Yuan Cha's eyelids fluttered, and she suddenly reopened her eyes, revealing them to be flashing with green light.
"Hmph, how can you be sure that you haven't gotten the wrong target again? I've already gone through this much hassle and I'm on the brink of success. Even if this isn't his true body, it'll still be useful for me to capture it. If you can't wait, then you can go on ahead. After I capture this clone, I'll meet up with you," she said in a cold voice.
The Xue Guang clone was rather taken aback to hear this, and after a brief moment of contemplation, he said, "In that case, I'll be going on ahead. With your powers, I'm sure you'll have no issues capturing a mere clone. However, his true body is very troublesome to deal with, and you and I will have to join forces to take him down, so don't get any other ideas."
"Rest assured, I won't intentionally ruin something that's mutually beneficial to us. I'm pursuing this clone for my own purpose. As for what that is, perhaps you'll learn of it soon," Yuan Cha replied in a nonchalant manner.
The Xue Guang clone was still rather befuddled, but it wasn't appropriate for him to pry any further, so he could only set the matter aside for now. "I'll be leaving behind half of my subordinates for you to use as you see fit. There aren't that many of them, but I'm sure they'll be of some help to you."
"Thank you for that," Yuan Cha replied with a nod as her expression eased slightly.
Immediately thereafter, the Xue Guang clone rose up into the air as a streak of crimson light, then disappeared into the jade plate after just a few flashes.
Moments later, a film of crimson light appeared over the surface of the jade plate, and it abruptly vanished on the spot.
Half of the elite devilish beings gathered around the jade plate also disappeared, leaving over 100 devilish beings behind.
They were led by a late-Spatial Tempering Stage devilish being, and they all descended toward Yuan Cha.
The leader of the devilish beings strode forward before extending a deep bow. "Mistress Yuan Cha, Master Xue Guang has already departed; do you have any orders for us?"
Even though he was a subordinate to Xue Guang, this devilish being was acting in an extremely respectful manner toward Yuan Cha.
"No, just stand by for now," Yuan Cha instructed in an indifferent manner.
"Yes, Mistress!" The devilish being naturally accepted the order without any objections.
Thus, the devilish beings all scattered around the stone platform to await further instructions.
As for Yuan Cha, she slowly closed her eyes again, and not long after that, the murder of crows scoured completed their search through another corner of the valley, then continued on toward another area.
Not long after that, they finally discovered something. Just as the crows were flying over a short shrub, over 100 of them suddenly began to circle around the plant while squawking loudly.
Yuan Cha abruptly reopened her eyes, and an elated look appeared on her face as she shot forth toward the shrub as a streak of white light.
At her speed, it would only take a few flashes for her to reach her destination, and right at this moment, the space around the shrub warped slightly.
Immediately thereafter, a burst of faint black Qi emerged before flying away, but it was clearly already too late.
Yuan Cha pointed a finger toward the black shadow, and all of the nearby crows immediately began to squawk in an extremely unpleasant manner while flying toward the black shadow like moths to a flame.
Perhaps one or two of these crows wouldn't be of any concern, but with over 1,000 of them swooping down at once, the black shadow was forced to stop and reveal its original form.
This was an inky-black Nascent Soul with an identical appearance to Han Li, and its entire body was radiating dense devilish Qi.
This was none other than Han Li's second Nascent Soul.
This second Nascent Soul wasn't as powerful as Han Li's main Nascent Soul, but following that ordeal in the Vast Glacial Realm, it had reached the peak of the Spatial Tempering Stage, and it possessed immensely powerful Devil Dao cultivation arts.
Even though it had been forced to stop by the oncoming murder of crows, it didn't panic in the slightest as it rubbed its hand together before raising both of them in unison.
Fierce black winds were swept up, and two bursts of inky-black devilish Qi erupted from within, transforming into a pair of black pythons that pounced straight into the murder of crows.
The two pythons surged through the air, and all of the crows in their path were instantly destroyed.
Even though the pair of pythons had gained the upper hand, the second Nascent Soul showed no signs of stopping as it quickly made a few more hand seals.
Right at this moment, spiritual light flashed up above, and Yuan Cha emerged before immediately reaching down with one of her slender hands before making a grabbing motion.
