"As long as we can conquer this city as quickly as possible, losing some devilish beasts isn’t a big deal; we have countless devilish beasts at our disposal and can replenish our armies at any time. Does anyone have anything to add to the method that Elder Huan Yu proposed?" the crimson-robed man asked in a cold voice.

"Sacred Ancestor, I suggest we send out some elite devilish beings to eradicate some of the smaller human cultivator strongholds in this area while we attack Deep Heaven City. That way, we won’t have to worry about watching our backs when we launch the final attack. On top of that, we can use this opportunity to familiarize our elite troops with the way that human cultivators like to do battle, which should minimize our casualties during the final attack," a graceful yellow-robed woman suggested.

The crimson-robed man was rather intrigued by this idea, and he asked, "Roughly how many other large human settlements are there in the nearby area?"

A high-grade devilish being with the appearance of a fair-skinned young man replied, "We haven’t had much time to scout the area yet, but from what we’ve seen thus far, there are approximately seven or eight human settlements nearby. However, none of them are even close to the scale of Deep Heaven City."

After a brief pause for contemplation, the crimson-robed man decided, "In that case, send the Jialun War Devils, Bloodlight Crystal Guards, and the All-encompassing Devilish Cavaliers to wipe out those settlements. As for everything else, follow the plan outlined by Elder Huan Yu."

"What? You’re planning to deploy the Bloodlight Crystal Guards? There’s no problem with deploying the Jialun War Devils and the All-encompassing Devilish Cavaliers, but the Bloodlight Crystal Guards are your personal guards; it would not be wise to send them away, Sacred Ancestor!"

Most of the high-grade devilish beings’ expressions changed drastically upon hearing this order, and some of them immediately raised objections.

"I have my own reason for deploying the Bloodlight Crystal Guards; there’s no need for any of you to try to dissuade me," the crimson-robed man said in an implacable voice.

The high-grade devilish beings present exchanged a few glances upon hearing this and didn’t dare to say anything further.

Right at this moment, the crimson-robed man raised his head, and he seemed to cast his gaze through the ceiling of the hall toward an extremely distant place.

Meanwhile, on a giant mountain near the Spirit Sovereign City, there was an elegant woman with a pair of pristine white horns on her head standing on a huge rock. She also withdrew her gaze from a certain direction, and a hint of disdain flashed through her eyes.

There were 50 to 60 high-grade devilish beings standing behind her, and all of them had their hands hanging by their sides, looking down from the mountain summit with solemn expressions.

There was a sea of devilish Qi down below, within which there were countless armored devilish warriors and giant flags that stretched as far as the eye could see.

There were also many types of unheard of high-grade devilish beasts intermingled among the armored warriors, and they would let loose the occasional vicious snarl.

Up head, the Spirit Sovereign City had been completely surrounded by the devilish army. In contrast with what was happening at Deep Heaven City, the devilish army here had deployed all of their troops from the get-go, and it seemed that they were planning to conquer the Spirit Sovereign City in one fell swoop.

In the distance, the Spirit Sovereign City was enshrouded within layers of green light barriers, and there were rows of human cultivators standing atop the city wall.

The remains of tens of thousands of fortresses lay around the Spirit Sovereign City, and it seemed that they had been destroyed by some type of overwhelming power.

"Begin the attack!" the horned woman commanded, and the killing intent in her voice completely belied her gorgeous appearance.

"Yes, Mistress Liu Ji!" The 50 to 60 high-grade devilish beings didn’t even dare to look directly at her as they bowed in unison, and a burst of astonishing baleful Qi erupted into the heavens from the summit of the massive mountain.

At the very edge of the group of high-grade devilish beings stood a devilish woman in a purple palatial dress. She raised her head slightly to reveal a set of peerlessly beautiful features, and even though she also wore a respectful expression toward the horned woman as all of the other high-grade devilish beings did, there was a hint of complex emotion deep within her eyes.

......

After getting back to his abode, Han Li immediately returned to the secret chamber on the top floor to continue refining the golden gourd and the Myriad Sword Artwork.

If he could refine these two treasures before the true battle against the Elder Devil Race began, then he and his disciples would all be better equipped for the upcoming battle.

A month later, Han Li completed the refinement of the gourd and bestowed the treasure upon Hai Yuetian. After that, he focused the entirety of his attention on refining the Myriad Sword Artwork.

