Han Li gazed at the four statues before him, his eyes flickering slightly.

The leftmost statue was obtained from Du Qingyang, and had already been cultivated to completion in the previous blood array. The two beside it were obtained from E Kui not long ago.

The last one was taken out of the flower branch space by Han Li using the last bit of his immortal spiritual power.

According to E Kui, there should be four such statues in total, and these should be all of them.

At this thought, a shadow couldn't help but appear in Han Li's heart.

His immortal spiritual power at the time was almost depleted, only enough to take out this one statue. He couldn't even enter the flower branch space for another look.

He had thought he would be able to return from the Scaled Hollow Realm quickly, but he didn't expect it to be delayed for so long. Ti Hun was still sleeping on the second floor of the bamboo building, and he didn't know how she was doing.

But despite his worries, there was nothing else he could do at the moment.

The Third Prince, Shi Po Kong, had ulterior motives, and his so-called method of returning to the Demon Realm was unusable. If he wanted to leave the Scaled Hollow Realm, he could only wait until Crab Daoren recovered.

Now that the First Prince, Shi Zhanfeng, had fallen, even if he returned to the Demon Realm now, he probably wouldn't be able to ask him to keep his promise and have the Grand Priest treat Ti Hun.

Moreover, chaos had already begun in the Demon Realm, and the subsequent battle for the throne would only intensify. Han Li didn't want to get involved in it again.

Putting aside his chaotic thoughts, Han Li reached out and picked up the second statue. After taking a deep breath, a flash of light appeared between his eyebrows, and a crystal-clear beam shot out from it, entering the black statue.

Immediately afterward, the statue began to make all sorts of strange movements, just like the first one before. Dense Xuan inscriptions also appeared on its back, the contents of which were naturally the cultivation method of the Heavenly Fiend Suppressing Prison Art.

Han Li kept his eyes fixed on the movements of the statue, and began to imitate them.

...

On a continent an unknown distance away, within a majestic city, blades and halberds formed a forest, and the defenses were strict.

Inside a magnificent hall in the center of the city, a charming woman sat high on the main hall, leaning against a white jade chair, listening with a relaxed expression to the report of a handsome man below.

If Han Li were here, he would be able to recognize at a glance that the woman was Sha Xin, the City Lord of Puppet City, and the man reporting to her was Zhuo Ge.

"Reporting to the City Lord, the situation in Xuan City has basically stabilized. The five major cities and some affiliated small cities have shown some resistance, but they have all been quickly suppressed. By the way, Gu Qianxun contributed a lot in this process," Zhuo Ge said respectfully.

"I heard that in Xuan Zhi City, the elders and their clansmen who originally followed Qin Yuan were all slaughtered, even those who took the lead in surrendering and expressing their loyalty?" Sha Xin asked casually, with no emotion in her tone.

"This... Gu Qianxun did it, but it was done with the nod of Madam Liu Hua. He said he would explain it to you," Zhuo Ge hesitated slightly and said.

"It's just some old grudges between them. It doesn't matter, let them go," Sha Xin said indifferently.

"Gu Qianxun handled this matter very decisively. He didn't use his power to kill people, but instead fought in the Xuan Fighting Arena in the city for seven days and seven nights, a total of eighty-one matches, killing those people one by one. Not only did he not provoke the people of Xuan Zhi City to riot, but he also won over a lot of people," Zhuo Ge said cautiously.

"Since she is willing to join the master's banner, the position of City Lord of Xuan Zhi City will be handed over to her. Have the City Lords of the other cities been decided?" Sha Xin nodded and asked.

"The City Lord of Xuan City is temporarily held by Madam Liu Hua. Zhu Ziyuan and his sister took the initiative to come and pledge their allegiance, assisting her in managing Xuan City, which is the most stable transition. Many people have died in the other cities, but the candidates for City Lord have also been decided," Zhuo Ge reported.

"Xuan City is a major city comparable to Puppet City, so it must be closely watched. The necessary surveillance, both overt and covert, is indispensable," Sha Xin instructed.

"I respectfully obey the City Lord's orders," Zhuo Ge replied.

"These are all minor matters, you can handle them. How many of the ruins that you were previously instructed to excavate have been found?" Sha Xin waved her sleeve lightly and asked.

"So far, only twenty-one have been found, and the remaining eighty-seven are still being searched for," Zhuo Ge replied.

"These ruins are scattered throughout the Scaled Hollow Realm, and some are still in some remote and dangerous places. Finding twenty-one is not a slow pace. But don't be too anxious, as long as they can all be excavated within the next millennium," Sha Xin nodded and said.

"Yes!" Zhuo Ge cupped his fists and replied.

"This matter concerns the master's re-control of the Scaled Hollow Realm after his exit, so remember not to make any mistakes. Alright, you may leave," Sha Xin said, waving her hand to dismiss him.

Zhuo Ge bowed and answered, then turned and left.

...

In the western district of Puppet City, within a deep mansion, it was silent.

Inside an underground secret room in the courtyard, a white-haired man was naked, immersed in an octagonal blood pool, with eight blood crystal chains binding his body, connected to eight blood-colored stone pillars around the pool.

