The demon monarchs discussed many things in front of Han Li, but none of them mentioned Han Li in their subsequent discussion.
At this point, Han Li had already backed away to the side, and was secretly inspecting these demon monarchs.
In all honesty, the two most mysterious and unfathomable beings among these four demon monarchs were Liu Zu and Di Xue. The former was emanating a frosty aura that was extremely unsettling, and he didn"t even seem to be a living being.
If it weren"t for the fact that it was clearly moving and speaking, Han Li would"ve been led to suspect that he was an inanimate object.
The latter was also quite unfathomable to him as both of the red-robed figures were completely identical in every single way. Their voices, statures, and auras were both completely identical, and both of them were referred to as Di Xue, thereby further adding to Han Li"s confusion.
As for Mu Qing and the white-haired beauty, Han Li had roughly gleaned their origins. Mu Qing"s body was enshrouded in a layer of black that even his Brightsight Spirit Eyes were unable to see through, but he could glean a faint wisp of green through the black light.
In conjunction with the extremely pure wood-attribute spiritual power emanating from her body, Han Li was almost certain that she was a rare wood spirit demon, but he didn"t know what kind of spirit wood her true body consisted of.
As for the white-haired beauty, her body contained the densest Yin Qi that he had ever seen.
Furthermore, judging from the conversation between the demon monarchs, Han Li could determine that she was a ghostly demon.
As such, the fact that she was able to manifest a body identical to that of a normal person was a sufficient indication of her power.
However, Han Li also noticed that Yuan Yao"s body also contained dense Yin Qi, suggesting that she was also no longer a normal human. However, she wasn"t a true ghostly being like the white-haired woman, so she had to have gone down a slightly different path.
Yan Li"s situation was also identical to Yuan Yao"s.
Judging from the auras emanating from their bodies, the two of them were only at the early-Deity Transformation Stage.
For them to be allowed to accompany the white-haired beauty with their cultivation bases suggested that the woman truly adored them, or was keeping them around for other purposes.
The discussion between the demon monarchs didn"t last too long. There were occasional clashes of opinions, but they were quickly resolved through diplomatic votes.
After a while, everything had been discussed, and everyone got up to leave.
Mu Qing rose to her feet and saw off the demon monarchs in person.
When the two red-robed beings were on their way out, they just so happened to pa.s.s by Han Li, and one of them asked, "Were you the one who destroyed the two puppets I sent out?"
Han Li hesitated momentarily before bowing as he gave an honest reply, "They were indeed destroyed by me. I was unaware that they belonged to you at the time, Senior, so please don"t hold it against me."
"Hehe, a couple of blood puppets aren"t significant enough for me to lose sleep over. However, I can"t just let you get away with this. Why don"t you do me a small favor at some point in the future to make up for this?" Due Xue suggested.
Han Li faltered slightly upon hearing this, yet when he raised his head again, the two red-robed figures had already walked past him as if they hadn"t said anything to him at all.
Han Li"s brows furrowed, and he couldn"t help but feel as if he had more trouble on his hands.
The white-haired beauty"s trio was the final group to depart, and they also walked past Han Li. The beauty merely smiled at him, yet didn"t say anything. As for Yuan Yao, she remained completely expressionless, as if she couldn"t even see Han Li.
In contrast, Yan Li blinked and was looking at Han Li with a contemplative light in her eyes.
Han Li"s lips suddenly twitched in a barely noticeable manner, following which one of his hands suddenly clenched up into a fist within the sleeve of his robes.
As soon as everyone had left, Xue Du turned to Han Li with a smile, and said, "Congratulations, Brother Han; everyone is holding you in very high regard?"
"What is there to congratulate me about? I"m still completely in the dark about everything. Do you know what they were referring to when they were talking about true mastery of my Divine Devilbane Lightning, Senior Xue? Will it actually improve the power of my lightning?" Han Li asked with a wry smile on his face.
To Han Li"s surprise, Xue Du actually gave him a detailed response. "Hehe, I do actually know a little bit about this. In ancient times, Divine Devilbane Lightning was the vastly renowned paramount wood-attribute divine lightning, and was one of the five-elemental true lightnings. It specialized in vanquis.h.i.+ng devilish Qi and all evil creatures, and its power far exceeds that of even my Heavenly Blood Lightning. However, unless this lightning is refined through a special method, the wielder will only be able to unleash a tiny portion of its power. During the reign of the Evil Dragon Race in ancient times, they destroyed all of the Golden Lightning Bamboo they could find, essentially erasing the existence of Divine Devilbane Lightning off the face of the Spirit Realm, so its special refinement method naturally became lost. At the very least, I do not know of this method."
"The Evil Dragon Race?" Han Li faltered slightly upon hearing this.
He had never heard of such a race in the Spirit Realm back when he was in human territory.
