion puppet's claws instantly tore the light formation apart, but Han Li remained completely unscathed.

However, the devilish lion clearly wasn't going to give up so easily. It released its enormous spiritual sense throughout the surrounding area, then opened all three of its mouths to blast three pillars of light toward a certain area of space.

The three pillars of light struck the same spot in the air, and a loud explosion erupted as a figure stumbled out of thin air. A vicious look immediately appeared on the devilish lion's center head, but its expression then abruptly stiffened.

The figure that had appeared up ahead was a small golden beast; it was none other than the Leopard Kirin Beast.

The small beast had somehow switched places with Han Li and withstood that attack in his stead.

It possessed early-Body Integration Stage powers and it hadn't expended much magic power during this battle, but it was clearly no match for the three-headed devilish lion. Not only had it been forced to reveal itself by the devilish lion's attack, a large patch of its golden fur had been charred black as well.

Despite this, the Leopard Kirin Beast wasn't backing down at all, and it immediately let loose a low roar as a layer of golden light flashed over its body, upon which its charred fur immediately regenerated back to its original condition. At the same time, a golden Kirin projection had appeared behind it.

"So you possess a Kirin bloodline! Hmph, even so, you're only asking for death by standing in my way!" the three-headed devilish lion harrumphed coldly as it lashed out with one of its inky-black paws.

Countless arcs of black lightning appeared over the paw, then vanished amid a resounding boom.

In the next instant, black lightning appeared in the air above the Leopard Kirin Beast, then formed a giant black lightning paw that was around 10 feet in size before crashing down with tremendous force.

Before the paw had fallen upon the Leopard Kirin Beast, several bolts of black lightning came crashing down in advance. Spatial fluctuations erupted down below, and an azure humanoid figure appeared.

It was none other than Han Li, and even though his aura was still very feeble, he remained completely unfazed by the sight of the giant lightning paw crashing down from above. Instead, a cold smile appeared on his face.

Right at this moment, the Leopard Kirin Beast let loose a ferocious roar and split up into over 10 projections in mid-air, all of which appeared right above Han Li's head in a wraith-like manner.

The projections then unleashed countless yellow claw projections that hurtled through the air, intertwining to form a giant net that sped directly toward the black lightning paw.

A resounding boom rang out as black lightning erupted from the giant black paw, destroying the oncoming net of claw projections with ease.

Around a dozen thick bolts of lightning then destroyed all of the Leopard Kirin Beast projections, and the true body of the Leopard Kirin Beast was also struck. It let loose an anguished howl as it sprang back for over 100 feet. An even larger section of its fur had been charred black, and its aura had also been debilitated somewhat.

The devilish lion chortled with glee as the giant lightning paw crashed down directly toward Han Li, yet just as it was about to fall upon him, Han Li suddenly brought his hands together before bringing them apart, upon which a long dragon's roar rang out.

A streak of golden light erupted from between his hands before flashing through the black lightning paw up above, upon which the giant paw was instantly reduced to nothingness.

The devilish lion was quite befuddled by this development, yet before it could figure out what had happened, the golden streak of light suddenly circled around before transforming into a massive pillar of light that was over 10,000 feet tall.

Within the pillar of light was a halberd projection, and countless specks of golden light instantly appeared in the surrounding area before surging toward the projection like moths to a flame.

An astonishing aura was then released by the golden halberd, stirring up all of the world's origin Qi in the entire heavens.

Right at this moment, the halberd projection flashed with golden light, and the entire pillar of light transformed into a colossal golden halberd.

The three-headed devilish lion's expression changed drastically upon seeing this, and it immediately attempted to flee as a streak of black light.

A cold light flashed through Han Li's eyes as he pointed a finger at the devilish lion, and the enormous golden halberd immediately came crashing down upon it.

The devilish lion appeared over 1,000 feet away after just a single flash, yet just as it was about to unleash an ability to escape out of the spatial restriction, the air suddenly tightened around it, and it found itself unable to muster up any magic power.

"Crap!"

An expression of shock and horror appeared on the devilish lion's face, immediately following which its vision turned dark, and its consciousness completely faded.

From Han Li's perspective, the giant golden halberd had fallen upon the three-headed devilish lion before instantly reducing its body to dust; even the devilish soul of the burly man contained within the puppet had also been completely destroyed.

Only now was the burly man truly dead, and no trace of him was left in this world.

Han Li heaved a long sigh of relief as his expression eased significantly. The attack that had dealt the killing blow just now was naturally none other than the Heavenly Halberd Talisman that he had painstakingly refined.

As expected of a powerful talisman from the True Immortal Realm; it was able to instantly vanquish such a formidable enemy. Of course, this was also due to the fact that the burly man's body had already been destroyed, so it was in a severely debilitated state. Otherwise, that talisman alone wouldn't have been enough to kill him.

As for the ability he had used earlier to destroy the burly man's physical body, that was one of the most powerful abilities recorded in the Provenance True Devil Arts.

However, just as the burly man had said, Han Li's current powers and physical constitution weren't enough to unleash such an ability; it was something that he could only use without suffering backlash after reaching the Grand Ascension Stage.

Han Li had experimented with the ability during his time in seclusion, so he was naturally aware of this as well.

However, the Holy Nirvana Body was simply far too powerful; even the First Nirvana Transformation was able to drastically enhance his magic power and physical strength.

Thus, after much painstaking effort and consideration, Han Li finally thought of a way to forcibly unleash the ability, which was to temporarily stimulate the true spirit blood within his body and draw upon its power to fuel the ability for him.

Currently, employing this method harmed Han Li almost as much as it did his opponent; not only was the ability extremely taxing to use, the true spirit blood that he had to expend to use it was an extremely heavy price to pay. Thus, he initially hadn't planned to use this ability in this battle.

However, that burly man had been truly formidable. In particular, the Nine Devilish Hierarchical Spears he had unleashed were comparable in power to a full-force attack from a Grand Ascension Stage being. If he had faced that attack in nothing more than his Giant Mountain Ape form, he would've at least been severely wounded, if not killed on the spot.

Thus, he had no choice but to release his Nascent Soul and draw upon his own true spirit power to manifest those true spirit avatars to help him withstand that attack.

However, the burly man wasn't someone who could be killed through normal attacks, and seeing as he had already activated his true spirit blood at that point, he decided to bite the bullet and use the Holy Nirvana Physique.

Of course, Han Li was able to use the ability without any fear of its after-effects as he also had another trump card in the form of the Heavenly Halberd Talisman up his sleeve. Sure enough, the combination of those two trump cards had allowed him to slay this extremely formidable devilish lord.

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However, at this point, he had expended most of his magic power, and his combat prowess was now pitifully weak. As such, he had no choice but to summon a yellow futon and immediately sat down onto it to meditate and recuperate.

The pills that he had taken earlier had ensured that he didn't self-detonate, but there was naturally no way that he could've absorbed all of them in such a short time, so there was an extremely fearsome burst of medicinal power gathered within his body. If he couldn't repress this medicinal power in time, then the consequences would be catastrophic.

Thankfully, there was a spatial restriction around him, and the Leopard Kirin Beast was also present, so he didn't' have to worry about being disrupted.

A short while later, a layer of golden light appeared over Han Li's body, and he suddenly made a hand seal before pointing a finger toward his own chest several times in rapid succession.

A dozen or so hair-thin silver threads shot forth before vanishing into his body in a flash, sealing off some vital parts of his meridians. He then swept sleeve through the air to release a dozen or so talismans of different colors, which also flew directly toward his body.

These talismans exploded into balls of flames amid a string of dull thumps, then transformed into several large runs that vanished into his body in a flash.

Han Li gave a muffled groan as golden light swept over his face, and his aura swelled slightly before immediately returning to a stable condition.

Moments later, he exhaled and finally opened his eyes. "I've managed to repress everything for now; I wonder how things are going on the other end," Han Li murmured to himself as he rose to his feet, then cast his gaze toward a certain direction.

Buddhist Monk Jin Yue and the white-robed elderly man were most likely still locked in battle against the Xue Guang clone.

Just as Han Li was thinking about what he was going to do next, the space in the distance suddenly tremored violently, following which an earth-shattering boom erupted.

The surrounding light barrier was instantly shattered, and the entire spatial formation was destroyed.

The 36 male cultivators stumbled out of thin air, and all of them had been dealt heavy blows from the backlash of having the formation destroyed.

Han Li's expression changed slightly as he focused his gaze toward that direction, upon which he was greeted by the sight of a massive crimson skeleton that was wreaking havoc with reckless abandon.

The skeleton was over 1,000 feet tall, and had three heads and six arms, wielding six different heavy black weapons.

The six devilish weapons were swung through the air in unison, sweeping up gusts of fierce devilish winds.

At the top of the skeletons center head stood the Xue Guang, who was carrying a huge black seal with one hand. His eyes were tightly shut, and it seemed that he was dedicating all of his efforts to controlling the skeleton beneath him.

Up ahead, both the white-robed elderly man and Buddhist Monk Jin Yue were in an extremely sorry state. Buddhist Monk Jin Yue's golden kasaya had been torn to shreds, and a huge crimson handprint had appeared on his chest. The handprint had left an indentation that was over half a foot deep, and it appears that several of his ribs had been pulverized, but there was no blood flowing out of his body.

Meanwhile, the white-robed elderly man's face had turned very pale, and the light radiating from the Sevenflame Fan in his hand had also dimmed significantly.

Both of them had several treasures flying around them, forming layers of light barriers that shielded them within, but in the face of the fierce devilish winds, the light barriers were displaying clear signs of strain and looked as if they could crumble at any moment.

It was quite clear that the crimson skeleton had been responsible for destroying the spatial restriction.

Han Li's expression darkened slightly upon seeing this. This final Xue Guang clone seemed to be far more powerful than he had anticipated.

Even so, his expression remained completely unchanged, and an object suddenly appeared in his hand, which was concealed within his sleeve.

Following the disappearance of the restriction, the three combatants naturally caught sight of Han Li. Expressions of elation immediately appeared on the faces of the white-robed elderly man and Buddhist Monk Jin Yue, while a bewildered look appeared in Xue Guang's eyes.

They had only been separated from Han Li and the burly devilish man for a short time, but now, Han Li was completely unscathed, while the burly man was nowhere to be seen.

Xue Guang was well aware of just how powerful the burly man was; even his true body may not be able to kill the burly man. As such, he immediately arrived at the conclusion that there was no way that Han Li could've killed the burly man, and he hurriedly swept his gaze through the surrounding area.

"Fellow Daoist Han, please come and assist us!"

After failing to sense the burly devilish man's aura, Xue Guang swept his spiritual sense toward Han Li, following which the giant crimson skull beneath him immediately lashed out toward Han Li with its six devilish weapons.

A gust of fierce devilish wind swept forth, and within the gust of black wind were over 1,000 devilish weapon projections of different descriptions. It was clear that Xue Guang had sensed just how feeble Han Li's aura currently was, and he immediately made an attempt to kill Han Li on the spot.

Indeed, this attack was extremely powerful, and it would not be an easy task for Han Li to withstand it in his current state. However, he remained completely unflustered and merely swept a sleeve through the air to release an inky-black bracelet, which, in turn, released countless golden flowers.

These golden flowers circled around before transforming into over 10,000 fist-sized golden beetles, all of which were extremely ferocious in appearance. These were none other than Han Li's mature Gold Devouring Beetles.

Even though Han Li's physical body and magic power were both in a severely depleted state, his spiritual sense was still close to its peak condition, so he was able to control all of these Gold Devouring Beetles with relative ease.

The Gold Devouring Beetles converged to form a golden cloud at his behest, then positioned themselves in front of Han Li like a massive shield.

The devilish containing the countless weapon projections struck the wall of golden beetles amid a resounding boom, but the wall refused to budge and managed to keep the devilish winds at bay.

Xue Guang's expression changed slightly upon seeing this, yet before he had a chance to do anything, Han Li suddenly pointed a finger toward him, and instructed, "Go!"

The golden wall of beetles immediately split up into a buzzing swarm, and after just a few flashes, it had reached the crimson skeletons.

"Gold Devouring Beetles?" Xue Guang exclaimed as his expression changed drastically.

The skeleton beneath him immediately hurled its weapons toward the swarm of beetles at his behest, and the weapons transformed into six giant black pythons mid-flight.

As for Xue Guang himself, he hurriedly stomped a foot down onto the skeleton's head, and a gust of fierce crimson wind was swept up, carrying both him and the skeleton rapidly away into the distance.

A string of resounding booms rang out as the six giant black pythons plunged into the golden swarm of beetles, only to completely vanish after just a few flashes.

The swarm of beetles then transformed into a giant black falcon that flapped its wings vigorously and shot forth in pursuit as an incredibly fast streak of golden light.

The white-robed elderly man and Buddhist Monk Jin Yue were naturally ecstatic to see this, and the former hurriedly said, "Use that thing right now! This is the perfect opportunity!"

"My thoughts exactly," Buddhist Monk Jin Yue replied without any hesitation before flipping both hands over to reveal two halves of a silk handkerchief.

The handkerchief was yellow with age, and there were some dirty runes inscribed on its surface, giving it the appearance of a filthy old rag. However, the two elders were regarding it as if it were a priceless treasure. As soon as the item was summoned, Buddhist Monk Jin Yue began to chant something before tossing the two halves of the handkerchief in Xue Guang's direction.

Two balls of grey light rose up into the air, then combined together to form a taichi diagram, which then vanished into thin air in a flash.

The sky darkened as countless black clouds instantly appeared in the air, and a rumbling thunderclap rang out, following which the clouds parted to reveal a taichi diagram the size of a small city, encompassing an area down below that was over 1,000 acres in size.

Regardless of whether it was the fleeing Xue Guang or the other devilish beings beneath the diagram, all of them immediately became extremely slow and sluggish. However, this type of restrictive power wasn't anywhere near significant for devilish lords, and they were able to brush it off by simply circulating their magic power throughout their bodies.

As for Xue Guang, he was barely slowed down at all before accelerating back to his original speed.

However, right at this moment, the white-robed elderly man and Buddhist Monk Jin Yue both began to chant something, and their voices reverberated over the entire battlefield.

In the next instant, the giant taichi diagram shrank down to only around an acre in size with Xue Guang situated right at its very center.

Countless five-colored runes then surged out of the diagram in a frenzy, it was as if the diagram had suddenly attained a substantial form.

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The condensed taichi diagram revolved in mid-air before crashing down toward Xue Guang as countless layers of projections, and Xue Guang felt the air tighten around himself as countless bursts of enormous force came compressing toward him from all sides, stopping him cold in his tracks.

The tremendous force then formed a massive vortex that swept up both Xue Guang and the massive skeleton beneath him, threatening to tear them both into countless pieces.

"This is Profound Heavenly Holy Artifact!" Xue Guang exclaimed as he hurriedly tossed the large black seal in his hand upward. The seal immediately swelled to the size of a pavilion, then released countless streaks of black light that hurtled directly toward the taichi diagram.

The taichi diagram tremored slightly as a resounding boom rang out, but it was able to repel the huge seal without much difficulty.

However, Xue Guang didn't seem to depend on the seal to break the restriction, and he quickly twisted around before vanishing into the crimson skeleton down below. In the next instant, the three heads of the skeleton opened their mouths to expel three items, consisting of a black talisman, a purple jade pendant, and a crimson ball of light.

The three items then exploded in unison, transforming into a plume of black devilish Qi, a ball of purple light, and a swathe of thin crimson threads, all of which plunged into the crimson skeleton's body.

Devilish patterns of three different colors immediately appeared all over the surface of the skeleton's body, and it let loose a roar of pain its body swelled to around twice its original size, allowing it to just barely struggle free of the restrictive force around it.

It then brought its six weapons together to create a giant scimitar, and green light flashed in its six eyes as it lashed out viciously toward the taichi diagram with the massive scimitar.

A saber projection that was over 1,000 feet in length immediately swept toward the taichi diagram in a flash, and the diagram was sliced in half in a completely silent manner.

The surrounding restrictive force was instantly significantly alleviated, and Xue Guang was ecstatic as he prepared to flee into the distance again.

However, right at this moment, both the white-robed elderly man and Buddhist Monk Jin Yue opened their mouths in unison to expel a ball of blood essence each, which transformed into two clouds of blood mist that vanished into thin air.

At the same time, several unfamiliar auras arose from within the taichi diagram that had just been sliced in half, and it instantly regenerated to its original condition before rapidly rotating on the spot again.

At this point, the giant crimson skeleton had only just risen less than 200 feet into the air when it was struck by a renewed burst of tremendous force that sent it crashing down onto the ground again.

Xue Guang was naturally furious to see this, and the crimson skeleton swung its devilish scimitar repeatedly through the air at his behest, sending huge black saber formations sweeping upward to destroy the taichi diagram over and over again.

However, regardless of how much damage the taichi diagram sustained, it would instantly regenerate amid flashes of spiritual light, thereby preventing the crimson skeleton from being able to escape.

In order to fuel its regeneration, the white-robed elderly man and Buddhist Monk Jin Yue were forced to expel one mouthful of blood essence after another, and as they did so, their physical bodies were becoming shriveled up at a rate that was discernible to the naked eye; it was clear that they were truly giving it their all.

Xue Guang was naturally very bewildered by this situation, and he immediately gritted his teeth, upon which four of the crimson skeleton's six arms exploded into clouds of blood mist at his behest. The clouds of mist then transformed into a pair of giant bone wings on the skeleton's back, and its two remaining hands began to make a series of hand seals as it flapped its wings vigorously.

Its giant body swayed slightly, and it began to rise up into the air again. All of this had taken place in what seemed like the mere blink of an eye, but it was already too late.

The giant golden falcon that was the swarm of Gold Devouring Beetles finally reached the crimson skeleton, then came crashing down toward it with ferocious might.

The crimson skeleton let loose a panicked roar as it hurriedly slashed its devilish scimitar toward the giant golden falcon. At the same time, it flapped its wings with all its might and sped up significantly as a result, the restrictive power being unleashed by the taichi diagram meant that it was still far slower than its initial speed.

Upon being struck by the giant black saber projection, the golden falcon immediately disintegrated into over 10,000 golden flowers, and the crimson skeleton was immediately inundated by Gold Devouring Beetles amid a howl of anguish.

Fist-sized golden beetles were crawling over every single inch of its body, and the sound of its bones being scraped and devoured was truly the stuff of nightmares.

This crimson skeleton was something that Sacred Ancestor Xue Guang had manifested from a powerful treasure, but it was no match for the swarm of Gold Devouring Beetles, and its body was being devoured at an incredible rate.

Within the span of just a few breaths, close to half of its body was gone, and it clearly wasn't going to be able to last much longer.

The white-robed elderly man and Buddhist Monk Jin Yue were ecstatic to see this.

"I didn't think that Fellow Daoist Han would be able to control so many mature Gold Devouring Beetles at once!" the white-robed elderly man said in an elated voice.

"Indeed, and thank heavens we resisted the urge to use that disposable holy artifact that Master Mo Jianli bestowed upon us. Otherwise, that Sacred Ancestor clone would've most likely been able to escape."

Right at this moment, Han Li flew over to the crimson skeleton, then stopped on the spot and merely appraised the situation in a completely expressionless manner.

Meanwhile, Xue Guang was concealed within the crimson skeleton, looking out at the swarm of Gold Devouring Beetles with a horrified expression.

At this point, the crimson skeleton had already been reduced to only several tens of feet in size, and it would no longer be able to protect him for long. All of a sudden, he gritted his teeth and made a hand seal, upon which an earth-shattering boom rang out, and what remained of the crimson skeleton exploded into a ball of crimson light, sending all of the Gold Devouring Beetles flying back through the force of the explosion.

However, around a dozen of these beetles were able to advance through the shockwaves, and they instantly pounced onto Xue Guang's body before sinking their fangs into him with reckless abandon.

These were the 13 Purple-striped Gold Devouring Beetles that Han Li had nurtured, and he had snuck them into the swarm of Gold Devouring Beetles. Their auras were virtually identical to those of normal mature Gold Devouring Beetles, so they were able to avoid being detected by Xue Guang.

Xue Guang was immediately struck by a sense of excruciating pain, but he knew that this was his last opportunity to escape. As such, he could only repress his agony and ignore the Purple-striped Gold Devouring Beetles as he shot forth through the air as a streak of crimson light, and after just a single flash, he was about to escape outside of the area encompassed by the taichi diagram.

However, Han Li wasn't concerned in the slightest to see this, and the reason for his composure was quickly made apparent.

In the next instant, golden light flashed ahead of the streak of crimson light, and a dozen or so golden beastly projections appeared, along with a swathe of countless claw projections.

A string of explosions rang out, and the beastly projections were all sent flying and revealed to have originated from a small golden beast, but as a result, the crimson streak of light was stalled for a moment, and that was enough for the swarm of Gold Devouring Beetles to completely inundate him once again.

A bloodcurdling howl rang out as Xue Guang desperately made a series of hand seals, releasing gusts of fierce crimson winds and bursts of inky-black devilish Qi, but regardless of what type of ability he unleashed, the Gold Devouring Beetles continued to cling to his body and refused to let go.

In the face of these indestructible Gold Devouring Beetles, Xue Guang was completely at their mercy, and mere moments later, his body was completely devoured; even his Nascent Soul hadn't managed to escape.

The swarm of Gold Devouring Beetles then dispersed and quickly flew back up Han Li's sleeve. Only then did a relieved look finally appear on his face, and the taichi diagram in the distance also disintegrated into specks of spiritual light.

However, the white-robed elderly man and Buddhist Monk Jin Yue both coughed up a few more mouthfuls of blood, and their bodies became even more wizened and shriveled. In contrast with their physical conditions, both of them wore ecstatic expressions.

The white-robed elderly man chortled with glee as he asked, "Haha, that Sacred Ancestor clone is finally dead! Fellow Daoist Han, did you manage to kill that devilish lord as well?"

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"I did. He was a very troublesome opponent, but I managed to kill him in the end," Han Li replied with a faint smile.

"You have truly made an unmatched contribution in this battle and sealed our victory, Fellow Daoist Han!"

The white-robed elderly man became even more ecstatic upon hearing this, and he abruptly took a deep breath before letting loose a thunderous roar. "Devilish scum, your Sacred Ancestor has already been slain; the only fate that awaits all of you is death!"

His voice rumbled throughout the entire battlefield like an explosive thunderclap, and it was clearly audible to all human, demonic, and devilish beings.

The human and demons all cheered with elation as morale was instantly boosted significantly, while the opposite was true for the devilish army.

The devilish lords immediately turned their attention toward the white-robed elderly man, and their hearts were filled with astonishment upon seeing the absence of the Xue Guang clone and the burly devilish lord.

The white-robed elderly man and Buddhist Monk Jin Yue then immediately rushed toward the battle that was taking place closest to them. This was a battle between two Deep Heaven City elders and two devilish lords, and the latter's expressions changed drastically as they exchanged a bewildered glance.

"Run!" one of the devilish lords, who was an azure-armored elderly man, roared.

The other devilish lord was entirely enveloped in black Qi, and he harrumphed coldly as he rubbed his hands together before thrusting them forward.

A loud boom rang out as countless bolts of black lightning erupted forth, thereby temporarily forcing back the two human elders. Immediately thereafter, the devilish lord released an inky-black canoe, which he flew onto in a flash before instantly fleeing the scene.

As for the azure-armored elderly man, he had already summoned an azure flag, and he swept it through the air to release a burst of azure light that completely inundated his body.

The devilish lord vanished amid a flash of azure light, then re-emerged amid a burst of spatial fluctuations several thousand feet away before disappearing yet again.

The two devilish lords had fled without any hesitation. The two Deep Heaven City elders who were battling them were naturally unwilling to let them escape, and they immediately prepared to set off in pursuit once the black lightning was nullified.

However, the white-robed elderly man and Buddhist Monk Jin Yue immediately urged them not to go.

The white-robed elderly man's lips tremored as he transmitted his voice to the two elders. "Don't worry about those retreating devilish lords; help out our other fellow daoists first!"

Immediately thereafter, he changed directions and flew toward another battle. The two elders were instantly enlightened upon hearing this, and they also went to assist other allies.

In the blink of an eye, the entire devilish army had been plunged into complete turmoil.

Many of the devilish lords were already fleeing the scene, while some of the more stubborn ones tried to continue onward, only to be surrounded by multiple human and demon Body Integration cultivators at once, and some of them were slain on the spot while others were forced to flee after sustaining severe injuries.

Without the presence of the devilish lords, the low-grade devilish beings on the battlefield naturally flew into a blind panic, and they also began to retreat in a horrified frenzy.

The humans and demons had also suffered severe casualties, but their morale was at an all-time high as they rushed forward in hot pursuit.

Thus, countless devilish beings began to rush away from Deep Heaven City, pursued by all types of attacks that felled those who were lagging behind like flies.

None of the Body Integration cultivators of the city joined in on this effort; they merely looked on as the entire devilish army crumbled before their eyes.

Shortly thereafter, the entire devilish army had been chased far away from Deep Heaven City, and all of them heaved a collective sigh of relief. The battle had truly been won now.

At this point, even if another Sacred Ancestor clone were to descend upon this battlefield, they wouldn't be able to reverse the situation.

Han Li stayed around for a while longer before flying back into the city with the Leopard Kirin Beast. The entire city had already been made aware of the devilish army's defeat, and everyone was celebrating on the streets to express their elation.

Thus, the city had suddenly become a very lively and bustling place, and even Han Li was feeling very gratified upon seeing this. However, he displayed no intention of stopping as he continued to fly back to his own abode.

Not long after that, he reached the stone pagoda before flying into it without any hesitation.

Instead of returning to the top floor, he went directly to the secret chamber that was over 1,000 feet below the stone pagoda. He activated the restrictions there, then issued the Leopard Kirin Beast a few instructions before immediately going into a meditative state.

His energy reserves were severely depleted, and there were all types of conflicting medicinal power within his body. As such, it was naturally best to address the situation as soon as possible, which was why he had returned early to go into seclusion.

As for the human and demonic army, they were led by a group of Body Integration cultivators and pursued the fleeing devilish army for three days and three nights. During this process, they slew next to no devilish lords, but around 50% to 60% of the low-grade and mid-grade devilish beings had been wiped out.

This had been a truly crushing victory for Deep Heaven City, and embarked on a return journey in extremely high spirits.

Of course, the elders had sent out a lot of scouts to spy on the rest of the devilish army in case they decided to launch another attack.

Once they returned to the city, all of the people who had participated in the battle received an extremely warm welcome, and a massive feast was arranged in celebration.

Unbeknownst to the vast majority of the city, the Deep Heaven City elders hadn't participated in the celebrations. Instead, they were having a secret meeting in a certain secluded hall with some other Body Integration cultivators, some of which were obscure cultivators who had been in seclusion in the city for many years, while others were reinforcements sent to Deep Heaven City by the holy island.

All of the Body Integration cultivators were currently listening with stunned expressions as the white-robed elderly man recounted how the Xue Guang clone had been devoured by Han Li's Gold Devouring Beetles.

"To think that he was able to nurture over 10,000 mature Gold Devouring Beetles; that's incredible! So this Fellow Daoist Han was responsible for killing both the Xue Guang clone and the late-Body Integration Stage devilish lord who was far more powerful even than a Sacred Ancestor clone," a burly man with a heavy black beard murmured.

"In all honesty, I'm quite embarrassed. I wasn't able to do much in this battle at all; my greatest contribution was trapping the Sacred Ancestor clone for a while with Fellow Daoist Jin Yue's assistance, but we wouldn't have been able to kill the clone had it not been for Fellow Daoist Han's Gold Devouring Beetles. On top of that, Fellow Daoist Han had already slain that other late-Body Integration Stage devilish lord before that," the white-robed elderly man said with a wry smile.

"You're being far too self-critical, Brother Gu. Without the treasure unleashed by you and Fellow Daoist Jin, it would've been very difficult for Fellow Daoist Han's Gold Devouring Beetles to hunt down that Sacred Ancestor clone," a green-haired elderly man countered.

"That treasure was something that Master Mo Jianli had bestowed upon us; I wouldn't dare to take credit for something like that!" the white-robed elderly man said as he shook his head emphatically.

"Without the huge amount of blood essence that you and Fellow Daoist Jin had expended, the treasure wouldn't have been able to take effect; your contributions are far more significant than you proclaim them to be. If even your contributions don't count for anything, then the rest of us would've done less than nothing!" the green-haired elderly man chuckled.

