All of a sudden, an alarmed look appeared on Han Li's face as he exclaimed, "Yin Xu and Gui Mu are catching up to us again!"

"We can't keep running away like this," Baili Yan spat through gritted teeth. "At some point, we'll just have to turn around and fight them."

"In my current state, I can only use my spatial powers one more time to teleport us some distance away from those two, but it won't buy us much time at all," Shi Chuankong sighed.

"Looks like we'll have to make a final stand here, but I'm not optimistic about our chances," Fox 3 said in a grim manner.

"Don't be so quick to resort to extremes. Yin Chengquan forbade battles in the nearby vicinity, so this must be an important place that is not to be damaged. In that case, why don't we go and hide inside the palace for now?" Han Li suggested.

"That could work!" Weeping Soul replied as her eyes lit up.

No one else raised any objections, so the group quickly made its way to the palace.

Through the light barrier, they could see that the gates of the palace were tightly shut, and there were two massive reliefs engraved onto them.

The relief on the left was laden with white bones of different sizes and skulls of various descriptions, and they piled up all the way from the bottom of the gate to above its midsection, while a large chair of bones was engraved onto the top part of the gate. Seated in the chair was a male Infernal being holding a giant scythe with his arms spread open and an indulgent look on his face.

The gate on the right was riddled with all types of fearsome-looking beasts that were tearing at one another in a horrific scene of gore and bloodshed.

The lifeless bodies of all types of fearsome beasts also piled all the way up to the top of the gate, which was occupied by a giant beast in a strange crouched posture. There was thick smoke swirling all around it, and the creature had an enormous horn on its head, while its cavernous mouth was opened up wide, as if it were about to devour all of the surrounding beasts.

"This restriction looks quite complex, so it'll probably take a lot of time to unravel," Shi Chuankong remarked with tightly furrowed brows as he observed the array engraved onto the ground.

"We don't have any time," Han Li said with a grim expression, following which a long black saber appeared in his grasp amid a flash of dark red light.

Fox 3's gaze fell upon the black saber, and a stunned look appeared on his face at the sight of the twin fox heads engraved onto the guard of the saber.

However, the situation was too urgent for Han Li to be gauging his reaction, and at this moment, he was focused on communicating with Shi Qinghou.

"Fellow Daoist Shi, we're in a dire situation right now, and I need your help to break this restriction open. Please lend me your assistance."

"I have a feeling that whatever's sealed in here isn't to be messed with lightly. Have you really made up your mind?" Shi Qinghou asked.

"If we don't do anything, we'll just be killed by our two pursuers anyway. Time is of the essence, so please lend me your power, Fellow Daoist Shi," Han Li replied without any hesitation.

"Alright, in that case, I won't try to dissuade you. Just attack the restriction with the saber with all your might, and leave the rest to me," Shi Qinghou said.

"You have my thanks," Han Li repplied, then grabbed onto the hilt of the saber with both hands before raising it up high.

From there, he cast his gaze toward the light barrier before him, and his aura began to rapidly elevate.

Shi Chuankong and the others all instinctively took a few steps backward to open up some distance between themselves and Han Li, while the bewilderment in Fox 3's eyes only became even more pronounced.

All of a sudden, a burst of crimson light flashed through the eyes of the twin fox heads on the saber, and rays of dark red light emerged over its blade, giving it a particularly abnormal appearance.

As Han Li's aura continued to elevate, shockwaves that were visible even to the naked eye were beginning to proliferate outward from his body in all directions, causing the entire underground space to rumble incessantly.

Right at this moment, Yin Xu and Gui Mu stormed into the tunnel outside amid a cloud of black mist, and Yin Xu exclaimed in an alarmed voice, "They're trying to break the array in the restricted area!"

"Even if they combine their powers, they shouldn't be able to break the Profound Infernal Vermilion Array anytime soon..."

As soon as Gui Mu's voice trailed off, a burst of violent tremors spread through the tunnel up ahead.

"Crap!" Yin Xu exclaimed as the cloud of black mist accelerated significantly, reaching the entrance of the underground cave in the blink of an eye.

𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

From there, Yin Xu and Gui Mu were just in time to see Han Li stepping forward and swinging the black saber down onto the light barrier.

An earth-shattering boom rang out as the dark red light on the saber brightened significantly, forming a giant crimson saber projection that was over a thousand feet in length before crashing down upon the light barrier.

