Chapter 1389: Seeing You Off

"Really? That's wonderful!"

Nan Gong Wan was first overjoyed, then seemed to think of something. She surveyed the void and asked hesitantly:

"And he..."

"To annihilate Gu or Jin, he fully activated the laws of reincarnation, forced out Gu or Jin's divine soul, and completely merged with the Heavenly Dao." Han Li sighed slightly and said.

Upon hearing this, Nan Gong Wan's gaze trembled slightly, and her eyes grew moist.

She pressed two fingers to her brow, then pulled outward, drawing out a faint humanoid figure of light.

Han Li recognized it at a glance—it was the last remnant soul of Gan Ruzhuang, its phantom form extremely faint, flickering like a ghostly flame, on the verge of dissipating.

At that moment, a fragment of a broken object floating in the void suddenly flashed with dark red light, and another wisp of remnant soul flew out.

Han Li frowned slightly, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes, as he realized that a remaining corner of the Six Cycles Reincarnation Disk had preserved a wisp of the Reincarnation Palace Master's remnant soul.

His soul shadow was equally ethereal, but after flying out, it immediately moved toward Gan Ruzhuang's soul, raising a hand to embrace her shoulder.

The two leaned on each other, turned back to glance at Nan Gong Wan and Han Li, and smiled.

"Take care of Jiu Zhen for me; from now on, I have no regrets in heaven and earth..." Faintly, Han Li seemed to hear the Reincarnation Palace Master's voice in his sea of consciousness.

Before he could reply, the two figures slowly rose into the air, their light growing dimmer and dimmer, until they finally dissipated like a wisp of smoke between heaven and earth.

"I will." Han Li silently answered in his heart.

"For them, is this a good ending?" Nan Gong Wan leaned against Han Li's shoulder, her expression somewhat sorrowful, and asked.

Han Li was momentarily at a loss for an answer, merely shaking his head gently.

Just then, he frowned slightly, turned to look at the Devil Lord, and said:

"Fellow Daoist Shi, are you really so impatient? We just fought side by side through life and death—can't you cherish this hard-won chance to survive?"

Nan Gong Wan also quickly turned to look, and saw that the Devil Lord had somehow quietly moved to the side of the Vial of the Heavenly Cauldron, grasping it in his hand. Her brow furrowed deeply.

"Fellow Daoist Han has misunderstood one thing. My alliance with you was not to oppose Gu or Jin's actions. On the contrary, I quite agree with his views; it's just that he achieved this step before I did." The Devil Lord had returned to human form and said calmly.

Han Li glanced at him, then said to Nan Gong Wan: "I'll have to send you back first. Wait for me a little longer."

"Take care of yourself." After a moment of hesitation, Nan Gong Wan decided to trust Han Li and nodded.

"It won't be long." Han Li said, waving his hand to open a silver light door and send Nan Gong Wan back into the Flower Branch Grotto-Heaven.

"The strong ascend step by step, enduring countless calamities and disasters—isn't it all to follow their hearts' desires? Yet there is always the Heavenly Dao oppressing overhead, stifling one's breath. Fellow Daoist, your left arm was devoured by the Heavenly Dao—isn't that the case? Don't you want to overthrow this tiresome heaven?" The Devil Lord did not stop Han Li's action, pointing to the sky and speaking arrogantly.

"I once read in an ancient mortal text a phrase: 'Follow the heart's desire without overstepping the bounds.' Have you heard of it, Fellow Daoist Shi? Under the norms of the Heavenly Dao, the strong can indeed follow their hearts. But if everyone strives for strength without abiding by the Heavenly Dao, wouldn't this world fall into chaos and disorder, devoid of the mortal sparks of fire, the lush flowers on the mountains, the bright moon in the sky? What flavor would the world have then?" Han Li smiled and retorted.

"I never thought that a hero like Fellow Daoist Han would have such womanish benevolence to protect the weak in this world!" The Devil Lord laughed loudly, his laughter echoing between heaven and earth, lingering long.

"Is it unavoidable?" Han Li dismissed it with a smile and asked.

"It's not unavoidable; it's that you, Fellow Daoist Han, must die. Your injuries are too severe now. If I don't kill you now, I will never have peace of mind in the future." The Devil Lord spoke with a smile, his voice as cold as frost, each word distinct.

As his words fell, his body stepped back slightly, directly crashing into a layer of spatial ripples and vanishing.

Han Li had expected this. The fluctuations of time law spread around him, and with a wave of his palm, the flow of time in the void for ten thousand li around instantly froze.

He shifted his gaze and saw a tiny crack opening in a region of the void. He raised his hand and thrust his sword.

With a crackling sound like thunder, a golden electric light instantly shot into that crack.

Then, the frozen time began to flow again, and a boom came from the crack, causing the void to explode.