At this moment, a woman in a long blue dress said with a smile, "Even setting that aside, the extensive planning done by you two prior to this battle is an extremely significant contribution. Having said that, judging from your description of this Fellow Daoist Han's powers, he definitely ranks among the top five most powerful beings among our two races; I certainly can't leave without meeting someone like him. Where is he currently staying right now?"

"Indeed, I would also like to meet him," someone else immediately chimed in.

"Fellow Daoist Han has expended a lot of energy during this battle, so he went into seclusion as soon as he returned to the city. That's why he's not present at this meeting, and this is most likely not a good time to try and meet him," the white-robed elderly man said.

"Ah, forgive me for being overeager. In that case, we'll pay Fellow Daoist Han a visit once he comes out of seclusion," the woman said as a slightly forlorn look appeared on her face.

The other elders wishing to meet Han Li were also rather disappointed to hear this, but they naturally couldn't press the issue any further.

"Fellow Daoist Han has made the most significant contribution in this battle, but it was thanks to everyone's collective efforts that our city was able to survive this ordeal. I won't cheapen your efforts by extending any words of gratitude; just know that if you ever need assistance from our city, we'll be sure to oblige," the white-robed elderly man said as he cupped his fist in a salute, and his words were echoed by the other elders of the city.

The other Body Integration cultivators were quite elated to hear this. After all, a promise from the elders of Deep Heaven City was a very valuable intangible asset.

"We may have won this battle, but we can't get complacent. After all, close to the half the devilish army and almost all of the devilish lords have survived. If that Sacred Ancestor Xue Guang decides to bite the bullet and send another one of his clones into the Spirit Realm, we'll most likely have another gruelling battle on our hands. If we want to prevent that happening, we have to take advantage of this opportunity to launch a counterattack and wipe out the remaining devilish army; we can't afford them any chance of making a resurgence," the white-robed elderly man said as a cold look appeared in his eyes.

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Everyone else immediately nodded in agreement, and thus, the Deep Heaven City elders quickly assigned a series of missions, sending out most of the Body Integration Stage beings present to continue hunting down the devilish army.

The rest of them remain behind and oversee the repair of all of the damaged formations and restrictions.

Of course, the most important thing was to send out some people to destroy the nearby devilish nodes right away. If they could do that, then even if the devilish beings were to send reinforcements, they wouldn't be able to arrive near Deep Heaven City.

These were all extremely urgent matters, so as soon as the assignment of these tasks were completed, everyone took their leave to carry out their respective duties.

Thus, the only two people left in the hall were the white-robed elderly man and the green-haired elderly man, the latter of whom was one of the holy island envoys.

The two conversed with one another for a long while before departing, and following their conversation, the white-robed elderly man seemed to be in high spirits, indicating that he had received some type of good news from the holy island envoy.

Not long after that, a significant chunk of the remaining devilish army in the nearby area was slain under the efforts of the Deep Heaven City Body Integration cultivators.

However, the remnants of the devilish army had been led away by the devilish lords and joined other devilish armies in neighboring areas.

Thus, the human and demonic cultivators naturally didn't dare to pursue them any further, and they returned to the city after setting up a large number of watchtowers on the borders. Thus, the battle of Deep Heaven City had finally drawn to a true conclusion.

Deep Heaven City had secured the final victory, but as many as a third of their defensive forces had been destroyed in the process. There were even a few Body Integration elders who had perished during the battle, as well as countless casualties among cultivators at or below the Spatial Tempering Stage.

Thankfully, they had managed to crush the devilish army and wipe out a considerable number of devilish beings, thereby securing the first major victory since the commencement of the devilish tribulation.

Of course, Deep Heaven City's victory didn't mean that the human and demonic races had actually gained the upper hand. On the contrary, the situation was only becoming more and more desperate for the other major human settlements. As for whether they would also be able to turn the tables, only the heavens knew the answer to that.

Following Deep Heaven City's victory, many vagrant cultivators and remnants of cultivating families and sects converged to join the city. There were even vagrant cultivators and small powers from neighboring areas that were willing to take the risk to flee toward Deep Heaven City, and as a result, the cultivators that the city had lost during the battle were easily replenished.

Even if another devilish army were to turn up soon, Deep Heaven City would be well equipped to fight them.

Thus, Deep Heaven City was accumulating power as quickly as it could, and a year passed by in the blink of an eye.

On this day, a special guest arrived at the stone pagoda that Han Li was living. Hai Yuetian and Qi Lingzi immediately invited the guest into the hall on the top floor of the stone pagoda, and as soon as the guest took a seat, he said to Qi Lingzi, "I have an urgent matter to discuss with your master; inform him of my arrival."

Qi Lingzi was feeling rather uneasy, but he still replied, "Forgive me, Senior, but Master is currently in seclusion and told us that he wouldn't be entertaining any guests."

"It's alright, I arranged this meeting with your master well in advance. Just inform him of my arrival; Fellow Daoist Han won't blame you for this," the guest said in an aloof and nonchalant manner.

Qi Lingzi hesitated momentarily upon hearing this, but he knew that this guest was no ordinary Body Integration cultivator, so he could only agree to this request in the end. "In that case, I'll do as you say, Senior."

Thus, he flipped a hand over to summon a voice transmission talisman, then said something into it before letting it loose.

Han Li had been in seclusion for an entire year in the secret chamber beneath the stone pagoda, and all of a sudden, golden light flashed from his body as he slowly opened his eyes.

At this point, he was close to returning to his peak condition, and he made a grabbing motion to draw a streak of light into his grasp out of thin air.

He swept his spiritual sense into the object, then murmured to himself, "So it's him. Looks like I really will have to come out to meet him."

As soon as his voice trailed off, he stood up from his futon, then flew out of the secret chamber as a streak of azure light.

Moments later, the azure light faded at the center of the hall on the top floor of the stone pagoda, revealing Han Li within it.

"We pay our respects to Master!"

Qi Lingzi and Hai Yuetian immediately extended ecstatic bows toward him."No need for formalities. Brother Long, you seem to have arrived far earlier than the time we agreed on. Aren't you afraid that the devilish army will take advantage of your absence to destroy your Long Family stronghold?" Han Li asked.

The guest was none other than the Long Family patriarch, and he was currently appraising Han Li with a hint of astonishment in his eyes.

"I naturally made ample preparations before I departed the stronghold. I had heard that you had slain a Sacred Ancestor clone and a late-Body Integration Stage devilish lord in the battle that took place a year ago. At the time, I was rather skeptical, but it seems that I was wrong to have my doubts. Your rate of progression truly puts me to shame, Fellow Daoist Han. Having said that, you've instilled me with even greater confidence in the journey we're going to make. As for why I arrived here earlier than expected, that's because some unexpected circumstances arose."

"I was only able to make such quick progress as I had encountered some unique opportunities during the past few years. As for slaying that Sacred Ancestor clone, I was only able to do so after receiving a lot of assistance from Fellow Daoist Gu and the others," Han Li explained in a nonchalant manner.

"In any case, it's a matter of immense pride to be able to kill a Sacred Ancestor clone. On top of that, you've only just progressed to the late-Body Integration Stage, so you'll only become more powerful as you consolidate your cultivation base. Even now, I'm most likely already no match for you," the Long Family patriarch sighed.

"Hehe, you're being far too modest, Brother Long. Can you tell me what those unforeseen circumstances that you were referring to are?" Han Li chuckled in response.

"That's a long story..." the Long Family patriarch said as he cast a hesitant gaze toward Qi Lingzi and Hai Yuetian.

Han Li was immediately able to read between the lines, and he turned to his two disciples, and instructed, "You two can leave for now."

"Yes, Master!"

The two of them naturally had no objections and departed from the hall.

After that, Han Li swept a sleeve through the air to release a streak of azure light that vanished in a flash, and in the next instant, a layer of white light appeared to encompass the entire hall.

"Alright, there's no one else here aside from the two of us now; go ahead, Brother Long," Han Li said with a smile.

The Long Family Patriarch nodded as a solemn look appeared on his face. "As you may have already guessed, we're going to have to enter the Elder Devil Realm earlier than planned. I received news that our two races are going to be launching a counterattack against the devilish army in the next few years, and the devilish patriarchs will also be descending into our Spirit Realm. Regardless of what the outcome of that battle is, we most likely won't have a chance to enter the Elder Devil Realm. As such, if we don't want to miss this opportunity, then our only option would be to enter the Elder Devil Realm prior to the commencement of this battle."

"The three devilish patriarchs!" Han Li's expression changed slightly upon hearing this.

"So you've heard of them as well. These three patriarchs are the most powerful of the elder devils, and normal Sacred Ancestors are completely incomparable to them. I heard that many of the Grand Ascension Stage beings from foreign races in our Spirit Realm have fallen by their hands," the Long Family patriarch said in a grim voice.

Han Li's expression also darkened upon hearing this, and a contemplative look appeared in his eyes.

The Long Family patriarch remained silent and waited for Han Li's response.

Only after a long while did Han Li break the silence again. "According to my knowledge, the three devilish patriarchs never leave the Elder Devil Realm; even those foreign race Grand Ascension Stage beings only perished by their hands after venturing into the Elder Devil Race. Are you sure that they're going to be descending into the Spirit Realm?"

"Are you suspecting me of falsehood, Brother Han?" the Long Family patriarch asked.

"No, it's just that what you're saying is a very important piece of information, so I have to verify it," Han Li replied.

"In that case, you can rest assured, Fellow Daoist Han; I received this information from the holy island, and it was revealed by Senior Ao Xiao of the demon race," the Long Family patriarch said.

Han Li was quite surprised to hear this, and he hurriedly asked, "Senior Ao Xiao went to the holy island?"

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"Not only did Senior Ao Xiao go to the holy island, he's going to be staying there until the true battle against the devilish beings commences," the Long Family Patriarch said in a grim voice.

"So that means the rumors of the devilish patriarchs descending into our Spirit Realm are most likely true. In that case, all of our plans will be heavily affected," Han Li sighed.

"Indeed. We had already planned to enter the Elder Devil Realm after the most ferocious attacks from the devilish army had passed by, but if the devilish patriarchs are going to be descending into this realm, then things will be a lot more troublesome. When that time comes, Senior Ao Xiao, Senior Mo Jianli, and the holy island will be the keys to the battle. If our two races are defeated, then we'll have no choice but to flee and hand over this territory. As a result, our plan of entering the Elder Devil Realm will be completely thrown out the window.

"If we were to win the battle, then all of the devilish beings will retreat back to the Elder Devil Realm. If that happens, the spatial nodes will be rife with high-grade devilish beings, and that would also make it very difficult for us to sneak through. If the devilish patriarchs were to descend into our realm, then our risk would be reduced to a minimum. From that perspective, it's a very good thing for us that the devilish patriarchs are planning to descend into the Spirit Realm," the Long Family patriarch said with a wry smile.

"We can only think like that now. Have you informed our fellow daoists from the Spirit Race about this, Brother Long?" Han Li asked.

"It's not that easy to get into contact with the Spirit Race, so I haven't had time to tell them yet, but as long as we have no issues here, there shouldn't be any issues with them, either. The devilish beings aren't just targeting our human and demon races; they're targeting all of the nearby foreign races as well, so the decision that they make will most like be the same as ours," the Long Family patriarch said in a confident manner.

"I see. Would you be able to give me two days to ponder this issue before I get back to you?" Han Li asked after a brief pause for contemplation.

"Hehe, of course. I'll be returning to hear you reply in two days then, Fellow Daoist Han," the Long Family patriarch agreed with a smile.

"I'll be sure to give you a definitive answer in two days. However, prior to that, would you be able to tell me about what the devilish beings have been doing over on your end?" Han Li suddenly changed the subject.

The Long Family Patriarch nodded in response. "I don't know about what they're doing elsewhere, but our stronghold was attacked a few times by the devilish army. Thankfully, we were able to keep them at bay. However, if it weren't for the fact that the Holy Sovereign City had attracted the majority of the devilish army, our stronghold would've been in some peril. It seems that the devilish army in that area intends to focus its power on conquering the Holy Sovereign City city, then wipe out the rest of the nearby human settlements. Fortunately, the Holy Sovereign City has managed to hold its own against the devilish army, and..."

Han Li listened intently to what the Long Family patriarch had to say and occasionally raised a few questions, all of which were answered by the Long Family patriarch to the best of his abilities.

Han Li was very pleased with this information, and the two of them chatted for a while longer before the Long Family patriarch departed.

Han Li accompanied him to the gate of the hall before suddenly asking in a seemingly nonchalant manner, "By the way, would you happen to know if Senior Ao Xiao is on the holy island by himself or if he's there with one of his descendants?"

"I'm not sure exactly who it is, but I heard that Senior Ao is indeed being accompanied by one of his descendants. Why do you ask, Fellow Daoist Han?" the Long Family patriarch asked with a peculiar look in his eyes.

"No particular reason," Han Li replied with an ambiguous chuckle.

The Long Family patriarch obviously wasn't convinced, but this had nothing to do with him, so he naturally wasn't going to pry any further. Thus, he cupped his fist in a salute toward Han Li before flying out of the stone pagoda as a streak of golden light.

Following the Long Family patriarch's departure, Han Li returned to the hall, where his two disciples were already waiting for him.

"Have you encountered some trouble, Master? Is there anything we can help you with?" Hai Yuetian asked.

"If it's something that you can help me resolve, then it wouldn't be considered as trouble to me," Han Li replied in an indifferent manner.

"If only we had progressed further in our cultivation; we would be of more use to Master," Qi Lingzi said with a shameful expression.

"You two already possess exceptional cultivation aptitude. Otherwise, you wouldn't have progressed to this point in such a short time. It's just that the issue at hand is extremely perilous even for Body Integration cultivators, so it's only normal that you two are unable to contribute in any way. Alright, that's enough of that matter; tell me about the current situation in Deep Heaven City. Have the remnants of the devilish army been wiped out?" Han Li asked with a serious expression.

Qi Lingzi immediately launched into a recount of events in response. "After you went into seclusion, Senior Gu and the others only returned to the city to recuperate for a short while before immediately undertaking a series of tasks..."

After Qi Lingzi had recounted all of the important events that had taken place in the city, Han Li nodded in response before asking about the Ice Phoenix.

"Senior Ice Phoenix seemed to have attained the catalyst for a breakthrough, and she immediately went into seclusion after the devilish army was wiped out. According to her, she'll be in seclusion for at least several months, but no more than a year," Hai Yuetian replied.

"Fellow Daoist Ice Phoenix possesses outstanding aptitude with her heavenly phoenix bloodline, so it's no surprise that she's gleaned something during the battle. Stay in the pagoda during this time and make sure that no one interrupts her seclusion," Han Li said with a pleased look in his eyes.

"Yes, Master!"

"Alright, you two can go now," Han Li instructed with a content nod.

"We'll leave you to rest then, Master."

Qi Lingzi and Hai Yuetian extended a deep bow before exiting the hall.

Just as the two of them had made it to the entrance of the hall, a thought suddenly occurred to Han Li, and he instructed, "By the way, don't tell anyone that Fellow Daoist Long came to visit me today."

The two disciples' hearts stirred upon hearing this, and they naturally gave an affirmative response.

Thus, Han Li was the only one left in the hall.

He sat on his chair with his chin resting one of his hands, and a contemplative look appeared on his face.

Over half a year later, a group of devilish beings with black Qi surging all over their bodies were attacking a group of seven or eight human cultivators in the air above a certain mountain range.

The two sides appeared to be evenly matched, so the battle was extremely fierce.

All of a sudden, spiritual light flashed in the distant sky, and a streak of five-colored light appeared before hurtling onto the scene in a flash.

The devils and humans down below didn't know whether this was a friend or a foe, so they all stopped and quickly retreated.

Right at this moment, a pleasant young female voice rang out from within the five-colored streak of light. "I guess it wouldn't be right of me to not give you all a hand."

As soon as her voice trailed off, the streak of light paused in the air above the group of devilish beings for a moment. Immediately thereafter, countless threads of five-colored light came raining down from above, instantly destroying the bodies of the devilish beings.

"Thank you, Senior!"

The human cultivators were ecstatic to see this, but the five-colored streak of light merely continued on its way and quickly vanished into the distance, seemingly completely disinterested in receiving their gratitude.

The group of human cultivators exchanged a few bewildered glances, and following a brief conversation, all of them departed as well.

Not long after that, spatial fluctuations suddenly erupted up above, and two more humanoid figures appeared. One of them was a fierce-looking burly man in a suit of black armor, while the other was a slender woman in a white palatial dress. Both of their bodies were covered in a thin layer of pink mist, making it impossible to glean their facial features.

"Mistress, would you like me to kill that group of human cultivators?" the black-armored man asked as a hint of killing intent appeared in his eyes.

"There's no need to do that; all we have to do is follow this woman," the woman in white replied with a calm shake of her head.

"But Mistress, we've followed this woman for around a year already, and it hasn't yielded any fruits; could it be that your initial divination was incorrect somehow?" the black-armored man asked in a hesitant voice.

"It's quite common for errors to occur during this type of divination, but I was very successful on this occasion. As soon as I saw this woman, I was sure that she's the one I need to follow in order to find the spirit medicine that'll heal me, or take me to the person who possesses such a spirit medicine; this is certainly much better than stumbling around aimlessly in the vast human territory," the woman replied.

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The black-armored immediately gave an affirmative reply upon hearing this, and the woman swept a sleeve through the air to release a burst of pink light, upon which both of them vanished on the spot.

Meanwhile, on a tall mountain in the Spirit Race territoritory, there were three Body Integration Stage Holy Spirits surrounding a handsome young man.

The young man wore a long golden robe, and was facing the trio in an expressionless manner with his hands clasped behind his back.

There was a huge shimmering golden lotus flower embroidered on the front of his robes that was extremely eye-catching. The mountain down below was riddled with pits and craters, within which there were over 1,000 sets of remains. There were also countless fragments of treasures littered all over the ground, all of which were completely devoid of luster.

"I don't care who you are; you've committed an unforgivable crime by killing so many of our brethren and absorbing their essence! The three of us are going to make sure you suffer a terrible death!" one of the Holy Spirits, a short and stubby elderly man, spat through gritted teeth.

The other two Holy Spirits consisted of a long-haired elderly man holding a green bamboo cane, and a young beauty who appeared to be in her thirties.

All three of them were appraising the golden-robed young man with fiery rage in their eyes.

In contrast with other races, it was very difficult for Spirit beings to attain intelligence. Thus, their population had always been quite low, so every member of the race was held in very high regard. Thankfully, Spirit beings who managed to attain intelligence would immediately attain significant power as well, so even the weakest intelligent Spirit beings were at the Core Formation Stage or Nascent Soul Stage; this was how they had managed to coexist alongside the neighboring foreign races.

This Ancestral Cloud Mountain was quite a renowned Spirit Race settlement, and these three Holy Spirits were the settlement's grand elders.

A few days ago, they had to go out to do something, and when they returned, they immediately discovered that all of their brethren in the entire settlement had been slaughtered, and their essence had all been devoured as well. On top of that, the perpetrator had lingered here even after committing such a heinous deed; how could the three Holy Spirits not be enraged?

The golden-robed young man's aura didn't appear to be all that powerful, but the three Holy Spirits were completely unable to ascertain his exact cultivation base. This made them quite uneasy, and they were forced to repress their fury rather than attack him right away.

"Hmph, to think mere spirit servants like you dare to speak to me in such a rude manner. They should be honored to have their essence absorbed by me. I can see that the three of you are far more powerful than the other spirit servants; if you're willing to accept me as your master, I can spare your lives," the golden-robed young man harrumphed coldly.

"Spirit servants? You're from the True Immortal Realm?" the three Holy Spirits exclaimed in a stunned manner upon hearing this.

"Oh? The three of you know about this? Could it be that one of you managed escape into this lower realm from the True Immortal Realm? That can't be right, you don't possess the power to do something like this; someone must've revealed this information to you. I wonder who was the one that disclosed this to you. Alright, now that you know where I come from, reveal your true forms and pledge your subordination to me. Otherwise, I'll just have to capture you and erase your sentience. It'll be a bit more of a hassle for me, but the outcome will be the same," the golden-robed young man chuckled coldly.

The three Holy Spirits' faces paled upon hearing this, and they exchanged a horrified glance.

If this golden-robed young man really had descended from the True Immortal Realm, then the three of them would be no match for him.

The long-haired elderly man still had a fearful look on his face, but a thought suddenly occurred to him as he yelled, "He's lying! If he really is from the True Immortal Realm, why would he have made such a loud commotion when killing our brethren?"

"Indeed, I've never heard of a true immortal who was able to descend into our realm. Even if he really is from the True Immortal Realm, there must be something wrong with him right now. Otherwise, why would he be wasting time speaking to us? We have nothing to fear!" the woman chimed in with a cold expression.

The golden-robed young man's expression stiffened slightly upon seeing this, and this minor detail didn't go unnoticed. As such, the three Holy Spirits became even more confident in the verdict they had arrived at, and the short and stubby elderly immediately yelled, "Attack! We can't let this insolent bastard leave this place alive!"

At the same time, he made a hand seal to summon a white copper mirror, then waved it toward the young man.

A white pillar of light immediately shot forth, then swept toward the young man as a sea of flames that was over 1,000 feet tall.

The other two Holy Spirits also sprang into action without any hesitation.

One of them swept their bamboo cane forward, and countless green cane projections immediately appeared in the air above the golden-robed young man, encompassing an area that was over 100 acres in size before silently crashing down from above.

Meanwhile, the woman flicked her fingers forward in rapid succession to unleash 10 balls of azure light, which transformed into 10 giant azure birds that flew directly toward the young man.

The three Holy Spirits were unconvinced that this young man was from a higher realm, but they knew that he was definitely extremely powerful. As such, they were unleashing their most powerful attacks from the get-go in an attempt to kill this formidable enemy on the spot.

A cold light flashed through the golden-robed young man's eyes upon seeing this.

Immediately thereafter, he suddenly made a strange hand seal, and a transparent halow abruptly appeared around him, then exploded to create countless golden and silver runes, forming a massive golden and silver barrier that shielded him within.

The cane projections up above transformed into countless massive azure logs that came crashing down from above, while the massive azure birds flapped their wings to unleash tens of thousands of azure wind blades at once. As for the sea of white flames, it completely inundated the golden and silver barrier in a flash.

The young man appraised the ferocious attacks with a derisive look on his face, then pressed a hand against the barrier as he uttered the word "open"!

A burst of loud rumbling rang out as the golden and silver barrier swelled drastically in size. Each and every golden and silver rune on the barrier instantly expanded to several times their original size and also took on a semi-transparent appearance.

All of the giant logs, wind blades, and scorching flames that struck the barrier were instantly repelled without even being able to damage it in the slightest, and the short and stubby eldelry man's expression changed upon seeing this as he immediately pointed a finger toward the sea of flames.

A low roar rang out from within the sea of whtie flames, and several fiery Kirins were instantly manifested. Each of them was as large as a cow, and there were silver spiritual flames erupting incessantly out of their bodies.

Not only did the sea of flames rear up significantly, it also turned silver in color, and the surrounding air temperature spiked dramatically.

The long-haired elderly man and the young beauty exchanged a glance before summoning several treasures each, yet just as they were about to unleash the treasures, the golden-robed young man said in a frosty voice, "Playtime's over; it's time for me to send you on your way."

As soon as his voice trailed off, the humanoid figure within the golden and silver barrier instantly vanished, following which the barrier itself immediately crumbled in the face of the sea of silver flames.

However, not only were the three Holy Spirits not elated in the slightest to see this, they immediately formed a triangle with their backs facing one another before spreading their enormous spiritual sense through the surrounding area.

Moments later, the long-haired elderly man exclaimed in a slightly panicked manner, "What's going on? My spiritual sense can't detect that man at all!"

His two companions remained silent, but the strained looks on their faces clearly indicated that they weren't having any luck either.

Just as the stubby elderly man was about to say something, a loud thunderclap suddenly rang out, following which countless specks of silver light appeared. Immediately thereafter, the golden-robed young man appeared amid a flash of golden light, then made a nonchalant grabbing motion.

The silver specks of light instantly formed a giant net that was several kilometers in size at his behest, and not only did the net encompass all three of the Holy Lords, it encompassed even the giant mountain down below.

Furthermore, the giant silver net seemed to be imbued with some type of special power, as evidenced by the fact that it was giving off a peculiar aura that made the three Hoy Spirits extremely feeble and only able to muster up just over half of their magic power.

"It's a Spirit Capturing Heavenly Net! He really is from the True Immortal Realm! Run!" The stubby elderly man was clearly the most powerful of the three Holy Spirits, and he sprang into action as soon as he sensed the debilitating effect of the silver net. His body swayed before combining as one with the copper mirror in front him, following which he sped away as a streak of light.

The other two Holy Spirits instantly turned deathly pale upon hearing the term "Spirit Capturing Heavenly Net", and they also immediately tried to flee the scene as quickly as they could.

The golden-robed young man chuckled coldly, "You're delusional if you think you can still get away."

Immediately thereafter, he flipped a hand over to reveal a ball of silver light, which transformed into a dozen or so silver threads that connected with the entire giant silver net. He then made a grabbing motion, and the silver net descended from up above, looking as if it had encompassed the entire heavens.

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Loud Buddhist chants rang out as countless silver runes surged out of the net in a frenzy, forming a massive starry projection in an instant before plummeting straight down from above.

A rumbling boom erupted as everything within a radius of close to 10 kilometers was inundated by piercing silver light.

The world's origin Qi in the surrounding area instantly became extremely violent, and grey tornadoes were swept up without any warning, destroying everything in their wake.

The occasional earth-shattering boom rang out within the giant silver net, the dazzling silver light made it impossible to see what was happening inside.

The golden-robed young man controlled the entire giant net with one hand while his other hand was clasped behind his back in a nonchalant manner, seemingly completely unconcerned that the three Holy Spirits would escape.

Only after around 10 minutes had passed did the commotion taking place within the silver net gradually die down, and in the end, everything fell silent. The golden-robed young man swept his spiritual sense downward, upon which a cold smile appeared on his face, and he made a grabbing motion toward the giant net.

The massive silver net instantly crumbled away at his behest, alongside the grey tornados and silver light. It was as if everything had been a mere illusion.

However, the huge mountain down below was clearly significantly shorter than before, and there were three glowing items hovering in the air above the rubble on the mountain summit.

These consisted of an antiquated silver mirror that was around 10 feet in size, a section of bamboo that was over 10 feet tall, and an azure ball of light.

A hint of elation appeared on the golden-robed young man's face upon seeing this, and he swept a sleeve downward to release a burst of silver light that drew the items to him in a flash.

"Not bad. After I refine these treasures, they'll be of some use to me," the golden-robed young man murmured to himself with a pleased expression as he carefully appraised the three items.

"However, this isn't going to be enough. If I can get a few more of these, then I'll be able to use more of my powers. Having said, it seems that there are Grand Ascension Stage beings in this Spirit Race, and they'll be quite troublesome for me to face in my current state," the young man mused after stowing the items away.

After pondering the situation for a while, he seemed to have arrived at a decision, and he flew away as a streak of dazzling golden light.

Thus, peace and quiet returned to the surrounding area. However, around an hour following the young man's departure, a ball of red light suddenly flew out from beneath the rubble down below amid a faint buzzing sound.

This was a fist-sized ball of light that contained a purple eyeball-like object, and it hovered in mid-air before turning toward the direction that the golden-robed young man had flown away in.

This was clearly a treasure that was being controlled by someone, and it was clearly quite a remarkable treasure considering it had completely escaped the golden-robed young man's detection.

All of a sudden, the purple eyeball began to rotate on the spot, following which the light shimmering around it began to fluctuate in brightness, but it didn't make so much as a single sound.

Almost at the exact same moment, there was an elderly man with a remarkably youthful set of facial features appraising a white crystal ball with a dark expression. The elderly man was seated on a black wooden chair in a golden palace within a sea of clouds, and a series of images were slowly unfolding on the surface of the crystal ball. The images depicted the golden-robed young man defeating the three Holy Spirits, and there were some accompanying voices that could be heard as well.

When the elderly man heard the young man utter the term "spirit servant", his expression immediately changed slightly, but then quickly returned to normal.