A resounding boom rang out as a giant white hand appeared out of thin air, then spread its fingers before pressing downward.
With her enormous powers, if the hand were allowed to descend, there was no way that the second Nascent Soul would be able to escape.
Thankfully, it was already prepared for this scenario and had a life-saving ability up its sleeve. All of a sudden, the Nascent Soul exploded, and a dozen or so inky-black fireballs shot forth.
Each fireball was around the size of an egg, and they instantly transformed into an inky-black Nascent Soul each before appearing several hundred feet away.
"You still think you can get away?"
Yuan Cha raised her eyebrows and let loose a delicate cry before uttering a peculiar incantation.
All of a sudden, a layer of translucent light appeared over the giant white hand, and it instantly exploded into a massive ball of white light.
Countless streaks of crystalline light shot forth from the ball of light, encompassing an area over 1,000 feet in size, as well as all of the black Nascent Souls.
Just as the Nascent Souls were about to unleash movement techniques to flee the scene, the streaks of crystalline light pierced through their bodies, and all of them exploded into balls of black flames aside from a single Nascent Soul, which twisted around to evade the oncoming attacks.
The only remaining Nascent Soul was the real one, and it's expression changed slightly upon seeing its illusionary technique being broken. Immediately thereafter, it expelled several balls of blood essence out of its mouth, then made a hand seal before chanting something.
The blood essence dispersed into a cloud of blood mist, which completely inundated its body.
"Hmph, what trick are you trying now?" Yuan Cha harrumphed coldly as she swept a sleeve toward the cloud of blood mist.
A piece of black fabric shot forth out of her sleeve in a flash, then instantly sliced through the blood mist like a projection.
However, almost at the exact same moment, a streak of crimson light also emerged from the blood mist before flying away into the distance.
In the next instant, crimson light flashed in the distant sky as a crimson thread appeared, then blurred before vanishing again.
Yuan Cha faltered slightly upon seeing this before a frosty look reappeared on her face. "That's the Bloodshadow Evasion Technique! That is indeed rather troublesome to deal with, but that won't be enough for you to escape from me!"
She waved a hand toward the distance, and the two giant stone pillars tremored slightly before rising up into the air. They then combined as one to form the stone hall again before hurtling directly toward Yuan Cha.
Yuan Cha flew into the stone hall before issuing an instruction to the devilish beings down below, then flew away as a ball of white light.
The devilish beings down below naturally hurriedly followed along, and thus, the area was vacated in the blink of an eye.
Meanwhile, in the air above a lake that was countless kilometers away from the second Nascent Soul, Han Li had unleashed his sword art to create a giant azure dragon comprised of countless streaks of sword Qi. The azure dragon was pouncing toward a high-grade devilish being with an insect-like body, and the devilish being was instantly torn apart. Even its Nascent Soul was instantly destroyed before it could escape.
Han Li swept a sleeve through the air, and the azure dragon disintegrated into countless streaks of azure sword Qi again. The sword Qi revolved around in mid-air before hurtling back toward Han Li, then vanished into his body amid a flash of azure light.
Beside the body of the high-grade devilish being that had just been slain, there were also a dozen or so other bodies of high-grade devilish beings hovering nearby.
After stowing away all of the sword Qi back into his own body, Han Li's face paled significantly, and only after circulating his magic power through his meridians a few times did his complexion improve slightly.
"It looks like they've already figured it out, so I can't keep going in this direction. What a pity; if they had reacted any slower than this, then there really was a chance that I could've made it back to Deep Heaven City. I can't allow myself to become predictable, so I'll have to try my luck by going in another direction. It's a good thing that my pursuers have already been shaken off, so there's a good chance that I'll be able to escape," Han Li mused to himself.
Back when Han Li had unleashed that secret technique to conjure up projections of himself, Qu'er and his second Nascent Soul had been among the projections, and they had lured away the two Sacred Ancestors. Meanwhile, he had concealed himself using his High Zenith Invisibility Talisman and remained at the same location.
With his drastic increase in cultivation base, it was impossible for the High Zenith Invisibility Talisman to maintain its concealment effect for too long. If Yuan Cha and Xue Guang had merely remained on the spot for a while, he would've been forced to reveal himself, and that was why he hadn't used his talisman earlier during his escape.
