"So the only reason you're against this is because Ling Long's cultivation base is lacking?" Patriarch Ao Xiao asked in a calm voice.
"Indeed. I've watched Ling Long grow up from a little girl, and I've become quite attached to her. As such, I would be more than willing to serve her, but her cultivation base is a little too lackluster. At the very least, she has to be at the Body Integration Stage before I can consider this. As you know, there are some rules among us Liao Beasts that even I can't go against," the woman sighed in a rather forlorn manner.
Patriarch Ao Xiao smiled, and said, "If that's the only issue, then you can rest assured; Ling Long will be able to progress to the Body Integration Stage within the next century, and there's even a chance that she could reach the Grand Ascension Stage in the future."
"What do you mean by that, Master Ao Xiao?" the masked woman asked as a hint of bewilderment flashed through her eyes.
"I haven't told you this yet, but Ling Long has already awakened the Seven Star Moon Physique. Do you think what I'm saying is an exaggeration now? In order to avoid potential mishaps, I haven't revealed this information to anyone else," Patriarch Ao Xiao said in a solemn manner.
The masked woman contemplated the situation in silence for a while before nodding in a slightly reluctant manner. "I see. In that case, I would be open to considering this, but I'll have to verify everything for myself."
Patriarch Ao Xiao's expression eased upon hearing this, and said, "Good. With you by Ling Long's side, I won't have to worry about her before she reaches the height of her powers. Let's not drag this out for too long; I'll prove to you that Ling Long has awakened the Seven Star Moon Physique and transfer the soul contract over to her within the next few days."
The masked woman nodded before asking, "I'm naturally willing to cooperate, but may I ask why you're in such a hurry, Master Ao Xiao? Could it be that you're preparing backup options for Young Mistress Ling Long as you're not confident in the upcoming battle?"
"Hehe, if I didn't have any confidence, then I wouldn't have made this trip in person. I don't know what the Elder Devil Race is planning, but with the Grand Ascension Stage beings of the other races on our side, we have a good chance of securing victory. I can't disclose any further details than that, but it's necessary for me to take some precautionary measures. Even without this devilish tribulation, I won't be able to withstand my next heavenly tribulation anyway, so I have to start thinking for the future when I'm gone," Patriarch Ao Xiao said with a nonchalant smile. The masked woman's heart stirred upon hearing this, but she didn't say anything further.
After a while, Patriarch Ao Xiao continued, "There's nothing else I need you to take care of for now, so you can go. We're going to begin investigations to weed out the devilish spies on the island soon; make sure you don't get discovered. Otherwise, the ensuing misunderstanding could lead to a lot of trouble. At the very least, you'll no longer be able to use your current false identity."
"Yes, Master. I'll be taking my leave now." The masked woman nodded before her body gradually turned transparent again, and she vanished amid a burst of faint spatial fluctuations.
Following her departure, Patriarch Ao Xiao sat in silence by himself for a while longer before heaving a faint sigh and closing his eyes again.
Meanwhile, in a small mountain range close to 100,000 kilometers away from Deep Heaven City, there was a group of red-robed human cultivators hiding on a mountain summit while appraising an extremely secluded small canyon in the distance.
The group of cultivators was comprised of men and women of all ages, and there were a few elderly men and women among them who possessed immense magic power.
However, all of them were looking rather worse for wear and seemed to have only arrived here after a long journey.
An elderly man with two longswords strapped to his back withdrew his gaze before turning to an elderly man beside him with a scar on his face. "Junior Martial Brother Li, are you sure that there's a teleportation formation in that canyon that'll take us directly to Deep Heaven City?"
"Rest assured, Senior Martial Brother, this teleportation formation is designated for elders of Deep Heaven City, so extremely few people know about it. I only heard about it as one of my old acquaintances is a Heavenly Guard looking after the formation, and he unintentionally revealed its existence to me during a drunken rant," the scarred elderly man immediately replied.
"I wouldn't be so confident. It's been quite a long time since those devils took over this area; even the most secluded of teleportation formations could've been tracked down by now," the elderly man said with a concerned shake of his head.
"The problem is that Deep Heaven City has been sealed off by the devilish beings now, and it would be nothing short of suicide to try and reach it directly; Junior Martial Brother Li's suggestion is our only hope," a hideous elderly woman interjected.
The sword-bearing elderly man gritted his teeth, and said, "Indeed, Junior Martial Sister; we have no alternatives. If we keep hiding out in the open like this, then our Huo Li Sect will inevitably be hunted down eventually. Only by making it into Deep Heaven City will we be able to ensure that the heritage of our sect gets passed on. We have no choice but to take a risk."
The scarred elderly man was ecstatic to hear this. "You've definitely made the right decision, Senior Martial Brother! In the past, even the three sovereign cities have been conquered during previous devilish tribulations; only Deep Heaven City has a spotless track record. If we can get into the city, then we'll be saved for sure. I'll send some disciples to scout the area right away."
