Half a day later, an earth-shattering boom rang out near the giant sand dune, and it suddenly exploded, sending an enormous amount of sand flying in all directions. A ball of green flames then shot forth before flying away into the distance.
Within the green flames was a deer-headed devilish beast that was riddled with wounds. There was blood flowing all over its body, and it was missing one of its paws.
However, right at this moment, a streak of piercing silver light suddenly shot forth like lightning before rapidly revolving around the devilish beast.
The devilish beast let loose a thunderous roar of pain, and the green flames around its body reared up as it accelerated, disappearing into the distance in the blink of an eye.
Immediately thereafter, half of a purple horn came crashing down from above amid a rain of blood and landed with a dull thump, sinking several feet into the sand, indicating that it was extremely heavy.
A humanoid figure then slowly flew out of what remained of the sand dune before hovering in mid-air.
It was none other than Han Li, and he cast his gaze toward the direction that the devilish beast had disappeared in before shaking his head, then glanced down at the purple horn segment that had sunken into the sand.
He raised a hand and made a grabbing motion to release a burst of invisible suction force, and the horn segment was drawn into his grasp as if it weighed nothing at all.
Han Li swept his spiritual sense over the purple horn segment, and a pleased look appeared on his face. However, his expression then changed slightly, and he immediately flipped his hand over to stow the horn segment away.
In the next instant, another humanoid figure emerged out of the massive crater in the sand; it was none other than the purple-haired woman.
The woman smiled at the sight of Han Li, and asked, "Did you manage to catch up to that devilish beast? It's alright even if you didn't; the beast has already been severely wounded by the five of us, so I'm sure it wouldn't dare to approach this mine again."
"Rest assured, Fellow Daoist; as it was fleeing, I managed to inflict another sword wound upon it. By my estimation, it'll take at least several centuries of recuperation before it can make a full recovery," Han Li replied as he pointed toward the puddle of ground that had been left in the sand.
The purple-haired woman's eyes lit up with elation at the sight of the puddle of blood, and she said, "That's great! I'm glad we've finally resolved this issue. Let's go and meet up with everyone else before we discuss what to do next."
"Sure." Han Li naturally had no objections to this, and he drifted back down into the crater again.
The purple-haired woman glanced at the puddle of blood and hesitated momentarily before thrusting a hand toward it, upon which a large pile of sand was turned over to completely bury all of the blood.
Only then was her heart truly put at ease, and she drifted down into the crater as well.
Several hours later, Han Li and the other devilish lords were gathered in the cave where the battle had taken place, and they were in the process of discussing something.
Among them, Heavenly Lord Luan Dragon and the burly man both appeared quite pale, indicating that they had severely exerted themselves during the earlier battle. In contrast, Han Qizi didn't appear to be any different compared to his normal state.
"So you're saying that there's a devilish spirit that was formed within this mine? In that case, it definitely won't leave this mine. Otherwise, it'll inevitably perish over time," Heavenly Lord Luan Dragon said.
"That devilish spirit was able to instantly kill those six Spatial Tempering Stage disciples from our Bai Family, so it's most likely very powerful; perhaps it already possesses the ability to leave this mine if it so pleases," the purple-haired woman countered.
"That's true. Even if one of us had been in its place, none of us would've been able to kill six Spatial Tempering Stage beings so quickly. What do you plan to do next, Brother Bai?" Heavenly Lord Luan Dragon asked.
"Even though the devilish beast was chased away, we won't be able to resume mining operations while that devilish spirit is still around, so we'll have to ask for your assistance to resolve that issue as well. Otherwise, my sister and I won't have much chance of being able to get rid of it," the burly man replied in a truthful manner.
Heavenly Lord Luan Dragon exchanged a glance with Han Qizi, and the former's brows furrowed slightly as he said, "That's not right, Brother Bai; I only agreed to help you deal with that devilish beast, not this devilish spirit. On top of that, this devilish spirit is extremely powerful and unpredictable; even Fellow Daoist Futian almost perished to it, so it's most likely even more dangerous than that devilish beast. Besides, we already incurred a lot of additional risk when that devilish spirit suddenly appeared during the battle. Otherwise, I may not be in such bad condition right now."
Han Qizi didn't say anything, but he was clearly of the same opinion.
