Golden Flame Baron seemed to have been quite tempted by this, and he fell into deep thought.

Meanwhile, a peculiar look flashed through Han Li’s eyes upon hearing the name "Vajra Devil Vanquishing Divine Lightning".

It was no wonder that these three items had struck him with a sense of familiarity; they had been refined from the Golden Lightning Bamboo leaves he had given to Qing Yuanzi as the main material.

These leaves stemmed from the same source as the Golden Lightning Bamboo cane, so their auras were naturally quite similar.

Even though this lightning was supposed to be an effective weapon against Extrarealm Heavenly Devils, those were heavenly devils that would only appear when one made a breakthrough attempt to the Grand Ascension Stage or endured heavenly tribulations when at the Grand Ascension Stage, so it wasn’t something that he had to worry about for now.

As for the refinement method for this lightning, Han Li had unintentionally stumbled upon that in the market of a certain foreign race, but he had been stunned by the vast amount of lightning-attribute materials required to refine it.

At the time, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to gather all of the required materials and that he wouldn’t be able to refine it anyway, so he reluctantly cast the matter aside.

The fact that even Qing Yuanzi could only refine six pieces of this lightning in several centuries further confirmed to him that this was beyond his reach, and it seemed that there was no chance he would be able to refine this lightning before he reached the late-Body Integration Stage.

"Three pieces of Vajra Devil Vanquishing Divine Lightning is indeed enough to exchange for Self-Creating Soil, but there’s one thing I don’t understand; don’t you have Divine Infernal River Elixir yourself? Why did you come all the way here to exchange for some with me?" Golden Flame Baron asked in a skeptical manner.

"All of my elixir was borrowed to someone else over 100 years ago, and Fellow Daoist Han requires this item to break through his next Body Integration Stage bottleneck. I owe him a favor due to an agreement we had made, so I could only come to you to try and secure some elixir," Qing Yuanzi explained.

"You promised him some Divine Infernal River Elixir? Looks like you owe him quite a big favor indeed!" Golden Flame Baron mused as he turned to Han Li with a hint of surprise in his eyes.

Han Li extended a slight bow in a display of respect, and he refrained from saying something.

"I do indeed owe him a very big favor. Alright, I’ve told you everything I have to say. If you still can’t make up your mind, then I’ll have to go to someone else. Old Man Yan is about to face a lightning tribulation soon as well, and I’m sure he’d be more than happy to exchange with me," Qing Yuanzi said in a meaningful manner.

"Haha, I never said I was going to refuse, Brother Qing. Seeing as you’re being sincere and I owe you a favor as well, I’ll agree to this exchange," Golden Flame Baron chuckled after a brief moment of contemplation.

"You’ve made a wise decision, Brother Jin! This is definitely a mutually beneficial exchange for both of us," Qing Yuanzi replied in an elated voice.

Golden Flame Baron smiled before suddenly opening his mouth to expel four balls of spiritual light, three of which were white while the other was yellow.

They consisted of three small white jade vials, and a yellow jade box.

He swept a sleeve through the air, and the four items immediately flew toward Qing Yuanzi in unison. At the same time, he waved his other hand toward the green jade box on the table, as well as the other two pieces of Vajra Devil Vanquishing Divine Lightning, and those items were all drawn into his grasp.

Meanwhile, Qing Yuanzi had also drawn the small vials and yellow jade box into his own hand, and he immediately began to carefully inspect the items with his spiritual sense.

After a while, a pleased look appeared on his face. "I really must thank you, Brother Jin. Fellow Daoist Han, here’s your Divine Infernal River Elixir."

Qing Yuanzi tossed the three small vials toward Han Li with a flick of his wrist as he spoke, and Han Li hurriedly accepted them in an elated and grateful manner.

Qing Yuanzi had initially only agreed to give him two vials of this elixir, yet he was now giving him all three vials, clearly as an extra reward for all of the materials he had gathered. It seemed that he had made a wise decision in offering all of the materials he had collected, rather than withholding some of them.

This Divine Infernal River Elixir was extremely precious, but it wasn’t very useful to Qing Yuanzi, so he naturally wasn’t going to be stingy with it.

Golden Flame Baron was clearly also very pleased with this exchange, and he began to make some small talk with Qing Yuanzi.

They exchanged some obscure news about the Spirit Realm, as well as some information regarding cultivation, and Han Li also benefited from listening to their conversation.

Close to two hours flew by in the blink of an eye, and Qing Yuanzi finally stood up to take his leave.

