"Fairy Ye, you haven't cultivated any devilish arts, and these are some formidable opponents; if you engage in a sparring match with them, it's very likely that your cover will be blown, so just leave this to me."
"Alright, I'll have to trouble you then, Brother Han." The woman hesitated briefly upon hearing this before nodding in a hesitant manner.
After all, Han Li had once slain a Sacred Ancestor clone and had displayed extremely formidable powers in the Illusion Howl Desert, so she was very confident in him.
Han Li took a deep breath as he unleashed his Provenance True Devil Arts, and a cloud of pure black devilish Qi emerged beneath his feet, carrying him high up into the air.
The burly man chortled with glee upon seeing this, and he also rose up into the air as a ball of yellow light.
The two of them had reached an altitude of tens of thousands of feet in the blink of an eye, and Han Li laid a hand onto the back of his own head, upon which a shimmering golden projection with three heads and six arms appeared behind him. The projection was over 100 feet tall with black devilish patterns all over its body, creating a very menacing sight to behold.
"You're no match for me on your own; get your companions to face me as well," Han Li said as all of the devilish Qi within a radius of several kilometers abruptly tremored.
The golden projection waved its arms through the air, and golden light flashed in its hands as six different golden weapons appeared in its grasp. At the same time, a third inky-black devilish eye appeared on each of its glabellas, and it was shimmering with an unsettling black light.
Chapter 2080: Battle
At this point, Han Li had completely revealed his late-Body Integration Stage cultivation base, and a tidal wave of fearsome spiritual pressure was crashing down upon the burly man.
Han Li's powers were far superior to other beings of the same cultivation base in the first place, and his aura was also being enhanced by his Provenance True Devil Arts. In the face of such formidable spiritual pressure, the burly man's expression instantly changed drastically as he shot back over 100 feet while also hurriedly releasing his own aura, revealing himself to be a mid-Body Integration Stage devilish lord.
However, his aura was very strange in that it was interspersed with wisps of silver light.
The burly man immediately yelled in an alarmed voice, "Brother Leng, this man's powers are truly unfathomable; I won't be a match for him on my own!"
After that, the burly man let loose a low roar, and the braids on his head suddenly stood up ramrod straight. At the same time, he made a hand seal, and his skin took on a shimmering silver hue, as if it were entirely forged from silver.
Simultaneously, his face twisted and warped, and his nose elongated, becoming as sharp as an eagle's beak while a series of silver feathers appeared on his head.
"You two are metamorphosis stage beast lords!" Han Li exclaimed upon seeing this as a hint of intrigue appeared in his eyes.
In the harsh environment of the Elder Devil Realm, metamorphosis stage devilish beasts that cultivated to become devilish lords were naturally far more powerful than demonic cultivators and devilish lords of the same caliber.
It was no wonder that they dared to intercept other devilish lords with minimal consideration.
The daoist priest's expression darkened slightly as he sensed the terrifying aura that Han Li was releasing, and a string of cracks and pops rang out from his body as he transformed into a humanoid tiger, then suddenly appeared beside the burly man.
"I can see that you have the power to back up your confidence, Fellow Daoist. We are indeed devilish beasts at our core, but with your unfathomable powers, only by joining forces will we have a chance to defeat you. However, rest assured, I'll reveal the truth to you regardless of the outcome of this sparring match," the daoist priest said with a wary expression.
"Then I'll be thanking you in advance," Han Li replied in an indifferent voice before making a hand seal, upon which the golden devilish projection behind him brandished its six weapons all at once.
Immediately thereafter, a beam of golden light erupted out of each of the golden weapons, and the six beams of light converged to form a golden wave of light that was over 100 feet tall.
The golden wave surged directly toward the pair of beast lords with devastating force, causing space in its wake to tremor and buzz violently, as if it were about to be crushed by the golden light.
The burly man let loose a loud roar as thrust his fists violently toward the giant golden wave.
