Chapter 62: Abnormality


    At the same time, three figures were standing side by side on the peak of a certain mountain several hundred kilometers away. They were none other than the trio of Daoist Closed Mountain, Tong Ren''e, and Duan Renli, and they were all watching the phenomenon taking ce on the Nine Pce Peak from afar.


    All three of them were silent, and there was no sound to be heard aside from the gentle rustling of the wind and the pping of their robes. The atmosphere was a little heavy.


    A short whileter, the silence was finally broken.


    "So this is the n that you propose? Let him cultivate in your sect and be even more powerful?" Duan Renli asked.


    "This was an oversight from me. It seems like he''s found a way to recover from his injuries," Daoist Closed Mountain sighed in a resigned manner.


    "We can''t dy this any longer," Tong Ren''e said in a cold voice.


    "Indeed, Fellow Daoist Tong. The preparations were almostplete, and there were some finer details that I wanted to ponder, but it appears we really can''t afford to wait any longer," Daoist Closed Mountain said in a grim voice.


    "We should''ve done this a long time ago," Duan Renli harrumphed coldly as his hands clenched into tight fists in his sleeves, and an eager gleam appeared in his eyes.


    ……


    The next morning.


    There was a small tile courtyard concealed within the purple bamboo forest on the Holy Fire Peak of the Cold me Sect.


    Sima Jingming was standing in front of a fragrant sandalwood table, looking at a three-foot-long portrait hanging on the wall, seemingly reporting something with a respectful expression.


    A sh of light swept over the portrait, and a figure emerged from within. It was none other than Patriarch Cold me.


    "So you''re saying Han Li has already begun practicing the seventh level of the cultivation art?" Patriarch Cold me asked.


    "Judging from the description that I received of the phenomenon that took cest night, that''s almost certainly the case. Who exactly is this man, Patriarch? This rate of progress ispletely unfathomable to me..." Sima Jingming replied.


    "I don''t know who he is, but I recently learned that a massive organization in the Immortal Realm is currently offering a reward for his capture. The reward is so handsome that even I''m slightly tempted.


    “Normally, Daoist Clear Bright is constantly in seclusion, but he recently went to ck Water City to meet up with Layman Bone me. It looks like they''re plotting something through the Heavenly Ghost Sect and the Origin Realm Temple," Patriarch Cold me said in an unhurried voice.


    Sima Jingming''s expression changed slightly upon hearing this. "In that case, should we also..."


    "Are you suggesting that we also join the other two sects to get a share in the spoils?" Patriarch Cold me interjected.


    Sima Jingming knew that he had spoken out of turn, and he immediately fell silent.


    "Neither Daoist Clear Bright nor Layman Bone me has dealt with Fellow Daoist Han in person, but I''ve faced him in battle before, albeit only briefly, and it''s clear to me that he''s definitely no ordinary person.


    “The fact that he was able to master the sixth level of the Big Dipper Origin Arts so quickly only serves to further confirm my suspicions. The reward is very tempting, but there''s no point if you''re not even alive to enjoy it," Patriarch Cold me said in a meaningful voice.


    "Yes, Patriarch!" Sima Jingming hurriedly replied.


    ……


    That night, on the top level of the Star Gathering tform.


    Han Li was seated with his legs crossed, and his entire body was immersed within the silver vortex of light formed by the seven pirs of silver light around him.


    Vast starpower was constantly surging into his body from all directions, refining him from the inside-out.


    His body waspletely still, but he was pondering some things in his mind.


    The phenomena triggered during the cultivation of the Big Dipper Origin Arts were extremely spectacr, and the violent starpower sweeping down from the heavens hadpletely destroyed the protective restriction that once enshrouded the Star Gathering tform.


    After the four elders of the Origin Realm Temple were sent flying, they didn''t reappear on the scene, and Daoist Closed Mountain also hadn''t visited even once to see what was happening. It seemed that the supervision on him was a little toox.


    This wasn''t a cause for rm, but during the recent period of time, he had sensed all of the Origin Realm Temple cultivators within a radius of around 100 kilometers around the Star Gathering tform leave their cave abodes one after another, and none of them had returned.


    Initially, he didn''t think much of this. After all, it was verymonce for sect members to go out on long journeys or be sent out on missions for extended periods of time. However, once this situation continued for about half a month, it finally caught his attention, and a hint of wariness welled up in his heart.


    Just now, for some reason, he had been struck by a sense of unease, and there was a hint of foreboding brewing in his heart.


    After a brief moment of contemtion, Han Li decided to withdraw his spiritual sense, which was guiding starpower toward himself from the heavens, then quickly scoured through the entire area in a radius of several hundred kilometers around him.


    Right at this moment, the entire space above him suddenly blurred, following which an extremely thick and long white rift appeared. It was as if the entire sky had been torn in half, presenting an extremely peculiar sight to behold.