However, as soon as the golden-robed young man released that giant silver net, the elderly man instantly rose to his feet, and exclaimed, "That's a Spirit Capturing Heavenly Net! That's impossible! Even someone who's descended from the True Immortal Realm definitely won't be able to bring such a treasure into this realm."

The elderly man's face immediately became twisted with fury and resentment at the mention of the Spirit Capturing Heavenly Net.

After watching the battle for a while longer, the elderly man seemed to have discovered something, and his expression eased significantly. He began to pace around the room with his hands clasped behind his back as he murmured to himself, "No, this has to the replica. Otherwise, a true Spirit Capturing Heavenly Net wouldn't have taken so long to defeat those three. Even so, it seems to still be extremely potent against us Spirit beings and can't be ignored. I don't care if this man really did descend from the True Immortal Realm; we can't allow him to leave our Spirit Race alive! However, if he really is a true immortal, then it's very unlikely that we'll be able to kill him. It looks like we'll have to use that thing to completely seal him away."After pacing around the room a few more times, the elderly man suddenly stopped before sitting back in his chair as a contemplative look appeared on his face.

Meanwhile, in the human race, there was an azure streak of light flying over a mountain range that lay on the border of the Holy Sovereign City and Deep Heaven City. The streak of light was flying at an incredible speed, and it suddenly changed directions before flying down into a secluded valley.

After just a single flash, the streak of azure light landed on a giant grey rock, then faded to reveal the azure-robed Han Li.

Han Li cast his gaze throughout the surrounding area with a calm expression, then suddenly focused his attention on an ordinary-looking tree with an unblinking gaze.

"Heehee, I knew this little trick of mine wouldn't be able to fool Fellow Daoist Han." A giggling female voice rang out from within the huge tree, following which it blurred and warped before transforming into a burly yellow-robed that was several tens of feet tall.

Standing beside the burly man was a beautiful young woman in a five-colored feather dress, and she was appraising Han Li with a wide smile, but there was clearly a hint of astonishment in her eyes.

"Greetings, Fairy Ye; sorry to keep you waiting," Han Li said with a smile as he cupped his fist in a salute.

This woman was none other than the matriarch of the Ye Family, and Han Li had met her once during the Myriad Spirit Platform gathering. Her powers seemed to be no less formidable than those of the Long Family patriarch, so Han Li naturally had to afford her some respect.

"I only arrived a few hours before you, so I didn't have to wait too long. I was trying to play a little prank on you using this Yellow Cloth Puppet I recently obtained, but you saw through it right away. It looks like there are some issues with this puppet," the woman said with a smile as she patted the burly yellow-robed man beside her, creating a hollow thumping sound.

The burly man was identical to a real human, but it was only a humanoid puppet.

"Surely you jest, Fairy Ye. There are no inherent flaws with this puppet; it's simply not of a high enough caliber to fool the likes of me and you," Han Li said with a smile.

"Don't underestimate this puppet; it was created by Old Man Mu Gu, and he assured me that there was a good chance it would be able to fool even Body Integration cultivators. I didn't think that you would see through it right away; it seems that he was exaggerating. In contrast, it seems the tales that I've heard about your rapid rate of progression certainly weren't exaggerations, Fellow Daoist Han," the woman said with a smile.

"I encountered some opportunities and was very lucky to have progressed to the late-Body Integration Stage, but my powers can't even begin to compare with those of a veteran late-Body Integration cultivator like you, Fairy Ye," Han Li replied in an indifferent manner.

"Hmph, you're still trying to placate me by saying something like this. I heard that a Sacred Ancestor clone and a late-Body Integration Stage devilish lord fell by your hands during the same battle; don't you think you're being too pretentious by saying something like that?" The woman pouted as she rolled her eyes in an unconvinced manner.

"Those are just exaggerated stories; I was only able to kill those powerful opponents as I had received assistance from other fellow daoists. Otherwise, my powers wouldn't have been anywhere near enough to achieve such a feat," Han Li chuckled in an ambiguous manner.

The woman's pout became even more pronounced upon hearing this. "Hmph, do you think I'll believe you?"

Han Li merely smiled and remained silent.

Seeing as Han Li didn't want to continue on this subject, the woman withdrew her Yellow Cloth Puppet before moving on to a different topic. "Back when I last met you, you had only just reached the Body Integration Stage, yet in just a few centuries, you've progressed to the late-Body Integration Stage; this rate of progression is almost unheard of! If it weren't for this devilish tribulation, the holy island would've most likely invited you to join them already."

"I've heard that the holy island has the purest spirit veins in our human and demon territories, and that countless precious ingredients and medicines are planted on the island; it would indeed benefit me immensely if I could join the island," Han Li replied.

The woman paused momentarily before asking, "Brother Han, did you know that the holy island itself is half of a Profound Heavenly Treasure and is the last resort for our two races to continue our heritage?"

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"Is that so? This is the first time I've heard that," Han Li replied as his expression changed slightly.

"It's no surprise that you're unaware of something like this; aside from the old monsters on the holy island, there are definitely less than 20 people who are aware of this. These include the three sovereigns, the Long Family patriarch, and myself," the woman replied with a smile.

"Why are you telling me this?" Han Li asked with a curious look in his eyes.

The woman paused momentarily before replying, "Seeing as you've appeared here, I'm sure you already know that the three devilish patriarchs are going to descend into our Spirit Realm. Have you thought about how you're going to protect your disciples and descendants if our two races were to be defeated by the devilish army?"

"Hehe, I only have a few disciples, and I haven't set up any sect or power, nor do I have descendants to worry about," Han Li chuckled in response.

"Oh? Then why is it that I've heard that your disciples have taken many disciples for themselves?" the woman asked in a slightly surprised manner.

"That's just a sect founded by my disciples; I've never had any direct connection to it. Whether the sect survives or falls will be decided by their fortune," Han Li replied with a smile.

The woman faltered momentarily upon hearing this before a smile returned to her face. "In that case, it seems that I was too nosy."

"Are you really that pessimistic about our chances against the devilish army? The devilish patriarchs are indeed extremely fearsome, but if the Grand Ascension Stage beings of our races were to join forces, we would certainly stand a chance. Besides, the three devilish patriarchs have resounding reputations, but who's actually seen them in action? Perhaps their abilities have been greatly exaggerated," Han Li said.

"I don't think that our races have no chance at all, but the three devilish patriarchs are definitely far more fearsome than the average Sacred Ancestor," the woman replied as a concerned look appeared on her face.

Han Li's expression remained unchanged, but his heart stirred slightly as he said, "Oh? It sounds like you know something about them, Fairy Ye."

The woman paused momentarily before asking, "Come to think of you, you've saved my granddaughter's life in the past and have some ties with our Ye Family, so I'll disclose this to you. How much do you know about the ancestors of our Ye Family, Brother Han?"

"I've only heard that your Ye Family is a true spirit family with a history that stretches back to ancient times; I don't know much more aside from that," Han Li replied.

"There have been several ancestors of our Ye Family who have managed to reach the Grand Ascension Stage, and through a stroke of immense fortune, one of them was able to stimulate her true spirit bloodline to its maximum potential. As a result, she attained incredible powers and snuck into the Elder Devil Realm on several occasions."

Han Li's eyes narrowed slightly in contemplation upon hearing this, but he merely continued to listen in silence.

The woman paused momentarily before continuing, "It's said that this ancestor of ours fought many times in secret with Grand Ascension Stage beings of foreign races, but was never defeated once. However, in order to take that final step, she had to venture into the Elder Devil Realm to search for a few types of precious spirit medicines. The first few trips went very smoothly, but she never returned from her last trip, so she most likely perished in there. However, prior to making that final trip, he left a journal in our Ye Family, and it contained many stories about the Elder Devil Realm. One of those stories was about the time when she had witnessed one of the three devilish patriarchs battling a true spirit in the Elder Devil Realm.

"According to her own assessment, she definitely wouldn't have been able to withstand more than seven or eight attacks from that devilish patriarch, and if she had been discovered at the time, her chance of escaping alive would've been less than 50%. Senior Ao Xiao and Senior Mo Jianli both possess unfathomable powers, but they definitely wouldn't be much more powerful than that ancestor of our Ye Family. If they were to face the devilish patriarchs..."

The woman's voice trailed off there, but it was very clear what she was implying.

Han Li's expression also darkened upon hearing this, but he replied, "Even if the devilish patriarchs really are that powerful, we won't need to directly face them in battle. As beings of a foreign realm, they would definitely be debilitated by the power of our Spirit Realm, and on top of that, I'm sure the holy island and the two Grand Ascension Stage seniors would've devised countermeasures against them. Otherwise, what would be the point of even fighting this battle? As soon as they received news that the devilish patriarchs were going to descend into this realm, they would've evacuated the entire human race."

"That's also my thought process. Otherwise, I would've evacuated our Ye Family long ago. However, if some of our Ye Family could receive protection from the holy island, our heritage wouldn't be completely severed even if our two races were to be defeated," the woman said.

"In that case, why haven't you sought out someone from the holy island to discuss this? Why are you telling me all of this?" Han Li was truly perplexed now.

"Hehe, it seems that you're still now aware of your own worth, Fellow Daoist Han," the woman chuckled.

"What do you mean by that?" Han Li asked.

"Even without this devilish tribulation, how much longer do you think Senior Mo Jianli and Senior Ao Xiao would be able to protect our two races? One of them most likely won't be able to transcend their next major heavenly tribulation, while the other has also been at the Grand Ascension Stage for a very long time and won't be able to transcend many more tribulations, either. Aside from those two seniors, there is no third Grand Ascension Stage being among our two races. Among the Body Integration cultivators, who has the greatest chance of progressing to the Grand Ascension Stage? I haven't heard of any Body Integration Stage beings in the demon race with particularly outstanding talent, and both the Holy Sovereign and the Tyrant Sovereign have a sliver of a chance, but they can't even hold a candle to your freakish aptitude.

"If I'm not mistaken, if it becomes apparent that our two races are going to lose the battle against the devilish army, the first thing that the holy island will do will be to invite you onto the island. Even if we were to lose our current territory, as long as another Grand Ascension cultivator could arise among us in the future, we'll be able to make a resurgence elsewhere," the woman said.

Han Li pondered this for a moment before replying, "I think you're exaggerating, Fellow Daoist, but even if all that is true, what are you trying to say?"

"I have a few descendants who have inherited the purest heavenly phoenix bloodline; I would like you to accept them as your disciples and send them to the holy island along with your other disciple before the final battle commences. If you're willing to do that, I'll be sure to follow your lead during our upcoming journey to the Elder Devil Realm," the woman said in a serious voice.

"You want me to accept them as my disciple? Surely you jest, Fairy Ye!" Han Li exclaimed as he shook his head emphatically.

"I wouldn't make jokes about something like this. I can assure you that all of them are exceptional talents, and you'll only need to provide them with basic instruction, so they definitely won't hold you back," the woman insisted.

"But I have no intention of accepting more disciples. Besides, you don't have to do this if all you want is for some of your descendants to be able to seek refuge on the holy island. If you really think that the holy island will take my opinion into account, then I can write a letter to the elders of the holy island relaying your request to them, but I can't guarantee that it'll work. As for following my lead in the upcoming journey, there's no need for that; I'm sure you'll be able to make wise decisions on your own as demanded by the situation," Han Li said with a meaningful smile.

"In that case, we'll do as you say. It seems that those descendants of mine simply are fortunate enough to be chosen as your disciples. Having said that, I promised to follow your lead, and I intend to see through that promise, so you can rest assured. Truth be told, even without raising this request, I had still planned to follow your lead during this journey," the woman said with a slightly sly smile.

"Oh? You seem to have a lot of trust in me, Fellow Daoist. Isn't the leader of our group supposed to be Fellow Daoist Long?" Han Li asked as he stroked his own chin.

"Hmph, the Long Family has plotted against our Ye Family on countless occasions; I'm not going to place my trust in him. I'm doing this for the sake of my descendants, but also for my own sake. I hope we can forge an alliance to ensure our survival in the Elder Devil Realm. Who knows if Fellow Daoist Long and those Spirit beings will have other plans once we enter the Elder Devil Realm? I have no interest in becoming cannon fodder for anyone," the woman harrumphed coldly.

"I see. Alright, I'll enclose a message in a jade slip, and I'm sure you'll have a way to get the jade slip to your descendants. Just tell them to deliver the jade slip and an item that I can be identified by to Deep Heaven City and seek out my disciples. Our trip into the Elder Devil Realm could take up to several decades, so we'll most likely miss the final battle against the devilish army," Han Li said as he flipped a hand over to produce a jade slip.

The woman was ecstatic to hear this. "You have my thanks, Brother Han."

Han Li merely smiled and injected his spiritual sense into the jade slip to store a message into it.

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Spiritual light flashed from the surface of the jade slip before quickly fading, following which it was tossed toward the woman along with a translucent jade pendant.

The woman caught the two items before briefly injecting her spiritual sense into them, then extended her gratitude toward Han Li in an elated manner.

"It seems that both of us have arrived several days earlier than the agreed date; how about we take advantage of this time to exchange some cultivation insights and experiences? I've only just reached the late-Body Integration Stage, and I'm sure there are many things that I can learn from you," Han Li said with a smile.

"You're far too modest, Brother Han; I would love to discuss cultivation with you. On top of that, there are also some details about our upcoming journey to the Elder Devil Realm that I'd like to speak to you about. I opened up a cave just over there; how about we take a seat in there?" the woman asked with a smile.

Han Li naturally had no objections to this, and the two of them flew toward the cave as two streaks of light.

High up in the air close to 10 kilometers away from the valley, there was a white cloud drifting lazily over the sky.

Within the cloud were two humanoid figures, one of which was a slender woman who was concealed within a layer of pink mist. She was holding a treasure that was shimmering with crimson light while chanting something, and thumb-sized runes were occasionally drifting out of the treasure.

All of a sudden, the light emanating from the treasure became extremely bright, and it abruptly shattered amid a dull crack.

The woman's expression stiffened upon seeing this, following which she swept her sleeve through the air to cast the fragments of the treasure aside.

"How strange, my divination completely failed to derive any information on that man," the woman murmured to herself.

The woman was accompanied by a burly black-armored man, and he asked in a surprised manner, "Mistress, could it be that he possesses the spirit medicine that you need, and it's concealing itself from your divination?"

The woman paused momentarily before shaking her head in response. "The spirit medicine that I'm searching for does indeed possess extraordinary properties, but it definitely does not possess the ability to conceal itself from divination. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to track it down from so far away. If he really does possess the spirit medicine, then I should be able to sense it from this distance even without using divination. In any case, it's very strange that I couldn't derive any information at all from my divination."

"How could he be capable of doing something like this? Only a Grand Ascension Stage being should be able to completely ward off your divination," the black-armored man said with furrowed brows.

"That is indeed quite strange, but it's not impossible; if he possesses the same level of divination abilities or possesses one of the several types of immortal spirit physiques, then he'd also be able to conceal himself from my divination," the woman speculated.

The burly man drew a sharp breath upon hearing this, then immediately began to shake his head vigorously. "It's very implausible that he possesses the same level of divination ability; there are only a handful of beings in the entire Spirit Realm that possess divination abilities comparable to yours. As for the legendary immortal spirit physiques, almost all of them can bestow upon one the power to reign supreme over an entire realm; how could a mere human like him possibly possess such a physique? If he really did, then he would've been hidden away by the human race like a precious treasure already!"

"I also think those are both very implausible options. In that case, he most likely possesses a fragment of a Profound Heavenly Treasure or a Profound Heavenly Holy Artifact; the power of laws imbued within such treasures will also prevent my divination from working as intended. Those types of treasures are also exceedingly rare, but it's the only plausible option," the woman mused.

The woman had automatically omitted the possibility that Han Li had a complete Profound Heavenly Treasure sealed within his body, thinking that he only had a Profound Heavenly Treasure fragment or replica treasure.

"You already recovered that Profound Heavenly Fortune Blade fragment last time from him, yet he still has another incomplete Profound Heavenly Treasure in his possession; this brat is wealthier than some of our race's Sacred Ancestors!" The burly man drew a sharp breath as he cast his gaze toward the valley in the distance with a hint of greed in his eyes.

"Don't forget our objective for this trip; don't touch him before we track down the spirit medicine," the woman warned in an indifferent voice.

The burly man shuddered upon hearing this, and he hurriedly lowered his head as he said, "Rest assured, Mistress, I wouldn't dare to attack him without permission."

"He's already reached the late-Body Integration Stage, so you would be no match for him anyway. Come to think of it, he was only at the mid-Body Integration Stage when we last saw him; it looks like he's harboring some other secrets aside from just an incomplete Profound Heavenly Treasure," the woman mused as a peculiar look appeared in her eyes.

The burly man could see that the woman had truly developed an interest in this human, so he most likely wouldn't be let off the hook even if he didn't possess the spirit medicine that she was searching for. On the inside, he was lamenting the fate of this unfortunate human cultivator, but he still put on a respectful expression as he asked, "What should we do next, Mistress? Should we keep watching him?"

"These two are among the most powerful beings in the human race, yet they've gathered here instead of staying in any major human settlement; they must be plotting something, and it looks like there are more people to come. Let's keep waiting until everyone else gets here. After all, I've already confirmed through my divination that the woman with the heavenly phoenix bloodline will lead me to the spirit medicine I'm searching for, so it's best not to alert them to our presence," the woman replied.

"That's true. Once everyone arrives, the whereabouts of the spirit medicine will naturally be revealed. If we sense something from someone else, we'll be able to rule out that man."

"It would indeed be best if things could go that smoothly. However, from the looks of it, it'll take quite some time before everyone else arrives, so let's and meditate for now," the woman said before raising a hand to release a cloud of pink mist, contained within which was a pink floral tree that was several tens of feet tall.

The burly man gave an affirmative response, then flew into the floral tree and vanished without a trace. As for the woman, she merely laid a hand on the tree and also disappeared into it amid a flash of light.

Five days later, rainbow light suddenly appeared in the sky thousands of kilometers away from the valley, and a giant azure ark emerged before hurtling directly toward the valley.

The ark was around 1,000 feet in length and was split up into three levels. It was completely green in color, and judging from the layers of runes and formations engraved upon it, it was clear that this was a rare flying treasure.

On a platform on the top level of the ark, there were four people standing side by side, conversing with one another in quiet voices.

One of them was an indistinct humanoid figure enveloped within a layer of white light, one was a beauty in a yellow dress, one was a thin man in a set of coarse cloth robes, and the final person was an elderly scholar who appeared to be in his sixties.

"Alright, let's proceed according to our original plan. Before we get to our desired destination, we have to fully cooperate with the human cultivators. This journey to the Elder Devil Realm is going to be extremely perilous; we won't be able to succeed on our own," the figure enshrouded within white light said in a cold voice.

"Indeed. If our Spirit Race can gain another Grand Ascension Stage being out of this journey, then we won't have fear of any of the neighboring races," the woman in yellow sighed.

"Fairy Thousand Autumns, you've interacted the most with the humans, so we'll leave it to you to correspond with them. When the time comes, the three of us will offer you any assistance you require," the thin man said.

"I'll be thanking you in advance, then, fellow daoists. I'm sure the human cultivators also wouldn't dare to plot against us before we arrive at our destination, so we don't have to be too concerned about the initial portion of the journey," the woman in yellow said with a smile.

"Hmph, even if they do dare to try something, they'll only be piling more misery onto themselves," the elderly scholar said in a cold voice.

"Hehe, with the forces we have hiding in the shadows, we naturally don't have the fear the humans, but at the same time, we have to look at the bigger picture and stay out of trouble as much as possible. The agreed meeting place is just up ahead; bring out that thing and make sure to keep it under control so that the humans don't sense anything amiss," the figure in the white light said.

"Rest assured, that thing possesses incomplete intelligence to begin with, so the treasure we were given is enough to control it. It's a pity that it can't be placed in a storage bracelet. Otherwise, it wouldn't have to take up one of our slots to enter the Elder Devil Realm," the woman said in a forlorn manner.

"That thing is more powerful than all of us combined; so what if it takes up one of our slots? Let's prepare to descend into the valley now," the figure in the white light said in a nonchalant manner.

The figure within the white light was clearly the leader of the group, and everyone immediately agreed before making their way into the ark.

Meanwhile, three streaks of light were hurtling toward the valley from different directions thousands of kilometers away. They were led by a streak of golden light, contained within which was none other than the Long Family patriarch, and he was accompanied by a black-robed man with a scar on his face, as well as an expressionless long-haired man.

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The giant azure ark and the three streaks of light appeared in the air above the valley almost at the exact same time, and both sides were slightly taken aback to see one another.

The three streaks of light halted, and the Long Family patriarch was revealed before greeting with a smile, "What a coincidence! Greetings, fellow daoists of the Spirit Race."

"I had thought that you'd already be in a valley; it's rather surprising to see that you've only just made as well, Brother Long." Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns' voice rang out in response, immediately following which she appeared at the front of the ark.

Behind her were four other humanoid figures, three of which were the other Holy Spirits she had been conversing with earlier, while the fourth person was a young man with a very pale face. There was a faint layer of blue mist drifting around his body, and he was displaying no expression at all.

"Haha, I had indeed planned to arrive earlier, but I encountered some trouble along the way and was delayed for some time. I'm very impressed by your punctuality even though you had to travel far further than I did to get here," the Long Family patriarch said with a smile, and as he swept his gaze over the Five Spirit beings, a peculiar look flashed through his eyes as his gaze lingered momentarily on the pale-faced young man.

"You encountered some trouble? It's not going to affect our journey, is it?" Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns asked in a cautious manner.

"Rest assured, Fairy Thousand Autumns, we encountered a few high-grade devilish beings on the way here, but they've all been taken care of, so there's no way that information surrounding our journey will be leaked," the Long Family patriarch replied with a smile.

"Good. It seems that some fellow daoists have already arrived here before us; let's go down to meet them," Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns said as her expression eased slightly.

The Long Family patriarch swept his spiritual sense toward the valley down below, and said, "Those auras belong to Fellow Daoist Han and Fairy Ye; looks like they got here quite early."

Thus, both sides descended toward the valley while the giant azure ark lingered in mid-air. The elderly scholar among the Spirit beings then pointed a finger at it, and it instantly concealed itself into space.

The Holy Spirits and the Long Family patriarch's group landed at the center of the valley, following which a male voice immediately rang out to greet them. "Greetings, fellow daoists; Fairy Ye and I have been waiting for quite some time."

As soon as the voice trailed off, two streaks of light emerged from the other end of the valley, then faded to reveal Han Li and the patriarch of the Ye Family.

"Looks like everyone's all here!" the Long Family patriarch said with a smile at the sight of Han Li's duo.

"I don't seem to recognize any of our fellow daoists from the Spirit Race aside from Fellow Daoist Thousand Autumns; I believe an introduction would be appropriate," Han Li said.

"Fellow Daoist Han, you've already reached the late-Body Integration Stage!" Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns exclaimed as soon as she swept her spiritual sense toward Han Li.

Back when they had first met, he had only been at the early-Body Integration Stage, yet he had since progressed to the late-Body Integration Stage in just a few centuries; how could she not be stunned by this?

"I was indeed fortunate enough to have reached the late-Body Integration Stage," Han Li replied with a smile.

At his current level of power, he was unable to conceal his true cultivation base in the face of other late-Body Integration Stage beings unless he used a secret technique to do so.

The other Holy Spirits instantly turned to appraise Han Li upon hearing this, and stunned expressions also appeared on their faces.

Prior to setting off, the Holy Spirits had all familiarized themselves with the human cultivators that they were going to be collaborating with, so they were naturally able to recognize Han Li right away.

"Hehe, Brother Han is a truly phenomenal cultivation prodigy of our human race. With the incredible progress that he's made, we'll have a far greater chance of success in this journey," the Long Family Patriarch chuckled.

"I had heard some rumors about Fellow Daoist Han's exceptional cultivation aptitude, but I didn't think that his rate of progression would still be so extraordinary even after reaching the Body Integration Stage. Just as you say, Brother Long; this is indeed good news for all of us. Now then, allow me to introduce my brethren here. These are all cultivators of our Spirit Race who have constantly been in seclusion, so very few foreign races know of them. This is Elder Jin Gu of our Spirit Race's Metal Faction. He's adept at using soundwave abilities, and his forte lies in dealing with large numbers of enemies at once..." Thus, the Thousand Autumns began to introduce the Spirit beings one by one, and all of the human cultivators listened intently while appraising these Holy Spirits.

According to Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns' introduction, the thin grey-robed man was Elder Jin Gu, the elderly scholar was Zang Xing, and he was well-versed in the art of restrictions; the man enshrouded within white light was known was Bai Qi, and he possessed several types of powerful abilities that were particularly effective against devilish beings; the final pale-faced young man was introduced to everyone by Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns as Zhi Shui, and apparently, he was very adept in spatial abilities.

Among these Holy Spirits, Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns and the figure enshrouded within white light were both at the late-Body Integration Stage, while the elderly scholar and the thin grey-robed man were at the mid-Body Integration Stage, and the young man known as Zhi Shui was only at the early-Body Integration Stage.

If Han Li hadn't become a late-Body Integration Stage, the overall power of the Spirit Race representatives would've outstripped that of the human representatives, on paper at least.

The Long Family patriarch couldn't detect anything amiss with the Holy Spirits, and he greeted them one by one.

The elderly scholar and thin grey-robed man both responded with a smile, while Bai Qi and Zhi Shui remained silent and expressionless.

The Long Family patriarch naturally didn't take this to heart and introduce Han Li and the others to the Spirit beings as well.

Due to the fact that this Bai Qi was giving off spiritual pressure that was even more powerful than that of Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns, the human cultivators had reflexively focused most of their attention on him.

However, the white light shimmering around his body seemed to possess some profound properties, and even Han Li was struck by a sense of dizziness after looking at it for too long.

After that, both sides didn't waste any more time and sat down beside a large tree nearby to discuss their journey into the Elder Devil Realm.

The preparations for this journey had commenced many years ago, so the general plan was already settled; all they had to do now was to make some minor adjustments.

As such, their discussion was complete in no more than four hours, and they all rose up into the air again before flying into the giant azure ark that had reappeared up above.

A buzzing sound rang out from the ark as rainbow light flashed over its surface, and it sped away as a streak of azure light.

Moments later, the streak of azure light had vanished into the distance.

Unbeknownst to everyone, there was a barely visible ball of white light that was trailing them in hot pursuit less than 100 kilometers away. Within the ball of white light, a hideous black-armored man was currently appraising a woman with pink light shimmering around her body in a stunned manner. "You're saying that there's someone among them that even you have to be wary of? Surely you're overestimating them, Mistress! Due to your injuries, you're nowhere near the height of your powers, it shouldn't be any issue for you to take care of these Body Integration Stage beings."

The woman was holding a purplish-golden copper coin and stroking it with her finger, and only after a long while did she reply in an indifferent manner, "It's not that I'm wary of those Body Integration Stage beings; it's this Destiny Copper Coin that suddenly displayed a reaction. This indicates that one of those Body Integration Stage beings possesses a treasure that is powerful enough to pose a threat to me; I don't want to further compound my own injuries in a moment of complacency."

On one side of the copper coin that she was holding was a benevolent smiling human face, while a malicious ghostly face was emblazoned on the other side, creating quite an unsettling contrast.

"What treasure could possibly pose a threat to you?" the black-armored man asked in a stunned voice.

"At the height of my powers, there are very few treasures aside from Profound Heavenly Treasures that can pose a true threat to me. However, in my current state, it's hard to say; even some special Divine Spirit Treasures could pose a threat to me," the woman replied.

The black-armored man's expression changed slightly before he asked in a careful manner, "Did you sense the spirit medicine you're searching for from one of these people?"

"I'm getting a vague sense of it from one of them, but it's a rather strange feeling," the woman replied with her brows furrowed slightly, seemingly rather hesitant about something.

The black-armored man was naturally very curious, but didn't dare to ask any further questions.

The giant azure ark flew for three entire months, carefully concealing itself along the way and carefully skirting around many devilish settlements before arriving at the boundless ocean.

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The giant azure ark then continued on into the ocean without any pause. Meanwhile, the Spirit and human beings on the ark were all meditating in their own rooms to prime themselves to the best possible condition.

Everyone knew that despite how long they had been preparing, this trip was definitely still going to be an extremely perilous one. If they weren't careful, all of them could easily be wiped out in the Elder Devil Realm.