There seemed to be a two-headed white fox resting atop the saber projection, and it turned to Yin Xu and Gui Mu with a sinister grin.

In the next instant, a resounding thunderclap rang out as countless arcs of dark red lightning erupted out of the saber projection, forming an extremely irregular screen of lightning.

Arcs of dark red lightning were flailing around in all directions like whips, but the shockwaves from the clash between the saber projection and the light barrier formed an umbrella-like barrier of lightning that shielded Han Li's group.

"You did it!" Shi Chuankong exclaimed in an ecstatic voice as he stared intently at the point on the light barrier that had been struck by the saber projection.

Sure enough, a long gash that was around a hundred feet in length had appeared on the light barrier, and Fox 3 hurriedly urged, "We have to hurry!"

After unleashing that saber strike, Han Li had exhausted almost all of the immortal spiritual power in his body, and he felt completely drained.

Baili Yan and Weeping Soul immediately stepped forward to support him, one from the right and the other from the left, and they flew into the light barrier together.

Both Yin Xu and Gui Mu's expressions had darkened significantly upon seeing this.

The two of them flew toward the gash in the light barrier, only to be stopped in their tracks by the barrier of lightning, and they could only look on helplessly as Han Li's group opened the gates and made their way into the palace.

By the time the lightning barrier faded away, the opening on the light barrier had also closed.

In the next instant, two streaks of light shot forth from afar, then faded to reveal Gui Mu and Yin Xu.

"Impossible! How did they break the restriction? What was that saber that he used?" Gui Mu exclaimed with an incredulous expression.

"Now's not the time to be thinking about that! We have to chase after them!" Yin Xu replied with a furious expression as he swept a sleeve through the air, releasing a black badge that had a sinister ghostly head engraved onto its surface and emanating rays of black light.

Yin Xu made a rapid string of hand seals, and the black badge instantly began to glow brightly, while the ghostly head engraved onto its surface began to move as if it had sprung to life.

Gui Mu also hurriedly focused his efforts on assisting Yin Xu, and the light radiating from the badge grew brighter and brighter, while the ghostly head on its surface swelled to around twice its original size.

At the same time, two specks of radiant white light had appeared in its eyes, giving it a fearsome appearance.

All of a sudden, two beams of gray light shot out of the ghostly head's eyes into the black light barrier, and a gash that was around ten feet in length instantly appeared on its surface before slowly widening.

Even though Yin Xu and Gui Mu were giving it everything they had, the gash on the black light barrier still wasn't widening very quickly, and only after close to twenty seconds had passed did it widen to a point where the two of them could just barely squeeze through.

Yin Xu stowed the black badge away before flying into the opening on the light barrier, followed close by Gui Mu.

By the time they entered the palace, they discovered that Han Li and the others were nowhere to be seen, clearly having already fled deeper into the palace.

Gui Mu and Yin Xu exchanged a glance with each other before setting off in pursuit, but as they did so, both of them were suppressing their aura fluctuations with all their might, seemingly fearful of alerting something.

"This is becoming too much for us to handle, Yin Xu. Should we report this matter to the regional monarch?" Gui Mu asked with a hesitant expression.

Yin Xu's expression changed drastically upon hearing this, and he hurriedly replied in a low voice, "We can't do that! Are you not aware of his temper? If he finds out what we let a group of outsiders into the restricted area, we'll be as good as dead! Have you forgotten about what happened to Elder Yin Hou all those years ago?"

"But if we don't report this matter and those people stir up some trouble inside, then our punishment will only be even more severe. If that happens, we'll be wishing we were dead!" Gui Mu said as he shuddered in an uneasy manner.

"It'll be fine. The array in the restricted area is extremely powerful, and even you and I aren't able to break it. At first glance, it looks like they were quite smart to have fled into this place, but in reality, they've backed themselves into a corner. All we have to do is capture them and make sure that no word of this escapes," Yin Xu assured with a mocking sneer.

"Alright," Gui Mu replied after a brief hesitation.

As the two of them were speaking to one another, they had already passed through a plaza inside the palace.

Beyond the plaza were seven or eight smaller palaces, between which were around a dozen small paths that led deeper into the area.

The interior of the palace was very dimly lit, so visibility was limited to within a thousand feet, and there was also an ever-present restrictive power that prevented one from being able to make use of their spiritual sense.

There were still no signs of Han Li and the others here, not even the slightest abnormal energy fluctuations, and it seemed impossible to tell where they had fled to.