A month later, a massive stir was created in the entire Elder Devil Realm by the Immortal Vanquishing Order that Yuan Yan had issued.
Even some Sacred Ancestors were quite tempted by the massive reward being offered, and the target of the Immortal Vanquishing Order was only a Body Integration Stage human cultivator from the Spirit Realm, so many of the Sacred Ancestors sent their clones after the target, thinking that he would be easy pickings.
However, there were several Sacred Ancestors who were on very friendly terms with Yuan Yan that received some insider information, and all of them had decided to refrain from pursuing this target.
Even so, some Sacred Ancestor clones and Body Integration Stage devilish lords had begun to hunt for the target in question.
Two months later, someone finally discovered Han Li near one of the major cities of the Elder Devil Realm, Jade City, and this information was reported to the four devilish lords in the city.
Thus, the four devilish lords managed to intercept Han Li near the teleportation formations in the city, only to be killed by Daoist Xie with ease. The tens of thousands of devilish beings nearby were petrified upon seeing this, and Han Li was able to stroll right through them before departing using a teleportation formation.
Three and a half months later, Han Li was sighted once again in a renowned perilous region of the Elder Devil Realm known as the Golden River Valley.
The vastly renowned Sacred Ancestor Tian Ya sent a clone and three devilish lord subordinates to intercept Han Li once again. However, following a fierce battle, the Sacred Ancestor clone and two of the devilish lords perished with only a single devilish lord that was adept in movement techniques that managed to escape.
News of this quickly spread, and it quickly became a hot topic on everyone's lips.
Half a year later, Sacred Ancestor Xue Guang and two of his clones arrived in a small town with many of his subordinates to confront Han Li, then unleashed astonishing powers to try and capture Han Li and his group alive.
Han Li and Daoist Xie naturally retaliated, and a battle ensued.
During the past half a year of recuperation, Han Li had mostly recovered, and the benefits that he had reaped from the Spirit Cleansing Pond and Clean Spirit Lotus really began to shine through, particularly in the form of the massive stride he had made in his Provenance True Devil Arts.
As such, Han Li immediately underwent his Second Nirvana Transformation, displaying incredible powers that allowed him to match Sacred Ancestor Xue Guang's true body in battle.
Following a fierce battle that spanned a day and a night, virtually the entire town was destroyed, and countless devilish beings were killed or injured as collateral damage.
However, what was most astonishing to everyone was the outcome of the battle. In the end, Sacred Ancestor Xue Guang's true body had been forced to flee with severe injuries, while his clones and subordinates had all been killed.
The previous two battles had alerted all of the devilish beings to how fearsome Daoist Xie was, but following this battle, everyone realized that Han Li was not to be messed with, either.
However, the true bombshell was still yet to come. Several days following the conclusion of that battle, Sacred Ancestor Xue Guang's mutilated body was found in a mountain range hundreds of thousands of kilometers away from the site of the battle.
His head had been split open, indicating that not only had his body been severely mutilated, even his Nascent Soul had been forcibly captured.
This created an even more massive stir throughout the entire Elder Devil Realm, and all of the Sacred Ancestors immediately deployed their subordinates to investigate this matter.
Competition had always been encouraged in the Elder Devil Realm, and it wasn't even that uncommon to see devilish lords being killed, but it had been tens of thousands of years since a Sacred Ancestor was last killed.
Some of the Sacred Ancestors suspected that Han Li and Daoist Xie were behind this, but there were more people suspecting that he had been killed by his enemies, who had taken advantage of the injuries he had sustained during the battle.
As such, all of the Sacred Ancestors became very wary of Han Li and Daoist Xie following this incident, and none of them dared to send anyone after Han Li and his group again.
After all, with the formidable powers of Han Li and Daoist Xie, deploying clones or subordinates would only be sending them to their deaths, while pursuing them in person could create chances for the enemies of these Sacred Ancestors to kill them.
As for the ordinary devilish lords, with no Sacred Ancestors willing to lead the way, all of them naturally gave up as well.
Thus, Han Li and his group suddenly became a bunch of hot potatoes that no one wanted to hold onto.
Of course, the original Immortal Vanquishing Order still stood, but it had become more of an empty formality than anything else.
