Han Li pondered slightly, then with a sway, he arrived beside Jiao Sixteen, who was collapsed next to the withered tree. After helping him up, he took out a pill and had him swallow it.

"Thank you."

Jiao Sixteen was seriously injured this time. After nodding to Han Li, he sat down cross-legged without saying a word, silently circulating his medicinal power to heal himself.

On the other side, after Jiao Nine discovered that the purple-robed old man had disappeared, his figure suddenly swayed, and he came to the side of the Composite Body cultivator who still had a breath left in the nearby alley.

Before the other party could speak, Jiao Nine's single hand shot out like lightning, his five fingers hooked, grabbing the other party's head. As blue light flickered in his palm, the Composite Body cultivator rolled his eyes and lost consciousness.

It was unknown what kind of secret technique he used, but soon a pale red Nascent Soul with a terrified expression was forcibly pulled out of the body, enveloped in blue light. Its eyes were half-closed, looking listless.

Jiao Nine returned to the small courtyard with the Nascent Soul in his hand. He first glanced at Jiao Sixteen, who was meditating and recuperating, and then turned his gaze to Han Li, who was standing aside.

"I didn't expect Fellow Daoist to have such profound attainments in the field of formations and restrictions. I previously mistakenly thought that Fellow Daoist was afraid of battle and fled. It was I who was petty-minded. I hope Fellow Daoist doesn't take offense," Jiao Nine said with a slight nod to Han Li.

"You flatter me, Fellow Daoist. It's not any kind of attainment in formations; it's just that I happened to find the weak point in that space. It's also thanks to Fellow Daoist's great magical powers, being able to restrain that Loose Immortal, that I had the opportunity to carry out the task of breaking the formation," Han Li said with a smile.

Jiao Nine didn't say much upon hearing this. He turned his gaze to the Nascent Soul in his hand, his gaze turning cold. He raised his other palm.

With a "poof," a wisp of fine black silk flew out from his palm, directly submerging into the Nascent Soul's head.

The Nascent Soul's body trembled, and it let out a shrill scream.

Jiao Nine remained unmoved, and more and more black silk spewed out from his palm, pouring into the Nascent Soul's head.

The Nascent Soul's screams grew weaker and weaker, and the expression on its small face gradually became wooden, its eyes unfocused.

Jiao Nine frowned slightly, a hint of displeasure flashing across his face, and the black silk in his palm intensified.

Just at this moment, a layer of crystalline light suddenly appeared on the surface of the Nascent Soul's body, making its body become semi-transparent.

"Not good..." Seeing this, Han Li suddenly thought of something and spoke up quickly.

But before he could finish speaking, the Nascent Soul shattered with a "bang," turning into a scattering of luminous light.

The corners of Jiao Nine's mouth twitched slightly, and his expression looked somewhat unsightly.

"It seems that this person's Nascent Soul spirit has been placed under some kind of restriction. Once the soul search touches certain memories, the restriction will be triggered. I wonder if Fellow Daoist Jiao Nine has detected anything?" Han Li sighed lightly and asked.

"I didn't find any useful information. With this person's identity, he probably wouldn't know much to begin with. However, the No 常 Alliance personnel here have indeed been killed by them," Jiao Nine shook his head and said.

Han Li frowned slightly upon hearing this.

"Then what do we do next?" Jiao Sixteen asked as he stood up, his injuries having recovered somewhat.

"First, thoroughly search this Heavenly Water City. Since we have already been exposed, then there is no need to worry about anything," Jiao Nine said in a deep voice, his eyes flashing.

……

At the same time.

Tens of thousands of miles away from Heavenly Water City, between the clouds in the high sky, a dark red pavilion ship was riding the wind and waves, speeding forward.

The pavilion ship was divided into two floors, each floor having several independent rooms. The ship's hull was engraved with several pairs of wing patterns, transforming into eight pairs of huge dark red wings, flapping rapidly.

Inside a room on the top floor of the pavilion ship, the purple-robed old man who had fought with Han Li and the others was sitting cross-legged, his face gloomy.

After pondering for a moment, he flipped his hand and took out a palm-sized jade disc, tapping it a few times. Immediately, a large expanse of red light emerged from it, and then a somewhat dry voice came from within:

"Chou Wu, what is the situation?"

"I have already fought with the people sent by the No 常 Alliance," the purple-robed old man said expressionlessly.

"Hehe, as expected, it seems that I was right," the person in the jade disc said with a smug laugh.

"Hmph! The strength of the people who came is much different from what you predicted. Two Loose Immortals and one Earth Immortal, a total of three True Immortals! If I didn't have some means, I would have almost fallen into their hands. It's a pity that one of my subordinates fell into their hands," the purple-robed old man said angrily.

"Oh, does that person know anything?" the voice in the jade disc also paused.

"A Composite Body cultivator, how much could he know," the purple-robed old man said disdainfully.

"That's good then. Three True Immortals have come to your place alone, it seems that the No 常 Alliance is not to be trifled with this time. If they retreat knowing their limitations, then so be it, but if they are still so entangled, the Holy Master will teach them a lesson... Alright, you have worked hard this time, come back first," the voice in the jade disc first sneered, then changed its tone and said.

The purple-robed old man raised an eyebrow, obviously somewhat dissatisfied with the other party's condescending tone, but he didn't say anything more and directly ended the transmission.