A pair of resounding booms rang out, and in the instant that he lashed out, brilliant silver light erupted out of his fists, transforming into a pair of wagon-wheel-sized balls of light that struck the golden wave with tremendous force.
Golden and silver light intertwined, and the two balls of silver light managed to nullify half of the golden wave, but the rest of the wave continued to sweep directly toward the burly man.
Right at this moment, the daoist priest opened his mouth to expel a ball of green flames.
The green flames instantly swelled to over 100 feet tall, then transformed into a green flaming tiger. The tiger swept its paws viciously through the air to tear the rest of the golden wave into shreds, then sprang into the air above the daoist priest's head as if it possessed a certain level of intelligence.
"Show us your true power, Fellow Daoist; these paltry attacks will be nothing more than a waste of time and energy for all of us," the burly man chortled.
The daoist priest's expression changed slightly, but he didn't say anything to contradict his companion.
"Fine. In that case, let's decide the battle with our next clash," Han Li replied with a nod.
"My thoughts exactly! This is the new ability that I recently mastered, the Myriad Void Sword!" The excitement on the burly man's face became even more pronounced as he made a hand seal, and a pair of silver wings suddenly appeared on his back.
He flapped the wings to send countless feathers hurtling through the air, all of which transformed into small silver swords that were several inches in length before vanishing into thin air in a flash.
In the next instant, countless streaks of silver sword Qi emerged in the air above Han Li, then converged to form a giant sword mountain projection that encompassed an area of around half a kilometer with Han Li right at the very center.
This was a very formidable attack!
At the same time, the daoist priest let loose a low roar, and the fiery tiger above his head instantly swelled to over 10 times its original size, expanding to over 1,000 feet in length before opening its mouth to let loose a thunderous roar, as well as a thick pillar of green light.
The pillar of light shot forth with unstoppable might and reached Han Li in a flash.
Han Li's pupils contracted slightly, and a glossy black thread of light suddenly shot forth out of each of the three black devilish eyes on the glabellas of the golden projection behind him. The three threads of light struck the front of the pillar of green light with unerring accuracy, and despite how thin and frail the black threads appeared, they were able to instantly completely nullify the pillar of green light.
The daoist priest's heart jolted upon seeing this, and right at this moment, the massive sword mountain up above came crashing down toward Han Li.
Even with Han Li's insanely powerful physical constitution, such a fearsome attack would be sure to deal him a heavy blow.
All of a sudden, the Provenance True Devil Projection tossed its six weapons up into the air in unison at his behest, and they transformed into six balls of golden light that hurtled directly toward the sword mountain.
Immediately thereafter, the devilish projection clenched its six hands into fists before lashing out toward the space up above.
Spatial fluctuations erupted beneath the sword mountain, and countless golden runes emerged to form a golden vortex that was around an acre in size.
Han Li pointed a finger up at the vortex, and it began to rotate as
a burst of enormous force came surging out of it in a frenzy.
The streaks of silver sword Qi and the burst of tremendous force clashed, and an earth-shattering boom rang out, causing the entire sky to tremor violently while balls of black devilish Qi appeared in the surrounding area before churning in a frenzy.
"Revolving Golden Light!" the daoist priest exclaimed as his expression changed drastically.
A hint of incredulity and horror also appeared in the burly man's eyes.
Han Li's expression remained completely unchanged, and at this point, neither Han Li nor the two beast lords were unleashing any further attacks.
All three of them were looking up at the rumbling clash taking place overhead, and only after around 10 minutes did the violent rumbling gradually cease.
The sky finally cleared, and Han Li focused his gaze to find that both the golden vortex and the silver sword mountain projection had disappeared.
The two attacks seemed to have been evenly matched!
Han Li was rather surprised to see this.
Even though he had only unleashed around 20% to 30% of his Revolving Golden Light's power, it was still rather surprising that a mid-Body Integration Stage being had been able to withstand it so easily.
