Han Li muttered to himself as he looked down at the corpse of the burly youth that was originally in possession of the Snow Crystal Pearl. He had wished to save the youth and ask about the Great Jin, but from his black-purple complexion, it appeared he committed suicide with poison.
Knowing this calamity would be difficult to escape from, he swallowed a fierce poison before the battle. In case he was captured, he wouldn't have any fear of having his soul being refined, but given how fast his soul dissipated, it seemed he had done something else as well.
Han Li shook his head, feeling at a loss of whether he should laugh or cry. What a shock it would've been if he had somehow found out that Han Li would've saved him after he arrived in the afterlife. Regardless, Han Li had no relationship to his person and didn't feel particularly strongly over the matter. Then, he flicked a small fireball at the youth's corpse, turning it into ash without much further thought.
A moment later, the cloud of devilish Qi returned. Han Li's second Nascent Soul waved the small black flag in its hand and absorbed all of the devilish Qi into it. Then it flew a circle above Han Li before disappearing into the top of his head.
He then looked around and saw the Soaring Tribes mortals looking at him with fear.
"Let's not stay here any longer. Follow me. You still need to tell me the location of the secret cave before you die." Han Li spoke at one of the carriages.
Feng Yue slowly emerged from the carriage with his head wearing a cloak. Then with a voice faintly carrying a trace of excitement, he said, "So you were actually an elder of the Yin Sifting Sect. It was no wonder you were able to easily kill that traitor Feng Zhen and possessed a medicine as rare as the Vast Essence Pill."
"A Yin Sifting Sect Elder? I'll speak of the matter later. Let's go." Han Li coldly chuckled and then took to the sky on a flying sword.
Feng Yue hesitated for a moment before closely following after him. Two streaks lit the sky and slowly departed into the distance.
At that moment, the Soaring Tribe mortals finally gathered the courage to reform their caravan. When their leaders met face to face, they wore a bitter expression. All of the Immortals they hired were either dead or gone. They were still confused over what had happened to them.
Over the next few days, the matter was eventually made known. Although the cultivators were low grade, their deaths were still significant, particularly because it involved cultivators of the Great Jin.
The cultivators of a few temples immediately responded after hearing of the news. After a bit of investigation, they recognized the killer of the Great Jin cultivators was that same foreign cultivator that had slain several of their Immortals. From what the mortals saw and given the cultivators who perished were from the Great Jin, the identity of this foreign cultivator was made known to be an elder of one of the Ten Grand Sects of the Great Jin — the Yin Sifting Sect.
In their previous battles, the foreign cultivator clearly hadn't made full use of his powers as he still held his sect protection treasure in reserve, but now that the Yin Sifting Sect Flag was discovered in his possession, it was now made clear the foreign cultivator was amongst the most important elders in the Yin Sifting Sect. The Soaring Tribes Immortals that fought against him trembled when they found out about this.
At that moment, a few Soaring Tribes Immortals came to a conclusion on why the foreign cultivator had appeared in the Endless Sky Plains and was attacking them with such strength.
In the holy war several tens of years ago, the Yin Sifting Sect was supporting the Moulan. Could it be that the Yin Sifting Sect Elder had infiltrated deep into the Endless Sky Plains for revenge over the Moulan Tribes' defeat or was it some other conspiracy? This reasoning made just enough sense to justify his actions.
The Soaring Tribes Immortals felt much more at ease with that misleading conclusion as they now had a background to attach to this enemy foreign cultivator. They believed now they knew how to better deal with him.
The Endless Sky Temple immediately sent a large number of cultivators out to patrol the border of the Jin Empire and the Endless Sky Plains to prevent the Yin Sifting Sect from rescuing their elder. They also quickly gathered a large number of Nascent Soul cultivators in order to eliminate the Yin Sifting Sect Elder. Regardless of the foreign cultivator's identity or powers, he wouldn't be leaving the Endless Sky Plains alive. If he were to somehow escape, it would cause a massive loss of face and prestige for the Endless Sky Temple if it were made known.
For this Day of Spirit Release, the Endless Sky Priestess was personally presiding over the Spirit Release Rites at one of the temples and hastily rushed through the ceremony in two days.
