Those people all possessed similar levels of aptitude and power to themselves, so everyone was naturally rather uneasy and apprehensive.
Han Li stood silently in a corner, and he wasn't looking at the formations, nor at the Vast Glacial Apparatus. Instead, he continued to look up at the bright sun in the sky through narrowed eyes in a completely motionless manner.
Time slowly passed by, and after a long while, a dragon roar suddenly erupted into the heavens from the plaza.
Han Li's expression changed slightly, and he hurriedly cast his gaze toward the plaza.
There, he discovered that the dozen or so dragon head statues had all opened their eyes, which were shimmering with golden light, and they were roaring up into the sky with their heads raised high.
Everyone below the five-colored light barrier instantly fell silent upon seeing this.
All of a sudden, a cold voice rang out from within the hall. "The Vast Glacial Realm has opened; activate the formation and open the passageway."
The voice belonged to none other than the white-robed man with the Weng surname, and everyone on the plaza stirred upon hearing these instructions.
All of the beings who were standing in the formations already immediately activated their formation flags and formation plates in unison.
Countless incantation seals of different colors flew forth from their formation treasures, all of which disappeared into the formations.
The two massive formations began to emit a loud buzzing sound as a result, and the spirit stones embedded into their surfaces began to flash erratically with spiritual lights of different colors. At the same time, an extremely astonishing aura began to proliferate in all directions, and a vast expanse of dark clouds abruptly gathered in the air beneath the five-colored light barrier, as if they'd been drawn to this place by the power of the formations.
The dark clouds completely obscured the entire sky, following which fierce winds were swept up in the area.
Arcs of silver lightning began to appear within the clouds, flashing like bright silver snakes amid rumbling thunderclaps. Black vortexes of different sizes then also began to take shape before devouring and tearing at one another.
A series of astonishing phenomena were conjured up, and the five-colored balls of light were quickly shattered to reveal the shimmering golden and silver badges within.
"Fellow Daoist Han, Fairy Yue, you two may enter the formations with your respective teams and activate the Vast Glacial Badges," Qian Jizi yelled without any hesitation upon seeing this.
Han Li and the woman in the blue dress naturally immediately did as they were told, striding toward the formation that their respective Vast Glacial Badges were situated in.
All of their team members also followed suit, while the beings inside the formations who were holding various types of formation treasures backed out of the formations instead.
Even so, the formation treasures in their hands were still blasting incantation seals into the formations in a frenzy without displaying any signs of stopping.
As soon as Han Li made his way into the formation, his heart jolted, and he could sense that his connection with the Vast Glacial Badge had been strengthened by severalfold.
The shimmering Vast Glacial Badge also began to emit a low buzzing sound, as if it were expressing its elation toward Han Li's arrival.
Qian Jizi had naturally already told him how to activate the badge in advance.
As such, Han Li strode toward the center of the formation, then flicked his 10 fingers through the air in rapid succession, sending one incantation seal after another disappearing into the Vast Glacial Badge that was hovering in mid-air.
Immediately thereafter, countless golden and silver runes emerged from the Vast Glacial Badge, and these runes revolved around the badge before forming a light formation that had a diameter of around 10 feet.
The Vast Glacial Badge was situated at the very center of the formation, and Han Li took a deep breath before pointing a finger up at the badge in a solemn manner.
An azure pillar of light immediately shot forth from his fingertip to strike the badge, causing it to emit a loud cry while the entire light formation began to tremor.
Brilliant golden and silver light radiated in all directions, and the light formation slowly revolved before also blasting forth a pillar of golden and silver light that was around as thick as a water tank.
The pillar of light rose up into the sky, disappearing into a certain black vortex up above in a flash, but it showed no signs of stopping there.
A loud rumbling noise rang out in the air above, and the vortex that the pillar of light had vanished into suddenly began to tumble and churn violently, as if it were being stirred up by some kind of immense force. All of the other vortexes around it were instantly swept up and torn apart while the main vortex swelled drastically in size.
After just the span of a few breaths, all of the vortexes in the sky had disappeared aside from two massive ones that were around 500 meters in diameter each, both of which were emanating dense black Qi.
At this moment, the badges at the centers of the light formations suddenly vanished amid a flash of golden and silver lightning, then abruptly reappeared at the centers of the vortexes directly above them.
An earth-shattering boom rang out as golden and silver lightning exploded violently, and it was as if two golden and silver suns had emerged. The two scintillating suns then traveled deep into the vortexes, and in the next instant, devastating bursts of spatial fluctuations suddenly erupted from within the vortexes.
Both of the vortexes then abruptly disappeared along with the black Qi around them, and a pair of golden and silver spatial rifts appeared in their wake. The rifts were only around 70 to 80 feet each, and they hung in mid-air in a completely stationary manner, as if they were motionless snapshots in time.
At this moment, Han Li suddenly sensed that the spiritual sense within his body was flowing into the rift above him at a rapid rate, and expression changed drastically as he yelled, "What are you all waiting for? I won't be able to keep this up for very long!"