As such, everyone was doing everything they could to prepare for the foray into the Elder Devil Realm.

In a room on the bottom level of the ark, there were three identical Han Lis seated with their legs crossed. There was a colorful restriction shimmering from the walls, and the three Han Lis were all of different colors.

One was shimmering with golden light, one was radiating green light, and the final one was enshrouded within a cloud of black Qi.

These were none other than Han Li, his spirit body, and his Provenance Golden Body.

Back when Han Li was being pursued by the four Sacred Ancestor clones, he had no choice but to release his spirit body and second Nascent Soul as red herrings to distract his pursuers.

Both of them had managed to survive the ordeal, and Han Li naturally unleashed a secret technique to summon them back to himself as soon as he returned to Deep Heaven City.

However, due to the fact that the entire city had been surrounded by the devilish army, the spirit body and second Nascent Soul didn't dare to return to the city and could only temporarily hide in the outskirts of the devilish army.

After the devilish army was forced into retreat, the two were finally able to return to Han Li as he was recuperating in seclusion.

The second Nascent Soul was extremely familiar with the restrictions set up in the stone pagoda that Han Li had been staying in, so it was able to sneak in without alerting anyone else.

As for Qu'er and the spirit body, not only had they returned completely unscathed, they had made some progress in their powers during their time away from Han Li.

The second Nascent Soul had self-detonated to escape from the Yuan Cha clone, and even though it had been able to manifest itself into a new Nascent Soul, it had naturally been severely debilitated by the ordeal.

For a normal Body Integration cultivator, this would naturally be a very troublesome matter to deal with as it would take at least several decades of arduous cultivation to get the second Nascent Soul to fully recover. However, with the countless medicines and pills at Han Li's disposal, this wasn't an issue at all.

He fed the second Nascent Soul a series of fortifying spirit pills, and within just half a year, it had recovered most of its powers. It was still far from the height of its powers, but in its current state, it would still be able to control the golden body in battle.

Han Li was currently focusing the entirety of his attention on a small purple cauldron that was hovering before him.

The cauldron was only several inches in size, and its surface was covered in profound runes. It was currently being enveloped within a burst of azure flames that was being expelled out of Han Li's mouth, and he was staring intently at the cauldron while flicking his fingers toward it to cast incantation seals into the flames.

The azure flames flickered, and a low buzzing sound rang out from within the cauldron. There was a blurry grey strip of light that was half-concealed within the cauldron while the other half was extending out of it.

The strip of light was only around as thick as a human finger, and it was writhing violently as if it were extremely fearful of the azure flames around it.

Han Li's expression remained completely unchanged, but the frequency with which he was unleashing an incantation seal began to increase, a wisp of golden light began to appear in the azure flames being expelled out of his mouth.

Finally, the grey strip of light seemed to be unable to stand the refinement of the azure flames any longer, and it transformed into a white ball of light that shot forth out of the azure flames to try and flee the scene.

However, Han Li was already prepared for this, and he flicked a finger through the air in an unhurried manner, unleashing a bolt of golden lightning amid a loud thunderclap.

The white ball of light was instantly reduced to nothingness by the arc of golden lightning, and a hint of elation appeared in Han Li's eyes upon seeing this. "I've finally managed to force out that old devil's spiritual sense. Now, I just have to refine the cauldron again with my own blood essence to be able to use it."

Immediately thereafter, he made a hand seal and opened his mouth to expel a ball of blood essence, which exploded into a cloud of blood mist that vanished into the cauldron.

The azure flames then began to burn with greater intensity, and the small cauldron began to revolve on the spot.

This was none other than the Purple Word Cauldron that Han Li had taken from the Xue Guang clone.

It was an incomplete Profound Heavenly Treasure that he had found to be extremely troublesome to deal with, and he hadn't dared to refine it right away due to the presence of Che Qigong's spiritual sense within the treasure.

This wisp of spiritual sense had already developed a hint of spiritual nature, and not only did it refuse to come out of the cauldron, it was even able to use some of the cauldron's power to protect itself.

As such, it had taken Han Li several years to finally force it out of the cauldron before destroying it on the spot. Now, all he had to do was refine the cauldron, and it would become a powerful weapon for him.

In terms of versatility and unpredictability, this Purple Word Cauldron was superior even to the blade fragment that had been taken from him, so it was certainly a very good replacement.

Han Li refined the small cauldron for seven days and seven nights, and only on the eighth day was the process completed. He swept a sleeve through the air with an elated expression to snuff out the azure flames, following which the cauldron shrank down to around the size of a human thumb before adhering itself tightly to his forehead.

Han Li closed his eyes and began to assess the uses of the cauldron, while the cauldron itself was shimmering with faint purple light that was fluctuating in brightness.

After another three days and three nights, Han Li reopened his eyes as a smile appeared on his face. He had already mastered most of the uses of the cauldron, and he laid a hand onto his own forehead to stow the treasure away.

Han Li paused momentarily, then suddenly raised an arm before opening his mouth to expel a burst of azure light, which severed his sleeve to reveal his bare arm.

On his forearm was the faint yellow mark left behind by that Profound Heavenly Spiritslash Sword. Han Li cast his gaze toward the mark, and a hesitant look appeared on his face.

After a long while, he finally gritted his teeth and pressed his arm hand onto his exposed forearm, then drew upon the magic power within his body.

Golden light flashed all over his entire body as golden ripples surged over his arm, and under the stimulus of pure spiritual power, the barely visible mark on his forearm began to become clearer. It gradually turned from yellow to green, then slowly transitioned to a dark green color.

From a distance, it looked as if a miniature dark green sword had been embedded within his arm.

A tense look appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this, but he continued the injection of spiritual power.

After a full 10 minutes had passed, the miniature dark green sword suddenly shuddered, then began to roam over his arm as if it had sprung to life.

Han Li's heart stirred as he immediately released his own forearm, and the injection of golden spiritual power also ceased in a flash.

In the instant that the miniature sword had been roaming over his skin, his entire arm had become scorching hot, as if it were being baked over an open flame, and all of the meridians within that arm were also struck by a burst of excruciating pain, which was why he had hurriedly stopped what he was doing.

Without the injection of spiritual power, the dark green sword returned to its original position, then reverted back to a barely visible yellow mark.

Han Li's brows furrowed tightly as he appraised the yellow mark, and only after a long while did he hesitantly flex his own arm. A layer of azure light flashed over his arm, and the torn sleeve was instantly restored.

A wry smile appeared on Han Li's face as he murmured to himself, "Looks like my late-Body Integration Stage magic power still isn't enough to allow me to use the treasure. If I really want to make use of this treasure, I'll have to reach the Grand Ascension Stage first."

After that, Han Li paused for a while longer before closing his eyes and entering a meditative state.

Two months later, the giant azure ark suddenly stopped in mid-air, and Han Li opened his eyes upon sensing this as a contemplative look appeared on his face.

Almost at the exact same moment, the Long Family patriarch's voice suddenly sounded within his secret chamber. "Brother Han, we've almost reached the spatial node. The flying ark is too big of a target, so we can't travel in it any longer; we'll have to disembark and fly from here."

"I see," Han Li replied in an indifferent voice, then swept his sleeve through the air around him.

Several tens of formations flags of different colors instantly shot out of the walls of the room before vanishing up his sleeve as streaks of spiritual light.

After that, he flew out of the room as a streak of azure light, and by the time he arrived in the air above the giant ark, there was a group of human and Spirit beings already waiting there.

He wasn't the last to emerge from the ark; immediately following him were the long-haired man from the Lin Family, and the elderly scholar of the Spirit Race.

As soon as the elderly scholar arrived, he immediately chanted something before pointing his finger at the giant azure ark, which rapidly shrank down into a small piece of azure wood that was then drawn up the scholar's sleeve.

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Han Li cast his gaze throughout the surrounding area to find that they were still situated above the boundless ocean, and there wasn't anything of note to see nearby.

"We're about four or five days away from our destination. The node isn't very large, but it's situated in a secluded corner of the Xuan Wu Region, where the most bloodthirsty faction of the devilish army, the Violent Devil Race, is situated. These Violent Devils are extremely ruthless, and this place is far more chaotic than anywhere else in the entire Xuan Wu Region, so we'll have to proceed with caution," the Long Family Patriarch said in a solemn manner.

"If we had chosen a devilish node near Deep Heaven City, we would've been able to minimize the risk involved," the young woman from the Ye Family sighed in a forlorn manner.

"None of the spatial nodes near Deep Heaven City are suitable; I've already sent out scouts who have confirmed that only through this node can we directly reach the Bloodstone Mountain Range of the Elder Devil Realm. The Bloodstone Mountain Range is an extremely barren place, so we shouldn't encounter any danger there. Otherwise, if we enter the Elder Devil Realm through another node, we either run the risk of facing powerful enemies right away, or ending up too far away from our destination, thereby requiring a journey that's longer than necessary," the Long Family patriarch replied with a shake of his head.

The young woman chuckled, "I was just articulating a wishful thought; I have full trust in the arrangements you've made, Brother Long."

The Long Family patriarch merely smiled and remained silent.

At this moment, Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns approached the Long Family patriarch, and the two of them had a brief discussion before setting off with everyone else.

During the next four days, Han Li and the others encountered a few groups of patrolling devilish guards, ranging from around a dozen guards to over 100.

In contrast with the devilish beings that had appeared near Deep Heaven City, these devilish guards were noticeably taller, and they were wearing suits of devilish armor that were inscribed with blue devilish runes.

Of course, it would've been a simple matter for Han Li's group to kill these devilish guards, but they merely concealed themselves and flew over the guards without alerting them.

Even the most powerful beings among these devilish guards were only at the Deity Transformation Stage, so there was naturally no way they could sense a group of Body Integration Stage beings.

During the evening of the fourth day, a series of black spots suddenly appeared over the distant ocean, and after flying a bit closer, these dots were revealed to be a cluster of coral islands of different sizes.

The smallest of these islands were only several kilometers in size, while the largest were close to 100 kilometers, and the Long Family patriarch stopped before turning to Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns. "Fellow Daoist Thousand Autumns, there are most likely high-grade devilish beings situated up ahead; we'll be counting on you now. Everyone else, swallow the Devilfeign Beads that we distributed earlier. If we do get exposed, activate the devilish Qi within the beads right away, and we'll still be able to blend in."

Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns smiled and gave an affirmative response, then flipped a hand over to produce a white flag, which she waved through the air to produce a torrent of countless white flowers, all of which exploded in rapid succession.

A cloud of white mist that was around an acre in size immediately appeared in mid-air and enveloped the entire group.

After that, Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns began to chant something, then waved the flag through the air a few times, and a series of five-colored runes began to appear within the white mist. Everyone within the mist then began to blur before finally vanishing into nothingness.

Everyone was ecstatic to see this, while Han Li's expression remained calm as he released his spiritual sense into the surrounding mist.

Moments later, a hint of surprise flashed through his eyes.

This mist contained some kind of restriction, making it completely undetectable even to his immense spiritual sense. Han Li's eyes narrowed slightly as blue light flashed within his pupils, and he was finally able to catch sight of that layer of white mist, which had formed a protective barrier.

However, even through his spirit eyes, the mist was extremely faint and barely visible. This instilled Han Li with a great deal of confidence in this restriction, and his expression eased slightly as the blue light in his eyes faded.

This type of concealment naturally wouldn't be able to fool him, but unless there were some devilish lords up ahead who possessed special secret techniques, none of the high-grade devilish beings would be able to see through this cover.

The other human cultivators in the group were also quickly becoming aware of how profound this mist was, and they were very pleased and intrigued by this discovery.

Right at this moment, Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns suddenly tossed the flag in her hand forward, and it transformed into a streak of white light that guided the entire cloud of white mist forward.

Han Li and the others each produced a black bead that they swallowed, then concealed their auras before flying ahead along with the misty restriction.

Thus, the group flew into the cluster of coral islands in the blink of an eye.

Close to 100 kilometers away from them, spatial fluctuations erupted, following which a pink ball of light appeared.

After the light faded, two humanoid figures were revealed, one of whom was a woman in a white palatial dress holding a purple copper coin in one hand. She was accompanied by a burly black-armored man who wore an extremely respectful expression as he stood beside her.

The purple copper coin in the woman's hand suddenly vanished as she said to the burly man, "Hei'e, make some preparations; I'm going to conduct heavenly divination here."

"Mistress, you still haven't fully recovered from the backlash of the last heavenly divination; surely it's not a good idea to use it again in such a short time," the black-armored man said in a hesitant manner.

"Conducting heavenly divination twice in succession will naturally be very taxing on my body, but this could be my only chance to make a full recovery, so I can't afford to miss it," the woman replied in a nonchalant manner.

"This is just a group of Body Integration cultivators! If you're willing to entrust the Origin Quake Mace to me, I can kill all of them and find the spirit medicine that you're searching for," the burly man said in a display of loyalty.

"The Origin Quake Mace is indeed very powerful, but at your current cultivation base, you won't be able to make full use of its powers. On top of that, the warning from the Destiny Copper Coin indicates that these people definitely possess measures that can counter the Origin Quake Mace anyway. Alright, that's enough idle chatter; begin the preparations right away. If we delay any longer than this, it'll be quite a hassle to catch up with them again," the woman said.

His body swayed, and in the next instant, he appeared over 1,000 feet away before rubbing hands together, then spread them apart to release eight objects.

These were eight black wooden dolls, each of which was only around half a foot tall. They possessed disproportionately large heads that were comparable to the size of their bodies, and they all wore different and extremely life-like expressions.

After releasing the eight wooden dolls, Hei'e rotated on the spot to release hundreds of stone slabs out of his body, all of which abruptly converged up ahead to form a green stone platform that was around 70 to 80 feet tall.

The stone platform had countless vibrant green patterns engraved over its surface and was giving off an indescribable primordial aura.

Hei'e then flipped a hand over to produce a shimmering blue crystal ball, which he hurled viciously toward the ocean down below.

The crystal ball vanished into the ocean in a flash, following which Hei'e pointed a finger down below, and gargantuan waves that were several thousand feet tall were suddenly swept up.

The waves rose up into the air to form a blue water barrier that encompassed the stone platform, as well as the eight wooden dolls.

Only then did Hei'e cups his fist in a salute, and said in a respectful voice, "The altar is ready, Mistress."

The woman nodded in response before descending into the water barrier in an unhurried manner.

She then made a hand seal and began to chant something, upon which the water barrier began to shimmer with blue light.

The nearby space warped, and the entire water barrier gradually became transparent before vanishing into nothingness.

At the same time, the eight wooden dolls drifted forward to appear on the stone platform with two wooden dolls standing right next to one another on each corner.

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The woman then tossed the purple copper coin from before high up into the air, and it transformed into a large copper bowl in a flash before descending right onto the center of the stone platform.

The bowl's surface was covered in layers of complex runes, and there was a ball of purple light within it that seemed to be concealing something, but was impossible to see into.

The woman's expression remained unchanged as she pointed a finger toward the puppets one after another, and layers of black Qi suddenly appeared over the surfaces of the wooden dolls, following which eight different sinister ghostly faces were manifested.

They roared and struggled violently from behind the wooden dolls, but seemed to be bound to the dolls and were unable to get stray far away from them.

The woman paid no heed to this, and calmly instructed, "Prepare the sacrifices!"

"Yes, Mistress!" Hei'e replied before immediately rushing into the air directly above the stone platform, then abruptly laid a hand onto his own waist.

A palm-sized black leather pouch instantly flew out of his body, then swelled to around 10 feet in size before tipping itself over above the purple copper bowl.

The pouch was opened, and crimson liquid gushed out of it toward the purple ball of light.

The crimson liquid was flowing out of the pouch like an endless waterfall, but the bowl showed no sign of being filled, as if it were a bottomless pit.

Hei-e wasn't surprised at all to see this, and he merely continued to oversee the proceedings.

After a long while, more than a ton of liquid had gushed out of the leather pouch, yet it was still flowing without any signs of subsiding.

"Alright, that should be enough. It wasn't easy to collect all this blood essence from Body Integration Stage ancient beasts, so we should conserve it where possible," the woman suddenly said.

Hei'e immediately made a grabbing motion toward the leather pouch upon seeing this, and the stream of blood immediately ceased before the pouch flew back to him in a flash.

The woman took a deep breath and made a hand seal, upon which a massive pink floral tree suddenly appeared behind her.

The tree was glittering and translucent with fist-sized pink flowers growing all over its branches, all of which were giving off an intoxicating aroma.

The woman's body blurred, and she suddenly vanished before appearing directly above the tree. Her pristine bare foot was treading light upon the flower growing at the very top of the tree, and she flipped a hand over to produce a white bone blade that was very thin and extremely sharp.

She then slowly raised an arm and extended her wrist out of her sleeve before slashing the bone blade across her wrist.

A stream of viscous silver liquid immediately tricked down from her wrist and dripped onto the top of the floral tree before vanishing into it.

A loud buzzing sound rang out, and the pink tree instantly turned silver, creating a spectacular sight to behold.

After waiting for a short while, the woman withdrew her wrist before blowing onto the self-inflicted gash, which immediately disappeared amid a flash of white light.

Only then did she cast her gaze toward the purple bowl down below, and she stowed away the bone blade before producing a black handkerchief, which she tossed up into the air.

The surrounding water barrier instantly turned inky-black to keep out all of the external light, and it was as if night had suddenly fallen.

The woman raised her foot before gently stepping down onto the top of the floral tree, and the massive tree instantly exploded into specks of silver light that shot forth through the air.

Thus, silver stars were instantly added to the "night sky", and they began to slowly revolve in a profound rhythmic manner at her behest.

It was as if another world had been established within the water barrier.

Silver light flashed through the woman's eyes, and her body blurred before expanding into a giant white projection that was several hundred feet tall. An extremely delightful voice rang out, chanting an incantation, and the surrounding stars began to accelerate in their rotation around the giant white projection, forming a series of profound starry diagrams.

At the same time, the ball of light within the copper bowl suddenly began to rise up, then take on a series of different shapes under the starry night sky.

Meanwhile, a shimmering golden disk had appeared before the woman, and she was flicking her fingers toward it at different speeds, causing balls of rainbow light to come flying out of the disk.

Her movements appeared to be very relaxed and nonchalant, but with each flick of her finger, her face would pale slightly, but the silver light in her eyes was gradually becoming brighter.

Around an hour later, a group of several tens of devilish beings began to fly toward the water barrier while riding atop devilish beasts that resembled sharks with wings.

These devilish beasts appeared to be quite clumsy and maladroit, but they were actually extremely fast and reached the water barrier in the blink of an eye.

However, these devilish beings clearly hadn't noticed the concealed water barrier at all, and they were just about to fly right past it when a loud rumbling boom rang out as the water barrier suddenly reappeared before exploding on the spot.

Powerful blue light swept forth in all directions to form a giant blue vortex, and all of the devilish guards were naturally quite alarmed by this as they hurriedly took evasive measures.

At the same time, their devilish beast steeds roared as they expelled balls of azure light, which formed azure light barriers around themselves and their riders.

Enormous waves swept past, only to be parted by these light barriers, and even though none of the devilish guards were harmed, they had naturally been greatly startled. All of them immediately drew their weapons and cast their eyes toward the vortex in a bewildered manner.

The blue vortex rapidly shrank amid an insistent rumbling noise, then vanished to reveal the woman in the white dress and the black-armored man.

The woman was currently holding the golden disk, and her face was deathly pale, but the silver light in her eyes was extremely piercing and bright. She currently wore an expression that seemed to be a mixture of incredulity, elation, and hesitation, while the black-armored man was inspecting the surrounding area in a slightly surprised manner.

The Deity Transformation Stage leader of the devilish guards swept his spiritual sense toward the duo and was immediately given a massive fright. Both the woman in white and the black-armored man possessed magic power that was completely unfathomable to him.

Thus, the leader of the guards immediately jumped off his steed with astonishment in his heart, and carefully asked, "I am Shi Shuo of the Violent Devil Race; may I ask which race you are from and whether you require my assistance with anything?"

The black-armored man appraised the group of devilish guards with a cold expression before turning to the woman with a respectful look in his eyes. "Mistress, what do you want me to do with them?"

"Seeing as they've discovered us, they can't be allowed to live," the woman replied without even looking up from her disk.

Her voice was completely emotionless, as if this group of devilish guards were only ants in her eyes.

A ruthless light appeared in the black-armored man's eyes as he gave an affirmative reply, then turned toward the Violent Devils with a bloodthirsty expression.

"Run!"

The leader of the devilish guards immediately knew that something was wrong upon hearing the conversation between the duo, and he instantly shot back while raising a hand to release a fist-sized bead. At the same time, a giant black blade appeared beneath his feet, and he combined as one with the blade before fleeing toward the cluster of coral islands as a streak of black light.

The other devilish guards were naturally very alarmed to see this, and they also immediately fled the scene.

The black-armored man cackled as he swept both arms through the air, releasing two bursts of black Qi that swept through the surrounding area.

All types of demonic insects could be seen within the black Qi, and they immediately inundated the fleeing devilish guards, following which a string of bloodcurdling howls rang out in quick succession.

He then cast his gaze toward the streak of black light, which had fled to several thousand feet away at this point, and set off in pursuit as a gust of black wind.

Moments later, a howl of anguish rang out, and he returned carrying a bloody head in one hand.

He tossed the head into the black Qi, then returned to the woman's side as a respectful expression reappeared on his face.

At this point, the bloodcurdling cries ringing out from within the black Qi had also subsided, and the black Qi flew back into the black-armored man's body.

Throughout this entire process, the woman's eyes had remained completely glued to the golden disk in her hand, and there was a hesitant look on her face.

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"Let's go. You acted quite quickly just now, but there's still a chance that someone could've been alerted," the woman said as she stowed her disk away.

She then swept a sleeve through the air, and a burst of pink light emerged to sweep up the duo, then rose up into the air before flying away as a ball of light, heading directly toward the cluster of coral islands.

As she flew along, the woman peered into the distance through narrowed eyes in an expressionless manner.

The black-armored man cast a few furtive glances at her, and after a while, he finally couldn't help but ask, "Mistress, why did the altar suddenly explode at the end there? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. It's just that the backlash was more powerful than I anticipated, so I was unable to control it in the end. I haven't suffered any injuries, but those eight substitute puppets have all been destroyed; I won't be able to conduct divination until I refine a new set," the woman replied.

The black-armored man's heart stirred upon hearing this. "I see. Then the divination..."

"I wasn't able to complete the divination, but I did derive signs from it. The signs are quite ambiguous and even self-contradicting in some areas, but one thing's for sure: this group of people possesses something that can help me make a full recovery. Follow them closely, but make sure not to tip them off; I need some time to think so I can truly grasp what the signs are telling me," the woman said.

"Yes, Mistress, then let's give chase right away. Not only did they gather so many Body Integration Stage beings, they also traveled all the way here; they must have a massive objective," the black-armored man speculated.

"Regardless of what their objective is, we'll find out eventually if we keep following them," the woman said.

"You've already planted a tracking mark on that human woman, and we're in the shadows while they're completely out in the open; there's no way they'll be able to escape from us," the black-armored man chuckled.

The woman merely nodded and offered no reply, and the black-armored man also fell silent.

Several hours later, Han Li and the others had already stopped in the air above a massive coral island that was several hundred kilometers in size. They were hovering at an altitude of tens of thousands of feet, appraising a devilish stronghold from afar.

The devilish stronghold occupied close to half of the area of the entire island, and it was surrounded by grey walls that were over 1,000 feet tall. On top of that, there were layers of restrictions set up near it, and it was encompassed within several black light barriers.

There were devilish guards wielding all types of weapons on the stronghold's walls, as well as two-headed devilish birds flying over the stronghold.

In the air above the stronghold, there was a gargantuan black cloud that was several hundred acres in size. The cloud was churning incessantly, and arcs of silver lightning could be seen flashing within it alongside rumbling thunderclaps, giving off a very eerie and formidable appearance.

"Is this the right stronghold? Didn't you say that there weren't supposed to be many devilish beings guarding this place?" Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns asked with a dark expression, and the other Holy Spirits were also clearly very displeased.

Han Li and the other human cultivators didn't say anything, but they also turned to the Long Family patriarch with skeptical looks in their eyes.

"Please don't misunderstand, fellow daoists; I sent scouts to this place not long ago, and at the time, this had only been a very small stronghold. This has also come as quite a surprise to me; it seems that more devilish beings must've been deployed to this place," the Long Family patriarch hurriedly explained with a wry smile.

"I'm sure you wouldn't lie about something like this, Brother Long, but what do you plan to do now? Should we change to a different node? With so many devilish beings present, there are most likely devilish lords among their ranks; there's a good chance that our original plan will fail here," Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns said as her expression eased slightly.

"There's not enough time for us to scout for another node. We've already ascertained the properties of this node, and it's the most suitable one for us. If we were to go through any node, even if we could arrive in the Elder Devilish Realm, we'd immediately be plunged into very perilous situations. It is indeed true that our original plan most likely won't work here; Devilfeign Beads are able to fool even high-grade devilish beings, but they're lacking in resistance against the power of restrictions. With so many restrictions, here, we could easily have our covers blown and be surrounded by the devilish army. As such, I suggest we simply conceal ourselves and fly toward the node. If we're exposed, then we'll just have to barge through by force. With our combined powers, even if one or two devilish lords were to stand against us, we'd be able to kill them right away. Once we enter the Elder Devil Realm, there will be no way for them to track us down," the Long Family Patriarch said as a cold look flashed through his eyes.

"I agree. With our combined powers, there really isn't all that much for us to fear, and forcing our way to the node is the simplest and most efficient way," the man from the Lin Family agreed with a nod.

"But if we do that, the devilish beings in the Elder Devil Realm will immediately receive news of what we're doing; that'll be very detrimental to our journey through the realm," the woman from the Ye Family said with her brows slightly furrowed.

"The Elder Devil Realm is an extremely massive place, and we won't be going to the cities with large gatherings of devilish beings, so even if they're made aware that foreign beings have entered their realm, there's no way for them to effectively hunt us down. Besides, it's not exactly an uncommon occurrence for foreign beings to enter the Elder Devil Realm. From what I've heard, many powerful beings from the races of our Spirit Realm would venture into the Elder Devil Realm from time to time; the devilish beings may not pay our group much heed," the black-robed elder from the Long Family countered.

Han Li merely remained silent as he stroked his chin with a calm expression, while the Holy Spirits were discussing the matter with one another through voice transmission.

Moments later, a verdict was reached, and the Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns turned to the Long Family patriarch as she said, "It will indeed be too much of a delay if we were to switch to a different node, so we'll do as you say, Brother Long. If our cover is blown, then we'll just have to force our way into the node, but I hope there won't be any further errors on your part once we enter the Elder Devil Realm."

The Long Family patriarch's eyelids twitched slightly, but he replied in a confident manner, "Rest assured, fellow daoists."

"In that case, let's begin right away. I'll unleash the full power of this Smokecloud Flag and do my best to get us as close as possible to the node without setting off any of the restrictions here," Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns said in a serious voice.

She then made a hand seal, and several streaks of light shot forth into the surrounding air, then vanished in a flash.

Blue light flashed through Han Li's eyes as he cast his gaze around him to discover that a layer of cloud and mist had appeared in the surrounding area. After just a few flashes, the cloud and mist became extremely thin, and it was barely visible even to his spirit eyes.

Han Li's heart stirred upon seeing this, and he immediately withdrew his spirit eye ability. However, Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns seemed to have sensed something, and she turned to Han Li with a meaningful look in her eyes. However, she didn't say anything and merely led the way toward the node above the devilish stronghold.

Han Li's eyes narrowed slightly, but his expression remained unchanged as he flew slowly toward the node in the distance with everyone else.

They were only several tens of kilometers away from the node above the stronghold, but during their flight, they encountered seven or eight groups of patrolling devilish guards. However, the cloud and mist that Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns had conjured up managed to conceal them flawlessly. There were some occasions where they were practically brushing shoulders with the devilish guards, yet they weren't able to sense anything.

However, when they were less than 10 kilometers away from the devilish stronghold, they finally set off an extremely profound restriction.

A dull thump rang out without any warning, following which countless black spikes shot forth out of thin air, hurtling directly toward them from all directions.

"We've been exposed! Prepare for battle, fellow daosits!" Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns immediately yelled as her expression darkened.

