When Liu Zu witnessed this scene, he immediately sent a sweep of spiritual sense toward Mu Qing's hiding spot, and his eyes lit up!
"Good! Fellow Daoist Mu's Heavenly Chaos Leaf restriction is truly marvelous. As long as that Nether Lightning Beast isn't deliberately searching this area, it indeed cannot discover us." Liu Zu's face was flush with elation as he spoke. He then signaled the rest of the group, and they flew toward the green barrier of light.
The two blood-robed figures, the purple-blood puppet, and the white-haired beauty all followed close behind.
A flash of green light, and the group vanished mysteriously into the void.
Han Li was left standing alone at the original spot.
But after a short while, the black bead between his brows flickered once, and he drifted upward toward the top of the black barrier. He then floated in midair quite brazenly, remaining perfectly still.
Under the concealment of the restriction, Liu Zu and the other demon kings each drew a blood-red short blade from their bodies.
They were no longer than three feet, with curled edges and a peculiar, unusual design.
At a signal, each of them channeled demonic power into the blood blades in their hands. Blood-colored radiance immediately blazed forth, trembling ceaselessly, as if they were blood serpents writhing and flicking their tails in their grips.
The blood blades hummed low, and all the demon kings assumed ready stances, poised for action.
None of them noticed that Han Li, who appeared lifeless in the air above, had quietly moved both hands within his sleeves.
In one hand, a silver talisman materialized with a flash of spiritual light, while seven or eight small azure beads rolled silently into the other.
Han Li had not actually lost his spiritual sense at all—he still retained full conscious awareness.
However, at this moment, he was cursing inwardly while grappling with indecision.
Earlier, when Mu Qing and the others had restrained his body and that sliver of black light had pierced into him, he had truly believed his fate was sealed.
But he had never expected that the black light would only cloud his spiritual sense for a brief moment. Once the black bead had embedded itself between his brows, the Destruction Dharma Eye hidden within his skull had spontaneously activated, absorbing every last thread of the soul-capturing black filaments that the bead continuously released.
His spiritual sense had immediately returned to perfect clarity.
Han Li himself found this somewhat bewildering. But once Liu Zu had mentioned that the bead was refined from the third demonic eye of the Cilie beast, he understood at once.
Possessing the Destruction Dharma Eye himself, he was naturally able to neutralize and absorb the powers unleashed by a treasure of the same origin—there was nothing strange about that.
Liu Zu might have been cunning and ruthless, but he could never have imagined that Han Li himself cultivated the Destruction Dharma Eye.
With a flash of thought, Han Li decided to play along with the ruse, to see whether he could use this restrained state as cover to find a good opportunity to escape.
Yet he had never anticipated that Liu Zu and the others would actually want him to serve as bait for some "Nether Lightning Beast."
Although this was the first time Han Li had heard the creature's name, the fact that even Liu Zu was visibly terrified of it spoke volumes about how fearsome the beast must be.
In his heart, the last thing he wanted was to play the sacrificial lamb. But with several demon kings glaring at him like tigers eyeing prey, the slightest abnormality would surely be detected by Liu Zu and the others. They naturally possessed more than just the Cilie eye as a means of controlling spiritual sense. If they turned to other secret techniques to restrain him, things would truly become catastrophic.
Although the Brahma Saint True Devil Art could lock his spiritual sense tightly within his soul, having his soul scattered to nothingness—whether out of the enemies' fury—would be no better an outcome.
Han Li's face betrayed no expression whatsoever, but his thoughts raced endlessly as he felt the extraordinarily surging spiritual power within his body.
He had no idea what kind of blood talisman the old monster Di Xue had inscribed on him, but simply heating his blood had caused the spiritual power inside him to surge by nearly half. This startled Han Li!
Although secret techniques that temporarily boosted one's cultivation always came with side effects, in such a dangerous situation, having his power increased was hardly a bad thing.
And besides that…
The hand gripping the silver talisman flashed once more, and a small white-tinged banner about an inch long materialized as well.
It was the Heaven and Earth Banner!
The banner looked utterly unremarkable, but judging by Liu Zu's words and the white-haired beauty's obvious reluctance to part with it, the treasure was clearly of immense rarity.
Whether it was because the treasure simply could not be refined, or because the white-haired beauty had deliberately left it unrefined, there was not a single trace of spiritual sense embedded in it. When Han Li sent a sweep of spiritual sense over the small banner, he discovered that operating it was extremely simple—he should be able to unleash its power with ease.
Since Liu Zu had instructed the white-haired beauty to hand this treasure over to him, it was obvious that it could offer some protection against the Nether Lightning Beast. Otherwise there would have been no point.
With this treasure in hand, along with the few contingency moves he had prepared himself, if he committed fully to escape, it was not entirely impossible to flee from the Nether Lightning Beast's jaws. The beast likely did not possess extraordinary speed—it should give him enough of a window to put some distance between them.
Otherwise, there would have been no reason for Liu Zu and the others to go through all this trouble.
On the other hand, if he made a sudden move and the demon kings discovered his deception, while escape was not entirely out of the question, with a mark imprinted inside his body, where could he truly run? It would be far better to risk it all and continue the pretense.
As long as he could shake off the Nether Lightning Beast's pursuit and separate himself from the demon kings, he could temporarily suppress the mark and shift from the open into the shadows. Then he could seize the opportunity to snatch Yuan Yao and Yan Li and flee, ultimately preserving his life.
Han Li's face showed no emotion at all, but his decision was finally made in his heart.
And just at that moment, Liu Zu and the others below finally made their move.
With a low shout, the several blood blades trembled and simultaneously shot out thick beams of blood-colored light, slashing savagely against the black barrier.
Clearly, these blood blades were treasures the demon kings had specifically prepared to counter this restriction.