"What you're saying makes sense as well. Seeing as the Yin Sifting Sect is a prominent sect of the Devil Dao, they'll definitely have a lot of enemies. Otherwise, the Yin Sifting Sect Master wouldn't have appeared here," the small child agreed with a smile.
A faints smile also appeared on Han Li's face as he flipped over a hand to produce a black ball.
He then fell silent as he began to scrutinize the ball.
However, only a short while had passed before he abruptly patted his storage pouch to summon a wooden box.
He blew toward the box, and the lid flew off of its own accord.
The contents of the box comprised of a crimson ball, upon which was plastered several restriction talismans. This was none other than the treasure that Han Li had taken from the grey-robed monk by the name of Mo Jiu from the Profound Jade Cave of the North Night Palace.
Han Li placed the black ball into the wooden box as well before carefully inspecting it. At first glance, the black ball was completely dull and lusterless, giving off a nondescript and mundane air. However, upon closer inspection, one would be able to discover that there were profound greyish-white runes visible on its surface. At the same time, Han Li was able to use his spiritual sense to peer deeper into the ball, where he discovered that there were miniature clouds of inky-black mist situated within. All of these clouds were tumbling and surging erratically, and they seemed to be imbued with extremely fearsome and pure devilish Qi.
Only after a long while did Han Li withdraw his gaze from the black ball before turning his attention to the crimson ball again. After a brief assessment, he discovered that there was also extremely astonishing fire-attribute spiritual power lurking within.
He stroked his chin as a contemplative look appeared on his face.
"I didn't think that someone would've been capable of refining Thunder Bombs in the human world, even in ancient times. I wonder if the ancient cultivators figured out the refinement method for themselves or if someone from the Spirit Realm bestowed the method upon them. If it's the former, then so be it, but if the latter is true, then that person most likely harbored some sinister intentions," the small child sighed.
Han Li was a little surprised to hear this. "Thunder Bombs? They're from the Spirit Realm? But after using my soul search technique, it seems like that man was under the impression that they're known as Immortal Vanquishing Beads. They seem to be extremely powerful, and even a Deity Transformation cultivator wouldn't be able to survive unscathed if they were to be struck by this bead."
"The shape is a little different from what I'm familiar to, but these are definitely Thunder Bombs. It's just that the two that you have are very crude, which suggests that they were probably rejects from the Spirit Realm. However, they're certainly worthy of the title of 'Immortal Vanquishing Bead' here in the human world," the small child replied.
"These are treasures used by cultivators in the Spirit Realm?" Han Li asked with furrowed brows.
"Of course cultivators can use these things, but they were initially refined for mortals to use. They only spread to cultivator circles after that. This is one of the few powerful treasures that can be used by mortals in the Spirit Realm, even without any magic power. However, due to their immense power and the complex process required to refine them, very rarely will cultivators refine such items. There are also very few people who are aware of the refinement method. At the very least, that knowledge is beyond me," the small child explained.
"Even mortals can use it? Then why would Spirit Realm cultivators refine these things?" Han Li was rather perplexed.
"It's hard to elaborate on the underlying reasons, but you'll be able to figure it out for yourself once you ascend to the Spirit Realm." The small child gave a rather ambiguous reply.
Han Li wanted to pose further questions, but this was a matter regarding the Spirit Realm, so it naturally didn't have anything to do with him at the moment. As such, he closed the wooden box to stow the two balls away and set aside this topic of conversation for now.
It was naturally a good thing that he had obtained a pair of such powerful treasures. Perhaps he'd have the opportunity to use them in the future.
At this moment, the ghostly heads manifested from the Unbroken Cinque Devils had crushed the three corpses to the ground in the distance. Even with mid-Nascent Soul Stage power, the three corpses were powerless to resist given that their speed had been significantly hampered. As such, the five devils chomped down on their bodies, absorbing the pure corpse Qi in their bodies with reckless abandon.
Han Li knew that these three corpses would be completely devoured soon, so he began to consider how he was going to infiltrate the Yin Sifting Sect. With his current abilities, as long as he could gather knowledge on the restrictions spread all over the Yin Sifting Sect, he'd be able to infiltrate it with ease.
Half a year later, the entire Great Jin was in an uproar! Within the short span of half a year, seven or eight Nascent Soul cultivators from the Yin Sifting Sect, including the sect master, disappeared in quick succession. All of their soul lamps, which were located in a secret area within the sect, had also completely snuffed out, thereby indicating that they were clearly dead.
What was even more bizarre was that more of those cultivators had perished within the Yin Sifting Sect that outside of it. It was as if an invisible enemy had infiltrated the sect, and was specifically targeting their most powerful cultivators.
