To be honest,
But lending the Void Heaven Cauldron to the silver-robed woman would be nothing short of courting death. That Ice Phoenix was equivalent to a late-stage Grand Cultivator — she was certainly capable of cultivating the Treasure-Network Art to the second layer. With the cauldron supplementing her abilities, he might not be a match for her even if he teamed up with the puppet and the five devils.
He would never do something so foolish as to put himself at another's mercy like that.
Fortunately, Nangong Wan had already consumed the inner core of the ancient Fire Toad. Even if it couldn't completely break the seal, it would definitely be enough to delay the activation of the Soul Sealing Curse. Her life would be secure for at least two or three hundred years, no question.
In that case, he had no choice but to change his plans and remain here to cultivate in peace.
Now Han Li sat with both eyes closed. Apart from the faint rise and fall of his chest, he was as still as a lifeless statue.
Yet the milky-white mist emanating from the Spirit Eye Spring before him seemed to possess a will of its own, drifting slowly toward him. It shrouded him in a haze where his figure appeared and disappeared intermittently, until it finally coalesced into a milky-white sphere of mist that completely engulfed him.
One day. One month. One year. Time passed by in increments. The milky-white spiritual mist continued to gather slowly toward the edge of the pool, while the white sphere of mist sat there motionless, without the slightest change — as though it had existed there since the very birth of heaven and earth.
Cultivation knows no passage of time. In the blink of an eye, a full eighty years had passed.
On this particular day, at a port on one of the islands in the
This was precisely what had given rise to the port's bustling prosperity.
Inland from the shore, several hills of varying size rose sparsely, and atop the tallest one stood a pale-white pavilion. It was neither refined nor elegant — built entirely from massive, rough-hewn stones — yet it possessed its own rugged, unconventional style.
On the top floor of this three-story pavilion, a Daoist in blue robes and a scholar in white robes wearing a Confucian cap gazed out at the port scene while discussing something.
"Senior Brother Ming, I hear the Anti-Star Alliance and the
"Hmph. Conflicts between the Star Palace and the Anti-Star Alliance have grown more frequent over the past few years. It won't be long before the next great battle erupts. What's strange is that when it comes to overall strength, the Anti-Star Alliance clearly has the upper hand. They control more than twenty of the thirty-six islands in the Inner Sea, yet when it comes to actual victories and defeats, the Star Palace has won the majority of engagements," the blue-robed Daoist sighed.
"Heh heh, what's so strange about that? The Heavenly Star Twin Saints cultivate the Celestial Magnetism Divine Light. As long as they don't stray too far from Heavenly Star Island, they're virtually unbeatable. Didn't you hear about the last major battle?
"That's true enough. Being dragged into service by these two powers isn't so bad — we can just send a few low-ranking disciples and call it done. But before, we only had to pay tribute to one side. Now we have to pay both. That's what really makes life difficult," the blue-robed Daoist said with a bitter curl of his lip, his face full of frustration.
"Ha ha ha, Senior Brother Ming, you worry too much. Matters like these are hardly something for us two Foundation Establishment disciples to fuss over — that's for the grand-uncles and ancestors to consider. As long as the ancestor is around, neither side will push our sect too hard. We just need to last through these two years of duty and then return to our caves to cultivate in earnest. Speaking of which, ever since I came out of closed cultivation last time, I've already sensed a faint hint of a breakthrough — it seems I'm about to enter the mid Foundation Establishment stage!" The scholar's face suddenly lit up with a touch of pride.
"What? If you can reach mid-stage in under a hundred years, that's exceptional talent. I've been stuck at the mid-stage for decades with not the slightest sign of a breakthrough," the blue-robed Daoist said, stunned, and envy crept across his face.
"Senior Brother Ming is too kind. Everyone knows that the bottleneck between early and mid-stage is an entirely different world. Once I enter mid-stage, chances are I'll still be worse off than you, Senior Brother!" The scholar waved his hands dismissively.
The blue-robed Daoist let out a bitter laugh and was about to respond when a thunderous boom rolled in as if from the ninth heaven. The entire pavilion shuddered, then began to shake violently.
The two were startled. They exchanged a glance and hurriedly looked out toward the distant sky beyond the port.
There, high in the air some ten-odd li from the port, a vast expanse of resplendent, sunset-like clouds churned and roiled. Moments later, a deafening rumble rolled forth like the galloping of ten thousand horses, and with that sound, the nearby sea surface abruptly surged upward with waves more than a hundred zhang tall. A silver-white line surged from the distance toward the port at breakneck speed.
Panic erupted among the vessels in the port. Ships scrambled desperately toward the dock, and countless mortals leaped from the boats, stampeding ashore. Anyone could see that staying aboard a ship in the face of such terrifying waves was simply suicide.
As for the ships themselves and their cargo, all one could do was leave it to fate.
The blue-robed Daoist and the scholar, however, paid no attention to the once-in-a-century waves. Instead, they stared with taut expressions at the churning clouds in the distant sky.
After only a short while, both of them were drenched in sweat.
It wasn't just the two of them. Every cultivator moving in and out of the port now wore a changed expression. Those with weaker cultivation couldn't even mount their flying artifacts or escape lights — they wobbled in the air and hastily dropped to the ground.
The spiritual pressure emanating from those gorgeous clouds was simply too overwhelming.
Even at such a great distance, the fluctuations in spiritual energy were enough to make every heart tremble with dread, as though some ancient, primordial beast was about to descend upon the world.