Thus, time passed by one day after another, and over half a year flew by in the blink of an eye.

During this time, no messengers were sent to Han Li by the elders of Deep Heaven City. However, his disciples were keeping him up to date on the current situation, so he knew that the Elder Devil Race had virtually never ceased their attacks against Deep Heaven City.

Regardless of how many devilish beings were slain, a new army would turn up in front of the city in a few days; it was if there were no end to their numbers.

Furthermore, the high-grade devilish beings leading these devilish beasts paid no heed whatsoever to the number of casualties suffered. The city had unleashed several types of super formations to almost decimate those high-grade devilish beings on several occasions, but they were completely fearless and would quickly return with another devilish army.

What was even more concerning was that during the past few months, the human settlements closest to Deep Heaven City had been breached one after another.

Most of the human cultivators in those settlements perished in battle, while a small proportion of them were captured and were to be transformed into devilish humans through injections of devilish Qi. As for the human mortals, they were all spared by the devilish armies and were allowed to continue living in the settlements.

According to reports, the devilish beings that attacked these settlements were true devilish elites rather than armies of low-grade devilish beasts. Not only were they all individually extremely powerful, they were also very proficient in combination techniques, and even the Body Integration cultivators in these settlements hadn’t been able to survive the attacks.

Han Li was naturally quite alarmed to hear this. It seemed that the true power of the Elder Devil Race was far more fearsome than the rumors suggested. If they were to sweep through all of the human settlements in the nearby area, then find a chink in the defenses of Deep Heaven City, it would really be difficult to say if the city would be able to keep them at bay.

However, this wasn’t a situation that he could change on his own; he would just have to rely on the panel of elders to address this perilous situation.

All of the Deep Heaven City elders had lived for over 10,000 years, so they definitely weren’t just going to surrender and wait for death. Han Li had a feeling that these days during which he could refine his treasures in peace were numbered.

Sure enough, a month later, Han Li received a message from Buddhist Monk Jin Yue, inviting him to discuss some matters with the panel of elders.

Han Li naturally immediately set off to meet with the elders of the city.

Less than half a day later, Han Li found himself seated in a chair within a certain hall. Aside from the elders that Han Li had met before, there were also several other unfamiliar Body Integration cultivators in the hall, and they were clearly the members of the panel of elders that he had yet to meet.

It was said that these elders all had important matters to attend to recently, which was why Han Li had never met them.

Han Li was rather curious about what these supposed "important matters" were, but he naturally knew better than to pry and merely exchanged some small talk with these elders.

All of these elders were at the early-Body Integration Stage, so they were naturally very polite toward the mid-Body Integration Stage Han Li.

However, during their conversation, Han Li noticed that Elder Gu and the others all seemed to be quite concerned about something.

"Alright, now that you’ve all met Brother Han, let’s get straight into our discussion. Yesterday, the panel of elders received news that the Elder Devil Race has deployed an army to attack the joint city of the four major sects. The four sects know that they won’t be able to withstand this attack, so they sent out a suicide squad of messengers to request for reinforcements from our Deep Heaven City. The stronghold of the four major sects is an important human settlement that’s second in scale only to our city, so if that stronghold is conquered by the devilish army, then we’ll truly be on our own. Hence, we have to send out reinforcements," Elder Gu said in a grim voice.

Buddhist Monk Jin Yue and the others also adopted solemn expressions upon seeing this, and Han Li’s brows furrowed slightly, while looks of surprise appeared on the faces of the new elders. It seemed that they had only just been made aware of this news as well.

"Brother Gu, didn’t the Heavenlean Sect manage to force the Elder Devil Race into retreat on several occasions and even severely wounded a few high-grade devilish beings? How did the situation deteriorate so quickly?" an elder with a red complexion asked in an urgent voice.

"The four major sects combined form an extremely powerful force to be reckoned with, and the Heavenlean City they erected may be lacking in defensive prowess compared with our Deep Heaven City, but it definitely won’t be lacking by much. The reason why the situation suddenly deteriorated is because the Elder Devil Race suddenly deployed over 10 high-grade devilish beings at once to attack the city, then tricked the grand elders of the four major sects into coming out of the city before unleashing a sneak attack. As a result, two of the grand elders were killed, thereby severely denting the top-end offensive prowess of the four major sects, so they’re naturally in a very perilous situation," Elder Gu explained in a grim manner.