They were being led by the subordinate of the holy-grade Myriad Eye Devil, the humanoid devilish beast known as Wu Qi.
This devilish beast had a pair of black horns on his head, and wore a suit of black metal armor. There was a heavy expression on his sinister face, and he was taking occasional glances at a crimson bead that was being held tightly in his hand.
The bead was supposed to be quite glittering and translucent, but a deep crack had marred its smooth surface, and it had become completely dull and lusterless.
After receiving a request for assistance from Jiu Ye, the holy-grade Myriad Eye Devil was afraid that Han Li would be able to get away, so he'd immediately sent Wu Qi after him. Thus, Wu Qi gathered all of the high-grade devilish beasts in the area to head directly toward the location that had been marked by Jiu Yue.
However, not long after he'd set off, the treasure that he'd been using to track her suddenly cracked in half.
This came as quite a shock to him, and it meant that Jiu Ye had most likely already perished.
In that case, he really wasn't confident that he'd be able to hunt down his target.
However, at the recollection of the menacing light that had flashed through his master's eyes prior to his deployment, Wu Qi immediately shuddered involuntarily.
He knew with absolute certainty that if he were to return to his master with such an excuse, he'd immediately be torn in half.
With that in mind, the devilish beast let loose a low snarl of frustration and urged all of the other devilish beasts behind him to pick up their speed.
Thus, devilish winds surged through the air as all of the devilish beasts sped up even further.
In the air above an ordinary-looking small valley on the outskirts of the Golden Devil Mountain Ranges, there were four people locked in a tense confrontation.
On one side was an elderly man with grey hair and a woman in a palatial dress, while on the other side was a green-haired being with a square head and a thin yet lethal-looking man.
Both sides were glowering at the opposing duo with enmity in their eyes.
The elderly man was none other than the native cultivator with the Yan surname, and his expression remained calm as he said, "Don't you think you're being too unreasonable by trying to kick us out when you two arrived after us?"
The green-haired being was the foreign being at the pinnacle of the Spatial Tempering Stage that had been crushed by Han Li earlier, and he let loose a cold harrumph as he countered, "Hmph, this place has caught my fancy, and I want to be able to explore it without anyone lurking outside."
"You're going too far! We were the ones who found this place first, so why do we have to leave?" the woman retorted in a furious manner.
"Why? Among cultivators like us, the most powerful one gets to make all the rules. If you don't want to leave, then defeat us, and we'll leave the valley to you. Otherwise, piss off!" the green-haired being scoffed as a baleful aura emanated from his body, as if he were preparing for a battle already.
"There's no need to be so short-tempered, Fellow Daoist. Let's be honest here; you two want us to leave naturally because your formation plates have also displayed a reaction toward this valley. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that the immortal zoysia is in here. We've encountered similar red herrings on many occasions in the past few days, and I'm sure you have as well. As such, why don't we go in together and ascertain whether the immortal zoysia is actually in there before making a decision? Otherwise, there's no way we're going to leave," the elderly man proposed in a calm manner.
Chapter 1647: Interception
A vicious light flashed through the green-haired being's eyes, and he abruptly stepped forward as if he were about to attack.
However, right at this moment, his companion suddenly flashed over to his side and transmitted his voice to the green-haired being, as if to remind him of something.
A hesitant look appeared on the green-haired being's face, and moments later, the animosity radiating from his body eased as he said in a cold voice, "Alright, let's see what's in this valley first. If it's not the immortal zoysia, then we'll go our separate ways, but if it's in there, hehe..."
The green-haired being chuckled coldly before paying no further heed to the opposing duo and entering the valley that was enshrouded under devilish Qi with his companion.
The woman took a deep breath upon seeing this, then turned to the elderly man as she asked, "What do we do, Uncle Yan? Are we really going to enter the valley with them?"
"Of course. The formation plate has displayed a reaction, so we can't ignore it," the elderly man replied without any hesitation.
"But those two..." The woman was rather hesitant.
"Those two won't do anything if the immortal zoysia's not in there, but if it really is in there, then that's even more reason for us to enter this valley! Otherwise, why did we take the risk to enter these mountain ranges in the first place?" the elderly man said in a dark voice with a decisive shake of his head.
"You're right, Uncle Yan, forgive me for not thinking things through properly. It looks like we really will need to venture into this valley," the woman said as she gritted her teeth after a brief hesitation.
"Don't be too concerned. My past injuries haven't completely healed, but I've prepared a special treasure especially for this trip. If we obtain the immortal zoysia, then we'll definitely be able to get away as long as we don't fight fire with fire," the elderly man said in a confident manner.
With the close bond the two of them shared, the woman naturally wasn't going to doubt his words. As such, the hint of uneasiness in her heart was erased as she nodded in response.
Thus, the two of them also flew down into the valley as streaks of light.
However, as soon as they entered the valley, the elderly man was surprised to discover that this ordinary-looking valley was immeasurably deep.
The upper half of the valley was enshrouded under faint black devilish Qi, yet the lower half was like a bottomless abyss. Even after descending for over 10,000 feet, the bottom was still nowhere in sight.