Ever since the first elder was killed, the higher-ups of the Yin Sifting Sect had conducted an exhaustive search within the sect and also activated all of the restrictions. However, all of their efforts yielded no fruits as more and more elders were killed one after another. All of the higher-ups of the Yin Sifting Sect were horrified, and in the end, the elders had to live together in groups and never separate from one another. Only then were they able to remain safe. However, all of the Yin Sifting Sect elders who were out running errands then began to die in quick succession. All of the remaining Nascent Soul cultivators in the Yin Sifting Sect were absolutely petrified, and at a complete loss for what to do.
In the short span of just half a year, the Yin Sifting Sect had lost almost half of their Nascent Soul Stage elders. It seemed that a Nascent Soul cultivator among their ranks died almost every and that, in conjunction with the disappearance of their sect master, severely dented the Yin Sifting Sect's power. All of the elders were immediately summoned back to the side and forced to reside together at all times. Only then did this nightmare subside. All of the horrified higher-ups of the Yin Sifting Sect finally heaved a long collective sigh of relief.
However, despite the Yin Sifting Sect's best efforts to hide this incident, news of it was still inevitably leaked in the end.
As such, all of the other major sects sprang into action, deploying large numbers of cultivators to take over the Yin Sifting Sect's territory.
The remaining Yin Sifting Sect elders retaliated with all their might, but anyone could see that the Yin Sifting Sect wouldn't be able to last very long at all. After all, as one of the ten major sects of the Devil Dao, the Yin Sifting Sect did have its glory days, but it had also made countless enemies. Now that it had shown severe signs of weakness and decline, there were naturally many people who were willing to contribute further to this trend.
Thus, countless sects began to ravage the colossus that was the Yin Sifting Sect.
High up in the air above a patch of barren land, there were a dozen or so cultivators gathered. They were standing in two groups with a clear boundary between them. However, at the center between the groups were two young men who were engaged in a heated battle. One of them was manipulating an azure flying sword while the other was using a red flying saber, and the clashes between the two weapons put on a spectacular light show amid bursts of resounding booms. All of the spectating cultivators wore excited expressions, and chatting among themselves in low quiet voices.
These people were all young men and women who appeared to be in their teens, and they were all at the Qi Condensation Stage; there wasn't even a single Foundation Establishment cultivator among them. From their identical attire, it could be seen that they were most likely low-grade disciples from a major family or a sect nearby. However, they were gathered here to battle for some reason.
The azure flying sword and the red flying saber clashed over and over again. The azure sword seemed to have gained the upper hand, and the red saber was slowly being forced into retreat.
"Tsk tsk, the Azure Spirit Sword sure is quite powerful. It looks like Senior Martial Brother Lin is going to win," a beautiful young woman said to the young man next to her with a smile on her face.
"Hmph, so what? If he wasn't from the Lin Family, how could he possibly have a mid-grade spirit tool at just the Qi Condensation Stage? He's got a major advantage from the silver spoon in his mouth! If I had a treasure like that, I definitely wouldn't lose to him." The young man was not very pleased, but he only spoke in an extremely quiet voice, as if he were afraid of being overheard.
The young woman giggled upon hearing this. Even though she was only in her youth, there was already a hint of seductive charm about her. Before she had a chance to say anything else, the young man cast his gaze toward the distance in an errant manner before suddenly letting loose a cry of surprise.
"What is it?" the young woman asked in a surprised voice before also turning her attention that direction, upon which an astonished look appeared on her face.
There in the distance, a peculiar humanoid figure could be seen.
The humanoid figure clearly had the appearance of a human male, but he had a massive pair of wings on his back. There were azure and white lightning flashing incessantly over the wings, but they were completely silent, thereby allowing him to avoid detection from all of the low-grade cultivators down below.
If it weren't for the fact that the young man just so happened to have glanced toward that direction, the two of them would've been completely oblivious as well.
The man had his hands clasped behind his back and continued onward without even sparing a glance at the low-grade cultivators down below. He seemed to be looking at something in the distance, but there appeared to be nothing in the sky aside from a few white clouds.
"What was that? Could that be a high-grade demon beast?" The young woman was from a family of cultivators, so she had seen some relevant tomes, and was aware of the existence of metamorphosis stage demon beasts.
"No way. Our State of Huo is a little secluded, but there's no way that a high-grade demonic cultivator would dare to show themselves in such a blatant manner in broad daylight. It must be a senior with some kind of flight ability." Even though the young man was completely flabbergasted, he was able to make the correct judgment call in a short time.
Strangely enough, even though the winged man in the sky was situated very far away from them, he seemed to have heard their conversation, and suddenly turned around to look at them.
Their eyes met, and the heart rates of the pair of young cultivators accelerated drastically.
It wasn't that the man's features were extremely terrifying or anything like that. In fact, his appearance was quite ordinary, to the extent that it was downright forgettable. However, what had struck fear into their hearts was that the man had a vertical inky-black third eye on his glabella. That eye was completely wooden and emotionless, and chills ran down their spines at the mere sight of it.