Golden Flame Baron didn’t try to keep him, but he also rose to his feet to accompany Qing Yuanzi to the gate of his palace.

Right at this moment, a resounding boom rang out in the air above the island, causing the entire palace to tremor. It seemed that something had struck the restriction over the island.

The trio in the hall were all quite alarmed by this, and they exchanged slightly bewildered glances.

This was blatant provocation!

Qing Yuanzi had struck the restriction over the island with a seemingly powerful streak of sword Qi, but it actually hadn’t packed much power, whereas the massive commotion that had just rung out clearly stemmed from the restriction being completely broken.

Golden Flame Baron quickly returned to his senses, and an enraged look appeared on his face as he made a hand seal to activate some kind of ability. However, in the next instant, a male voice suddenly rang out in the air above the hall.

"Golden Flame, Qing Yuanzi, are you in there? Hurry up and come out to greet me, you little brats!" The voice was very rough and uncouth, and both Golden Flame Baron and Qing Yuanzi’s expressions changed slightly as they exchanged a wry smile.

"Why has no one come out to greet me yet? Do you want me to raze this place to the ground?" The man outside seemed to have become rather impatient, and as soon as his voice trailed off, a string of resounding booms rang out in rapid succession outside the palace.

Immediately thereafter, bursts of spatial fluctuations surged over the entire island, and golden light flashed from outside the hall as a panicked golden-armored guard rushed into the hall.

"Master, the man outside is..."

"I know who he is; you can go now. Brother Jiang, it looks like you won’t be able to leave anytime soon. Let’s go and greet this old monster together! Otherwise, he really could destroy my entire island," Golden Flame Baron said with a wry smile.

"It seems I have no choice but to meet him. Judging from past experience, this is not going to be pleasant," Qing Yuanzi sighed in a resigned manner.

Golden Flame Baron also heaved a resigned sigh before making a hand seal, and golden light flashed from his body as a layer of golden flames appeared to completely envelop him.

A dull thump rang out, and the flames suddenly dispersed, while Golden Flame Baron also abruptly disappeared. This was an extremely rare fire movement technique!

Meanwhile, Qing Yuanzi merely flew toward the entrance of the hall as a streak of golden light, but vanished into thin air along the way.

Thus, Han Li was the only one left in the hall.

He couldn’t help but wonder what kind of being could evoke such a wary response from a pair of Grand Ascension Stage beings. He didn’t want to meet this mighty figure, but a meeting seemed to be unavoidable. With that in mind, Han Li heaved a faint sigh, and a thunderclap rang out from behind him, following which a pair of translucent wings appeared on his back. He flapped those wings, and vanished as an arc of azure and white lightning.

In the air over 10,000 feet above the island, Qing Yuanzi and Golden Flame Baron were facing a gargantuan creature that was over 1,000 feet in length, and both of them had respectful looks on their faces.

The giant creature was a glossy inky-black beetle, and standing atop the head of the beetle was a thin elderly man.

The man appeared to be around 60 years of age, with a pair of deep-set eyes and large nostrils. He wore a set of colorful robes and a necklace of shimmering silver beads around his neck. Each bead was around the size of an egg, and the necklace was extremely eye-catching.

What was quite alarming was that not only was the white light barrier above the island nowhere to be seen, the other three golden-armored guards had all been bound tightly by a white thread that had been expelled from the beetle’s mouth.

These guards were spinning uncontrollably in mid-air, being made to look like complete fools.

When Han Li arrived behind Qing Yuanzi as an azure and white arc of lightning, Golden Flame Baron was appraising the elderly man standing atop the beetle with a forced smile on his face, paying no heed to his three bound subordinates.

"Brother Voidspirit, it’s very rare that you have time to visit me. Please come down to my palace for a seat."

"Hehe, you say that, but you’re actually hoping that I never come to visit you, right?" the elderly man chuckled in a forthright manner.

"I wouldn’t dare to think that. By the way, how did you know that Brother Jiang had also come to visit me?" Golden Flame Baron’s expression changed slightly, and he hurriedly changed the topic of conversation, directing it toward Qing Yuanzi.

Qing Yuanzi was naturally cursing Golden Flame Baron internally for throwing him to the wolves, but he could only force a smile onto his face as he said, "I was also wondering how you knew that I was with Brother Jin. Could it be that you’ve already visited my cave abode?"

"Ha, I didn’t just visit your cave abode, I visited everyone in this infernal river! Two of them were in seclusion and didn’t want to see me, but they came out to meet me after I wrecked their abodes! They should’ve just complied from the very beginning," the elderly man guffawed in a smug manner.