Three days later, Han Li departed Heavenly Abyss City with Silver Moon, the Crab Daoist, Bai Guo'er, and Li Rong, heading straight for the Xu family.
Han Li had already made inquiries, and learned that after the Devil Tribe's retreat, the Xu family had returned to their original clan estate.
After passing through several cities via teleportation arrays and traveling for a mere half month, Han Li's group arrived at the Xu family seat.
The moment his name was announced, the entire Xu family erupted into a frenzy of excitement.
Not only did the Xu family patriarch Xu Jiao and Xu Qianyu rush out to greet him, but every last one of the Xu family Elders filed out close behind without a single absence.
Among them were none other than Xu Yan and Xu Huo, who had met Han Li in years past.
It seemed the Xu family had not lost much of their true strength during the Devil Tribulation.
"Junior greets Senior Han. It is the greatest honor for the entire Xu family that Senior has graced us with his presence." Xu Jiao bowed deeply to Han Li with utmost deference, and the rest of the Elders followed suit, their faces alight with a mixture of excitement and reverence as they paid their respects.
If the Xu family had once been able to maintain a measure of pride in their status as a great human clan when Han Li had visited as a Body Integration cultivator, then before a Mahayana cultivator such as Han Li now was, they could truly only feel trepidation and awe. Not a single one of them dared let slip the slightest expression that might displease him.
Han Li and his companions were ushered directly into the main hall that the Xu family reserved for distinguished guests.
Han Li took the seat of honor without ceremony, then addressed the Xu family patriarch standing beside him in an even tone: "You should understand quite well why I have come. I have already heard Fairy Xu recount the matter concerning Fellow Daoist Blood Soul once before, but I would like the Xu family to tell me the story once more, so that I might see whether anything was left out."
"Junior obeys." Xu Jiao dared not delay and began to recount the events in careful detail.
Han Li listened with focused attention to every last detail.
After the time it took to drink a cup of tea, he waited until the patriarch had finished completely before speaking with a trace of gravity: "So in other words, besides asking you to deliver the Void Heaven Cauldron to me, Fellow Daoist Blood Soul also said that I alone might be able to awaken her?"
"Yes, Senior. Although Blood Soul is an avatar of our ancestors with cultivation only around the Void Refining stage, her body exists in a state between solid and ethereal, which originally made her extremely difficult to injure. But this time, Senior Blood Soul apparently fell victim to some unknown sinister art. Her body's surface appears entirely unharmed, yet black qi pervades her form from within, and she has remained in a deep coma the entire time — truly bizarre. Junior has exhausted every method at his disposal with absolutely no effect whatsoever. I humbly beg Senior, for the sake of Ancestor Ice Soul, to extend your aid and rescue her." Xu Jiao spoke with the utmost caution and respect.
"Hearing you describe it this way, I find myself quite intrigued by the cause of Fellow Daoist Blood Soul's coma. Let me see her current condition with my own eyes first. If there truly is a way to save her, I will not begrudge the effort." Han Li offered a faint smile and made no attempt to decline.
"Many thanks for Senior's great grace. Junior will lead the way at once." Xu Jiao was overjoyed and thanked him profusely.
"Brother Crab, come with me to have a look. Silver Moon, Guo'er, Fellow Daoist Li — the three of you remain here for now." Han Li nodded, then issued his instructions to Silver Moon and the others.
"Very well. Little sister will wait here for now with Guo'er and Fellow Daoist Li." Silver Moon agreed obediently.
As for Li Rong and Bai Guo'er, they naturally dared not voice any objection and likewise nodded in assent.
The assembled Xu family cultivators had long since noticed Silver Moon and the others. Because their cultivation was so vastly different from their own, aside from sensing that the auras emanating from these women were equally unfathomable, they could not discern their true levels of cultivation. Secretly shocked, they treated the group with the same exceptional respect, not daring to show the slightest lapse in courtesy.
After leaving several senior women behind specifically to keep Silver Moon, Li Rong, and the others company, Xu Jiao led the remaining Elders as they guided Han Li and the Crab Daoist toward the Xu family's forbidden grounds.
Deep within the lowest reaches of the Xu family estate, in an underground stone hall, Han Li appeared alongside Xu Jiao and the others.
At the center of the hall sat a crystalline, translucent jade coffin, resting in silence.
Inside the crystal coffin lay a woman dressed in white, her eyes shut tightly, a faint layer of black qi shrouding her form.
It was none other than the Blood Soul avatar that Ice Soul Fairy had created long ago.
Han Li walked up to the crystal coffin in just a few steps. The moment he came within a zhang of it, he immediately felt wave upon wave of biting cold radiating from within.
"Ten-thousand-year mystic ice!" Han Li swept his gaze across the crystal coffin and asked without the slightest change in expression.
"Senior's discerning eye is truly keen. This is indeed a ten-thousand-year mystic ice coffin. It is the only thing capable of slowing the continuous weakening of Senior Blood Soul's aura, which is why Junior arranged for it..." Xu Jiao hastily explained.
"The power of extreme cold has an inherent suppressive effect on most injuries. When the true symptoms were unknown, placing Fellow Daoist Blood Soul in a ten-thousand-year mystic ice coffin was a sensible course of action." Han Li nodded noncommittally.
By now his gaze had settled on the white-clad woman within the coffin.
Blood Soul at this moment not only had her eyes tightly shut and her face suffused with black qi, but between her brows there now appeared a strange blood-pattern mark, flickering in and out of visibility, with a faint blood-red glow intermittently seeping through her skin.