The high-grade human cultivators' hearts jolted upon seeing this, and they didn't dare to pursue the retreating devilish cavaliers.
The copper puppet army also stopped not far away from Heavenlean City at the behest of some mysterious cultivators in the city.
After these devilish cavaliers retreated back to the giant arks, they immediately disappeared into the arks as specks of black light.
Once all of the devilish cavaliers had entered the arks, the Jialun War Devils also turned back and did the same thing.
A loud buzzing sound rang out, and all of the giant black arks instantly flew away into the distance, vanishing out of sight in what seemed like the blink of an eye.
After launching a massive attack against the city, the devilish army had retreated in an inexplicable fashion. Han Li and Fairy Silver Light couldn't help but exchange a befuddled glance upon seeing this.
Han Li was silent for a moment before analyzing in a contemplative manner, "Something's not right! If those Jialun War Devils had joined the battle, the devilish army could've immediately regained the upper hand, and if the devilish lords had been deployed as well, then it's quite possible that they could've forced their way into the city! With so many devilish elites in this army, I'm sure there would be quite a few devilish lords among their ranks as well. Two of Heavenlean City's grand elders have already perished, which means there are only two Body Integration cultivators left in the city, so they're at a grave disadvantage when it comes to top-grade forces. Heavenlean City must have some other trump card that the devilish army has already fallen prey to, which is why they're proceeding with such caution."
"That does indeed sound quite plausible. It seems that our task here may not be as difficult as we imagined!" Fairy Silver Light's expression eased slightly upon hearing this.
"I wouldn't be so quick to jump to conclusions. Even if Heavenlean City does possess some kind of powerful trump card, it's most likely not enough to oppose the devilish army. Otherwise, they wouldn't have taken such a risk to request reinforcements from Deep Heaven City. We'll only know what the exact situation is like when we enter the city," Han Li said.
Fairy Silver Light nodded in response. "I guess so. Even though the devilish army has retreated, they've definitely left behind some scouts to monitor the situation here, but there's no way they can stop us, so let's head to the city right away. Fairy Lin Luan of the Heavenly Sovereign Sect is an old acquaintance of mine; I wonder how she's doing."
"Indeed, this is a great opportunity for us to enter the city. Let's go," Han Li agreed with a nod. At this point, the human cultivators and puppet army had also retreated back to the city, and the two of them began to fly toward the city as two streaks of light.
Their approach naturally attracted the attention of the high-grade human cultivators in the distance, and some of the Spatial Tempering cultivators among them swept their spiritual sense toward Han Li's duo from afar. Upon verifying that the two were both humans, a stir immediately ran through the group of human cultivators.
Just as they were about to reach Heavenlean City, a bone-chilling voice suddenly rang out, seemingly out of nowhere.
"I've been waiting for you!" As soon as the voice trailed off, the nearby world's origin Qi surged violently, and a set of mountainous devilish claws emerged out of thin air before hurtling toward the two streaks of light.
The devilish claws were several thousand feet in size and completely inky-black in color, with pillars of green flames erupting from the fingertips.
Its enormous size encompassed the entire heavens, and Han Li's duo was struck by the sense that there was no way to evade it.
"One of the devilish lords must've stayed behind!" Fairy Silver Light exclaimed as she immediately swept both of her sleeves through the air.
Silver light flashed, and a pair of silver hooks shot forth before transforming into a white crescent moon and a scorching crimson sun. Each celestial body was several hundred feet in size, and they hurtled directly toward the giant claws amid the sound of rumbling thunderclaps and howling winds.
As for Han Li, he also raised a hand to launch a massive shimmering golden fist projection through the air, and an earth-shattering boom rang out as spiritual light of different colors exploded violently.
The entire space tremored, and the sound of wind and thunder rang out incessantly.
Even with Han Li's extraordinary strength and physical constitution, he was still forced to stumble back seven to eight steps from the force of the impact before finally stabilizing himself.
As for Fairy Silver Light, she was forced back even further, hurtling through the air for several hundred feet before finally managing to arrest her own momentum. Furthermore, this was even after Han Li had nullified around 75% of the devilish claws' power!
In the face of such a fearsome attack, Fairy Silver Light's expression immediately darkened significantly.
However, the owner of the devilish claws hadn't enjoyed that clash, either. Not only had the giant devilish claw projection he unleashed been completely destroyed, he was also forced to stumble out of thin air.
