“If a corpse puppet won’t do, then how about me?” Suddenly, the air above the corpse fluctuated, igniting a ball of black flames. It then condensed into a young palace-robed woman with a cold expression.

As soon as she appeared, she glared at Han Li. When she recognized him to only be a mortal, her mouth curled in disdain and slowly lifted her hand at him.

Han Li’s spiritual sense hadn’t detected anything, but from the link with the worldly essence Qi from his current cultivations stage, he was able to sense a kind of indescribable danger.

In the instant the woman appeared, he stopped in his tracts and his expression vastly changed.

As soon as the woman pointed her hand at him, Han Li shivered as he sensed all the hair on his body stand straight.

Ever since he entered the path of cultivation, he hadn’t sensed such immense danger approaching him until now.

As if out of reflex, Han Li shook his sleeve, tossing out two round objects into his palm. He quickly held them in front of him and wordlessly stared at the woman.

They were two fist-sized balls, one black and one red. Their surface flowed with twinkling light.

“Immortal Vanquishing Beads! And two at that! Who are you!? How do you have those treasures?!” The woman’s face vastly changed upon seeing the two beads. The thread of black flame that rose from her bracelet abruptly disappeared and she shouted out with furious alarm.

When Han Li saw the woman recognize the beads and reacted with fear at the sight of them, he felt a wave of relief.

“Hehe, it's good that you recognize them,” he said with a calm tone, despite the cold sweat that lined his body, fearing the woman’s cultivation was far beyond what he expected. If the Immortal Vanquishing Beads didn’t threaten her, he would be completely out of luck. But even in this case, he was still inwardly cursing.

He believed he would only be dealing with meager demon beast soul thread controlling a corpse puppet, not a Deity Transformation-level demon cultivator.

Why would such a high-grade demon appear outside the human city?

Although the Immortal Vanquishing Beads kept her at bay, the slightest carelessness would mean death for him. As someone previously possessing Deity Transformation cultivation, he understood just how powerful she was.

As the palace-robed woman’s expression wavered, she stared at Han Li with a penetrating sword-sharp gaze. She didn’t conceal any of her killing intent.

Eventually, the woman imposingly asked, “Do you truly believe that you’ll be able to kill me with those Immortal Vanquishing Beads?”

Han Li remained calm, “I might not be able to, but with these two beads, I have a very high chance of gravely injuring you.”

“Is that so? But a trifling body refiner like you wouldn’t be able to escape the blast from using those beads. Do you plan on killing yourself?” The young woman sneered.

“If I don’t use it, I won’t be able to protect myself either. I may as well use it.” Han Li nonchalantly replied.

Rather than show her anger, the woman smiled and said, “Even so, do you truly believe I wouldn’t risk a few injuries to deal with a dog like you?”

Han Li dryly chuckled and narrowed his eyes, “Of course you wouldn’t dare. You are in human territories. After you are injured, you won’t be able to conceal your demonic Qi. When you flee, you will be pursued by other high-grade cultivators. If I recall correctly, the presence of metamorphosed demon cultivators in human territories is a violation of the agreement. Humans will be able to kill you.”

“A trifling mortal dares to threaten me? You are quite courageous.” The woman’s voice warped as if the air was shaking and her eyes grew a sparkling violet. A strange devilish energy then wrapped around his mind.

As Han Li stared at the woman, he felt his gaze absorbed by her eyes and his sharp eyes became vacant.

When the palace-robed woman saw this, her heart was overjoyed and she moved her arm to attack.

But at that moment, Han Li’s blank face turned into a mocking sneer and blue light brightly shined from his eyes.

A wave of dizziness overtook her sight and huge trembles shook her mind, causing her to stumble and nearly fall to the ground.

“Grand bewitchment techniques! Y-you know them!” Even as powerful as the woman’s spiritual sense may be, she received backlash from Han Li’s spiritual eyes during a moment of carelessness, but she quickly recovered. But at that moment, she looked at Han Li as if she had seen a ghost.

In her astonishment, Han Li gave her a mysterious smile and stood motionlessly in place.

The woman quickly hid the shock on her face and couldn't help but look at Han Li with bewilderment.

