It then proceeded to lower its head and fiercely shot a burst of silver light from its horn.
Although the burst of light was only half a foot long, it released a piercing wail upon leaving the horn. In the blink of an eye, a large hole was now gaping in the body of the black python and the net had been dissolved.
The green net immediately turned into smoke upon touching the silver light and disappeared without a trace.
When Wu Chou and Zenith Yin saw this, they were shocked.
Wu Chou hastily made an incantation seal and pointed, shooting a black light towards the extinguished black python. The large hole in it immediately started to close while emitting sparks of faint light, stabilizing the python’s body. As for the Bone Sage, after a brief moment of astonishment, he stared at the huge silver wolf as if he had thought of something. He hesitated for a moment before opening his mouth with a solemn expression, and spat out a dark green knife. The knife was only several inches long and handleless. From a glance at the size of its increasing radiance, one could tell it was abnormal.
Han Li’s heart stirred and he couldn’t help but take another look at the magic treasure. If he wasn’t mistaken, the knife was a transformed version of the Bone Sage’s Gold Lightning Bamboo Arrow. He was merely using a magic technique to conceal its original form.
Could it be that the Bone Sage had gone mad? Zenith Yin was in the sky and he still dared to use his magic treasure. Zenith Yin surely must’ve used this treasure to plot against him long ago. Although the Bone Sage managed to conceal its brilliance, it was unable to escape the notice of Han Li, who had refined his own magic treasure from Gold Lightning Bamboo. It was far too bold of an action.
Han Li began to hesitate and had second thoughts, ‘Could it be that the silver wolf is so exceptional that the old devil is willing to take such a huge risk to claim it?’
In that instant, the huge silver wolf suddenly shrunk in size and turned into a foot tall miniature in the blink of an eye. Then with a flash of silver light, it flew towards the altar’s hole in a blur, breaking away from Wu Chou and the Bone Sage.
When the Bone Sage saw this, he immediately threw out his knife, shooting out a green streak. With a resounding bang, the small knife knocked away the silver wolf, but it didn’t receive any damage from the impact.
As it just so happened, the silver wolf was knocked in the direction of Han Li. With such a fine gift knocking at his door, Han Li instantly threw any apprehensions he had to the back of his mind and threw his flower basket towards the silver wolf. Fearing that this treasure wouldn’t be enough to capture the wolf, Han Li patted his storage pouch with his other hand, tossing the a chain of five copper bands after the wolf as well. He blew a breath of Azure Qi onto the chain of copper bands, causing it to flash with rainbow light and disappear without a trace.
Soon after, a clear ring suddenly sounded out. Before the silver wolf could dart away again, the five copper bands suddenly appeared around its limbs and head. Following several flickers of radiance, it crashed to the ground like a shot bird.
As for the flower basket, it had transformed into white mist and was already in pursuit of the wolf. In a second, it had caught up to the wolf and enveloped it. With a whistle from Han Li, it flew back into his hand and returned to its original form.
Having just recovered their magic treasures, the Bone Sage and Wu Chou gazed at Han Li in astonishment. Their expressions displayed complete disbelief.
Wu Chou was the first to awake and immediately wore a flustered, embarrassed expression. This was far beyond his expectations! He had originally thought that acquiring this ownerless treasure would be an easy matter with his Profound Yin Arts. He hadn’t expected that the Bone Sage would contend with him for the treasure before either realized that the treasure itself was quite difficult to capture. Just as he was about to use another magic treasure, the wolf had been easily captured by Han Li, leaving Wu Chou in a hapless state of miserable, impotent fury.
The Bone Sage wore an odd expression when he came to his senses. Although he soon returned to being expressionless, Han Li caught a glimpse of anger from his eyes. In addition, the old devil felt somewhat baffled when he saw the copper bands suddenly appear on the silver wolf’s body.
Han Li didn’t have the time to muse over the Bone Sage’s expressions. Instead, he excitedly glanced into the flower basket.
