Han Li pondered briefly, then swept his sleeve toward the sky. Light flickered above his head, and three small mountains roughly ten feet tall materialized out of thin air.
With a single incantation, the three small mountains whistled as they descended around the crystal platform!
Three thunderous booms!
The three small mountains slammed into the ground and then surged with brilliant light, instantly swelling to over three hundred feet in size—massive presences like true mountain peaks, firmly shielding the crystal platform within their embrace.
Having done all this, Han Li made no further extraordinary movements. He simply sat cross-legged and closed his eyes to rest.
He remained seated from noon into evening, and from evening into the morning hours…
On two distant peaks, Daoist Xie and Yin Yue had been silently watching Han Li's actions all along, though their expressions were quite different.
Daoist Xie's expression was calm and indifferent, while a faint trace of worry showed between Yin Yue's elegant brows.
Two hours later, when the first ray of sunlight just broke over a nearby mountaintop, Han Li's eyes snapped open. He slowly formed a hand seal with one hand, and a massive aura immediately surged skyward from his body. A flash of golden light appeared behind him, and a Vairocana avatar several zhang tall materialized.
Han Li let out a low shout. The golden light on the surface of the Vairocana avatar behind him flashed, and it swelled to over a hundred zhang in size. At the same time, all six eyes opened and all six hands formed different seals.
After a series of rumbling booms, fierce winds arose in the sky above, and dark clouds gathered densely.
Seated upon the crystal platform, Han Li paid all of this no heed, merely raising his hand and sending a hand seal downward beneath him.
In an instant, the entire enormous platform hummed to life. The spiritual runes on its surface began flowing as though animated, forming over a hundred formations of varying sizes that flickered erratically between bright and dim.
The ambient spiritual energy of heaven and earth trembled violently. Countless five-colored motes of light appeared densely throughout the void, stretching beyond the horizon in every direction—they seemed to fill the very fabric of heaven and earth, their momentum truly magnificent!
Yet Han Li, who had performed this entire sequence, kept his eyes shut tight with not a trace of expression on his face, having entered deep meditation once again.
But as the formations on the crystal platform flickered, the aura emanating from his body continued to rise steadily with each passing moment.
Though the rate of increase was exceedingly slow—so subtle that one would barely notice without paying close attention—over time, the cumulative growth was still staggering.
And the three-headed, six-armed avatar behind Han Li swelled in tandem with his growing aura, its body expanding by roughly a zhang in height with each passing hour.
After a full day, the avatar had grown over a dozen zhang taller, and its once hazy, golden phantom-like body had become increasingly solid and substantial.
Time passed bit by bit!
Han Li sat motionless upon the crystal platform, but his aura continued to rise at an unchanging pace, as though it would persist indefinitely…
Half a month later, Han Li's aura had imperceptibly grown so powerful that even Body Integration cultivators would be struck with terror. The avatar behind him had ballooned to three hundred zhang in height, and its shimmering body had become as solid and dense as physical matter.
Overhead, black clouds as dark as the bottom of a pot blanketed the entire sky, allowing not the slightest light from the sun or moon to shine through.
The entire basin had grown exceedingly dim, lending everything an oppressively gloomy atmosphere.
Only those motes of light formed from the spiritual energy of heaven and earth still floated silently throughout the void, though they too had grown from the size of beans to the size of eggs at some unknown point.
From a distance, they looked like countless giant fireflies hanging motionless in the air, emanating a soft spiritual glow.
Han Li finally opened his eyes, blue light flickering ceaselessly within his pupils like two bolts of blue lightning dancing in their sockets. Without a word, he suddenly slapped the crown of his head with one hand. A flash of golden radiance, and a golden Nascent Soul roughly a foot tall materialized before him.
Though the Nascent Soul was small in stature, its tiny face was taut with concentration. The moment it appeared, it raised one small hand and pointed skyward.
A thunderclap!
Silver light flashed within the dark clouds above, and a bolt of lightning roughly a zhang thick came slashing down from the sky.
The golden Nascent Soul narrowed its eyes, made no attempt to dodge, and simply opened its tiny mouth. A gust of azure radiance came swirling out.
With a squelch!
The massive bolt of lightning struck downward without any resistance, but in the instant it flashed and vanished, it was devoured entirely by the Nascent Soul—like a great whale sucking in water.
Then the golden Nascent Soul vigorously rubbed its two hands together. Thunder rumbled from its body, and countless arcs of lightning sprang outward, condensing into silver thunder runes the size of fighting cups that shot off in every direction with muffled booms.
After a series of thunderous reverberations, the runes vanished into the surrounding void without a trace.
In the next instant, an invisible force erupted within the surrounding void, sending the previously still five-colored orbs of light into a frenzy of agitation.