As for the other alien cultivators who were about to enter the Profound Cold Realm, some kept studying the massive spell formation while others stared unblinkingly at the Profound Cold Instrument. All of them, however, wore grave expressions.
The Profound Cold Realm was indeed a wondrous place for breaking through bottlenecks, but the number of those who had perished inside it over the various previous entries was equally staggering.
Those who had fallen had possessed aptitudes and magical abilities that were, for the most part, comparable to their own.
How could that not make these alien cultivators about to step into the same realm feel a twinge of unease?
Han Li stood calmly in one corner, his gaze fixed neither on the spell formation nor on the Profound Cold Instrument. Instead, he simply looked up at the several blazing suns high in the sky, squinting at them without moving a muscle.
Time ticked by, one moment at a time. After an indeterminate stretch, a dragon's roar suddenly erupted from the plaza and soared skyward.
Han Li's expression shifted, and he immediately lowered his head to scan the plaza below.
The Profound Cold Instrument now shimmered with a hazy green radiance, and the dozen or so dragons carved on its surface had all opened their eyes. They gleamed with a strange crimson-gold light and raised their necks, trumpeting aloud.
Everyone beneath the five-colored barrier of light—armored soldiers and alien cultivators alike—witnessed this scene, and an immediate silence fell over the crowd.
"The Profound Cold Realm has opened. Activate the spell formation and open the passage," a cold voice suddenly rang out from within the great hall, piercing and bone-chilling.
It was the voice of the young man surnamed Weng.
At this order, every person in the plaza felt a jolt of alarm. The alien cultivators already stationed inside the spell formations, who had been standing by and ready, simultaneously began channeling spiritual power into the formation flags and disks in their hands.
Countless colorful spell seals flew from the artifacts and plunged one after another into the two spell formations.
The formations began humming with a deep, resonant roar. Spirit stones of every color started flashing wildly, radiating an astonishingly powerful aura.
As though influenced by the force of the formations, the area beneath the five-colored barrier of light in the sky suddenly darkened. A vast expanse of black clouds materialized out of thin air, blotting out the sky entirely.
Then a fierce gale sprang up. Bolts of silver lightning snaked through the clouds, accompanied by thunderous cracks. Black vortexes of varying sizes abruptly formed, then began devouring and tearing at one another.
In that moment, the celestial phenomenon was nothing short of spectacular.
Between the spell formations and the sky, the sphere of light wrapped in five-colored radiance began cracking apart inch by inch, revealing the shimmering gold-and-silver command tokens within.
"Fellow Daoist Han, Fairy Yue—you two may lead your people into the formations and activate the Profound Cold Tokens." Thousand Mechanisms Master shouted the moment he saw this, without a moment's hesitation.
Han Li and that Yue Fairy did not dare delay. They each strode toward one of the two spell formations in large steps.
The remaining cultivators' expressions likewise grew solemn as they hurriedly followed behind them.
Meanwhile, those alien cultivators who had been channeling power into the artifacts inside the formations stepped back out of the formation boundaries. Even so, the spell seals continued pouring forth from their formation flags and disks without the slightest pause.
The moment Han Li stepped into the luminous glow of the spell formation, he felt a sudden jolt in his heart. His connection with the Profound Cold Token in the sky strengthened several times over in an instant.
The token, which had already been flickering, now emitted a low hum, as though it rejoiced at Han Li's arrival and wanted to dance.
Thousand Mechanisms Master had long since told him how to activate this artifact.
Once Han Li reached the center of the formation, he immediately began forming hand seals at a rapid pace. His ten fingers danced and flickered like the spokes of a spinning wheel.
Seal after seal shot from his hands, and within the span of a few flashes they had all struck the token suspended in the air.
The Profound Cold Token immediately blazed with brilliant gold-and-silver radiance, and countless golden and silver runes flew from its surface.
These runes whirled around the token in a ring, then arranged themselves into a luminous runic array roughly a zhang in diameter.
The Profound Cold Token sat at its very center.
Han Li took a deep breath, ceased his hand seals, and extended one finger, pointing solemnly at the token in the air.
A sharp "pfft" of displaced air sounded as a pillar of azure light shot forth and struck the token.
At once the token let out a piercing cry. The entire runic array began to tremble, and beneath a brilliant surge of gold-and-silver light, it slowly rotated and emitted a pillar of gold-and-silver light as thick as a water barrel.
The pillar of light streaked skyward and plunged without hesitation into one of the black vortexes high above.
Rumbling sounds rolled down from the sky. The vortex swallowed by the pillar of light seemed to be stirred by some tremendous force, its dark energy churning and swelling violently. The surrounding vortexes that were drawn into it were immediately torn to shreds, only feeding its growth.
In the span of just a few breaths, all the other vortexes in the sky had vanished entirely, leaving behind two massive formations, each roughly a li across, that continuously spewed thick columns of dark energy.
Then, with a peal of thunder, the token within the runic array dissolved into a bolt of gold-and-silver lightning and vanished from the array. In the next instant, it reappeared at the very center of the vortex.
An earth-shattering boom erupted as the gold-and-silver lightning exploded outward like the rising sun. A halo of gold-and-silver light bloomed within the vortex, then plunged deep into its depths.
The next moment, a wave of spatial fluctuation that felt as though it could shatter heaven and earth burst forth from the black vortex.