This kind of agreement made it seem as if the Masked Moon Sect had suffered heavy losses, since they had no choice but to give up their dream of claiming the spiritual ingredients in the forbidden area for themselves. However, the Masked Moon Sect had been able to avoid the destruction of their entire sect, leaving them the opportunity to gradually increase their strength.
As of current, the Masked Moon Sect was the most outstanding one of the Seven Great Sects, and its strength could be said to be bottomless! If the various sects did not join together, it would be impossible to defeat them!
This was also the reason why Han Li was not impatient and couldn’t calmly lie to the ugly man!
This time, the Seven Great Sects had already arranged the time for the clearing of the dense fog before entering. It would be on the morning of the third day.
Earlier, Han Li had no time to rest and was rushing towards the central area precisely because he was afraid that he would have been stopped by somebody, thus preventing him from entering the mountain when it was time. Now, since he had already entered the central area, there was no need to be anxious anymore! If he were to rush to the second layer now, he would only be there to stare at the dense fog!
As for the third layer within the center of the forbidden area, it was even more mysterious!
As long as one stood at the peak of the ring-shaped mountains, anyone could clearly see that within the vast area contained by the second layer, there was a huge, soaring pagoda roughly three hundred meters tall erected in the central area. Surrounding the pagoda was a dense, green forest, causing the water flow to be obscure around the pagoda. This place was the supposed third layer and was also the centermost part of the forbidden area!
When the elders from the Seven Great Sects heard the descriptions given by their own disciples, they immediately knew that it was the dwelling of the owner of the forbidden area. They truly coveted the items inside of this pagoda!
However, at the border between the second and third level, there was a strong restrictive barrier with an unknown name still operating, a layer that stopped all of the disciples who tried to barge their way in through it. This restrictive barrier was not one that could be broken by a Qi Condensation cultivator, and even Foundation Establishment cultivators and above also had no way of entering that section of the forbidden area. Thus, the items contained in this pagoda were still a complete mystery!
Han Li had no interest in the huge pagoda in the third layer! To him, being able to find enough spiritual ingredients in the second layer and then immediately being able to retreat was already cause to thank the heavens and gods for their blessings and protection.
Han Li coped with the ugly man in front of him for a full quarter of an hour before he finally freed himself from his nagging, entered a patch of vegetation on the side, and immediately disappeared! Before disappearing, he glanced at the opposing person and saw that that Zhong Wu continued to lazily stand in the same spot, as if he didn’t have the slightest intention of leaving!
It seemed as if these “experts” would not rest until they had gotten rid of the vast majority of the disciples who had come to take advantage of the situation for their own gain! Most likely, the other three doors would have people who were doing the same thing!
As Han Li thought this, he began to search for something in a place far away from the copper doors.
Underneath a giant tree, Han Li discovered an inconspicuous tree hollow, causing his heart to become happy.
After slipping in headfirst, he prepared some small protective measures at the opening of the whole, and without thinking about anything else, he proceeded to fall into a deep sleep.
Han Li needed to rest well, because when the fog around the ring-shaped mountains was to be broken early next morning, only the Heavens knew what would happen! He first had to recover peak condition before completing his business.
However, he believed that those who could stand in front of the ring-shaped mountains tomorrow morning, waiting for the dense fog to be broken, would definitely not be very numerous! Each one would likely not be easier to deal with than that Feng Yue!
Han Li slept very soundly. It wasn’t until early in the morning of the second day that he started to slowly awaken.
The most important day in the forbidden area finally was drawing near!
Chapter 195: The Strength of the “Precious Moon Sun Pearl”.
After Han Li awoke, he did not immediately leave the tree hollow. Instead, he sat down cross-legged in the tree.
The spiritual power surged within his body, and his magic power had returned to its peak.
The feeling of soreness had already disappeared without a trace, and his strength was vigorous.
Han Li had finished inspecting himself, and he slowly opened his eyes. His heart was incredibly satisfied!
This was when he stood up and inspected the talismans and magic tools in his storage pouch, finishing up his last-minute preparations.
Han Li preciously did not have the time to carefully look through the few storage pouches he previously took from the fully bearded man and his associate. Now, he would naturally search through them once to see if there were any usable magic tools.
Truthfully, regardless of whether it was the storage pouches of the fully bearded man and his partner or the storage pouches that they had taken from others, the magic tools in the pouches were numerous, but their quality was incredibly low. After seeing this, Han Li was at a loss for words!
Combined, the five storage pouches contained twenty three magic tools – five low-grade ones, seven mid-grade ones, and eleven-high grade ones.
One of the storage pouches actually only contained two low-grade magic tools and two mid-grade ones; there were no high-grade magic tools at all. This discovery caused Han Li to be stunned for a long time, causing him to sigh with sorrow.
The net worth of normal disciples and elite disciples were really as different as the heavens and the earth!
This pile of storage pouches did not contain a single top-grade magic tool. No wonder when Han Li had bound the fully bearded man with his “Earth Prison Technique”, he seemed to have no method to escape. He could only watch as he was crushed to death by the “Golden Light Brick”.
When Han Li thought about the number of top-grade magic tools that the woman with many treasures and Feng Yue had, he felt incredibly helpless towards the poverty of regular disciples!
No wonder when other people saw his weak cultivation base, they would subconsciously think that his strength was feeble and could be easily bullied. No one would consider the question of what strong magic tools he might have.
Now, Han Li could finally understand why so many disciples had been so excited when they had found out that the Yellow Maple Valley’s meeting hall was handing out high-grade magic tools! It seemed like the Yellow Maple Valley that he was part of treated these average disciples pretty well! They were actually willing to use several scores of high-grade magic tools to encourage their morale!
In reality, Han Li had guessed incorrectly concerning this matter! Even if the various sects sent out their elite disciples to the forbidden area, they very rarely owned any top-grade magic tools.
People like the woman with many treasures, who had top-grade magic weapons from head to toe, were very few in number even among the elite disciples. In addition, most of them came from influential backgrounds. Regular elite disciples would fall short even in flattery!
In this way, Han Li, who had three or four top-grade magic tools on him, could already cause these so-called elite disciples to drool! All in all, before reaching Core Formation, with the exception of the treasure talismans, each extra top-grade magic tool could change one’s strength beyond recognition!
While Han Li was in the Yellow Maple Valley, because his contact with other Senior Martial Brothers had been too rare, he was an amateur when it came to the matters of the cultivator world. He still subconsciously believed that the elite disciples all had a
pile of top-grade magic tools!
This was not surprising; ever since he had had the huge battle with “Senior Martial Brother Lu”, all of the enemies that he had encountered were owners of top-grade magic tools. This caused him to give rise to the misconception that top-grade magic tools were not rare.
Now, although he had realized the regular disciples’ lack of magic tools, he still did not completely understand the worth of top-grade magic tools. Was this would be a misfortune or a blessing to Han Li?
Han Li naturally neglected the low and mid-grade magic tools; he would not consider using them. He then tried out each of the high-grade magic tools before selecting three of the strongest and most practical ones to use as backup magic tools.
A deep blue flying dagger, a golden alms bowl, and a jade pot! These were the items that Han Li had chosen.
The flying dagger and the golden alms bowl were all pure attack-type magic tools, and there was nothing of particular note about them. However, the jade pot was uncommon; it actually was a rarely seen support-type magic tool.
The pot could spurt out a green poisonous miasma and surround the area near the enemies, causing them to die from poison! At a first glance, the usefulness of this pot seemed to be pretty good, but in fact it was a magic tool of little value. Any barriers of the five elements could all block the poison; it was impossible to use it to actually poison a cultivator!
If it wasn’t because Han Li thought that this green poisonous fog could temporarily obstruct the enemy’s vision and bring the opponent a certain amount of inconvenience, he truly might not have chosen this magic tool.
Once he sorted out everything on him, Han Li silently slipped out of the tree hole after estimating the time. Then, after determining his direction, he began to slowly travel on his way.
It was definitely out of the question to fly directly into the ring-shaped mountain after the dense fog had been dispersed! He would be noticed by countless demonic beasts that could fly and would be surrounded and attacked to death. In bygone years, there had been a few small paths to safely enter the ring-shaped mountain. Han Li directly headed towards the closest tunnel.
The entrance to the tunnel was not too far, and with a bit of effort Han Li hurried to the location specified by the information!
After hiding behind some large tree, looking at the limitless fog considered to be as big as the sky, Han Li was truly stunned!
The misty fog virtually covered the heavens and the earth! One could forget about seeing the entrance to the ring-shaped mountain; Han Li could not see clearly even one Zhang into the thick fog!
No wonder nobody had dared to climb this mountain before the “Precious Moon Sun Pearl” existed! When he thought about the fact that inside this fog one would have to suffer constantly from the attacks of various demonic beasts that would come and go without warning, he was speechless for quite some time!
Since the fog was still so large, it seemed as if the Heavenly Imperial Fortress disciples in possession of the precious pearl had not yet begun to activate their spell and dispel the fog!
Thinking in this manner, Han Li stood behind the tree and began to silently wait!
Directly facing the large fog, the place where Han Li was waiting was overgrown with lots of wild trees and wild brush. There was no problem for ten or so people to hide in them.
Although Han Li had not discovered the existence of other people all around him, he also knew that other people were definitely nearby. After all, there were only a few of these routes going up the mountain. It was only because the time for entering the mountain was imminent that other people hadn’t paid any attention to his arrival.
Time passed by hour by hour.
After Han Li had bitterly waited three to four hours, he suddenly felt a frightening spiritual power coming from his southwest direction. Next, a soaring white pillar of light flew into the sky at a faraway location! In the skies above the boundless sea of fog, the light aggregated into a huge sphere of light.
Although the light sphere had been formed, the light pillar didn’t seem to have any intention of stopping and continued to incessantly pour energy into the sphere. Thus, the sphere of light got larger and larger and more and more dazzling. Finally, it was actually as if a new sun had risen into the sky, causing people to not dare look at it!
A brief moment later, the light column disappeared from view, only leaving that gigantic sphere of light floating high in the sky.
However, the duration of the sphere of light was pitifully short; in the blink of an eye, it began to distort its shape, and it surface began to depress like a piece of dough. This caused Han Li, who had seen the whole sequence of events, to be stupefied; his mouth hung wide open, and he forgot to close it!
With an earth-shaking “Bang!”, the huge sphere of light finally bursted open high in the sky, and became countless fist-sized, beautiful dots of light that floated down. They sprinkled down towards the large stretch of fog like an extremely glamorous rain of light.
When each sphere of white light fell into the dense fog, it immediately caused the nearby dense fog to become alive like a flood dragon and automatically rush towards the heart of the spheres of light. However, the thick fog was immediately dissolved upon contact with the spheres of light, but the spheres of light also dimmed significantly.
When more of the spheres of light came into contact with the large fog, the entire area of dense fog changed like a frightening landslide or a tsunami, and all of the mist was incessantly boiling and roiling! It was just as if a huge demonic beast was resisting being bound, and was in the last throes of its resistance.
Both of Han Li’s eyes stared unblinkingly at everything that had happened; it was the first time in his entire life that he had ever witnessed the true strength of an incredible magic treasure! In the aftermath of his shock, the depths of his heart were filled with feelings of envy and desire!
After the struggle between the fog and the sphere of light, the fog finally began to slowly thin out. The silhouette of the dangerous and tall ring-shaped mountain appeared before Han Li and others for the first time.
“How tall!”
This was the admiring exclamation of all those who had clearly seen the ring-shaped mountains, and Han Li was no exception as one of these people!
The ring-shaped mountains before him was truly frighteningly tall!
Looking up, the mountains appeared to reach a height of a three kilometers. It was soaring through the clouds so the peak was not visible. Strange eye-catching cliffs and rocks were abundant on the mountains’ exterior. Those that were not taking cover near giant trees were found throughout the mountains. What caused people’s hearts to be even more surprised was that the two sides of this mountain extended indefinitely into the distance. One did not know how long one would have to continue in order to figure out its extremities.
However, the mountain ridge on this side of the mountains in front of Han Li and the others was incredibly flat, not nearly as steep as other directions. It seemed as if this was the road to take up the mountains.
At this time, a few faint and low demonic beast howls could be heard coming from within the mountains. Their sound was mournful and sinister, causing people who heard to tremble with fear!
Han Li was currently staring to the point of being dazed!
With a “whoosh”, a yellow shadow shot out of the patch of underbrush on Han Li’s side like an arrow. He leaped into the midst of the dark mountain and disappeared from view.
This movement seemed to have triggered the nerves of the other hidden people. Immediately, several more people jumped out at the same time and rushed forwards together. Right as they were about to enter the forests on the mountain, however, a few people slightly widened the distance and entered into different areas of the ring-shaped mountains!
Han Li had not yet emerged. He planned to observe exactly what kind of people would choose the same route to enter the mountain as him!
Chapter 196: Han L
i’s Plan
In a short amount of time, a blue-clothed youth wearing an expression of cold indifference, an elderly Daoist Priest with an entire head of white hair, and an azure-clothed gorgeous young woman walked out in succession. They all reached a tacit understanding and chose different locations to enter the mountainous forest.
Han Li continued to wait for about another quarter of an hour. Seeing that no other people appeared, he performed a last-minute check on the items he had and copying the people before him, chose a direction that nobody had yet walked into and silently dived in.
What Han Li didn’t know was that, not long after he entered, the ugly man Zhong Yue that he had seen just yesterday appeared in front of the tunnel. He gazed at the dark road to go up the mountain and coldly laughed a few times; he released ten or so yellow dots that flew into the mountainous forest, then calmly followed after them.
At this time within the forbidden area, near the broken restrictive entrance, the people that the Seven Great Sects had left behind as guards looked worriedly in the direction of the forbidden area. Han Li’s Martial Ancestor Li was one of those people.
However, it could not be known whether he was worried about the success of his own disciples or if he was more worried about losing his bet!
The mood of the other Core Formation Daoist Priest from the Clear Void Sect was not much better! Speaking of which, ever since that Senior Eccentric Qiong from the Masked Moon Sect had forced his way into the bet, he no longer had any self-confidence in the bet that they had made beforehand. In an instant, it became apparent he was somewhat worried about his own gains and losses.
This was not surprising; the blood of a flood dragon’s inner core had been incredibly difficult to obtain. He had basically spent all of his family fortune to obtain it. If he lost it so easily to someone else, even if his attained mental state had been higher, perhaps he would be unable to sleep for a number of years in a row because of heartache!
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 97