Just as these thoughts were flashing through Han Li's mind, the burly man and daoist priest exchanged a glance and quickly conversed with one another through voice transmission, following which both of them suddenly reverted back to their normal human forms.
The daoist priest clasped his fist in a polite salute toward Han Li, and said, "Your powers are truly incredible, Fellow Daoist. There's no need to continue this match any further; we concede."
"Indeed, your powers are simply awe-inspiring. Haha, I've truly been humbled," the burly man chuckled.
"Your powers are quite remarkable as well, fellow daoists. Now then, can you tell me why you were targeting us?" Han Li asked with a smile as he withdrew his Provenance True Devil Projection.
"Of course. However, before that, I want to ask if you've heard of our Beast Lord Palace," the daoist priest replied.
Han Li's expression changed slightly as he asked, "The Beast Lord Palace is an extremely renowned power in our holy realm; how could I not have heard of it? Could it be that you two are from the Beast Lord Palace?"
At the same time, he quickly thought back to all of the information he had read about the Beast Lord Palace.
Not only was the Beast Lord Palace one of the renowned superpowers of the Elder Devil Realm, the palace had many devilish lords among its ranks, most of which were metamorphosis stage devilish beasts, and they were led by the extremely mysterious Sacred Ancestor Wan Shou.
It was said that not only did this Sacred Ancestor Wan Shou never come into contact with other Sacred Ancestors, he very rarely even appeared in the Beast Lord Palace, but it was most likely the case that he was a Grand Ascension Stage devilish beast. Prior to entering the Elder Devil Realm, the Beast Lord Palace was one of the superpowers that the Long Family patriarch had cautioned him against offending at all costs.
As such, Han Li's heart immediately jolted upon learning that these two devilish lords were from the Beast Lord Palace.
"Hehe, seeing as you've heard of our Beast Lord Palace, would you be interested in joining our palace as a guest elder?" the daoist priest asked with a smile.
Han Li's expression changed slightly upon hearing this. "You're inviting me to join the Beast Lord Palace?"
"Indeed. With your powers, you'll definitely climb to an even loftier status than someone like me in our palace. On top of that, you'll have the opportunity to be guided in your cultivation by Sacred Ancestor Wan Shou himself, and that would undoubtedly benefit you immensely," the daoist priest urged.
Chapter 2081: Iron Sand Ridge
"You didn't stop us just to try and recruit us to the Beast Lord Palace, did you? As much as I revere the Beast Lord Palace, I have no intention of joining any power at this point," Han Li refused as his eyes narrowed slightly.
"That's quite a pity. Our palace is currently recruiting some powerful fellow daoists in preparation for a major event. If you join us, you definitely won't regret your decision," the daoist priest insisted as his brows furrowed slightly.
"Thank you for the kind offer, but I really don't want to be bound to any power," Han Li refused again.
"In that case, I won't speak any further about this matter. As for why my companion and I appeared here, our Beast Lord Palace received a large sum of devil stones several decades ago along with a request to kill everyone in your group. Rest assured, our Beast Lord Palace won't continue to send assassins after you just because we've taken on this job; we'll only deploy people according to the level of compensation given for a single assassination attempt. Generally speaking, if we encounter powerful fellow daoists like you, we'll only request a sparring match, and we may even extend an invitation for those fellow daoists to join our Beast Lord Palace, just as we've done on this occasion," the daoist priest finally revealed.
"I see. I've also heard that the Beast Lord Palace accepts requests of this nature, but may I ask who it was that paid to have us killed?" the woman from the Ye Family asked with a smile as she drifted over to Han Li's side.
"I'm afraid I won't be able to answer that. Our Beast Lord Palace strictly prohibits the leakage of client information, and this request came from an anonymous source, so even our palace doesn't know who it was," the daoist priest replied with a shake of his head.
