Chapter 569: Repaying Treachery With Treachery

Two months later.

A green jade flying carriage was racing over an ancient forest, leaving an extremely long trail of green light behind it.

All of a sudden, it drew to an abrupt halt, and Han Li began adding a new batch of Immortal Origin Stones onto the array on the carriage.

The array had been burning through his Immortal Origin Stones at a rapid rate, but it was a necessary sacrifice if they were to have any hope of keeping the Gold Devouring Immortal at arm's length.

At this moment, Jin Tong was seated with her legs crossed on the carriage with a sullen look on her face, while Xiao Bai was laying on the ground with an absentminded expression.

"Uncle, if we get to a point where we're no longer able to get away from that thing, are you going to abandon me and run away on your own?" Jin Tong suddenly asked with a concerned expression.

A weary look flashed through Han Li's eyes as he chuckled, "If you have the time to be pondering nonsense like this, you should focus on recovering as quickly as possible, then get back into Xiao Bai's stomach."

"That thing's coming after us faster and faster, I have to spend almost all of my time in Xiao Bai's stomach now! It would be terrible if I were to die from asphyxiation in Xiao Bai's stomach before that thing even has a chance to get to me!" Jin Tong sighed with a dejected expression.

"You're one to complain! With you coming in and out of my stomach so much, I've been feeling really nauseous lately, yet you don't hear me whining! The next time the Gold Devouring Immortal comes chasing after us, I'm not sure I'll be able to resist the urge to throw you back up!" Xiao Bai groaned.

"If you don't want me to stay in your stomach, then you can stay in mine! Given how much natural treasures and immortal treasures you've eaten, perhaps eating you will allow me to make a breakthrough just like that pill cauldron did! When that time comes, the tables will be turned, and I'll be the hunter instead of the prey!" Jin Tong countered as her eyes roamed over Xiao Bai in a sinister fashion.

Xiao Bai immediately turned away in a fearful manner upon hearing this.

Jin Tong was just about to tease Xiao Bai a little more when her smile suddenly stiffened, and she turned to Han Li with an urgent expression as she yelled, "Quick, Uncle! It's coming again!"

"Get back in Xiao Bai's stomach," Han Li instructed as an anxious look appeared on his face.

Immediately thereafter, the flying carriage began racing through the air at his behest.

At the same time, Jin Tong pulled out a Soul Armor Talisman before adhering it onto her own body, then flew into Xiao Bai's mouth as a tiny golden beetle, while Xiao Bai transformed into a white jade pendant that was stowed away into Han Li's storage pouch.

"Uncle, I can sense that it's coming even faster than before. Can we go any faster?" Jin Tong asked through voice transmission.

"This is as fast as we can go for now. By your estimates, how much longer will it take for it to catch up to us?" Han Li asked.

"If it can maintain its current speed, then it'll definitely be able to catch up to us within one and a half months," Jin Tong immediately replied.

Han Li's brows furrowed tightly upon hearing this.

Moments later, he swept a sleeve through the air to produce the map that he had received from the Beast Race, then examined it for a moment before bringing the carriage to an abrupt halt.

You betrayed my trust first, so don't blame me for this...

All of a sudden, the flying carriage swiveled around and raced away in another direction.

Over a month flew by in a flash.

The flying carriage was darting over a vast mountain range, and by following the map, Han Li was able to pilot the carriage to a red valley.

As they approached the entrance of the valley, Han Li stopped the carriage, then cast his gaze toward the valley's entrance from afar. There was a giant humanoid lion engraved into each of the two mountain faces on either side of the valley, and one of them had its arms crossed over its chest as if it were conducting a prayer, while the other was wielding a huge ax.

In between the mountain faces was an enormous arched stone bridge, which was being patrolled by many foreign beings clad in suits of bone armor.

These foreign beings were each twice the size of the average human and possessed extremely imposing physiques. Their faces were similar in appearance to humans, each of them had a circle of roughly five or six lion heads growing around their faces.

This place was called the Red Spiral Valley, and it was where the Menace Lion Tribe, one of the Beast Race's eight holy tribes, resided.

Beneath the arched stone bridge were three giant semi-circular caves, and vast volumes of water were gushing out of those caves, sending vast clouds of water vapor erupting into the air.

While checking the map over a month ago, Han Li had discovered that they weren't very far away from the settlement of the Menace Lion Tribe, so he had changed directions to travel to this valley.

Along the way, Jin Tong would continue to periodically hide in Xiao Bai's stomach, but the Gold Devouring Beetle was coming after them faster and faster, so the distance between them was gradually shrinking, to the point that over the past few days, Han Li was able to sense the Gold Devouring Immortal through his spiritual sense without even requiring any alerts from Jin Tong.

