Han Li floated several zhang away, his body aglow with swirling arcs of electricity, the golden arcs dazzling and brilliant, as if the god of thunder had descended. Upon contact, the surrounding magical clouds were instantly cleared, revealing a space of over ten zhang in size, completely enclosing the elder within. "Ah!" the elderly scholar in green robes gasped, realizing the situation was now dire, and immediately his spiritual light flickered as he hurried to retreat. Yet, Han Li had ventured so far, risking his life to reach this very spot—how could he allow the elder to escape so easily? With a sudden shift in stance, Han Li materialized in a series of phantom images, closing the distance to the elder's body. Raising both hands, a surge of purple flame and a streak of golden light shot forth simultaneously. Seeing Han Li move with such speed, the elder was startled, and without hesitation, he exhaled a ball of white vapor, which instantly formed a shimmering, jade-like wall on the ancient shield before him, now standing between Han Li and himself. The purple flame flashed and struck the light wall without ceremony. A soft "crack" sounded, and to the elder's astonishment, a remarkable scene unfolded. Purple cold air rapidly spread across the light wall, and within moments, a thick layer of ice swiftly covered the entire structure, sealing the ancient green shield inside. "What kind of technique is this? How remarkably powerful it is!" the elder exclaimed, growing increasingly amazed. A second golden beam then surged toward the scene. With a gentle "pffft," the golden light vanished instantly against the ice wall. Yet, immediately afterward, a streak of golden light suddenly appeared before the elder. The elderly scholar with the green robe jolted, his body instinctively leaping aside. Then, he felt a sudden chill on his shoulder, followed by an unbearable, sharp pain. Panicking, he swiftly turned his gaze, only to see one of his arms severed by the golden light. Had he not reacted swiftly, his head would have surely fallen off. A golden light spiraled upward and shot toward the sky, revealing a slender, sword-like blade just an inch long. As he turned back, he noticed a small hole had appeared in the ice wall before him. The brilliance of the light was truly incisive, penetrating both the ice wall and the luminous shield formed by the ancient shield as if it had passed through nothing at all—so astonishing it was hard to believe. Yet the elder could not pause to marvel. At this moment, he was filled with shock and rage. He quickly cast a seal upon himself to stem the bleeding, then gritted his teeth and fixed his gaze on the direction where Han Li should have been, determined to crush him into a thousand fragments in retribution for the broken arm. Yet as his eyes swept across the space ahead, there was nothing there—Han Li had vanished completely. "Unfortunate!" The elder felt his heart sink, a cold dread rising from deep within. Without further searching for Han Li, he swiftly reached into his storage pouch, reaching for a precious item to shield himself. But it was already too late. A low, barely audible rumble echoed behind the young scholar as his protective luminous aura was suddenly shattered. A palm enveloped in violet flame burst forth from behind, piercing his chest with the suddenness of a thunderbolt, instantly spreading a wave of icy cold that froze him solid from within. The elder felt a sharp, needle-like pain spreading across his entire body, rendering him completely immobile, his heart filled with growing dread. At this moment, the strangely positioned Han Li, who had been behind him, showed no intention of sparing him. With a gentle sweep of his robe, a golden electric grid descended over his head. Where the electric arcs flashed and burst, the violet ice crumbled into fragments. A baby, glowing in black light, shot out from the shattered ice, only to rush urgently toward instantaneous teleportation. However, Han Li, fully anticipating this, issued a sharp command, causing the grid's brilliance to intensify. The elder's immortal essence, upon teleporting, plunged directly into the golden net, unable to break free and escape. Han Li's lips flashed with coldness. With a swift gesture of his hands, the golden net suddenly contracted and then burst apart. The elder's Yuan-Embryo body was instantly dissolved into nothingness amidst the flashing golden light. From the moment the elder had launched a surprise attack on Han Li, to Han Li's unforgiving counterattack that eliminated the mid-stage elder in the green robe, it had only taken a brief moment. The yellow-robed Han and the two mountain spirits from Fang Jian had no time to offer any rescue. Witnessing Han Li so effortlessly defeat a Yuan-Embryo stage peer, both of them were deeply startled, their faces turning pale. The yellow-robed elder, without further hesitation, briefly moved his lips to transmit a few words, then, together with the Heavenly Wind True Sovereign caught in the gale, abandoned their pursuit of Xuan Ye King and immediately withdrew their treasures. Both of them shot backward into the sand mist, vanishing from sight. Though severely wounded and having suffered setbacks earlier, Xuan Ye King managed to withstand several attacks from the divine artifacts, thanks to the resilience of his Shēi Wang body. Yet, the elder demon now gazed at Han Li with a peculiar expression. Though deeply astonished, a subtle sense of unease had begun to stir within him. He had always believed that, even if he himself had not sustained serious injuries and were still within the tomb, he could never have matched the effortless mastery displayed by this man in eliminating a peer-level cultivator—let alone a Yuan婴 cultivator entirely. Han Li’s