Han Li"s were rather perplexing to Mu Peiling"s trio.
If he hadn"t encountered the black-robed figure from before, then how was he able to immediately identify the second Nascent Soul as the culprit?
In the end, Liu Yu repressed her confusion, and replied, "The one who captured us was indeed your missing second Nascent Soul, Master. Also, the Nascent Soul has possessed a body and possesses a mid-Nascent Soul Stage cultivation base."
A reminiscent look appeared on her face as she spoke.
"It possessed a body? Tell me what that body looks like." Han Li seemed to have been intrigued upon hearing this.
At this point, the two golden lightning wyrms had already cleared out the surrounding black mist, and they shot forth through the air before disappearing into Han Li"s body.
The three women were stunned by Han Li"s proficient mastery in manipulating lightning.
At their Core Formation Stage cultivation bases, they were already able to manifest their techniques into different forms. However, they were far from being able to manipulate those techniques as if it were second nature, as was clearly the case with Han Li.
After calming her emotions, Liu Yu began to describe the physical appearance of the black-robed figure.
Han Li only had to listen for a brief while to determine that the second Nascent Soul really had possessed that Sovereign Devil Corpse.
His expression remained calm, but he was feeling grave internally.
If it weren"t for the Blood Moon Spirit Seeking Technique that he had mastered from the Great Development Treasure Scriptures, it really would"ve been very difficult for him to find Mu Peiling"s trio. This second Nascent Soul knew him extremely well, so he definitely couldn"t allow it to remain on the loose. Otherwise, it would surely come back to bite him someday.
With that in mind, after hearing Liu Yu"s description, he immediately instructed, "The three of you, leave this place right away and return to the sect. Seeing as this second Nascent Soul has already returned to the Heavenly South Region, I"m definitely going to have to capture it. I have to search carefully through this inner valley, and it"s best if I did that alone."
"Martial Uncle Han, that Nascent Soul"s cultivation base is not inferior to yours. You should recruit some more a.s.sistance before you attempt to capture it. Otherwise... Huh? Martial Uncle Han, your cultivation base..." Song Yu had unconsciously swept her spiritual sense toward Han Li, and her expression immediately changed drastically
Upon hearing Song Yu"s startled voice, Mu Peiling and Liu Yu also a.s.sessed Han Li"s cultivation base with their spiritual sense, upon which they were also naturally given a ma.s.sive surprise.
Only after a long while did Mu Peiling manage to somewhat recover from her shock, and she asked with an incredulous expression, "My Lord, you"re already a great cultivator now?"
"I forgot that the three of you aren"t yet aware of this. My great cultivator celebratory ceremony was held half a year ago, and I"m already the grand elder of the sect now, so taking care of a mid-Nascent Soul second Nascent Soul won"t be an issue for me," Han Li explained with a faint smile.
The three women were naturally ecstatic upon hearing this, and they immediately offered their congratulatory words.
Han Li accepted their congratulations with a smile before urging them to leave again.
On this occasion, neither of the three female cultivators had any objections. After extending a final curtsey to Han Li, all three of them were on their way.
A short while later, three streaks of light shot forth from within the lava lake and departed from the inner valley.
Meanwhile, Han Li remained within the cave and decided to wait here for a few days.
This was such an obscure location, so if the second Nascent Soul was only temporarily away to do something, it would definitely return soon. Otherwise, it had to be residing elsewhere within the valley or had left the Devilfall Valley altogether.
In the end, Han Li waited in the cave for seven days, but the Wood Spirit Nascent didn"t return.
Thus, he decided to conclude this waiting game and left the cave. He then released all of the tens of thousands of Gold Devouring Beetles in his spirit beast pouch to scour through the entirety of the inner valley.
He was unable to find the second Nascent Soul through his efforts, yet he was able to discover many ancient treasures left behind by cultivators of the distant past.
Even though these treasures were completely useless to him and couldn"t even compare to a spirit treasure replica like his Triflame Fan, they would still be considered to be very rare in a place like the Heavenly South Region.
However, Han Li couldn"t bring himself to feel any joy over these discoveries. He had discovered traces of the second Nascent Soul"s activity during this process, and many of the cave abodes left behind by ancient cultivators were already completely empty, having clearly been looted recently.
Han Li could now confirm that the second Nascent Soul had most likely departed from the inner valley with those treasures.
This was quite a troublesome prospect for him.
However, upon careful contemplation, he discovered that the second Nascent Soul wasn"t actually completely untraceable.
The second Nascent Soul"s ultimate objective was to devour his soul and take over his body, so it would clearly be fixated on improving its cultivation base until it became more powerful than Han Li.
According to the descriptions provided by the three women, after possessing the Sovereign Devil Corpse, the second Nascent Soul had been specializing in cultivating the Profound Yin Arts. If it wanted to cultivate the Profound Yin Devilish Qi to its maximal extent, it could use a shortcut like performing a blood sacrifice to drastically improve its cultivation base.
However, this method was not without its side-effects. In most cases, anyone who dabbled in such sinister secret techniques would experience the progression in their cultivation base tapering off following this initial spurt, then find them unable to progress altogether.
As such, the method described in the Profound Yin Arts during which one injected devilish Qi into their body to enhance cultivation progress was the best option for the second Nascent Soul. Using such a method to forcibly inject devilish Qi into one"s body could allow a devil cultivator to break through bottlenecks in an extremely short time, thereby significantly enhancing their cultivation base.