Even as arrogant as the woman may be, she realized that Han Li was by no means the simple body refiner that he appeared to be.

The woman looked at the two Immortal Vanquishing and then turned to look at the helpless girl on the ground. With an icy voice, she said, “What are you thinking? We’ve found ourselves in a deadlock.”

After a moment of thought, Han Li said, “If you let go of that girl, Fellow Daoist may leave.”

“Impossible. Dai’er carries the direct bloodline of our Black Phoenix Clan. I must bring her back.” The woman rejected him immediately.

When Han Li heard her resolute reply, his heart sank and he became silent.

The young woman also kept silent and the two sides found themselves in a deadlock for a time.

After several gusts of wind rustle past them, only silence filled the air.

Still held by the purple-robed corpse, Dai’er broke the silence with her soft voice, “Uncle Han, please don’t fight with Auntie Xiao. I am following her because I want to.”

When Han Li heard this, he frowned. As for the woman, she remained expressionless, unsurprised by her words.

Alarmed, Han Li asked with a calm voice, “Dai’er, what are you saying? Do you know who she is?”

“I know. Auntie Gu used a technique to teach me.” The girl raised her small face to reveal a determination that contrasted her age.

As someone with great experience, Han Li found this odd and harshly shouted, “A technique? What did you do to her?”

The woman brushed back some of her hair and indifferently said, “I didn’t do anything. I simply had the Black Phoenix Clan’s legacy pearl enter her body. A bit of information regarding the Black Phoenix Clan was passed down to her. Of course, there wasn’t enough time for her to digest it completely, but she clearly understands her identity as a half-demon.”

When Han Li heard this, he suddenly came to a realization.

Although he didn’t know the details, a so-called legacy pearl was a treasure refined to contain the experience, techniques, and even soul fragments of past generations.

These items did exist in some capacity in the mortal realm. But the conditions for inheriting such a treasure was extremely demanding. If one wasn’t careful, they could perish. But even worse was that the inheritance often failed to completely impart its contents, passing only a tenth of its legacy.

The Black Phoenix Clan’s legacy pearl must be wondrous in a way he didn’t understand to surpass the previously mentioned flaws.

And when the girl fully absorbs the legacy pearl, she will no longer truly be herself.

After a moment of silence, Han Li said to the girl, “Think carefully! If you enter the demon clans, you will need to forfeit your identity as a human. In the future, you won’t be able to see your family on this side again.”

The girl shook her head and sadly said, “Apart from my grandfather, I have no family. Now that grandfather is like this, there is no point for me staying here any longer. I want to live together with my father.”

“In that case, I won’t force you. Go with her.” Han Li sighed and turned around, walking away in large steps, but still holding the beads in his hand.

When the woman saw how quickly Han Li ran off, the woman was startled. As for the girl, she bit her lips to say nothing else as she was still reluctant to part with him.

Han Li appeared as if he was walking, but he traveled at an astonishing speed. In only a moment, he turned into a black dot on the horizon.

The young woman glared at Han Li with resentment for a long while before eventually deciding not to attack. Then with an unsightly expression, she looked at the girl below and said, “Dai’er, let’s go. If that person informs high-grade cultivators about our presence, it will be troublesome.”

An odd expression contrasting Dai’er’s young age appeared on her face and she softly said,

“He won’t do such a thing.”

The woman shook her head, “No human can be trusted. Let’s go.” With that said, the woman reached out for Dai’er and summoned her into the air.

With the girl at her side, she commanded the purple-robed corpse to form an incantation gesture and it promptly combusted into black flame and turned to ash. A moment later, the black flame condensed into a ball and was absorbed into the woman’s body.

The woman raised her hand and a scarf appeared above her head.

It wrapped around them, flashing with black light until the two disappeared into a trail of smoke.

Two days later, in the human camp fifty kilometers away, several streaks of light flew out on their magic tools.

They were the Gold Jade Sect cultivators and Han Li.

They traveled together and would not be returning. But oddly enough Mistress Fang, Zhang Kui, and the others in the Heavenly East Enterprise turned a blind eye to this and made no further mention of Han Li.

It was as if Deputy Leader Han was never a part of the Heavenly East Enterprise.