Half a day later, an epic battle that lasted close to a day and a night took place at the giant city where Bi Ying and the others were situated.
Everything in a radius of tens of thousands of kilometers of the battle was reduced to ashes, and several days later, a piece of astonishing news began to spread.
All of the Grand Ascension Stage beings assembled to hunt down the culprit behind the blood sacrifices had been slain in battle, with the only exception being Mistress Ling Yun of the Myriad Curse Mountain.
However, even she was severely wounded, to the extent that she had almost reverted back to the Body Integration Stage.
As soon as she returned to the Myriad Curse Mountain, she immediately activated all of the restrictions on the mountain and declared that the mountain would be closed to the entire continent for 10,000 years.
As a result, the entire Blood Sky Continent was in a state of panic, and the other major powers and the Grand Ascension Stage beings within those powers were all at a loss for what to do.
Shortly thereafter, a medium-sized nation and several nearby sects were slaughtered as part of another blood sacrifice.
……
However, Han Li was oblivious to all of this.
At this point, he had already teleported to an island that was quite far away from the Blood Sky Continent, then departed from the island with Zhu Guo'er and Patriarch Hua Shi on the Inkspirit Holy Ark before traveling into the ocean.
There were far more powerful beasts in the sea than on land, and some of them were quite formidable even in the eyes of Grand Ascension Stage beings.
However, the powerful puppets on the Inkspirit Holy Ark were enough to take care of most sea beasts that dared to attack the ark.
Occasionally, they would encounter a particularly powerful sea beast, but all of them promptly fled upon witnessing Han Li's displays of power.
Half a year flew by, and at this point, the giant ark had traveled an immeasurable distance through the ocean.
On this day, just as the giant ark was flying along at a low altitude, an earth-shattering boom suddenly rang out up ahead, accompanied by a burst of violent energy fluctuations.
Patriarch Hua Shi was standing at the front of the ark, controlling the direction of its flight, and his expression immediately changed drastically upon sensing these powerful energy fluctuations.
He hurriedly flew into the cabin of the ark, and moments later, Han Li emerged from the cabin in an unhurried manner with Zhu Guo'er and Patriarch Hua Shi trailing along behind him.
“You're saying there are Grand Ascension Stage beings battling up ahead? Hmm, indeed, energy fluctuations of this level of power can only arise from battles between Grand Ascension Stage beings. Fly the ark in that direction; I want to see what's happening over there,” Han Li instructed as he cast his gaze into the distance through narrowed eyes.
"Yes, Master Han!" Patriarch Hua Shi immediately did as he was told, and the Inkspirit Holy Ark shuddered slightly before flying toward a different direction at several times its original speed.
As the ark flew onward, the energy fluctuations and explosions up ahead became more and more violent.
Finally, a small island appeared up ahead, and balls of light were flashing incessantly above the island, releasing fearsome energy fluctuations that were crushing the nearby sea level down by over 100 feet.
As for the island, it had been completely flattened, and every landmark on it had been razed to the ground, giving it an extremely flat and smooth appearance.
Han Li peered into the distance through narrowed eyes and quickly ascertained the situation that was unfolding up ahead.
Within the exploding balls of light were three massive sea beasts, which had surrounded and were attacking a silver wyrm.
The sea beasts were comprised of a giant seahorse, a massive green turtle, and a mountainous blue octopus.
All of them were giving off violent auras and unleashing different types of ferocious attacks, all of which were directed toward the silver wyrm that they had surrounded.
The three sea beasts were all close to the average Grand Ascension Stage being in power, but they were riddled with wounds.
Several parts of the green turtle's shell had been cracked, and green blood was flowing out of those cracks, while the giant octopus had large sections of its body charred black, and several of its tentacles had gone missing.
In contrast, the seahorse appeared to be completely unscathed, but there was a shimmering golden ring locked around half of its body, making it noticeably slower than the other two sea beasts.
The silver wyrm that was being attacked by the three beasts was in an even sorrier state; not only had its tail and one of its front claws gone missing, most of its silver scales had been stripped away, and for some reason, it was bleeding profusely out of its eyes.
Even so, it was still able to just barely keep the three sea beasts at bay as silver lightning flashing incessantly around it.
Han Li's gaze immediately fell upon the silver wyrms stomach, where there was a small purple beast curled up into a ball.
It was gripping tightly onto one of the silver wyrm's scales with its little claws, but it was completely motionless, and it was unclear whether it was dead or alive.
Han Li's pupils immediately contracted slightly in the instant he caught sight of the small purple beast, which struck him with a sense of familiarity.
