Located tens of thousands of miles south of the Floating Cloud Mountains, Jukun City stands as the largest and most prosperous city in the northern Black Mountain Immortal Territory.

Unlike the many cities in the Northern Cold Immortal Territory where mortals are abundant, Jukun City is home to hundreds of immortal forces, including immortal cultivation families and branch halls established by sects. The vast majority of its residents are cultivators.

Perhaps because of this, the Immortal Palace's control over this place is extremely strict. The entire city is rigidly divided into inner and outer cities. All cultivators can freely enter and exit the outer city, while the inner city is subject to many restrictions.

Unless their cultivation reaches the True Immortal realm and they are registered cultivators of local sects in the Black Mountain Immortal Territory, no one is allowed to enter the inner city, not even local rogue cultivators.

Only those whose cultivation reaches the Taiyi Jade Immortal realm can freely enter the inner city, regardless of their origin.

It is said that within the inner city of Jukun City, there is a Celestial Court inspector stationed year-round, whose cultivation is unfathomable and who serves as the Black Mountain Immortal Territory's pillar of support.

In fact, more than a hundred years ago, when Han Li first arrived in the Black Mountain Immortal Territory, he did not settle in Wild Crane Valley but went directly to Jukun City.

Upon entering the city, he saw a platform called the "Immortal Extermination List" in a square inside the city gate.

A thousand-foot-long list hung above the platform, depicting various figures of different shapes and colors, including humans, demons, and many alien races. Below, their crimes and bounties for their capture, dead or alive, were written.

As Han Li looked down the list, he actually found several familiar figures, including Baili Yan, Huyan Daoren, and Jiao San.

Jiao San's position was above Baili Yan's, but he was using the name Gan Jiuzhen, and the image depicted did not show his true face, but was replaced by a crimson alien beast mask.

When Han Li reached the very end of the list, another familiar figure caught his eye.

It was none other than himself.

In the picture, he was wearing a green robe, holding a sword in one hand, in a stabbing posture. Although the appearance had slight differences, the feeling it gave was very lifelike.

Below the picture was a simple text:

Li Feiyu, practicing forbidden arts, participating in the plot to harm Celestial Court officials. Dead or alive, reward of five thousand Immortal Essence Stones.

Upon seeing this, Han Li frowned. It wasn't because he was wanted, but because he felt a little resentful that his bounty was only five thousand Immortal Essence Stones, while Jiao San's was one hundred thousand.

He could overlook the matter of killing Tao Yu, but after killing Gongshu Jiu in the Nether Cold Immortal Palace, his bounty shouldn't be so low. After all, Gongshu Jiu was a Taiyi-level inspector.

Thinking of this, Han Li looked up at Gan Jiuzhen's wanted notice again and found that the crimes written below were much more extensive, including practicing forbidden arts, harming immortal officials, and colluding with Gray Immortals.

After a little thought, he understood that the Immortal Palace had mostly attributed the main cause of Gongshu Jiu's death to Gan Jiuzhen and Mo Yu. His cultivation at the time was, at best, that of an accomplice.

Afterward, Han Li originally planned to leave the city immediately, but after observing the city, he discovered that there were countless cultivators in Jukun City, and most people were busy and hurried, with few stopping to look at the Immortal Extermination List.

After some discreet observation, he found that most of the people on the list, including Gan Jiuzhen, were long-term wanted criminals by the Black Mountain Immortal Palace and even the Celestial Court. Most people in Jukun City were already familiar with them. Unless they had any clues or special ideas, they would naturally not waste time looking at the Immortal Extermination List.

A deeper reason was that most of the people on the list were not easy to provoke.

Therefore, Han Li had the idea of hiding in plain sight and temporarily stayed in Jukun City to find a way to solve the baleful aura on his body. When he couldn't find a solution and realized that his and Mo Guang's situations were special, making it inconvenient to act in the city, he accidentally met Duan Yuzao and opened up a cave in the more ideal Wild Crane Valley and settled down.

Seeing Immortal Revered Raging Fire's figure disappear, the few people remaining on the spot all showed a hint of a smile on their faces.

"Fellow Daoist Duan, this matter cannot be accomplished overnight. You really didn't have to do that and spoil Fellow Daoist Raging Fire's enjoyment," Han Li said with a smile.

"It doesn't matter. The way of chess is originally an act of cultivating the mind. Now that I have lost my concentration, Fellow Daoist Raging Fire probably saw it too. Besides, I have memorized the situation of the game. I can replay it with him another day," Duan Yuzao waved his hand and said.

With that, he waved his sleeve, and a black light flashed, and he put away the entire chessboard and chess jars.

"Hehe, Fellow Daoist Li, last time you said you were going to brew a few jars of Fire Saliva Wine, I wonder..." At this time, Immortal Jingyang leaned over again and asked with a smile.

"The taste of Fire Saliva Wine is not comparable to your Green Brew Wine. It's not that difficult to brew, so it's naturally ready," Han Li said with a hearty laugh upon hearing this.

"This Green Brew Wine is actually not completely brewed yet. It's still lacking a few thousand years of aging. It would be a waste of natural resources to take it out now," Immortal Jingyang said, slightly embarrassed.

"Haha, I know Fellow Daoist Jingyang is not such a stingy person," Han Li said with a smile.

