Han Li's journey back proved remarkably smooth.
Pushing his escape arts to the limit, he arrived at the stretch of yellow desert once more after just a single day, and there it was — the small Demon Race "node."
From a distance, the "exit" hovering high in midair looked exactly as before. The several dozen demon guards were still dutifully standing watch in the buildings below, seemingly not a thing had changed.
Han Li felt no surprise at this sight.
The black qi across his body scattered, and he once again rolled and transformed into the Heavenly Phoenix. His wings beat once, and he transformed into a streak of faint rosy light that shot straight toward the node.
After a few flickers, the escape light grew hazy and indistinct, until it faded into near-invisibility.
Entering the spatial node was equally uneventful — he slipped inside without the slightest disturbance.
Before long, the Heavenly Phoenix emerged in a swirl of five-colored radiance at the Spirit Realm exit.
But in the instant before he flew out of the node, Han Li's divine sense swept ahead of him.
Just as he had suspected, he truly sensed something, and a cold laugh echoed in his heart.
The rosy light of the Heavenly Phoenix blazed brilliant, and in a flash he vanished within the passage.
The next moment, the void outside the exit rippled, and a figure shrouded in faint cyan light materialized soundlessly.
Han Li had taken on his human form right then and there.
Almost the very instant he appeared, a thunderous shout of "Attack!" rang out from nearby.
Immediately, a chorus of sharp hissing sounds erupted from all directions. Countless black beams of light shot toward him from every side, while a fierce gale howled from above and over a dozen two-headed demon birds dove straight down at him.
From below, two cyan warships several dozen zhang long had also appeared. They trembled once and spat out two pitch-black beams of light from their prows — the beams flashed and were upon him in the blink of an eye.
In the vicinity of this node exit, several hundred demon guards had materialized at some unknown point, and the instant Han Li appeared, they unleashed a devastating bombardment.
Yet Han Li seemed to have anticipated this all along. Facing such a ferocious assault, the corner of his mouth actually curved upward into a faint smile.
One sleeve swept forward before him.
Gray rosy light surged forth from the void and instantly coalesced into a crystalline barrier of light, shielding his entire figure within.
Then, paying no heed whatsoever to the beams from below and the black light from every direction, his other hand simply flicked its fingers casually toward the massive demon birds plunging from above.
Sharp whistling broke the air!
Over a dozen arcs of cyan sword light shot out from his fingertips.
The diving demon birds barely registered a blinding flash before their bodies grew cold and they were cleaved in two.
A rain of blood, along with the severed remains of the demon birds, showered down from the sky.
Several high-ranking demons watching from afar turned deathly pale.
These two-headed demon birds each had bodies harder than steel — ordinarily, no ordinary technique could so much as scratch them. Yet now they had been sliced apart as easily as that.
It was absolutely terrifying.
But what truly left them slack-jawed was this: the dense storm of black beams, along with those two impossibly thick pillars of light, all struck the gray barrier around Han Li's body and, with a flicker, vanished into it without so much as a ripple. It was as if the gray barrier had devoured them entirely.
"No good — that's a Body Integration stage monster! Fall back, now!" one of the high-ranking demons blurted out in alarm.
These high-ranking demons were none other than the four Deity Transformation stage demon commanders and the Void Refinement stage dual-horned demon who had led the army to repel the Wood Race attack just a few days prior.
After their crushing victory over the Wood Race, they had naturally discovered that the guards watching the "node" had mysteriously vanished, which had sent them into a panic.
They had no idea what had happened, but if something had gone wrong at the node, the responsibility would fall squarely on their shoulders.
After a hurried discussion, they had not only sent word to the nearest demon encampments but had personally led elite forces to re-seal this exit.
The whole affair bore the flavor of locking the barn after the horse was stolen — they had never actually expected to catch anyone.
But what they least expected was that Han Li had spent only two or three short days in the Demon Realm before turning around and heading straight back, crashing headlong into the encirclement they had just finished setting up.
At first, these demons had been startled yet delighted. But the moment the dual-horned demon discerned Han Li's true cultivation level, their souls were scattered by terror.
The high-ranking demons exchanged a cold glance. demonic qi flared across their bodies, and they simultaneously transformed into streaks of black light, rocketing backward in retreat.
For fear of alerting Han Li, they had not even warned a single one of their subordinates.
But Han Li's divine sense was far too powerful. Having detected the ambush outside well in advance, he had already locked his gaze upon these leading demons.
The very instant their escape lights ignited, his eyes swept toward them with icy precision.
"You want to run? Don't even dream about it!"