abilities and tactics had left the elder demon chilled to the core. "Could this young man be a late-stage Yuan婴 cultivator?" the King of Xuanye thought, reexamining Han Li closely. Yet, the truth was, Han Li was indeed at the mid-Yuan婴 stage. This clearly indicated that the seemingly youthful cultivator possessed an astonishing array of techniques, rivalling even those of late-stage Yuan婴 cultivators. The elder demon paused, drawing a deep breath. Fortunately, he had only dispatched his avatar to seek out this individual. If he himself had been personally engaged in the pursuit by the Jade Diamond Shield, the outcome would have been disastrous. Since returning to the mountain range, he had been unable to sense either of the two avatars. It seems that they have already been slain. Xin Ye Wang felt somewhat uneasy, instinctively blaming Han Li for the disappearance of the two manifested forms. As he hesitated, preparing to speak to Han Li, sudden and remarkable changes occurred in the surrounding spell arrays, drawing his full attention away. Suddenly, the originally yellowish, hazy sand mist underwent a dramatic transformation. The dull haze cleared, and the waves of sand vanished, revealing instead the previously dark sand grains that had once confined Han Li's sword. These dark grains, unlike the dense yellow sand, each shimmered with a cold, deep black glow, densely scattered throughout the mist, creating an eerie atmosphere. As these dark grains emerged, the cries of ghosts and wolves grew louder, and the black sand mist surged forward with powerful momentum, pressing steadily toward the center. "Unfortunate! The old sand spirit has released all the souls-of-sand and incorporated them into the spell. My friend, these souls-of-sand cannot be resisted by ordinary法宝." He could only rely on his own cultivation to absorb the onslaught directly. However, with so many falling souls of sand summoned, his spiritual power would surely be strained and could not last long. As long as he endured several fierce attacks, he would be safe. "With that said," the King of XuanYe's face tightened, and he urgently called out to Han Li. Now that he and Han Li were both trapped on the same vessel, he naturally didn't want his powerful ally to suffer any mishap. Having witnessed Han Li successfully break through the sand with a golden arc before, he now doubted whether Han Li could withstand this wave of numerous falling soul sands solely through those arcs. As soon as he opened his mouth, thick, fist-sized clumps of gray-white corpse flame erupted outward, coalescing within a blink into a massive fireball that enveloped him. Only his meticulously cultivated, millennia-old corpse flame could withstand the relentless assault of the falling soul sand. During this brief delay, the dark, misty sand fog swiftly submerged the old demon completely. The blazing flames and dark light intertwined and flashed, occasionally exploding with thunderous roars, creating an intensely fierce battle. At this moment, however, Han Li's form slowly retreated toward the center in the air. After a while, when he reached the point where further retreat was impossible, he raised his eyebrows and suddenly struck his jade bag at his waist. A dark glow shot out from the bag's opening, spiraled once, and settled before him, revealing a small black monkey. The monkey, only a few inches tall, looked visibly reluctant—exactly the啼魂 (Tí Hún) spirit beast that had previously been refining the corpse flame within the Diamond Shield. Forced out of its meditation by Han Li's divine awareness, it had been abruptly summoned, naturally deeply displeased. But shortly thereafter, the Ti-Hun Beast sniffed the air several times, then scanned the vast expanse of dark sand mist pressing down around it. At once, a look of delight spread across its face. Without any prompting from Han Li's divine consciousness, it slammed both hands against its chest, emitting a deep, resonant roar. Its black spines shimmered continuously, and its form surged dramatically, expanding into a colossal ape towering over ten zhang in height. The ghost-faced patterns on its back became clearly visible, and as its body moved, it seemed to come alive. Whether it was the two yellow-robed men concealed within the sand mist, poised and ready to strike, or King Xuanye, desperately defending against the falling soul sand, all were struck with quiet astonishment upon witnessing the ape's magnificent emergence. As they pondered the purpose behind Han Li's summoning of this mysterious spiritual creature, the giant ape already exhaled a broad sweep of golden-hued light from its nostrils, forming a radiant, swirling halo that instantly encircled and protected both Han Li and itself. The surging black sand mist finally pressed down with great force, yet as soon as it touched Huang Xia, thick, dense black vapors erupted, swiftly swept up and absorbed by the radiant light. As the black vapors dispersed, the sand grains glowing with faint streaks of light became clearly visible within the mist. Seeing this, the giant ape opened its mouth with no hesitation and expelled a brilliant golden beam of light. Where the beam fell, the mist parted and dust settled; the black sand offered no resistance, being violently drawn into and swallowed whole by the ape's mouth. In moments, after repeated sweeps by both the radiance and the beam, the black sand mist was shattered and scattered, its dark energy dissipated, unable to approach Han Li's presence at all. Meanwhile, the nearby sand mist, enriched with absorbed dark energy and sand, gradually shifted from black to yellow. The sand-wandering cultivator and Tianfeng True Sovereign, concealed within the mist and now close to the edge of the sand plain, could only stand in awe.