Chapter 810: Sneaking Into Chuyu City

Han Li was instantly forced to an abrupt halt, and a pained look appeared on his face as the surrounding space constricted toward him from all directions.

Daoist Master Bone Shine's avatar chortled with glee as it spread open the fingers of one hand before swiping them downward, and a shimmering white bone claw appeared above Han Li before descending upon him with tremendous force.

A panicked look appeared on Han Li's face as he clenched both hands into tight fists and lashed out at the bone claw in retaliation.

A dull thump rang out as his fists clashed against the bone claw, but his resistance was instantly overwhelmed, and the bone claw continued to crash down with unrivaled power directly upon Han Li's head.

At this point, Han Li was still completely unable to move, and the protective spiritual light around him quickly disintegrated, following which his body was also pulverized.

The avatar was initially ecstatic to see this, but its expression then suddenly stiffened as it realized that something wasn't right.

As it turned out, Han Li's body had shrunk down into a red bean that was riddled with cracks, and a drop of golden blood essence was evaporating on its surface, rising up as a plume of white smoke.

At the same time, a rabbit mask from the Transient Guild slowly fell out of the sky.

Almost at the exact same time, Shi Chuankong's body had also been pulverized by another bone claw elsewhere several hundred thousand kilometers away, but that had been nothing more than a ruse as well.

After recovering his avatars, a furious look appeared on Daoist Master Bone Shine's face, and he turned his gaze to Xue Cheng, who was surrounded by the bone pagodas.

Despite the perilous situation that he was in, Xue Cheng didn't attempt to get away, nor did he appear particularly panicked.

Daoist Master Bone Shine took a deep breath to suppress his own fury, then said, "I'll admit that it's very impressive that you were able to create avatars convincing enough to fool even me. However, I'm in a very bad mood right now, so if you want to live, then you'd better tell me where those two are right now!"

There were several other cities near Sulfur Forest City that had teleportation arrays leading to Chuyu City, so it was most likely the case that Han Li and Shi Chuankong had traveled to one of those cities.

"You think I would just tell you where they are after going to such great lengths to create those blood essence avatars and even using myself as bait to lure you away?" Xue Cheng sneered with a derisive expression.

"Fine! I'll just have to pluck out your soul and find out for myself then!" Daoist Master Bone Shine roared as he swept both sleeves through the air, and his spirit domain instantly began to rapidly contract, converging around Xue Cheng's spirit domain. At the same time, all of the skulls on the bone pagodas rose up into the air, and the green flames in their eye sockets began to burn significantly brighter as they swarmed at Xue Cheng from all directions.

However, right at this moment, Xue Cheng flipped a hand over to produce a jade talisman, which he crushed in the palm of his hand, instantly releasing an incredibly formidable burst of spatial power that formed a door of black light behind him.

Before Daoist Master Bone Shine had a chance to do anything, Xue Cheng had already taken a step back and vanished into the door of light.

All Daoist Master Bone Shine could do was throw a punch in futility, and his fist struck the space before him with a thunderous boom.

Some time later, the commotion gradually subsided, and Daoist Master Bone Shine was also looking much more composed.

He took a glance at Sulfur Forest City, then murmured to himself, "I don't know which city you've gone to, but I can wait for you in Chuyu City! You're dreaming if you think you can get to Night Sun City alive!"

At the same time, there were two figures slowly descending out of the outside Preeminent City.

These two were none other than Han Li and Shi Chuankong, who had circled all the way back to Preeminent City. At this moment, they were disguised to look like a pair of twin brothers, and their cultivation bases had also been restrained to the late-True Immortal Stage.

The plan that Xue Cheng had proposed was for him to travel to Sulfur Forest City with a pair of his blood refined Dao Warriors posing as Han Li and Shi Chuankong. Essentially, he was using himself as bait, while Han Li and Shi Chuankong traveled to another city to get to Chuyu City.

However, Han Li felt like this was quite a risky plan as none of the neighboring cities were very far away from Sulfur Forest City, so if Xue Cheng's ruse were to fail, then Daoist Master Bone Shine would easily be able to travel to the other cities in pursuit of Han Li and Shi Chuankong. Hence, they had decided to circle back to Preeminent City.

