"Could it be that all of the Wood Tribe beings have already been wiped out by the devilish army?" Zhu Guo'er asked in a concerned manner.
"There's no way that could be the case. The Wood Tribe has a population of billions, and there's no lack of Body Integration Stage beings among them; there's no way the devilish army would've been able to wipe them out so quickly. On top of that, the Wood Tribe is part of an alliance with several other races, including our human race; the other members of the alliance wouldn't just watch the Wood Tribe fall. I'm guessing the Wood Tribe beings here have most likely vacated the area after the devilish army gained the upper hand here," Han Li replied.
Zhu Guo'er felt this to be quite a reasonable assumption, and she nodded in response. "You're right, Senior; we should begin to start seeing Wood Tribe beings once we get further away from the spatial passageway."
Han Li offered no reply to this.
Three days later, the flying carriage had stopped in the air above a boundless forest, and there were eight high-grade devilish beings standing over 1,000 feet away.
These devilish beings each had a pair of fleshy green wings and crimson eyes, creating a very menacing sight to behold.
Behind them was a flock of around 600 two-headed devilish birds, each of which was around 10 feet in size with a single black horn on each of their heads.
"What number are we up to?" Han Li asked in an expressionless manner.
"This is the seventh wave, Senior," Zhu Guo'er replied.
"Hmph, it seems that the high-grade devilish beings overseeing this place still haven't learned their lesson. After I get rid of this group, they should stop bothering us for some time," Han Li said in a cold voice.
Immediately thereafter, he swept his sleeves through the air, releasing 72 miniature azure swords amid a flash of azure light.
Han Li made a hand seal before pointing a finger at the small swords, and they quickly began to multiply until thousands of small flying swords had filled the entire sky.
The high-grade devilish beings up ahead were quite alarmed to see this, but they displayed no intention to retreat as they all summoned their weapons, then flew directly toward the flying carriage as gusts of black winds.
All of the devilish birds behind them also let loose extremely unpleasant squawks as they flapped their wings and followed closely behind the high-grade devilish beings.
A cold look flashed through Han Li's eyes upon seeing this, and all of the small azure swords instantly transformed into sword projections that were around 10 feet in length each at his behest.
All of the sword projections surged through the air, quickly inundating the high-grade devilish beings and two-headed devilish birds.
Agonized howls rang out incessantly as blood and dismembered limbs rained down from the heavens, and all of the devilish beings and devilish birds were instantly slain.
Only then did Han Li sweep his sleeve through the air again to withdraw all of his azure swords.
At this point, there was no longer even a single living devilish being in sight.
The flying carriage immediately continued onward as a ball of azure light at Han Li's behest, and just as he had anticipated, no more devilish beings appeared to intercept them thereafter.
However, there was still no end in sight to the dark green trees that appeared down below, and it seemed that they had spread over the entire Wood Tribe territory.
What was even more unsettling to Han Li was that they were still yet to encounter a single Wood Tribe being; it was as if the entire Wood Tribe really had been eradicated!
A month later, as the flying carriage was traveling over a certain valley, Han Li finally discovered a small Wood Tribe settlement that was being attacked by over 1,000 devilish beings.
The settlement was comprised of over 10,000 Wood Tribe beings, but only around 2,000 of them were fit for battle, and they were being completely dominated by the devilish beings.
Han Li was ecstatic to see this, and they quickly slew all of the devilish beings without any hesitation before revealing himself to be a human.
From the elder settlement, he finally learned what had happened in the Wood Tribe during the past few decades.
It turned out that after several fierce battles, an impasse had been reached between the devilish army and the Spirit Realm races. However, five years ago, the devilish beings suddenly diverted their forces away from the human and demon territories, unleashing a surprise attack on the Wood Tribe instead.
In the face of their ferocious assault, the Wood Tribe army was quickly forced onto the back foot. Due to how abruptly everything had happened, the allies of the Wood Tribe were unable to assist them in time, and in an act of desperation, the grand elder of the Wood Tribe emerged from seclusion to face the enemy.
However, as soon as he appeared on the frontlines, he was immediately ambushed by three Sacred Ancestors who had concealed themselves on the battlefield in advance.
The three Sacred Ancestors weren't of the same caliber as the likes of Yuan Yan, Liu Ji, and Nie Pan, but they weren't just some clones, either, so the Wood Tribe grand elder was quickly severely wounded and almost killed.
In that dire situation, the grand elder summoned a holy tree that the Wood Tribe had been worshipping for countless years, and only by drawing upon the power of that tree was he just barely able to escape with his life. However, his powers had been severely diminished, and he wasn't even comparable to a Grand Ascension Stage being anymore.
Having lost its most powerful backer, the Wood Tribe's morale completely plummeted, and in the short span of just a single year, it had lost most of its territory to the devilish army.
At that point, ally reinforcements finally arrived, but under the looming threat of the three Sacred Ancestors, the Wood Tribe was only able to hold onto its remaining territory without being able to reclaim any of its old territory.
Prior to this, all of the remaining Wood Tribe settlements had already retreated to areas under the protection of the ally races, but there were inevitably some settlements who received the news too late or acted too slowly and were caught in the territory that had been conquered by the devilish army.
This settlement was one of them, and they could only pray that they could weather the storm by hiding in this secluded area.
However, during the past few years, most of these settlements had already been wiped out by the devilish army, which was why Han Li hadn't encountered any Wood Tribe beings prior to this.
The settlement that had just been saved was only a small portion of a large Wood Tribe settlement that had been discovered and forced to split up for survival.
Even so, this group of Wood Tribe beings had still been discovered by the devilish army, and if Han Li hadn't intervened, they would've all been killed or enslaved.
"Senior, I've answered all of the questions you have for me; would you be able to protect us until we can return to a safe area?" the elder of the settlement implored with a hint of desperation in his eyes.
Han Li looked at the Wood Tribe beings to find that two-thirds of them were women, elderly, or children, and he sighed, "I can take you with me, but I must tell you that I've already killed many waves of devilish beings on the way here, so the devilish army has most likely already set their sights on me. It'll only be a matter of time before high-grade devilish beings come after me, and when that time comes, you may be plunged into even more danger as I won't be able to protect all of you once a battle ensues."
"I see. In that case, we'll make do on our own, but if you can, please inform our allies seniors of our situation so they can come and save us as soon as possible; we would all be eternally grateful to you, Senior." A disappointed look appeared on the elder's face upon seeing this, but he then extended a deep bow toward Han Li.
"I'll be sure to do that. However, I'm unfamiliar with the current distribution of the devilish army; would you happen to have a map or some relevant information?" Han Li asked.
"We've been in hiding all this time, but we have managed to gather some information; it's just that it's very rough and by no means comprehensive," the elder replied.
"That should be enough," Han Li said with a smile.
After that, he received a map from the elder before continuing on his journey.
The Wood Tribe beings naturally didn't dare to linger in the valley any longer, and they all fled the scene as well.
Around half a month later, Han Li was flying over a green lake when all of a sudden, a massive green hand emerged from the lake like lightning before instantly grabbing onto the flying carriage, crushing it into pieces as it burst into green flames.