The beings who were standing around the formation immediately tossed their formation treasures into the air upon hearing this. Immediately thereafter, they began to make hands seals and chanted in unison.
The formation treasures hovering before them all transformed into balls of light at their behest, all of which disappeared into the formations.
An extremely exuberant display of lights appeared within the formations, following which large runes began to surface all over the place.
As the chanting grew louder and louder, these giant runes began to revolve rapidly within the formations, and their rotational speed only grew faster and faster. In the end, these runes transformed into bursts of five-colored light that swept up all of the beings inside the two formations. Immediately thereafter, the bursts of five-colored light flew straight into the golden and silver rifts up above.
Almost as soon as the two balls of five-colored light vanished into the spatial rifts, the latter also disappeared in a flash, and the sky slowly returned to normal as all of the dark clouds also dissipated.
Qian Jizi and the others had witnessed this entire process, and only now did they allow themselves to heave a collective sigh of relief.
Right at this moment, the white-robed man's cold voice rang out from within the hall again.
"The Vast Glacial Realm will open again in a year, and activating the formations again at that time will allow everyone to return here. During this time, make sure to keep the two formations extremely well-guarded, and don't let irrelevant beings approach them. Kill anyone who dares to try and approach the formations for no good reason!"
"Yes!"
Everyone on the entire plaza extended respectful bows toward the hall in unison.
After that, all of the beings who had activated the formation treasures earlier dispersed from around the formations, and they were replaced by teams of silver-armor
ed warriors, as well as a dozen or so giant puppets. These guards then surrounded the formations in a virtually airtight barrier.
...
After entering the golden and silver spatial rift, Han Li was struck by a rush of dizziness, followed by a complete sensory deprivation.
However, moments later, he was afflicted by a splitting headache, and his vision returned to him as he hurriedly inspected his surroundings.
Upon doing so, he discovered that he was situated high up in the air. Below him was a vast ocean that stretched as far as the eyes could see in all directions, and Shi Kun, Liu Shui'er, as well as everyone else on his team, were situated within a radius of several hundred feet around him.
Most of them were still rather disoriented, seemingly having yet to recover from the effects of teleporting into the Vast Glacial Realm.
After inspecting his surroundings, a grey-haired elderly man immediately burst into raucous laughter. "Haha, I've finally made it to the Vast Glacial Realm! With the vast abundance of spiritual Qi here, I'll have a much greater chance of progressing to the holy race. Fellow Daoists, I'm going to find a place to go into seclusion, so I'll be taking my leave now." He then swept a sleeve through the air, and spiritual light flashed from his body, following which he sped away as a streak of silver light, disappearing from view after just a few flashes.
Everyone glanced at one another upon seeing this, and three more people also departed in different directions without uttering a single word, quickly vanishing into the distance as well.
The remaining eleven people remained standing on the spot with different expressions on their faces, and they were yet to decide what they were going to do next.
"Fellow Daoists, the Vast Glacial Realm presents a fantastic opportunity to break through your bottlenecks, but make sure that's not the only thing you do here. There are many treasures to be found in this place as well, and I suggest we all stick together so we can look out for one another while searching for these treasures; what do you all say?" The one who had spoken was an extremely short being with a triangular head.
A burly man with several thick golden rings around his arms chuckled coldly as he said, "I do indeed plan on joining forces with others, but I'm not interested in hunting for treasures with you, Fellow Daoist Jin. You've forged a reputation for yourself among our Heavenly Cloud Races for your shamelessness and deceitful nature; even if we were to find treasures together, I'd be afraid that you'd stab me in the back. Brother Feng, Brother Yun, let's team up together." The twins from the Azure Race seemed to have forged an agreement with the burly man already, and the three of them immediately sped away together.
Thus, there were only eight beings left.
Han Li wasn't surprised to see this at all, and he smiled as he waved a hand toward Shi Kun and Liu Shui'er. "Let's go as well, Fellow Daoists."
"Haha, I thought you'd never ask," Shi Kun chuckled in response.
Liu Shui'er merely nodded in a silent reply.
Thus, Han Li's trio also departed toward a certain direction as the remaining beings looked on with hints of bewilderment in their eyes.
As for whether the rest of those beings teamed up or went off on their own, that was naturally none of Han Li's concern.
The three of them all flew quite quickly, and it only took them a short while to cover several hundreds of kilometers.
At this moment, Liu Shui'er suddenly said, "Fellow Daoist Han, my master suggested that we should find an obscure place to practice our Divine Essencefused Light combination secret technique first before we do anything else. After mastering the secret technique, we'd be much better equipped to protect ourselves in this perilous realm."
Chapter 1680: Small Island, Sea Beasts
Shi Kun was a menacing-looking man who appeared as if his entire body had been constructed from grey rocks, and he shook his head as he said, "Why do we need to go through the hassle of doing that? With our combined powers, as long as we don't encounter some of the most powerful beings in this realm, we'll be more than able to look after ourselves. Even though we have an entire year before we get teleported back to Cloud City, we still don't know where we are at the moment, and there may not be enough time for us to make breakthroughs and also track down those restricted ruins. As such, I think we should make haste and skip any trivial activities that aren't necessary."
