The Dark Azure Guard was left rooted to the spot upon hearing this, just as the elderly man had been a moment ago.

After departing from the stone tower, Han Li paused momentarily before flying toward the market. Even though he had assigned the four cultivators with the task of purchasing the spirit medicines he required, it certainly couldn’t hurt to visit the market and purchase all of the ingredients that he could first.

Han Li had already made several trips to the Deep Heaven City market, and he went to the same shop as last time before asking the shopkeeper to source as many items on his list as he could.

After that, he departed from the shop and headed straight toward the giant hall at the center of the market.

There were people helping him on human territory, so he didn’t have to concern himself with the matters here, but it was quite likely that there were going to be ingredients that he needed on demon territory as well.

Thus, he decided to take a trip there to see if he could reap any rewards. However, he was forced to visit the market on his own just to purchase some materials and ingredients, and that was one of the downsides of not being a part of a major power.

If he had joined one of those major powers, he could easily assign such menial tasks to someone else. Of course, the benefits that he would derive from this still couldn’t outweigh the fact that his freedom would be restricted to a certain extent.

With his current abilities, he could easily establish his own power, but doing so would require a lot of time and effort that would severely hinder his own cultivation, so it simply wasn’t worth it.

As such, it was a rather appealing option to become one of the spirit sovereigns. After all, the powers commanded by the three sovereigns were different from other sects and families and most of their powers arose from their status. Anyone who became one of the three sovereigns would immediately become a vastly influential figure in the human race.

As these thoughts ran through Han Li’s mind, he arrived in front of the massive hall that facilitated exchanges between human and demon vendors.

...

Just as Han Li issued the spirit stones for the entrance fee and was about to step into the hall, a loud buzzing sound suddenly rang out from a certain massive formation that was quite far away from human territory. This formation was situated within a certain obscure underground cave, and it was being guarded by a dozen or so armored puppet warriors. All of a sudden, spiritual light of different colors began to flash from the formation, and red light immediately flashed from the eyes of the previously stationary puppets as they slowly pointed their giant blades toward the formation.

Almost at the exact same moment, spiritual light flashed at the entrance to the cave, and a blurry humanoid figure that was shimmering with silver light appeared.

In the next instant, two humanoid figures emerged in the teleportation formation amid a flash of scintillating white light.

After the spiritual light faded, the two humanoid figures were revealed to be a tall and broad black-robed man and a graceful white-robed woman.

The man appeared to be in his thirties and had a dark complexion with a set of hideous and ferocious facial features.

In contrast, the woman’s complexion was as fair as snow, and her eyes were as black as night.

"Who are you? You two aren’t Silver beings; why are you able to use our Silver Race’s teleportation formation?" the humanoid figure enshrouded within silver light screeched in an astonished manner.

"Hmm? There’s a Silver being guarding this place. Please let me eat him, Sacred Ancestor." The black-robed man turned to the silver figure with yearning in his eyes.

"That Silver being is no less powerful than you; you might chip a tooth if you try to eat him," the white-robed woman said in a calm manner.

"Hehe, a mere holy-grade Silver being won’t be able to do anything in your presence, Sacred Ancestor," the black-robed man said with a fawning smile.

"How dare you!" The silver figure could naturally tell from their conversation that these were enemies, and he immediately let loose a screech of fury.

At the same time, the surrounding puppets slashed their giant blades toward the center of the formation in unison, and a dozen or so streaks of silver light flashed through the air.

"What a pitiful attack!" the black-robed man chuckled coldly before sweeping a sleeve through the air to conjure up a black light barrier.

A string of loud explosions rang out in rapid succession, and all of the streaks of silver light exploded in a flash upon striking the black light as if they had struck an impregnable fortress.

The black-robed man then did something that made the Silver being even more astonished.

He opened his mouth to expel a swath of black light, which swept up all of the silver light and drew it into his mouth.

A huge black shadow then abruptly appeared behind the man before lashing out, and a string of resounding booms rang out once again. All of the surroundings puppets were pulverized by the sweeping black shadow without being able to offer any resistance.

The Silver being was quite alarmed to see this, and he hurriedly focused his gaze on the black shadow, upon which he discovered that it was a massive black tail that was covered in thick and heavy scales.

The tail was over 100 feet in length and coiled around the man several times.

Right at this moment, the black-robed man chuckled in a sinister manner, and black light flashed from his body, upon which an enormous holy-grade aura erupted forth.

The silver figure was stunned by his power. He wasn’t confident in his ability to defeat this black-robed man on his own, and the white-robed woman beside him seemed to be even more powerful.

The Silver being immediately concluded that he was no match for these two, and silver light swirled around him as his body gradually began to blur.

"You’re not going anywhere!"

