Han Li's eyes narrowed slightly as he cast his gaze toward the white jade palace, then immediately flew directly toward it. Even before he had approached the palace, the guards had already noticed him.
A golden-armored Heavenly Guard immediately led a dozen or so azure-armored guards to carefully approach Han Li.
The Heavenly Guard took a quick glance at Han Li before immediately extending a salute. "May I ask if you're Senior Han? I've been instructed to wait here by the elders for your arrival. Please allow me to accompany you to the Skyview Platform."
"I am indeed Han Li. Please lead the way," Han Li replied in a calm manner.
"Yes! Please come with me, Senior," the Heavenly Guard said in a respectful voice as he made an inviting hand gesture.
The other armored guards also parted for him in a respectful manner and stood with their hands clasped behind their backs.
Thus, Han Li flew toward a tall platform in the palace, led by the Heavenly Guard.
On the platform, Buddhist Monk Jin Yue and several other Deep Heaven City elders that Han Li had met before were currently looking out at the devilish beings gathered outside Deep Heaven City.
As soon as they noticed Han Li's arrival, all of them immediately smiled and extended warm greetings.
Buddhist Monk Jin Yue was the most familiar with Han Li, and he said in a concerned manner, "You're finally here, Fellow Daoist Han. Just as the rumors suggested, this devilish tribulation really is more fierce than the previous ones."
Han Li's heart stirred upon hearing this, but his expression remained unchanged as he asked, "How so? Are there a large number of high-grade devilish beasts among their ranks?"
"You'll know what the situation is like when you see it, Fellow Daoist," Buddhist Monk Jin Yue replied as he pointed a finger into the distance.
Han Li raised an eyebrow and cast his gaze toward that direction.
From such a high vantage point, he was able to see everything outside the city wall.
There, he was greeted by the sight of countless sinister-looking devilish beasts, stretching for several tens of kilometers. Just the sheer number of them was enough to make the onlooker's skin crawl, and at the center of this enormous army of devilish beasts were five gargantuan devilish beasts with bodies that resembled mountains.
They were lying half-sprawled on the ground, looking at Deep Heaven City with a cold light in their eyes.
The five gigantic beasts consisted of a crimson ape, two white snails, a black devilish bird with talons and feathers that looked as if they'd been constructed from steel, and a three-headed purple python.
There was a wide berth around all five of these beasts, and it seemed that even their fellow devilish beasts were extremely fearful of them.
However, Han Li was more interested in the humanoid figures hovering in the air above these gargantuan beasts.
From a distance, they appeared to be completely identical to normal humans, but there was an enormous amount of devilish Qi erupting from their bodies. All of them seemed to be at the Deity Transformation Stage or Spatial Tempering Stage, so they comprised quite a formidable force to be reckoned with.
"What are those people?" Han Li asked with his brows furrowed in befuddlement.
"If I'm not mistaken, those are most likely human cultivators who ascended to the Elder Devil Realm from various lower realms. However, they specialized in Devil Dao cultivation arts during their time in the lower worlds, and they've been corrupted by the devilish Qi in the Elder Devil Realm for so many years, so they can no longer even be considered as humans," the white-robed Elder Gu sighed.
"Prior to this devilish tribulation, these devilish humans have never appeared; it seems that this devilish tribulation really is different from previous ones. Could it be that the Elder Devil Race is going all-out in a make-or-break bid to conquer our human race?" Fairy Silver Light mused in a grim voice.
Han Li appraised these devilish humans for a long while before he suddenly said with furrowed brows, "Those people will indeed be very troublesome to deal with, but compared to them, I'm more interested in where all the high-grade devilish beings currently are."
"All of the high-grade devilish beings have concealed themselves within the devilish Qi. Some of them emerged not long ago, but they've all retreated back into the devilish Qi since then. It looks like they're preparing to rest before they attack our city," Buddhist Monk Jin Yue replied.
"Have there been any Sacred Ancestors sighted yet?" Han Li asked in a grim voice.
Buddhist Monk Jin Yue hesitated momentarily before offering his analysis. "We haven't seen any Sacred Ancestors for now, but among the high-grade devilish beings that emerged earlier, there were a few Body Integration Stage beings. However, judging from the size of this army, there's a very good chance that Sacred Ancestors will be lurking within the devilish Qi. It's just that the Elder Devil Realm is only just beginning to erode our Spirit Realm, and they're facing immense resistance from the power of our realm. Hence, Sacred Ancestors are still unable to descend into our Spirit Realm, and even if they do appear, they'll only be clones."
"If it's only clones, then our Deep Heaven City should be able to keep them at bay." Han Li's expression eased slightly upon hearing this.