"I see. I presume the Beast Lord Palace has sent people after the rest of our companions as well, right?" Han Li asked with a smile.
"As long as those companions of yours are devilish lords as well, they'll only be challenged to sparring matches," the daoist priest replied in a rather ambiguous manner.
"In that case, there shouldn't be any issues. As expected of a vastly renowned superpower of our holy realm to be able to send out so many devilish-lord-level elders at once; the average major family simply can't compare," Han Li praised.
The daoist priest smiled and was just about to respond when a burst of faint white light and a low buzzing sound erupted from a jade pendant hanging from his waist.
The daoist priest's expression changed slightly upon seeing this, and he immediately cupped his fist in a farewell salute.
Thus, after exchanging some more pleasantries, the burly man and daoist priest departed as two streaks of light, quickly disappearing into the distance.
"Fairy Ye, do you think they were telling the truth just now?" Han Li asked as he looked on in the direction that the two beast lords had departed toward.
"I think it's mostly true. It did indeed seem like they harbored no killing intent toward us, but if they had found us to be easy opponents to defeat during the sparring match, then they would've most likely killed us. After all, the Beast Lord Palace does not have a very good reputation among devilish beings," the woman from the Ye Family replied with a contemplative expression.
"That's probably about right. I think the main reason for their wariness is their inability to determine our origins. After all, we're a group of nine Body Integration Stage beings, which is quite a formidable force in the Elder Devil Realm. Unfortunately, they'll most likely develop quite a strong interest in our group as a result of this," Han Li analyzed.
"In that case, we should just keep them here permanently so that they won't get to report back to the Beast Lord Palace. You and I combined should be able to do this," the woman from the Ye Family said as a cold look appeared in her eyes.
"That's naturally a feasible option, but metamorphosis stage devilish beasts are far more powerful than the average devilish lord, so we'll only have around a 50% to 60% chance of success. On top of that, it sounds like the Beast Lord Palace has deployed people to attack Brother Long and the others as well, so there would be no point in doing something like this," Han Li replied with a shake of his head.
"That's true, but the Beast Lord Palace is a very powerful sect; if
they were to conduct extensive research into our origins, our covers will most likely be blown," the woman from the Ye Family sighed with furrowed brows.
"The Elder Devil Realm is even bigger than the Spirit Realm, so there's nothing remarkable about a few devilish lords that the Beast Lord Palace didn't know about. At the very most, they'll become suspicious of us, but they most likely won't actually do anything. On top of that, who knows how many years it'll take before they manage to ascertain our origins? By then, we would've already returned to the Spirit Realm. Having said that, we'll need to proceed with more caution from now on," Han Li said.
"Indeed. Hopefully, the rest of our plan will progress in a smoother fashion," the woman from the Ye Family said with a wry smile.
"There's no need to be concerned, Fairy Ye; there shouldn't be any issues as long as you haven't leaked our plan to secure the Azure Luan True Blood. However, I'm rather curious about what that major event that beast lord was referring to earlier. From the sounds of it, it's going to be quite a big move for the Beast Lord Palace," Han Li mused.
The woman from the Ye Family faltered slightly upon hearing this before a thought suddenly occurred to her, and her face instantly paled significantly. "Could it have something to do with the devilish invasion into our Spirit Realm? Perhaps an outcome has already been reached in the battle?"
"We've only just emerged from the Illusion Howl Desert, so we haven't had a chance to get up to date yet, but I hope this isn't the case. We passed through that town very hastily, but perhaps the others have already gathered information about this. Hopefully, we'll be able to learn more about the current situation when we get to the next devilish city," Han Li said in a calm manner.
He knew that with the extensive preparations made by the humans and other races, there was no way that they would be defeated in just a few decades.
Furthermore, after entering the Elder Devil Realm, Han Li had discovered that only a small portion of the Elder Devil Realm's powers had invaded the Spirit Realm, while the majority seemed to not care about this battle at all.
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 1198