However, this method also had accompanying repercussions. At best, the cultivator’s body and appearance would be altered by the devilish Qi through a process known as devilfication, and at worst, one could completely lose their sanity and be reduced to a half-human, half-devil abomination of a creature. As such, this was an extremely perilous method to employ for normal cultivators.
However, this risk didn"t apply to the second Nascent Soul.
It had possessed a devil corpse and it knew the cultivation method stipulated in the Great Development Technique, thereby allowing it to be able to much more effectively resist the repercussions that employing the method may have on its sanity Thus, the risk involved was significantly minimized.
Back when the second Nascent Soul had left him, it was still only at the early-Nascent Soul Stage, yet it had already progressed to the mid-Nascent Soul Stage in such a short time. Unless it had stumbled upon some other miraculous opportunity, it may have already employed this method. This Devilfall Valley was the place where the ancient devil had emerged from countless years ago, so it wouldn"t be a surprise at all if some places had residual devilish Qi.
Han Li sat and meditated on the summit of a certain mountain for a day and a night, constantly considering the second Nascent Soul"s situation and attempting to predict its next step. In the end, he really was able to strike the nail on the head...
"The Myriad Depth Devilish Abyss!"
Han Li abruptly opened his eyes as he murmured to himself in a cold voice.
Azure light then erupted over his body as he shot forth into the distance.
Two days later, Han Li had already departed from the Devilfall Valley and was heading toward the Seven Spirit Islands at an incredible speed.
According to the Profound Yin Arts, it would take around a year to complete the elementary stage of the process during which one injected devilish Qi into their body. He didn"t want to get there too late and have the second Nascent Soul escape in advance.
Almost at the exact same time, the black-robed figure within the Myriad Depth Devilish Abyss realized that Han Li may have predicted its whereabouts. However, it was at a crucial juncture in its cultivation and was unable to leave the Myriad Depth Devilish Abyss.
Furthermore, due to the fact that the Nascent Soul was afraid of its location being leaked, it had concealed itself throughout the entire journey from the Devilfall Valley to the Myriad Depth Devilish Abyss, interacting with no cultivators along the way.
As such, it had missed out on hearing an extremely important piece of information, and was still unaware of the fact that Han Li had reached the late-Nascent Soul Stage.
It was no surprise that the Nascent Soul had neglected to consider this possibility. After all, even Han Li himself had thought that it would take him at least 200 to 300 years to progress to the late-Nascent Soul Stage when he had traveled to the Great Jin.
The second Nascent Soul had clearly failed to predict that Han Li would suddenly miraculously advance to the late-Nascent Soul Stage.
As such, it was still calculating Han Li"s speed based on what it would expect from a mid-Nascent Soul cultivator.
According to its estimations, even if Han Li managed to immediately identify that it was in the Myriad Depth Devilish Abyss, it would still take him two months to get to this place. Meanwhile, it was already at the final stage of injecting devilish Qi into its body, and it would only take just over a month for it to complete the process.
As such, the Nascent Soul was feeling very uneasy, but it still decided to take a risk and remain in the Myriad Depth Devilish Abyss.
After all, if it were to fail on this occasion, it would be extremely difficult for it to return to the Myriad Depth Devilish Abyss now that Han Li was aware of its plan.
Thus, the Nascent Soul had arrived at its final decision.
It was going to remain in the Myriad Depth Devilish Abyss for one and a half months. By that point, regardless of whether it had succeeded or not, it was going to immediately depart from the abyss.
With half a month as a buffer, it would ensure that it would escape before Han Li"s arrival.
With that in mind, the Nascent Soul managed to calm itself down and continued to absorb devilish Qi into its body.
However, after reaching the late-Nascent Soul Stage, Han Li was capable of traveling more than twice as fast as he did back at the mid-Nascent Soul Stage, thereby completing a journey that should"ve taken more than two months in just a month.
He had arrived at the Seven Spirit Islands.
In the past, Wei Wuya and the others had gifted him with one of these seven islands, Spirit Turtle Island, for his efforts in suppressing the devilish Qi, and he had pa.s.sed the island directly onto the sect.
As such, there should be Drifting Cloud Sect disciples based on that island.
With that in mind, Han Li was no longer in a hurry to reach the Myriad Depth Devilish Abyss. Instead, he headed straight for Spirit Turtle Island.
A streak of azure light flashed through the air, and he descended on a small mountain on the island.
He sat down with his legs crossed on a ma.s.sive rock before releasing his immensely powerful spiritual sense.
The island, which was several hundred kilometers in size, was instantly entirely scanned through by his spiritual sense and at the same time, he had discovered two cultivator settlements.
Han Li"s lips twitched and he said something in an extremely quiet voice before remaining expressionlessly on the spot.
Meanwhile, there were two locations on Spirit Turtle Island that had been cast into a complete frenzy.
A short while later, two groups of cultivators shot forth from two different directions directly toward the mountain that Han Li was resting on.
Han Li showed no intention of getting up, and merely looked up indifferently at these cultivators.
All of a sudden, a hint of surprise appeared in his eyes. At this moment, the two groups of cultivators had already reached the air above the mountain, and after identifying Han Li, all of them hurriedly descended from above.
We pay our respects to Grand Elder Han!"
All of the cultivators stepped forward and extended respectful bows. The two people leading the respective groups were both Core Formation cultivators, one of which was a yellow-robed man with small eyes and thick eyebrows, while the other was a woman who appeared to be just over 30 years of age. The dozen or so cultivators accompanying them were all also at the Foundation Establishment Stage.
"So it really is you! Long time no see; it seems like you"re also reached the Core Formation Stage." Han Li suddenly turned to the yellow-robed cultivator with a smile.