He waved his hand and pinched a technique, the pavilion ship's flying boat's red light greatly increased, and its speed accelerated again, rushing forward.

……

Heavenly Water City, inside a certain stone hall.

The area here was quite large, but it seemed somewhat empty. Stone pillars stood on both sides, with braziers placed on top, but they were not lit.

Han Li and the other two were currently standing at the entrance of the hall, their heads having returned to the masked appearance.

With their cultivation and spiritual sense, they thoroughly searched the entire Heavenly Water City without any scruples, and found that there were no high-level cultivators above the Refinement Void stage in the city, nor did they find anything unusual, but they found this stone hall in a remote place in the south of the city.

In the center of the hall, there were three neatly arranged corpses, all of them with shriveled skin and flesh, and distorted facial features, as if they had encountered extremely terrifying things in their lives. Beside them were several masks that were entirely cyan in color, which looked different from the ones worn by Han Li and the others.

Looking at the dry appearance of these people's corpses, it seemed that all the blood in their bodies had been drained in an instant.

The other party blatantly placed these people's corpses neatly here, obviously with a bit of provocative meaning.

"These should be those lurking personnel from the Alliance," Jiao Nine said slowly, examining the bodies and masks of these people.

"One Grand Ascension, two Composite Body, it looks like they were killed almost as soon as they fought, and even the Nascent Souls failed to escape... It should be the work of that Loose Immortal before, but it seems that this person can also use some power of the Law," Han Li said thoughtfully, his eyes sweeping over the three corpses.

"Gongshu Hong, that old fox, seems to have been prepared for a long time. The previous restriction was more like a carefully designed trap, luring us to fall into it step by step," Jiao Sixteen said hatefully.

"Don't worry about these things for now. It seems that no clues can be found in this Heavenly Water City. Before leaving, we must first notify Lord Jiao Three of the situation here, and then discuss how to proceed next," Jiao Nine said.

After saying this, he pinched a technique with one hand, and a layer of blue ripples appeared on the blue goat-headed mask he was wearing, flickering uncertainly, and then suddenly lit up.

Jiao Nine immediately closed his eyes and began to move his lips slightly.

Han Li and Jiao Sixteen stood aside, not making a sound to disturb him.

After a while, the light on Jiao Nine's mask converged and dissipated, and he also opened his eyes.

"What did Lord Jiao Three say?" Jiao Sixteen asked quickly.

"He instructed us to go to Dragon Lake City to gather immediately," Jiao Nine said slowly.

"Have they also been attacked?" Han Li suddenly asked.

"Lord Jiao Three and the other team of Fellow Daoists are far away from the target city and have not arrived yet. However, looking at the situation here, their target contact personnel are also likely to be in dire straits. Now that they have been prepared in advance, it may not be so easy for the other party to sneak attack them again," Jiao Nine said in a deep voice.

Han Li nodded and didn't ask any more questions.

"There are no more clues here, let's go." Jiao Nine waved his hand and released a burst of blue light, collecting the corpses on the ground, and walked towards the outside.

The three of them quickly walked out of the stone hall and quietly left Heavenly Water City, arriving at a wilderness.

Jiao Sixteen was about to use a concealment technique to conceal his figure, but he heard Jiao Nine's voice in his ear:

"No need. Lord Jiao Three said that since the enemy already knows of our existence, there is no need to bother with sneaking around. We will go directly to Dragon Lake City."

As he spoke, he waved his sleeves, and rolling waves of water surged around, and a blue crystal flying boat more than ten feet long appeared in the open space in front of him. The boat was streamlined, crystal clear, and overflowing with spiritual light.

Jiao Sixteen paused in his movements and looked at the flying boat with a look of envy in his eyes.

"This boat is entirely made of Azure Cloud Sky Crystal. Although it can't be considered a Immortal Artifact, it shouldn't be far off, right?" Han Li exhaled lightly and praised.

"You flatter me, Fellow Daoist. A small spirit treasure-level flying boat, how can it be so exaggerated?" Jiao Nine said with a chuckle.

Han Li's display of strength when fighting with others earlier had impressed him, and he couldn't help but be a little more polite in his words.

"This flying boat is quite fast, we will use this to travel. Jiao Sixteen, you should quickly recover your injuries, I'm afraid there will be no shortage of fierce battles later." As Jiao Nine said this, his figure swayed and landed at the front of the flying boat.

Jiao Sixteen also nodded, and he and Han Li flew onto the flying boat one after the other.

Jiao Nine waved his hand and cast a magic formula, and the flying boat's blue light intensified, turning into a blue light and flying forward.

……

The overall scale of Dragon Lake City was much larger than Heavenly Water City. Inside the city, there was a lake covering more than a thousand acres, connected to several large rivers in the city, extending all the way to the outside of the city.

It was early morning, and the city was bustling with people, appearing quite prosperous.

When Han Li and the others arrived in the city after rushing all the way, and came to a remote manor in the west of the city, the other group led by Jiao Three and Monkey-faced Jiao Eight had already arrived.

However, it seemed that Jiao Eight and the other three had just arrived here.

Under Jiao Three's instructions, Jiao Nine described in detail the ambush they encountered in Heavenly Water City, and then waved his hand and took out all the corpses of the No 常 Alliance personnel who had previously infiltrated the city.

Jiao Three looked at the dry corpses on the ground, his gaze turned cold, and the faces of the others changed slightly when they saw this.