"There's no need for that. If the devilish beings have set up traps around the area, then normal disciples most likely won't be able to discover them; it would be best if we made a trip there ourselves. Even if we do end up falling into a trap, ordinary devilish beings won't be able to stop us anyway," the sword-bearing elderly man countered.
"Alright, we'll do as you say then, Senior Martial Brother. Junior Martial Brother Li and I will come along with you," the elderly woman agreed after a brief moment of contemplation.
"No, you stay behind, Junior Martial Sister. Your powers are second only to mine in our sect, so we have to keep you here as a backup option. If something happens, don't wait for us; get away from here with the disciples right away. Junior Martial Brother Li, Junior Martial Brother Yang, you two can come with me. One of you has information about the teleportation formation, and the other is adept in the art of formations, so both of you possess useful skill sets," the sword-bearing elderly man instructed.
The scarred elderly man and a refined elderly scholar immediately gave affirmative responses.
Thus, after issuing a few more instructions, the sword-bearing elderly man departed for the canyon with his two junior martial brothers.
The remaining human cultivators looked on from their hiding spots with nervous expressions.
Unbeknownst to them, there was a faint streak of azure light that was also hurtling toward the same target several thousand kilometers away.
Within the streak of azure light was a young man who appeared to be in his twenties, and he was currently fiddling around with a miniature black mountain in his hands.
On his shoulders sat a little girl who appeared to be around three or four years of age. She had delicate fair skin, and an adorably chubby little face. She had one hand grabbing onto Han Li's robes, and an unknown spirit that she was munching on in her other hand.
Chapter 1978: Intervention
Han Li turned to glance at the little girl sitting on his shoulders, and a faint smile appeared on his face.
The little girl was none other than the Leopard Kirin Beast that had just awakened.
During his journey back to human territory, the Leopard Kirin Beast had finally awakened, and in the process, it gave him an unexpected surprise.
As soon as it had awakened, it had commenced its Body Integration Stage tribulation transcendence.
It possessed the bloo
dline of the true spirit Kirin, so the heavenly tribulation that befell was naturally extremely devastating.
An outsider couldn't step in during one's tribulation transcendence, so Han Li could only watch as the Leopard Kirin Beast was almost destroyed during the tribulation.
Thankfully, after devouring the demon core of that Dark Beast Monarch, it had managed to attain several new abilities that allowed it to just barely transcend its tribulation, and it was now able to manifest a human form.
At the time, the Leopard Kirin Beast had been in extremely dire condition, and Han Li had expended countless spirit pills to save its life. Otherwise, it would've already perished.
However, what left Han Li feeling rather speechless was that the human form manifested by the Leopard Kirin Beast was a little girl who appeared to be even younger than Qu'er.
If it were a normal person, it most likely wouldn't even be able to talk much yet.
Thankfully, despite its appearance, the Leopard Kirin Beast was able to directly communicate with him through spiritual sense, so communication wasn't an issue. Due to its unexpected tribulation transcendence, Han Li's trip back to Deep Heaven City was naturally delayed a little.
As such, it had taken him several months to reach this point.
The place that he was currently traveling toward was one of the few hidden teleportation formations designated for the elders of Deep Heaven City.
Due to the fact that this was a small formation that could only teleport a maximum of two people at a time, Deep Heaven City wasn't concerned about devilish beings discovering it and invading the city through it.
After all, even if two Body Integration Stage devilish lords were to teleport into the city at once, they would still be immediately surrounded, overwhelmed, and killed.
The only thing that Han Li was wary of was that a devilish ambush could've been set up near the formation. Of course, with his current level of powers, even if there were an ambush, it wouldn't be much of a problem.
Aside from Sacred Ancestor clones, even the average late-Body Integration Stage being wouldn't be able to defeat him. The probability of being chased by Sacred Ancestor clones again was downright negligible, so he didn't have anything to worry about.
After all, those Sacred Ancestor clones had descended into this realm to command the devilish army; they certainly couldn't just wait somewhere just to ambush someone.
In fact, there was even quite a low probability that devilish lords would appear here.
This was an important point in the devilish army's assault on Deep Heaven City; they weren't going to waste their most powerful beings by making them undertake such trivial duties.
Not long after that, the azure streak of light began to approach the mountain range up ahead.
All of a sudden, Han Li's expression changed slightly, and the azure light around his body faded as he stopped just outside the mountain then, peered deep into it through narrowed eyes.
Blue light flashed through his pupils, and everything up ahead was instantly made clear to him.
As a result, he was greeted by the sight of several tens of streaks of light flying toward him in a panicked manner.
Behind these streaks of light was a dense black devilish cloud that was giving chase in hot pursuit, and within this devilish cloud were ferocious devilish beasts and weapon-wielding devilish armored warriors.
Behind the several tens of streaks of light, there was an elderly man controlling a pair of flying swords, one azure and one yellow, to attack the devilish cloud with all his might.
The flying swords shot forth as sword projections that transformed into a giant sword that was several hundred feet in size to briefly stall the devilish cloud.