The copper bands seemed to be the bane of the silver wolf. They tightly restrained it, preventing it from moving in the slightest and binding it so that only its small head could be seen. It appeared rather pitiful.
Han Li chucked and lightly rubbed the wolf's head without a second thought. His hand then shined with azure light and completely enveloped it. Soon, the silver wolf’s body weakened before it eventually faded away to a jade scepter.
Just as Han Li had acquired the scepter with delight, Qing Yi and Zenith Yin looked at the scene with astonishment, having just lost their treasure to Wan Tianming.
Zenith Yin inwardly frowned. He couldn’t do anything about it now as he was facing such a great adversary as Wan Tianming. Moreover, there was no problem with giving Han Li possession of the treasure for now. After all, how could a junior possibly keep such an valuable ancient treasure that possessed its own illusory body. After this was all over, he would naturally have Han Li sincerely give it to his master.
Having settled his thoughts, Zenith Yin turned his attention back to Wan Tianming. The Heavensifting Mine was a Nascent Soul weapon of rarely seen ferocity. He was forced to be particularly focused when facing it.
But unfortunately, no action had been taken in the end. The stone platform suddenly shuddered with astonishing intensity as if it were about to cave in.
At that moment, a sliver of blue flame had finally reached beyond the hole.
Although only a small bit of the flame was exposed, in that same instant, a magnificent blue light blossomed, permeating throughout the entire stone platform. With the sounds of light crackling, a layer of blue frost also began to quickly spread across the ground.
Frightened, Han Li instantly reacted, shooting into the air. The Bone Sage had also acted quickly, flying into the air at nearly the same time as Han Li
However, Wu Chou hesitated for a moment and in that mere moment, the blue frost had already spread over his feet. The Profound Yin Qi hovering around his body was unable to protect him in the slightest. At that moment, Wu Chou became fearful and promptly wished to fly, but his feet were already frozen to the ground and the frost continued to spread. Wu Chou yelled in fright as he watched the frost cover his feet, and spread up from his lower leg.
As Han Li and the Bone Sage watched this from up above, they couldn’t help but glance at each other with horror.
Just as Wu Chou was about to turn into an ice sculpture by the blue frost, a thin line of black light abruptly shot down from the sky. It struck Wu Chou’s body, melting away the blue frost in a blaze of black fire and blue smoke.
Wu Chou rejoiced. He hastily flew to the skies with an expression of salvation upon regaining his freedom.
At that moment, he heard a cold snort transmitted to his ear followed by an irritated voice, “Be careful. Next time, I might not have the chance to save you.”
His survival had been the result of Zenith Yin’s actions. He had used his Heavenvoid Corpsefire to save Wu Chou from the sky.
At that moment, the eccentrics of both sides stared at the blue flames coming from the hole without blinking. Each of them had varying expressions of interest, greed and even nervousness.
Zenith Yin’s recent rescue of Wu Chou had been but a casual action. He hadn’t even turned his head when he spoke to him. He simply licked his lips and gazed at the altar’s hole with a feverish expression.
The rank one hidden treasure for countless years in the Scattered Star Seas, the Heavenvoid Cauldron, was about to emerge in the presence of these Nascent Soul cultivators at that very moment. Even the gloomy Zenith Yin and the other expression
less eccentrics couldn’t help but have their attention captured by the emerging blue flames. It was no wonder why Zenith Yin had spoken to Wu Chou with such an irritated tone after he rescued him.
As the Bloodjade Spider and the fire pythons had been trembling from exhaustion for a while now, the eccentrics watched them from the sky with worry. However, none of them dared to assist the beasts in the slightest since the hole’s surroundings had already become a world of blue light. While the red lights emitting from the spirit beasts’ bodies were able to repel the chilling light, the eccentrics were both unwilling and incapable of descending to assist the three spirit beasts.
As for the Core Formation cultivators, they had already distanced themselves a hundred meters from the hole and were watching the spectacle from a distance.
Chapter 486: Incarnation Talisman
At this crucial moment, Man Huzi raised his head and studenly stared at a certain area. With an icy face, he loudly shouted, “Who is sneaking around over there? How about you get lost!” He then sent a punch that shook his beard, sending out a three meter large golden hand to grab at the air.
