"Even if we"re extremely close to becoming holy race beings, we"re still incomparable to them. Our cultivation bases are equivalent to the first holy race tier, but more than 10 elders unleashed secret techniques to inject their power into our bodies before we were able to break through that bottleneck. We may possess the same amount of magic power as a being of the first holy race tier, but our spiritual sense and cultivation arts are significantly inferior. Without several thousand years of arduous cultivation, there"s no way that we"d able to compare with true holy race beings. If it weren"t for the fact that we"re short on people here, the elders most likely wouldn"t have deployed us in such a hasty manner," the elderly man said with a shake of his head.
"That"s true, but even so, if we combine our powers, we"d surely stand a chance against a being of the first or second holy race tier, and it"s extremely unlikely that a being of that caliber would appear in Green Light City," the middle-aged man replied with a nod.
"It"s a pity that we lost Hong Yin here." A wistful look appeared on the elderly man"s face.
"I heard that he possessed both the bloodlines of our Jiao Chi Race, as well as the Fire Moon Race, and that the Jiao Chi Race bloodline stems from your fire faction. Could it be that he was somehow related to you, Brother Tu?" the middle-aged man asked with a smile.
"He was indeed a distant descendent of mine. I unintentionally discovered him, and I planted him as a spy within the Heavenly Cloud Races. He possesses superb apt.i.tude, and it"s quite possible that he could reach our cultivation bases one day. Our fire faction elders had already decided that after he completes his spy duties in the Heavenly Cloud Races, they were going to completely transform his body and convert it into that of a Jiao Chi being; who would"ve thought that he would fall at the final hurdle?" A dark expression appeared on the elderly man"s face.
"Hehe, there"s no need to be sad, Brother Tu; all we have to do is torture his killers to death in order to avenge him. It"s a pity that we couldn"t plant any tracking marks on his body as that could lead to him being exposed. Otherwise, we could easily find the perpetrators. Even so, it"s not a big deal; we"ve deployed most of our troops from this battle ark, so there"s no way that they"ll be able to get away from this place," the middle-aged man said with a smile.
"With the Profound Heavens.h.i.+fting Disk given to us by the elders, we naturally don"t have to worry about them getting away. The only issue is that there are more than one of those items, and we don"t know if the Myriad Ancient Race is in possession of them. We have to make sure to obtain those items, so we can"t drive those beings too far into a corner, to the extent that they"ll destroy those items. The elders explicitly stated that we have to take those items back to them in perfect condition," the elderly man sighed.
"I"m well aware of this. Otherwise, why would we be hiding here in this battle ark? We"re trying to confirm our targets before taking those items without giving them any chance to react. Our original plan was to get Hong Yin to plant marks onto the beings who possessed these items, then notify us so we can obtain the items. Now that Hong Yin has fallen, we don"t know who"s in possession of those items, so things have indeed become a little troublesome," the middle-aged man mused with furrowed brows.
"It"s become a little more difficult, but it"s nothing that we can"t overcome. Those items are extremely important, so we can presume that they definitely wouldn"t be entrusted to beings with lowly cultivation bases. After all, we"ve deployed so many troops with the sole purpose of capturing everyone an ensuring that none of the low-grade cultivators manage to escape. If those people really were stupid enough to entrust those items to low-grade cultivators, then our jobs would be made a lot simpler. As such, the scope of our search can be narrowed down quite significantly. I think that the items are most likely being carried by a being of the mid or upper tier of the upper race. Of course, if a holy race being has appeared in the city, then the items would undoubtedly be in their hands," the elderly man a.n.a.lyzed in a slow and methodical manner.
"That does indeed significantly minimize the scope of our search. We"ll leave the mid-tier upper race beings to the winged wyrms, but we have to take down the beings of the three upper tiers in person," the middle-aged man agreed with a nod of his head.
"Keep two of the generals here in the battle ark and deploy the rest of them. Judging from how much time has elapsed, the vast majority of those low-grade beings should"ve been taken care of already. Without their interference, the Profound Heavens.h.i.+fting Disk should be able to easily track down the approximate locations of those high-grade beings," the elderly man murmured.
The middle-aged man didn"t say anything in response, but a contemplative look had also appeared on his face.
...
At this point, the giant falcons and silver-armored beings on the canoes were searching through the city, scouring for foreign beings. Most of them had been killed or captured with only a small proportion of beings with advanced concealment techniques hiding nearby, hoping to be able to survive this ordeal.
All of the beings of a higher caliber had already fled the city, and they were being pursued by the winged wyrms. As for whether they"d be chased down or not, that was something that only the heavens knew.
