Chapter 1959: Fleeing
He had already taken a huge risk to send out his spirit body and second Nascent Soul in a last-ditch effort, so he had naturally decided to use this talisman as well. As expected, Xue Guang wasn't able to see through his deception in time, and he was able to shake off his pursuers.
Not only was he taking a risk by doing this, his spirit body and second Nascent Soul were in even more peril than he was.
Thankfully, the spirit body was formed by the immortal zoysia, and Qu'er was also a spirit being of heaven and earth, so as long as they had enough time to conceal themselves, they should be able to remain hidden.
As for his second Nascent Soul, he had given it his other High Zenith Invisibility Talisman. On top of that, the second Nascent Soul had cultivated a Devil Dao secret technique that allowed it to manifest wings with its devilish Qi, and it had also cultivated the Bloodshadow Evasion Technique.
With those two techniques up its sleeve, it wasn’t completely implausible that the second Nascent Soul could escape. After all, once the two Sacred Ancestors realized the second Nascent Soul wasn't his true body, they'd most likely just abandon it.
This was why he had immediately exposed himself and began slaying devilish beings when he felt the timing to be about right.
News of his exploits had most likely already reached Xue Guang and Yuan Cha, and he didn't want to be pursued by them again, so he had no choice but to truly abandon Deep Heaven City and go elsewhere.
With that in mind, Han Li no longer hesitated and fled in another direction.
During the next two months, Han Li began to dart around all over the place in an extremely unpredictable manner.
Initially, the Xue Guang clones were unable to track him down, and could only react to reports from other devilish beings that had sighted Han Li.
As such, they were always a step too late, and by the time they arrived, Han Li would already be gone.
Strangely enough, Yuan Cha wasn't with them, and Han Li had no idea where she was.
He was naturally more than happy to see this, and if it weren't for the fact that he was sorely lacking in magic power, he would've been very tempted to turn around and retaliate against the Xue Guang clones.
Unfortunately, under these current circumstances, he could only continue to run for his life.
The three Xue Guang clones were becoming more and more frustrated from this fruitless chase, and they dedicated even more devilish troops to hunting Han Li down, spreading them far and wide to try and intercept Han Li.
On top of that, they were able to make use of the teleportation formations that the devilish army had already seized control of to aid in their pursuit of Han Li, and as a result, he was constantly kept on his toes.
It was often the case that he would immediately depart from a place after recovering around 30% to 40% of his magic power, not daring to stay any longer than that. Even so, he was still almost cut off by the three Xue Guang clones on several occasions.
Thankfully, his intuition as a Body Integration cultivator saved on him those occasions, alerting him and allowing him to get away just in the nick of time.
As such, Han Li was naturally becoming more and more cautious, and he was forced to abandon his plans of traveling to other major human settlements, including the Holy Sovereign City and the four true spirit families, choosing to flee elsewhere instead.
In the other directions, the number of devilish troops was drastically diminished, and the time it took for the three Xue Guang clones to get to him began to increase.
This gave Han Li a lot more respite, and he was able to meditate for longer periods of time, thereby allowing him to gradually recover his magic power.
Unfortunately, this didn't last long. Three months later, Yuan Cha suddenly reappeared alongside the three Xue Guang clones, and they immediately set off after him in hot pursuit, not affording him any opportunity for respite.
It was often the case that they would get to him when he had only been cultivating at a certain place for around four to six hours, and he would be forced to flee again.
Thankfully, there weren't many other devilish beings nearby, so he was always able to make his escape relatively easily.
However, during the next month, the four Sacred Ancestor clones were always hot on his heels now matter where he went, and he finally realized that something was wrong.
The four Sacred Ancestor clones seemed to have a method of determining his approximate location. It clearly wasn't very accurate, but it was enough to render him unable to shake them off.
Yuan Cha was clearly the one who held the key to this tracking method, and she had only just recently obtained it. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to get away so easily in the past.
Han Li employed a few more methods to try and shake off his pursuers, all to no avail, and his heart sank further and further. As such, he became even more cautious and began to take routes that would take him further and further away from the devilish beings in the area.
Thus, time passed by one day after another, and they began to approach the border of the human territory.
This area was very close to the primordial world, and ancient beasts were often able to force their way through the restrictions here, so no human cities had been established in the area. As such, this was also the most barren and desolate part of the human territory.
Without any human settlements here, there obviously wouldn't be any devilish armies situated here, either.
With Han Li's incredible speed, there were very few high-grade devilish beasts that had been able to keep up with him and the four Sacred Ancestor clones, and the only ones that had been able to keep up were only able to do so as they had been drawn into Xue Guang's giant jade plate.