She then waved a hand through the air, and the layer of cloud and mist around them suddenly formed a dense light barrier that kept all of the oncoming black spikes at bay.

Everyone else immediately released their treasures and abilities upon seeing this, and the surroundings restrictions were instantly torn apart in the face of their combined powers, following which all of them flew toward the node above the devilish stronghold like lightning.

Such a massive commotion naturally alerted all of the devilish beings in the surrounding area, and countless balls of light exploded near the stronghold as spiritual light spread over the entire sky.

At the same time, groups of armored devilish beings riding atop all types of devilish steeds rose up into the air in a menacing manner.

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After just a few flashes, Han Li and the others finally reached the giant black light barrier up ahead, where they were stopped in their tracks. The long-haired man from the Lin Family immediately made a grabbing motion, conjuring up a huge azure claw that attacked the light barrier with devastating force.

A resounding boom rang out as the light barrier flashed erratically a few times, but it remained completely unscathed.

The long-haired man's expression changed slightly, and he gave a cold harrumph before preparing to unleash another attack, but right at this moment, the elderly scholar of the Spirit Race stepped in, sweeping a sleeve through the air to release seven or eight talismans of different colors that vanished into the light barrier in a flash.

In the next instant, a rumbling boom rang out from the light barrier, and it tremored violently before shattering to open up a massive hole.

The long-haired man's heart stirred upon seeing this, and he turned to the elderly scholar with a hint of surprise in his eyes.

It seemed that Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns hadn't been exaggerating, this elderly scholar really was a master in the art of restrictions and formations.

The other human cultivators were also rather taken aback, but there wasn't any time for them to ponder such a matter in this situation. Thus, all of them shot forth through the hole as streaks of light, and only then did the hole on the black light barrier seal shut again.

However, during this brief delay, the devilish guards patrolling the nearby area had already surrounded them.

Han Li and the others immediately combined as one to form a streak of rainbow light that was over 1,000 feet in length, then flew toward a certain direction. The devilish guards in that direction were very alarmed to see this, but the streak of light was far too fast for them to evade, and they were instantly incinerated into ashes.

The other devilish beings converging toward the scene all stopped involuntarily upon seeing this, and the streak of rainbow light tore through seven layers of restrictions with unstoppable force.

However, just as it was about to plunge into the dark cloud above the devilish stronghold, a roar of fury suddenly rang out alongside a rumbling thunderclap.

Thick bolts of lightning sprang out of the cloud like silver pythons, intertwining to form a massive lightning net that crashed down toward everyone.

If a normal Body Integration cultivator were facing such a fearsome restriction, they'd most likely be forced to take evasive measures. However, there were as many as four late-Body Integration Stage beings in Han Li's group, and everyone else was also at the Body Integration Stage, so they certainly weren't going to fear this lightning net.

The Long Family patriarch harrumphed coldly, "What a pathetic little trick!"

He raised a hand as he spoke to release a small silver vial, which swelled to around a foot in size as soon as it hurled through the air.

A burst of white Qi surged out of the opening of the vial, and it transformed into countless threads of light that swept upward in unison.

A peculiar turn of events immediately unfolded!

As soon as the lightning net came into contact with the threads of light, it was drawn toward the small vial, and in the blink of an eye, the entire lightning net had been drawn into the small vial.

"That's the Lightningcleanse Vial! You're from the Long Family!" the devilish being within the dark cloud exclaimed in a horrified voice.

"Oh? You recognize this treasure from our Long Family? You must be a devilish lord then. Fellow daoists, let's continue onward," the Long Family patriarch said in a nonchalant voice as he stowed the small vial back up his sleeve.

Han Li and the others naturally had no objections to this, and they plunged into the dark cloud as a collective streak of rainbow light.

There were still some other restrictions within the dark cloud, but all of them were destroyed with ease, and after just a few flashes, the streak of rainbow light reached the shimmering grey node.

However, situated in front of the node were hundreds of elite devilish beings with a huge devilish figure behind them. The devilish figure had black Qi all around its body, thereby concealing its appearance, but its large shimmering eyes were still visible, and there was clearly an incredulous look within them.

"Hmph, so it really is a devilish lord," Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns harrumphed coldly with furrowed brows at the sight of the devilish figure.

"One devilish lord isn't going to be able to stop us. If it dares to attack us, then it'll simply be asking to be killed. There's no need to pay any heed to it; our priority is to get to the node as quickly as possible," the Holy Spirit enshrouded within white light chuckled coldly.

Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns nodded in response before flying ahead, followed by the other Holy Spirits.

"Now's not the time to be getting caught up in battles; as long as that devilish lord doesn't attack us, we won't attack it, either," the Long Family patriarch said in a cold voice before also flying toward the node as a streak of golden light, and Han Li and the others naturally followed along.

The devilish lord's face immediately paled at the sight of the oncoming Body Integration Stage powerful beings, and after grappling with an internal conflict for a long while, he gritted his teeth in the end and commanded his subordinates to step aside.

The Holy Spirit enshrouded within white light was the first to enter the node, and he vanished amid a rumbling boom.

Han Li and the others also flew in behind him without any hesitation.

A burst of powerful spatial fluctuations erupted out of the node before it reverted back to its original peaceful state.

The devilish lord appraised the node with a dark expression for a long while, and one of his subordinates approached him with an uneasy look on his face. "Those foreign powerful beings definitely aren't harboring good intentions; should we give chase?"

"Hmph, give chase? What if they're waiting for us on the other side? We'll be charging to our deaths!" the devilish lord snapped.

The mid-grade devilish being who had raised the question immediately shuddered and backed away after without daring to say anything further.

Right at this moment, a long cry rang out from within the dark cloud, following which a gust of green devilish wind swept forth, then stopped not far away from the devilish lord before revealing a thin and tall green humanoid figure.

This was a middle-aged man with a pair of wings on his back.

"Where are all the foreign cultivators, Brother Ke?" the winged man asked in an urgent manner after frantically casting his gaze through the surrounding area.

"You came too late, Brother Feng; they've already entered the node," the massive devilish figure replied in a grim voice.

The winged man's expression changed drastically upon hearing this. "What? Why didn't you stop them? If the Sacred Ancestors hear of this, we'll be severely punished!"

"Stop them? That was a group of 10 beings, all of whom were at the Body Integration Stage; there were even several late-Body Integration Stage beings among them. If they weren't in a hurry to enter the node, I would've already been killed!" the first devilish lord replied in a cold voice.

"What? They were all at the Body Integration Stage? Are you serious?" the winged man exclaimed in astonishment.

"Everyone else saw them as well. Do you think I'd let them through so easily otherwise?" the devilish lord sighed in a resigned manner.

The winged man turned toward the other devilish beings present, and they all confirmed what the devilish lord had proclaimed. After a long while, he finally recovered from his astonishment, and said, "This is a very important matter; we have to report it to the Sacred Ancestors."

A peculiar light flashed through the devilish lord's eyes upon hearing this, yet just as he was about to reply, an indifferent female voice suddenly rang out. "Don't report this matter to anyone."

"Who's there?"

Both the huge devilish figure and the winged man were quite started by this voice, and they immediately approached one another with their backs facing each other. One of them summoned a pair of silver longswords while the other conjured up a long black spear, and they both adopted cautious expressions.

They knew that someone who could hide from them at such close quarters had to possess powers superior to theirs, so they naturally became very wary.

Right at this moment, a peculiar fragrance wafted through the air, following which a giant floral tree appeared up above without any warning amid a burst of spatial fluctuations.

The floral tree was glittering and translucent with beautiful fist-sized pink flowers growing all over its branches.

"It's the Brilliant Treasured Sacred Flower!"

The winged man's face immediately became twisted with horror at the sight of the floral tree, and he immediately flapped his wings to flee into the distance.

However, right at this moment, the pink flowers on the tree suddenly burst into flames, and its petals drifted down from above as balls of pink fire.

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The pink fireballs seemed to be descending quite slowly, but they somehow reached all of the devilish beings down below with unerring accuracy in a flash, including the winged man.

In the instant that these flames came into contact with the pink flames, they were incinerated into smoke in the blink of an eye, leaving only the first devilish lord behind.

The devilish lord's eyes were filled with incredulity at the sight of the floral tree up above, and he immediately fell to his knees without any hesitation.

The devilish lord's voice trembled with emotion as he said, "I didn't think I'd ever get to see you again, Mistress Bao Hu; I can die without any regrets now."

"Long time no see, Ke Yun." A faint sigh rang out, following which two humanoid figures, one white and one black, emerged in unison above the floral tree.

They were none other than Sacred Ancestor Bao Hua and Hei'e. Bao Hua looked down at the devilish lord, and a reminiscent look appeared in her eyes.

"It really is you, Mistress Bao Hu! There are many rumors going around, claiming that you'd already passed away, but I refused to believe them! With your powers, there's no way you wouldn't have been able to at least ensure self-preservation!" the devilish lord said in an excited manner.

"I did indeed manage to survive that ordeal, but my cultivation base was severely debilitated, and I could only flee into the Spirit Realm with some of my subordinates. I'm quite pleased to see that you're doing well for yourself, but as a safety precaution, I have to examine your spiritual sense," Bao Hua said as her eyes narrowed slightly.

The devilish lord shuddered slightly, but then immediately agreed, "Of course, Mistress! Those two possess powers that aren't inferior to yours back at your peak; if they were to plant some type of restriction within me, I wouldn't be able to detect it."

"Alright, pardon my intrusion then." Bao Hua's expression eased slightly as she slowly drifted down from above, followed closely by Hei'e.

The floral tree vanished into her body as a streak of pink light, while the devilish lord rose to his feet and stood on the spot in a respectful manner.

The devilish Qi around his body faded, and he was revealed to be a middle-aged man with a pair of inky-black curled horns on his head.

Bao Hua arrived in front of him before pointing a finger toward his glabella without any hesitation. A thin translucent thread shot forth out of her fingertip and vanished into his glabella in a flash as she slowly closed her eyes.

A hint of pain appeared on the devilish lord's face before his eyes quickly glazed over.

Time slowly passed by, and all of a sudden, the translucent thread began to shimmer with golden light before vanishing into the devilish lord's head.

The devilish lord gave a muffled groan as blood began to trickle out of his nostrils and ears, following which a pea-sized grey speck of light emerged from each of those four orifices before flying away into the distance.

A cold look appeared on Bao Hua's face as she flicked a finger toward these specks of light, and four more translucent threads of light shot forth in a flash, instantly piercing through those specks of light before drawing them into her sleeve.

Immediately thereafter, she opened her mouth to expel several pink specks of light that instantly disappeared into the devilish lord's glabella.

Only then did the translucent thread disintegrate into nothingness.

The devilish lord's expression stirred slightly, and the vacant look in his eyes faded as he turned to Bao Hua. "Mistress Bao Hua, I..."

"As expected, they planted a restriction within you, but it's been nullified now, and I planted a fake restriction inside your body to replace the original one. Unless those two examine your body in person, no one will be able to detect anything amiss," Bao Hua said in a calm manner.

"Thank you, Mistress. May I ask why you've appeared here? There's no one here who can pose a threat to you, but it would still be very detrimental to you if news of your presence here were to be leaked," the devilish lord said in a concerned manner.

"I have my own reasons. Let me ask you this first: was there a group of people that just entered the node behind you?" Bao Hua asked with a complex expression as she cast her gaze toward the node.

"There was indeed a group of foreign beings who just entered the node. Half of them were human, while the other half were Spirit beings, and they were all at the Body Integration Stage, so I didn't dare to stop them," the devilish lord replied in a truthful manner.

"I see. I have a mission for you: keep this incident a secret from the Sacred Ancestors for now. You won't be able to hide this forever, but keep it a secret for as long as possible, can you do that?" Bao Hu instructed in a cold voice.

The devilish lord didn't know why Bao Hua was asking this of him, but he replied in a confident manner, "That's going to be rather troublesome, but the one that was sent here to keep an eye on me was just killed by you, so I should be able to keep this a secret for around a year."

"Good. Let's go in as well, Hei'e." Bao Hua gave a content nod before drifting toward the node without even turning her head.

Both the devilish lord and Hei'e's expressions changed drastically upon seeing this, but neither of them dared to say anything.

Hei'e gritted his teeth as he grappled briefly with an internal conflict before following along behind Bao Hua, and the two of them quickly disappeared into the node.

The devilish lord stared blankly at the node for a long while before a wry smile appeared on his face. Following a brief moment of contemplation, he suddenly raised his head and let loose a long cry that pierced straight into the heavens.

A short while later, groups of devilish beings riding atop all types of devilish steeds emerged from within the dark cloud.

Black Qi appeared over the devilish lord's body, and immediately charged toward these devilish beings.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the node, spatial fluctuations erupted, and Bao Hua and Hei'e emerged in the Elder Devil Realm, only to be immediately surrounded by a group of alarmed and furious devilish beings.

These were all low-grade and mid-grade devilish beings, most of whom were already carrying injuries. Bao Hua took a glance at them before leaving them to Hei'e and vanishing directly into the nearby space.

Hei'e inspected the surrounding devilish beings, and after discovering that there weren't any Body Integration Stage beings among them, a vicious smile appeared on his face as turbulent devilish Qi erupted out of his body.

Around 10 minutes later, Hei'e had caught up to Bao Hua again on an unknown mountain tens of thousands of kilometers away, and he was standing off to the side in a respectful manner.

"Are you feeling uneasy now that I've brought you back into our holy realm?" Bao Hu asked in a completely emotionless voice.

Hei'e shuddered slightly before replying in a fearful manner, "Not at all! You must have your reasons for doing this, Mistress."

"It's only natural to feel uneasy. This is quite a risky undertaking even for me, and there's a chance that I could perish here. After all, Tian Qi and He Yan will be sure to hunt me down if they discover that I've returned to the holy realm. With my current level of powers, I can just barely ensure self-preservation against one of them, but if the two of them were to join forces, then I would be killed for sure," Bao Hua said as she turned toward Hei'e.

Hei'e hesitated momentarily before speaking in a careful manner, "Seeing as you're aware of the risk involved, I can only assume that you've made this decision based on the results of your divination."

"Indeed. I couldn't complete the divination, so the signs I derived were incomplete, but do you know what those signs told me?" Bao Hua asked as a peculiar look appeared in her eyes.

Hei'e faltered slightly before a wry smile appeared on his face. "I'm a complete novice when it comes to divination; please enlighten me, Mistress."

"If you're not even willing to guess, then there's no point in telling you the signs that I derived. All you have to know is that before those people reach their destination, we can't disrupt them, and we have to ensure they don't discover us. In fact, we may have to assist them from the shadows if that's required for them to reach their destination smoothly."

Hei'e was very bewildered to hear this, but he still immediately said, "I'll be sure to follow your instructions, Mistress."

"You've served me very well during this journey. As long as you continue to serve me, I'll assist you during your future Grand Ascension Stage breakthrough once I recover my powers," Bao Hua promised with a serious expression.

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"Thank you, Mistress; I'll be sure to help you complete your objective even if it means I have to give up my life!" Hei'e hurriedly said in an elated manner as a show of his loyalty.

"Good. From now on, just follow my orders. We've already delayed here long enough; let's set off right away," Bao Hua said as she cast her gaze into the distance with a cold look in her eyes.

"Yes, Mistress!" Hei'e replied in a respectful manner.

Thus, Bao Hua swept a sleeve through the air, and the pink floral tree projection reappeared before sweeping up both of their bodies, then shot forth into the distance as a ball of pink light.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of kilometers away, Han Li and the others were also flying through the air.

Even though they had encountered a slight mishap outside the node, once they entered it, everything was identical to what the Long Family patriarch had described. Not only was the location they had emerged in right at the Bloodstone Mountain Range, there were only some ordinary devilish beings guarding the entrance into the Elder Devil Realm.

In order to avoid attracting attention, they refrained from slaughtering those devilish beings, choosing to force their way through the devilish beings instead.

After flying for around half a month and slaying a flock of unknown devilish birds, Han Li and the others flew out of the mountain range and arrived on a vast grassland with no end in sight and was covered in wild flowers.

The black devilish Qi drifting through the air here was clearly denser than that in the mountain range.

Right at this moment, the Long Family patriarch called out for everyone to stop, and they gathered together to discuss the route they were going to take.

"According to our last Spirit Monarch, the Spirit Cleansing Pond and the Clean Spirit Lotus are situated on a mysterious island on the Devilish Origin Sea located in the easternmost region of the Elder Devil Realm. I have some leads on its exact location, but those leads will only be applicable once we get there. What we have to do now is get to the Devilish Origin Sea safely; I'm sure you have a plan for how we can do that, right, Fellow Daoist Long?" Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns said in a serious manner.

"Indeed. I've been collecting an extensive amount of information about the Elder Devil Realm, and I was able to determine that there are three routes for us to take if we want to get to the Devilish Origin Sea from our current location. However, all three of these routes have their own advantages and disadvantages, so we have to make a decision together on which route to take. Perhaps we'll have to try taking all three of them before we make a final decision," the Long Family patriarch replied with a solemn nod.

"What are the three routes, Brother Long?" the long-haired man from the Lin Family prompted.

"The first route is to advance onward along this grassland, then pass through several major devilish cities, using their teleportation formations to reach the Devilish Origin Sea. If everything goes smoothly, we'll reach our destination in about one or two years. The only issue is that devilish cities with teleportation formations will definitely also have devilish lords or even Sacred Ancestor clones, as well as powerful restrictions. Even if we use the Devilfeign Beads, there's only around a 20% chance that we'll be able to fool all of the devilish beings in those cities," the Long Family patriarch said in a calm voice.

"That's far too risky! We can't take this route," the woman from the Ye Family immediately objected with furrowed brows.

"Fellow Daoist Ye is right. This is the route that conserves the most time, but it is indeed far too risky," Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns chimed in with a shake of his head.

No one else said anything in response, but they clearly all held the same opinion.

The Long Family patriarch wasn't surprised to see this, and he immediately moved on to the second route. "The second route involves traveling to the center of this grassland, then following the devilish river that runs through this grassland straight to the sea. After that, we'll travel over the sea to reach the Devilish Origin Sea. Considering how vast the oceans of the Elder Devil Realm are, we won't have to worry about encountering and being identified by high-grade devilish beings. The issue with this route is that there are countless types of marine devilish beasts in the devilish sea. If we encounter a pack of tens of thousands of sea beasts, we'll have no choice but to flee. On top of that, there's no lack of sea beasts of the devilish lord level in the devilish seas, and it's said that there are even Sacred Ancestor level sea beasts. If we take this route, we'll get to our destination in about five to six years."

"That's still too risky. I don't know much about the devilish seas, but the sea beasts in our Spirit Realm are extremely formidable even for the most powerful races of our realm. On top of that, we're completely unfamiliar with the devilish seas; if we stumble into a perilous region of the sea, we'll be in a world of trouble. What's the third route, Brother Long?" Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns asked with furrowed brows.

"The final route involves heading west while skirting along the edge of this grassland until we enter the barren devilish plains. That region of the Elder Devil Realm is very similar to the primordial world of our Spirit Realm; there are also devilish beasts that can be found there, but far less so than in the devilish seas. With our powers, we shouldn't have too much trouble navigating through those plains. The issue with this route is that not only is it the longest of the three, we'll also have to pass through the vastly renowned Illusion Howl Desert. That desert is one of the 10 restricted areas of the Elder Devil Realm; all cultivators who venture into that desert will be severely debilitated, and what's even more concerning is that no movement techniques or treasures can be used in that desert, so we'll have to traverse through it entirely on foot," the Long Family patriarch said.

Han Li's heart stirred slightly upon hearing this before asking, "Are there any powerful devilish beasts or venomous insects in this Illusion Howl Desert?"

The Long Family patriarch shook his head in response. "There are some low-grade and mid-grade devilish beasts in the Illusion Howl Desert, but even if we're severely debilitated, we'll be able to take care of them with ease. The only thing that poses a threat to us in that desert is the Illusion Howl Devilish Wind. However, even though our magic power will be severely restricted, our spiritual sense won't be affected at all, so we should be able to withstand those devilish winds as long as we remain vigilant."

"In that case, why did you specifically single out this desert as a major obstacle? Surely there has to be something else we should be concerned about," Han Li said with a smile.

"Indeed, Brother Han. If this were the extent of the issues that we had to face, then I would've chosen this route right away without even preparing those two alternative routes. The main problem is that the Illusion Howl Desert is far too big; without being able to use any treasures or movement techniques to traverse it, it'll take five to six decades to get to the other side," the Long Family patriarch replied with a wry smile.

"Five to six decades?" Han Li and the woman from the Ye Family were both stunned to hear this, while the Spirit beings remained quite composed, indicating that they already knew about the scale of the Illusion Howl Desert.

"Five to six decades is far too long! By the time we get to the Devilish Origin Sea, the devilish tribulation will most likely already be over! On top of that, the longer it takes for us to get there, the greater the chance that something will go wrong," the long-haired man from the Long Family said.

"In that case, which one of the first two routes would you prefer, Brother Lin?" the Long Family patriarch asked.

The long-haired man hesitated momentarily before gritting his teeth, and replying, "The first one is too risky; the second one is also rather risky, but so long as we're careful, there's a chance that we could get to the Devilish Origin Sea without being noticed by any sea beast."

"Alright, what do you think, Fellow Daoist Han, Fellow Daoist Thousand Autumns?" the Long Family patriarch asked as he turned to Han Li and the Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns.

Aside from the Holy Spirit enshrouded within white light who barely ever talked, those two were the only other late-Body Integration Stage beings present, so the Long Family patriarch was naturally interested to hear their opinions.

"The second route does appear to be more plausible than the other two. However, I'd much rather go with the third route if we can somehow take less time to traverse through the Illusion Howl Desert," Han Li sighed.

"I'm also of the same opinion. There's actually a method to traverse through the Illusion Howl Desert in a shorter time, but even that will take around 30 years, which is still too long," Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns said.

"Oh? May I ask what method this is? I was unaware that such a method existed," the Long Family patriarch hurriedly asked in a surprised manner.

"I'm also interested to hear this," Han Li chimed in with an intrigued expression.

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"According to my knowledge, there's a type of devilish beast known as the Eight-footed Devilish Lizard that can be found only in the Illusion Howl Desert. This type of devilish beast can fly, but they can move as fast as the wind in the desert. If we can find a few of them to act as our steeds, we'll be able to traverse through the desert at a far faster speed," Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns said.

"In that case, we can consider the final route. After all, that route would be a lot safer than the sea route," the woman from the Ye Family said with a contemplative look on her face.

"I'm afraid it's not that easy, Fairy Ye. The devilish cores and bodies of the Eight-footed Devilish Lizards are extremely valuable, and they've almost been hunted into extinction as a result. The remaining Eight-footed Devilish Lizards have all either been domesticated by powerful devilish forces or are residing deep within the desert, so it would be next to impossible to find them," Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns sighed in a forlorn manner.

"Would we be able to replace these devilish lizards with other spirit beasts or devilish beasts? I have a few spirit beasts that are very fast when traveling over land," the woman from the Ye Family suggested.

"The Illusion Howl Desert is even more restrictive on spirit beasts; spirit beasts that are normally extremely fast and agile will immediately become completely lethargic and useless once they enter the desert. Only the devilish beasts that inhabit the desert are unaffected, and Eight-footed Devilish Lizards are the fastest among them; the rest of the devilish beasts in the Illusion Howl Desert aren't even half as fast as Eight-footed Devilish Lizards," Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns said with furrowed brows.

A hint of disappointment appeared in the young woman's eyes upon hearing this.

In contrast, a peculiar look flashed through Han Li's eyes.

The fact that Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns knew so much about the Elder Devil Realm indicated that the Spirit Realm had prepared just as much if not more so for this as the Long Family had. In fact, they seemed to be even more familiar with the geography and powers within the Elder Devil Realm than the Long Family was, as evidenced by the fact that the Long Family patriarch had no idea about the Eight-footed Devilish Lizards.

"If we really want some Eight-footed Devilish Lizards, we can just destroy one of the major devilish powers near the desert and take their Eight-footed Devilish Lizards," Elder Hui of the Long Family chuckled coldly.

"With our powers, we have nothing to fear as long as we don't encounter any Sacred Ancestors, but if we do that, we'll be causing a huge commotion that could attract a lot of attention from devilish powerful beings. If they begin to track us or intercept us on the other side of the Illusion Howl Desert using teleportation formations, we'll be in huge trouble," the Long Family patriarch countered with a shake of his head.

"That's true. However, is there a way where we can steal these devilish lizards without getting into a conflict with these devilish powers? Alternatively, would it be possible to exchange some things for these devilish lizards? They may indeed be very valuable, but surely they can still be bought for a price," Zang Xing of the Spirit Race objected.

"I think trekking through the Illusion Howl Desert is the best option," Jin Gu of the Spirit Race said in a concise manner.

The young woman from the Ye Family pondered the situation for a moment before giving her verdict. "I support Brother Lin's opinion. Trekking across the Illusion Howl Desert is going to take too long, and there's no guarantee that we'll be able to get enough Eight-footed Devilish Lizards. As such, flying over the sea is a more viable option."

Everyone else was carefully contemplating the issue and didn't hurry to express their opinions.

"Fellow Daoist Han, which route are you leaning toward?" the Long Family patriarch asked as he turned to Han Li.

Han Li was silent for a moment before asking in an unhurried manner, "Before I answer that question, I'd like to ask you something, Brother Long: how long will it take for us to get to the Illusion How Desert from here?"

"It'll take us around a year to get to the Illusion Howl Desert. Of course, that's under the assumption that we don't encounter any impediment along the way. Why do you ask, Brother Han?" the Long Family patriarch asked in a surprised manner.

"From a risk minimization perspective, I'm naturally leaning toward the Illusion Howl Desert route, but if we can't gather enough Eight-footed Devilish Lizards, then the journey will take too long for it to be worth it. In that case, the time saved by taking the sea route would be enough to outweigh the relative risk. Hence, I think we should take both routes at the same time," Han Li said.

"What do you mean by that?" Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns asked with a contemplative expression.

"We can go to the outskirts of the Illusion Howl Desert and search for the nearby devilish powers to see if we can gather enough Eight-footed Devilish Lizards. If we're able to do so, then we'll naturally take the Illusion Howl Desert route, but if not, we can turn back and take the sea route. At most, we'll only be delayed by about two years, which should still be acceptable for us," Han Li replied.

"That's not a bad idea! I support Brother Han's plan," the woman from the Ye Family said as an elated look appeared on her face.

After a brief pause for contemplation, the man from the Lin Family also expressed his approval. "This is indeed a more refined plan."

"What do you think, Fellow Daoist Thousand Autumns?" the Long Family patriarch asked as he turned to Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns.

"I'll have to discuss this with my brethren before giving you a response," Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns replied.

"Of course, go ahead," the Long Family patriarch agreed with a nod.

Thus, the Spirit beings got into a huddle and began to discuss the options presented to them.

At the same time, the Long Family patriarch was also having a secret conversation with Elder Hui through voice transmission.

All of a sudden, the voice of the woman from the Ye Family sounded beside Han Li's ears. "Brother Han, the method that you proposed is very sound; I think the Spirit beings and Fellow Daoist Long will all agree to this in the end. However, judging from the previous interactions, it seems that Fellow Daoist Long was inclined to take the Illusion Howl Desert in the first place, while the Spirit beings seem to be leaning more toward the sea route. We don't know what they're thinking, but regardless of what the final decision is, we have to be wary of them."

Han Li took a brief glance at her to find that she was looking vacantly into the distance, as if she hadn't just transmitted her voice to him.

Thus, Han Li also turned away and transmitted his voice in response. "Thank you for the words of caution, Fellow Daoist Ye; I'll be sure to keep my guard up."

The young woman offered no response to this, but a faint smile had appeared on her face.

As expected, after their discussion, the Holy Spirits all expressed approval of Han Li's plan, as did the Long Family patriarch.

As such, they immediately set off and skirted along the border of the grassland to the west.

Unbeknownst to all of them, there was a ball of pink light tailing them from close to 10,000 kilometers away.

At the same time, within an extremely secretive restricted area in the Spirit Race territory of the Spirit Realm, there was a giant formation with a diameter of over five kilometers that was flashing with spiritual light on a patch of charred ground.

The entire formation was buzzing incessantly, and countless runes of all colors were surging forth in a frenzy, forming a series of massive runed chains that were binding onto a giant figure at the center of the formation.

