Han Li was also appraising the copper mirror, and he said, "That is indeed rather strange. According to the Long Family patriarch, this passageway shouldn't be one that's heavily guarded. Either he was lying from the very beginning or something happened to make the devilish beings take this place more seriously. If you ask me, I believe the latter to be more likely."
"How are you so sure, Senior Han?" Zhu Guo'er asked in a curious manner.
Meanwhile, Daoist Xie was standing off to the side with his hands clasped behind his back. Even from such a long distance away, he was casting an intrigued gaze toward the stronghold as if it were situated right before his eyes.
"It's quite simple; the walls around the stronghold are very tall, but judging from the state of the bricks, they were only constructed within the past 20 years, by which time we had already entered the Elder Devil Realm, so this shouldn't be a trap laid by the Long Family patriarch," Han Li replied.
"I see, I didn't notice that. In that case, should we search for another passageway?" Zhu Guo'er asked in a concerned manner.
"There's no need for that. Even the nearest spatial passageway to this one is several months away, and many mishaps could happen during that time. Generally speaking, even these massive strongholds will only be guarded by several devilish lords at most, and that won't be enough to stop us. The only matter of concern is the formations set up near the stronghold. If we were to be delayed by them, then it wouldn't be very easy to escape," Han Li said with furrowed brows.
Back when he had first entered the Elder Devil Realm, he had nine other Body Integration Stage beings with him, which was why they had been able to eradicate the restrictions in an instant to force their way into the passageway. However, he was now the only one left, and this stronghold was far more massive than the one they had infiltrated in the past, so the formations set up here naturally had to be more powerful as well.
The concern on Zhu Guo'er's face became even more pronounced upon hearing this, but she naturally didn't have any good ideas, either.
Right at this moment, Daoist Xie suddenly said, "If you think these formations are rather troublesome, I have a secret technique that can help you instantly eradicate all of them."
"Is that true? I would be truly grateful to you, Brother Xi." Han Li was ecstatic to hear this.
"There's no need to thank me. In order to unleash this secret technique, I'll have to use up close to half of the elixir you issued to me, so think about whether you'd like me to go ahead," Daoist Xie replied in an expressionless manner.
Han Li faltered slightly upon hearing this before immediately replying, "That's not an issue! All I want is to be able to return safely to the Spirit Realm."
With that mysterious small vial at his disposal, he naturally wasn't concerned about this.
"In that case, I'm ready when you are. Also, it's extremely taxing for me to use this ability, so my cultivation base will plummet significantly for a certain period of time after I use it. If we were to encounter any powerful enemies, I'd only be able to ensure self-preservation, so I won't be able to assist you much," Daoist Xie replied.
Han Li's heart jolted slightly upon hearing this, and he carefully pondered the situation before reaffirming his own decision. "I'm capable of taking care of normal high-grade devilish beings on my own, and it's not easy to run into Grand Ascension Stage Sacred Ancestors."
Daoist Xie merely nodded in response and remained silent.
Thus, they began to carefully formulate a specific plan for how they were going to execute the infiltration.
Night finally arrived, and a series of balls of white light appeared on the walls of the stronghold to illuminate the darkness.
Han Li was seated on the ground, and after ascertaining that not much had changed in the fortress compared to daytime using his spiritual sense, he stood up and sprang into action.
Daoist Xie swept a sleeve through the air to release a vast expanse of silver light, which swept up Han Li and Zhu Guo'er, and the trio instantly vanished into thin air.
A short while later, Han Li's trio reappeared amid a flash of silver light in the air close to 10 kilometers away from the stronghold, and as soon as Han Li emerged, he raised a hand to summon the grey flying carriage again.
Zhu Guo'er immediately flew onto the carriage in an obedient manner, while Daoist Xie sat down in mid-air with his legs crossed. He made a grabbing motion, and two arrows appeared in his hand, one golden and one silver. The pair of arrows then began to rapidly revolve, transforming into a pair of balls of light.
At the same time, Daoist Xie's aura was almost completely concealed, and countless dark green spirit patterns appeared all over his entire body, creating a very peculiar sight to behold.
Bursts of Buddhist chants rang out from within the two balls of light formed by the arrows, and wisps of golden and silver light were quickly released before converging above his head.
A golden and silver ball of light with a diameter of around 10 feet quickly appeared, and it continued to expand rapidly.
The devilish guards on the walls of the stronghold had naturally discovered them right away, and the alarm was immediately raised while a group of around 40 devilish guards began to fly directly over to Han Li.
Han Li merely remained on the spot in a completely still manner, displaying no intention to stop the approaching guards.
Moments later, the group of devilish guards arrived, and their leader yelled from afar, "Who are you? Don't you know that this is a restricted area where loitering is prohibited?"
"Restricted area? My apologies, but not only are we going to loiter here, we're planning to take a look inside as well," Han Li replied with a nonchalant smile.
"What? How dare you! Hold on, what is that man doing? Wait, your cultivation bases…" The leader of the guards was initially furious upon hearing this, but his fury quickly gave way to shock as he swept his spiritual sense toward Han Li and Daoist Xie.
However, before he had a chance to do anything, Daoist Xie's body shuddered slightly, and the two arrows before him instantly vanished into thin air, while the huge ball of light above him exploded amid a resounding boom.
Countless specks of golden and silver light were released in the wake of the explosion, and they were all pea-sized golden and silver runes.
The runes swept through the air light a torrential downpour, illuminating the entire sky as it hurtled directly toward the stronghold.
The devilish guards up ahead were the first to be struck by the storm of runes, and all of them were instantly destroyed amid howls of anguish.
A series of formations appeared around the stronghold in unison in the face of this storm of runes, and lights of different colors surged through the air alongside violent energy fluctuations.
However, the golden and silver runes were able to easily pierce through the restrictions, and within the span of just a few breaths, all of the restrictions were in tatters.
After releasing the ball of golden and silver light, Daoist Xie's face paled significantly, and his aura plummeted straight out of the Grand Ascension Stage.
"Let's go!" Han Li immediately yelled as he entered the flying carriage, followed closely by Daoist Xie.
Han Li then took a deep breath, and he mustered up all of the magic power within his body before injecting it into the flying carriage underfoot.
The carriage shuddered slightly before screeching through the air as a streak of azure light, flying so quickly that only a faint azure shadow could be seen flashing through the night sky.
The remnants of the restriction around the stronghold were clearly unable to stop the flying carriage, and it quickly flew into the stronghold before hurtling toward the devilish cloud up above.
The entire stronghold had been plunged into complete turmoil at this point, and countless armored devilish beings rose up into the air. However, most of them were unable to even detect the presence of Han Li and the others, and only the Deity Transformation Stage and Spatial Tempering Stage high-grade devilish beings were able to discover the flying carriage.
All of them immediately tried to intercept the carriage, but there was no way they'd be able to catch up to it with their speed.
Right at this moment, several particularly powerful auras emerged from within the stronghold, and a ball of green flames, a gust of black wind, and a streak of crimson light shot forth in unison.
It was clear that the devilish lords in the stronghold had finally become involved.
However, Han Li paid no heed to this and continued to fly toward the black devilish cloud up above, then immediately rubbed his hands together before raising them up into the air.
Countless balls of golden light erupted out of his palms amid a string of rumbling thunderclaps, then instantly disappeared into the cloud.
In the next instant, an earth-shattering boom erupted within the cloud, accompanied by flashes of countless arcs of lightning.
The devilish cloud was no match for the golden lightning, and a massive area of empty space was instantly blasted into it.
