Han Li's eyes narrowed slightly upon seeing this, and he flipped a hand over to summon a small yellow gourd, which he immediately tossed forward.

The gourd tipped itself over, and the translucent runes on its surface flashed, following which it instantly swelled to around the size of a house.

Han Li pointed a finger at the giant gourd, and a burst of loud rumbling rang out within it as countless grains of pea-sized translucent sand gushed out of its opening.

This was none other than the Baleful Golden Astral Sand that Han Li had obtained in the Elder Devil Realm.

The sand surged through the air before multiplying at a rapid rate, quickly forming a sea of sand.

Immediately thereafter, Han Li swept a sleeve through the air, and the sea of translucent sand surged directly toward Yang Deer.

The two massive waves of sand clashed violently, and an ear-splitting grating sound rang out as yellow and translucent light intertwined.

The yellow sand was constantly shapeshifting into different types of demon beasts as it tore viciously at the opposing sea of sand, but there seemed to be no end to the wave of translucent sand, and regardless of what form the sea of yellow sand adopted, it was able to pulverize every grain of yellow sand it came into contact with.

Thus, the sea of yellow sand began to shrink at a rapid rate, and after the span of just a few breaths, it had been reduced to less than half its original size.

Yang Deer was rather surprised to see this, but it then immediately gave a cold harrumph before making a big forward stride.

A burst of violent spatial fluctuations erupted as Yang Deer covered a distance of several thousand feet, appearing right above Han Li. It then laid one hand over the other before thrusting them down violently like a pair of small mountains.

Even before they had reached Han Li, two semi-transparent layers of white light appeared over the two palms, enshrouding Han Li within a burst of viscous asphyxiating power.

Han Li raised an eyebrow as he made a grabbing motion to summon an azure longsword that was several feet in length, then slashed it through the air.

A streak of azure light that was over 100 feet in length erupted into the heavens, then struck the white light with devastating might.

A dull thump rang out, and the streak of azure light was repelled.

Instead of being alarmed to see this, a faint smile appeared on Han Li's face as one of his arms suddenly thickened significantly, while a layer of purplish-golden scales appeared all over it. He then launched a devastating punch upward, and a cold smile appeared on Yang Deer's face upon seeing this, following which two bursts of enormous power surged into its giant palms.

As a result, the white light radiating from its hands became even more dazzling, and the viscous power around Han Li also became more suffocating; it seemed that Yang Deer was planning to crush Han Li into mincemeat in one fell swoop.

As soon as Han Li's frail-looking fist came into contact with the white light, a formation comprised of countless silver patterns appeared all over the fist, following which a burst of incredibly fearsome power erupted forth.

An earth-shattering boom rang out, and the white light was instantly shattered, while the two mountainous palms were also forced apart.

Yang Deer's entire body shuddered violently from the tremendous force of the impact, and it stumbled over 10 steps backward involuntarily before steadying itself again, upon which it cast its gaze toward Han Li with shock and fury in its eyes.

It then let loose a low roar before opening its mouth to release a ball of white wind that was around 10 feet in diameter, and the ball of wind reached Han Li in the blink of an eye.

The enormous wind pressure being released by the ball of wind was causing the surrounding space to screech violently.

However, Han Li was able to swat it away with ease using his purplish-golden arm, and the ball of wind was sent flying into the distance before exploding into a scintillating white sun, releasing such powerful shockwaves that everything within a radius of around half a kilometer was razed to the ground.

Yang Deer's expression darkened even further upon seeing this.

Right at this moment, Han Li made a hand seal, and bright purplish-golden light radiated from his entire body.

Once the purplish-golden light faded, a fiendcelestial-like being with three heads and six arms appeared in Han Li's place. The creature's entire body was covered in purplish-golden scales, and there was a horn on each of its three heads.

The fearsome being cast a cold gaze toward Yang Deer before striding toward it, and with each step it took, its body would swell drastically in size. After only around a dozen steps, it had expanded to be no lesser in size than Yang Deer.

"This is my most powerful form, and this is where the true battle begins; I wonder how many attacks you'll be able to take from me," Han Li said as green light flashed from one of his arms, and a dark green wooden sword appeared.

With just a slight slash, the sword sent a burst of law fluctuations surging forth in all directions, and Yang Deer's heart immediately sank as it identified Han Li's True Devil Physique and Profound Heavenly Treasure.

