Violet Spirit hesitated momentarily before nodding as she replied, "Indeed, it would be inappropriate to depart now, and you could irk the three Deity Transformation cultivators if you do that. However, it seems that they really are rather wary of you, so I'm sure we should be fine even if we stay here for a few more days.
After retaining her freedom, all of Violet Spirit's intelligence and resourcefulness suddenly returned to her, transforming her into the Fairy Violet Spirit of old who dared to explore the world on her own.
Han Li smiled at the sight of the spark that had returned to her eyes, and he traveled back toward the palace.
Violet Spirit looked on at Han Li's departing figure, and a thought seemed to have occurred to her as a faint blush appeared on her face. She bit down on her lower lip before also making her way toward the palace.
Three days, a ceremony was held in the Devil Palace as the other two beautiful female cultivators officially became concubines of Hu Qinglei.
Around 20 to 30 additional devilish cultivators and itinerant cultivators arrived for the ceremony, and the even weakest among them were at the mid-Nascent Soul Stage, while a few more late-Nascent Soul cultivators arrived on the scene.
This was quite an eye-opener for Han Li as there was no way that such a formidable lineup could be assembled in the Heavenly South Region.
All of the newly-arrived cultivators were naturally stunned to see the three Deity Transformation cultivators treating Han Li as their equal. However, after hearing from the previous batch of cultivators who had arrived before them about Han Li's epic feats, all of them were even more astonished, and treated Han Li with just as much respect as they extended toward the Deity Transformation cultivators. After all, this was a man who had singlehandedly almost destroyed the Yin Sifting Sect, and also taken a concubine from Hu Qinglei before withstanding one of Hu Qinglei's most powerful attacks. This was clearly not someone they could afford to mess with.
During these past few days, Hu Qinglei's interactions with Han Li were quite normal, and he made no mention of the incident surrounding Violet Spirit.
Han Li was quite relieved that this was the case, but he had still been on high alert for the past three days. Violet Spirit didn't dare to stray far away from Han Li, either, and he certainly wasn't going to complain about having such an exquisite beauty by his side.
Following the conclusion of the ceremony, Han Li immediately bade farewell to Xiang Zhili and the others, departing from the Devil Palace and the Devil Cliff Mountain with Violet Spirit before both of them seemingly disappeared off the face of this world.
Three months later, on the summit of a nameless scenic mountain, an azure-robed young man was standing peacefully on a huge rock, casting his gaze out toward the distance.
This young man was naturally none other than Han Li, who had departed from the Devil Cliff Mountain several months ago.
At this moment, his expression was quite calm, but there was a hint of internal turmoil in his eyes.
He suddenly raised his hands and silently stared at them for a while.
Just a day ago, his hands had been roaming over Violet Spirit's scorching porcelain-like skin, and just the memory of that wonderful experience was making his blood boil. However, Violet Spirit had since departed, leaving him alone on this mountain.
After Han Li and Violet Spirit had left the Heavenly Devil Sect, the two of them had settled on this mountain and began exchanging their respective experiences since they had last parted.
There had always been a hint of mutual attraction between the two, and after living together in an intimate manner for several months, they were finally unable to hold back their impulsive urges and lost themselves in each other's bodies.
However, after the event, Violet Spirit made her thoughts very clear to Han Li. He already had a Dao Companion, and she was unwilling to settle for becoming anyone's concubine, so their paths were destined to diverge. However, she would never love any man aside from Han Li, so she won't ever find a Dao Companion of her own. Instead, she was planning to dedicate herself wholeheartedly to cultivation as well as her pursuit of the Great Dao.
After expressing these intentions to Han Li, Violet Spirit left with a calm expression.
Han Li was naturally powerful enough to force her to stay, but he could see the determination in her heart, so he chose to let her leave.
Now, as he stood on the summit of this mountain, reminiscing about the past three months he had spent here with Violet Spirit, he was struck by a sense of dejection and a faint throbbing pain in his heart.
He knew that these were signs indicating instability in his state of mind, but he didn't rectify this right away, choosing to bask in this complex emotion instead.
After a long while, the sense of loss and conflict slowly disappeared from Han Li's eyes as his pupils regained their clarity.
"I guess it simply wasn't meant to be," Han Li murmured to himself.
He then transformed into a streak of azure light and rose into the air, disappearing into the distant sky in the blink of an eye.
The Fiery Hell was one of the seven restricted areas of the Great Jin located in the southeastern region of the Great Jin, and it had existed since ancient times.
This was a land of flames comparable in size to half of an entire state, and there were no other colors to be seen there other than black and red. There were also countless volcanos of differents sizes spread over this vast land that spanned innumerable kilometers.
Some of these volcanoes were over 100,000 feet tall, while others were only just over 1,000 feet tall, resembling small hills rather than the volcanoes that they were.
Some of these volcanos were very much active with scorching red lava bubbling within their craters, while some had gone completely dark and extinct. There were also some that were in the process of eruption, rumbling incessantly as scorching lava spewed into their air from their respective craters.
The air above this land was always obscured by a thick layer of blackish-red fiery clouds, and the ground around these volcanoes was completely black from the immeasurably deep layers of soot that had gathered over time. At low altitudes, the air was entirely filled with the acrid scent of sulfur, and the air temperature here was far more scorching than in the rest of the world.
