The short sword began to emit a buzzing sound, while the images of the insects began to roam over the sword's blade as if they had sprung to life.

The elderly man with the Yu surname swept an arm through the air, and the short sword immediately hurtled toward the metal cage as a streak of crimson light.

As soon as the streak of crimson light struck the cage, countless arcs of golden lightning erupted amid a loud thunderclap.

The crimson light was immediately repelled, then returned to the elderly man's hand as a short sword again.

"This is Divine Devilbane Lightning!"

The elderly man was stunned to see this, and he hurriedly examined the short sword to find that several thin cracks had appeared on its surface, indicating that it had suffered severe damage.

If Han Li were present, he would also be stunned to see this.

The golden lightning that had erupted from the metal cage did indeed appear to be rather similar to Divine Devilbane Lightning, but upon closer inspection, one would discover that it was different.

The lightning was also of a shimmering golden color, but it was intermingled with purplish-golden runes, and it was far more powerful than Han Li's Divine Devilbane Lightning.

"It really is Divine Devilbane Lightning! Wait, no, it doesn't seem to be ordinary Divine Devilbane Lightning. I recall that Daoist Tian Ding had mastered several types of lightning, as well as an ability that allowed him to refine and purify lightning, and this ability could increase the power of lightning abilities by over tenfold," the final elderly man said with furrowed brows.

"That's a huge problem. Divine Devilbane Lightning is extremely effective against Witch Dao abilities to begin with; how are we going to counter this purified Divine Devilbane Lightning?" the elderly man with the Yu surname asked as he stowed his short sword away.

The sword didn't appear to be all that remarkable, but it actually possessed several incredible abilities, so he was extremely frustrated that it had been damaged here.

"Rest assured, no matter how powerful this Divine Devilbane Lightning is, it's not being wielded by anyone, so dispelling it will only be a matter of time. There's definitely more than just one restriction on this cage, and the latter restrictions will most likely be even more difficult to counter; that's what I'm most worried about," the elderly man with the Wu surname said as he appraised the sharp spikes on the cage and the crimson chain binding the corpse.

"No matter how difficult it's going to be, we have to succeed. Otherwise, our efforts up to this point would all be wasted. Let me see if my Infernal Yin Water will be able to dispel this Divine Devilbane Lightning," the final elderly man said before opening his mouth to release a grey gourd.

He then pointed a finger at the gourd, and it tipped itself over to pour out a wave of inky-black water.

The water seemed to possess incredible glacial powers, and as soon as it emerged, the air temperature plummeted drastically.

At the same time, wisps of grey Qi began to spread through the air, releasing a rotten odor.

The black water swirled around up above at the elderly man's behest, transforming into a black wyrm before pouncing viciously toward the cage.

Countless golden runes appeared once again on the surface of the cage amid a loud thunderclap, and another shimmering golden lightning net emerged.

The black water and golden lightning immediately clashed amid a resounding boom.

......

Han Li was standing in a massive hall with a contemplative look on his face, appraising an extremely life-like statue situated on an altar up ahead.

The statue was around the same size as an actual person, and it depicted a middle-aged daoist priest in a set of white daoist robes with a crimson longsword slung diagonally across his back.

The statue's gaze was directed diagonally forward, and it wore an indifferent expression.

On either side of this statue was a giant azure falcon statue, and a silver praying mantis statue, both of which were also extremely life-like and menacing to behold.

"This should be Daoist Tian Ding; I can't think of anyone else with such a graceful bearing," Han Li murmured to himself before inspecting his surroundings to find four crimson-armored puppets, each of which was around 20 feet tall, lying on the ground in a lopsided manner, as well as two unidentifiable corpses.

The four puppets were completely still, but their suits of armor were giving off a bright sheen, and they were completely undamaged, as were the weapons that they were wielding, making it seem as if they could spring back to life at any moment.

As for the two corpses, one was missing half of its body with four black flying swords snapped into over 10 pieces littered all around it.

The other corpse was missing its head, and there was a broken purple shield and a short silver ruler that had been completely twisted lying beside it.

The two corpses were each situated between two puppets, and judging from the state that they were in, it seemed that they had perished in battle against these puppets.

Judging from the residual auras of these corpses, they had most likely been among the people who had battled the giant beast in the hall on the first floor.