The next day, over a hundred high-grade Immortals finished their bathing rites and began to gather behind the temple in a carefully guarded area.
This restricted area spanned over three thousand meters and had a huge formation diagram at its center with over a hundred mid-grade spirit stones embedded within it.
At the center of the formation, there was a light grey altar over twenty meters tall. It was rather simple and was made of white stone. Apart from several unknown talisman characters on its walls, there were no other decorations and engravings.
There were about a dozen early-Nascent Soul cultivators surrounding the spell formation, all standing in place with a solemn expression as if waiting for something.
After a brief moment of silence, two women and one man walked into the restriction. A slender silver-robed woman walked between them and had her face covered in a white shawl, but her flawless skin, jet-black hair and enchanting eyes were enough to stir anyone's soul.
The man that accompanied her was an elegant man in his early thirties, but his eyes seem to contain a vast depth.
As for the woman at her side, she had a beautiful face and an alluring figure, not to mention her strange purple hair. She wore yellow clothes and walked with exposed arms with jet-black, fist-sized ghost heads biting down on each of them, but she didn't reveal the slightest pain.
"Greetings Saintess! Grand Elders!" When the surrounding Soaring Tribes cultivators saw the three entering, they immediately bowed.
The three nodded in acknowledgment and walked ten meters in front of the altar before coming to a halt and turning around.
The silver-clothed woman gracefully turned around and slowly spoke in a clear and pleasant voice, "Everyone, there is no need to be overly courteous. We are not only performing this summoning ceremony to hunt the foreign cultivator down but to also have the incarnation of the sacred beast remain permanently at our temple. I hope you Fellow Daoists will assist me with all your strength. In order to succeed with these summoning rites, these two Grand Elders have spent over ten years in preparation. Grand Elders, please present your offerings."
The other Soaring Tribe Immortals revealed excitement upon hearing this.
The elegant man and purple-haired beauty glanced at one another and smiled before they clapped their palms together, shaking the ground with a series of heavy thuds.
This came as a great shock to many of those present and they hastily looked around them.
Two groups of six-meter-tall copper statues walked in from both sides of the plaza. There were eight statues in each group and their bodies shined with golden light. They were all holding two huge wooden palanquin as they slowly made their way towards the altar.
When the bronze statues brought the palanquin in front of the altar and placed it down, even the more collected bystanders couldn't help but gasp in shock at the sight of what was on it.
On one palanquin there was a large bison that glowed with azure light. On the other was a huge white python coiled up. They were both soundly asleep on the palanquins.
The most notable thing about these demon beasts was the demonic Qi their bodies emitted. It indicated these demon beast were at the peak of grade seven and were on the verge of becoming fearsome grade eight demon beasts. It was no wonder why the Grand Elders spent such a long time before they managed to capture them alive.
The silver-clothed woman cooly swept her gaze across those present and calmly said, "This is an Azure Wind Bison and an Ice Armor Python. They are rarely ever found and will be suitable sacrifices. We will have to see whether or not they will be enough for the sacred beast's incarnation to remain in our mortal world. Let us now begin preparations for the sacrifice." She then waved towards the huge beasts on the palanquins.
Suddenly, silver threads shot out from her hand and tightly wrapped around the beasts. Silver light then glowed from the threads and the huge beasts began to float from the ground and make their way towards the altar.
At that moment, the azure bison began to awaken and when it saw what was happening, it knew it was in danger and began to shake its body in an attempt to break free. However, there were several types of restrictions placed on its body as well as over a hundred silver chains restricting it, preventing it from moving in the slightest. It could only watch in furious alarm as it floated towards the altar; its attempts to roar were in vain as its mouth was tightly shut.
The silver-robed woman turned towards the altar and flicked her sleeve, launching a fist-sized ball of azure light in the air. It circled once around the bull before stopping above it and revealing itself to be a small cauldron wrapped in faint azure flames. It continued to spin in place as it floated in the air.
The Saintess formed a hand gesture and began to slowly mutter an incantation. The azure flames surged around the cauldron, causing it to gradually grow to three meters in height.
If Han Li saw this, he would've been shocked dumbstruck. Apart from the cauldron's flames, it looked almost exactly the same as the Heavenvoid Cauldron. It had both a similar shape and similar decorative carvings on its surface.