As a result, Han Li forged a resounding reputation for himself in the entire Elder Devil Realm.
……
In a cave within the belly of a barren mountain, there sat an elderly man and a burly man.
The elderly man had a pair of remarkably long eyebrows with a set of gaunt facial features, and there was an image of a menacing devilish projection with three heads and six arms emblazoned onto his robes.
As for the burly man, he had a heavy beard and was wearing a suit of black armor, giving off a very imposing appearance. The auras being released by the two of them were far more fearsome than that of a normal devilish lord, but they didn't seem to be at the Grand Ascension Stage yet.
Both of them were currently appraising an item between them with rapt focus.
This was a crimson cauldron that was only around a foot tall. Its top half was of a square shape, and there were horrifying ghostly faces carved onto each of its four corners.
The cauldron was trembling incessantly while bloodcurdling cries rang out from the ghostly faces, as if some devilish being had been trapped within the cauldron and was being brutally tortured.
"Why continue to resist, Xue Guang? The sooner you disclose the locations of those secret caves to us, the sooner you'll be put out of your misery. After being sealed within the Devil Sealing Lock for so long, Fellow Daoist Che and I have developed immense reserves of patience, so we could easily torture you for 1,000 years without growing bored. In the end, you'll still have to disclose everything to us. Besides, all of us originated from the same soul, so you won't be handing everything over to outsiders at least," the burly man sighed in a display of empathy.
"Indeed, if you return everything that you took from us, perhaps we'll release you. You know us; Fellow Daoist Feng Xie and I are men of our word," the elderly man chimed in as well.
These two were none other than Che Qigong and Feng Xie, who had been trapped in the Devil Sealing Lock.
They had somehow managed to escape from the Devil Sealing Lock, and an opportunity finally arrived for them to destroy Sacred Ancestor Xue Guang's physical body, then capture his Nascent Soul and trap it within this devilish cauldron.
Judging from what they had said, it was clear that there was a lot of history and bad blood between the three of them.
"Hehe… keep Dreaming! There's no chance… that you'll… release me. I'd rather… have the treasures in the secret caves be buried forever… than hand them over to you. Without those things… it'll take at least… several thousand years… for you to recover your powers. Our holy realm… is currently facing a major tribulation… With your powers… you could easily die! How could I… give up the only chance… I have for revenge?" An agonized voice that was filled with hatred and resentment rang out from within the cauldron in response.
"Hmph, you insolent bastard! Truth be told, I've only unleashed 1% of this Soul Refining Cauldron's power. If I wish to do so, I could increase your suffering by a hundredfold! You'll truly know what it means to wish you were dead then!" Che Qigong said in an enraged manner.
Immediately thereafter, he made a hand seal before chanting something and casting a string of incantation seals into the cauldron.
Brilliant crimson light erupted from the cauldron, and the four ghostly faces twisted with agony in unison.
The bloodcurdling cries coming from within the cauldron became even more unsettling to listen to, but Che Qigong's expression remained completely unchanged.
As for Feng Xie, he merely shook his head and closed his eyes to meditate as if he couldn't even hear anything.
……
Meanwhile, over 100 horned high-grade devilish beings had surrounded a man and a woman in the air above a boundless desert.
The sandy ground down below was littered with dismembered bodies and soaked in blood.
Among the duo who had been surrounded, the woman was an exquisite beauty in a white dress, while the man was extremely hideous and wore a suit of black armor.
It was none other than Bao Hua and Hei'e!
Bao Hua's brows were currently slightly furrowed as she appraised the devilish beings before her with dark expressions.
These devilish beings were all completely identical in appearance, and they were all completely expressionless, as if they weren't even living beings.
Hei'e's suit of armor had almost been entirely stained red with blood, and he cackled in a ferocious manner as he licked the blood on the corners of his lips. "Hmph, I can't believe you foolish bastards still dare to stand against us even after having so many of your brethren slain!"
In response, one of the devilish beings merely uttered the word "go" in a completely emotionless manner.
Immediately thereafter, all of the horned devilish beings raised their hands to reveal a series of black badges, which conjured up black balls of light that hurtled directly toward Bao Hua's duo from all directions.
