Chapter 1973: Stone Hall

**Volume Ten: War in the Demon Realm**

Meanwhile, the golden-furred giant ape roared, then opened its mouth and sprayed an incredibly thick golden light beam towards the woman in the air.

The giant ape, however, rolled, transforming into a four-winged silver roc enveloped in shimmering silver arcs, amidst a thunderous roar.

With a mere flap of its four wings, the roc transformed into a blue-white thread of light and vanished into thin air. A ripple appeared several hundred feet away, and the thread of light reappeared, but after a flicker, it vanished again.

Han Li, feeling his current state was poor and sensing the woman before him was clearly unfathomable, immediately fled without hesitation.

Having transformed into the four-winged giant roc, his escape speed was so immense that even the combined efforts of the three blood-light avatars from last time couldn't catch him. He was, therefore, exceptionally confident in his speed.

The slender woman in the air, with a single wave of her hand, brought down a pitch-black sword light from the sky, easily slashing and destroying the golden light beam that had reached her.

But in that brief delay, the giant roc had already reached such a great distance that it was visible only as a faint black speck.

"Trying to run? Since I've seen you, how could I let you escape so easily in the Human Realm without extracting your soul and refining your essence!" The woman in the air glanced at the rapidly disappearing black speck, a cold glint flashing in her eyes, and spoke coldly.

Then, with a single hand gesture towards the ground, the earth below rumbled loudly as two enormous stone figures emerged completely from beneath the earth. Under the woman's spell, they simultaneously flew into the air, strangely converging into a giant grayish-white sphere of light that emitted an extremely dazzling radiance.

At this moment, the woman's figure moved, directly transforming into a cloud of black mist and darting towards the giant light sphere, vanishing into it in a flash.

A moment later, the dazzling light receded, and a stone palace several tens of feet high suddenly appeared in mid-air.

The entire palace was grayish-white, with over a dozen rough, straight pillars standing there, imbuing it with a unique, wild beauty...

The woman stood gracefully in the center of the palace, lightly tapping the stone palace beneath her delicate foot, and uttered the word "Chase."

A layer of hazy white spiritual light immediately emerged on the surface of the stone palace. After a tremor, it shot forward, chasing Han Li like a meteor streaking across the sky.

This stone palace appeared cumbersome, but once it moved, it directly spanned hundreds of feet, its escape speed not much slower than that of the four-winged roc Han Li had transformed into.

Han Li, speeding forward, naturally noticed this. Though startled, he became even more unwilling to stop and easily engage with his pursuers.

The opponent was clearly no ordinary Demon Realm Venerable. He was unwilling to engage in a life-or-death struggle, especially since he had already obtained the Chaos Qi and was not in his best condition.

Moreover, the aura emanating from this woman not only made him feel extremely dangerous but also somewhat familiar!

Before Han Li could figure out her origin, he was even more unwilling to rashly engage her.

Even if the giant roc he transformed into was only slightly faster than his opponent, given enough time, he would naturally have a chance to completely shake off his pursuer.

Therefore, though Han Li was filled with doubts, at this moment he only focused on channeling his magic power and frantically flapping his four wings to flee forward.

With their astonishing escape speeds, half an hour later, they had fled a million li away.

By then, Han Li had already left the stone palace dozens of li behind.

This distance, for ordinary mortals, was naturally very far, but for beings like Han Li, it could still be covered in a mere moment.

Nevertheless, as the distance gradually widened, Han Li finally felt a sense of relief. His thoughts then turned to contemplating the true origin of the woman behind him.

At the same time, inside the stone palace trailing behind, the woman in blue palace robes was already seated on a stone chair in the center of the hall, her cold gaze fixed on the direction she was pursuing, not even blinking.

"Hmph, this human boy was merely an ant in the lower realm back then. It's only been over a thousand years, yet he has advanced to the Mid-Integration stage and learned such astonishing transformation techniques. It seems he shouldn't be underestimated. But to truly believe that these few abilities are enough to escape from under my nose is quite fanciful."

The woman's exquisite face sank as she muttered to herself, then she suddenly let out a sharp cry:

"Shi Gan, you two, begin teleporting immediately. This much time should be enough for you to lock onto this person's location."

"As you command, Lord Yuan Sha! We shall begin teleporting immediately, but there might be a deviation of about a li in the position. We hope milady will pay close attention." A buzzing voice suddenly came from the stone palace's ceiling. After the stone slab there wriggled for a moment, a rough giant face materialized.

"A li's distance is nothing. It's enough for me to intercept this boy. Begin teleporting at once!" The woman dismissed it nonchalantly, giving her command with unusual decisiveness.

"Yes!"

This time, the giant face wasted no more words, immediately agreeing.

The next moment, the stone palace, which had been fleeing at extreme speed, suddenly paused and stopped in mid-air.

Then, amidst incantations in two exceptionally strange tones, spiritual light surged across the stone palace's surface, and dense five-colored runes emerged.