The figure was around 1,000 feet tall and was clad in a suit of antiquated golden armor. There were around a dozen crimson devilish projections flashing erratically behind him, and these projections were letting loose ghastly cries and howls.

The giant figure currently had his hands held up in the air, and there was a silver net several tens of feet above his head, trembling incessantly as it kept a massive silver bead at bay.

The bead was around an acre in size, and its surface was riddled with complex patterns. The giant humanoid figure was very handsome, but he was sweating profusely and staring up at the massive silver bead with a look of shock and fury in his eyes.

In the air around the formation were eight Body Integration Stage Holy Spirits, each of whom was holding a formation plate, and they were also sweating profusely as they poured their spiritual power into the massive formation.

Tens of thousands of feet directly above the center of the formation was a shimmering golden palace. It was hovering in the air in a completely still manner, creating a rather surreal sight to behold.

"Who are you? Why do you possess an Immortal Sealing Bead? Are you a spirit servant who escaped from the True Immortal Realm?" the giant humanoid figure roared in a vicious manner.

The cold voice of an elderly man rang out from the golden palace in response. "You don't need to know who I am. You possess a Spirit Capturing Heavenly Net, so you are a sworn enemy of our Spirit Race. Now that you've been captured in this Devil Trapping Formation, this Immortal Sealing Bead will put an end to your life."

"You really think this will be enough to kill me? I've already cultivated a golden immortal soul! You're delusional if you think a being from a lower realm like you can kill me! Once I escape from this formation, I'll destroy all of your souls and refine you to become my treasures!" the giant humanoid figure roared in a furious manner.

The cold voice rang out once again from the golden palace. "I'm naturally aware that even the combined powers of the Devil Trapping Formation and Immortal Sealing Bead won't be enough to erase the soul of a true immortal, even though you're currently not even as powerful as I am. However, if I were to seal you, then slowly refine you using the true flame within my body in tandem with Earthly Infernal Flames, I'll be able to refine your soul into an Immortal Soul Pill in 100,000 years."

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The giant golden figure harrumphed coldly, "Hmph, you sure dare to dream! If you dared to try this in the True Immortal Realm, you'd be committing a cardinal transgression that would lead to your entire race being wiped out by immortal enforcers!"

"Hehe, but this isn't the True Immortal Realm. No matter how powerful the immortal enforcers are, they won't be able to detect anything that's happening in a lower realm as long as it doesn't affect the True Immortal Realm. After I consume the Immortal Soul Pill refined from your soul, I'll be able to advance even further in my cultivation base and take our Spirit Race to unprecedented heights! Besides, this is the only way to truly kill the soul of an immortal soul, so I have no other choice," the elderly voice replied in an implacable manner.

As opposed to being enraged upon hearing this, the giant humanoid figure suddenly burst into laughter. "To think that I would be reduced to such a sorry state by mere spirit servants. At the height of my powers, I would've erased a Grand Ascension Stage being like you in the blink of an eye! Let me see how you're going to seal my soul!"

Immediately thereafter, he swept his arms violently upward and cast around a dozen incantation seals in rapid succession, all of which vanished into the Spirit Capturing Heavenly Net up above.

The aura of the net was immediately bolstered by over twofold, and it swept upward with tremendous force, causing the giant silver bead to rise up by over 100 feet.

The eight Holy Spirits who were maintaining the formation were all very alarmed to see this, and they immediately injected even more magic power into the formation plates they were holding.

Piercing light erupted out from the formation plate, following which a buzzing sound rang out from within the formation. The surrounding runes surged before forming several more thick runed chains that swept toward the massive humanoid figure, but it was too late.

After forcing the giant silver bead upward, the huge humanoid figure's stagnant magic power suddenly recovered for a split second, and that was enough for him to unleash a life-saving ability.

He let loose a low roar, and the dozen or so devilish projections behind him exploded before vanishing into his body as bursts of crimson mist.

His body had been slightly blurry and indistinct before, but it instantly became a lot clearer, and his suit of golden armor shattered to reveal the bronze-colored skin of his upper body.

On his chest was the image of an extremely life-like golden flower, and as soon as the image appeared, the humanoid figure began to rapidly chant an ancient incantation that had never been uttered in the Spirit Realm.

The golden flower image shuddered slightly before turning as red as blood, and a bloody gorey scent wafted forth, following which the flower emerged slowly from his chest as if it had actual substance.

"That's a Blooddrop Poria Flower! You no longer possess a physical body; you have the body of a flower demon!" the elderly voice exclaimed from within the golden palace.

The giant humanoid figure paid no heed to this and lowered his head before exhaling toward the massive crimson flower.

The nearby world's origin Qi instantly swept toward the crimson flower in a frenzy, and the entire sky dimmed as gigantic five-colored clouds appeared overhead, creating an incredible sight to behold.

After absorbing so much of the world's origin Qi, the crimson flower swelled to over 10 times its original size and was giving off a very unsettling feeling.

"Have you gone insane? You're planning to detonate this flower? Don't you know that your physical body will also be destroyed by the explosion?" A hint of astonishment and horror had crept into the elderly voice.

At the same time, spatial fluctuations erupted in the air above the golden palace, following which a humanoid figure emerged.

This was a white-robed elderly man with a set of remarkably youthful facial features, and he was looking down at the massive crimson flower with a nervous expression.

"Hehe, detonating my physical body is much better than being refined into a pill. With the power of my soul, I'll be able to manifest a new body soon enough. If you know what's good for you, then you'll deactivate this formation and withdraw the Immortal Sealing Bead right away, and I'll also let bygones be bygones. You recognize this demonic flower, so I'm sure you're aware of how powerful its detonation would be. At the very least, it'll be enough to reduce all of you to dust," the giant humanoid figure threatened.

The white-robed man's expression darkened significantly upon hearing this, but he didn't offer a response.

The expressions on the faces of the eight Holy Spirits had also become very strained after sensing the fearsome power radiating from the giant crimson flower. However, without any instruction from the white-robed elderly man, they didn't dare to do anything and could only continue to maintain the formation with all their might.

The white-robed elderly man's expression changed several times before a ruthless look appeared in his eyes. "I can consider letting you go after I've sealed you!"

Immediately, thereafter, he vanished on the spot.

"So you really want to die? Fine, I'll send all of you on your way then!" the giant humanoid figure roared, but a hint of a hesitation crept into his eyes as he cast his gaze toward the huge crimson flower.

He had made it sound like manifesting a new physical body would be a very simple matter for him, but that was actually far from the truth. Even if he had extremely good fortune, it would still take tens of thousands of years before he could attain a new body.

On top of that, the process through which he had manifested this physical body using the Blooddrop Poria Flower had been an extremely arduous one, and it had taken him over 100,000 thousand years and countless painstaking effort to attain it.

With this physical body, it wouldn't be impossible for him to eventually return to the peak of his powers through diligent cultivation. If he were to lose this body, he was not confident that he would be able to find another body as suitable as this one, and he didn't know whether he would ever be able to return to his peak.

However, these doubts only ran through his mind for a brief moment before he gritted his teeth and made a decision. He resumed his chanting and pointed a finger at the giant crimson flower, and it swelled drastically once again.

White cracks suddenly began to appear over all of its petals, and a terrifying aura that was several times more powerful before erupted out of it.

At the same time, the gigantic five-colored clouds up above had combined as one to encompass the entire sky, and it was descending at a rate that was discernible to the naked eye.

As it descended, the eight Holy Spirits felt their bodies become extremely heavy and sluggish, as if a giant mountain were weighing down upon them.

They were naturally very alarmed by this, and protective treasures flew out of their bodies as balls of spiritual light before forming layers of light barriers around them. This allowed them to regain their mobility, and they immediately flew back in retreat in a panicked manner.

They appeared to be flying very quickly, but they were still several times slower than normal, and there was no way that they could escape out of the range of the crimson flower's explosion.

The eight Holy Spirits were clearly aware of this themselves, and they frantically released all types of treasures to help them withstand the imminent explosion.

A cold light flashed through the giant humanoid figure's eyes, and he abruptly switched to a different hand seal as he uttered the word "explode"!

The massive crimson flower tremored, and the cracks on all of its petals widened significantly. At the same time, crimson liquid that resembled molten lava poured out of the cracks in a frenzy.

As soon as this liquid came into contact with the air, it transformed into balls of crimson flames that stained the entire surrounding space bright red, and they flashed erratically in preparation to self-detonate.

Meanwhile, the giant humanoid figure had shrunk down to the size of an average human, and a piercing silver light barrier had appeared over his body.

He was sacrificing his physical body during this explosion, but he still had to protect himself from the explosion to minimize the damage that he sustained.

Right at this moment, the white-robed elderly man's cold voice rang out in the air above the massive crimson flower.

"You'll have to get past me if you want to self-detonate! I'm going to completely seal you, even if it means I have to sustain severe injuries in the process!"

As soon as the voice trailed off, a huge pagoda that was over 1,000 feet tall emerged out of thin air amid a flash of white light.

The pagoda was entirely glittering and translucent with countless transparent runes inscribed all over its surface, making it look as if it had been carved out of glacial ice.

What was even more noteworthy was the head-sized blue bead that was embedded into the tip of the tower. At first glance, it appeared to be completely smooth, but upon closer inspection, one would discover that there were countless transparent rune formations of different sizes carved onto its surface.

All of the rune formations on the bead were interconnected in an extremely profound manner, and the mere sight of it struck the beholder with a sense of visual overload.

This pagoda was the true body of the white-robed elderly man, and as soon as it appeared, it began to expel a burst of white glacial Qi that swept up the scorching fireballs and giant crimson flower down below.

Within the white glacial light, everything instantly came to a standstill as if time had been forcibly stopped within that area.

At the same time, the pagoda began to descend amid a rumbling boom.

The giant humanoid figure's face immediately paled significantly at the sight of the pagoda, and he roared in an astonished and horrified voice, "You're a spirit servant formed by a Celestial Crystal Pagoda! That's impossible! All replicas of this treasure were destroyed in the great riot of the Northern Infernal Immortal Palace several million years ago!"

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As a true immortal, the giant humanoid figure was naturally aware of just how powerful this Celestial Crystal Pagoda was. In this dire situation, he immediately bit through the tip of his own tongue and expelled several mouthfuls of blood essence.

As soon as this blood essence emerged, it transformed into a burst of scorching crimson flames, when then took on the form of several crimson flaming pythons, each of which was over 100 feet in length, and they all pounced viciously toward the pagoda in unison.

The true immortal knew that if he could use these fiery pythons to keep the pagoda at bay for a short while, the Blooddrop Poria Flower would be able to recover from its frozen state and unleash its full power.

Once the flower exploded, even the Celestial Crystal Pagoda wouldn't be able to contain the explosion.

However, his actions were predicted by the white-robed elderly man in advance. A cold chuckle rang out from within the pagoda, following which the blue bead embedded on its tip suddenly revolved on its own, then released several blue streaks of light that were around as thick as a human thumb.

These streaks of light struck the flaming pythons like lightning, and the pythons were instantly reduced to plumes of smoke.

The true immortal's expression changed drastically upon seeing this, and he immediately tried to unleash another ability, but it was already too late.

The massive translucent pagoda completely descended amid a vast expanse of glacial light, crushing the true immortal and the giant crimson flower beneath it.

Immediately thereafter, countless golden runes surged forth in a frenzy from all levels of the pagoda, creating a spectacular sight to behold.

At the same time, the top half of the white-robed elderly man's body emerged from the top of the pagoda, and he immediately yelled, "What are you waiting for? Use the Devil Trapping Formation to help me seal him!"

These words were naturally being directed toward the eight Holy Spirits, who were still rooted to the spot.

The eight Holy Spirits were naturally ecstatic to see that the giant crimson flower's explosion had been restricted by the glacial pagoda, and they immediately flew back to their original spots upon hearing the white-robed elderly man's instructions.

Thus, the eight Holy Spirits gathered around the formation again before raising the formation plates in their hands.

A flurry of runes immediately surged out of the formation, solidifying the runed chains that were starting to appear rather feeble. In conjunction with the runes flooding out of the glacial pagoda, a massive net was formed to encompass everything down below.

At the same time, the pagoda itself began to expand drastically amid a loud buzzing sound. Layers of translucent glacial ice then began to rapidly form over the surface of the pagoda, and the formation down below was also buzzing loudly, as if to resonate with the glacial pagoda.

Within the span of just a few breaths, the pagoda had transformed into a massive glacial peak that was tens of thousands of feet tall, and it had sealed the entire formation and the runed chains in ice.

As for the true immortal and the huge crimson flower, they were naturally sealed at the center of the formation.

The eight Holy Spirits were ecstatic to see this, and they heaved a collective sigh of relief. However, the white-robed elderly man's expression didn't ease in the slightest as he instructed in an implacable voice, "Listen up, I may have used my true body to seal him, but the Blooddrop Poria Flower is an extremely renowned flower, even in the True Immortal Realm; it'll most likely take over 10,000 years before the power of the flower will completely fade away. Prior to that, don't move this glacial peak even by a single inch. As a safety precautions, set up some restriction formations nearby right away to apply another seal to my body, as well as the Devil Trapping Formation."After I completely nullify the power of this Blooddrop Poria Flower, I'll transfer this glacial peak to a place where Earthly Hellish Flames can be found and refine this soul into a pill. During this time, I can't afford to be distracted, so all of the matters of our race will be decided by the panel of elders. Make sure we survive this devilish tribulation! If our race can survive this ordeal, then our resurgence will be imminent!"

The eight Holy Spirits immediately fell to their knees in an extremely respectful manner. "Yes, Spirit Monarch!"

They then stowed the formation plates in their hands away and flew away to inform the rest of the Spirit Race of the white-robed elderly man's orders. Thus, in the blink of an eye, the white-robed elderly man was the only one left in the entire area.

All of a sudden, the true immortal's enraged voice rang out from beneath the glacial peak. "You really think this flawed Celestial Crystal Pagoda can trap me? Let me see how you're going to seal me after I exhaust all of the glacial Qi in this pagoda!"

"Hmph, as expected of a true immortal; you managed to identify the flaws in my body right away. Even so, do you still think that you're an omnipotent true immortal? You're delusional if you think you can exhaust the glacial Qi within my body with your current powers! Having said that, the fact that you're still able to speak is testament to the power of your soul. Unfortunately for you, you won't be able to retain your sentience for much longer," the white-robed elderly man harrumphed coldly.

"What do you mean by that? There's nothing in this lower realm that can seal away my sentience!" The true immortal clearly wasn't convinced.

"There is indeed nothing that I know of in this lower realm that can completely seal away your sentience, but what if I'm not using something from this realm?" the white-robed elderly man chuckled coldly before making a grabbing motion, and a talisman that was giving off wisps of glacial light appeared in his hand.

The talisman was completely translucent, looking as if it were constructed from glacial ice, but there were golden runes inscribed all over its surface.

If Han Li were present, he would immediately be able to identify these runes as golden seal text.

"It's a pity that I have to use this talisman here; I'll have one less trump card in the future." The white-robed elderly man appraised the talisman with a pained expression, but gritted his teeth in the end and flicked his wrist in a decisive manner.

The talisman immediately exploded into a ball of golden light that shot forth into the glacial peak down below, vanishing into it in a flash.

Immediately thereafter, the white-robed elderly man made a hand seal and began to chant something in a solemn manner.

A scintillating ball of golden light that resembled a radiant sun instantly appeared within the glacial peak, then revolved on the spot before transforming into a massive rune that was around an acre in size.

The rune was shimmering with golden light, and it descended silently like a shooting star.

"What are you doing? Wait, this is a talisman from the True Immortal Realm!" the true immortal exclaimed as he sensed what was happening within the glacial peak.

However, before he had a chance to do anything, the giant golden rune plunged into the formation down below in a flash.

A resounding boom rang out, and the true immortal's voice was abruptly cut off. The white-robed elderly man was completely unsurprised by this, and he began to chant with even greater urgency.

In the next instant, the entire glacial peak tremored, and golden patterns erupted out of it in a frenzy, forming a gigantic rune that was imprinted on one of the smooth faces of the glacial peak.

Hints of blue light immediately became intermingled in the white light emanating from the glacial peak, and the glacial Qi being released also became significantly denser.

Only then did the white-robed elderly man's chanting cease, and his expression also eased slightly.

If one could see through the underside of the glacial peak, they'd discover an unconscious golden-robed young man with runed chains and layers of translucent ice all over his entire body.

Imprinted on his glabella was a golden pattern that was completely identical to the rune on the face of the glacial peak, and the white-robed elderly man was ecstatic upon discovering this with his spiritual sense, and he immediately plunged into the glacial peak, vanishing into it in a flash.

Unbeknownst to him, in the instant that the golden-robed young man had fallen unconscious, a daoist priest with a dark complexion suddenly opened his eyes in another realm. The daoist priest was seated under an enormous tree, and he murmured to himself, "What happened? Why is the true soul badge displaying such a strong reaction?"

The daoist priest swept a sleeve through the air as he spoke, and a miniature pagoda that was several inches tall flew out of his sleeve amid a flash of green light, then swelled to over 100 feet tall in an instant.

The daoist priest then strode into the pavilion in an unhurried manner, and in the hall on the first level of the pavilion were hundreds of pristine jade tables, each of which had around a dozen identical yellow wooden badges placed upon them.

The badges had silver patterns running all over their surfaces, and after sweeping his gaze over all of the jade tables, a hint of surprise appeared in the daoist priest's eyes as he suddenly raised a hand before waving it toward a huge rusty cauldron in a corner of the hall.

There was a yellow wooden badge in the cauldron as well, and it immediately flew out before landing in the daoist priest's grasp.

The daoist priest stared at the wooden badge with a hint of a surprise in his eyes for a moment before his expression darkened slightly. "So it's his soul that's in peril. In that case, this isn't something I can ignore; I have to find him!"

Han Li was hovering high up in the air with 72 streaks of azure light flashing around him. These were none other than his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords, and they were tearing through the inky-black devilish beasts pouncing toward him.

However, there seemed to be no end to these devilish beasts, all of which had backs that were covered in scales and a single horn on each of their heads.

The streaks of azure sword Qi swept forth before blooming into azure lotus flowers, and all of the devilish beasts in their wave were instantly sliced in half.

The Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords were far too powerful for these low-grade devilish beasts to oppose, and the pungent odor of blood and gore had filled the entire surrounding area.

However, these devilish beasts seemed to have no regard for their own lives and continued to pounce toward Han Li with single-minded ferocity.

Han Li couldn't only heave a faint resigned sign upon seeing this.

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As he continued to control his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords, Han Li cast his gaze behind himself, where the Long Family patriarch and the others were also busy slaying other devilish beasts.

The woman from the Ye Family was flicking her fingers through the air, releasing streaks of silver light that shot forth like a torrential storm, felling hordes of devilish beasts around her.

The man from the Lin Family had summoned a translucent crimson jade ruler, which was releasing scorching fireballs in all directions to incinerate the devilish beasts around him into nothingness.

The Long Family patriarch's hands had transformed into a pair of giant golden dragon claws, and they were sweeping through the air with unstoppable might. He was accompanied by Elder Hui, who was releasing bursts of green Qi out of his sleeves.

All of the devilish beasts that reached within a radius of 1,000 meters from the duo were either instantly torn into countless shreds, or poisoned to death on the spot.

As for the Holy Spirits, Zang Xing had summoned an antiquated azure lamp that had released several tens of purple fireballs to encompass an area that was around an acre in size.

All of the devilish beasts that came into contact with the purple fireballs were instantly reduced to plumes of smoke.

Bai Qi was merely drifting along within his usual layer of protective white spiritual light, but all of the devilish beasts around him were being dismembered as if they were being ravaged by countless invisible blades.

Jin Gu had summoned a gong-like treasure that wasn't emitting a very loud sound, but all of the oncoming devilish beasts immediately began to sway unsteadily as if they were inebriated as soon as they approached the treasure, then fell to the ground and didn't get up again.

Zhi Shui had donned a suit of silver armor that had encapsulated his entire body without leaving even a single sliver of skin exposed, and he had plunged into a horde of beasts up ahead as a tornado.

All of the devilish beasts around him were being torn limb from limb, presenting a very gruesome and violent sight to behold.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly as he took in the situation unfolding around him. Perhaps they were experiencing rotten luck or had simply entered this grassland at the wrong time, but they were only around half a month into their journey, and they had already encountered this enormous beast tide.

Han Li and the others had all experienced the horrors of the beast tides in the Spirit Realm, so they naturally immediately tried to avoid this beast tide, but they had still underestimated it in the end.

There was seemingly no end to the devilish beasts pouring out of the grassland, and all of them were the same type of wolf-like devilish beast.

Most of these devilish beasts were only at the Foundation Establishment Stage or Core Formation Stage, and even the most powerful ones among them were only comparable in power to Deity Transformation cultivators, but their sheer numbers alone would be enough to strike despair into the heart of the average cultivator.

As such, Han Li and the others had all unleashed powerful abilities from the get to wipe out over 1,000,000 of these devilish wolves, but they were still forcibly swept up by the beast tide in the end.

These devilish beasts surrounded Han Li and the others in unrelenting waves, and no matter how many of them were killed, there was always more to take their place.

Under these circumstances, everyone could only band together and join forces to plow their way through the beast tide.

However, these devilish wolves seemed to be determined to hunt them down, launching constant suicide attacks day and night without affording them any opportunity for rest and respite.

They had been slaughtering these devilish wolves for two days and two nights thus far, yet there were still no signs indicating that they were about to reach the other side.

As such, everyone was starting to become rather concerned. In contrast with this beast tide, the beast tides that appeared on the human territory of the Spirit Realm were mere child's play.

Perhaps only the gargantuan hordes of sea beasts in the oceans of the Spirit Realm could compare with this vast beast tide.

All of a sudden, Han Li raised a hand to release several thick bolts of lightning amid a loud thunderclap. The bolts of lightning plunged into a group of oncoming devilish beasts, and around 300 to 400 of them were instantly eradicated.

Even with the fearless nature of these devilish beasts, they couldn't help but falter in the face of such a devastating attack, and Han Li immediately took advantage of this opportunity to vanish on the spot.

In the next instant, spatial fluctuations erupted beside the Long Family patriarch, and Han Li re-emerged.

"Brother Long, we can't continue like this. There's no end to these devilish beasts, and they're clearly targeting us, so they must be receiving instructions from a beast monarch. No matter how many of them we kill, they'll never let us go," Han Li said in a grim voice.

"Indeed, Fellow Daoist Han; I've arrived at the same conclusion. Otherwise, these devilish beasts would've definitely left us alone after we killed so many of them. It would be rather troublesome for us if we were to be discovered by high-grade devilish beings while we're caught up here, so we have to kill the beast monarch and scatter these devilish beasts as quickly as possible," the Long Family patriarch said with a grim nod before thrusting a palm forward.

A massive palm projection instantly appeared up above before crashing downward, sending a burst of enormous invisible force descending toward the devilish wolves up ahead.

Hundreds of devilish beasts were instantly crushed into mincemeat.

Immediately thereafter, the Long Family patriarch transmitted his voice toward the Holy Spirits, and after a brief discussion, he turned to Han Li, and said, "Fellow Daoist Han, I've spoken with Fellow Daoist Thousand Autumns, and we've agreed that the best course of action is for the four late-Body Integration Stage beings among us to split up from the rest of the group to hunt down that beast monarch. Fairy Ye and the others will remain here to attract the attention of the devilish beasts while we branch out in four different directions to seek out that beast monarch. We'll set a time limit of six hours; once that time passes, return here right away, and we'll figure out another way to escape from this beast tide. If you ask me, the beast monarch shouldn't be too far away. Otherwise, its control would be too weak to be making these devilish beasts attack us in such a fearless manner."

Han Li nodded in response. "I released my spiritual sense toward the east earlier, and there's a high concentration of powerful devilish beasts in that direction, so it's very likely that the beast monarch is hiding there; I'll make a trip there myself."

The Long Family patriarch naturally had no objections to this, and after issuing some instructions to Elder Hui, he began to head toward the west.

As for Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns and Bai Qi, they went south and north, respectively, and the three of them disappeared into the throngs of devilish beasts in the blink of an eye.

Han Li also shot forth toward the east as they had agreed upon earlier, and everyone else gathered together in a tight circle with their backs facing one another as they continued to oppose the oncoming devilish beasts.

Streaks of azure sword Qi flashed through the air, felling one devilish beast after another, and before Han Li knew it, he had been plowing through the beast tide to the east for over four hours.

Along the way, his 72 flying swords were like 72 azure wyrms, slashing through the air around him with peerless sharpness. Some of the devilish beasts had their bodies torn apart even before the sword Qi had made contact with them, and it was quite clear that Han Li's Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords had become a lot more powerful with the advancements he had made in his cultivation base.

However, he was beginning to grow rather concerned.

He had encountered several mutated devilish beasts during the past few hours, but even the most powerful ones among them were only at the late-Deity Transformation Stage, so there was no way that any of them could be the beast monarch.

The six-hour time limit was quickly approaching, yet the number of the devilish beasts up ahead hadn't dwindled in the slightest, and he was beginning to hesitate about whether he should turn back to reunite with everyone.

Just as these thoughts were running through his mind, a hint of surprise suddenly flashed through his eyes as he cast his gaze toward a certain direction.

Almost at the exact same moment, bursts of violent explosions rang out, and the ferocious devilish beasts that were pouncing toward Han Li howled as they turned back in unison, as if there were some kind of tacit understanding between them.

Han Li faltered slightly upon seeing this before immediately setting off in pursuit, flying through the air as a piercing streak of azure light.

The devilish beasts directly up ahead were all shredded by his streaks of azure sword Qi, but even so, the other devilish beasts were still retreating as quickly as they could, paying no heed to Han Li at all.

Han Li was rather intrigued to see this, and he held the power of his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords as he followed the devilish beasts toward the location where the string of explosions had rung out earlier.

Now that there were no longer any devilish beasts impeding him, he was able to cover close to 100 kilometers in the blink of an eye, yet right at this moment, he suddenly stopped, and his expression changed slightly as he cast his gaze forward.

No more than a few kilometers up ahead, a large group of green devilish beasts had suddenly appeared up in the air.

These devilish beasts were far more massive than their brethren, and their fur was releasing a faint green light, as well as a pungent odor, indicating that they were extremely poisonous.

The retreating devilish beasts gave these mutated beasts a wide berth, parting on either side before rushing around them.

Han Li paid no heed this and merely cast his gaze into the distance toward the direction in which these devilish beasts were fleeing.

Behind this group of green devilish beasts was a pocket of open space where around a dozen burly silver devilish beasts were attacking a pair of humanoid figures relentlessly.

Beside these silver devilish beasts was a black-furred devilish beast with two five-colored horns on its head. The black-furred devilish beast had blood flowing all over its body, and it was lying in mid-air in a completely still manner.

Above the devilish beast was a silver incense burner that was also hovering in mid-air, and protruding out of the incense burner was a half-burned stick of grey incense that was releasing faint azure smoke.

The smoke had formed a barely visible ring around this pocket of empty space, which had been entirely surrounded by the wolf-like devilish beasts.

All of the devilish wolves were snarling with fury, but none of them dared to charge into the ring formed by the azure smoke, seemingly extremely wary of it.

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Blue light flashed through Han Li's eyes, and he immediately caught a clearer glimpse of the two humanoid figures that had been surrounded by the dozen or so silver devilish beasts.

One of them was a burly devilish man who was built like a brick house, while the other was an elderly devilish man with blue devilish patterns on his face.

Both of them were at the late-Spatial Tempering Stage, and the burly devilish man had devilish Qi surging all over his body. He was waving a massive black club through the air, unleashing a burst of black Qi that swept forth in a frenzy to keep most of the silver beasts at bay.

The elderly devilish man had a pair of triangular green eyes, and he was holding an inky-black bowl, from within which one monstrous bird projection after another was being released.

As soon as these projections reached the silver beasts, they would immediately explode into balls of silver light that forced the silver beasts into retreat.

However, it was quite clear that the black Qi and bird projections were only just barely able to keep the silver devilish beasts at bay, but unable to inflict any substantial damage upon them.

These devilish beasts had bodies that seemed to be no less resolute than the average treasure, and they would simply shrug off the oncoming attacks before pouncing toward the two devilish men again.

If things were to continue like this, the two devilish men were eventually going to completely exhaust their magic power and be slain by the silver beasts.

