On the day Han Li struck down the flesh body of the Soaring Tribes mid-Nascent Soul cultivator, a portion of cultivator’s Nascent Soul managed to escape, but the fully matured Gold Devouring Beetle that was under his control were left behind. Familiar with the characteristics of the beetle, Han Li easily captured it alive with his second Nascent Soul and restrained them in a jade box.

He originally planned on waiting for a safe time before examining the differences between the mature Gold Devouring Beetles and his own, but given his current drop in cultivation, he needed to deal with the insect as soon as possible. If the abilities of the mature Gold Devouring Beetle was far greater than what he originally anticipated and it broke out of its restrictions, it would be hugely troublesome with his current cultivation as he wouldn’t be able to restrain it.

With that in mind, Han Li took a deep breath and suddenly flipped his hand, producing several variously colored formation flags in his palm. With a flick of his fingers, the formation flags scattered and formed a restriction barrier enveloping the carriage.

Han Li placed the jade box on his knee and slowly closed his eyes. Black light flashed and a black-green Nascent Soul appeared from the top of his head. The Nascent Soul rubbed its hands together and summoned the jet-black Yin Sifting Banner into its grasp.

Because he handed over the flag over for his second Nascent Soul to refine, it was the sole magic treasure that was able to escape the restraints of the Pestilence Demons Soullock Seal.

Gold Devouring Beetles couldn’t be harmed with heat or cold and were impervious to blades. The only method he had currently that could kill them were the Yin essence devil heads formed from the banner. Their refinement method was something he had acquired from the soul of the Yin Sifting Sect Elder.

Of course, wiping away the soul imprints on the fully matured Gold Devouring Beetle wasn’t something that could be done in a short amount of time. In truth, if the Gold Devouring Beetles’ master had perished instead of being severely weakened, he wouldn’t have dared to make an attempt.

He was incredibly cautious of the mature Gold Devouring Beetle and placed down several restrictions as a result, fearing that they run rampant.

Then, the black-green Nascent Soul waved its small flag above its head and a foot-long cloud of devilish Qi appeared above it. The Nascent Soul leapt forward and disappeared into the cloud before the cloud sank downward and wrapped around the jade box.

The sound of the soft buzzing within the box suddenly grew louder and fervent.

The devilish cloud wrapped around the jade box began to roil and the buzzing became sharp and deafening, but Han Li was indifferent. With his hands grasped in an incantation gesture, his body remained still. Under these restrictions, he had no fear of the buzzing alerting the Grey Heron Tribe outside. He simply drew out the beetle’s primal soul.

The difficult refinement process had started.

The Grey Heron Tribe members were greatly interested in Immortal Han, but ever since he entered the carriage, he hadn’t emerged.

Clan Leader Ying Lu had particularly forbidden anyone from disturbing the Immortal’s cultivation, much to the disappointment of many of the youths.

Ten days later, they found a pack of wild goats across the canyon and hunted quite a bit of them. And after half a month, nothing out of the ordinary had happened, much to the relief of Ying Lu.

After another few days, they arrived at a very safe place for rest. The Endless Sky Temples would use magic power to quickly set up temporary encampment nearby, specifically as rest stops for any tribes passing through. Once the Day of Spirit Release passed, these rest stops would be immediately dissolved.

As Ying Lu thought this, a sound suddenly appeared from above and he unconsciously raised his head to take a look. It was a streak of blinding white light streaking past them. A faint silhouette could be seen within the light, and it disappeared an instant later.

When Ying Lu and the youths saw this, an uproar broke out.

Ying Lu frowned and felt somewhat apprehensive. From his experience in the past sacred war, those streaking lights were produced by high-grade immortals. This strange scene was rarely seen. High-grade immortals only flew across the highest of places where mortals could rarely see them.

If he remembered correctly, in the past few days he saw four streaks of light flying at a low altitude. Could it be that something important happened in the past few days? Was a tribe robbed of their tribute?

Despite the puzzlement he felt, the old man felt relief. With high-grade Immortals patrolling the skies, they should be safe for the time being.

After some further consideration, Ying Lu loudly called out the escort behind him and urged them to gain more speed.

Unbeknownst to Ying Lu, the white light had actually scoured a perimeter of fifty kilometers at a low altitude before heading off south. And a streak of red light not far away flew in its direction.

When the two streaks of light encountered one another, their light disappeared to reveal a middle-aged man wearing faint yellow fur clothes and a beautiful woman in her late twenties wearing palace robes.

The middle-aged man took the initiative to salute the woman and said, “So it was Immortal Xiu. I didn’t discover anything on my side. How about you?”

“Brother Li, does it look like I’ve found anything?” The woman spoke coldly with a grimace.

The middle-aged man sighed with an anxious expression and said, “In the last few days, we already searched an area of a thousand kilometers only to find no trace of him. Even if his concealment techniques were brilliant, we should definitely be able to find traces of him with our cultivation. How about we interrogate the tribute carriages travelling down below?”

“It seems Immortal Li is truly tempted by the reward, but is the Venomous Dragon Pill worth your life?” The woman said with a cold laugh.

The middle-aged man paused for a moment before asking with bewilderment, “What is that supposed to mean? Could it be that Immortal Xiu isn’t tempted by the reward?”

The woman didn’t directly respond and indifferently asked, “When Brother Li received the mission, what did those Nascent Soul grade elders tell you?”

After some hesitation, the middle-aged man honestly replied, “My superior told me that there was a foreign Nascent Soul cultivator that is trespassing in our Endless Sky Plains. He also grievously injured one of our elders. As such, he must be captured alive. Given that he is injured, it should be possible for Core Formation cultivators like us to capture him.”

The woman snorted and a mocking smile appeared on her face. “Brother Li, because you’ve come late, you don’t know much of the situation. If it were me, I absolutely wouldn’t want to find this foreign cultivator.”

“Since Cultivator Xiu has spoken as such, there must be a reason. Could you tell me why?” The middle-aged man asked with a solemn expression.

After a moment of silence, the woman sighed and said, “We’ve known each other for many years. I will tell you the truth and prevent you from foolishly throwing away your life. I arrived earlier and heard some information about this foreign cultivator from one of the elders. It is true that this foreign cultivator is at Nascent Soul stage and is grievously wounded, but the one who personally dealt the blow wasn’t any Nascent Soul cultivator, but the one of the Grand Immortals.”

“What? A Grand Immortal was the one to injure him?” The man asked in shock.

“That’s right. I also heard the Grand Immortal was only able to launch a successful sneak attack on the foreign cultivator when he was surrounded by many other elders. Before this, he had already killed three Nascent Soul grade Immortals. It was said this person possessed extremely vicious abilities and that he was unphased by the attacks. Even under heavy injury, he was able to escape the Grand Immortal through the use of a secret technique. From the way I see it, this foreign cultivator is likely on par with our Grand Immortal. In that case, he will be able to easily slay two measly Core Formation cultivators like us, no matter how injured he may be. I don’t wish to forfeit my life over a Venomous Dragon Pill!”

The woman’s face turned sullen as she continued, “And from the way I see it, the Nascent Soul Immortals that dispatched us are most likely leaving us to die. Didn’t they employ a soul guiding technique on each of us before they sent us out? They said it was so that they can find us when we’re in danger, but they’re most likely just using us to scare him out of hiding! Then when we fall, they will use the soul guiding technique to track him down.”

The middle-aged man felt his breath run cold and he spoke out in furious alarm, “They would actually treat us like cannon fodder? How will we handle this?”

“It is quite simple,” the woman said, “Didn’t we already look through the area? There is no need to go any further. Since we can report back to our superiors, there will be no further exposure to danger. If someone else has found the foreign cultivator, that will be fine. And it won’t matter if no sighting of him was found either. Then when the Day of Spirit Release arrives, all Immortals will be heading to the temples to pay their respects. We will be summoned there as well.”

After a moment of hesitation, he decisively said, “From your words, you mean to say that while the Venomous Dragon Pill is valuable, I am more likely to lose my life in the process. Many thanks for the explanation, Immortal Xiu.”

The woman smiled and said, “Good! Since that has been resolved, let’s go rest at the temple encampment for a bit. In the past few days, many tribes had brought forth their tributes. Perhaps, we’ll be able to find something we need ahead of time. Then we can conduct another search periodically every few days as we look through the tributes.”

Of course, the middle-aged man raised no objections.

Soon after, the red and white streaks of light flew directly south.