As the voice echoed, the yellow light from Uncle Huang’s Wind Cloud Banner suddenly intensified to a blinding degree. The radiance then contracted and expanded before exploding outwards. Instantly, a denser and more expansive white mist surged wildly from the banner, enveloping both allies and enemies in the blink of an eye.
“Seeking death!” roared the skeletal figure from within the mist, accompanied by the enchanting yet furious laughter of the seductive woman. Several massive collisions resounded through the fog, clearly indicating that Uncle Huang had already engaged the two Core Formation cultivators.
Han Li and the others naturally wouldn’t miss this chance to escape. Almost simultaneously with the reappearance of the mist, the Yellow Maple Valley cultivators urgently scattered in all directions on their artifacts. Relying on the extreme speed of his Divine Wind Boat, Han Li shot straight upwards.
This direction had the highest concentration of cultivators, but their magical power and cultivation were noticeably weaker than the enemies in other directions. Han Li felt it was more suitable to break through here.
However, few seemed to share Han Li’s thinking. Most of his fellow disciples fled towards directions with fewer interceptors, which made Han Li shake his head in dismay.
In the blink of an eye, Han Li took advantage of the chaos to pass several people and reached the edge of the encirclement. The mist here had thinned considerably, and the demonic cultivators could vaguely see Han Li’s rapidly charging figure.
However, due to the Cyan Fire Miasma, what entered their vision was naturally a large mass of cyan-red dense fog, which made them pause in confusion.
But immediately, three nearby demonic cultivators simultaneously raised their hands. A golden light, three yellow beams, and a large cloud of black energy shot straight towards Han Li.
Han Li let out a cold snort and pointed a finger toward the turtle shell artifact in front of him. The shell instantly expanded several times in size and shot forward to intercept the attacks. At the same time, he channeled more spiritual power into the artifact beneath his feet, causing the Divine Wind Boat to accelerate by another thirty percent.
He had already made up his mind: this was not the time for a protracted battle. He would rather expend more spiritual power to seize every second and escape first. Otherwise, if other enemies surrounded him, it would be too late to flee. Moreover, he had great confidence in his turtle shell artifact; after all, its hardness surpassed even that of the white shield.
Just as these thoughts raced through Han Li’s mind, the turtle shell artifact collided with the golden light and yellow beams, forcefully blocking them. However, the remaining black cloud proved extremely cunning. It abruptly split into two, avoiding a direct impact with the turtle shell artifact and instead slipping past it from both sides. Though slightly delayed, it still managed to reach Han Li’s side, transforming into a massive ghost head about two to three zhang wide that ferociously lunged to devour him on the Divine Wind Boat.
Seeing this, Han Li wasn’t alarmed but instead sneered inwardly. He raised a single hand, and over a hundred fireballs shot out, instantly tearing the ghost head to shreds. By now, Han Li had ample experience dealing with these初级 demonic techniques.
Seizing the opportunity, Han Li whooshed through the disintegrating ghost head and in the blink of an eye broke out of the encirclement, leaving those demonic cultivators behind.
Naturally unwilling to let him go, these cultivators shouted and cursed as they chased after him on their artifacts. But Han Li paid them no mind, simply flying at full speed.
Just as Han Li had guessed, the Divine Wind Boat was indeed a rare treasure among flying artifacts. At first, he could still hear the curses of his pursuers, but soon the voices grew fainter. Finally, after running frantically for several moments, there was no one left behind him.
Looking back and seeing this, Han Li still didn’t dare to relax. He continued flying at high speed for a while longer before slowing down to survey his surroundings. Then, tapping the Divine Wind Boat with his toe, he swiftly descended.
Han Li’s current condition wasn’t great. Maintaining the joint protective shield had consumed nearly half of his spiritual power, and this frantic escape had further drained him. He urgently needed to recover his energy; otherwise, encountering a powerful enemy would be troublesome.
With these thoughts, Han Li landed on a desolate mountain below. He withdrew the toxic mist of the Cyan Fire Miasma, found a hidden spot under a large boulder, and sat down cross-legged. Then, he took out a mid-grade blue spirit stone from his storage pouch and began replenishing his spiritual power.
Meanwhile, Qu Hun stood guard beside him, keeping watch.
Not long after Han Li sat down, a panicked red light flew overhead, pursued by five or six black beams, green lights, and other pursuers. They passed rapidly over Han Li one after another—clearly another lucky soul who had broken through the encirclement. But Han Li ignored it all; only by emptying his mind could his spiritual power recover faster.