This made the elderly man both excited, but also slightly concerned.
He was excited that this valley was so unique, which made it quite possible that the immortal zoysia was actually lurking here, but he was also concerned that with the depth of the valley and the high density of the devilish Qi here, it would be quite difficult to search through it.
With that in mind, the elderly man and the woman each produced a formation-plate-like treasure before heading deeper into the valley.
If it weren't for the fact that the green-haired being and his companion were also present, they'd have most likely split up for greater efficiency. However, as things currently were, they certainly weren't going to do something so risky that could result in them being divided and conquered.
Thus, the two of them descended one after another, disappearing into the black Qi within the valley after just a few flashes.
Meanwhile, deep within a lake at the bottom of the valley, there was a black creature with its body half-buried in the mud of the lakebed. The creature stirred, and a pair of green eyes sprang open on its body revealing a pair of completely emotionless pupils.
Tens of thousands of kilometers away from the valley, a giant toad that was several tens of feet tall was traveling quickly with a formation plate held in its mouth, and seven or eight strange-looking devilish beasts alongside it.
The giant toad cast its gaze toward the formation plate in its mouth from time to time, and it wasn't moving very quickly, but it was also heading directly toward the valley.
A massive dragonfly-like crimson devilish beast was also holding a formation plate as it flew along directly behind the giant toad, and it suddenly said, "Master, I can sense irregular fluctuations coming from that valley, but that's the lair of that devilish crocodile. That thing is extremely fierce and powerful; we may not be able to defeat it if a battle were to break out. We'll have to notify Maste
r Tie Mo and get him to take care of that thing in person."
"Hmph, it's not a case of we 'may' not be able to defeat it in battle; if we barge into its lair, we'll get eaten by it for sure. That devilish crocodile is one step away from becoming a holy-grade devilish beast, and even the three holy-grade masters wouldn't want to mess with it for no good reason. Are you sure you're sensing things correctly? Is the formation plate really leading us toward the valley? If you get it wrong, don't blame me for turning on you," Ju Chu replied in an indifferent voice.
"Rest assured, Master; I've checked more than 10 times already, and I'm 100% sure that the formation plate is reacting to that valley," the devilish beast replied as a confident light flashed through its compound eyes.
"Alright, if we really do end up finding that immortal zoysia in that valley, you'll be rewarded handsomely for your efforts." The giant toad wasn't speaking in a very enthusiastic manner, thereby indicating that it wasn't actually getting its hopes up.
It was no wonder that this was the case; it had led a bunch of high-grade devilish beasts into the outskirts of the Golden Devil Mountain Ranges, and they'd killed many Spirit Realm beings before taking their formation plates, but they found no useful leads surrounding the immortal zoysia.
The formation plates had reacted over 10 times thus far, yet all of those instances had been false alarms.
As such, it was a similar story to "The Boy Who Cried Wolf"; after a while, the giant toad simply couldn't be bothered to get its hopes up anymore.
It was even beginning to consider what direction they were going to continue their search in if there proved to be nothing in the valley.
As for the high-grade devilish beasts behind it, all of them were also in rather low spirits from what appeared to be a wild goose chase that they'd been led on.
Thus, the group of devilish beasts continued onward in a distracted manner, and they failed to notice that there was a cloud of thin crimson mist that was following them from behind close to 10 kilometers away.
Within the crimson mist, a barely visible slender figure could be seen.
...
After Han Li and Xian Xian had departed from the mountain ranges where the devilish ape had been situated, their journey proved to be a very smooth one. They didn't encounter any obstacles along the way, and most of their journey was completed within just five days as they arrived back at the sea of thin mist where the Human-faced Vultures had been slain.
Both of them were quite eager to finish the journey, but they still decelerated at the sight of this sea of thin mist, and after holding a brief discussion, they flew into the sea of mist in a cautious manner.
Han Li was flying within a streak of azure light in an expressionless manner with faint blue light flashing through his eyes. At the same time, he was holding a spirit stone in each hand, constantly absorbing the pure spiritual Qi within during his flight.
Due to the fact that they'd been constantly traveling, he didn't get a chance to meditate in order to replenish his magic power. However, after consuming a large number of precious pills and using top-grade spirit stones to facilitate recovery, Han Li had regained most of his lost magic power.
However, the Provenance True Devil Projection had barely recovered at all.
Even so, Han Li was still quite relieved that he'd returned to somewhere near the peak of his powers. If they were to encounter some powerful devilish beasts now, he had confidence in his ability to defeat them.
However, as he swept his spiritual sense toward an inky-black spirit beast bracelet up his sleeve, his mood soured slightly.
The Weeping Soul Beast was still completely unconscious.
As he swept his spiritual sense toward the spirit beast, he discovered that it had recovered half of its magic power and energy already, which was an extraordinarily fast recovery considering how severely depleted it had been. However, it displayed no reaction whatsoever when he tried to communicate with the beast and awaken it using his spiritual sense.