A muffled peng sounded out, revealing a barrier of azure light. The light barrier forcibly stopped the golden hand’s approach, but it revealed the white silhouette within.
“It’s you!?”
“Star Palace?!”
Several shouts came from the eccentrics of both the Devil and Righteous Dao, and their expressions vastly changed.
Zenith Yin’s expression grew unsightly, and he rushed to question them,“Star Palace enforcement elder, when did you sneak up on us? Didn’t you claim to not intend to enter the Inner Halls?”
The white clothed elder didn’t respond to Zenith Yin and slowly addressed Man Huzi instead, “Sigh! My luck is truly bad. I didn’t expect that the Heavenvoid Cauldron’s emergence would cause such a great disturbance that I would have to use a technique to defend against its icy Qi, leaving me to be discovered by Brother Man. It seems Fellow Daoist Man possesses the highest cultivation out of all of you.” His face remained completely calm for someone that had been lying in concealment.
Zenith Yin grew furious, but he didn’t dare to rashly act against someone from the Star Palace.
As for the Righteous Dao cultivators, it seemed they also had their own misgivings. They all stared at the Star Palace elder in a moment of silence.
“Wait, isn’t there another person?! Han Li, be careful! The Bloodjade Spider!”
Ever since the Star Palace elder had appeared, Qing Yi had started muttering to himself. After hearing the Star Palace elder’s words, he became extremely suspicious. With some further thought, he suddenly recalled something and hastily shouted. When Han Li heard this from a distance, he was stunned.
Before he realized what was going on, two streaks of burning white light shot out from the other side of the altar. Each one cut through the air towards Han Li and the Bloodjade Spider with a chilling whistle. Afterwards, a white-clothed old man appeared where the attacks had been launched from.
Han Li’s complexion paled.
“Fast, too fast!” This was the single thought that filled Han Li’s mind as he saw the white light flash towards him. He did the only thing he could possibly do in that instant; he raised the jade scepter with both hands and used it to block his chest as best he could.
Peng! Han Li felt a huge impact from his hands before nearly losing all sensation; he fell from the sky, completely oblivious apart from a burning sensation from his chest along with the faint sounds of wind and furious shouting as he fell from the sky.
Before Han Li could stop his fall, he felt pain on the back of his body. His body had collapsed upon a barrier of light that was slowly rising.
“Yi!” A cry of disbelief came from the Star Palace elder that had attacked him. He felt surprised that he hadn’t managed to execute a weakling like Han Li in a single strike.
Since his magic treasure, the Piercing Sun Swords, failed to cleave Han Li at such a short distance, Han Li must’ve been wearing a top grade protective treasure. However, this was no matter as his other sword had struck true. With that thought, he turned his gaze to the altar.
The Bloodjade Spider had been cleaved into two halves. Its blood flowed into the ground, and the small portion of the revealed Celestial Ice Flame had silently sunk back into the hole.
The two remaining fire pythons completely lacked the strength to further pull up the Heavenvoid Cauldron.
Having seen this, the white-clothed elder was completely satisfied and recalled his two flying swords with a wave of his hand. He then put them away and revealed a strange smile towards the ashen faces of the Righteous and Devil Dao Nascent Soul cultivators.
Because these Nascent Soul cultivators had their attention drawn to the other Star Palace elder, they were unable to respond to the sneak attack on Han Li and Bloodjade Spider. As they had seen the Bloodjade Spider executed before their very eyes, they each wore an expression of fury and their eyes burned with rage.
Man Huzi didn’t have any qualms against taking action. He loudly rained curses on them and clapped his hand together, causing golden light to burst from his body.
But before Man Huzi could do anything else, the Star Palace elder that had earlier attacked started to fade into specks of white light, causing him to disappear without a trace. All that had remained was a faint gold talisman that floated to the floor. A similar scene occurred with the other white clothed elder. He faded away into specks of light with a smile on his face, leaving behind a similar golden talisman.