The two flying swords were immensely powerful and seemed to be beyond what the elderly man could wield with his Spatial Tempering Stage cultivation base.
With each sword strike that was unleashed, the elderly man's face would pale slightly, and when his face had become completely devoid of color, he opened his mouth to expel two balls of blood essence onto the flying swords.
The sword projections unleashed by the flying swords instantly became more dazzling than before, and the sword projections slew a large number of devilish beasts and devilish warriors before they had a chance to evade.
After several successive sword strikes, several hundred devilish warriors had been reduced to ashes.
This had clearly enraged the high-grade devilish beings hiding deep within the devilish cloud, and a thunderous roar abruptly rang out, following which an inky-black flying trident shot forth out of the cloud.
The trident extended to over 1,000 feet in length in a flash before hurtling directly toward a powerful sword projection, and an earth-shattering boom erupted.
The two clashed violently before the sword projection faded, revealing a flying sword that flew back toward the elderly man.
As for the flying trident, it emitted an anguished wail before also flying back toward the devilish cloud, seemingly having been severely damaged during that clash.
"How dare you ruin my treasure! I'm going to make you regret ever being born once I capture you!" A furious roar rang out, presumably from the high-grade devilish being who was the owner of the flying trident.
Immediately thereafter, the devilish cloud surged before rising up to around twice its original height and sweeping directly toward the elderly man.
The elderly man's expression changed drastically upon seeing this, and he hurriedly sheathed his flying swords before flying back as an azure and yellow streak of light.
With the elderly man's valiant efforts in impeding the devilish cloud, all of the disciples had already fled to close to 100 kilometers away.
However, the devilish beings within the cloud naturally weren't willing to give up. Fierce winds were swept up, and they continued to give chase.
The elderly man pulled out several pills as he flew through the air, and he didn't even bother to look at them before stuffing all of them into his own mouth as he appraised the devilish cloud with a grim expression.
He had already been extremely cautious when venturing into the canyon in search of the teleportation formation with his two junior martial brothers, but they still fell into an ambush and were surrounded by eight high-grade devilish beings.
In the end, his two junior martial brothers had detonated their own Nascent Souls souls to severely wound several of the high-grade devilish beings. Otherwise, he would've most likely also perished at the scene.
Even so, they were currently in a dire situation, and it seemed that he was only delaying the inevitable.
The flying swords that he was wielding were the most prized treasures of the Huo Li Sect, and even though they were powerful enough to stall the devilish cloud, wielding them required a vast amount of energy expenditure, and the elderly man's magic power had almost been completely spent.
This was also why he hadn't continued to remain behind to keep the devilish cloud at bay.
Even though most of the disciples of the sect had managed to escape, it would only be a matter of time before they were chased down.
On top of that, this area had been taken over by the devilish army, so unless a miracle were to take place, it would be virtually impossible to truly escape.
The more the elderly pondered the situation, the more his heart began to sink. He knew that they were in a virtually unsalvageable situation, but he could only hope against hope that they could somehow be saved.
Thus, the group of Huo Li Sect cultivators continued to flee, and soon, the edge of the mountain range was in sight.
At this point, around a dozen of the weakest disciples among them had already fallen behind and were about to be engulfed by the devilish cloud.
Low roars rang out from the devilish beasts within the cloud, and menacing looks also appeared on the faces of the armored devilish warriors, while the lagging disciples' faces turned deathly pale.
The sword-bearing elderly man heav
ed a forlorn internal sigh before turning around and hurtling directly toward the devilish cloud again.
A burst of raucous laughter rang out from within the devilish cloud, following which four burly Spatial Tempering Stage devilish beings emerged together.
One of them was wielding a black devilish trident; it was none other than the high-grade devilish being that had just repelled the elderly man's flying sword.
The other three devilish beings possessed powers that weren't inferior to this devil in the slightest.
Just as the elderly man was about to reach the devilish cloud, the four devils hurtled their treasures upward in unison.
A giant black trident, two white bone swords, a giant blue sword, and a mountainous yellow brick emerged in mid-air, then trapped the elderly man and forced him to stop.
Immediately thereafter, the five treasures crashed violently toward the elderly man at the behest of the four devilish beings.
A wry smile appeared on the elderly man's face upon seeing this, and he could only inject what little remained of his magic power into his two flying swords.
A loud buzzing sound instantly rang out from the two swords, and they transformed into a pair of giant sword projections again, then conjured up a thick sword barrier that shielded him from above.
These two flying swords were indeed remarkable treasures, but the collective attacks from those four devilish beings were nothing to be scoffed at, either.
Following a heavy blow from all five treasures, the sword barrier completely shattered, and the five treasures continued to descend toward him with devastating might.
The elderly man's face paled even further upon seeing this, and in his desperation, he could only open his mouth to expel a burst of azure light as one final struggle.
However, right at this moment, a cold male voice suddenly sounded nearby.
"Hmph, to think that even a few Spatial Tempering Stage pieces of devilish trash dare to try and kill someone in my presence! Your lives will be the ones coming to an end here!"
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 1142