Han Li inspected the valley momentarily, then made a hand seal while chanting an incantation, and his aura was instantly suppressed to the point that it was virtually completely undetectable.

Immediately thereafter, he swooped down from above, then descended into the murky river down below.

A dull thump rang out as Han Li plunged into the river with a tiny splash, then commenced a rapid descent.

Upon landing on the riverbed, he began to trudge his way upstream over the soft and loamy river soil, all the while doing his best not to use any immortal spiritual power.

The terrain of the riverbed was extremely complex, and there were extremely powerful eddies and whirlpools at ever turn, some of which were no less powerful than attacks from treasures, but thankfully, Han Li's physical constitution was so tremendous that he was able to make his way smoothly over the riverbed even without the use of immortal spiritual power.

Before long, he had already arrived at the foot of the giant arched bridge by scaling up the gradually elevating riverbed.

Right at this moment, Han Li suddenly noticed bursts of irregular energy fluctuations surging through the water up ahead, and several hundred giant black fish that were each around 10 feet in length came swimming directly toward him.

These black fish were covered in hard black scales that gave off a metallic sheen, and it was clear that these scales had been hardened and polished from being buffeted by the river sand that was being thrown up by the rapid currents. They opened their mouths to reveal rows of sharp teeth, clearly intending to intimidate Han Li, whose brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this.

After some deliberation, he could only heave an internal sigh before unleashing his Reversal True Axis ability, allowing him to slip through the school of giant black fish in the blink of an eye.

Over the past few months, some of his Time Dao Runes had already recovered, so he was able to use his Mantra Treasured Axis.

Sure enough, the guards of the Menace Lion Tribe patrolling the bridge up above immediately detected the faint spiritual power fluctuations released through the use of Han Li's Reversal True Axis ability, and they all turned to look into the river.

"Go and raise the alarm, this could be an enemy attack from the Insect Race!" the leader of the group of guards immediately instructed.

"Given how minor those energy fluctuations were, it's most likely a demon beast that inadvertently stumbled into the river. The Black Scale Fish should be able to take care of it," another one of the guards said.

"Our chief isn't here right now, so we must be on our guard. In these sensitive times, even the most minor abnormalities must be accounted for. Go and raise the alarm," the leader of the guards reiterated.

The other guard immediately gave an affirmative response before rushing over to the right side of the valley, and it didn't take long before the sound of a horn rang out across the entire valley.

Even on the riverbed, Han Li was still able to clearly hear the sound.

Immediately thereafter, the sound of one horn after another rang out, progressively getting deeper and deeper into the valley.

Armor-clad Menace Lion beings immediately began flying out of the caves on the mountain faces on either side of the valley, and they were arranged into teams to scour the river for any enemy presence.

At the same time, a series of massive wooden arcuballistas on either side of the valley were all aimed into the river, and the giant arrows in the arcuballistas were shimmering a faint green glow, indicating that they were smeared with lethal poison.

Han Li made his way to a large rock in the river, then drew to a halt as he communicated through voice transmission, "You can come out and draw the Gold Devouring Immortal here now."

"Alright, you can count on me, Uncle!" Jin Tong replied with a sly grin.

Immediately thereafter, a streak of golden light flew out of Han Li's sleeve, and Jin Tong appeared right beside him.

After getting some stable footing on the riverbed, she closed her eyes before releasing her aura without any restraint.

There was a Menace Lion being dressed in red elder robes standing on an altar to the left of the valley, and he was astonished to sense Jin Tong's immense aura.

"Grand Elder Yin Tong, this aura... It seems to belong to that insect spirit!" he exclaimed to an early-Golden Immortal Stage grand elder beside him with an incredulous expression.

The grand elder by the name of Yin Tong was just as incredulous to hear this. "How is that possible? We just received word from our chief not long ago that we're facing off against the Insect Race army at the Dark Star Canyon, how could the insect spirit have suddenly come here? There must be a mistake..."

"Hold on, this aura seems to be different. It..."

Before the elder had a chance to finish his sentence, his voice abruptly cut off, and he was rooted to the spot in shock and horror.

"What is it?" Grand Elder Yin Tong hurriedly asked.

"Th... There's another one coming..." the elder murmured in a shell-shocked manner as he turned to the entrance of the valley.

"What do you mean by that? Explain!" Yin Tong urged in a frustrated manner.

"There's another insect spirit... And this one seems to be at the High Zenith Stage..." the elderly explained as he turned to Yin Tong with an ashen complexion.