A little over half a month later.

In a little-known area of the Blackwind Sea, a scattering of over a hundred small, grayish-white islands were sparsely distributed.

These islands varied in size, none exceeding ten thousand miles in area, and appeared like a string of white pearls inlaid on a jadeite wall.

The islands were sparsely wooded, with thin spiritual energy. Not only were there no wild beasts to be seen, but not even a single seabird could be found, creating a sense of lifelessness.

In fact, this archipelago was enveloped by a nearly transparent light curtain. From outside the curtain, one could only see a vast expanse of blue sea. Even ordinary True Immortal cultivators using their spiritual sense would not detect any fluctuations here.

At this moment, within a secluded chamber built into the mountainside of one of the smaller islands, two figures, a man and a woman, were seated opposite each other at a round stone table.

The man was burly, with a hollow mask covering his face. He was none other than Han Qiu, the Ancestral God of the Lapis Crystal Clan. The blue-robed beauty sitting across from him was Madam Hugu, who had joined forces with him multiple times to deal with Han Li.

"Fellow Daoist Han Qiu, are you sure that person won't find this place?" Madam Hugu asked, clutching a teacup tightly in one hand. The tea inside was long cold.

"Fellow Daoist Hugu, rest assured. This Illusory Separation Array was obtained from Illusionary Light True Master at the cost of almost all my savings. Even late-stage True Immortal cultivators wouldn't be able to detect it. That person is just a Profound Immortal, so there's even less chance... Even if, hypothetically, someone did enter this area, as long as they don't decipher the array core, they'll unwittingly walk out again and never discover us," Han Qiu said, though his eyes seemed to dart around nervously.

"I really shouldn't have... shouldn't have provoked that evil star. Alas... now I'm in a situation where my incarnation has been destroyed and I can't even go home. If it weren't for that, I'd still be enjoying a carefree life on my Bone Grief Island!" Madam Hugu sighed deeply.

"What's the use of saying all that now? Although we've become Earth Immortals and seem endlessly impressive to others, even in this Blackwind Sea, we're still at the bottom of the barrel. Fortune comes from taking risks. Without enough opportunities and good fortune, we'll probably be in this situation for the next hundred thousand years, no different from living corpses. I misjudged this time, but as long as we avoid the limelight here and seize the opportunity to re-refine an incarnation, what worries do we have about making a comeback in the future!" Han Qiu said in a deep voice.

"Re-refining an incarnation? Easier said than done. If you ask me, we might as well think of a way to leave the Blackwind Sea altogether," Madam Hugu said, releasing her grip on the teacup.

"Preposterous! Leaving aside the fact that we don't have a way to leave, even if we miraculously escaped the Blackwind Sea, Ancestral Gods like us, confined to one place, would lose the protection of the power of laws and be no match for even ordinary rogue cultivators. What good would that be?" Han Qiu snorted coldly.

Madam Hugu's expression dimmed upon hearing this, and she fell silent.

Just then, Han Qiu jumped up from the stone stool as if pricked by a needle and shouted, "Not good! How is this possible..."

Before his voice faded, a deafening "boom" resounded.

The transparent light curtain enveloping the entire archipelago, along with the islands within, shook violently!

Dust soared into the sky, and bottomless ravines and cracks appeared on the ground of each island. Countless rocks burst in all directions, raining down on the sea surface with continuous "bang bang" sounds.

Amid the howling waves and deafening roar, one island after another began to collapse and sink into the sea.

Two figures shot into the sky from within the dust, without the slightest intention of stopping, and fled swiftly to the west.

However, they had only flown a thousand miles when a flash of light appeared in front of them, stopping them in their tracks.

The two looked at the tall youth not far ahead, their faces extremely grim.

Han Qiu gritted his teeth, his hands hanging at his sides, and bowed slightly, asking, "Senior Liu, can you really not let us off?"

Han Li narrowed his eyes slightly, not attacking, but smiling without a word.

"We are willing to offer all the savings of our respective clans, just begging Senior to spare our lives," Han Qiu continued cautiously when Han Li didn't answer.

His hands, concealed in his sleeves, were tightly gripping a cyan jade pendant in one hand and secretly performing a hand seal with the other.

Although Madam Hugu beside him didn't speak, her hands had already silently retreated into her sleeves.

At this moment, a cyan light flashed around Han Li, and he took a step towards the two.

Seeing this, the two shouted simultaneously, and a dazzling cyan light lit up from their sleeves at the same time, linking together and enveloping them.

In a blur, the figures of the two disappeared from their original location.

In less than a breath's time, a flash of light appeared in the void tens of thousands of miles away, and the figures of Han Qiu and Madam Hugu reappeared.

"Thanks to our prior preparation of this pair of 'Swift Travel Jade Pendants,' I believe that with his Profound Immortal body and the teleportation techniques he can use, he won't be able to catch up for a while," Han Qiu said, looking around, still shaken.

"This Swift Travel Jade Pendant is indeed miraculous, but the casting time is too long. We both need to activate it simultaneously, and we almost didn't escape just now. This place is still not safe; let's leave quickly," Madam Hugu said with some concern.

