Xie Lian and Lü Shi exchanged a glance, and the latter asked, "What should we do, Fellow Daoist Xie Lian? Should we follow them?"

"Brother Han is right; something's clearly gone wrong, so it would be unwise to stay here. Let's get out of here and find out what's going on first," Xie Lian said.

She then swept a sleeve through the air and flew away as a floral projection.

Lü Shi could only heave a faint sigh and follow along.

At this point, Han Li and Daoist Xie were flying along a narrow passageway, heading toward the direction where the tremors were the strongest.

Even though the flight restriction was still in place, Han Li was still able to fly at quite a high speed at the expense of additional magic power expenditure.

Han Li swept his spiritual sense around the passageway, and his brows immediately furrowed slightly.

Countless cracks had appeared within the smooth-looking walls of the passageway, and the number of cracks was quickly increasing.

It seemed that this underground palace wouldn't be able to hold itself together for much longer.

Right at this moment, the tremors up ahead became even more violent, and it looked as if the entire palace could collapse at any moment.

All of a sudden, a crossroads appeared up ahead, and Han Li turned into a new passageway without any hesitation.

He was immediately greeted by two black human-faced stemborers that pounced directly toward him, and it seemed that these two stemborers had been waiting there for quite some time.

Han Li harrumphed coldly upon seeing this, and a green sword mark suddenly appeared on his forearm, following which a green longsword that was around three feet in length instantly appeared in his hand before being slashed toward the pair of oncoming stemborers.

The world's origin Qi in the surrounding area was immediately stirred up into a frenzy, and a burst of enormous power of laws descended upon the passageway.

Peculiar energy fluctuations erupted around the two human-faced stemborers, and they were immediately immobilized, then sliced in half before they even knew what had happened.

Han Li appeared behind the two human-faced stemborers in a flash, following which the stemborers' dismembered bodies abruptly burst into flames.

Han Li didn't want to be stalled here, so he had used his Profound Heavenly Spiritslash Sword to kill the two human-faced stemborers right away.

At his current cultivation base, he was able to use a part of the Profound Heavenly Treasure's power even without unleashing his Holy Nirvana Physique.

Daoist Xie's expression changed slightly upon seeing this, but he remained silent as he continued to follow along behind Han Li.

After that, the two of them didn't encounter any stemborers, and after a long while, they finally emerged from the passageway into a massive underground cave.

There was a layer of fine silver sand spread over the floor of the cave, but the roof of the cave was lined with razor-sharp stalactites.

Not far away from the opening of the passageway was a cloud of grey mist that was giving off a faint sandalwood aroma, and there were several humanoid figures currently hovering before the sea of mist, one of whom was none other than Bao Hua.

She was currently appraising the grey mist with a hint of bewilderment in her eyes, and there was an indistinct face within the mist that seemed to be communicating with Bao Hua through voice transmission.

Behind Bao Hua stood Hei'e and several other Grand Ascension Stage beings.

All of them were immediately alerted by Han Li and Daoist Xie's arrival, but their expressions quickly eased upon realizing that more allies had arrived.

"What's going on? Where are all our other fellow daoists?" Han Li asked as he swept his spiritual sense toward the cloud of grey mist.

"We're not too sure what's happened, either. Bao Hua is currently communicating with the spirit of the ancient seal to find out what's happening. As for everyone else, you two are the first to arrive," an ordinary-looking elderly man replied with a grim expression.

"Is that the spirit of the ancient seal?" Han Li asked as he cast a contemplative gaze toward the face within the mist.

Right at this moment, Bao Hua seemed to have concluded her communication with the face in the mist, and the latter quickly dissipated.

"I'm glad you're here, Brother Han, Fellow Daoist Xie; please lend me your assistance," Bao Hua said with a serious expression.

"You still haven't told me what's going on here, Fellow Daoist Bao Hua," Han Li said as he peered into the sea of mist.

"The power of the ancient seal has gone out of control. Both the power of the seal restricting the Stemborer Queen and the power trapping Fellow Daoist Yuan Yan and the others suddenly waned significantly, and not only is the awakening of the Stemborer Queen imminent, all of our trapped fellow daoists are also in great peril. The first thing that the Stemborer Queen is going to do after its awakening would definitely be to kill Yuan Yan and the others. Having lost so much energy, the ancient seal is about to fall apart, and the underground palace is also on the verge of collapse," Bao Hua sighed.

"What? How did this happen? We haven't done anything yet. Could it be that one of the groups of fellow daoists made an error while repairing their restriction?" a red-faced man asked with an alarmed expression.

"Did you find out what happened from the spirit of the ancient seal, Fellow Daoist Bao Hua? It should be aware of what led to this," the elderly man asked.

"I asked the spirit of the ancient seal about this, but it doesn't know what's going on, either; it could only sense that its power had been drawn away by something or someone. However, it's already agreed to teleport us to where the Stemborer Queen is residing so we can attack it before it awakens. In doing so, we'll be able to stall it and buy our other fellow daoists more time to save everyone that's been trapped. It looks like we'll have to abandon our original plan," Bao Hua said with a wry smile.

"What? You're saying we should go and attack the Stemborer Queen? Are you being serious, Fellow Daoist Bao Hua?" a black-robed woman exclaimed.

Everyone else's expressions also changed slightly upon hearing this.

"Rest assured, everyone, I'm proposing this for a reason. I learned from the spirit of the ancient seal that the Stemborer Queen had to pay a heavy price to trap Yuan Yan and the others. On top of that, it's being forced to awaken on this occasion, so it wouldn't have been able to recover much of its powers, and it'll be nowhere near as formidable as it would normally be. The spirit of the ancient seal has also promised me that it would use all of its remaining power to assist us. Additionally, prior to making this trip, I borrowed a Profound Heavenly Treasure that's particularly effective against insects, so there's a very good chance that we'll succeed," Bao Hua explained.

Everyone's concerns were slightly eased upon hearing this. However, this was a matter of life and death, so they were still quite hesitant to agree to this plan.

Bao Hua could see the concern in everyone's eyes, and she was forced to make a decision.

"I know you're all unwilling to take this risk, but you have to think of all of your trapped brethren. Fellow Daoist Copper Crow and the others are right near the place where Yuan Yan and the others have been trapped; even if we can't kill the Stemborer Queen, we can buy them some time to rescue everyone. On top of that, I have something for all of you. With these things in our possession, even if we turn out to be no match for the Stemborer Queen, we'll still be able to get away."

As soon as her voice trailed off, she raised a sleeve to send a streak of red light flying toward each of her companions.

Everyone reflexively caught the streaks of red light to discover that these were crimson formation plates with complex designs etched onto their surfaces.

Han Li could sense spatial fluctuations emanating from the formation plate in his hand, and after turning the plate over, he discovered that there was an extremely intricate and life-like feather pattern on the back.

"These are Treasured Phoenix Spirit Plates that can instantly teleport one hundreds of thousands of kilometers away! You must've been very fortunate to have obtained these treasures," the elderly man exclaimed as his eyes lit up with elation.

"Are these really Treasured Phoenix Spirit Plates? I've heard that they can only be refined using true heavenly phoenix feathers. They're capable of teleporting through all restrictions and formations, and they're essentially equivalent to extra lives!" the black-robed woman exclaimed.

"There's no mistaking it; I saw a Treasured Phoenix Spirit Plate once during an auction, and its appearance and aura were both identical to these ones," the elderly man confirmed.

"Alright, seeing as Fellow Daoist Bao Hua is willing to offer such precious treasures, I'll agree to this plan. Even if I don't end up using it, I'm not going to return it!" the red-faced man said as a hint of greed flashed through his eyes.