Under these current circ.u.mstances, being able to unleash such a ferocious insect will be very useful in protecting his life. As Han Li’s heart stirred, the small flag in his hand grew several times in size and the matured Gold Devouring Beetle revolved once around him before landing on the banner. Black Qi surged around the banner and then the beetle disappeared without a trace.
Soon after, Han Li unceremoniously tossed the banner towards his black-green Nascent Soul and it opened its mouth with a laugh, absorbing the Yin Sifting Banner into its body. Then in a flash of light, the Nascent Soul flew onto the top of Han Li’s head and disappeared from sight.
Han Li took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He began to comprehend the incantation to dissolve the Pestilence Demons Soullock Seal in case of future mishaps, but then his expression stirred and he turned his head to the sky.
Although his cultivation was sealed, this hadn’t affected Han Li’s powerful spiritual sense. If he were correct, a Soaring Tribes cultivator had flown above the Grey Heron Tribe’s escort once more.
He found this quite interesting. This Soaring Tribes cultivator was clearly looking for him. Over the last two weeks, they would fly above the carriage every three days or so, but they would rush away each time. They didn’t ask any questions to the mortals in the escort either, saving Han Li the effort of using any of the concealment techniques he prepared.
Although he felt puzzled by this, Han Li was happy with their search methods and promptly closed his eyes once more.
At that moment, Ying Lu loudly shouted to the rest of the escort, “Muster yourselves! In two days, we’ll arrive at the designated temple encampment. When we get there, we can rest safely for a few days.”
‘Temple encampment?’ When Han Li heard this, his heart stirred. After muttering to himself for a moment, he paid this no further mind and focused again on comprehending the incantation.
Half a day later, Han Li sensed a nearby escort from another tribe. The escort didn’t appear very large but they did have a dozen more members than the Grey Heron Tribe’s escort. From the direction they were heading in, they should meet with the Grey Heron Tribe in about two hours, but because they appeared harmless, Han Li hadn’t mention it to Ying Lu.
About two hours later, the two escorts ran across one another, causing quite the disturbance. Both sides scrambled into formation, but it turned out that Ying Lu and the leader of the Red Wolf Tribe’s escort were old friends. The two were overjoyed by their meeting and decided to travelled together.
The Red Wolf Tribe’s leader, a large man with a full beard, glanced at Ying Lu’s carriages and curiously asked, “Brother Ying, do you have an Immortal with your tribe? Is he on a carriage?”
Ying Lu didn’t answer but asked, “Your tribe’s Immortals aren’t on your carriages? Did you bring them on the journey?”
“Immortals?” The large man glanced at Ying Lu with slanted eyes and muttered, “There was only one and he was an unaffiliated Immortal that I only acquired by abandoning my pride and paying him at great cost. Could it be that you have two Immortals?” As the two were friends, he spoke without reserve.
“Two?” Ying Lu sighed and said, “I only have one of course. I’ve only managed to barely have him agree to protect us on this journey as well.” The two then bitterly laughed with a sense of mutual suffering.
Ying Lu then added on, “Alright. We are now only a day away from the encampment and nothing else should happen. But after that, we will pa.s.s by the territory of a large tribe along the way. It will be best to be a bit careful. How about we travel together with a few other small tribes along that way? It will be safer, not to mention that we have an Immortal in our ranks.”
The large man hesitated for a moment and asked, “Can I give this some thought? The last time I joined together with many small tribes, I was drawn into trouble because one of the tribes was carrying some incredibly precious goods.”
“Brother Ba’s fears are something that rarely ever happens,” Ying Lu shook his head in disapproval and said, “The odds of small tribes like ours to carry something precious are far lower than our chances getting robbed regardless.”
“Fine, I’ll give the matter some further thought.” Tribe Leader Ba replied.
At that moment, the two tribe’s escorts were travelling together and were having friendly chats with one another. The particularly beautiful women of the two tribes were being crowded around by the young men and they would occasionally give off a clear laugh.
Since these women were picked to present the tribute, they were naturally among the most beautiful in the tribe. It was no surprise that the men amongst them were filled with excitement.
When Ying Lu heard the laughter, he couldn’t help but shake his head and thought to tell them to quiet down for fear that they would offend the Immortal in the carriage. But then, a strange shriek cried out from above and was clearly heard by everyone in the two parties.
When Ying Lu heard this, his expression vastly changed and he turned to glance at Tribe Leader Ba at his side. The large man’s expression appeared unsightly as well and was filled with terror.
“Everyone, get down from your horses and hide!” Ying Lu hurriedly cried out, “They are Simian Vultures! Quickly call for Immortal Han to come out!”
