Most of the devilish army was trapped in the formation, so the remnants were naturally severely outnumbered by the united army. Even though the devilish beings organized themselves in retaliation, they were overwhelmed in less than half a day and were forced to begin a retreat.
The united army naturally wasn't willing to let them escape, and the tables were completely turned with the devilish army fleeing the scene, while the united army gave chase in hot pursuit.
……
Almost at the exact same moment that the devilish army began to retreat, a ball of piercing white light suddenly appeared on the waist of Yuan Cha, who was engaged in a battle with Patriarch Ao Xiao.
Immediately thereafter, a string of black runes surged forth before forming several lines of text before her eyes.
Yuan Cha glanced at the message in a nonchalant manner, but her expression immediately changed drastically before she rose up into the air as a streak of black light, then vanished through the ceiling of the secret chamber she was situated in.
Moments later, the streak of black light emerged from the swamp, then rose up to an altitude of tens of thousands of feet before flying toward the Wood Tribe's territory.
However, right at this moment, a male voice rang out from even higher above.
"Where are you going, Fellow Daoist Yuan Cha?"
As soon as the voice trailed off, a thunderclap suddenly rang out up above, and a bolt of silver lightning that was over 1,000 feet in length came crashing down.
"You dare to stop me?"
Yuan Cha was in a hurry to leave, but in the face of such a powerful attack, she had no choice but to stop and raise a hand upward in retaliation.
A streak of black sword Qi that was also over 1,000 feet in length was unleashed, and both the bolt of lightning and streak of sword Qi vanished following a resounding clash.
"Our battle still hasn't been decided, so I naturally can't allow you to leave."
Spatial fluctuations erupted up above, and a ball of lightning appeared in a soundless manner. Within the ball of lightning was none other than the smiling Patriarch Ao Xiao.
"Hmph, looks like you already planned everything in advance to stall the three of us, but don't celebrate too early; we'll see if you have what it takes to stop me!" Yuan Cha harrumphed with an enraged expression before conjuring up around a dozen identical projections, all of which fled toward different directions at the same time.
Patriarch Ao Xiao's expression darkened upon seeing this, and he let loose a loud cry before pointing a finger upward. "Restrict!"
All of a sudden, the air within a radius of five kilometers tremored as the world's origin Qi surged, following which a massive white jade bowl came crashing down from above like a gigantic dome.
Five-colored light flashed within the bowl alongside countless huge runes, and a burst of enormous force came surging out of it, causing even the air to congeal.
The ground below the massive bowl also tremored violently before sinking down by several tens of feet, and the dozen or so Yuan Cha projections were caught completely off guard, reducing them to less than a tenth of their original speed.
At the same time, Patriarch Ao Xiao laid a hand onto the top of his own head, releasing around a dozen streaks of white light, each of which shot forth toward one of the Yuan Cha projections.
The streaks of white light transformed into snowy white two-headed giant wolves mid-flight and pounced toward the projections without any hesitation.
All of the Yuan Cha projections were naturally quite enraged by this, and they all summoned devilish treasures in retaliation.
Thus, the battle between Patriarch Ao Xiao and Sacred Ancestor Yuan Cha commenced once again, but it had become far more fierce than it had originally been.
However, the two of them were quite evenly matched, so a decisive outcome clearly wouldn't be reached anytime soon.
……
After receiving news of the dire situation that the devilish army was in, the other two Sacred Ancestors had also tried to escape, but they had been stopped by Mo Jianli and the Grand Ascension Stage being from the Yaksha Race as well.
Meanwhile, during the interval where the formation was unable to unleash any further attacks, the high-grade devilish beings and Sacred Ancestor clones in the formation had departed from the rest of the devilish army.
They had to take this opportunity to break the formation. Otherwise, once it recovered its energy and began to unleash more waves of attacks, even more casualties would result.
On top of that, the fewer devilish beings that remained, the better the formation would be able to focus its attacks, thereby making them more powerful.
Once all of the other devilish beings were eradicated, even the high-grade devilish beings weren't confident in their ability to survive in the formation.
As such, even though they knew that it would undoubtedly be extremely difficult to break the formation, they had no choice but to venture deep into the formation to find its cores.
Among these high-grade devilish beings was a group of around a dozen Spatial Tempering Stage devilish beings that were led by a cow-headed devilish lord. They were flying slowly over the forest while constantly appraising their surroundings in a careful manner.
Even though the formation was no longer actively attacking them, it was still filled with all types of defensive restrictions, and activating those restrictions could easily spell their doom.
On top of that, their spiritual sense was hampered by the formation, reducing their sensory range to less than 2,000 feet, so they naturally had to proceed with caution.
After flying for close to 100 kilometers, no mishaps had taken place, and all of the devilish beings in the group had let down their guard slightly.
Right as they were flying over a small hill, a streak of light suddenly appeared before the devilish scout who was leading the way from the front, and before he had a chance to do anything, the streak of light had already decapitated him.
A black Nascent Soul that was enveloped within a ball of grey Qi shot forth out of his headless body before retreating in a panicked frenzy, only to be completely destroyed by the same streak of light amid a cry of anguish.
The other devilish beings were extremely alarmed by this, and they all summoned defensive devilish treasures.
Right at this moment, spatial fluctuations erupted through the nearby area, and over 100 identical streaks of light emerged out of thin air.
The devilish lord focused his gaze on the streaks of light and identified them to be yellow wooden swords, each of which was around a foot in length, and they were giving off glacial Qi that was quite alarming even to him.
"Be careful! These wooden swords possess power comparable to an all-out attack from a Spatial Tempering Stage being!" the devilish lord yelled as he injected his magic power into an umbrella-shaped protective treasure before him.
The green devilish treasure immediately lit up, transforming into a green projection that enveloped his body.
In the next instant, the streaks of glacial light converged from all directions, and the other devilish beings also injected their magic power into their respective treasures with all their might.
Streaks of sword Qi swept through the air, and a string of anguished cries rang out in quick succession.
After the span of just a few breaths, all of the streaks of glacial light had vanished, and all of the high-grade devilish beings had disappeared aside from a single lonesome figure.
The cow-headed devilish lord's face was currently very pale, and he suddenly threw up several mouthfuls of blood in succession.
The umbrella projection around him had also become completely dull and devoid of luster.
A wry smile appeared on the devilish lord's face as he produced a medicinal vial before tipping out a long'an-sized pill, then waved a hand through the air, upon which the green projection reverted back into a small green umbrella that landed in his hand.
A few cracks had appeared on the surface of the devilish treasure.
The devilish lord inspected his surroundings with a conflicted expression before finally heaving a faint sigh, then stowed his treasure away before flying slowly toward another direction.
On another nearby mountain range, three devilish lords were flying toward the center of the mountain range while warding off countless oncoming blades of wind with their devilish treasures.
All of a sudden, the world's origin Qi up above tremored, and a golden light formation that was around an acre in size appeared before sending several pillars of golden light crashing down from above.
The three devilish lords were quite alarmed to see this, and they all sent their devilish treasures flying upward, where they converged to form a massive taichi diagram in the air above.
Several resounding booms rang out as the pillars of light quickly destroyed the taichi diagram before inundating the three devilish lords.
Shortly thereafter, the golden light vanished, and the three devilish lords were also nowhere to be seen.
……
A burst of buzzing suddenly rang out from the massive tree that Han Li was seated under, countless five-colored runes surged out of the tree trunk amid a flash of green light.
Han Li slowly opened his eyes, and murmured to himself, "Some devilish beings have finally arrived, and they seem to be quite powerful."