A vicious light flashed through the black-robed man’s eyes, and the huge black tail around him shot forth like a giant python, crossing a distance of over 100 feet in a flash before instantly puncturing the silver figure.

However, the silver light then dissipated, and the blurry humanoid figure had vanished into thin air.

The Silver being had managed to escape before he was struck by the black-robed man.

However, right at this moment, a faint smile suddenly appeared on the white-robed woman’s face, and she pointed a finger forward.

A pink spirit flower suddenly blossomed on her fingertip, then transformed into a massive projection in a flash that encompassed the entire cave.

Everything within a radius of several hundred feet was instantly basked in pink light and a peculiar fragrance.

All of a sudden, a silver thread of light emerged out of thin air without any warning amid a dull thump. It was none other than the Silver being who had just escaped.

"Impossible!" the Silver being yelled in shock and horror, and spiritual light flashed from his body as he attempted to escape again.

The white-robed woman’s brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this, and in the next instant, spatial fluctuations erupted from beneath the silver figure’s feet, following which a massive pink flower silently emerged.

The silver figure’s body tightened, and he was completely immobilized.

His face was instantly drained of all color as the black-robed man burst into raucous laughter. Black Qi suddenly began to swirl around his body, and he pounced directly toward the Silver being.

Within the black Qi, a massive mouth that was around 10 feet in size spread open, and the overwhelming stench of blood and gore wafted forth from within.

The white-robed woman seemed to have lost interest in all of this, and she withdrew her gaze while summoning another pink spirit flower in her hand. She brought the flower to her nose before taking a slight whiff, and a hint of sorrow appeared in her eyes.

Meanwhile, the black Qi that the black-robed man had transformed into had already completely enshrouded the Silver being, and bloodcurdling cries could be heard.

...

Within a palace on a certain section of the seabed between the Tian Yuan Continent and Thunder Continent, there was a secret chamber that was enveloped by layers of black Qi. Within the secret chamber was a huge crimson cocoon-like object that was hanging in mid-air.

The surface of the cocoon was flashing incessantly with crimson light, and it was constantly fluctuating in size by minute degrees. It seemed that something was being nurtured within the cocoon.

Below the cocoon were 12 massive shadowy beasts. One of them had two heads and six eyes, one had four wings and three paws, and there was even a golden wyrm that possessed nine thin tails that were extremely eye-catching.

However, all of these beasts were currently lying on the ground in a completely stationary manner, and were completely devoid of any aura.

From the crimson light that was flashing above, one could see that the 12 beasts were all completely shriveled up as if all of their blood had been sucked away, and their bodies had shrunk significantly as a result.

Otherwise, with the original statures of these 12 beasts, there was no way that this secret chamber would’ve been able to contain them.

There were 12 ancient lamps situated in a corner of the secret chamber, but the flames on those lamps had already been snuffed out.

On the other side of the secret chamber was a short green jade table, atop which sat a fist-sized crystal ball that was flashing with faint spiritual light.

There was a clear image on the surface of the object, depicting an extremely life-like silver lotus pod that was shimmering with silver light.

...

In the exchange hall of Deep Heaven City, Han Li was appraising a demonic woman enshrouded in black Qi with a surprised look on his face.

"I didn’t think I would encounter you again here, Fellow Daoist."

"Hehe, I also didn’t think that I would ever see you again, Fellow Daoist Han. I had thought that you had already fled the city back when the foreign races had attacked. It seems that I underestimated your resourcefulness." The demonic woman within the black Qi was none other than the one whom Han Li had traded with many years ago, and she was appraising him with a faint smile.

Furthermore, she also seemed to be rather excited to see Han Li. Due to the restriction in this hall, Han Li was unable to identify whether this woman’s cultivation base had improved or not, but he had given her many myriad-year spirit medicines back when they had last met, so theoretically, she should’ve become a lot more powerful.

Of course, the woman was completely oblivious to Han Li’s extraordinary progression as well.

Thus, Han Li smiled, and said, "I actually didn’t manage to escape in time. If it weren’t for some fortuitous events that swung my way, I might not be standing here right now. I had thought that you would go into seclusion and cultivate for a long time after you obtained that batch of myriad-year spirit medicines from me."

"That would’ve naturally been ideal, but even though I obtained a lot of myriad-year spirit medicines from you, I couldn’t use it on myself alone, and I’ve exhausted that supply a long time ago. However, I did obtain another batch of precious medicine seeds during these years; are you willing to continue trading with me?" the demonic woman sighed before asking in a hopeful manner.

"I certainly won’t turn down any seeds that I currently don’t have. However, during these years, I’ve gathered a lot of medicine seeds myself, so there most likely won’t be much that I don’t already have," Han Li replied.