Chapter 1665: Interception

Hearing the old man's words, a fierce glint flashed in the green-haired alien's eyes, and he suddenly stepped forward, looking as if he was about to make a move.

But at that moment, the lean, tough man suddenly appeared beside the green-haired alien, transmitting a few words with barely moving lips, seemingly reminding him of something.

The green-haired alien's expression fluctuated between dark and light. A moment later, the murderous aura around him subsided slightly, and he said coldly, "Alright, let's first see what's hidden in the valley. If it's not that Spirit Ganoderma, we'll go our separate ways. If it is, heh heh..."

After a cold chuckle, the green-haired alien completely ignored the old man and the woman. He and the lean man suddenly transformed into two streaks of light and disappeared in a flash into the valley below, which was enveloped in demonic energy.

"Uncle Yan, what should we do? Should we really enter the valley with them?" the palace-dressed woman asked the old man, taking a deep breath after witnessing the scene.

"Of course we're going in," replied the old man, surnamed Yan, without hesitation. "The magic plate has reacted; how could we let this chance slip away?"

"But those two..." The palace-dressed woman hesitated slightly.

"If there's no Spirit Ganoderma inside, those two naturally won't do anything," the old man said, shaking his head with a grim expression. "If there is, then we should be even less inclined to back down. Otherwise, why do you think we risked coming here?"

"Indeed, Ni'er didn't think it through thoroughly," the palace-dressed woman said with a resolute expression after a brief ponder. "This valley certainly needs to be searched."

"You don't need to worry too much!" the old man said confidently. "Although my previous injuries haven't fully recovered, I specifically prepared a special treasure for this trip. If we truly obtain the Spirit Ganoderma, as long as we don't fight them head-on, it will be more than enough to ensure our safe retreat."

Given the old man's profound experience and her trust in him, the palace-dressed woman naturally believed his words without a doubt. Hearing this, her unease lessened somewhat, and she nodded, saying nothing more.

With a flash of escape light, the two also flew over.

However, as soon as he entered the valley, the old man, surnamed Yan, immediately discovered something peculiar.

The valley, which looked surprisingly ordinary from the outside, turned out to be unfathomably deep. The upper part of the valley was filled with a faint black demonic mist, while the lower part seemed like an extraordinarily long abyss. Even when driving a magic treasure over a thousand zhang deep, it was still impossible to see the bottom.

This both surprised and delighted the old man.

He was delighted that such a peculiar valley made it highly probable the Spirit Ganoderma was truly hidden below. He was surprised that its immense depth, combined with the dense demonic energy, would make investigation extremely difficult.

Thinking this, the old man, surnamed Yan, and the palace-dressed woman both took out a disc-shaped magical artifact and flew directly towards the depths of the valley.

If the green-haired alien and his companion weren't present, they might have even split up to increase efficiency. But now, they certainly wouldn't be so reckless as to risk being defeated individually by their opponents.

With one following the other, they disappeared into the faint black mist of the valley after a few flashes.

At the same time, deep within the valley, in a gurgling river, a dark, blackish object, half-buried in the mud at the riverbed, suddenly stirred. Then, two misty green eyes opened wide, flashing with emotionless gazes.

Tens of thousands of miles away from the valley, a several-zhang-tall giant toad, holding a similar magic disc in its mouth, was flying with seven or eight strangely shaped demonic beasts.

The giant toad's two large, ox-like eyes occasionally scanned the magic disc in its mouth. Its speed wasn't very fast, but its direction was clearly towards the valley.

Following closely behind the giant toad was a reddish-brown demonic beast, enlarged a hundredfold and resembling a giant dragonfly. It also held a magic disc in one hand, murmuring something indistinctly.

"Lord," the dragonfly-like beast mumbled, "I did sense unusual fluctuations in that valley, but that's the lair of that demonic crocodile. It's exceptionally fierce, and I might not be its match. I just needed to report to you, Lord, and let you handle it personally."

"Hmph, it's not 'might not be'; you'll definitely be swallowed whole if you go there," the giant toad buzzed, its expression seemingly dismissive. "That demonic crocodile is just one step away from reaching the Saint level; even the three Lords wouldn't easily provoke it. Are you sure you weren't mistaken? Is the human artifact's reaction truly pointing towards that valley? If you're wrong, don't blame me for being impolite afterward."

"Rest assured, Lord," the dragonfly-like demonic beast guaranteed, its compound eyes flickering a few times as it almost thumped its chest. "I investigated it over a dozen times, and I can be absolutely 100% certain: the human artifact indeed reacted to that valley."

"Good. If we can truly find that Spirit Ganoderma in the valley, your reward will certainly not be small," the giant toad said plainly, clearly not placing much hope in the words of the demonic beast behind it.

This was understandable!

After it burst out from the Demonic Gold Mountain Range with a host of mid- and high-tier demonic beasts, it had killed most of the Spirit Realm cultivators who had entered from outside in one go and used the stolen magic discs to search for the Spirit Ganoderma, but it hadn't found any useful clues.

Based on the magic disc's dozen or so reactions, it had always been led astray, failing to find any trace of the Spirit Ganoderma.

