After two hours, the two women were still setting up the formation, and even the normally calm and steadfast Han Li was starting to become a little anxious.
After all, time was not a luxury that he could currently afford much of as the demon monarchs could activate the tracking marks within his body at any moment.
However, Han Li was quite proficient in the art of spell formations himself, so he knew just how complex this giant formation was to set up. As such, he forced himself to repress the urgency and concern in his heart as he waited in silence in the air above.
After around another half an hour, the two women flew over to Han Li.
Yan Li wore a wide smile as she said, "Brother Han, the formation is ready. We can gather Yin Qi to eradicate the tracking marks within your body now."
Han Li was ecstatic to hear this, and he was just about to give a reply when his face suddenly paled and he shuddered as a layer of azure light surfaced around his body.
Both of the women were given a fright upon seeing this.
Golden light flashed around Han Li's body as he righted himself, but he wore a grim expression on his face as he said, "Someone's activated one of the tracking marks; I don't know which demon monarch it is, though."
The spiritual pressure emanating from his body fluctuated erratically as he spoke, and the two women exchanged a glance with concern in their eyes.
"It's alright, I can still suppress the tracking marks for now. Once we eradicate them, I'll be fine," Han Li said as he forced a smile onto his face.
You're right, Brother Han. Let's get started right away, then," Yuan Yao said as she took a deep breath to compose herself
"Of course. However, before we start, I have to tell you something, Brother Han. This secret technique to draw Yin Qi into one's body is meant to be used on ghostly cultivators and ghostly beings. With your human body, this process will be excruciatingly painful, and even you're not careful, you could even fall unconscious from the pain. If you do that, you'll be unable to guide the Yin Qi into your own body, and all our prior efforts will go to waste. Do you understand what I mean, Brother Han?" Yan Li cautioned with a grave expression.
"Excruciating pain, you say? I may not be good for much else, but I'm rather confident in my body," Han Li chuckled nonchalantly.
Han Li wasn't exaggerating in the slightest. His physical body had reached a ridiculous powerful level. He had cultivated several types of body refinement secret techniques and also refined his body through the use of many rare spirit medicines. Pain that was excruciating to others was something that he could simply ignore.
Yan Li nodded at the sight of Han Li's confident expression and immediately led him to the core of the formation, which was that aforementioned hill where the Yin Qi was most abundant.
There was a small plateau of just over 100 feet in size at the summit of the hill, and small formation had been set up there at the center of the larger formation.
The three of them walked into the small formation side by side, and Han Li sat down with his legs crossed at its center while the two women sat on either side of him.
Han Li slowly closed his eyes, and the two women opened their mouths in unison to expel a black bead each.
The beads rotated in mid-air before flying toward two opposite directions, embedding themselves into the slots that had been prepared well in advance on either side of the formation.
After that, the two women both made a hand seal at the same time, and a faint ringing sound erupted from the formation.
Bursts of black light emerged all around the formation before rippling outward.
All of a sudden, the entire massive formation around the hill was activated.
Balls of Yin Qi rose up into the sky from many locations on the formation before rapidly rotating in mid-air to form a massive vortex at an altitude of over 1,000 feet.
The vortex was so vast that it encompassed an even larger area than the massive spell formation down below, creating quite an intimidating sight to behold.
An immense burst of suction force was emanating from the vortex, and the pure Yin Qi in the air as well as deep within the ground surged forth in a frenzy as wisps of black Qi to be absorbed by the black vortex. As a result, the vortex expanded even further, thereby allowing it to draw on Yin Qi from an even larger area.
If Han Li were to open his eyes and look up into the sky at this moment, he'd witness balls of black light rapidly rotating at the center of the vortex, crushing all types of Yin Qi before fusing them together again.
At the very center of the vortex, an inky-black ball was slowly taking shape. A burst of astonishing spiritual pressure was seeping out of the black ball, and it seemed to possess an extremely immense burst of power that could plummet through the entire vortex at any moment.
Yuan Yao and Yan Li chanted unintelligible incantations in low voices while constantly making a series of hand seals, casting one incantation seal after another toward the small formation that they were situated in, thereby causing the vortex up above to further accelerate in its rotation.
In just this short period of time alone, the vortex had already drawn a staggering amount of Yin Qi.
Right at this moment, ghostly howls erupted in the distance from all directions. It seemed that countless ghostly beings had been drawn to the vortex and were converging toward them.
Yuan Yao's brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this.
Even though she couldn't sense any particularly powerful ghostly beings nearby, having so many ghostly beings attack their formation was certainly no laughing matter.
It seemed that they'd underestimated the appeal of such pure Yin Qi to these ghostly beings.
Before she had a chance to rise to her feet and set off to kill some of the low-grade ghostly beings, Han Li suddenly rustled a sleeve to summon a black spirit beast bracelet. The bracelet rotated in mid-air before a streak of golden light and a ball of black light shot forth from within.