If it weren't for the fact that he could still sense his spiritual connection with the Weeping Soul Beast, he'd almost be led to believe that it was dead.
Of course, this wasn't to say that Han Li couldn't force the beast to wake up if he wanted to. However, after contemplating the matter a few times, he decided against it in the end.
From his past experience, the spirit beast would only fall into this type of deep slumber as a way to protect itself or to facilitate evolution, and in both situations, it would be extremely unwise to forcibly awaken it.
Han Li had always held the Weeping Soul Beast in extremely high regard, and its importance in his heart only grew after that extraordinary display of power it had put on a few days ago. As such, he wasn't going to take any chances with it, and was going to allow it to wake up of its own accord.
With that in mind, Han Li rid himself of that train of thought and withdrew his spiritual sense before inspecting his own internal condition.
At this moment, within his dantian, the azure Nascent Soul that was emanating shimmering golden spiritual light had its hands joined together in front of its chest, cradling a silver fireball in a completely motionless manner.
However, the silver fireball was in a rather strange state.
It had been a pure silver ball of flames in the past, but there was now a small wisp of white flames intermingled into it, and there were silver runes flashing incessantly within the entire fireball.
A faint smile appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this.
The white flames were naturally none other than the wisp of Golden Crow True Flames that the silver fireball had devoured from the Human-faced Vulture.
The Spirit Engulfing Heavenly Flames' ability to absorb and fuse with other spirit flames, as well as strange types of energy, was quite an incredible ability. If things were to continue like this, Han Li was very much looking forward to seeing just what it could evolve into in the end.
The Spirit Engulfing Heavenly Flames was refining the Golden Crow True Flames without any issues, so Han Li withdrew his spiritual sense and began to focus more on his surroundings.
This sea of mist covered quite a large area, but Han Li and Xian Xian flew through it without encountering any devilish beasts.
It appeared that those Human-faced Vultures were the only high-grade devilish beasts in the area, and they'd only been recently killed, so no other high-grade devilish beasts had had a chance to move into this area yet.
As such, this leg of the journey also proved to be quite a smooth one.
Due to how uneventful the return journey was, Han Li and Xian Xian were naturally covering ground a lot faster than when they'd come.
Half a day later, they passed through the entire sea of mist and arrived at its border.
However, after emerging from the sea of mist, the streak of azure light instantly came to an abrupt halt, and Han Li was revealed as the azure light faded.
At this moment, he was looking up ahead in a slightly pale-faced manner.
Around 2,000 to 3,000 feet ahead of them, black winds were sweeping violently through the area as hundreds of mid-grade and high-grade devilish beasts hovered in the air.
The leader of these devilish beasts was a burly humanoid creature with a pair of massive black horns. It was clad in a suit of black metal armor, and its upper body was identical to that of a human, but its lower body was covered in black beastly fur. As soon as Han Li appeared in the area, it also cast a surprised gaze toward him.
Around 500 to 600 feet before the humanoid devilish beast was a silver-armored man in a crimson flying carriage, and they were locked in a tense confrontation.
Chapter 1648: Escape
This silver-armored being was naturally none other than the man with the Gui surname.
Perhaps it was simply a coincidence, but the route it had taken just so happened to intersect at this point with the one that Han Li was taking.
Upon seeing the bewildered look on the horned devilish beas
t's face, the silver-armored man's brows furrowed slightly, and he hurriedly turned back, just in time to see Han Li and Xian Xian emerge from the sea of mist behind him.
The silver-armored being faltered slightly before an elated look appeared on his face.
He had seemed to be quite calm and collected earlier, but he was actually feeling quite anxious internally.
After parting with Han Li and Xian Xian, he had traveled without pause toward the exit of the Golden Devil Mountain Ranges, yet he had still been intercepted by so many devilish beasts, so he was naturally quite stunned and enraged.
Most of these beasts were mid-grade devilish beasts, but there were over 30 high-grade devilish beasts among them, and the humanoid horned devilish possessed a similar cultivation base to his.
He was rather conceited, but even he knew that a battle here would spell certain death for him.
His only hope was to delay these devilish beasts somehow, then escape as quickly as he could.
However, he then caught sight of the seven or eight high-grade winged devilish beasts among the beast pack up ahead, and he was growing quite hesitant again.
It was quite clear that those devilish beasts had to be extremely fast. If there were only two or three of them, he could try and throw them off his trail somehow, but if that many of them were to mob him at once, then he was still dead for sure.
However, Han Li's arrival instantly alleviated the pressure on his shoulder's significantly, increasing his chances of survival, which were less objectively less than 10%, by several tens of percentage points.
As such, the silver-armored being was naturally ecstatic.
Xian Xian's face had paled considerably upon witnessing this situation, while Han Li was slightly more composed, but he was also contemplating something with a grave expression on his face.
There were many devilish beasts up ahead, but all of them had already attained intelligence. As such, even though they were appraising the three beings before them with animosity in their eyes, they weren't screeching and howling like a pack of mindless beasts. Thus, a peculiar silence ensued.
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