Man Huzi quickly suppressed the fury on his face and muttered to himself with a flickering expression, “The Star Palace’s Incarnation Talisman! So they flaunted their wealth instead of having their true bodies come! They did this to prevent us from being able to settle our debt with them.”
As for the others, they each helplessly watched the golden talismans fall to the ground with unsightly expressions before the talismans combusted and turned to ash.
In a quiet corner of the fifth floor in the Inner Halls, two white-clothed were sitting down cross-legged in the dark; their eyes were closed. One of them slowly spoke with a voice containing slight happiness, “Fortunately, we followed them. Otherwise, the Heavenvoid Cauldron would’ve fallen into their hands.”
“However, our incarnations had been discovered a bit too early. Else, we could’ve taken action as they fought over the Heavenvoid Cauldron. They would have been too distracted with one another to prevent us from making off with the treasure!” The other old man spoke somewhat gloomily with a tone of slight regret.
“Hehe! We had best not be too greedy. It was the optimal opportunity to sabotage the Righteous and Devilish Dao’s attempts to acquire the treasure, and we achieved a decent result. However, we merely delayed the crisis for this occasion. The next opening of Heavenvoid Hall will still prove to be a problem.”
The gloomy voice said without care, “That’s not wrong, but we might not be there to see the day. I did wish to see whether or not the Heavenmend Pill was as miraculous as they had said, able to make up for the deficiencies of impure spiritual roots or refine new Heavenly Spiritual Roots. It is quite unimaginable.”
“That is a pity! However, we’ve nearly reached our end. It would simply be too much of a waste for us to use it. Though funnily enough, it was unknown who said it first, but many Nascent Soul eccentric had completely taken the rumors to heart! That it was capable of both extending one’s life as well as breaking through the bottleneck of the Nascent Soul Stage! If these miracles were true, the Archsaint of the Six Paths as well as the Mad Matron would’ve definitely arrived. But unfortunately, the Heavenmend Pill is only capable of massively increasing the chances for a Core formation cultivator to condense a Nascent Soul. It’s just that refining the pill is truly too difficult.” The first voice said with a mocking tone.
“Humph! Are Core Formation cultivators capable enough to come here? Besides, those Nascent Soul cultivators
were the same as us. They spent many years cultivating but found themselves unable to advance, and they placed their complete hopes on acquiring the famed Heavenmend Pill. That is at least understandable. Were we still young, we would’ve definitely made every attempt to acquire such a pill. It would even constantly be on our minds!” After this was said, the other voice kept silent as if in tacit agreement.
“Let us set off! We had best prevent them from trying to find us in their rage. That would prove quite troublesome. They must be absolutely furious!” With that said, the darkness became silent once more as if no one had been there.
Their guess had not been wrong. The Righteous and Devilish Dao cultivators were fuming. Their eyes held no spirit and they felt rather depressed. However, they were all the cunning sort and were able to quickly recover their calm. They knew there was no value staying angry over the Star Palace’s disruption. Instead, the Righteous and Devilish Dao floated in the air in confrontation.
Han Li was once again ascending as he remained on the light barrier that broke his fall. At that moment, he looking at his hands in horror. They were bloodily crushed and there was a complete tear between his thumb and forefinger. But his gaze didn’t stay there, instead focusing on the jade scepter that he was clenched in the right hand.
At that moment, Wan Tianming coughed as if he wanted to say something to the Devil Dao cultivators, but at that moment, Zenith Yin’s fire pythons were no longer able to endure and had let go with a wail, returning to their original forms.
The Heavenvoid Cauldron released a hum as it fell.
Everyone couldn’t help but lower their heads at the scene, even Wan Tianming who was about to speak. Zenith Yin looked particularly gloomy, and his eyes contained objection.
But then, something completely unexpected occurred!
As the Heavenvoid Cauldron was falling, it had been been struck by something, and its hum became a dragon’s roar. Then with a heavy roll of thunder, a fist-sized rainbow ball of light shot out into the air from within the blue flames.
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 263