Judging from the powerful remnant aura of the devilish beast carcass with the five-colored horns, it was most likely the beast monarch that he was searching for.

Could it be that those two devilish beings were the ones who had killed it? How had they managed to do that? They were indeed both quite powerful, but they shouldn't have been powerful enough to kill the beast monarch!

Han Li was rather perplexed by this current situation, and it was quite an unexpected turn of events that someone had killed the beast monarch in their stead.

Thus, Han Li began to consider what he was going to do next.

The green devilish beasts up ahead seemed to be aware that Han Li was not to be messed with, and they didn't pounce toward him like the other ordinary devilish wolves. As such, an impasse ensued between them.

Just as Han Li was still hesitating about how to proceed, the burly devilish man suddenly yelled toward his companion, "We can't keep wasting time here, Old Man Wu; the effect of the beast repellent incense is about to wear off, so we have to get out of here right away. I'll take on these beasts by myself; you focus on teleporting us away from here!"

As soon as the burly man's voice trailed off, he let loose a thunderous roar, and his aura instantly became extremely violent while the black Qi being released by his club became more than twice as dense as before, thereby allowing him to keep all of the silver beasts at bay.

"Alright, be careful then, Fellow Daoist Tie," the elderly devilish man said as he flipped his hand over to stow the bowl away.

What took its place was a translucent black crystal, and he immediately hurled it forward before chanting an incantation.

The crystal rotated on the spot and released countless black threads of light, all of which intertwined to form a black formation that was around 10 feet in size.

A resounding boom rang out, and the black formation began to slowly rotate, looking as if it had been activated.

"It's ready, let's go!" the elderly devilish man hurriedly yelled before flying toward the formation without any hesitation.

The burly devilish man swung his giant club vigorously through the air a few times to force back the oncoming silver devilish beasts, then also rushed toward the formation as a burst of black Qi.

The two of them were clearly planning to escape using the power of this formation.

However, just as it was looking as if their plan was going to succeed, the situation suddenly took a drastic turn.

In the air above the formation, spatial fluctuations erupted, and a silver beast suddenly appeared before opening its mouth to expel a pillar of silver light, which struck the direct center of the formation.

An earth-shattering boom rang out, and the black formation flickered erratically before exploding violently.

The two devilish beings who were already close to reaching the formation were immediately plunged into despair upon seeing this, and immediately thereafter, all of the silver beasts converged to surround them again.

Almost at the exact same moment, the giant circle formed by the faint azure smoke faded amid a dull thump, and all of the devilish beasts that had previously been kept at bay immediately let loose bloodthirsty howls as they also flooded toward the pair of devilish beings.

Two cries of alarm and fury rang out, followed by a string of violent explosions. It was quite clear that in this dire situation, the two devilish beings were making a final stand.

Han Li was appraising the unfolding situation from a distance, and all of a sudden, he made a hand seal, upon which layers of black scales appeared over his skin. At the same time, a burst of powerful devilish Qi erupted out of his body alongside immense spiritual pressure that came crashing down upon all of the devilish beasts.

All of the green devilish beasts standing in his way immediately backtracked reflexively as they let loose menacing snarls, but the ferocity in their eyes only became more pronounced.

"Who goes there? We are both guards of Blood Crow City; if you were to save us, we'd be sure to offer you a handsome reward, Senior."

"I am the only son of the grand elder of the Infernal Crow Race; our race will also be greatly indebted to you, Senior."

Han Li had activated his Devilfeign Bead before unleashing his power, and the two devilish beings instantly called out to him in hope and desperation upon discovering his presence.

A faint smile appeared on Han Li's face, and he abruptly advanced toward the green beasts that stood in his way.

His body blurred, and he suddenly appeared in the air above the green devilish beasts.

On this occasion, the green beasts displayed no intention of backing down, and they let loose long howls as they released countless strands of fur from their backs, all of which hurtled directly up toward Han Li as streaks of green light.

"Interesting!" Han Li chuckled as he clenched his fists, then unleashed countless black fist projections that rained downward in a frenzy.

There was an astonishing number of those streaks of green light, but they were obviously no match for the attacks manifested by the power of the Provenance True Devil Arts. As soon as they were struck by the fearsome might of the fist projections, they instantly exploded, following which the first projections went on to reduce hundreds of green beasts into mincemeat in an instant.

Meanwhile, Han Li vanished on the spot again, then flew over to directly above the pair of devilish beings before casting a cold gaze downward with his arms crossed.

The two devilish beings were currently frantically unleashing their powers and treasures to keep the hordes of devilish beasts at bay. The normal devilish beasts weren't able to pose much of a threat to them, but the green and silver devilish beasts were too much for them to contend with, and it looked as if they could be completely inundated at any moment.

"I can save you, but you have to do something for me," Han Li said in an unhurried manner.

"Alright, we'll do anything you ask, Senior!" the burly devilish man immediately yelled without any hesitation.

During this brief moment, a silver beast had already torn through his defenses and inflicted several claw gashes onto his shoulder, through which even his bones were visible.

The elderly devilish man naturally immediately agreed as well.

A faint smile appeared on Han Li's face upon hearing this, and a pair of translucent azure and white wings appeared on his back amid a rumbling thunderclap, following which countless azure and white balls of lightning emerged out of thin air.

He then made a hand seal, and he immediately disappeared once again along with all of the balls of lightning.

An earth-shattering boom erupted, and countless arcs of azure and white lightning shot forth out of thin air, instantly intertwining to form a gigantic lightning net that descended from above with devastating force.

Bolts of lightning rained down from the lightning net before instantly exploding violently, forming a sea of lightning in the air down below.

What was incredible was that the two devilish beings remained completely unscathed and weren't struck by so much as a single bolt of lightning, even though they were situated right in the midst of the sea of lightning. A dense lightning barrier had appeared around them as a shield, while most of the surrounding devilish beasts were reduced to dust by the powerful lightning strikes.

Finally, after the lightning faded, only around 10% to 20% of the high-grade devilish beasts remained, and even they had been completely charred black.

Following that devastating rain of lightning, the remaining devilish beasts no longer had the courage to oppose Han Li, and they all fled amid horrified howls.

The burly devilish man was ecstatic to see this, but a thought then suddenly occurred to him, and he hurriedly yelled, "Senior, kill those Silver-necked Beasts before they get away! If you can do that, this beast tide will immediately fall apart, and no new beast monarch will be born for over 100 years in this pack!"

"Silver-necked Beasts?" Han LI's eyes narrowed slightly upon hearing this, and he cast his spiritual sense toward the dozen or so wounded silver beasts that had already fled into the distance.

Those were clearly the Silver-necked Beasts that the burly devilish man was referring to, and all of them had managed to survive that round of lightning strikes with their early-Spatial Tempering Stage powers.

After tracking them down, Han Li immediately sprang into action again, quickly making a hand seal, upon which a golden projection with three heads and six arms appeared behind him.

As soon as the projection appeared, it swelled to over 100 feet tall, then opened all six of its golden eyes in unison.

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Around a dozen pillars of golden light erupted forth one after another out of the projection's six eyes, and each pillar of light struck a fleeing silver beast with unerring accuracy.

These silver beasts only had a chance to howl with anguish before their bodies were reduced to nothingness within the golden light.

The two devilish beasts knew that Han Li's powers were definitely far superior to theirs upon seeing this, and their expressions changed drastically.

They had faced the silver beasts in person, so they were well aware of how powerful those beasts were. However, this senior had destroyed all of the silver beasts with ease; it was quite clear that his powers were completely unfathomable to them.

After all of the silver beasts were eradicated, all of the other devilish beasts instantly scattered under the leadership of the green beasts. All of the devilish beasts quickly fled deep into the grassland like the receding tide, and the surrounding space was emptied in the blink of an eye.

Han Li had no intention of pursuing the devilish beasts any further. Instead, he cast his spiritual sense even further into the distance, and he discovered that all of the devilish beasts there were also fleeing for their lives.

Thus, the terrifying beast tide had been completely scattered.

Han Li's expression eased slightly as he heaved a faint sigh of relief upon sensing this.

The burly devilish man briefly examined the wound on his own shoulder before flying toward Han Li with the elderly man. He looked at the Provenance True Devil Projection with a hint of awe and veneration in his eyes, and said, "Thank you for saving us, Senior. If it weren't for you, the two of us would've perished to those Luminous Wolf Beasts for sure."

"It's alright, it was only a simple task for me, and I only saved you as you agreed to do something for me in return," Han Li replied as he made a hand seal, upon which the golden projection vanished in a flash.

"How may we be of service to you, Senior?" the elderly devilish man asked in a respectful manner.

"Tell me who you are and how you ended up here," Han Li instructed in an implacable voice.

"We are both guards of Blood Crow City, and we were sent here by the city lord to kill the Luminous Wolf Beast Monarch in order to scatter this beast tide. Unfortunately, a mishap occurred at the end, and we almost perished here," the burly devilish man replied.

Even though they were unable to sense Han Li's exact cultivation base, they knew that he had to be an extremely powerful devilish lord, so they naturally didn't dare to display any disrespect toward him.

"I'm sure that Luminous Wolf Beast Monarch's powers wouldn't have been inferior to yours; how were you two able to venture so deep into this beast tide and kill the beast monarch? Also, where is this Blood Crow City? Is it located somewhere near here?" Han Li asked with a puzzled look in his eyes.

He had developed some understanding of the Elder Devil Realm through the information he had gathered and the jade slip given to him by the Long Family patriarch, but he naturally couldn't be aware of all of the cities in the entire realm.

Considering this Blood Crow City hadn't been mentioned in any of the information he had obtained, it was most likely not a very large city.

"You must've come here from another area, Senior. We were able to venture into this beast tide and kill the beast monarch as we had a few special treasures at our disposal. Otherwise, we certainly wouldn't have dared to enter this beast tide. As for Blood Crow City, it's a small nearby city, but it's decently renowned in this area, and City Lord Bing of our city is a devilish lord as well," the elderly devilish man replied.

Han Li was rather taken aback to hear this. "Oh? So there's a devilish lord overseeing this Blood Crow City? It must be quite a prosperous city, then; is there anything special about it?"

"Blood Crow City was built on a Bloodlight Crystal mine. The Bloodlight Crystal it produces are extremely important for those cultivating blood-related devilish arts, and our city lord just so happens to be using the renowned Blood River Cultivation Art. Otherwise, there's no way he would've been willing to take on the role of city lord in such a small and secluded city like ours. On top of that, Blood Crow City is the only city within a radius of millions of kilometers, so all fellow daoists looking to enter the grassland to hunt for devilish beasts would stay in the city for a few days. If you don't mind, you can come with us to rest in the city as well, Senior. Our city is going to be holding a small auction soon; perhaps there could be some auction items that could catch your eye," the elderly devilish man said in a careful manner.

"An auction? I'm interested, but I have no time to waste here; I have to be on my way soon," Han Li refused with a shake of his head.

A hint of disappointment appeared in the elderly devilish man's eyes upon hearing this.

"Are you traveling to the plains, senior?" the burly devilish man asked in a hesitant voice.

Han Li's expression immediately darkened upon hearing this, and a burst of terrifying spiritual pressure erupted from his body. "How did you know that?"

The burly devilish man's expression changed drastically, and he hurriedly explained, "Please don't misunderstand, Senior! Anyone traveling through this area is either here to hunt for devilish beasts on this grassland or is on their way to the plains. Aside from that, I can't think of any other place where you would want to go."

"Oh? Does that I'll have to pass through your Blood Crow City if I want to travel to the plains?" Han Li asked in a cold voice.

On this occasion, it was the elderly devilish man who hurriedly interjected, "Of course not, but if you want to travel to the plains, you'll most likely have to stay in our city for around half a month first, Senior."

"Why is that? Is there someone blocking the way?" Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this.

"Surely you jest, Senior; no one would dare to do that here. It's just that there's another beast tide taking place on the way to the plains, and compared with that one, this Luminous Wolf Beast Tide is virtually nothing. Even if someone of your powers were to fall into that beast tide, it would be extremely dangerous. The beast tide began around half a month ago, so it'll most likely last around another half a month. At a time like this, our city is the only place that can offer some refuge," the burly devilish man explained.

Han Li's pupils contracted slightly upon hearing this. "What type of beast tide could be that fearsome? Could it be an Irontooth Beast Tide?"

From the information he had gathered on the Elder Devil Realm, Irontooth Beasts were one of the most fearsome types of devilish beasts on the devilish grasslands. Not only were they all quite powerful, their packs often numbered in the tens of millions, making them extremely feared by all devilish beings who lived near grasslands.

"I wouldn't be telling you this if it were an Irontooth Beast Tide, Senior. With your powers, you'd have no issues passing through such a beast tide. The beast tide that's currently taking place is one that's comprised of Butterflytail Beasts, which are very rare even in our entire holy realm," the burly devilish man said as a hint of fear appeared on his face.

"Butterflytail Beasts? How is that possible? Don't they inhabit mountains or forests? Why have they appeared on this grassland?" Han Li's expression changed slightly upon hearing this.

"We're not particularly sure why these beasts have appeared in this area. They suddenly emerged from deep in the grassland in droves, and they're now lingering in the east. As a result of this, many nearby fellow daoists have fled to our city. However, these beasts never remain in the same place for over a month, so as long as our city doesn't attack them, we should be fine. Besides, even if these Butterflytail Beasts suddenly attack our city, the city's restrictions will be able to keep them at bay," the burly devilish man replied.

This was indeed rather troublesome. Butterflytail Beasts were only slightly more powerful than Irontooth Beasts, but the poisonous mist that they released was extremely formidable. Not only could it linger in one place for a long time, it was capable of slowly eroding all types of defensive treasures and protective spiritual light, making them very difficult to deal with.

The thought of being caught in a poisonous cloud that extended further than the eyes could see was a very concerning one even for Han Li.

With that in mind, Han Li's expression darkened slightly.

"You two wait here for now; I have to discuss this with my companions."

As soon as his voice trailed off, Han Li flipped a hand over to produce a yellow talisman, then spoke a message into it before releasing it as a streak of red light that instantly vanished into thin air.

The two devilish men were rather surprised to hear this, but they were too fearful of Han Li to oppose him, so they could only wait in silence.

Around two hours later, several streaks of light shot forth from afar before arriving beside Han Li, revealing themselves to be a group of male and female cultivators in different attire.

All of them had pure devilish Qi drifting around their bodies, and they were none other than the Long Family patriarch and the others, all of whom had already activated that Devilfeign Beads.

The two devilish men immediately drew a sharp breath in unison upon sensing their cultivation bases, and they hurriedly extended respectful bows. "We pay our respects to our seniors!"

It was no wonder that they were so astonished; even though there were countless powerful beings in the Elder Devil Realm, it was still extremely rare to see so many devilish lords gathered in one place.

The Long Family patriarch didn't even bother to take a single glance at the two devilish beings as he asked, "Brother Han, is your information reliable? Is there really a Butterflytail Beast Tide up ahead?"

"I was informed of this by these two fellow daoists. As for whether it's true or not, we'll just have to do some scouting for ourselves to find out," Han Li replied.

"If there really is such a formidable beast tide, then our journey will have to be delayed. If there were only several hundred thousand Butterflytail Beasts, we'd be able to wipe out all of them, but if there's enough to form a beast tide, then it'll be very difficult for us to fight our way through it without at least sustaining severe injuries," Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns sighed.

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"Indeed, but to make sure that this information is accurate, we'll have to get someone to scout the situation. I'll leave that to you, Elder Hui," the Long Family patriarch said.

"No problem, I'll be back in half a day," Elder Hui replied with a nod before flying away as a streak of black light.

Following Elder Hui's departure, the Long Family patriarch finally turned to the two devilish beings. "I have some things to ask the two of you; if you reply truthfully, you'll be rewarded, but if not, I'm sure you know what's going to happen to you."

"Please go ahead, Senior; we'll definitely tell you everything that we know," the burly devilish man immediately replied.

The elderly devilish man also nodded eagerly with an obedient and respectful expression.

"How far away from this place is Blood Crow City, and how far away is the nearest city to Blood Crow City? Also, what is the name of your city lord and what's his cultivation base?" the Long Family patriarch asked.

He was posing many questions all at once, but none of them were taboo or related to confidential information, so the burly devilish man immediately replied, "Blood Crow City is around 50,000 kilometers away from here, and the closest city to it is Night Asura City, but it'll take at least two months to get there. As for our city lord, his name is Bing Qianren, and he's a mid-stage devilish lord."

"A mid-stage devilish lord, eh? That's not bad. What's the current situation in Blood Crow City like? Are there any teleportation formations in the city that lead to other cities? Alternatively, is there any way to skirt around the beast tide in the east?" the Long Family patriarch continued.

The burly devilish man hesitated momentarily before replying, "In order to ensure that the city is prepared for a sudden attack from the Butterflytail Beasts, we're in a state of total lockdown, but we'd be more than happy to have you. Unfortunately, our city is too small to facilitate teleportation formations. There is naturally a way to skirt around the beast tide, but it would take far more than half a month to do so, so I suggest you all wait in the city until the beast tide passed before continuing onward."

"Regardless of how long it's going to take, I still want to know how we can skirt around the beast tide; I'll be the one to decide whether that option is suitable for us or not. Also, you have a map of this nearby area, right? Make a copy for me," the Long Family patriarch instructed.

"Yes, Senior; please forgive me for jumping to conclusions in your stead! The beast tide in the east covers a very large area, so if you want to skirt around it, you'll have to travel through the Withered Leaf Forest to the south or the grassland to the north..." The burly devilish man immediately revealed everything that he knew, and at the end, he pulled out a black crystal that he handed over to the Long Family patriarch.

The Long Family patriarch accepted the black crystal before replicating its contents into a white crystal. These crystals were similar to the jade slips of the Spirit Realm, and the Long Family patriarch had collected some prior to entering the Elder Devil Realm.

Their functions and method of usage were similar to those of normal jade slips, but devilish Qi was required to activate them.

This was naturally no issue to Han Li, who was using a devilish cultivation art, and everyone else was also able to use these crystals by drawing upon the power of their Devilfeign Beads.

In order to not arouse suspicion, all of them had prepared some commonly used items from the Elder Devil Realm for themselves.

After the Long Family patriarch replicated the map, he tossed the crystal to everyone else for them to make copies as well.

With a map of the nearby area, they were naturally able to examine the options they had for skirting around the beast tide, but after examining the map, none of the options proved to be very attractive.

Just as Han Li was pondering the situation, the Long Family patriarch's voice suddenly sounded beside his ears. "Fellow Daoist Han, it looks like we really won't be able to skirt around that Butterflytail Beast Tide; how about we wait in the nearby area for some time and continue after the beast tide is over? A delay of around half a month won't be of much consequence to us anyway. As for that Blood Crow City, I think we should stay out of it as a safety precaution."

As a late-Body Integration cultivator, Han Li was naturally the first person the Long Family patriarch turned to for discussion.

Han Li was silent for a moment before replying, "It is indeed not worth the risk to venture into the beast tide when we could just wait half a month instead, but I think we should make a trip to this Blood Crow City."

"Oh? Why is that, Brother Han?" The Long Family patriarch was rather taken aback to hear this.

"I understand that you're reluctant to enter the city as you're concerned that our covers could be blown, but Blood Crow City is only a small city that doesn't even have any teleportation formations, so it won't have any powerful restrictions, either. As such, our disguise should be safe. The main reason I'm suggesting we go to Blood Crow City is because it's very likely that we'll be staying in the Elder Devil Realm for up to several decades. During such an extended period of time, it's inevitable that we'll have to come into contact with some devilish beings. The Devilfeign Beads can indeed disguise our auras, but our severe lack of knowledge of this realm could expose us sooner or later. On top of that, aside from the Spirit Cleansing Pond and Clean Spirit Lotus, there are some spirit medicines in this realm that are very difficult to find in our Spirit Realm; don't you want to collect some of those as well, Brother Long?" Han Li replied in an unhurried manner.

The Long Family patriarch seemed to have been swayed by Han Li's suggestion, and he replied, "That does sound appealing, Brother Han. I'll discuss this with Fellow Daoist Thousand Autumns and the others before we decide how to proceed."

"Of course, I'm guessing Fairy Thousand Autumns is even more eager to enter Blood Crow City than we are," Han Li chuckled in a meaningful voice.

The Long Family patriarch faltered slightly upon hearing this before also chuckling in response. "Hehe, that's true; there are a few extremely precious materials for the Spirit Race that can only be found en masse in the Elder Devil Realm." He then turned and transmitted his voice to Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns, and judging from her reaction, she was clearly very receptive toward the Long Family patriarch's proposal.

Their conversation was very brief, and Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns didn't even discuss the matter with the other Spirit beings before giving the Long Family patriarch a very clear answer. It was clear that the Spirit beings had already made a decision among themselves.

Thus, it was decided that they were going to travel to Blood Crow City, and the Long Family patriarch informed the woman from the Ye Family and the man from the Lin Family of this decision as well.

Neither of them had any objections, and a consensus was quickly reached.

The two devilish beings could naturally see that Han Li and the others were discussing something, and they waited patiently and obediently without uttering a single word.

Half a day later, a streak of black light approached them from afar; it was Elder Hui who was returning from his scouting trip.

As soon as Elder Hui landed on the ground, the Long Family patriarch approached him with a smile, and asked, "Did you manage to verify whether there's a beast tide, Brother Hui?"

"There are indeed countless Butterflytail Beasts gathered in the east. I didn't dare to approach them and only looked on from afar for a while before returning to deliver the news," Elder Hui replied with a wry smile.

The Long Family patriarch had already anticipated this to be the case, and he asked a few more questions before he lowered his head with a contemplative expression. All of a sudden, he flicked a finger, and two streaks of golden light shot forth like lightning before vanishing into the bodies of the two defenseless devilish beings in a flash.

Never did the two of them think that this "devilish lord" would suddenly launch a surprise attack against them, and they both slumped to the ground almost as soon as the streaks of golden light entered their bodies.

Everyone else aside from Han Li was rather bewildered by this.

"Why did you do that, Brother Long? Don't we need them to take us to Blood Crow City?" Zang Xing asked.

"We already know the location of Blood Crow City, don't we? We can just get there ourselves. Besides, I didn't kill them; I merely knocked them unconscious," the Long Family patriarch replied.

Zang Xing was also a wily old fox who had lived for countless years, and an enlightened look immediately appeared on his face. "Oh? Could it be that you're planning to..."

"Indeed. If I were to kill them, that would most likely attract the attention of that Blood Crow City Lord. There's no need for us to fear a mid-stage devilish lord, but it's naturally best if we avoid trouble as much as possible. I'm planning to unleash a soul seal technique on them to temporarily seal away their memories before releasing them. As for us, we'll just enter the city disguised as ordinary devilish beings; I'm sure the devilish beings in the city won't pay us any heed then," the Long Family patriarch explained.

"That's a good idea, but is your soul seal technique reliable, Brother Long? It would be very troublesome for us if the city lord were to see through it," the man from the Lin Family said in a concerned voice.

"Hehe, this is a secret technique passed down by an unfathomably powerful being; unless a Sacred Ancestor were to examine the two of them in person, there's no way anyone would discover anything amiss," the Long Family patriarch assured.

Everyone was naturally instilled with a lot of confidence upon hearing this.

Thus, the Long Family patriarch made a grabbing motion to draw the elderly devilish man toward him, then expelled a ball of purple light out of his mouth, which completely encompassed the devilish man's entire face.

After that, golden light flashed within his eyes as he looked into the devilish man's eyes while chanting an incantation.

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Several hours later, Han Li hovered high up in the air, looking at a crimson city wall in the distance. "So this is Blood Crow City? It doesn't appear to be very big at all."

"Hehe, it's indeed not a very big city, but its walls are paved with rocks from near the Bloodlight Crystal mine, and apparently, they possess some properties that allow them to weaken magic power attacks," the Long Family patriarch said with a faint smile.

"So that means this city will also be able to resist Butterflytail Beasts to a certain extent; it looks like we made the right decision to come here," the woman from the Ye Family said with a smile.

"I examined the memories of those two devilish beings earlier, and it seems that all types of beast tides frequently appear in this area, but very rarely would they attack Blood Crow City, so the city doesn't seem to be as simple as it appears. Having said that, there are no restrictions in the city that can undo the effect of our Devilfeign Beads. Once we enter the city, we'll just have to disguise our auras to the Deity Transformation and Spatial Tempering Stages, and we should be able to avoid excessive scrutiny," the Long Family patriarch said.

Everyone else nodded in agreement to this.

Thus, the Long Family patriarch swept a sleeve through the air, and devilish Qi erupted from his body, sweeping everyone up before hurtling directly toward the crimson city wall down below.

Shortly thereafter, the devilish Qi faded, and Han Li and the others appeared in front of an inky-black city gate, where 30 to 40 green-armored devilish guards were appraising them with wary expressions.

The Long Family patriarch harrumphed coldly and released his immense Spatial Tempering Stage aura, upon which expressions of awe and veneration immediately appeared on the faces of the guards, most of whom were at the Nascent Soul Stage.

The leader of the guards was Deity Transformation Stage devilish being, and he hurriedly approached Han Li's group. After carefully asking a few questions, he immediately waved a hand, upon which the guards opened the city gate to grant Han Li and the others passage.

For a small city like theirs, a Spatial Tempering Stage being was not someone they could afford to offend, so Han Li's group was allowed passage with minimal questioning. In fact, under normal circumstances where there were no beast tides, the questioning process would've been skipped altogether.

In the instant that he entered through the city gate, blue light flashed through Han Li's eyes as he swept his gaze over a formation engraved on the city wall that was comprised of several devilish patterns. He didn't know what the other restrictions in the city were like, but this one was very ordinary and not worthy of concern.

Upon entering the city, everyone was greeted by the sight of rows of buildings of different heights, most of which were black and red in color. There were occasionally some buildings of different colors, but they were all clearly temporary structures.

There were a series of streets between the rows of buildings that were wide enough to fit three beast-drawn carriages side by side, and overall, this city was more of a larger town than a city, and it was home to 5,000,000 to 6,000,000 devilish beings at most.

There was a flight restriction in the city, ensuring that no devilish beings were flying over the city aside from the patrolling guards, and the city wasn't exactly packed to the rafters, but it was definitely very densely populated during this special time.

There were all types of devilish beings walking along the streets, including ferocious-looking ones who resembled devilish beasts, as well as some who looked identical to humans.

The streets were lined with all types of shops and some buildings that appeared to be inns.

Many devilish beings were entering and exiting these buildings in a hurried manner, and they were all quite powerful, with the majority of them at the Core Formation and Nascent Soul Stages, and the occasional Deity Transformation Stage devilish being could be seen as well.

As for Spatial Tempering Stage beings, Han Li and the others had only encountered two or three thus far, and all of them had only been at the early-Spatial Tempering Stage.

After walking for a while, they caught sight of a small mountain that was several thousand feet tall in the distance.

Around the mountain were a series of grey stone pagodas, which were being patrolled by elite armored devilish beings.

Halfway up the mountain, there was a black and red stone palace, which was presumably where the city lord, Bing Qianren, resided.

Han Li cast his gaze toward the stone palace with his eyes narrowed slightly in contemplation.

Right at this moment, the Long Family patriarch suddenly stopped at a crossroads, and said, "Let's split up here, everyone. I'm sure all of us prefer to be alone, and we'll gather here again to continue our journey once the Butterflytail Beast Tide recedes. This city isn't all that big anyway, so we'll be able to easily contact one another if something happens."

To everyone's surprise, the woman from the Yu Family was the first to express her approval as a faint smile appeared on her face. "That's a good idea. I did see some things that piqued my interest earlier, so I'll be taking my leave now."

Immediately thereafter, she extended a salute toward everyone before departing.

Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns and her companions exchanged a few glances before also taking their leave; it seemed that they were going to stick together.

"I'll be taking my leave as well, Brother Long," Han Li said as he cupped his fist in a parting salute.

"Go ahead, Brother Han." The Long Family patriarch also returned his salute.

Thus, Han Li nodded before making his way toward a nearby street.

The Long Family patriarch looked on at Han Li's departing figure, and only after he had disappeared around a corner did his smile gradually fade. He then turned to the long-haired man, and asked, "Fellow Daoist Lin, are you ready to give me a response to the collaboration I proposed to you?"