Han Qiu was about to answer when he heard a clear voice from a great distance, "You two Fellow Daoists are a bit faster than your incarnations."

Upon hearing the voice, Han Qiu and Madam Hugu were struck by lightning. Just as they were about to activate the Swift Travel Jade Pendant again, they saw Han Li's figure flash into view from the horizon behind them, landing in front of them.

"His teleportation speed... how is that possible?" Madam Hugu said, almost despairing, her expression bleak.

Han Qiu's eyes were filled with fear as well.

Han Li flipped his wrist, and a black longsword appeared in his hand, the very one that belonged to Madam Hugu before.

With the sword pointing upward, a colossal sword shadow, like a towering mountain peak, rose up, piercing a large hole in the clouds high above.

Seeing this, Han Qiu and Madam Hugu were already terrified, but they still mustered their last bit of courage and summoned their trump card treasures.

The former waved his sleeve, and a crystalline ice wheel appeared in front of him, with countless ice spikes protruding from it, emitting waves of white chill.

The latter waved her hands in front of her, and a gray doll emerged from the void. With a flash of light, it seemed to become ethereal and merged into her body.

Han Li watched, and his wrist suddenly turned downward.

With a long whistle that broke through the air, the mountain-like huge sword shadow immediately tilted and pressed down on the two.

At this time, Han Qiu opened his mouth and spat out a mouthful of essence blood from beneath his mask, which flashed into the white ice wheel.

After being stained with blood, the ice wheel was like a resurrected being, suddenly spinning and emitting a sharp hiss, abruptly transforming into a giant crystalline ice phoenix and charging towards the sword shadow.

Madam Hugu, on the other hand, was surrounded by billowing thick fog, carrying a strong corrosive aura that rushed forward.

The next moment, the black sword shadow suddenly swelled, covering the sky and sun.

The gray mist instantly melted away like ice and snow, the crystalline ice phoenix was also decapitated, and the bodies of Han Qiu and Madam Hugu were directly submerged in the sword shadow.

……

At almost the same time, Han Li's Earthly Avatar and Luo Feng also arrived on the island where the Lapis Crystal Clan was located.

They first killed several elders and the clan leader, and then, like an autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves, smashed many statues of Han Qiu on the island. Finally, they announced that Han Qiu was dead, and the entire Lapis Crystal Island would be under the jurisdiction of Umong Island.

Originally, these Lapis Crystal Clan members naturally refused to believe it, but when Han Qiu was nowhere to be found and they had lost the light membrane that protected them, they had no choice but to submit.

Afterward, Luo Feng and the avatar went to the island where Madam Hugu's clan was located and subdued them in the same way.

In the following month or so, the prestigious name of Liu Shi, the newly promoted Ancestral God of Umong Island, began to spread throughout the vast sea area. The Ancestral Gods of the islands that had previously been at odds with him fled in panic, never daring to return.

And the Ancestral Gods of the islands that had not yet been in contact with Umong Island came to pay their respects, trying to curry favor with Han Li.

There were even two Loose Immortals who directly joined Umong Island and became foreign enshrined elders, assigned by Han Li to sit in charge of the islands of the Lapis Crystal Clan and Madam Hugu's clan.

For a time, Umong Island had some of the makings of a regional overlord.

However, Han Li only killed Han Qiu and Madam Hugu in the beginning, and then left everything else to the avatar and Luo Feng.

Several months later, inside the secret chamber of the Umong Island courtyard.

Han Li sat cross-legged on a prayer mat, while a solemn Luo Feng stood slightly bowed in front of him.

"In a few days, I will be going into seclusion. The period will probably be very long. My avatar will also be busy cultivating, so I will leave the affairs of the island to you to handle in full," Han Li said.

"Senior, please rest assured and enter seclusion. Luo Feng will never neglect the affairs of the clan," Luo Feng quickly said.

"Outside this courtyard, I will soon set up a forbidden array. No one can approach it. If anything unexpected happens afterward, you can seek help from my avatar and no longer need to ask me," Han Li continued to instruct.

"As you command," Luo Feng replied without hesitation.

After he left, a blue light suddenly stretched out from Han Li's body, forming a figure next to him. It was his Earthly Avatar.

Han Li stood up, flipped his wrist, and a black light flashed in his palm, revealing two identical black array disks. He handed one to the Earthly Avatar.

The size and shape of the array disk were no different from a chessboard, and its surface was covered with dense white dots. The periphery was engraved with nine-palace star grids and sixteen directions, making it look quite peculiar.

This disk was called the Star Shift Mother-Child Disk, an array disk magic weapon capable of transmitting various objects across space, which he had obtained from the Impeccable Alliance at a great price.

One night, half a month later.

A figure with extremely well-concealed aura quietly left Umong Island.

After arriving in a desolate sea area tens of miles away from the island, his entire body shone with a cyan light, abruptly transforming into a beam of light, and speeding towards the center of the Blackwind Sea.