However, many cultivators would often appear in this lethal land that was uninhabitable for mortals. Some of them occasionally descend from the sky and pick up some things from the ground, while others burrowed straight into the craters of certain volcanoes.
Those who dared to enter the volcanoes were naturally all powerful cultivators of a higher grade.
The Fiery Hell was undoubtedly a perilous place, but it was also a region that was abundant in all types of fire-attribute materials. The true restricted area wasn't actually the entire Fiery Hell. Instead, it was merely referring to a vast stretch of mountain ranges at the center of the Fiery Hell.
In that place, the entire region was enshrouded under a thick red mist that stretched for tens of thousands of kilometers. That vast expanse of red mist was the true restricted realm, and very few cultivators emerged alive after entering this restricted area.
As such, there usually weren't any cultivators that could be sighted around that area.
However, on this day, a streak of azure light could suddenly be seen hurtling toward a certain border of the fiery mist, reaching a distance of just over 1,000 feet away from the crimson mist in the blink of an eye.
The azure light receded, and a young male cultivator was revealed.
This man was none other than Han Li, who had rectified his state of mind and finally arrived here after several months of traveling.
As soon as he appeared, he scanned his gaze throughout his surroundings before turning his attention to the sea of fiery mist.
This vast expanse of red mist was quite different from the mist that Han Li had seen in the past. Not only was its enormity downright staggering, it was completely still without detectable swaying nor discernible noises coming from within.
Han Li clasped his hands behind his back and stared at the crimson mist for a while. All of a sudden, azure light flashed around his body again as he plunged headfirst into the sea of mist.
As soon as he entered the fiery mist, astonishing explosions began to erupt along the protective azure light around his body as it came into contact with the red mist.
Red and azure light intertwined with one another, and the explosions became more and more frequent and violently.
Han Li was slightly startled by this development and after flying for over 1,000 feet, his brows furrowed as he abruptly patted a storage pouch hanging from his waist.
Red light flashed and a dozen or so streaks of crimson light shot forth, transforming into a series of glittering and translucent round pillars.
Each of these pillars was around a foot in length and was shimmering with red light with life-like crimson wyrm carvings engraved onto their surfaces.
These were none other than the treasures that Han Li had refined from the fire dragon pillars he had sourced from the Kunwu Mountains.
Han Li began to chant something as he pointed a finger at those red pillars.
The pillars revolved in the air before hurtling forth, stopping around 10 feet away from Han Li.
Red light flashed and the crimson wyrms carved onto the surfaces of these pillars opened their mouths in unison, blasting out bursts of crimson light which combined to form a barrier around Han Li's body.
After coming into contact with this red barrier, the fiery mist around him immediately ceased their explosions, and Han Li was able to glide through it like a hot knife through butter.
A satisfied look appeared in Han Li's eyes upon seeing this, and he was immediately able to increase his speed by severalfold.
Here in this sea of fiery mist, one's spiritual sense was severely restricted, and even with Han Li's immensely powerful spiritual sense, he was only able to detect the situation within a small area around him.
If any other late-Nascent Soul cultivators were in his shoes, they wouldn't most likely be even more inept. As expected, it was a wise decision for him to come here only after reaching the late-Nascent Soul Stage.
Han Li was naturally here to source Puresun Flame Essence that he could use to refine the Returning Sun Water.
After using a soul search technique on Master Arctic Dragon's Nascent Soul in the North Night Palace, he had gleaned some information, telling him that a wisp of Puresun Flame Essence could be found in this Fiery Hell restricted area. However, the Puresun Flame Essence was hidden in an extremely perilous location, so Han Li wasn't in a hurry to search for it. Only after reaching the pinnacle of the late-Nascent Soul Stage was he confident enough to come searching for it.
After all, the Returning Sun Water was an extraordinary medicine that was of the utmost importance to him. He had given Hu Qinglei several drops of Glacial Quintessence in exchange for Violet Spirit's freedom, but he still had sufficient Glacial Quintessence to refine five or six portions of Returning Sun Water.
Of course, he would only be able to refine this medicine if he could find the Puresun Flame Essence, and that would surely be an extremely arduous task. Otherwise, Master Arctic Dragon was also a great cultivator himself, so he would've come here to secure the Puresun Flame Essence long ago.
Han Li already possessed the Greatyin True Flame, so it certainly wouldn't be impossible for him to obtain the Puresun Flame Essence. Otherwise, he wouldn't have taken the risk to come to this place.
This vast expanse of fiery mist one of the seven restricted areas of Great Jin, so it was naturally an extremely perilous place. Furthermore, there were also many unimaginably powerful fire-attribute demon beasts inhabiting the mountains down below, among which there was apparently no lack of sixth and seventh grade demons beasts. Even the average Nascent Soul cultivator would very likely be killed if they were to be surrounded by a dozen or so of these beasts.
On top of that, the most dangerous things within this red sea of mist weren’t even the demon beasts…
Just as these thoughts were running through Han Li's mind, he seemed to have suddenly sensed something, and a cold light flashed through his eyes as he flicked a finger to the side.
Golden light flashed as a burst of sword Qi disappeared into the red mist.