A cold look appeared in Han Li's eyes, and he was just about to focus his gaze on this devilish being when a bone-chilling sensation suddenly swept toward him from behind without any warning.
If a normal mid-Body Integration cultivator were in his place, they would've definitely been slowed down significantly by this burst of glacial power. However, Han Li possessed the five-colored glacial flames, and he had also absorbed another type of unknown glacial power in the primordial world, so his proficiency in controlling glacial powers wasn't inferior in the slightest compared to Body Integration cultivators who purely used ice-attribute cultivation arts.
As such, the burst of glacial power didn't do anything aside from conjure up a layer of frost over his robes.
All of a sudden, a green figure leaped out of Han Li's back before throwing a vicious punch. The green fists struck a snowy white flying dagger amid a resounding boom, and green and white light intertwined as a burst of thriving vitality erupted in all directions alongside white glacial Qi.
The flying dagger tremored before flying back, then landed in the grasp of another humanoid figure who had just emerged out of thin air.
This was a thin young man who appeared to be around 15 to 16 years of age. He wore a cold expression, and was currently appraising Han Li with a frosty look in his eyes.
As for the green figure, it was revealed to be a green-robed humanoid figure that was identical in appearance to Han Li. There was faint purple light emanating from its body, and it was missing one of its hands.
Even though it had managed to force back that flying dagger with its fist, its hand has also been severed during the clash.
However, a ball of green light then appeared around the wrist of the severed hand, and another hand immediately took its place. The green-skinned Han Li flexed the fingers on the hand, and it was no different to the hand that had just been severed.
The frosty young man faltered slightly upon seeing this before a vicious light appeared in his eyes. The green-skinned Han Li was naturally none other than his Body Integration Stage spirit body, and it had saved him from that perilous sneak attack.
However, Han Li wore a slightly dark expression as he also appraised the white-robed young man with animosity in his eyes.
Ever since he had mastered the first stage of the Spirit Refinement Technique, no one had ever been able to sneak so close to him without his detection. This immediately made Han Li quite wary of this mid-Body Integration Stage devilish lord.
All of a sudden, a resounding boom rang out, and Han Li raised an eyebrow as he cast his gaze toward Fairy Silver Light out of the corner of his eyes.
There, he discovered that she had summoned a silver flag, which had transformed into a ball of silver light, and had just endured another clash against the owner of the giant devilish claws.
Judging from her pale complexion and the slightly disoriented look in her eyes, she had clearly come off decidedly second-best during the clash.
This was partially due to the fact that she had still yet to recover from her last battle, but at the same time, the power of her opponent was certainly not to be discounted.
Han Li's heart stirred slightly as he cast his gaze up into the air, upon which he caught sight of a burly devilish man in a suit of black devilish armor.
The devilish man had a crimson sarcoma on his head, and he was holding a pair of inky-black bone hammers while appraising Han Li and Fairy Silver Light with a sinister expression.
Han Li's eyelids twitched slightly as he discovered that this black-armored devilish man was at the pinnacle of the late-Body Integration Stage, and the indescribably sinister aura emanating from his body indicated that he seemed to be using an extremely powerful devilish cultivation art.
"You two are esteemed figures even in the context of the entire Elder Devil Race; don't you think it's far too underhanded to use such sneaky tactics?" Fairy Silver Light accused in an enraged manner.
"Hmph, if we can kill our enemies, what does it matter? We aren't bound by the pretentious rules that you humans have set for yourselves," the burly devilish lord guffawed as he thumped his hammers together violently.
"Judging from your powers, I'm sure you two are quite renowned even among devilish lords; how about telling us your names?" Han Li said in a calm manner.
"You two were able to withstand my attack just now, so you're worthy of hearing my name. I am Tie Long of our sacred race's Steel Bone Branch, and this is Fei Ya of the Ice Spirit Branch. You two must be the human reinforcements that have been sent to this Heavenlean City; why don't you tell me your name as well so I can add you to the list of human Body Integration cultivators I've slain?" Tie Long said with a sinister smile.
Rather than being irked by this provocative remark, Han Li merely smiled, and replied, "My surname is Han, and I'm just an insignificant man that I'm sure you wouldn’t have heard of. Do you think you still have a chance to kill us after failing to do so with that sneak attack?"
As if to back up Han Li's words, as soon as his voice trailed off, two streaks of spiritual light suddenly flew out of Heavenlean City before hurtling directly toward them.