It shouldn't have taken them this long to return to Preeminent City from Grain Mountain City, but they had taken a very cautious approach over the entire journey, not even daring to fly at full speed for fear of exposing themselves, and that was why they had only just gotten back to Preeminent City.

"Looks like your third brother really is an ally we can count on, and Xue Cheng has also proven himself to be extremely loyal, willing to lure away a Great Encompassment cultivator for your sake," Han Li remarked.

"Out of all of my brother's subordinates, Xue Cheng isn't the most powerful one, but he's always been the most loyal. I hadn't actually ever met Xue Cheng prior to this, but I had heard my brother speak about him on multiple occasions. If we're ever reunited in Night Sun City, I'll be sure to compensate him handsomely," Shi Chuankong replied with a nod.

Shortly thereafter, the two of them made their way into Preeminent City, and after hailing a carriage, they traveled straight to the city lord's manor.

"I don't know much about the Heavenly Ax Marquis, but judging from what you and Xue Cheng have told me, he seems to be a very ambitious man. Ambitious people like him are always very unpredictable, so we really are taking a gamble here," Han Li said.

"He chose to stand by and do nothing last time when we were being attacked in the Cloud Mountain Inn, we can only hope that he continues to turn a blind eye to us. As long as he let's us leave without interference, I'll owe him a great favor," Shi Chuankong replied.

With that, the two of them fell silent, lost in their own thoughts.

The city lord's manor was an enormous place, with the front half consisting of the city lord's office, while the back half was the Heavenly Ax Marquis's private residence.

There was a round pagoda that was around six to seven stories tall in the area between the office and the private residence, and that was the teleportation pagoda of Preeminent City.

In order to access the teleportation arrays in Preeminent City, one had to undergo a stringent screening process.

Han Li and Shi Chuankong were stopped in their tracks by some guards upon reaching the entrance of the city lord's manor, and Shi Chuankong stepped forward before presenting a pair of brand new identity tokens.

Under their new identities, they were a pair of twin brothers from a prominent clan in the Devil Realm's central region, and their names were Yu Zhongyan and Yu Zhongmiao.

The guards were led by an elderly cultivator, and his expression eased slightly after examining their identity tokens, following which he asked, "Are you carrying the Yu Clan's emblem with you?"

Shi Chuankong was already prepared, and he flipped a hand over to produce a pair of round metal badges, upon each of which was engraved a ferocious horned beast, beneath which was a "Yu" character.

The elderly cultivator examined the pair of metal badges for a moment, then granted Han Li and Shi Chuankong entry into the city lord's manor.

"Thank you, Senior," Shi Chuankong hurriedly said in a grateful voice before stepping into the manor.

Right as they passed through the gate, the sensory array overhead flashed every so slightly, and it was just about to light up to indicate that it had detected something amiss when Shi Chuankong pulled out a small copper mirror before flashing it at the array in a covert fashion.

The faint light flashing from the array instantly faded before the guards stationed at the gate noticed anything, and they were able to pass through without incident.

Both of them heaved an internal sigh of relief as they began to make their way into the manor.

Security in the city lord's manor was very tight, and not only were there cultivators stationed at set intervals, there were also groups of patrolling cultivators that were constantly roaming the area. Han Li and Shi Chuankong kept their heads down as they walked along, and it didn't take them long to reach the teleportation pagoda.

There was a long line of people waiting to enter the pagoda, and Han Li and Shi Chuankong joined the back of the line.

As time passed, the people ahead of them made their way into the pagoda one after another, and their turn quickly arrived.

Upon entering the pagoda, they spotted a teleportation array with eighteen ornate pillars around it, standing within which were three men who were waiting for the array to be activated.

Standing outside the array was a middle-aged cultivator holding an array plate, as well as three groups of guards.

To the right of the pagoda's entrance was a wooden table, behind which sat a black-robed elderly man, and he asked, "Where are you going?"

"We're traveling to Chuyu City, Senior," Shi Chuankong hurriedly replied.

"You're in luck. There are still three open spots for teleportation to Chuyu City today, so you'll only have to wait for one more person to join you," the black-robed elderly man said.

"How long will that take?" Han Li asked as his brows furrowed slightly.

"How am I supposed to know? It's all up to luck. Perhaps someone will show up right away, perhaps no one will show up for the rest of the day," the black-robed elderly man replied.