However, the armored warriors and twin-headed falcons were merely searching through the nearby area without displaying any intention lending their a.s.sistance to those wyrms, and that was a clear indication of just how fearsome these winged wyrms were.
As the giant falcons and armored falcons scoured through the city over and over again, there would occasionally be a few streaks of light erupting from obscure hiding spots, only to be instantly slain by their pursuers.
At this point, Han Li was already around 40 kilometers away from Grenn Light City.
The battle he"d waged against the Fire Moon being seemed to have been an extremely intense one that would"ve surely kicked up a ma.s.sive commotion, but in reality, no spiritual Qi fluctuations had managed to escape out of the Spring Dawn Sword Formation that he"d set up.
Even the astonis.h.i.+ng soundwave unleashed by that azure bell had been completely absorbed by the sword formation.
Thus, even though their battle had taken place extremely close to Green Light City, none of the Jiao Chi beings had noticed anything amiss.
As soon as Han Li had destroyed the Fire Moon being"s soul, he"d secured the jade box and the Golden Blood Pill before burning his body into nothingness.
After that, he stowed away his treasures and sword formation, then snuck away after using one of his High Zenith Invisibility Talismans.
With the concealment ability of his High Zenith Invisibility Talisman, even beings of the same caliber as Han Li would find it extremely difficult to detect his presence, so the Jiao Chi beings that had been deployed to scour through the area were naturally unable to track him down.
Thus, Han Li was able to fly right past a few twin-headed falcons and black canoes, and the Jiao Chi beings completely failed to notice him.
As for the big-headed being and the green-skinned being, Han Li had no idea where they had fled to.
However, they"d had to sacrifice some of their speed for stealth and discreetness, so they were most likely still within several hundred kilometers of Green Light City.
Han Li continued onward as these thoughts flashed through his mind. As he did so, he was constantly surveying his surroundings and flying toward the places with the fewest pursuers from the Jiao Chi Race.
Shortly thereafter, Han Li had was several hundred kilometers away from Green Light City, and there were no more enemies in sight.
He heaved a faint sigh of relief upon making this observation, but he still didn"t dare to deactivate his High Zenith Invisibility Talisman. Who knew of if the Jiao Chi Race had some kind of special secret technique or treasure that could detect his presence even from thousands of kilometers away?
Unbeknownst to Han Li, the caution that he was exercising really was paying off.
Just as he was flying further and further away from Green Light City, six black shadows were hovering in the air above the ma.s.sive silver island.
Two of them were the elderly man and middle-aged man who were conversing in the palace earlier, and the other four also appeared to be important beings.
At this moment, the six of them were hovering in a circular formation around golden disk treasure that was slowly rotating on the spot.
At the center of the treasure was an arrow that was several inches in length, and it was extending and withdrawing in an erratic manner. There was a series of circles carved onto the disk for calibration purposes, and a the same time, golden runes were emerging from the disk before hovering in the air above it.
The six beings stared intently as the golden disk, and after rotating a few times, the arrow suddenly shuddered before coming to an abrupt halt.
The arrow also extended and shrank before settling between two of the calibration circles, following which it fell completely still.
"Alright, we"ve tracked down the four most powerful beings. The four of you split up into groups of two and pursue two of those beings; leave the other two to us. From the reaction being displayed by the disk, they should be beings of the upper three tiers of the upper race. When you find them, try not to attack right away if you can avoid it. After we take care of the other two, we"ll go and join you. Remember this; if they try to destroy something, stop them at all costs. The four of you can each take a pair of winged wyrms with you as well; we should have all of our bases covered then," the elderly man instructed in a cold voice as he withdrew his gaze from the golden disk.
"Yes!" the four beings hurriedly replied in unison as they extended respectful bows.
"Alright, seeing as we"ve finished a.s.signing respective duties, let"s get started right away. Even the closest one of our four targets is already several hundred kilometers away, so time is of the essence," the middle-aged man urged.
The four beings nodded in unison, following which the elderly man suddenly let loose a long cry. Golden light abruptly flashed from the ma.s.sive silver island, following which a dozen or so additional golden winged wyrms flew forth. After just a few flashes, they arrived in the air above the six people before circling around overhead.
The elderly man waved a hand in an expressionless manner, and the four beings all shot forth as streaks of light. Eight of the winged wyrms followed the four of them away into the distance.
The two winged wyrms that remained were silently awaiting further orders.
At this moment, the elderly man turned back toward the golden disk, and a peculiar look appeared on his face. All of a sudden, he made a hand seal to cast a beam of red light that disappeared into the disk in a flash, following which the arrow began to rotate once again.
After a short while, the arrow settled on a certain direction. It was none other than the direction that Han Li was escaping in!