As a result, it was inevitable that it didn't hold much hope for this particular operation.

It even began to consider which direction to continue its search if this trip to the valley yielded no results.

As for the other high-tier demonic beasts following behind, due to repeated failed searches in recent days, they also appeared somewhat dispirited.

The giant toad and its group traveled distractedly, unaware that a faint blood mist was trailing them from a distance, about ten li behind them.

And within the blood mist, there was a slender shadow, almost imperceptible, appearing and disappearing.

Han Li and the Crystal Race woman left the mountain range where the demonic ape resided. The journey thereafter was surprisingly smooth, encountering no more trouble along the way. As a result, in just five days, they covered more than half of the distance in one go, arriving at the misty area where they had killed the Human-faced Vulture that day.

Upon seeing this misty area, even though they were anxious to hurry, they couldn't help but slow down their escape speed. After a brief discussion, they cautiously flew into the mist.

Han Li remained expressionless within his escape light, but as a faint blue light flickered in his eyes, he held a clear spirit stone in each hand, continuously absorbing the pure spiritual energy from them.

Although he couldn't properly meditate to restore his magic power due to traveling, in these past few days, with the aid of numerous rare elixirs and top-tier spirit stones, he had recovered most of his lost magic power.

However, repairs to his True Brahma Sacred Devil Physique were naturally minimal.

Even so, Han Li breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that if he encountered any powerful demonic beasts again, he would at least have some confidence.

But when his spiritual sense occasionally swept over the dark spiritual beast ring in his sleeve, a trace of vexation appeared in his heart.

The Soulcry Beast, the spiritual beast that had suddenly displayed great power, was still unconscious.

When his spiritual sense swept over it, the beast's magic power and stamina, which had been completely depleted that day, had already recovered by more than half—an astonishing recovery ability. But when he tried to communicate directly with the beast's consciousness using his spiritual sense to awaken it, there was no reaction whatsoever.

If it weren't for the fact that he could clearly sense the unbroken connection between him and Soulcry, he would almost have thought he was facing a dead object.

Of course, this didn't mean Han Li truly had no way to awaken the beast. After considering it several times, he ultimately abandoned the idea.

Because in his experience, when spiritual beasts enter a state of self-induced slumber, it is usually a means of self-evolution or protection, and it is extremely taboo to disturb or awaken them by force.

Han Li originally relied heavily on the Soulcry Beast, and after the anomaly that occurred a few days ago, he valued it even more. It was better to let nature take its course and allow it to awaken on its own.

Thinking this way, Han Li temporarily put the matter of the beast out of his mind, withdrew his spiritual sense, and then focused his inner vision on the situation within his own body.

At this moment, in his Dantian, a Nascent Soul, radiating golden spiritual light but with a pale green surface, had its two small hands clasped in front of its chest, holding a shimmering silver fireball, completely still.

That silver fireball, however, was a bit strange!

Within the originally shimmering silver flames, wisps of milky-white flame were unexpectedly mixed in, and throughout the entire fireball, silver runes faintly flickered ceaselessly.

Han Li saw this scene, and a slight movement at the corner of his mouth revealed a hint of a smile.

There was no need to ask about the milky-white flames; they were naturally the wisp of True Golden Crow Fire absorbed from the Human-faced Vulture.

Speaking of which, the Spirit Devouring Heavenly Flame's ability to absorb other spiritual fires and peculiar energies, and then integrate and evolve them on its own, was truly an extraordinary divine ability. If this continued, Han Li was greatly anticipating to what horrifying extent it could eventually develop.

Seeing that the Spirit Devouring Heavenly Flame was slowly refining the True Golden Crow Fire without any problems, Han Li withdrew his spiritual sense and continued to focus his attention on maintaining vigilance of their surroundings.

Although the area enveloped by thin mist was not small, Han Li and Xianxian flew all the way through it without encountering any more surprise attacks from demonic beasts.

It seemed that the previous Human-faced Vultures were the only high-tier demonic beasts in this misty area. Because they were annihilated too suddenly, no other high-tier demonic beasts had migrated into this area within just a few days.

In that case, their return this time would naturally be unhindered.

Because the journey was uneventful, and both Han Li and Xianxian had traversed it once before, it was naturally much faster than last time.

After half a day, they passed through the entire misty area and reached its edge.

However, just as the green rainbow flew out of the mist, it abruptly stopped in mid-air. Then, the escape light vanished, and Han Li's figure emerged.

But at this moment, as he looked at the scene before him, his face had turned slightly pale.

Only two or three hundred zhang away from him, gusts of dark wind blew, and hundreds of mid- and high-tier demonic beasts were conspicuously suspended.

At the very front of this dense group of demonic beasts was a demonic beast transformed into a human form. It was broad-shouldered and powerfully built, with a pair of dark, massive horns on its head and clad in black iron armor. Its upper body was identical to that of a human, but its lower body was covered in dark beast fur, and it was looking over with a hint of astonishment in its gaze.

And fifty to sixty zhang away, opposite this human-shaped demonic beast, there was another man clad in silver armor, standing on a blood-colored flying chariot, confronting it with a grim expression.