His appearance was handsome, his eyes were a mysterious purple, and he was Shi Chuankong.

"Clang..."

The sound of chains shaking rang out continuously, and the surrounding eight blood-colored stone pillars also trembled violently. The entire blood pool seemed to be boiling, with waves of blood rising from it, emitting a rolling, scorching aura.

Shi Chuankong was in it, but seemed completely unaware. His body didn't even have any extra tremors, but his tightly furrowed brows and the sound of his teeth grinding showed that he was enduring unimaginable pain.

But all of this was of his own free will, even exchanged for in a deal with Sha Xin.

"Fellow Daoist Li, the feeling of being left too far behind is really uncomfortable..." After he gritted his teeth and said this, a spot of light suddenly lit up on his chest, and he had actually opened a Mysterious Aperture.

...

As the saying goes, cultivation knows no years. In the blink of an eye, another eight hundred years had passed.

In the Crystal Palace under the Great Void Blood Lake, the Star Array was still in operation. In the side hall next to it, there was a rumbling sound.

Inside the side hall, a humanoid monster covered in golden hair, with thunder and lightning wings on its back, bulging eyeballs, and cyan turtle shells on its arms, was wantonly hammering the walls of the hall.

Fortunately, the runes on the crystal walls shone brightly, and the vast star power released from them strongly blocked the monster's heavy blows, so that the entire crystal palace would not be reduced to ruins.

The monster slammed for three full hours before its momentum gradually weakened and it slowly stopped.

As its movements slowed down, its silver wings disappeared first, followed by the cyan turtle shells peeling off piece by piece, and finally all the golden hair disappeared as well.

When all the abnormalities had disappeared, it finally turned back into a human form, which was Han Li.

At this moment, his eye sockets were sunken, and he looked a circle thinner. Supporting himself on the ground with both hands, his chest rose and fell as he breathed heavily. As soon as the sweat flowed out of his body, it was evaporated into mist by the high temperature emitted from his body surface.

His whole body seemed to be shrouded in a layer of smoke, appearing hazy and unclear.

After a long while, he leaned against the wall and slumped down. The manic True Spirit bloodline in his body finally stabilized.

"After all, the True Spirit bloodline is not Star Power. Relying solely on this Star Essence Blood Refining Art is increasingly unable to suppress the bloodline riot. If I keep tossing around like this a few more times, I'm afraid I'll burn my essence blood dry sooner or later," Han Li frowned and sighed.

All the books in another side hall had been turned through by him no less than ten times. All the cultivation methods for Xuan cultivation and body refinement within them had no countermeasures for this situation. On the contrary, the classics on puppet techniques mentioned a method.

However, Han Li had a deep-seated aversion to this method and was unwilling to try it.

Because the contents of this method described the refinement of a powerful puppet, the introduction of the True Spirit bloodline into it, and the introduction of the blood of other people into one's own body, thereby saving one's life.

But if this method were followed, the strength of the main body would naturally be greatly damaged. Although the obtained puppet would have extremely strong combat power for a short period of time, after a long time, the essence blood in the puppet's body would be exhausted, and it would only be reduced to waste.

Although Han Li resisted, he also knew in his heart that if it really came to this point, life was naturally more important than anything else.

During this period of time, Crab Daoren had woken up several times, and Han Li took the opportunity to borrow a little bit of his origin immortal spiritual power to open the flower branch cave and check on Ti Hun's condition.

As a result, he found that although the Ziyang Warm Jade had been exhausted, for some reason, Ti Hun's condition had not continued to deteriorate. Therefore, he temporarily sealed Ti Hun according to the puppet secret technique taught by Crab Daoren, and planned to make further plans in the future.

In addition, Han Li had also asked Crab Daoren about the backlash of the True Spirit bloodline.

After all, it was Crab Daoren who had asked him to choose to cultivate the Heavenly Fiend Suppressing Prison Art, and after he refined the True Spirit bloodline with the advanced refinement method recorded in this cultivation method, this kind of backlash began to appear.

After thinking about it, Crab Daoren only gave an answer that "probably after completely refining the True Spirit bloodline, the power of the bloodline was magnified invisibly, resulting in the appearance of backlash."

Unfortunately, he was unable to give a solution, only saying that he would talk about it after he exited seclusion, and then fell into a deep sleep again.

Although Han Li was helpless in his heart, there was nothing he could do.

However, as far as the current situation is concerned, as long as he continues to cultivate the Heavenly Fiend Suppressing Prison Art to enhance his physical strength, and uses the power of the stars to suppress the outbreak of the True Spirit bloodline without using this cultivation method, it can still play a certain role.

Therefore, he stepped up his cultivation of the Heavenly Fiend Suppressing Prison Art even more.

Currently, Han Li had completed the cultivation of the second statue, and had opened more than nine hundred Mysterious Apertures on his body. His strength was already comparable to that of E Kui back then.

The reason why he was able to cultivate so quickly was partly due to the subtlety of the Heavenly Fiend Suppressing Prison Art, and partly due to the massive amount of Qi and Blood power stored in the Palm Heaven Bottle. Of course, this Crystal Palace also contributed greatly.

(Fellow Daoists, Wang Yu has something to go out tonight, and can only update once today!)