"I certainly hope so. What we can see now is only a small portion of the Elder Devil Race's forces. These low-grade devilish beasts have only been sent out as cannon fodder; the truly elite devilish beings still haven't appeared yet." Elder Gu had endured the last devilish tribulation, so he was well aware of just how fearsome the Elder Devil Race was.
"All we can do at the moment is to react and adapt to the situation as it unfolds. Our Deep Heaven City is the most powerful force in the human race; if even we're unable to withstand the attack from the Elder Devil Race, then all of the other cities are bound to fall as well. Also, according to the reports we received earlier, the Spirit Sovereign City is the main target of the Elder Devil Race, and the devilish army that has appeared there is several times larger than this one," Fairy Silver Light said in a concerned voice.
"Indeed, Fellow Daoist. This devilish tribulation may be far more fearsome than previous ones, but as long as we combine all of our powers, there's a very good chance that we'll be able to transcend it. Setting aside everything else, just the restriction formations and fortresses we set up outside the city wall will be enough to kill most of these devilish beasts," Buddhist Monk Jin Yue said with an optimistic smile.
"That's true. Our Deep Heaven City was able to withstand that attack from the joint army of foreign beings even without any preparation, and we've been painstakingly improving the city's defenses for close to the past 1,000 years, so I'm confident that we'll be able to keep the Elder Devil Race at bay," the burly black-robed man said in a cold voice, and he seemed to be very confident in the city's defenses.
Han Li merely listened to their conversation with a smile, but he was constantly inspecting the devilish Qi in the distance with blue light flashing within his eyes.
This devilish Qi clearly wasn't normal devilish Qi; even with his spirit eyes, Han Li was only able to see around 500 meters into it.
All he could make out were what appeared to be a series of arks, flying carriages, and some armored warriors.
A cold look appeared in his eyes, and just as he was about to circulate his magic power to unleash his spirit eye ability to its maximal extent, a pair of cold and forbidding eyes suddenly met his gaze, then tracked him down from a distance at an incredible speed.
Han Li's heart jolted upon seeing this, and he immediately withdrew his spirit eye ability as a dark expression appeared on his face.
At the same time, a faint exclamation of surprise rang out from a giant beast-drawn carriage deep within the devilish Qi.
Immediately thereafter, the crimson light also faded from the eyes of a thin green-robed elderly man with a head of yellow hair.
"What is it? Did you see something interesting with your divine eyes?" a purple-armored man with black freckles all of his face asked.
"No, it's just that there seems to be a high-grade human cultivator with a powerful eye ability as well, and I just startled him into retreating," the elderly man replied.
"Oh? If the humans also have someone with a powerful eye ability, then won't they be able to see our entire setup in here?" the purple-armored man asked in an alarmed manner.
"Rest assured, Lord Shi, I've already set up a profound restriction within this devilish Qi using the Chaotic Devilish Flag that was bestowed upon me by our Sacred Ancestors, so that man won't be able to see anything no matter how powerful his eye ability is. However, the humans have also set up powerful concealment restrictions on their end, so I'm also unable to see what defenses they've set up in the city," the green-robed elderly man said with a shake of his head.
"That's not important; we just have to make sure they don't see what we're up to. After all, we're just here to scout out this city, and it looks like we're in luck; if we can loot this entire city, we'll be reaping countless rewards!" the purple-armored man said as an excited look appeared in his eyes.
"Hehe, don't underestimate this city, Lord Shi. According to the human mortals we captured earlier, this city is where the elites of the human and demon races are gathered. Even if we can conquer it, we'll definitely have to pay a heavy price to do so," the green-robed man cautioned.
"This is a sacred sacrifice, so it's only normal to suffer severe casualties. In any case, our Sacred Ancestors will have plans for how to conquer this city; we just have to act according to their orders. It's about time, so let's attack. It's unlikely that we'll be able to conquer this city on our first attack, but we have to at least scout out most of the city's defenses," the purple-armored man said with a nonchalant wave of his hand.
"In that case, let's begin," the elderly man agreed with a nod.
Seeing as the green-robed elderly man didn't have any objections, an excited look immediately appeared in the purple-armored man's eyes. He chuckled in a sinister manner before abruptly flipping his hand over to produce a stack of small black flags.
These flags were only around seven to eight inches in size, but each of them had a different profound diagram inscribed upon it, and they were all emanating extremely pure devilish Qi fluctuations.
The purple-robed man made a hand seal, then pointed a finger at the small flags, upon which two of them instantly vanished into thin air.
In the next instant, a stir immediately ran through the two hordes of devilish beasts at the very front of the army, and they all let loose thunderous roars as they rushed toward the city with vicious looks in their eyes.
Elder Gu's heart jolted upon seeing this, and he hurriedly said, "Those are Two-headed Devilish Lizards and Poison Devil Insects! Tell the people on the front line to take extra caution."
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