The Nascent Soul bore a striking resemblance to Han Li, and as soon as it emerged, it waved a hand toward Han Li’s physical body down below.

A loud thunderclap rang out, and a ball that was bound by countless golden threads flew out of Han Li’s body before hovering in mid-air.

The Nascent Soul extended a finger toward the golden ball, and all of the golden threads quickly fell away to reveal a white wooden box.

A faint smile appeared on the Nascent Soul’s face, and it began to chant something. As it did so, spatial fluctuations erupted nearby, and a dozen or so five-colored beads silently emerged. These beads then transformed into eyeballs amid flashes of spiritual light, and bright five-colored light radiated from their surfaces.

Around 10 minutes later, a wisp of Han Li’s spiritual sense formed a clone that appeared over a boundless grassland.

He swept his gaze over his surroundings, yet failed to discover the presence of Che Qigong. His expression changed slightly as he cast his gaze upward, and discovered that there was a scorching white sun around 100,000 feet above him.

After that, Han Li merely stared at the sun in a completely expressionless and unblinking manner.

After a while, an unfamiliar male voice suddenly rang out in the air above. "Haha, you really are no ordinary Body Integration Stage being; I didn’t think that a mere spiritual sense clone of yours would be able to detect my presence. I can see why Old Man Che is placing his hope in you now."

As soon as the voice faded, a black shadow flashed within the scintillating sun. Immediately thereafter, a ball of black light shot forth before stopping just over 100 feet away from Han Li.

This was a burly black-armored heavily-bearded man, and he was appraising Han Li with an intrigued smile.

Han Li’s heart stirred slightly at the sight of this man, but he maintained a calm expression as he asked, "Who are you and where is Senior Che?"

"Old Man Che is currently doing something else right now; it’ll most likely be quite some time before he can get here, so why don’t you have a chat with me for now?" the man suggested with a stroke of his beard.

Han Li’s eyes narrowed slightly as he said, "I don’t seem to recognize you, and I’ve never heard Senior Che mention the presence of someone else in this Devil Sealing Lock."

"Of course Old Man Che wouldn’t mention me to you. However, what I can tell you is that I can give you what he promised you, and I won’t ask for as much in return," the man replied in a confident manner.

"Oh? What do you propose, fellow daoist?" Han Li asked as his expression changed slightly.

"It’s quite simple; Old Man Che promised to give you the extraction and refinement methods for Chaotic Yin Yang Qi, right? I’m also familiar with these methods, and I only ask for a third of the Chaotic Yin Yang Qi that you manage to extract," the man immediately proposed.

Han Li fell into a contemplative silence upon hearing this before shaking his head in the end. "That does indeed sound quite appealing, but I’ve already sworn a vow on my inner demons to Senior Che, so I’m afraid I can’t accept this offer."

The man seemed to have already anticipated this answer from Han Li, and he chuckled, "Hehe, you still haven’t obtained the extraction and refinement methods from Old Man Che, so you’re not going breaking your vow."

"That’s true, but I’ve never even met you before; don’t you think it’s a little naive to simply expect me to trust you right away?" Han Li asked in an indifferent voice.

"Of course I’m aware that I’ll have to earn your trust, and I’m prepared to do so. Setting aside everything else, I’ll give you the extraction method for the Chaotic Yin Yang Qi within this Devil Sealing Lock right away, and I’ll give you some other benefits after the event as well," the man said with a mysterious smile.

"Other benefits?" Han Li’s heart stirred slightly upon hearing this, and a hesitant look appeared on his face.

However, right at this moment, bursts of rumbling suddenly rang out in the surrounding space, and the grassland down below blurred before transforming into a barren desert. On top of that, dark clouds had appeared over the entire sky, and countless silver lightning snakes were dancing within the clouds.

"Impossible! How did he manage to get out so quickly?" the man exclaimed as his expression changed drastically.

Han Li was naturally also quite startled by this turn of events.

𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

An enraged rumbling voice then suddenly rang out from within the dark clouds. "How dare you plot against me like this, Feng Xie? Did you really think you’d be able to get away with this?"

The voice belonged to none other than Che Qigong, and the entire heavens were trembling from his fury.

The dark clouds up above converged violently to form a massive inky-black hand that was around 1,000 feet in size, and it descended toward the burly man with devastating force.

