These were none other than the city's four Body Integration cultivators, as well as a group of late-Spatial Tempering cultivators.
All of them were completely silent as they inspected the black devilish sea in the distance, and blue light suddenly flashed through Han Li's eyes.
All of a sudden, a burst of unsettling cackling rang out from within the sea, following which the devilish Qi parted, and several figures emerged from within.
One of them was a burly man in a black suit of armor, and standing beside him was a thin white-robed young man. These were none other than Tie Long and Fei Ya, whom Han Li had already encountered once before.
Their two companions consisted of a 100-feet-tall giant in a suit of fiery red armor, and a smiling beauty in bare feet standing on a pair of giant pythons, one of which was crimson while the other was azure.
Han Li had never encountered those two, but detailed information about the four devilish lords had been provided to him, so he was naturally able to quickly identify them.
Both of these devilish lords were only at the early-Body Integration Stage, so unless they possessed some kind of extraordinary treasures or were using cultivation arts that defied the natural order, they most likely posed no threat to him.
During the discussion that had taken place in the hall, it was decided that Fairy Silver Light and Fairy Lin Luan would be taking on these two devilish lords. As for Tie Long and Fei Ya, they were far more powerful, so they were naturally assigned to Han Li and Master Azure Dragon.
According to the plan, they didn't actually need to defeat their opponents; all they had to do was keep the devilish army at bay until the suns returned to normal, and that would be the equivalent of a victory for them.
Even though the four devilish lords had already flown out of the devilish Qi, the dozen or so human cultivators standing above the giant hall remained still on the spot.
After flying for a certain distance out of the devilish Qi, the four devilish lords stopped, and they began to discuss something as they hovered in mid-air, displaying no intention to attack right away.
"Those devilish lords sure are able to bide their time; it seems that they're not going to attack until all five suns transition into moons," Master Azure Dragon said in a grim voice.
Han Li didn't respond to this, but he looked up into the sky to discover that four of the seven suns up above had already completely dimmed. As for the fifth sun, it had mostly been covered in a grey blanket, which was rapidly spreading at a rate that was virtually discernible to the naked eye.
"Of course that's the case. If the five suns haven't completely transitioned into moons, then these devilish lords will have to worry that the Nine Sun Astral Formation hasn't completely lost its ability to function," Lin Luan said with a smile.
"Hmph, these devilish lords most likely wouldn't be so hesitant if they were to learn that we've already deactivated the formation ourselves. In any case, it's a good thing for us that they're stalling like this," Master Azure Dragon said as a faint smile also appeared on his face.
"It looks like we won't be able to stall for long, though," Fairy Silver Light said with a wry smile as she looked up into the sky.
"Hehe, even a slight delay is better than having the devilish army attack the city right away. The more we delay here, the greater our chances of being able to defend the city," Master Azure Dragon chuckled.
Fairy Silver Light merely smiled and offered no response.
Time slowly passed by, and the radiance of the fifth sun also gradually faded. In the instant that it turned completely grey, a burst of violent killing intent erupted from both the devilish sea and Heavenlean City in unison.
Master Azure Dragon took a deep breath, yet just as he was about to say something, Tie Long broke the silence first.
"Fellow Daoist Azure Dragon, the formation you're relying on is no longer a factor in this battle, so why continue to insist on offering futile resistance? As soon as you agree to surrender, I'll take you back to our Sacred Ancestor and implore him to inject devilish Qi into your body so you can become a member of our sacred race. This is your final chance. If you still insist on opposing us, hehe, we'll just have to raze your insignificant Heavenlean City to the ground!" Tie Long's voice was extremely loud, and it was clearly audible to everyone in Heavenlean City.
Master Azure Dragon's expression darkened upon hearing this, and he harrumphed coldly in response, "Hmph, I have no intention of becoming a devilish being, so save your breath. I would rather die than surrender to a foreign race!"
Master Azure Dragon's words were extremely decisive and resolute, and the entire human army was instilled with a sense of heightened conviction and determination.
Tie Long was furious to hear this, but he suddenly burst into laughter. "Haha, I originally intended to spare you, seeing as your abilities could be useful to our sacred race, but your foolishness has left me with no choice but to kill you along with everyone else here."
He then swept a sleeve through the air, and three green balls of light erupted forth, then exploded high up in the air amid three dull thumps.
Three giant fireballs, each of which was around an acre in size, appeared up above, and they were all radiating scintillating light.
Shrill screeches immediately rang out from within the devilish sea behind Tie Long, and a series of giant battle arks that were each over 10,000 feet in length slowly emerged. At the same time, several hordes of low-grade devilish beasts rushed out of the sides of the massive arks, and groups of armored devilish cavaliers also surged out in a menacing wave directly behind the arks.
Within the span of just a few breaths, the low-grade beasts and All-encompassing Devilish Cavaliers had taken up virtually the entire sky, and their numbers far exceeded what Han Li had witnessed on the previous occasion.
On top of that, over 300 giant devilish beasts had been released from the massive arks, and aside from the rhinoceros-like beasts that had made an appearance during the last attack, there were several other types of even more ferocious-looking giant beasts.
Among them were gargantuan praying-mantis-like beasts, as well as devilish birds with vibrant colorful feathers. The final type of devilish beast was a monster with a human face and a wyrm body, creating an extremely harrowing sight to behold.
They had disheveled heads that resembled those of unkempt cavemen, but from the neck down, they possessed giant purple wyrm bodies that were covered in scales, and they were releasing an overwhelming odor of blood and gore.
Among these three new types of giant beasts, the giant praying mantises comprised the majority of their numbers with over 200 of them present, and there were also around 80 giant rhinoceros beasts. As for the vibrant devilish birds, there were only just over 30 of them in total, and they were accompanied by a measly trio of human-faced purple wyrms.
Under the leadership of these giant beasts, the low-grade devilish beasts let loose thunderous roars as they rushed toward Heavenlean City like a giant swarm of locusts.
At the same time, pillars of black light erupted from the massive battle arks to bolster the offensive power of the swarm of devilish beasts.
As for the devilish cavaliers, they formed a series of formations once again and charged forward right behind the army of beasts, with excitement and bloodlust in their eyes.
At this point, the Jialun War Devils were still nowhere to be seen, presumably still concealed within the devilish sea.
However, aside from the All-encompassing Devilish Cavaliers, another type of elite devilish beings had emerged from the sea. This was a group of beings that resembled giant malicious ghosts. They were each around 40 to 50 feet tall with sharp claws and fangs, but they were dressed in long green robes. There was an extra green eye on each of their foreheads, and none of them were wielding any weapons as they advanced behind the All-encompassing Devilish Cavaliers.
There were slightly more of these devilish beings than the Jialun War Devils, but the disparity in numbers definitely wasn't a very significant one. In total, there were only around 20,000 to 30,000 of these green-robed devilish beings, and all of them wore sinister smiles.
The grim expressions on the faces of Master Azure Dragon and the others became even more pronounced upon seeing this, but the devilish lords were yet to attack, so they couldn't emerge from the city to face this devilish army, either.
Without requiring any orders, the high-grade cultivators above the city wall issued a series of instructions to the human army down below.
After a few flashes, the black pillars of light that had erupted from the giant arks crashed violently into Heavenlean City's protective restrictions.
On this occasion, the pillars of black light were significantly thicker than the ones unleashed in the previous attack, and they were raining down relentlessly without any respite.
Each pillar of light was imbued with power equivalent to that of an all-out attack from a Deity Transformation cultivator, and with so many of them raining down at once, the outermost layers of restrictions began to disintegrate almost immediately.
The restrictions of Heavenlean City seemed to be about to collapse, and Han Li's expression changed slightly upon seeing this.
However, before he had a chance to say anything, over 100 bursts of different formation fluctuations abruptly erupted from down below, then surged toward all sections of the city wall in a frenzy.
A loud buzzing sound rang out, and a series of silver runes appeared on the surfaces of the city walls to form one shimmering silver formation after another.
The formations glowed with scintillating light, and the five-colored light barrier up above was instantly replaced by a silver light barrier that had an extremely smooth surface.
Upon striking the silver light barrier, most of the oncoming black pillars of light were instantly diverted away, and only a small proportion of them were actually able to strike the light barrier, in response to which the barrier tremored slightly, but didn't sustain any substantial damage.
Both Fairy Silver Light and Han Li were quite relieved to see this.
At this moment, the army of human warriors and cultivators had also begun to charge out of the city at the behest of the high-grade cultivators up above.
At the same time, the ground in front of the city wall abruptly collapsed, and the copper puppet army emerged once again.
The exact same defensive measures that had been adopted during the previous attack were being used again, except the number of people involved and the level of intensity was on an entirely different level.
Spiritual light flashed incessantly up above, and the earth tremored and quaked violently. The area within a range of five kilometers from the city wall had been transformed into a deadly realm of slaughter.
Countless balls of light exploded both on the ground and in the sky, and the pungent odor of blood and gore quickly filled the entire space.
"Care for a battle, Fellow Daoist Azure Dragon?"
Just as Master Azure Dragon was appraising the battlefield with a grim expression, a burst of hearty laughter rang out from the distance. Immediately thereafter, two gusts of fierce winds came crashing down toward the city wall, and after just a few devastating blows, the silver light barrier was displaying signs of collapsing.
The man who had issued the challenge was none other than Tie Long, and he was attacking the city's restriction with his pair of giant hammers.