The long-haired man's pupils contracted slightly upon hearing this, and he replied in a hesitant manner, "This is quite an important matter, so I'll need some more time to think about it, Brother Long."

"Indeed, this is something that requires careful consideration. We have a long journey ahead, so you'll have plenty of time to consider the offer," the Long Family patriarch replied with a smile, seemingly completely unsurprised by this response.

"You have my thanks, Brother Long," the long-haired man said as his expression eased slightly.

After that, they chatted for a while longer before the long-haired man also departed.

"Brother Long, it looks like he may not accept our invitation; how about we try to recruit that woman from the Ye Family instead? After all, according to our original plan, someone from the Ye Family would actually be more suitable for our needs," Elder Hui suddenly said in a cold voice.

"That's out of the question! She's far too wary of our Long Family, and she seems to have sensed something already, so there's no way she'll agree. If we were to ask her, we'd only risk exposing our plan," the Long Family patriarch immediately replied with a shake of his head.

"But that man is clearly just placating us; I'm concerned that even if agrees, he won't truly be willing to collaborate with us," Elder Hui said with furrowed brows.

A peculiar smile appeared on the Long Family patriarch's face as he chuckled, "Hehe, once he agrees, I won't allow him to go back on his word. That's enough about this matter; this isn't the right place to be discussing something like this. Let's go to the materials shops in this city to see if there are some materials that we need."

"The materials shops in this city are indeed worth visiting. I presume everyone else is most likely visiting the materials shops in the city as well, so let's go in a different direction to avoid running into them," Elder Hui suggested.

"My thoughts exactly! Let's go," the Long Family patriarch said with a smile before departing from the crossroads.

Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns and the Spirit beings were slowly walking along a street while quickly communicating with one another.

Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns transmitted her voice to her companions with a concerned expression. "Zhi Shui's seal is displaying signs of coming undone; we have to find a place to renew the seal right away."

"Surely not! The last restriction was cast not long ago; how is it coming undone already?" the figure enshrouded within white light asked.

"I'm not sure; it's most likely because we're situated in the Elder Devil Realm. As you're aware, this thing's origins stem from the Elder Devil Realm in the first place, and the vast amount of devilish Qi in this realm seems to be impacting it quite significantly," Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns sighed in response.

"Zhi Shui is our trump card, so we have to make sure that no issues arise with him. We'll find some lodging right away and keep a lookout while you fortify the seal," the figure within the white light immediately replied without any hesitation.

"That would be best." Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns nodded, and the group made their way along the street for a while longer before turning into an alleyway up ahead.

At the end of the alley was a tall building that resembled an ill, and they strode into the building one after another.

In a crimson devilish shop, the woman from the Ye Family was accepting an unknown piece of green ore from a pale-skinned devilish being.

The devilish being was delivering a long spiel about this piece of ore, while the woman was injecting her spiritual sense into the piece of ore with a smile on her face.

Meanwhile, Han Li was walking along a narrow street, on either side of which were all types of stalls of different sizes.

Behind each stall sat or stood a devilish being, and there were many devilish beings with powerful auras walking along the same street.

Some of them were engaged in heated arguments with the owners of the stalls, and a faint smile appeared on Han Li's face at the sight of this familiar scene.

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The scene unfolding before his eyes made him recall the markets he had visited in the human world and Spirit Realm.

Most of the wares being sold by the stalls were only low-grade materials and treasures, but there were some precious items among them. The more precious items were obviously quite rare as not all devilish beings were willing to sell their items to these streetside vendors at low prices.

However, this was a special period of time during which many devilish beings were forced to remain in Blood Crow City, so there definitely had to be many of them who were looking to take advantage of this opportunity to sell some of the precious items in their collection.

Han Li strolled along the street while rapidly sweeping his spiritual sense over the stalls on either side of him.

Many of the wares being sold were similar to items that could be found in the Spirit Realm, except they contained devilish Qi as opposed to spiritual Qi. Of course, there were some materials that were imbued with spiritual Qi as well, but there were clearly far less of those than the ones that contained devilish Qi.

Han Li didn't pay any heed to these materials, choosing to focus most of his attention on the peculiar items that he had never seen before instead. Those were most likely things that could only be found in the Elder Devil Realm.

As for the treasures being sold, those were quickly glossed over by his spiritual sense as well. With his current wealth of treasures, the average top-grade treasure was simply no longer attractive to him.

As for spirit treasures, the chances of finding such treasures in a place like this was virtually negligible, so Han Li certainly wasn't going to be holding his breath.

The street wasn't very long, and there were only around 200 to 300 stalls on either side of it.

After just a short while, he had scanned his spiritual sense over most of the stalls, and barely anything had caught his attention. There were a few items that he examined in person, but he merely set them back down with a shake of his head in the end.

The devilish beings standing behind the stalls were all extremely menacing in appearance, but they immediately offered respectful smiles upon sensing Han Li's Spatial Tempering Stage cultivation base, not daring to display any sign of discontent.

Han Li slowly walked onward, and he was becoming more and more disappointed.

He had discovered several types of materials that didn't exist in the Spirit Realm, but for a being of his caliber, none of them were all that useful. Just as he was contemplating whether he should leave this street and visit the large shops nearby, a powerful aura suddenly erupted from a certain stall, and an enraged roar rang out at the same time.

"I'm taking it whether you like it or not! Here are the devil stones you asked for; hurry up and hand it over!"

"I already told you that I've raised the price. Unless you can offer me a top-grade devilish treasure or 10 top-grade devil stones, don't even think about it!" A cold voice rang out in response.

"I already paid the deposit yesterday, and I went to great lengths to gather these devil stones, yet you're raising the price on me? Are you trying to make a fool out of me?" The first voice had become even more enraged.

"Hehe, it's mine, so I can set whatever price I want for it. Here's your deposit from yesterday; if you don't have a top-grade devilish treasure or 10 top-grade devil stones, then piss off!" The second voice wasn't backing down in the slightest, either.

"Do you know who I am? You think you can make a fool out of me and get away with it? If you don't sell it to me, I'm going to break all of your bones!" the owner of the first voice threatened in a menacing manner.

"Break all of my bones? Haha, I can't even remember the last time someone dared to say something like this to me! If you think you have what it takes, then you're welcome to try!" the owner of the second jeered.

At the same time, another powerful aura erupted from the same stall.

Such a loud commotion naturally attracted a lot of attention, and many devilish beings had gathered to watch the unfolding spectacle.

"Isn't that Hai Fei of the Blue Hog Race and Niu Li of the Bird Hoof Race? What's gotten them so mad?"

"Hehe, we're in for a good show! Both of them are quite powerful; it's hard to say who's going to win between them!"

All of the onlookers immediately burst into spirited chatter, and it seemed that the two devilish beings were both quite renowned in Blood Crow City.

Blue light flashed through Han Li's eyes as he quickly assessed the situation over at the stall.

The stall had been surrounded by around a dozen devilish bystanders, and the two devilish beings locked in the altercation consisted of a menacing 30-feet-tall devilish being with several curved horns on his head, and a blue-skinned short and stubby devilish being, the latter of which was the stall owner.

Both of them were at the Deity Transformation Stage, with one of them at the early-Deity Transformation Stage, while the other was at the mid-Deity Transformation Stage.

The burly horned devilish being's cultivation base was slightly inferior, but his powerful-looking body suggested that he was quite adept in the art of body refinement, so it was indeed difficult to say who would come out on top in a fight.

Of course, two Deity Transformation Stage devilish beings weren't enough to pique Han Li's interest; he merely took a casual glance at them before preparing to move on. However, as his gaze passed over the item that the blue-skinned stall owner was holding, his expression suddenly changed slightly, and he made his way over to the stall.

After just a few flashes, he had inserted himself into the group of devilish beings standing around the stall, and he stared intently at the item in the blue-skinned devilish being's hand.

This was a fist-sized piece of black and white ore that was flashing with a cold light. Han Li swept his spiritual sense toward the item, and his pupils immediately contracted as an elated look appeared on his face.

At this point, the verbal altercation had become very heated, and both of the auras being released were becoming more and more formidable, but for some reason, neither of them escalated this into a physical altercation.

At this moment, a bystander who seemed to be familiar with both of the devilish beings stepped in with a smile. "Hehe, it's just a piece of Foreign Devilish Metal; there's really no need to fight over something like this. If one of you were to be wounded or even killed during such a trivial altercation, it would simply not be worth it."

The blue-skinned devilish being's expression eased slightly as he cupped his fist in a salute. "Brother Tan, it's not that I'm intentionally raising the price to target him; it's just that this piece of Foreign Devilish Metal is imbued with foreign devilish Qi that's far more special than what can be found in other pieces of such metal. After discovering this, I realized that the price I proposed yesterday was too low, and that's why he insists on buying this particular piece of Foreign Devilish Metal. Otherwise, he could easily buy a piece of the same material from another stall."

"Bullsh*t! If I hadn't been interested in this particular piece of Foreign Devilish Metal, why would I have been willing to pay such a high deposit? You clearly raised the price intentionally, knowing full well in the first place that this is a special piece of Foreign Devilish Metal! Only you Blue Hog beings could do something as unscrupulous as this!" the burly devilish beings objected in a furious voice.

"How dare you insult our Blue Hog Race? I'll make you pay with an arm!" An abnormal flush appeared on the blue-skinned devilish being's face upon hearing this, and a hint of insanity surfaced in his eyes.

He then swept a sleeve through the air, and a streak of light shot forth directly toward the burly devilish being's arm like lightning.

However, the burly devilish being was already prepared for this, and he immediately flipped a hand over to produce a white bone shield.

Just as the streak of light was about to strike the shield, a humanoid figure abruptly appeared in front of the burly devilish being, then reached out with a golden palm to grab onto the streak of light.

"Are you two planning to force the guards of the city to step in? I'm interested in that piece of Foreign Devilish Metal as well; let me take a look at it."

The humanoid figure was none other than Han Li, and he was currently releasing a powerful Spatial Tempering Stage aura, causing all of the expressions on the faces of the surrounding devilish beings to change drastically.

The burly devilish being faltered slightly upon hearing this before interjecting in an indignant manner, "Senior, I was the one who..."

Han Li released a burst of fearsome spiritual pressure toward the burly devilish being without even turning around. "Oh? Do you want to fight with me over this piece of Foreign Devilish Metal?"

The burly devilish being was immediately forced back several steps in succession, and his face turned dark purple as he blurted out an alarmed apology before quickly scurrying away with his tail between his legs.

As for the other onlooking devilish beings, they also dispersed in the face of Han Li's threatening gaze.

Meanwhile, the ferocious look had already completely faded from the blue-skinned devilish being's eyes, and he could only force a smile onto his face as he offered the piece of Foreign Devilish Metal to Han Li. "Do you want this piece of devilish metal as well, Senior? In that case, you can have it for the original price of 10 devil stones."

"Hmph, why are you so scared? Are you worried that I'm a robber who'll take the item from you without issuing payment?" Han Li harrumphed coldly as he swept a sleeve through the air to draw the piece of metal into his hand for closer inspection.

"I wouldn't dare to think that!" The blue-skinned devilish being immediately shook his head in response.

With the fearsome power that Han Li had just displayed, it would be a simple matter for him to kill this stall owner. As such, the blue-skinned devilish being would rather give this piece of Foreign Devilish Metal to Han Li for free than risk offending a Spatial Tempering Stage powerful being.

Han Li ignored the blue-skinned devilish being as he examined the piece of Foreign Devilish Metal over and over again, yet his expression remained completely unchanged, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking.

After a full 10 minutes had passed, azure light flashed from Han Li's hand, and the piece of Foreign Devilish Metal vanished, only to be replaced by a small black sword, which Han Li tossed toward the blue-skinned devilish being as he said, "This flying sword is a top-grade devilish treasure; it should be more than enough to exchange for this piece of Foreign Devilish Metal, but you have to tell me where you got this metal from."

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This flying sword was a treasure that Han Li had obtained from one of the devilish lords he had slain in the Spirit Realm.

The blue-skinned devilish being accepted the flying sword before sweeping his spiritual sense over it, upon which an elated look immediately appeared on his face. "Thank you, Senior! I exchanged for this piece of Foreign Devilish Metal from someone else, and it seemed to have changed hands several times already before that, so I'm afraid I don't know where it originally came from."

He had been asking for too lofty a price when he had requested a top-grade devilish treasure from that Bird Hoof being, so he was naturally ecstatic that he had actually obtained what he had asked for.

For a Deity Transformation Stage being like him, a top-grade treasure was very difficult to come by.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly as he said, "I see. In any case, this piece of Foreign Devilish Metal should be enough for me anyway."

After that, he turned to leave. The blue-skinned devil had intended to try and curry some favor with Han Li, but he didn't dare to say anything further and could only make a respectful farewell gesture.

After finding that piece of Foreign Devilish Metal, Han Li naturally no longer had any intention of leaving right away.

During the next four hours, he carefully examined everything on the remaining stalls on this street, and he really did manage to find two types of spirit medicines that couldn't be found in the Spirit Realm, with which he could refine a type of pill that could calm his heart and mind.

When consumed while cultivating an ability, the pill could slightly improve the rate of progress made during cultivation, so in the long term, it would be very useful to him.

Han Li already possessed the recipe for the pill, and the only thing that was stopping him from refining it were those two types of spirit medicines that were extinct in the Spirit Realm.

After that, Han Li left the street and went to some nearby large shops in high spirits.

Unfortunately, almost all of the items sold in these shops were meant for devilish beings, and he didn't discover anything else of value.

At this point, it was already getting rather late, and the number of people on the streets was beginning to dwindle, while the shops were closing one after another for the night.

Han Li rented an independent secret chamber at an inn and stayed there for now.

He set up several layers of restrictions in the secret chamber, and only then did he bring out that piece of Foreign Devilish Metal before appraising it in silence.

The piece of metal was gleaming with a metallic light, but its surface was extremely bumpy and uneven.

Strangely enough, not only was this object releasing dense devilish Qi, the devilish Qi was also interspersed with wisps of spiritual Qi.

This was a rare material that contained both spiritual Qi and devilish Qi.

However, Han Li hadn't just bought this piece of metal for that alone. After appraising it in silence for a long while, he suddenly tossed it forward, and it hovered in mid-air before him as he swept a finger toward it.

A streak of azure light shot forth in a flash, and the piece of metal was instantly sliced in half, upon which a pea-sized object fell out.

Han Li made a grabbing motion to draw the object into his grasp, and it was revealed to be a grey crystalline bead.

"So there really was something hiding in here; I'll need to examine it further to see if it's going to be useful to me," Han Li murmured to himself with a smile before injecting his spiritual sense into the bead.

However, in the next instant, his expression suddenly changed drastically, and he immediately hurled the crystalline bead away.

A rumbling boom akin to a dull thunderclap suddenly erupted from the bead, and it began to release a fearsome aura. At the same time, a thick pillar of grey light surged out of the bead before striking the restrictions set up on the ceiling like lightning.

Several layers of light barriers were torn apart without being able to offer up any resistance, and only after striking the final restriction was the pillar of light briefly stopped in its tracks.

During this split-second delay, Han Li rushed into the air above the pillar of light with a dark expression before pressing a palm downward.

A giant radiant golden hand immediately appeared, and the pillar of light was completely halted.

However, Han Li's expression didn't ease in the slightest upon seeing this. His fingers were trembling slightly, and his arm was slowly being forced back by the grey pillar of light.

A surprised look appeared on Han Li's face in response to this development, following which he gave a cold harrumph, and his arm suddenly became a lot thicker amid a flash of golden light. His sleeve was instantly torn apart, revealing a layer of shimmering golden scales, and he slowly closed his fingers.

A burst of enormous restrictive power immediately appeared around the grey pillar of light, crushing it into a ball of light that was several feet in diameter before being drawn into the giant golden hand's grasp in a flash.

Immediately thereafter, Han Li chanted something and flicked a series of incantation seals toward the giant golden hand with his 10 fingers.

The golden hand blurred before transforming into a series of golden runes that enveloped the grey ball of light.

The ball of light was originally in a very unstable state and looked as if it could explode at any moment, but it instantly dimmed and fell still.

Only then did Han Li's expression ease slightly, and he descended back down onto the ground before waving a hand to draw the ball of light into his grasp.

The power imbued within the ball of light was truly quite formidable; even Han Li wasn't able to completely repress it without using his Provenance True Devil Arts. However, under the restriction that Han Li had unleashed, it had become very still and calm, in stark contrast with the fearsome power it had just displayed.

Han Li appraised the ball of light in silence with tightly furrowed brows.

He had been slightly surprised by the power of the ball of light, but what he was most interested in was the type of energy that had formed this object.

Han Li had forcibly purchased this piece of Foreign Devilish Metal not just because he had seen something within the piece of metal using his spirit eyes, but also because he had been struck by an extremely profound feeling in his spiritual sense.

This was definitely an extremely valuable item, and it seemed to be very important to him as well.

At his current cultivation base, Han Li naturally took these spiritual signals very seriously. These signals very rarely appeared, and they weren't guaranteed to always be correct, but they certainly couldn't be ignored.

Even though Han Li had only briefly inspected the bead with his spiritual sense before withdrawing it in alarm, he still did manage to sense some things. However, if he wanted to be able to derive some useful information, then further examination was required.

However, the energy that the ball of light was formed by was very special, and it seemed that normal spiritual sense would immediately become extremely violent upon coming into contact with it. Thus, things were made a lot more problematic.

All of a sudden, Han Li took a deep breath as a solemn look appeared on his face. At the same time, he activated both his Great Development Technique and Spirit Refinement Technique, upon which his spiritual sense swelled drastically.

Immediately thereafter, blue light flashed within his eyes, and a series of almost transparent threads of light shot forth out of his glabella, then vanished into the ball of light in a flash.

Those were substantial manifestations of his spiritual sense, and there were over 100 of them, clearly indicating that Han Li's spiritual sense had reached an incredibly fearsome level.

In the instant that these threads vanished into the ball of light, it shuddered slightly and began to display signs of instability again.

Han Li immediately injected more magic power into the golden runes surrounding the ball of light upon seeing this, and they formed a golden net that converged violently amid a flash of golden light.

As a result, the ball of light instantly settled down again.

Han Li heaved a faint sigh of relief, then closed his eyes as he began to carefully examine the ball of light.

Moments later, a dumbstruck look appeared on his face, only to be immediately replaced by an expression of ecstasy. However, this elated expression only lingered for a brief moment before it was replaced by a befuddled and hesitant one.

Han Li made a hand seal, and all of the translucent threads were instantly withdrawn. After that, he slowly opened his eyes, but his brows were tightly furrowed.

"It's incredible to think that there's something in this world that can completely fuse devilish Qi and spiritual Qi. This is perfect for my Provenance True Devil Arts! I should be able to easily convert it into magic power for myself without even having to refine it. Could it really be that simple? I don't recall ever seeing any records of something like this, either," Han Li murmured to himself in a hesitant manner.

"So be it, I'll give it a try first."

Han Li soon made his decision, and he began to chant something while making a series of hand seals, then suddenly extended a finger toward the ball of light.

The bumpy surface of the ball of light immediately began to transform, and in the end, an egg-sized section was extracted amid a flash of light.

Before this extracted section could explode, Han Li's chanting abruptly ceased, and his hand shot forth like lightning to grab onto it, following which he immediately unleashed his Provenance True Devil Arts.

A golden projection that was around 10 feet tall appeared behind him, and it gradually became clearer.

At the same time, the grey ball of light in his grasp began to shrink at a rate that was discernible to the naked eye, and it completely vanished after the span of just a few breaths.

"As expected, the true essence within my body has been slightly enhanced. If It were to absorb this entire thing, the enhancements would be phenomenal!" An elated and excited look appeared in Han Li's eyes.

"What exactly is this thing? It clearly has no impurities whatsoever, so how did so many impurities appear following the conversion process?" Han Li murmured to himself as he extended a finger, and a wisp of barely visible green Qi surged out of his fingertip.

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Han Li appraised the wisp of green Qi for a while before a burst of silver flames erupted out of the same fingertip to envelop it.

However, the green Qi remained completely unaffected by the silver flames regardless of how violently they burned.

Han Li's expression changed slightly upon seeing this, and the silver flames instantly dissipated. He then flicked his finger, and the wisp of green Qi shot forth as a streak of green light, piercing through the light barriers on the opposing wall with ease.

Han Li faltered slightly upon seeing this. He was only trying to flick the green Qi away, so he certainly didn't think that it would be this powerful.

All of a sudden, spatial fluctuations erupted, and the green streak of light shot forth directly toward Han Li.

Han Li was naturally rather taken aback by this development, but his response was very fast. Golden light flashed from his hand as he caught the oncoming streak of green light, but his expression immediately darkened upon opening his fingers, only to find that the green light was nowhere to be found.

The green light had completely disregarded his immensely powerful body and burrowed into his hand without any impediment.

Han Li immediately inspected his own internal condition using his spiritual sense, only to find that the wisp of green Qi was currently situated in his dantian in a completely calm and stable manner.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly as he swept up the green using an enormous burst of true essence, then forced it out of his body again.

On this occasion, the green Qi was only expelled several feet out of his body before shooting back in a flash.

The true essence enveloping it was unable to impede it in the slightest!

Han Li's heart jolted as he instantly conjured up a golden barrier of protective spiritual light, and at the same time, blue light flashed within his eyes as he stared intently at the oncoming streak of green light.

The green light pierced through his protective spiritual light as if it didn't even exist, then immediately returned to his dantian, leaving him completely bewildered.

After that, no matter what he tried to expel the green Qi, everything ended in failure, and he couldn't destroy or refine it, either.

The wisp of green Qi seemed to have identified his body as a home; regardless of how far away it was forced out or what kind of restriction was used on it, it would instantly disappear before returning to his body.

After failing to trap the green Qi even with the Purple Word Cauldron, Han Li's expression had become very strained.

It didn't seem like this green Qi was causing any harm to his body, but how could he rest knowing that there was a type of foreign energy residing in his body?

The fact that the green Qi was able to return to his body with unerring accuracy every single time indicated that it had somehow locked onto his soul. In that case, there was only one more thing that he could try.

Having made his decision, Han Li made a hand seal and began to chant an incantation, upon which a golden projection with three heads and six arms appeared behind him.

The projection then took on a substantial form, following which Han Li let loose a low cry and laid a hand onto the top of his own head.

A dull thump rang out as a ball of black light vanished into the golden body in a flash; it was none other than his second Nascent Soul!

Immediately thereafter, Han Li pointed a finger toward the golden body, then drew upon his true essence to expel the wisp of green Qi once again.

On this occasion, it vanished into the second Nascent Soul within the golden body, and situated itself within the Nascent Soul's dantian again.

There the wisp of green Qi remained without displaying any sign of returning to Han Li's body, and he heaved a long sigh of relief upon seeing this.

However, he didn't stop there. After that, he flicked a series of incantation seals toward the golden body with his fingers, and the second Nascent Soul appeared to be seated in a completely still manner within the golden body, but the devilish Qi within its body was surging and forming a series of black runes. These runes enveloped the wisp of green Qi and instantly formed a black crystalline ball to seal the green Qi.

The golden body then crumbled away and vanished to reveal the second Nascent Soul, which wore a calm expression as it joined its palms before bringing them apart again.

The black crystalline ball emerged, and was caught by the second Nascent Soul, following which it vanished into Han Li's body as a ball of black light.

Han Li made a brief assessment of the second Nascent Soul's condition, and he was quite relieved to see that it had remained unharmed.

Even though he couldn't completely expel the green Qi, it shouldn't pose him any issues now that it was under the second Nascent Soul's control. Once he found a way to eradicate or refine it in the future, he'd be able to take care of it permanently.

However, during this period of time, it would be wise for him to use his second Nascent Soul as little as possible in case something were to happen with that green Qi.

After that, Han Li turned his attention back to the ball of light that was enshrouded within the golden runes, and he discovered that he had absorbed less than a tenth of it, but his true essence had been enhanced to the same extent as seven or eight years of arduous cultivation.

If he were to convert this entire ball of light into tree essence, it would be able to save him over 100 years of cultivation, so he certainly couldn't give up on it.

After a brief pause for contemplation, Han Li swept a sleeve through the air to release an antiquated shimmering golden vial.

The vial was tipped over, and a burst of five-colored light was released out of its opening, which sucked the grey ball of light into the vial.

The vial then flew up Han Li's sleeve and was carefully stowed away. He had already decided that he was going to do his best to search for more of these crystalline beads in the Elder Devil Realm. If he could find enough of those beads and address the issue of the green Qi, perhaps he would be able to reach the pinnacle of the late-Body Integration Stage in a very short time. If he could do that, then that would be a brilliant opportunity.

Han Li was growing rather excited as he thought about this, and he raised a hand to pick up the crystalline bead again. After injecting his spiritual sense into it, he discovered that it was completely empty, and all of the peculiar energy that it had contained had disappeared.

After a brief hesitation, he stowed the bead into his storage bracelet along with the two halves of the piece of Foreign Devilish Metal.

Perhaps he would be able to use these items in the future to find the true origins of that grey ball of light.

The grey ball of light had the incredible property of being able to be directly converted into true essence, but aside from people like Han Li, who were using special cultivation arts such as the Provenance True Devil Arts, there were very few people who could actually take advantage of this type of energy. On top of that, not only did one have to be using a special cultivation art of this nature, they had to possess the ability to sense this type of energy. In Han Li's case, it was a combination of his spirit eye ability and the profound feeling he had been struck by in his spiritual sense.

Han Li was very pleased with the rewards he had reaped, and after completing his examination of everything, he began to meditate.

He had decided to scour all of the shops in Blood Crow City during the next few days to see if he could reap some other rewards, and also to see if he could find more of these crystalline beads in other pieces of Foreign Devilish Metal.

An uneventful night passed by, and the next morning, Han Li emerged from the inn in a calm manner before slowly visiting the shops along the nearest street.

Blood Crow City couldn't compare with an actual city such as Deep Heaven City, but it still had thousands of shops, and after two days, he had only managed to visit less than half of them.

He had reaped many unexpected rewards during this time, and had also found some pieces of Foreign Devilish Metal, but didn't discover any other crystalline beads like the one he had found.

However, Han Li wasn't all that disheartened by this. After all, something that could directly enhance his true essence was bound to be very rare, and it would be quite strange if he could find such things in this city in large quantities.

At the same time, Han Li had gathered some information about the imminent auction that was going to be held in the city.

This was a customary biannual auction held in Blood Crow City, and during every auction, the high-grade devilish beings who were passing through or staying in the city would bring out some precious items to be auctioned.

In particular, those who had hunted for devilish beasts on the grassland would all sell the devilish beast materials that weren't useful to them during the Blood Crow City auction, then purchase useful treasures and pills with those earnings. After that, they would venture into the grassland again to continue hunting devilish beasts, thereby saving a lot of time.

Due to the emergence of this beast tide, the number of high-grade devilish beings in the city was far higher than normal, so the quantity and quality of the auction items were also going to be significantly higher than prior auctions.

Apparently, there were even going to be several Divine Devilish Treasures and other legendary treasures and materials being sold.

Han Li naturally quite interested and was planning to attend this auction, both to see if there was anything that would catch his eye, as well as to sell off the redundant devilish treasures in his collection for some devil stones.

Even though these devil stones would have next to no effect on his cultivation, he was planning to stay in the Elder Devil Realm for up to several decades, so he naturally had to acquire some of these stones.

The auction was held three days after that, giving him just enough time to scour through most of the shops in the city.

The auction was held in a massive hall in a corner of Blood Crow City, and Han Li arrived in a cloak that concealed his entire body.

He had also altered his own aura, and after handing over a few devil stones to the devilish guards at the entrance, he entered the auction.

The hall was circular in shape, and it was shaped like a tiered funnel from top to bottom.

Aside from a series of round azure stone seats in the hall, there was only a black rectangular stone platform at the center. There were diagrams of unidentifiable beasts engraved onto the walls, and in no more than 15 minutes, the entire hall was completely filled by around 3,000 to 4,000 high-grade devilish beings.

Many of these high-grade devilish beings were also wearing large cloaks or had concealed their features with devilish Qi, so Han Li wasn't looking out of place at all.

After a short while, when there were virtually no empty seats in the entire hall, a small door on the bottom level was opened, and a humanoid figure emerged from within before arriving on the rectangular stone platform.

All of the chatter in the venue immediately died down.

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