......

Elsewhere, within a crimson fiery cloud that encompassed an area with a radius of close to 10 kilometers, streaks of silver sword Qi were surging through the air amid rumbling thunderclaps.

All of a sudden, all of the sword Qi converged to form a massive silver sword that was over 10,000 feet in length above the fiery cloud before slashing downward.

At the same time, a wyrm with crimson feelers all over its body flew out of the fiery cloud amid a thunderous roar before blasting balls of lightning out of its mouth toward the giant silver sword.

The sword instantly transformed into a silver sword barrier that appeared beneath the wyrm before slicing the entire fiery cloud in half.

Immediately thereafter, the giant sword vanished, and an ordinary-looking grey-robed man appeared in its place.

The man was drenched in sweat, and close to half of his body had gone missing. The cross-section of the wound was completely charred black without any blood flowing out of it, and he was looking up at the completely stationary wyrm up above with a hint of lingering fear in his eyes.

"This is a Fire Whisker Beast, a sacred being among fire-attribute beasts; it must have been brought into this realm by that true immortal. It's a pity that it's just a puppet without any intelligence. Otherwise, there's no way I would've been able to defeat it unless I used my Nine Tribulation Spirit Vanquishing Arts. Even so..." The grey-robed man looked down at his own body, which wasn't showing any signs of recovering despite the regenerative secret technique he was using, and a wry smile appeared on his face.

Right at this moment, the giant wyrm up above shuddered before exploding into countless pieces, sending waves of crimson flames sweeping through the area in all directions.

The grey-robed man was very alarmed to see this, and he immediately transformed into the massive silver sword again before tearing his way out of the sea of flames.

Only after a full 15 minutes had passed did the crimson sea of flames gradually subside before finally being snuffed out.

At this moment, the grey-robed man reappeared at the spot where the wyrm had once been situated, and his expression darkened significantly as he looked around to find that there was nothing left.

After pausing momentarily, he heaved a forlorn sigh before flying away as a streak of light.

......

"Huo Xuzi failed? That's very unexpected," Ma Liang murmured to himself with a surprised expression.

"Hmph, you're unwilling to undo the soul restriction on my body, so I'm unable to unleash even a tenth of my power. Otherwise, how could someone from this lower realm possibly defeat me?" A sharp voice suddenly rang out in response from the nearby space.

Immediately thereafter, several egg-sized crimson fireballs appeared around 10 feet in front of Ma Liang, then converged to form a small crimson humanoid figure, who appraised Ma Liang in an expressionless manner.

"Hmph, there's no way I would undo the restriction in this realm; I wouldn't take such a risk until at least after I return to the True Immortal Realm. You should be glad that you were able to temporarily regain consciousness. However, I'm going to put your soul to sleep again right away. With your power, just this immortal body of yours will be enough to support me," Ma Liang harrumphed coldly, then opened his mouth to release a burst of golden light.

As soon as the golden light came into contact with the crimson figure, the cold look in its eyes faded and was replaced by a completely wooden expression.

Ma Liang then swept a sleeve through the air to release several golden talismans, all of which adhered themselves to the crimson figure's body.

Immediately thereafter, he pulled out a blue jade box, and after the lid was removed, a burst of white Qi surged out of the box before drawing the crimson figure into it.

After that, Ma Liang stowed the jade box away before looking up into the sky, upon which his brows furrowed slightly.

Several battles were still raging around him, and at this point, the eight five-clawed blood dragons and four blood giants had been completely forced onto the back foot.

Furthermore, they had been forced to retreat back to the river of blood by the opposing Grand Ascension Stage beings, and they were only just barely able to hold their ground by relying upon the endless supply of energy flowing into their bodies from the river of blood.

However, it was clear that they wouldn't be able to last much longer.

Ma Liang quickly inspected all of the battles taking place around the river of blood, then turned toward a palm-sized light screen right beside him.

A giant devilish creature with three heads and six arms was depicted on the screen, holding a huge dark green sword in one hand, and half of a massive beast carcass in the other.

"That's a Profound Heavenly Treasure being wielded by someone with a True Devil Physique! I didn't think that the guardians of the formation cores would be so troublesome to deal with. It looks like I have no choice but to undo the seal on myself again. Seeing as I've already found my target, there's no need for me to hold back any longer," Ma Liang murmured to himself before flipping a hand over to summon a shimmering golden talisman.