Han Li had no intention of pursuing the Silver-winged Yaksha. On the one hand, it was no longer confined to one spot, so the Three Flame Fan alone wouldn't be enough to easily finish it off. On the other hand…
His gaze shifted, and he looked toward the Cry Soul Beast, a faint smile on his face.
One of the beast's massive hands was clutching a whitish object, waving it around ceaselessly.
Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a small white horse with tender-looking flesh and jade-green eyes, roughly half a foot in length.
It was clearly the ultimate prize of this venture — the Yin Zhi Ma, a spiritual creature renowned for its ability to conceal itself.
As it turned out, the creature had been incredibly unlucky. Right when the teleportation began, it had returned to the corpse wolf's body to take shelter. As a result, when the Cry Soul Beast used the yellow glow from its nostrils to sweep up the corpse energy, the Yin Zhi Ma had been swept out along with it.
If Han Li hadn't been sharp-eyed and immediately shouted to stop the Cry Soul Beast, the creature would have been swallowed whole in one gulp.
As for Han Li's two flying swords that had been trapped, he had taken advantage of the Silver-winged Yaksha's distraction during the teleportation and recalled them with a single command of his spiritual sense. However, the Nascent Soul of the black-robed beauty — also restrained by the Evil Soul Threads — had been swallowed by the Silver-winged Yaksha before it teleported away.
The only thing that truly vexed him was his Crystallized Flying Needle, which the Silver-winged Yaksha had actually snatched and taken along with it.
Fortunately, although this treasure wasn't a life-bound magic weapon, it had still been refined by him. The opponent wouldn't be able to forcibly strip away its spiritual nature in a short time, so the chance of reclaiming it wasn't lost.
At that moment, Han Li scanned the surroundings. The place bore some resemblance to the original underground cavern, but there was no yin wind. Instead, the spiritual energy was astonishingly abundant — it turned out to be an enormous mountain cave, and it seemed to be situated on some top-grade spirit vein.
That surprised him somewhat.
Han Li lowered his gaze to the teleportation formation beneath his feet.
With his expertise in formations, he could tell at a glance that although this massive teleportation formation was vastly different from any he had seen before, it was clearly a one-way receiving formation. In other words, he had been transported here, but there was no way to use it to return to his original location.
Having figured this out, Han Li furrowed his brow slightly. His gaze then swept toward the two massive cocoons.
Strong spiritual energy reactions were still emanating from within, suggesting that Old Man Fu and Bai Yaoyi were still alive.
After a moment's hesitation, he waved his hand toward the Cry Soul Beast and drew the Yin Zhi Ma to his own palm. He then affixed several restriction talismans to it and tossed the creature into a spirit beast pouch.
Having done all this, Han Li raised both hands. Two thick golden arcs shot out, striking the gray giant cocoons.
A tremendous boom rang out as the golden arcs transformed into two golden lightning nets that enveloped the cocoons entirely.
For an instant, the blinding golden light flashed while thunder rumbled without cease.
Without the Silver-winged Yaksha directing them, the Evil Soul Threads began to collapse within the golden light, layer by layer.
Finally, with two thunderous booms, the two giant cocoons detonated one after the other. A man and a woman shot out from within — Old Man Fu and Bai Yaoyi.
Both of them had pale faces and grim expressions.
Anyone trapped for that long by Evil Soul Threads capable of absorbing spiritual energy was bound to suffer. Damage to their magical power was a certainty.
"Thank you, Brother Han, for saving us!" After his expression relaxed, Old Man Fu cupped his fists and spoke.
"If it hadn't been for Brother Han's display of great power this time, I fear we would have all met a grisly end. Who would have thought that a Silver-winged Yaksha was hiding inside the Yin-Yang Cave? Fellow Daoist Yuan and I were caught completely off guard and ambushed from underground by this monster. Fellow Daoist Yuan's Nascent Soul was crushed by it in a single exchange, and he lost his life." Bai Yaoyi also gave Han Li a modest curtsy and spoke with a bitter smile.
Hearing this, Han Li simply smiled faintly.
Although the two of them appeared thoroughly grateful, Han Li could still detect deep wariness lurking in the depths of their eyes.
After all, even though they had been trapped inside the cocoons, they had clearly sensed every detail of Han Li's battle against the Silver-winged Yaksha. Han Li's power to resist it — and his ability to ultimately drive away the flying corpse — was something the two of them combined could never match. On top of that, they had been transported to this unknown, mysterious place, with only the three of them present and no one else. How could they not feel deeply uneasy?
If Han Li were to suddenly turn hostile, they knew their chances of survival would be slim.
But Han Li simply tossed the spirit beast pouch containing the Yin Zhi Ma toward Old Man Fu and said calmly:
"The Yin Zhi Ma is inside. I won't say anything more. If you manage to refine some extra Nurturing Nascent Soul Pills, just leave two for me. Can you agree to that?"
"Two pills? No problem. As long as there really are extras, I, Fu, will definitely leave them for you, Daoist." Old Man Fu's heart eased, and he readily agreed.
"I have no objections either. I'm quite ashamed — I wasn't of much help this time, and it was all thanks to Brother Han. It's only right that you take a larger share." Upon hearing this, Bai Yaoyi also lightly laughed and agreed without hesitation.
"Good. That's settled!" Han Li glanced toward the only exit and narrowed his eyes. "Why don't you two rest and meditate here for now? I'll go ahead and find out what this place is."
"Go ahead, Brother Han. We really have burned through a fair amount of magical power, so we'll meditate for a while." Old Man Fu had no objections whatsoever.
Bai Yaoyi simply nodded and sat down cross-legged.
Han Li smiled. With a surge of cyan light around his body, he transformed into a streak of cyan light and flew out through the exit, releasing his full spiritual sense as he went — just in case the Silver-winged Yaksha was lurking nearby to ambush him.
He wasn't particularly worried about the two of them snatching the Yin Zhi Ma and sneaking away, either. The magical power marks he had planted inside their bodies were still present and would take several more days to dissipate. If either of them made the slightest suspicious move, he would be able to track them down immediately.