The burly man's expression darkened slightly with displeasure upon hearing this, but he said in a calm voice, "That devilish spirit is an oversight on our part. If we had known about its existence in advance, we would've prepared the appropriate treasures to deal with it. Rest assured, Brother Luan Dragon, if you're willing to continue to assist us, we'll double the reward that we initially promised you. That devilish spirit is indeed very unpredictable, but Fellow Daoist Han's devilish flames seem to be a good counter against it, and he was even able to kill one of the devilish spirit's clones, so it should be severely wounded right now. If we miss this opportunity, we may not get another one."
After that, the burly man turned to Han Li with a smile before transmitting his voice toward him. "Brother Han, if you're willing to help us get rid of this devilish spirit, we'll give you an additional Eight-footed Devilish Lizard and let you choose three treasures from our Bai Family's treasure vault."
Han Li's eyes narrowed slightly upon hearing this before nodding in response.
The burly man was naturally very relieved to see this. In order to eradicate that devilish spirit, Han Li's silver flames were vital.
"You're doubling the rewards? Does that include another Bloodtooth Rice?" Heavenly Lord Luan Dragon hurriedly asked with an elated expression.
The burly man seemed to have predicted this question, and he immediately replied, "My apologies, but we really don't have any more pieces of Bloodtooth Rice. However, I'm willing to replace that with a piece of Blood Refining Metal Essence; what do you think, Brother Luan Dragon? I recall that you've been searching for this item for a very long time."
Heavenly Lord Luan Dragon faltered slightly upon hearing this before agreeing in a slightly reluctant manner, "A piece of Blood Refining Metal Essence? That's not as good as a piece of Bloodtooth Rice, but it'll suffice."
The burly man was ecstatic, and he turned to Han Qizi before asking, "Great! Can I count on you two as well, fellow daoists?"
Han Qizi nodded in response, and Han Li also had no objections.
Thus, they began to discuss a specific plan to deal with the devilish spirit, and they finally devised something that was feasible.
After that, they began to meditate while holding devil stones instead of immediately springing into action.
Several days later, after everyone had recovered some of their magic power, they split up into two groups.
It was still the same two groups as last time with Han Li and the purple-haired woman in one group, while the other group was comprised of the three other devilish lords, and they headed into two different mine tunnels.
Two days later, the purple-haired woman was walking up ahead with a round disk in her hand, while Han Li was following along behind her in an unhurried manner.
The woman wasn't walking very quickly, and she was glancing down at the disk occasionally, but was yet to discover anything.
"Can this Spirit Tracking Disk really detect the devilish spirit's location?" Han Li asked.
"Rest assured, Brother Han; this Devil Tracking Disk wasn't specifically designed for devilish spirits, but it's still applicable under these circumstances; we'll be able to detect the devilish spirit right away if it comes within 1,000 feet of us. Otherwise, with the devilish spirit's ability to fuse as one with this mine, we won't be able to detect it at all with our spiritual sense," the purple-haired woman replied with a smile.
"That devilish spirit is quite intelligent; I don't think it'll approach us voluntarily," Han Li said with a shake of his head.
"Then we'll find the root of the devilish spirit. If we can track down the root of the devilish spirit in this mine and destroy it, the devilish spirit itself will also be eradicated," the purple-haired woman immediately replied without any hesitation.
"That may be true, but it won't be a simple task to find its root in such a massive mine; it may take over a week!" Han Li sighed.
"Are you saying the reward we promised you isn't even worth an extra week of your time, Brother Han?" the woman chuckled.
"Hehe, that's not how this works," Han Li replied with a meaningful smile.
The purple-haired woman was just about to say something in response when a low buzzing sound suddenly rang out from her body, and she faltered slightly before patting her own waist, upon which a devilish badge treasure flew out.
The purple-haired woman quickly tapped the badge a few times, and was greeted by the sound of the burly man's ecstatic voice.
"Sister, we've already found the devilish spirit and eradicated it together! As we anticipated, it was severely wounded and debilitated, so it wasn't able to put up much of a fight at all."
The woman was quite taken aback to hear this, and Han Li could also hear what was being said. A smile appeared on his face as he chuckled, "Looks like we won't have to stay here for another week, after all."