    Countless silver runes surged out of the rift in a frenzy, and it seemed that there was no end to them in sight. As soon as the runes appeared, they immediately revolved on the spot before exploding into balls of silver light that filled virtually the entire sky.


    The silver light blended into one another to form an enormous silver moon that was giving off dazzling radiance,pletely outshining all of the surrounding stars and making them pale into insignificance.


    All of this had taken ce in the blink of an eye, and in the instant that the giant silver moon took shape, all of the starlight cascading down from the heavenspletely vanished.


    Han Li immediately flew back in retreat upon seeing this, leaving the Nine Pce Peak in the blink of an eye, then flying to over 10 kilometers away after just a few more shes.


    Right at this moment, a burst of loud rumbling rang out from a mountain that was several dozen kilometers away from the Nine Pce Peak. An enormous white rune that was over 1,000 feet in size appeared on the surface of the mountain, and a massive pir of white light erupted directly up into the heavens.


    Almost at the exact same moment, another mountain in another direction also trembled violently as it released a huge pir of green light.


    The same sequence took ce a total of eight times, and a giant rune and an enormous pir of light emerged from each of the eightpletely unremarkable mountains around the Nine Pce Peak.


    Each pir of light was a different color from all the others, and countless runes were emerging around the pirs of light before rapidly connecting together, forming a gargantuan light barrier in the blink of an eye. The Nine Pce Peak stood at the center of the light barrier, which epassed the entire area with a radius of over 50 kilometers around the peak.


    Countless runes of different colors were surging incessantly over the light barrier, and even from extremely far away, one could still sense the astonishing spiritual power fluctuations being released by the light barrier.


    Somewhere in the area epassed within the light barrier, Han Li drew to a halt as a grim look appeared on his face.


    He didn''t know what the Origin Realm Temple was plotting, but it seemed that they had ultimately decided to turn on him.


    He swept his gaze over his surroundings, and ayer of blue light appeared in his eyes, following which his brows furrowed slightly.


    The giant restriction was far more profound than the array formed by the Heavenly Ghost Monarch Pirs in the Heavenly Ghost Sect, and even he was unable to immediately spot any weaknesses in it.


    He immediately flew through the air without any hesitation, arriving in front of the light barrier in the blink of an eye. Six specks of blue light appeared on his chest and abdomen, following which he threw a vicious punch at the light barrier before him.


    An earth-shattering boom rang out, and the surface of the light barrier quivered and shed violently.


    An enormous fist indentation appeared, and countless five-colored runes converged toward the indentation from all directions, rapidly repairing the damage that had been inflicted at a rate that was discernible even to the naked eye.


    Before the light barrier had a chance topletely recover, another punchnded on the same indentation, and the entire light barrier began to tremble violently, looking as if it were about to copse.


    However, right as Han Li raised his fist for a third time, the giant silver moon in the sky suddenly brightened significantly, raining down boundless silver radiance that was interspersed with countless silver runes. All of the silver runes then converged into one ce, forming an enormous pir of light that could epass an area with a radius of dozens of kilometers.


    Blinding silver radiance shed in front of Han Li''s eyes, and in the next instant, his vision was restored, but he found himself situated in apletely alien world.


    This was a vast and barren desert, and it waspletely devoid of life in all directions. The ground was littered with gray rocks, as well as some massive craters that looked as if they had been left behind by asteroids.


    A denseyer of gray clouds was hanging in the sky at a very low altitude, looking as if it coulde crashing down at any moment, presenting a rather oppressive and ominous sight to behold.


    "Is this another domain treasure?" Han Li murmured to himself before immediately releasing his spiritual sense.


    However, his spiritual sense was able to detect nothing aside from the barrennd, the gray rocks, and the giant craters.


    After a moment of contemtion, he directed his spiritual sense up toward the gray clouds.


    However, as soon as his spiritual sense entered the gray clouds, progress became extremely difficult. Even with his Spirit Refinement Technique activated, he was only just barely able to extend his spiritual sense less than 200 feet into the clouds, where there were only more gray clouds waiting for him.


    Even with his formidable spiritual sense, the gray clouds were somehow able to pose a stern obstacle.


    A contemtive look appeared in Han Li''s eyes as he withdrew his spiritual sense, yet right as he was nning to investigate the area through other means, the gray clouds overhead suddenly began to tumble and churn violently.


    In the next instant, streaks of yellow light came falling out of the sky like rain beforending on the ground.


    Each streak of yellow light expanded rapidly like a balloon uponnding, then transformed into a golden figure.


    These figures were around the same size as the average person, with golden skin that was radiating golden radiance. They were wielding all types of different weapons, and even though they appeared to be very simr to normal people, they werepletely devoid of life with wooden expressions on their faces as if they were puppets.


    Within mere moments, close to 1,000 of these puppets had appeared in the surrounding area, trapping Han Li in a watertight encirclement.


    Han Li waspletely caught off guard by this abrupt turn of events.