Not only the cultivator surnamed Min, but the pockmarked old man and the vicious man surnamed Xuan all had their hearts leap into their throats, unsure whether their words might have angered the young man before them.
The other party might very well be the Insect Demon himself!
"Interesting. It seems this Insect Demon truly has quite the fearsome reputation. I wonder — do you fellow Daoists happen to know what this Insect Demon looks like? Do the flying insects he commands resemble mine?" Far from being angry, Han Li actually chuckled softly.
"What he looks like? No one's ever described it in detail. I think he has a rather plain appearance? As for the flying insects — they seem to be gold and silver in color? Wait, your beetles are three-colored. Then you really aren't that demon lord, are you?" The cultivator surnamed Min had been stammering at first, but now that he noticed the difference between this man and the Insect Demon, he couldn't help but cry out in surprise.
The pockmarked old man and the vicious man realized this at the same time, and their spirits lifted accordingly.
If this person wasn't the Insect Demon, then their lives were considerably more secure.
"Thank you, fellow Daoists, for telling me so honestly. I have matters to attend to, so I won't keep you. However, I hope you three will keep our encounter today to yourselves. I'd rather not be mistaken for the Insect Demon and hunted down. Surely you can understand!"
Han Li gazed up at the sky, as if pondering something. A moment later he lowered his head and spoke words that sent the pockmarked old man's group into wild joy.
"Of course. We will keep our mouths firmly shut. We absolutely won't cause you any trouble. Then, we brothers will take our leave first." The pockmarked old man suppressed the excitement in his heart and ventured a hopeful question.
Han Li smiled faintly and nodded. The three across from him silently rejoiced, bowed to Han Li, then scrambled to their feet and flew away.
A short while later, on the far side of the small island, the pockmarked old man and his two companions led their group of disciples and, unable to wait a moment longer, flew off the island and streaked into the distant sky.
Han Li had risen at some point as well. He stood motionless in place, watching, and only when their lights of escape had completely vanished did his expression suddenly darken.
Taking the lives of these cultivators would have been child's play. But Han Li had no intention of striking.
He was not the type to revel in killing!
Besides, whether or not they revealed his whereabouts here — it simply didn't matter.
Because this stretch of sea was in the opposite direction from his cave dwelling. Had he run into these three near the Fog Sea islands, he would not have let a single one of them leave alive.
Moreover, he had already decided to return to his cave and enter seclusion. For the next twenty or thirty years at least, he had no plans to emerge.
Let those looking to cause him trouble waste their time in the Outer Star Seas!
Though he had to admit — "Insect Demon" was quite the sinister title they'd given him.
But aside from the Biyun Sect cultivators he had been forced to exterminate with his Gold Devouring Beetles, when had he ever killed anyone for their treasures?
Someone was clearly framing him!
This made Han Li more than a little stifled with anger, even if he wasn't quite foaming at the mouth.
Thinking it over, the only enemies he had in the Outer Star Seas seemed to be the Biyun Sect.
Years ago, owing to the danger posed by high-level demon beasts, Han Li had not ventured too deep into the Outer Star Seas' oceanic regions. He had stayed in the outer areas, using his Rainbow Skirt Grass to continuously lure beasts and extract their cores.
Then, one time, just as he had trapped a seventh-level demon beast, he happened upon a group of seven or eight high-level cultivators at the Core Formation stage. They arrogantly declared themselves Biyun Sect cultivators and, struck by greed, decided to kill him for his treasures.
Han Li had no choice but to release over a hundred thousand Gold Devouring Beetles to destroy them.
In his view, once you started killing, it was best to wipe out all the witnesses.
But to his surprise, although he had annihilated most of them, the late-stage Core Formation cultivator among them happened to possess an ancient treasure of considerable power for protection. In the chaos, the man managed to break through the swarm of beetles and escape with his life.
Han Li knew well enough that this so-called Biyun Sect was one of the major powers on Qiyuan Island.
Left with no alternative, he had risked venturing into the deep ocean to escape this newly made enemy.
He supposed he had been lucky. In his years of roaming the deep sea, he had never once encountered a demon beast of the eighth level or above.
The most dangerous incident had been when he accidentally lured several seventh-level beasts at once.
It had kept him frantically busy for quite a while, but with his Gold Devouring Beetles and magic treasures deployed, he had ultimately dealt with them without incident.
After all those years of hunting in the deep sea, he had finally accumulated several hundred demon cores from sixth- and seventh-level beasts — more than enough to refine pills, with plenty to spare. And the materials harvested from all those beasts had piled up considerably as well.