The Inkspirit Holy Ark was enormous, and Han Li was making no effort to conceal it, so it had naturally attracted the attention of the three sea beasts and the silver wyrm.
However, the four of them were currently at a crucial juncture in their battle of life and death, so even though there was an outsider approaching, they simply couldn't stop. Instead, their battle suddenly became even more perilous and ferocious.
In the face of its three opponents, the silver wyrm was well and truly on the back foot, and it was in extreme danger.
Right as the giant ark was about to reach the four beasts, Han Li suddenly called out, "Stop!"
His voice wasn't very loud, but it was like an explosive thunderclap in the ears of the four beasts, and they shuddered before involuntarily stumbling backward, thereby putting the battle on pause.
The three sea beasts were naturally furious at Han Li's intervention, and they turned toward Han Li in unison with vicious expressions, then combined their three fearsome auras before sending it hurtling toward the giant ark like three immovable mountains.
Han Li gave a cold harrumph upon seeing this, and he made a hand seal, upon which the massive Provenance True Devil Projection appeared behind him amid a flash of golden light.
The projection opened its six eyes, and Han Li released an aura that was several times more formidable than the combined auras of the three sea beasts.
The four auras clashed amid a rumbling boom, and the three sea beasts were immediately sent flying without being able to pose any resistance.
Only after flying back for over 1,000 feet did they manage to steady themselves with alarmed expressions, and the giant seahorse asked, "Who are you, and why are you meddling in our business? We are all elders of the Sea Guardian Palace. Even with your powers, your time in the sea will be made extremely unpleasant if you make an enemy out of our palace."
In response to this threat, Han Li remained expressionless, and replied in a cold voice, "I've never heard of this Sea Guardian Palace. Piss off or I'll kill all three of you and refine your carcasses into tool refinement materials."
The three sea beasts were even more enraged to hear this, but in the face of the overwhelming spiritual pressure being released by Han Li, they could only exchange a resigned glance before diving back into the depths of the sea.
The silver wyrm transformed into a silver-robed man, who was looking quite pale and had bloodstains all over his robes. He was holding the hand of a purple-robed little girl, and he extended a slight bow toward Han Li from afar. "Thank you for saving me, Fellow Daoist."
The silver wyrm was extremely proud, but after witnessing the power that Han Li had just displayed, he didn't dare to show any sign of disrespect.
"If I'm not mistaken, you're Fellow Daoist Tu Yao, right?"
"How did you know? Come to think of it, you seem rather familiar; have we met before, Fellow Daoist?" The silver-robed man was initially rather taken aback to hear this, but he then began to appraise Han Li with a hint of recognition in his eyes.
There was no way that he would've forgotten someone as powerful as Han Li, so he was slightly perplexed by his own murky recollection.
"Father, he's the man that we met during the auction when I was taken away by those bad people; the big brother with Mother's aura!" the little girl suddenly said as she began to tug on her father's sleeve in an urgent manner. [1]
Indeed, this man was none other than the Grand Ascension Stage human-faced wyrm who had barged into the Cloud City auction many years ago, and this little girl was his direct lineal descendant, who had been captured and was almost sold as an auction item.
"What? It's you?" The silver-robed man was astonished to hear this, and he was struggling to equate this unfathomably powerful man with the Spatial Tempering cultivator that he had once encountered all those years ago.
"I didn't expect to meet you here, either, Fellow Daoist Tu. We've only ever met once, but I think we qualify as acquaintances. How did you end up in such a sorry state? Those three sea beasts were quite powerful, but they haven't reached the Grand Ascension Stage yet; surely they shouldn't have been able to pose such a threat to you," Han Li asked.
"If I had been in prime condition, those three elders of the Sea Guardian Palace naturally would've been no match for me. However, I fell into a trap laid by a powerful enemy of mine earlier, and as a result, my powers plummeted to below the Grand Ascension Stage, and I could only use my physical body and bonded ability to fight those three elders," the silver-robed man sighed with a wry smile.
"I see. If you don't mind, would you be willing to let me examine your current condition?" Han Li asked.
The silver-robed man was rather hesitant upon hearing this.
"Perhaps I'm being too blunt here, but even if you have a way to slowly recover over time, I don't think your daughter will be able to hold on for much longer," Han Li said as he cast his gaze toward the purple-robed little girl.
1. This auction took place when Han Li was in the 13 Heavenly Cloud races, right before he entered the Golden Devil Mountain ranges and Vast Glacial Realm. The silver wyrm appears in chapter 1608