He didn’t know how much time had passed when Han Li opened his eyes. His depleted spiritual power had mostly recovered, nearly full. He had no desire to stay here a moment longer!
Checking the sky, it was nearly evening—perfect for slipping away under cover of darkness.
But Han Li didn’t rush to leave. Instead, he slowly released his spiritual sense, carefully scanning the area. As expected, there were no demonic cultivators nearby. They had probably gone to pursue the main force after crushing their ambush.
Thinking this, Han Li shook his head. Given the enemy’s strength, the main force was likely in grave danger.
Han Li didn’t dwell on it any longer. He summoned the Divine Wind舟, identified the direction towards the Yuan Wu Kingdom, and flew off into the sky with Qu Hun.
Although most of the Yuan Wu Kingdom’s cultivators had also perished in Yue Country, the six demonic sects would be busy digesting the Yue Country’s cultivation world for months. The Yuan Wu Kingdom was temporarily safe.
Han Li had no intention of going to any rally point or chasing after the Yellow Maple Valley’s main force. That fleeing group might already have been caught by the demonic path; showing up now would be like throwing himself into a net.
Moreover, he had originally considered using this opportunity to find another place to cultivate. Following Yellow Maple Valley’s escape to another country would at most lead to a fate as a high-level manager—a life Han Li had no wish to live.
If his predictions were correct, even after the demonic path annexed several countries, they would eventually consolidate their forces and battle the Righteous Alliance. Then, the entire Tian Nan region would have no place of peace! This completely contradicted Han Li’s original intention of cultivating quietly.
For now, he would first lay low in the Yuan Wu Kingdom, see if that teleportation array could be repaired, and observe how the situation developed. If things turned utterly disastrous, he planned to use that teleportation array to go directly elsewhere and avoid this conflict entirely.
Silently pondering these thoughts, Han Li’s Divine Wind Boat turned into a white streak of light and disappeared into the horizon.
…
Two days later, after taking a large detour, Han Li finally appeared in the air above the border between Yue Country and the Yuan Wu Kingdom.
He glanced back at the mountain ranges of Yue Country behind him, sighed softly, and then flew into the Yuan Wu Kingdom with Qu Hun.
Unbeknownst to Han Li, shortly after he entered the Yuan Wu Kingdom, a team of several dozen demonic cultivators also appeared in the area and set up camp. They were specifically responsible for patrolling this hundred-mile stretch of border. Any Yue Country cultivator trying to flee into the Yuan Wu Kingdom from here would naturally be intercepted by them.
…
Once inside the Yuan Wu Kingdom, Han Li headed straight for Gold Horse City on his artifact. After three or four days of flight, he finally saw the hilly area west of the city.
After carefully identifying the location from high altitude, he finally found “Qi Xiaoyao’s” residence and slowly descended.
As soon as Han Li jumped off the small boat and scanned the basin’s surroundings, his heart turned cold! The seven or eight stone houses were now in disarray, and the scattered rocks and green bamboo in front of the houses were mostly destroyed and in complete disorder.
The protective formation Qi Xiaoyao had set up had been forcibly broken.
His face darkening, Han Li flipped his hand to ready an artifact and then walked toward the mostly collapsed houses. Although this scene appeared to have occurred long ago, it was better to err on the side of caution!
Approaching the houses, Han Li searched them one by one. In one almost completely destroyed stone house, he found a long-rotted corpse.
Pinching his nose, Han Li carefully examined the head for a long time, his brows furrowed tightly. The deceased wasn’t Qi Xiaoyao but rather Qi Xiaoyao’s loyal shopkeeper servant.
As for the other houses, no other bodies were found, which slightly relieved Han Li.
Just as Han Li finished his search, his expression suddenly turned cold. After a few flashes, he was back on the Divine Wind Boat, looking up towards the southern sky. From among the many southern hills, two beams of intense blue light shot straight towards him.
A short while later, they arrived not far in front of Han Li. The light faded, revealing an old man and a young man.
The old man had an ordinary appearance but narrow, long eyes and a goatee. He was a Foundation Establishment cultivator with a face full of surprise and doubt.
The other was a young man in his twenties, fairly handsome but with eyes full of fierce aura, glaring maliciously at Han Li. He was only at the Qi Condensation stage.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage