Han Li's expression remained unchanged, and he merely raised a hand before thrusting it forward and spreading his fingers.

Five balls of golden light immediately erupted out of his fingertips, then expanded drastically before combining as one to form a golden vortex the size of a wagon wheel.

The vortex began to rotate as it released a burst of invisible suction force, drawing in all of the oncoming soundwaves.

However, at this point, the human-faced stemborer had also reached Han Li in a wraith-like manner, and it immediately plunged its sharp front limbs toward Han Li as streaks of black light.

Han Li's eyes narrowed slightly upon seeing this, and he pointed a finger at the vortex in front of him.

The vortex immediately swelled before shrinking again, then exploded into a ball of golden light.

In the next instant, countless azure threads erupted out of the golden light, surging directly toward the human-faced stemborer.

A vicious look appeared in the eyes of the human-faced stemborer, and instead of taking evasive measures, it plunged its sharp limbs even faster through the air toward Han Li.

The stemborer was determined to break through with its attack even at the expense of harming itself.

However, Han Li naturally wasn't going to allow that to happen.

He swept a palm through the air, and around a dozen layers of light barriers instantly appeared before him.

In the next instant, the streaks of black light struck the light barriers, piercing through all of them seemingly with ease before striking the protective spiritual light around Han Li.

A sharp screeching noise akin to that of metal grating on metal rang out, and Han Li's skin suddenly turned a purplish-golden color while countless silver formations also appeared all over his body.

In the instant that the streaks of black light struck his protective spiritual light, all of them were instantly repelled.

This protective spiritual light had been manifested from Han Li's Provenance True Devil Arts and Hundred Meridian Refinement Mantra, and even the average Grand Ascension Stage being wouldn't be able to pierce through it.

This human-faced insect was very fearsome, but it was still slightly inferior in power to a Grand Ascension Stage being.

At this moment, the azure threads struck the human-faced stemborer in a torrential storm, instantly piercing through its exoskeleton.

The stemborer let loose a howl of anguish, and countless streams of dark green liquid began to gush out of its body.

However, it then let loose a low roar, and grey light surged all over its body, upon which those puncture wounds began to rapidly heal at a rate that was discernible even to the naked eye.

After the span of just a few breaths, the stemborer was almost fully recovered from its injuries.

Han Li chuckled coldly upon seeing this, then made a hand seal before uttering the word "slash".

The azure threads that had pierced through the stemborer's body instantly transformed into azure flying swords that revolved around the stemborer's head like lightning.

The giant stemborer was instantly decapitated, and the azure flying swords plunged back into its body again, tearing it into shreds along with even its soul.

Thus, the two fearsome human-faced stemborers had been felled in the blink of an eye.

A faint smile appeared on Han Li's face as he withdrew his swords, and only then did he cast his gaze toward the other battles.

As he did so, he immediately heard a shrill screech ring out in the distance.

The stemborer that was facing Xie Lian had been trapped within her three silver rings and was completely immobilized.

Xie Lian then released a burst of white light that sliced the stemborer's body cleanly in half.

As expected of Bao Hua's identical twin, Xie Lian was definitely more powerful than the average Grand Ascension Stage being as well.

Almost at the exact same moment, an earth-shattering boom rang out in another direction, and the entire space tremored violently.

Han Li and Xie Lian hurriedly turned their attention toward that direction to find that a gigantic crater had appeared on one of the edges of the plaza.

The blue human-faced stemborer was lying at the bottom of the crater with its entire body charred black. Its exoskeleton had been completely shattered, and half of its head had disappeared. There was green blood all over its body, and it was immobilized from a series of severe injuries.

In the air above the giant crater, Daoist Xie was hovering with his giant silver blades in his hands.

He looked down in an expressionless manner, then abruptly slashed his giant blades downward, and they instantly transformed into two thick bolts of lightning, which combined as one to form a silver spear.

Daoist Xie drew back his arm before hurling the lightning spear down from above, and the spear vanished into thin air amid a loud thunderclap.

In the next instant, a dull thump rang out within the giant crater, and the spear was plunged into the stemborer's body before exploding violently.

Countless arcs of silver lightning instantly filled the entire crater, and despite how powerful the blue stemborer's body was, it could only resign itself to its demise as its body was erased out of existence by the fearsome lightning.

Meanwhile, Daoist Xie took a step forward and abruptly disappeared before re-emerging next to Han Li amid a burst of spatial fluctuations.

"Nicely done, Brother Xie. That stemborer you faced is most likely no less powerful than the average Grand Ascension Stage being, yet you were still able to kill it so quickly," Han Li praised.

"It still can't compare with a true Grand Ascension Stage being. Having said that, the average Grand Ascension Stage being would find it very difficult to defeat this insect," Daoist Xie replied in an indifferent manner.

"Indeed. Setting aside how powerful these stemborers are, they fight without any regard for their own lives, and that's something that the average Grand Ascension Stage being can't compare with," Han Li said as his smile faded slightly.

"That's right. Fellow Daoist Lü Shi has clearly gained the upper hand over there, but he's unable to defeat that stemborer due to its near-suicidal battle style. How about we give him a hand?" Xie Lian said with a smile.

Han Li cast his gaze toward Lü Shi, and sure enough, Lü Shi was struggling to land a killing blow against the final stemborer.

A smile appeared on his face, and he was just about to respond to Xie Lian when Lü Shi suddenly yelled, "There's no need for you to step in, fellow daoists; I'm more than capable of taking down this puny insect! Azure Atlas Seal!"

Lü Shi was quite embarrassed to see that he was the only one still struggling with his opponent, and he immediately let loose a thunderous roar as he suddenly released nine identical azure stone seals out of his sleeve.

The seals revolved in mid-air before fusing as one with his giant golden seal from before, transforming into a massive azure seal with countless golden runes revolving around it, which then crashed down toward the giant stemborer.

A loud buzzing sound rang out, and the power of laws within an area with a diameter of around a kilometer was swept up.

As a result, the human-faced stemborer down below was immediately immobilized.

The giant azure seal descended with astonishing might and instantly crushed the stemborer into a pile of mincemeat.

Only then did Lü Shi heave a faint sigh of relief, and he made a hand seal, upon which the giant seal was drawn back into his sleeve.

However, at this moment, the green Qi revolving around his body had thinned slightly, and his aura had also become marginally weaker; it was clear that the powerful ability he had just unleashed couldn't be used regularly.

"So that was the Azure Atlas Seal; it's truly just as powerful as the rumors proclaim. Even though it's not a Profound Heavenly Treasure, its powers are almost comparable to one," Xie Lian said with a faint smile.

"I'm embarrassed to say that I wouldn't have been able to take down that stemborer so quickly had I not resorted to one of my trump cards," Lü Shi said with a wry smile.

He had clearly realized that he was the weakest one of the four, and that made him rather uneasy.

"Now that they've been taken care of, there shouldn't be any other stemborers inside; let's go in," Han Li said as he cast his gaze toward the hall.

"Sure, let's go and take a look," Xie Lian agreed with a smile.

Lü Shi naturally had no objections, either.

Thus, the four of them immediately drifted toward the hall.

As soon as they entered the hall, Xie Lian and Lü Shi's expressions changed slightly as they discovered piles of bones and damaged weapons and armor strewn beyond the entrance.

"These were most likely the guards assigned to this underground palace; they had to have been killed by the Stemborer Queen once it broke out of its seal," Xie Lian sighed before sweeping a sleeve through the air, releasing a string of crimson fireballs that incinerated all of these remains into ashes.