After speaking, he waved his hand, and a ray of light flashed, and an earthy yellow wine jar landed at Immortal Jingyang's feet.

Immortal Jingyang's face lit up, and he quickly picked up the wine jar, opened the mud seal, and sniffed it gently. His face was immediately filled with intoxication.

"Good wine!"

After saying that, he showed a hint of doubt and asked, "This wine looks like it has been cellared for hundreds of years. It doesn't look like it was brewed recently."

"The wine for entertaining friends must be the best. This is what I managed to save up. You are all in for a treat today," Han Li said with a smile.

Duan Yuzao and Yu Ziqi did not like this drink, but the few of them hit it off, so they drank to their heart's content.

At dusk, Han Li returned home in high spirits, bidding farewell and returning to his cave.

Deep in the bamboo forest, a cave had been carved out of a mountain wall, far from the caves of the others.

At this moment, the stone door of the cave was tightly closed, shimmering with watery green light. Two golden-armored guards stood on either side of the door, his Dao Soldiers.

At this moment, the two Dao Soldiers looked very different from before. They had grown by almost half, and many spiral-shaped strange patterns had appeared on their bodies, and the aura they emitted had increased by almost twice.

Not only that, but there was a trace of spiritual light flashing in the eyes of the two Dao Soldiers, which was quite intelligent. When they saw Han Li returning, they bowed and saluted.

Han Li ignored the two Dao Soldiers, opened the stone door and walked in. After the green light flashed on the stone door behind him, it closed automatically.

The cave was not large. In the middle was a hall, and next to it were several secret rooms.

He glanced at the two closed secret rooms on the left, where Mo Guang and the Crab Dao Soldier were in seclusion.

Although Mo Guang had the Illusion Essence Pill to cover up the baleful aura, he was, after all, possessing a real Gray Immortal body, so it couldn't be said that there was absolutely no chance of exposure, especially during his time in the city, when he almost exposed himself several times.

Therefore, after arriving in Wild Crane Valley, he had stayed in the cave all these years and had not left.

Since arriving in the Black Mountain Immortal Territory, the Crab Dao Soldier had suddenly started to seclude himself for some reason and rarely came out.

Han Li withdrew his gaze and walked inside, arriving at the secret room where he usually cultivated, sitting down cross-legged, looking at the void in front of him, and remaining silent.

Since separating from Jin Tong, he had followed the map given by the white-robed man. Although he had avoided most of the dangerous areas and traveled cautiously, the vastness of the wilderness was far beyond his imagination, and there were too many variables. He had still encountered crises that almost led to his death several times.

If his strength had not already approached the Taiyi realm, and he had the Time Law protecting him, and Mo Guang, a Gray Immortal who could display Taiyi realm strength for a short time, to help him, the ending would probably have been unpredictable.

On one occasion, he was chased by several gregarious Taiyi realm thunder beasts for three full years. Those thunder beasts were extremely fast, even faster than Han Li's full-speed Emerald Chariot, and they could also cast teleportation secrets similar to thunder light formations. It was unknown why they were chasing Han Li relentlessly.

Han Li used all his means but failed to get rid of them, so he had to let go and fight them.

He and Mo Guang joined forces and killed two of the leading thunder beasts, which startled the other thunder beasts and drove them away, but he was also greatly injured and spent several years recovering.

On another occasion, he strayed into a volcanic danger zone and was trapped in a naturally formed flame secret realm. He spent more than ten years before finally escaping with the help of the Spirit Flame Firebird's ability to devour all fires.

Although there were many dangers along the way, he also gained a lot.

Not to mention the many precious materials he obtained along the way, he also mixed into some alien races and secretly learned many secret techniques and cultivation methods, which were very rewarding.

The Dao Soldiers at the door were the products he had re-refined using a secret technique he had learned from an alien race in the wilderness.

If it were normal times, Han Li would have been overjoyed to have so many gains.

However, at this moment, his whole mind was focused on the baleful decay that would descend again at any time, and he didn't have much mind to pay attention to other things.

He sat quietly for a moment, then suddenly began to perform hand seals.

With a "buzz",

Circles of bright golden light appeared in front of Han Li and gathered towards one place.

With a flash of golden light, several golden lights condensed into a golden jade bottle, which was the Purification Bottle of Time.

This bottle looked much larger than before, almost condensed into substance. Hundreds of groups of Time Dao patterns flashed on the bottle, and golden rainbows surrounded the jade bottle, emitting a strong Time Law.

Over the years, he had also combined the experience of the True Words Treasure Wheel and tried to use the Time Crystal Grains condensed by the Palm Heaven Bottle to increase the Time Dao patterns on the Purification Bottle of Time. As he expected, it worked.

Han Li played with the Purification Bottle of Time for a while, then put it aside and performed hand seals again.

Streams of crystal golden light rose from his body and shone towards the surroundings.

He chanted incantations and pointed his hands in the void.

These golden lights suddenly changed and turned into golden sand grains, suspended in the surroundings. Each sand grain bloomed with a faint crystal light, mixed with traces of time fluctuations.

The golden sand grains increased extremely quickly. In just a few breaths, they formed a golden sandy land of more than ten feet in size, covering most of the secret room.