Chapter 632: Demon Domain

After steadying himself, Han Li carefully released his divine sense, extending it bit by bit in all directions to observe the current state of the battlefield.

After the golden-haired man leading the Heavenly Court side was killed by the silver figure that suddenly appeared on the demon side, the remaining Taiyi cultivators lost their will to fight. The Heavenly Court army, which had been in the ascendant, fell into chaos and fled in all directions, while the demon army, led by their Taiyi cultivators, gave chase.

For a time, the clamor of battle rose to the heavens.

The Great Luo demon cultivator Li Mozi did not attack, but he released his domain imbued with the laws of lightning, covering a range of ten thousand miles. The demon cultivators within it were clad in lightning garments, greatly increasing their speed as if divinely aided, while the Heavenly Court cultivators were hindered by the lightning power; except for the Taiyi cultivators, their escape speed was impeded.

In less than the time it takes to burn an incense stick, the mighty Heavenly Court army was utterly routed. However, the demon army did not annihilate them completely but captured most of the Heavenly Court cultivators, sealed their cultivation, took their storage artifacts, and herded them into giant flying ships, seemingly to transport them away.

The remaining golden giant ships of the Heavenly Court were also seized by the demon army and slowly sailed away.

The demons then began to clean up the battlefield, collecting the bodies of the fallen.

Since he was within the coverage of Li Mozi's domain, Han Li dared not make any move. He lay motionless on the ground, allowing the demons to move him and carry him into a giant ship used for collecting corpses.

Seeing this, he took the opportunity to withdraw his spirit, ignoring his surroundings, and probed the mind of this corpse, searching for residual memory fragments.

With a rumble, a vast amount of memories surged into Han Li's spirit.

This time, the memories were far more extensive than those from the corpses he had merged with during previous traversals.

Even though his spirit had adapted to such fusion, he still felt a tearing pain.

But he was long accustomed to this and endured it gritting his teeth.

After a long while, the pain in his spirit slowly subsided, and countless memory fragments appeared in his mind.

He breathed a sigh of relief and carefully examined them, hoping to find answers to the many puzzling things he had just witnessed.

This brief examination stirred waves in Han Li's heart.

The corpse he had possessed was named You Ao, a demon who had reached the late Taiyi stage, and the place he was in was called the Demon Domain.

"Demon race, Demon Domain... I see," Han Li murmured to himself.

Before ascending to the True Immortal Realm, he had experienced something in the Demon Realm, but since arriving in the True Immortal Realm, he had rarely seen anyone using demonic techniques, which had always struck him as odd. Now, from You Ao's memories, he found some answers.

In fact, those who cultivate demonic techniques, upon normal ascension, would appear in the Demon Domain, just as those from various spirit realms ascended to different immortal domains. You Ao was one such person who had ascended from a lower demon realm.

According to his knowledge, the Demon Domain was also located somewhere in the True Immortal Realm, adjacent to several immortal domains, but they usually had no dealings with each other and were relatively independent.

Han Li wanted to find information about the owner of the silver giant palm that had appeared earlier, but he found nothing in this person's memories—perhaps he never knew, or the memory was missing.

As for the ins and outs of this great battle, he had gathered some outline from the dialogue between the Great Luo demon Li Mozi and the golden-haired Heavenly Court man, and supplemented it with You Ao's memories. It seemed that the Heavenly Court wanted to win the Demon Domain to their side against the Reincarnation Hall, but the demons did not wish to participate in external conflicts and intended to remain neutral.

"Reincarnation Hall..." Han Li silently recited the name, his eyes flickering.

He had originally thought the Reincarnation Hall was merely an underground gray force opposing the Heavenly Court, not necessarily very powerful.

Now it seemed that the Reincarnation Hall's strength was far beyond his expectations, to the point that the Heavenly Court was willing to seek an alliance with the Demon Domain.

Based on what he had learned so far, besides its core member, the Son of Reincarnation, the Reincarnation Hall had many branch organizations like the Wuchang Alliance and the Shifang Tower. On the surface, it appeared to be an organization similar to a merchant alliance that executed and issued tasks, using interests to drive immortals from various places to join.

He wondered who was behind the Reincarnation Hall and what their true purpose was.

If there were no ulterior motives, the Heavenly Court would not be so hostile towards it. After all, in the various immortal domains, the Immortal Palace, as the direct representative of the Heavenly Court, did not actually interfere with the major sects and forces within the domain on the surface—except for cases like Xiao Jinhan of the North Cold Immortal Palace.

Han Li shook his head, stopped thinking about these matters, and continued to probe You Ao's memories.

Suddenly, he let out a soft exclamation of surprise.

It turned out that You Ao had another identity: he was a cultivator under the banner of the "Guangyuan Zhai," sent here on a mission. Unfortunately, his luck was poor; at the very start of the battle, he was ambushed and killed by two Taiyi cultivators of the Heavenly Court.

"Guangyuan Zhai—isn't that the force led by Lan Ying? Could it be a coincidence, or is the Guangyuan Zhai in the lower realm a branch of the Guangyuan Zhai merchant association in the Demon Domain?" Han Li pondered.