"It seems you really are heavily injured..." At that moment, a voice suddenly sounded from behind Han Li.

Before Han Li could turn around, a silver light descended from above, layers of powerful spatial law force enveloping him, directly trapping him in place.

"Go with them!"

A loud shout rang out. The Devil Lord's five fingers hooked like claws, wrapped in demonic qi and flashing with silver cold light, directly grabbing at Han Li's head.

The sword strike that Han Li had used to kill Gu or Jin had nearly drained all his law power and immortal spiritual power, and now he truly could not evade.

At this critical moment, a golden light flashed before him, and a gigantic golden beetle flew out of nowhere, charging headlong at the Devil Lord.

With a dull thud, the Devil Lord was knocked back entirely.

After blocking the fatal blow, Jintong turned back and bit at the void, tearing apart the layer of spatial law force binding Han Li.

"A Dao Ancestor-grade Devouring Gold Beetle..." The Devil Lord steadied himself and exclaimed in surprise.

He only knew that Han Li always had a Devouring Gold Beetle by his side, but he never expected it to have advanced to Dao Ancestor. Moreover, the beetle had not appeared at all during the previous battle, and the Reincarnation Palace Master had not informed him of this for some reason.

The Devil Lord's injuries were not severe, but he had also expended greatly in killing Gu or Jin. Facing the combined force of Han Li and Jintong, he did not think he had much chance of victory. But now that he was at odds with Han Li, if he could not eliminate him today, the situation would only worsen once Han Li recovered his strength.

He instinctively glanced at the small bottle tightly gripped in his hand, a silver light flickering in his palm.

A silver light lit up at the mouth of the small bottle, and countless silver light threads flowed out from it, sinking into his palm.

The Devil Lord's eyes widened, a hint of undisguised surprise and delight flashing in them.

He felt waves of immensely powerful spatial law force continuously pouring into his body through the small bottle, replenishing his somewhat depleted dantian.

"Haha... Heaven helps me, Heaven helps me..." The Devil Lord could not help but laugh heartily.

Han Li, however, showed no surprise. In fact, his hand hidden in his sleeve was rapidly forming hand seals.

Earlier, when he entered the space inside the small bottle, although he had not refined it, he had established a deep connection with it, so remote activation was naturally not a problem.

It was not that the Devil Lord was autonomously absorbing spatial law force; rather, Han Li was controlling the small bottle to forcibly channel it into his body.

Soon, the Devil Lord could no longer laugh.

He found that as more and more spatial law force surged out, the strands of chaotic law force mixed within began to drill into his body as well.

By the time he wanted to stop it, it was too late.

"Han Li, you..."

Before he could finish his sentence, his entire body began to swell in various places, chaotic light clusters bursting out one after another, tearing his body into pieces.

Amid the fragments, a miniature eight-horse chariot formed of silver light carried a silver soul figure, which drove the chariot and attempted to flee in a flash.

"You cannot escape... Since we have known each other, let me see you off." Han Li sighed softly and said.

As his words fell, a layer of temporal ripples spread out, freezing the void once more. The eight-horse chariot was trapped motionless in the void.

Unaffected, Han Li stepped forward and soon arrived before it.

He grasped the eight-horse chariot and the Devil Lord's soul in one hand, his expression unchanged. With a gentle pinch, the silver chariot and soul turned into a layer of ethereal specks of light and dissipated into nothingness.

Han Li looked around at the chaotic void, his mood somewhat complex.

After a moment, he slowly withdrew his gaze, raised his hand to retrieve the small bottle, and gently stroked its familiar patterns, his mind gradually calming.

At that moment, the veins on the small bottle's dark green leaves suddenly lit up with a golden light, and strands of time law force flowed out, slowly merging into Han Li's body, like sweet spring water nourishing every immortal aperture of his body.

Han Li's fatigue gradually dissipated, and the light in his eyes grew brighter.

He could even feel the lingering effects of the chaotic law receding, the disrupted Heavenly Dao gradually returning to normal, the world clearing, and everything slowly recovering its original vitality.

But when he looked up, the void rift he had created above showed no sign of healing.

There, time seemed frozen, space solidified, reincarnation untouched, and it would likely remain forever like a scar on the hearts of all in the True Immortal Realm, a testament to this ancient catastrophe.

The shattered Central Immortal Domain could never return to its original form; most of its territory had been completely destroyed, and many other areas had fallen into the void during the previous battle, becoming lost realms like the Lesser Southern Continent Boundary Cluster.

However, the abundant spiritual energy here, after the Heavenly Dao's operation returned to normal, was also being replenished. It seemed that after another million years, the scattered dust and debris would likely gather again, forming a small continent that would re-emerge as a forbidden land of secrets.

Like this place, the other realms affected were also gradually recovering and restoring themselves.