"Hehe, you"ve never heard of such a race, right, Fellow Daoist Han? That makes sense. Due to the excessively violent and oppressive way through which they treated other races during ancient times, a joint rebellion from all other races toppled their despotic rule. All of the current major races of the Spirit Realm rose into prominence in the aftermath of that epic war, while the name of the Evil Dragon Race fell into complete obscurity," Xue Du explained, giving Han Li a brief history lesson in the process.
Han Li was feeling a little overwhelmed by this information. How had the history books of the human race and Flying Spirit Race failed to record such a monumental event?
Despite his confusion, he refrained from asking any questions.
"By the way, when I say ancient times, I mean well and truly in the distant past. At that point, your Flying Spirit Race hadn"t even come into existence yet, so they naturally wouldn"t have any records of this piece of history," Xue Du chuckled, seemingly having identified Han Li"s confusion.
"I see!" Han Li was immediately enlightened.
According to the historical records of the human race, they had appeared in the Spirit Realm after the Flying Spirit Race, so it was no surprise that they didn"t have records regarding this matter, either.
Just as Han Li and Xue Du were chatting with one another, footsteps sounded outside the wooden hall, and Mu Qing strode in through the doors.
Xue Du immediately ceased conversing with Han Li as he made his way over to Mu Qing and extended a respectful salute.
Mu Qing nodded in an errant gesture of acknowledgment before sitting back down on her giant golden flower, supporting her chin with a hand as she sat in silence.
She seemed to be mulling over a difficult decision, and she didn"t say anything for a long while.
Han Li didn"t know what was happening, so he cast a glance toward Xue Du to gauge his reaction. The blood wyrm wore a calm and collected expression on his face, seemingly already accustomed to such occurrences.
"Listen up, Fellow Daoist Han; I don"t care what you"re thinking, but you have to master the Divine Devilbane Lightning under my tutelage within these two years. Once you do, I"ll think of a way to waive the two year period you have to spend with that ghost hag, understood?" Mu Qing"s voice sounded from within the black light.
Han Li"s expression stirred slightly, and a wry smile appeared on his face as he replied, "I"ll be sure to do my best, Senior Mu Qing."
"Hmph, you"d better do your best! Otherwise, I won"t let you go to that ghost hag without leaving you a memento to remember me with." Mu Qing"s voice suddenly became cold and forbidding.
Han Li"s heart sank, and he could only fall silent.
"Three days from now, move over to my Wood Essence Cave. I"ll instruct you to master your lightning during these two years. Xue Du, I"ll leave the preparations for the blood sacrifice to you during this time," Mu Qing instructed in an implacable voice.
"Yes, Mistress!" Xue Du was rather surprised to hear this, but he naturally accepted his orders.
Han Li also faltered slightly in response.
After that, Mu Qing waved a dismissive hand as she said, "Alright, I"m feeling a little weary, so all of you can go back for now."
Han Li and Xue Du could only depart after extending farewell salutes.
As soon as they exited the hall, Xue Du suddenly said, "Tsk tsk, you"re a lucky man, Brother Han. To think that my mistress is going to instruct you in person; this is a brilliant opportunity for you!"
"Is that so? I don"t even know if I can master my lightning in two years." Han Li shook his head in a rather gloomy manner.
"Haha, the fact that my mistress said what she just did indicates that she has confidence in you, so there"s no need to worry, Brother Han. I still have some matters to take care of, so I"ll be taking my leave now," Xue Du chuckled before flying away as a streak of crimson light.
Han Li stood on the spot and looked on at the departing streak of crimson light. Only after it had disappeared out of sight did he slowly return to his living quarters.
Not long after that, Han Li was back in his pavilion.
He immediately activated his restriction to prevent anyone from being able to conduct surveillance on him, then sat down on his bed with a dark expression.
A white later, he suddenly raised a hand and glanced at his palm. There was a black character around the size of a grain of rice that had appeared on his palm, and upon careful inspection, Han Li discovered that it was the character for "yuan".
A peculiar look appeared on Han Li"s face upon seeing this.
If he had been slightly skeptical about Yuan Yao"s ident.i.ty before, then all of that skepticism had now been wiped away.
This character was something that had appeared soundlessly in his hand when Yuan Yao had brushed past him earlier.
No trace of spiritual fluctuations had been set off during that process, so even the four demon monarchs were unable to detect anything.
It was quite astonis.h.i.+ng that a mere Deity Transformation cultivator was capable of doing something like this.
Han Li extended a finger before gently tapping the "yuan" character on his palm.
A flash of green light erupted from his fingertip to wipe this character away. He then withdrew his hands into his sleeves and began to contemplate his situation with an indecisive expression.
After a few moments, he suddenly extended a palm again. A low thunderclap erupted as a fist-sized ball of golden lightning surfaced over his palm, and its ma.s.s was fluctuating slightly.
A series of s.h.i.+mmering strands of electricity were also flas.h.i.+ng over its surface.
Han Li appraised the ball of lightning expressionlessly before suddenly narrowing his eyes.