Han Li carefully inspected the two corpses several times, but didn't find any other treasures.

Thus, he abruptly vanished on the spot before appearing behind the statue of Daoist Tian Ding.

There was a damaged small formation behind the statue, at the center of which was a white stone platform with a diameter of around 10 feet.

There were several indentations of different shapes on the platform, seemingly to accommodate certain items, but the items within those slots had already been taken.

At the edge of the formation were two more corpses lying side by side on the ground, and one of them was wearing a suit of shattered silver armor with a bony hand piercing straight through its dantian.

As for the other corpse, it was clothed in a green robe and completely inky-black in color, seemingly having perished after being afflicted by some type of lethal poison.

On this occasion, Han Li only took a glance at the two corpses before sweeping a hand through the air, upon which four storage bracelets of different colors emerged before flying into his grasp with unerring accuracy.

Han Li briefly inspected the contents of the storage bracelets with his spiritual sense before calmly stowing them away, then began to inspect the damaged formation.

"This is a teleportation formation."

After a brief inspection, Han Li immediately discovered what this formation was, but unfortunately, it was a disposable formation that was already completely destroyed, and even with his mastery in the art of formations, he wouldn't be able to repair it in a short time.

After walking several laps around the formation, Han Li suddenly raised an eyebrow before stopping at a dark red indentation on the formation.

He made a grabbing motion toward the slot, and a small ball of extremely feeble crimson light emerged, looking as if it could be snuffed out at any moment.

He then flipped a hand over to produce the small vial that contained the blood soul's blood essence, and as soon as the small vial appeared, the ball of crimson light immediately flew toward it before vanishing into the vial in a flash.

As a result, the crimson light within the small vial glowed slightly brighter than before.

"As expected, this is a drop of Fellow Daoist Ice Soul's blood essence. It seems that she passed through here and used this teleportation formation," Han Li murmured to himself as a faint smile appeared on his face, and he cast his gaze toward the damaged formation again.

He swept a sleeve through the air to release a string of formation treasures, as well as around a dozen fist-sized crystals of different colors, all of which hovered in mid-air around the formation.

He then pointed a finger toward the formation, and a thin azure thread that was several feet in length shot out of his fingertip before quickly repairing the damaged spirit patterns on the formation.

It would be impossible to completely restore the formation, but with Han Li's mastery in the art of formations, restoring around 70% to 80% of the formation would be enough for him to use it.

......

A day later, a burst of astonishing energy fluctuations erupted from the crimson lake, and a black monster with the head of a deer and the body of a human suddenly appeared amid a burst of spatial fluctuations.

It then slashed the giant silver blade it was wielding viciously downward, and a sharp screeching sound rang out as wisps of green Qi surged out of the silver blade, forming a series of balls of green light.

The nearby space immediately began to warp and twist in the wake of the giant blade, as if it were about to be sliced apart.

Another earth-shattering boom rang out, and a scintillating green sun erupted beneath the blade before expanding further and further.

A devastatingly destructive aura surged forth in all directions in a frenzy, forcing back the water in the lake to expose a section of the lakebed with a diameter of around half a kilometer, revealing countless white skeletons.

All of a sudden, a bolt of silver lightning as thick as a water tank flashed through the sky, and dark clouds suddenly converged before blood began to rain down from the heavens, encompassing the entire crimson lake down below.

Only after the green sun faded was the scene down below revealed.

Currently, the Three Witch Spirit Saints were hovering in mid-air, and each of them was holding a statue that was around a foot tall and completely identical to that deer-human hybrid creature.

A huge gash that was over 100 feet in length had been inflicted onto the top of the giant metal cage before them.

The elderly man with the Yu surname chortled with glee upon seeing this. "Haha, we've finally managed to break this cage open! What are you waiting for, fellow daoists? Let's go in together!"

He then stowed the statue in his hand away before flying toward the gash on the metal cage as a streak of green light.

The other two elderly men also flew into the cage in a flash with excited expressions.

As for the deer-human hybrid beast, it remained hovering in the air above the cage in a stationary manner.

The three elderly men re-emerged over 100 feet in the air above the carcass of the horse-human hybrid creature, and they were carefully appraising the chained carcass with elated looks in their eyes.