Before it had even reached the burly man, a burst of enormous force came crashing down from above, and Han Li’s spiritual sense clone was instantly completely immobilized.

In the face of this tremendous force, the surrounding acre of desert sank down several tens of feet, creating a gargantuan crater in the sand.

The burly man was situated at the center of the crater, and a vast expanse of black light was suddenly released from his suit of armor.

In the instant that the burst of tremendous force came into contact with the black light, most of its power was diverted away, and the burly armored man merely swayed slightly but remained completely unscathed.

Che Qigong faltered slightly upon seeing this before becoming even more enraged. "You’ve mastered the Great Diversion Technique? No wonder you dared to do something like this. Let me see if you have what it takes to oppose me!"

As soon as his voice trailed off, the dark clouds up above surged before forming a massive devilish projection with three heads and six arms. Just as the projection was about to descend from above, the burly man’s expression darkened, and he raised a hand as he yelled, "Stop! Do you not want the Chaotic Yin Yang Qi anymore?"

"Once I take care of you, the Chaotic Yin Yang Qi will be all mine!" Che Qigong replied in a vicious voice, and the six arms of the devilish projection swept through the air as balls of black Qi emerged over its hands. The balls of black Qi then transformed into massive balls of light that it prepared to hurl toward the burly man.

"Hmph, do you really think you can extract Chaotic Yin Yang Qi out of the Devil Sealing Lock using your method?" the burly man asked as a peculiar look appeared on his face.

"What do you mean by that? Didn’t we devise the method to extract Chaotic Yin Yang Qi from the Devil Sealing Lock many years ago? Are you trying to make me doubt myself so you can stall?" Che Qigong roared in response, but the devilish projection up above stopped what it was doing nonetheless.

"Why would I need to stall for time? Do you think I still fear you after mastering this Great Diversion Technique? I simply don’t want both of us to be harmed in an unnecessary battle. As for whether what I say is true or not, if you weren’t concerned to begin with, why did you stop?" the burly man chuckled nonchalantly.

The giant devilish projection up above fell completely still upon hearing this.

Moments later, the devilish projection dissipated into black Qi again, and Che Qigong emerged with a dark expression.

Han Li quickly assessed the situation before deciding to remain silent and simply watch as everything unfolded.

"Hmph, you hid the fact that you’d already mastered the Great Diversion Technique from me for so long, so you must’ve been plotting this for a very long time. Setting aside whether the technique really is as powerful as it’s said to be, you seem to be implying that you’ve found another method to extract Chaotic Yin Yang Qi. How do I know if you’re telling the truth? All of us joined forces to create the original extraction method, yet you expect me to place my trust in something that you devised on your own?" Che Qigong scoffed in a cold voice.

"I only managed to discover a fatal flaw with the original method by chance. As for whether this new method is authentic or not, I’ll tell you about it, and you can make the decision for yourself. If you think my method isn’t viable, then we can just battle it out here. That bastard Xue Guang will be the only beneficiary to our conflict, but if you insist, I’m certainly not going to back down," the burly man chuckled coldly.

"Alright, I’ll listen to what you have to say, but if it turns out to be nonsense, hmph!" Che Qigong didn’t finish his sentence, but the threat being made was already very apparent.

"You’ve made a wise decision. However, if the extraction method that I propose is indeed a viable one, then it would only be right for me to get a third of the Chaotic Yin Yang Qi that’s extracted, right?" the burly man chuckled while reiterating his condition in an implacable voice.

"We’ll discuss that after I verify the feasibility of your extraction method," Che Qigong replied in a cold manner.

Thus, Feng Xie’s lips tremored as he transmitted his voice to Che Qigong while Han Li looked on in silence.

...

A day later, a ball of black light was flying through the air over a murky grey mountain range at an incredible speed.

Within the black light was a thin elderly man; it was none other than Master Black Rain, who had just separated from Han Li not long ago.

He was currently flying at full speed en route back to the holy island.

Two massive mountains, both of which were around 100,000 feet tall, loomed in the distance right in his path.

Thus, Master Black Rain diverted slightly off his original path to fly through the gap between the two mountains.

After just a few flashes, the ball of black light had reached the area between the two mountains, yet just as it was about to pass through, two earth-shattering booms suddenly erupted without any warning.

The two mountains tremored violently, then crashed down viciously toward Master Black Rain in unison. Even before the mountains had struck the ball of black light, countless rocks and stones were already raining down from above.