These runes were incredibly profound and mysterious. After a brilliant flash accompanying the incantations, they suddenly detached from the stone palace and scattered, then spun around, instantly forming an enormous five-colored rune array below and around the palace.

The stone palace was right in the center of this array, and amidst the dazzling flashes of light, it vanished in a shimmer.

At the same time, Han Li, who was flapping his wings in flight, suddenly sensed a ripple in the void about a li away. Startled, he couldn't help but turn his head to look.

Not far away, a huge rune array was silently emerging. With a flash of five-colored light within, a large object seemed to be vaguely materializing.

"Not good!"

Han Li himself was proficient in teleportation and array techniques; how could he not recognize this as a rare, giant teleportation array? Immediately, with a long cry, the giant roc stopped its escape light with a sudden flap of its four wings. However, a mass of black energy pulsed between its brows, and a bloody crack appeared, from which a black vertical eye suddenly emerged.

It was precisely the Eye of Annihilation that Han Li had cultivated within his body for countless years. He forcibly brought it forth using the roc's body. This was only possible because Han Li had now advanced to the Integration stage; he would never have been able to do such a thing before.

The Eye of Annihilation merely gave an eerie spin on the roc's head, and a black thread shot out.

As soon as this black thread was ejected, it was as thin as hair, but after a flicker, it transformed into a pitch-black light beam as thick as a bowl's mouth. It vanished in a flash, disappearing into the void.

With a "boom!"

The black light beam suddenly appeared right next to the array, striking fiercely upon it and emitting an earth-shattering explosion.

Instantly, blinding black light intertwined with surging five-colored aura, forming a chaotic mass that engulfed the entire array.

After the giant roc launched this attack, the Eye of Annihilation between its brows vanished instantly with a flash. At the same time, after a flap of its four wings, it resumed its rapid flight forward, showing no intention of lingering to attack.

Clearly, Han Li knew very well that the Eye of Annihilation's attack definitely couldn't truly harm his opponent, which was why he left so decisively.

And indeed, that was the case!

When the immense spiritual light generated by the explosion scattered in a flash, the space in the center of the giant array twisted and blurred, and the huge stone palace stumbled into view.

However, under the chaotic spatial forces, the stone palace couldn't immediately fly off to pursue the roc. It could only maintain a layer of white light shield, swaying continuously amidst the surges of distortion...

"The Eye of Annihilation!"

The woman seated on the chair in the stone palace, witnessing this scene, uttered the words slowly, her expression turning somewhat grim.

The giant roc, into which Han Li had transformed, under the woman's gaze, after a few blinks, once again became a distant black speck.

"Pursue him again, immediately!" The woman's eyebrows twitched, and she commanded sharply.

Her sharp cry echoed endlessly throughout the hall, showing her furious indignation.

"Reporting, milady," the giant stone face reappeared on the ceiling with a flash, replying with a buzzing, somewhat apologetic tone, "due to the influence of spatial forces, we must take a moment to recover before we can activate our magic power again!"

"Hmph, by the time you've recovered your internal magic power, this human boy will have long vanished. I will lend you a hand!" The woman snorted, gripping the smooth armrests of the stone chair with both hands. Simultaneously, layers of pitch-black demonic energy surged from her body, intelligently pouring into her hands and the armrests.

"Thank you for your assistance, Lord Yuan Sha," the stone face said, showing a look of delight, "we can act immediately."

Almost instantly, a flash of white light coursed over the stone palace's surface, and it shot away again in a blur.

Although the stone palace's teleportation this time failed to intercept Han Li, it did indeed significantly close the distance to him. Therefore, the woman continued her relentless pursuit without discouragement.

Han Li, of course, continued to flee relentlessly.

And so it continued. Whenever Han Li managed to widen the gap slightly, the woman would inevitably use the stone palace's teleportation ability to instantly close the distance again.

This woman had learned from the first teleportation failure; the teleportation location was not too close to Han Li. Therefore, even though Han Li possessed the Eye of Annihilation, he couldn't cause any damage to the teleportation.

This made Han Li extremely frustrated.

Although he also had a lightning array that could teleport, he couldn't control the teleportation location. Teleporting too close might make him crash right into his pursuers, while teleporting too far would require prolonged spell casting, which he had no time for.

Furthermore, even if he could instantly teleport over ten thousand li away, he likely wouldn't be able to escape his opponent's divine sense lock, and she would catch up again soon.

The woman behind him seemed even harder to shake off than the three Bloodlight Saint Ancestor avatars that day.

And so, with one fleeing and the other pursuing, they chased each other for more than half a day.

Because Han Li chose paths through desolate areas, he didn't encounter any other demon cultivators interfering or blocking his way.

But seeing the pursuer behind him seemingly intent on chasing him to the ends of the earth, Han Li's heart sank slightly, and he had to start desperately thinking of other escape strategies.

He naturally didn't know that inside the stone palace over a hundred li behind, the woman in blue palace robes had taken out an ancient black mirror and was conversing with another demon cultivator with an expressionless face.