"Fellow Daoist Shi, The Divine Essencefused Light combination secret technique is something that my master invented specifically for this trip after expending an extensive amount of painstaking effort, and it's far more powerful than you can imagine. I insist that we should rehearse the technique first. Otherwise, it'll be too late for regrets once we encounter a powerful enemy," Liu Shui'er countered in a slightly cold voice, clearly rather displeased by Shi Kun's words.
"Is that so? I still think that compared to this, it's much more important for us to get to the restricted ruins as quickly as possible, then use the remaining time to break through our bottlenecks. I haven't cultivated any combination techniques in the past, but I've still reached the current level of power, have I not?" Shi Kun chuckled coldly, clearly unwilling to back down, either.
Liu Shui'er expression cooled even further upon hearing this, and she turned to Han Li as she asked, "What do you think, Fellow Daoist Han?"
Han Li thought about this for a moment before suggesting, "I think that seeing as neither of you is willing to back down, we should find a middle-ground that both of you can agree on. I suggest that we do practice this combination secret technique, but we only spend half a month doing so. At the conclusion of that period of time, we set off in search of the restricted ruins regardless of whether we've mastered the technique or not. In that case, we'll be able to familiarize ourselves slightly with the secret technique, and I'm sure half a month isn't too long to wait for Brother Shi."
"Well..."
"Alright, we'll do as you say, Fellow Daoist Han."
Liu Shu'er was rather hesitant upon hearing this proposal, but Shi Kun quickly agreed to it after a brief moment of contemplation.
"Seeing as both of you support this course of action, I have no choice but to agree as well," Liu Shui'er replied with a reluctant nod.
"In that case, let's find somewhere suitable for us to practice the secret technique first," Han Li said with a smile.
Neither Shi Kun nor Liu Shui'er had any objections to this, so the three of them immediately sped up by about twofold, hurtling through the air like a trio of shooting stars while releasing their spiritual sense into the area around them.
They had thought that they'd be able to find a small island quite quickly, but much to their surprise, they only caught sight of a small island in the distance that was less than 10 kilometers in size after flying for an entire day and an entire night.
At this point, the sun was just beginning to set, and the entire sky above the island was filled with a warm red light. However, the surface of the nearby ocean was completely black, as if it had been stained by a vast spillage of black paint.
Upon seeing this island, Han Li's trio immediately slowed down, then reappeared several kilometers away as they appraised the area with wary expressions on their faces.
"My spiritual sense can't detect what lies below the island, and the sea around it is also teeming with demonic Qi. It appears that a certain demon beast has taken over this island," Shi Kun speculated with a grim expression.
"Indeed. There's only one sea beast under the island, but it's not a very powerful one; its cultivation base seems to be comparable to my own," Han Li said in a slow voice as blue light flashed through his eyes.
"You can sense what lies beneath this island?" Liu Shui'er was rather surprised to hear this.
She was in a similar situation to Shi Kun in that as soon as her spiritual sense approached the island, it would become quite blurry and indistinct. It appeared that the sea in the nearby area possessed certain properties that hampered one's spiritual sense.
"I was lucky to ha
ve mastered some special secret techniques in the past, and possess an alternative sensory ability aside from my spiritual sense," Han Li replied in a calm manner.
"That's fantastic! With that ability of yours, we'll be able to avoid a lot of danger, Brother Han." Shi Kun was quite elated to hear this.
Han Li merely offered a smile in response.
Liu Shui'er's eyes also lit up, and she said, "Indeed, our trip will be made a lot safer by this ability of yours, Fellow Daoist Han. Seeing as this island has been taken over by a sea beast, let's go and find another place to settle. It's not worth wasting magic power fighting for an island like this."
On this occasion, Shi Kun agreed with Liu Shui'er suggestion, and he immediately nodded to express his approval.
However, Han Li shook his head after a brief moment of contemplation.
"Even if we find some other place, the situation won't be any better."
"Oh? What do you mean by that, Brother Han?" Shi Kun was rather taken aback to hear this.
Liu Shui'er also turned to him with a hint of befuddlement in her eyes.
As opposed to answering the question, Han Li replied with a question of his own. "What did you two think about the speed that we traveled at to get here?"
"It was alright. We didn't travel at full speed, but for me, that was around 60% to 70% of my full speed," Shi Kun replied.
"That's exactly the point. We've traveled for an entire day and an entire night at this speed, so we must've covered millions of kilometers already. On top of that, we've been using our spiritual sense to scour through the surrounding area this entire time, so don't you find it strange that we've only come across this one island after all this time?" Han Li sighed.
"What are you trying to say, Fellow Daoist Han? I'm not the sharpest when it comes to things like this, and I hate it when people speaking a roundabout manner," Shi Kun harrumphed in an impatient manner.
A faint smile appeared on Han Li's face upon hearing this; he certainly wasn't going to believe that Shi Kun was as ignorant as he was making himself seem.
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 961