"I can sense many residual auras here, so it looks like those two were part of a group of people who joined forces to steal our Zhao Family's devilish lizards!" the other elderly man said in a furious manner.
"That's most likely the case. The companions of those two are most likely far more powerful than our disciples could contend with. It looks like they've had their eyes set on our Zhao Family from the very beginning, and they intentionally lured us out of our family's fortress yesterday. The devilish lizards must've been their primary targets. Otherwise, they wouldn't have entered the Illusion Howl Desert so soon," the first elderly man sighed in a resigned manner.
"Where did those bastards come from? How dare they plot against our Zhao Family! If we don't make them pay for what they did, our Zhao Family's reputation will be swept to the ground!" the second elderly man spat through gritted teeth.
"It won't be easy to exact vengeance on them. The two people who lured us away only displayed Spatial Tempering Stage cultivation bases, but that's most likely not their true power," the first elderly man said with a shake of his head.
The other elderly man immediately drew a sharp breath upon hearing this. "You're saying those two are also devilish lords? Could it be that the people who infiltrated our Zhao Family were devilish lords as well? In that case, it's no wonder they dared to plot against our Zhao Family! When did this group of devilish lords arrive in our Illusion Night City? We haven't heard anything about this at all!"
"That's hard to say; perhaps the others were only subordinates to those two. Even so, those two definitely possess powers that aren't inferior to ours, and they've already entered the Illusion Howl Desert, so there's nothing we can do. As for why we haven't heard anything about them, perhaps they disguised their cultivation bases and appearances or just stayed outside the city this entire time," the first elderly man mused.
"Are we really just going to let this matter slide?" the other elderly man said in an indignant manner.
The first elderly man seemed to have already considered this, and he replied, "According to the news we received, those people only killed several inconsequential disciples and left everyone else in our Zhao Family fortress alive. As for the devilish lizards that we lost, that's quite a heavy blow to our family, but not a fatal one. As for our reputation, we'll just have to find some people we don't like and declare them to be the accomplices of those people, then kill them in a public display."
The other elderly man was silent for a moment before stomping a foot in frustration and rage. "We're just fooling ourselves then! I can't just swallow something like this!"
"You have to! You and I are our Zhao Family's only remaining backers; if something happens to either one of us, then there's a good chance that our Zhao Family will fall into a sharp decline, so you have to curb your own temper for the sake of our family. Having said that, if you insist on having them killed, we could perhaps borrow the hands of others to kill that group of people," the first elderly man said with a dark expression.
The other elderly man's expression changed slightly, and he asked, "What do you mean by that?"
"Contact the people at the Beast Lord Palace and ask them to strike in our stead; there's a stash of devil stones in our Zhao Family that can be used to compensate them. However, regardless of whether the Beast Lord Palace succeeds or not, this will be the only attempt that we make. If those people manage to survive, I forbid you from plotting against them any further. On top of that, don't reveal our identities when contacting the Beast Lord Palace," the first elderly man said with a serious expression.
"Rest assured, Brother, I know what to do. Hehe, even if those monsters from the Beast Lord Palace don't manage to kill them, they'll at least leave them with a nasty memento. If we spend that stash of devil stones, our Zhao Family will have to operate on a tight budget for quite some time," the other elderly man sighed in a slightly forlorn manner.
"Hmph, those old monsters are all just as if not more powerful than you and me, and they also possess far more battle experience than normal devilish lords, so of course it'll be expensive to hire them. However, it's not reasonable to ask them to enter the Illusion How Desert to pursue those people, so we'll have to ask them to strike once they emerge on the other side," the first elderly man harrumphed coldly.
"As long as the Beast Lord Palace sends people out to all of the cities near the Illusion Howl Desert, they'll definitely be able to find those people. Having said that, we don't know how much time those people will spend in the desert," the other elderly man said in a concerned manner.
"We've already suffered such heavy losses, so we might as well see this through till the end; just hire them for a century-long term. If those people stay in the desert for 100 years, then we'll just have to accept our back luck. Let's not delay here any longer; we should return to the city," the first elderly man said.
The other elderly man naturally had no objections to this, and thus, the two of them rose up into the air as streaks of black light before flying back toward Illusion Night City.
Only after four months had passed since Han Li and the others had entered the Illusion Howl Desert did the majors families of Illusion Howl Desert dare to send their disciples into the desert again.
At this point, the stir caused by the Zhao Family's stolen devilish lizards had already subsided, and the Zhao Family had drawn a connection between this event and Han Li's disappearance, but they didn't have any evidence, so they naturally wouldn't declare this to the outside world.
Thus, time quickly passed by, and a year later, there was no longer anyone mentioning the Zhao Family incident.
40 years flew by in the blink of an eye.
On this day, a massive sandstorm was brewing on a certain part of the border of the Illusion Howl Desert. The entire area had transformed into a sea of wind and sand, and nothing could be seen within it.
All of a sudden, several giant devilish beasts sprang out of the sand before landing firmly on the ground.
These devilish beasts were a series of giant eight-legged lizards, and they were carrying nine disheveled riders.
These were none other than Han Li and the others.
However, following their lengthy journey, only five of their original 10 devilish lizards remained.
In terms of outward appearance, Han Li and the others didn't appear to have changed at all compared to 40 years ago, but all of them were currently wearing expressions of excitement and elation.
"We've finally gotten out of this accursed desert! Seeing the same scenery for several decades on end really is an unbearable experience; even seclusion for 100 years isn't as grueling as this journey," the woman from the Ye Family said with an elated smile.
Holy Maiden Thousand Autumns was riding on the same Eight-footed Devilish Lizards as the woman from the Ye Family, and she said, "Traveling through a desert for several decades is indeed no easy feat. On top of that, we encountered the three devilish scourges of the desert on multiple occasions and lost half of our Eight-footed Devilish Lizards."
She then suddenly turned toward Han Li before continuing, "Having said that, the most perilous thing we encountered was that late-Body Integration Stage Sand Shadow Beast, and it trapped us in the desert for several years. If it hadn't been for Fellow Daoist Han putting an end to the beast with that powerful ability, perhaps we wouldn’t even have been able to emerge from the desert at all."
"You're far too kind, Fairy Thousand Autumns; I wouldn't have had the opportunity to land the final blow if Fellow Daoist Zhi Shui had trapped it first," Han Li said as he cast a glance toward the Spirit being by the name of Zhi Shui.
"Hehe, both you had done exceptionally well to get rid of that fearsome Sand Shadow Beast. Now that we've emerged from the Illusion Howl Desert, let's follow our original plan and split up here," the Long Family patriarch suggested as he stored the devilish lizards away.
"I see no issue with that," Han Li said with a faint smile.
They had already devised a specific plan for how they were going to proceed once they emerged from the desert.
Even though this Illusion Howl Desert was known as a restricted area to normal devilish beings, it was only slightly dangerous to Body Integration Stage beings like them. The only thing that was rather frustrating to Han Li was during the last half of the journey, he had unleashed some of his true power to kill a devilish beast that was very adept at concealing itself, and the others had spotted him as he was unleashing those abilities.
Following that event, everyone became a lot politer toward him, but also far warier as well.
Han Li could only pretend that he hadn't noticed this minute shift in everyone's attitudes.
The Spirit beings also agreed to the Long Family patriarch's suggestion, and thus, they split up into several groups before flying toward different directions.
In order to prevent themselves from being followed, they had decided to split up and make the journey from the Illusion Howl Desert to the Devilish Origin Sea in several different groups.
Of course, even though they were taking different routes, their destination was still the same.
Even though they were taking a risk by splitting up, this would minimize the possibility of attracting attention from other devilish beings.
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