Han Li continued to hurtle through the air as a streak of light with a dark expression.
With his current level of magic power, it was unwise to continue to maintain his Kun Peng form, so he could only revert back to his human form.
At this point, he had already been fleeing for over half a year, and his constant changes in direction made the four Sacred Ancestor clones unable to chase him down, but even with his resolute will, having to flee for his life for so long was taking a heavy mental toll on him.
However, he was now even more determined to continue fleeing and engage his pursuers in a battle of attrition.
There was no way that the four Sacred Ancestor clones could keep this up forever. They had to be expending just as much magic power as he was, and they also wouldn't have had much time to recover their magic power.
High up in the air millions of kilometers away from Han Li, a stone hall and a giant plate were hurtling through the air.
Within the jade plate, the three Xue Guang clones were standing before the crystalline wall, discussing something with Yuan Cha, whose image was being depicted on the wall.
"So you're still unwilling to enter our All-encompassing Plate, Fellow Daoist Yuan Cha? You should be just as aware as I am how much magic power we're expending by separately controlling flying treasures like this. I descended into this realm in quite a hurry, so I'm not carrying many magic power regeneration pills. I managed to get some from my subordinates, but after flying for this long, those pills have almost all been used up as well. At this rate, there's no guarantee that we'll be able to outlast that human brat. "We don't know how many regenerative pills he's carrying; even now, he's still displaying no signs of magic power exhaustion. I'm sure you're not carrying many regenerative pills, either, right, Fellow Daoist? In that case, it would be wise of us to fly in one treasure together so we can take turns resting," one of the Xue Guang clones urged.
"I naturally have no objections to this, but why can't you three come to my stone hall? Why do you insist on making me enter your All-encompassing Plate?" Yuan Cha asked.
"Hmph, why ask a question you already know the answer to? The cultivation arts we're using contradict with the protective stone Qi cultivated by the Stone Devil Race. If we try to meditate and recover our magic power in your Stone Devil Hall, the effect will be minimal. Hence, it's much better for you to come into our All-encompassing Plate," Xue Guang insisted.
"Is that so? I'm more concerned that you'll unleash the power of your All-encompassing Plate on me if I were to enter it. You're renowned in our sacred realm for devouring the blood essence and magic power of others, so don't tell me that something like this is beneath you," Yuan Cha chuckled coldly, completely doing away with all semblance of pleasantries.
"You're overthinking things, Fellow Daoist. Both of us only have our clones here; if I were to do that, your true body definitely wouldn't let me get away with it," Xue Guang sighed in a resigned manner.
"Hehe, I wouldn't be so sure about that. What you're saying makes some sense, but I'm still not willing to take the risk. Perhaps this clone of mine doesn't possess enough blood essence and magic power to tempt you, but if we take into consideration the Chaotic Yin Yang Qi and Devil Sealing Lock that's currently in the Han brat's possession, even I would be tempted to do something radical," Yuan Cha said as a mocking sneer appeared on her face.
The three Xue Guang clones' expressions changed slightly upon hearing this, and they glanced at another before one of them asked, "Chaotic Yin Yang Qi and Devil Sealing Lock? What are you talking about?"
"Why play these childish little games, Xue Guang? I saw that Han brat extracting Chaotic Yin Yang Qi from the Devil Sealing Lock using the Earthly Hellish Flames. I heard that there was a very good chance that the Devil Sealing Lock had fallen into your hands; it seems that the rumors were true. I don't know how you managed to lose the treasure to a human, but you sent your three clones into this realm for the Chaotic Yin Yang Qi, right?" Yuan Cha chuckled coldly in response.
"Seeing as you've already figured everything else, then I won't keep this from you any longer. What are you going to do? Are you going to inform Liu Ji and the others of this?" Xue Guang asked in a cold voice.
"Chaotic Yin Yang Qi is extremely important to Sacred Ancestors like us; I'm not going to let even more people know about it! My condition is very simple: I can give you the Devil Sealing Lock and half of the Chaotic Yin Yang Qi, but you have to give me the remaining Chaotic Yin Yang Qi, as well as all of the treasures that are being carried by that Han brat," Yuan Cha replied.
"You sure are asking for a lot! Setting aside everything else, that brat took my Purple Word Cauldron as well; I have to recover that no matter what," Xue Guang harrumphed coldly.
Yuan Cha was rather taken aback to hear this. "The Purple Word Cauldron was taken by him as well? That's rather surprising to hear. In that case, you can have the cauldron as well."
"Alright, then it's settled. We've forged an alliance; isn't it about time you showed me the tracking method you're using to pursue that brat?" Xue Guang asked.