The lights then faded to reveal a small leopard-like beast and a small black monkey.
They were none other than the Weeping Soul Beast and the Leopard Kirin Beast.
As soon as the two beasts appeared, the Weeping Soul Beast transformed into a massive ape that was over 100 feet tall amid a flash of black light, then leaped out of the small formation.
Meanwhile, the Leopard Kirin Beast swayed to conjure up a dozen or so afterimages before disappearing in a flash.
Yuan Yao faltered slightly upon seeing this, but Yan Li merely smiled, and said, "Rest assured, Junior Martial Sister Yuan; Brother Han was able to save us from the demon monarchs, so his abilities certainly far outstrip ours, and he would definitely have a way to repel these low-grade ghostly beings. They won't be able to disrupt our formation."
"You're right, Senior Martial Sister, it appears I was overcomplicating things," Yuan Yao replied with a relieved smile.
"You're far too kind in your assessment of me, Fairy Yan, but these low-grade ghostly beings are indeed not a cause for concern," Han Li replied with a smile without opening his eyes.
Right at this moment, a thunderous ape roar suddenly erupted in the distance, and all of the ghostly howls in that direction suddenly ceased.
In contrast, countless howls of anguish erupted from the other side, and all of those ghostly howls were filled with horror. Those ghostly howls quickly receded into the distance, and everything soon fell silent in that direction as well.
"Looks like your spirit beasts are truly extraordinary, Brother Han; to think that they were able to take care of those ghostly beings so easily." A hint of surprise flashed through Yan Li's eyes as she spoke.
She was confident that those ghostly beings were definitely no match for the two spirit beast, but she was still rather surprised that they'd been taken care of so quickly.
Han Li merely smiled and gave no response to this.
The Leopard Kirin Beast had most likely only killed a small portion of the ghostly beings on its side before scaring the rest away through intimidation, but all of the ghostly beings on the Weeping Soul Beast's side had most likely been devoured already.
After a while, Han Li said, "I've already prepared my meridians from an influx of Yin Qi, and it looks like we've gathered enough Yin Qi already, so let's begin. There's only one demon monarch activating their tracking mark at the moment; if a few more tracking marks are activated, then I won't be able to repress them."
Yan Li glanced up at the vortex in the air through narrowed eyes as she said in a solemn voice, "It's indeed about time. Let's begin, Junior Martial Sister Yuan."
Yuan Yao nodded in agreement with a serious expression on her face.
Thus, black light flashed from the hands of the two women as they each produced a small black flag that was around an inch in length, then tossed them toward either side of the formation at the same time.
The two flags immediately transformed into a pair of giant flags that stood outside the small formation.
The two women then made another hand seal in unison, and a loud burst of rumbling immediately rang out from above. The massive black balls within the vortex suddenly flashed with black light, and as it continued to slowly rotate, two streaks of black light descended, carrying two bursts of black Qi that were so dense that they were appeared to be streaks of viscous black liquid.
The black Qi then disappeared without a trace into the two giant flags.
Black Qi suddenly began to surge around Yuan Yao and Yan Li's bodies, following which they began to emit a powerful burst of spiritual pressure.
The two women let loose sharp cries as they raised their hands in unison, flicking their fingers toward Han Li in quick succession.
Countless black threads shot froth from their fingertips, disappearing into Han Li's body in a flash.
However, Han Li merely shuddered slightly in response before displaying no further signs of discomfort.
Yuan Yao and Yan Li couldn't help but exchange a glance upon seeing this, and both of them could see their own admiration mirrored in each other's eyes.
However, they didn't stop what they were doing during this process, and countless black threads surged toward Han Li like a torrential storm before instantly disappearing into his body.
Aside from the fact that Han Li's body was glowing with a faint azure light, there was nothing to suggest that he was experiencing any discomfort at all. Yuan Yao and Yan Li were truly stunned upon seeing this.
The two of them had fallen unconsciously almost immediately after the Divine Devilbane Lightning had been injected into their bodies, and the amount of Yin Qi that had been injected into Han Li's body already far outstripped the amount of Divine Devilbane Lightning that they had had to withstand.
As such, the two of them were growing rather hesitant.
Just as the two women were trying to decide how to proceed, Han Li's calm voice sounded. "Keep going. I can sense the tracking marks in my body loosening slightly."
Yan Li took a deep breath upon hearing this, and she nodded at Yuan Yao before continuing the injection process.
The black Qi around her body surged before flaring up to more than twice its original height, then converging to form a ball of piercing black light that completely inundated her body.
Yuan Yao hesitated momentarily as she took a glance at Han Li, and his still figure seemed to have instilled confidence into her heart as she also replicated Yan Li's actions.
Moments later, two inky-black pillars of light shot forth from within the Yin Qi before disappearing into Han Li's body in a flash.
With such a huge influx of Yin Qi at once, even Han Li couldn't help but groan with pain as his body swayed, the azure light around his body flickered unsteadily.