In You Ao's memories, the Guangyuan Zhai not only held the top position among merchant associations in the Demon Domain but also had many covert connections in other immortal domains, making it extremely powerful. It would not be unusual for it to develop some lower realm branches.

Seeing the name Guangyuan Zhai, Han Li couldn't help but recall the graceful figure of Zi Ling.

This woman had countless ties to the Guangyuan Zhai in the lower realm. He wondered how she was now and whether she had successfully ascended.

However, since she cultivated demonic techniques, if she ascended, she would most likely ascend to the Demon Domain, right?

And there was Nangong Wan, still in the Spirit Realm. He wondered how she was now.

Unfortunately, his own situation was unfavorable, and he had little energy to search for them.

Han Li sighed inwardly, then collected his thoughts. The phantom of the True Word Wheel still hovered before him, most of its time dao patterns extinguished.

Watching the battle between the demons and the Heavenly Court had cost him considerable time.

You Ao had died not long ago, so his residual memories were very extensive. It would take a long time to examine them all, and he could not afford to waste more time.

Han Li concentrated his mind and continued to probe this person's memories, searching for anything useful to him.

His most important task now was to expel the baleful qi within him and advance to the Taiyi stage, so he focused on finding information about You Ao's breakthrough to Taiyi.

Soon, Han Li's eyes lit up. You Ao's memories of this period were still intact and seemed quite complete.

Overjoyed, he quickly examined them carefully.

After a moment, his joy gradually faded.

When demons break through to the Taiyi stage, there is no difference from ordinary cultivators: they must expel the baleful qi within them and cultivate a pure Taiyi Jade Immortal body.

The method You Ao used to expel baleful qi was quite peculiar. Instead of taking baleful-qi-expelling pills, he used a special demon beast called the "Dream Tapir" to devour all the baleful qi within him, thus advancing.

The Dream Tapir is a unique phantom beast in the Demon Domain, capable of devouring all things, even people's dreams and memories.

This beast is extremely rare, seldom appearing even in the Demon Domain, and whenever it appears, it is immediately captured by some major figure and kept as a spirit beast.

After all, its ability to devour baleful qi is too convenient, and even Great Luo beings value the Dream Tapir highly, finding it very useful for nurturing descendants.

You Ao had only obtained the chance to use a Dream Tapir by pledging lifelong service to the Guangyuan Zhai and leveraging its power, thus successfully advancing to Taiyi.

Han Li sighed. He was now in the Black Mountain Immortal Domain, far from the Demon Domain, making it nearly impossible to use this method to break through to Taiyi.

Though disappointed, he did not stop and continued to probe You Ao's memories with his spirit.

You Ao was a late Taiyi cultivator, and his memories contained many valuable things: cultivation experiences at various stages, various miraculous demonic techniques and secret arts, which broadened Han Li's horizons and quickly dispelled his disappointment.

After a moment, Han Li's eyes showed surprise.

In You Ao's memories, he saw a secret art called the "Nine Nether Demon Eye." As the name suggests, it was a spiritual eye technique that, when cultivated to the highest level, could see to the highest heavens and the deepest underworld, extremely powerful.

Although this eye technique was powerful, its cultivation conditions were very harsh. Few in the entire Demon Domain had mastered it. You Ao himself had obtained the cultivation method but had never practiced it.

To cultivate this technique, one first needed a certain foundation in spiritual eyes; otherwise, the eyes could not withstand the technique's immense power and would be destroyed.

Second, the cultivation process was extremely lengthy, and the practitioner had to continuously channel the demonic energy they had painstakingly cultivated into their eyes over many years to slowly nourish them.

However, this would greatly slow down the progress of cultivation.

Furthermore, cultivating the Nine Nether Demon Eye required preparing special medicinal liquids, and the needed ingredients were all very precious, with high age requirements.

With these three difficulties, it was no wonder that even You Ao, a late Taiyi expert, was daunted.

Seeing this information, Han Li felt a surge of excitement.

Although these three difficulties were formidable, they were not insurmountable for him.

He had been cultivating the Clear Spirit Eyes, which he had spent considerable effort nurturing over the years, and his梵圣真魔功 could produce quite pure demonic energy, which should be sufficient for cultivating the Nine Nether Demon Eye.

Now that Han Li had the Time Law at his disposal, his reliance on the梵圣真魔功 had diminished, and the demonic energy he cultivated could be used to nourish his eyes.

As for preparing the auxiliary medicinal liquid, with the Heaven-Devouring Bottle in hand, that was not a big problem.

He had already looked at the formula for the liquid. Although the ingredients were precious, they were not impossible to find, though the age requirements were high.

And coincidentally, one of the main ingredients in the formula was the Extreme Eye Grass.

He had obtained a considerable amount of this grass from the Minghan Immortal Palace and had already transplanted it into the Flower Branch Space. Cultivating it to maturity should not be difficult.

Han Li read the cultivation method for the Nine Nether Demon Eye several more times, ensuring he memorized it word for word, before setting his mind at ease and continuing to probe other information.

Time passed bit by bit, and the time dao patterns on the True Word Wheel finally all dimmed.

Rumble!

Accompanied by a tremendous pulling force emanating from the True Word Wheel, Han Li's spirit was abruptly drawn out of You Ao's mind.