At that moment, Tribe Leader Ba loudly cried out to his own tribe, “Hide in the carriages! Quickly call out Immortal Feng to deal with these demon birds.”
At the very name of the Simian Vultures, the tribes were thrown into a flurry. All of them dismounted from their horses in terror with some even tumbling down from their horse. Then they lied on their stomachs or hid into the carriages as they looked to the skies with pale complexions.
There were three black dots in the sky that grew larger to the eye as time pa.s.sed by. In nearly an instant, they could be made out to be three demon birds.
They had the head of an ape and the body of a bird. Their wings spanned six meters long and they had a pair of fur-colored ape arms on their body. They loudly bellowed with blood-curdling screams, inciting terror in anyone who heard them.
Although Simian Vultures were only grade two demon birds, they were far more cruel and intelligent than other demon beasts of their rank. Not only were they extraordinarily strong and capable of splitting metal with their claws, but their bewitching cries were effective even against early Foundation Establishment cultivators, let alone any mortal. Normally, it was rare for one to appear in the plains, but now that three have appeared, the mortals in the escort had completely lost themselves to fear.
A cold snort sounded out from one of the Red Wolf Tribe’s carriages and a blue-clothed silhouette shot out in a flash of red light. As he floated in the air on an embroidered scarf, he disdainfully said, “What is there to panic over? Are they not simply grade two demon beasts?”
Ying Lu couldn’t help but look at this person in alarm. This Immortal also wore an azure cloak over his head and his voice sounded young.
“Immortal Feng, please be careful! There are three Simian Vultures!” Tribe Leader Ba loudly shouted with a distressed voice.
When Tribe Leader Ba employed Immortal Feng, he knew the cultivator was at the early Foundation Establishment stage. According to this, he would have a bit of difficulty dealing with only a single Simian Vulture, let alone three of them. This left Tribe Leader Ba in much distress.
As for Ying Lu, he hastily turned his sights on one of his carriages as he laid on his stomach. He saw another man who was also wearing an azure cloak. The man was standing on top of the carriage and was looking at the sky. Ying Lu felt somewhat at ease at the sight of Immortal Han. So long as his cultivation wasn’t too low, the two Immortals may stand a chance of warding off the three Simian Vultures if they joined hands.
At that moment, the three Simian Vultures naturally saw the appearance of the blue-robed Immortal floating in the air. They hadn’t known there was an Immortal among the escorts and knew that he would be difficult to deal with, but they were reluctant to abandon their prey. They hesitated for a moment and began to circle in the air about three hundred meters away from them.
“Looking to die?” The blue-robed man snorted after seeing that the Simian Vultures wouldn’t retreat. Irritated, he raised his hand and simultaneously released several talismans, instantly forming three three-meter-long fire serpents that pounced towards the vultures.
“Yi! The fire serpent technique!” Han Li couldn’t help but to yelp in alarm after seeing this. Although the fire serpent technique was only a low-grade spell technique, the talismans for this technique were quite costly for a Foundation Establishment cultivator to casually make use of. This caused Han Li to narrow his eyes, feeling a bit of interest towards this cultivator. However, he soon frowned and inwardly sighed.
Although the three fire serpents were powerful, the three vultures could easily avoid them at such a large distance. It appeared the blue-robed man had a very shallow understanding of the fire serpent technique and didn’t know how to command them to pursue an enemy when they evaded, wasting the talismans only to incite the vultures.
The biggest of the vultures let out a fierce cry and the three of them simultaneously spread out their wings to dive directly towards the blue-robed cultivator.
When the blue-robed man saw that the fire serpents didn’t have any effect, he blankly stared for a moment before catching sight of the three vultures rus.h.i.+ng towards him. Then in a panic, he rushed to took out a small s.h.i.+ning white sword and began to hastily utter an incantation to have it strike at the vultures.
Han Li felt even more disapproval at the sight of this.
Given that the vultures were already attacking, it was better to first place a protective barrier on one’s body. Wasn’t it suicidal to conduct a magic tool to attack instead? It was obvious this cultivator wasn’t experienced in battle, but the small sword was a high-grade magic tool. It seemed he had a bit of backing.
The blue-robed man uttered the incantation with great practice and completed activating the magic treasure by the time the vultures had arrived. In a flash of light, the small sword transformed into a meter-long streak of white light and struck at the vulture at the middle with immense speed.
The vulture knew that it found itself in a perilous situation and blurred in an attempt to dodge, but it was too late. It could only hold out one of its claws to block the white streak.
The white streak was only stalled for a single moment before a blood-curdling scream sounded out. The black claw was easily sliced through by the sword streak and blood splattered through the air. However, the other two demon birds had already arrived over the blue-robed man’s head, their four claws reaching out towards the top of his head.