The figure suddenly flicked his sleeve.
With a muffled "pop," the light formation transformed into countless gold and silver runes before vanishing into thin air, revealing the figure's true appearance.
It was a young man dressed in a black robe, his hands clasped behind his back.
The young man's skin was extraordinarily pale, and contrasting with his black-and-white attire, it gave him an almost sickly, frail appearance.
After sweeping a glance over the dark void, the young man seemed to realize just what kind of environment he was in. His brows furrowed slightly, and without a word, he flicked a finger upward toward the sky.
With a sharp hissing sound, over a dozen silver runes shot forth. After a brief blur, they pierced into the void and vanished without a trace.
The next moment, thunderous rumbling erupted from all around as every piece of dirt and stone seemed to come alive, frantically retreating to either side. An incredibly long, colossal canyon formed, reaching all the way up to the surface.
The young man raised his head and glanced upward. Only after he faintly caught sight of threads of white light filtering down did a satisfied expression appear on his face.
No visible movement could be detected from him, yet a swirl of radiant light gathered beneath his feet and lifted him steadily upward toward the top.
Moments later, with a flash of silver light, the young man burst from underground and appeared in the sky a thousand zhang above the ground, where he paused and hovered.
One sweep of his gaze, and he took in everything around him.
It was a desolate expanse of black mud and stone. The ground was barren save for some sparse, inch-tall wild grass — not a single mountain peak or tree could be seen. All around was utter silence, without even the faintest chirp of an insect, as though this were a dead land.
The young man showed no surprise whatsoever. After a brief moment of contemplation, he formed a hand seal with one hand.
Immediately, a resonant chant echoed through the sky as spots of spiritual light emerged and coalesced into a fierce beast over a hundred zhang long.
The beast had a lion's head and a qilin's body. Its upper half was shrouded in rolling blood-flame, its lower half shimmered with brilliant silver light, and resplendent radiance coiled ceaselessly around its feet — it was impossible to tell what kind of spirit beast it truly was.
But the next moment, the young man's face suddenly turned pale, and a muffled groan escaped his lips.
The massive beast's form immediately scattered, unable to continue coalescing, and could only persist as a vague, shadowy apparition.
"Hmph, my Magical Power has actually been suppressed to this degree! Descending to the lower realms truly is no small matter. No wonder the Pavilion sent me on this errand," the young man snorted, murmuring to himself.
"Still, this is a blessing in disguise. It also means those old fogeys can't interfere with my actions anymore. Hehe, that treasure still needs a bit more work before it can be fully refined — I might as well conduct a few more blood sacrifices. While the living beings in these lower realms may have impure blood essence, if there are enough of them, it will more than compensate. As for that traitor, there's no rush to hunt him down. Until I finish this task, those old fogeys may be displeased with my actions, but they'll have no choice but to hold their noses and tolerate it."
After narrowing his eyes, the young man suddenly let out a bone-chilling, cold laugh.
Then he turned his palm over and produced a gleaming golden cylinder, filled with jade-green bamboo slips that looked fresh enough to drip.
The surface of these bamboo slips was covered with countless exquisite silver patterns, and multicolored radiance coiled around them ceaselessly — they were clearly extraordinary treasures at first glance.
The young man tossed the cylinder high into the air and began chanting an incantation.
With a thunderous boom, the cylinder transformed amid countless rays of golden light into a hazy golden sphere. It then spun around, and the ethereal shadow of a massive Bagua diagram materialized.
"Rise!"
The young man stopped his chanting, let out a low shout, and pointed a finger toward the sky.
A piercing sound tore through the air as a streak of emerald light shot forth from within the Bagua shadow, hurtling toward a certain direction.
"Excellent. That direction has the most life signatures — I'll start there." A vicious grin flashed across the young man's face. He flicked his sleeve, transformed into a golden rainbow, and tore through the sky in pursuit.
The phantom of the lion-headed, qilin-bodied beast also transformed into a ball of blood-flame and shot forth, never straying more than half a step from above the golden rainbow.
……
"So this is the true appearance of the Mountain Sea Bead!" Han Li gazed at the completely transformed bead in his hand with a trace of surprise.
The originally pale blue crystal bead had shrunk to less than half its former size, now no larger than a broad bean.
However, the surface of the bead had become extraordinarily smooth, its color shifting through five distinct hues, with a wisp of milky-white qi coiling and surging around it — truly a wondrous sight.
"That's right, Senior. The traces left within this bead have been thoroughly erased. The concealment power left by our ancestors across generations has naturally disappeared as well. You can now refine this treasure without any lingering concerns." The Kongyu clan chief standing nearby spoke respectfully, though his face was faintly pale.
He had evidently expended a considerable amount of his vital blood to appear this way.
"Very well. Go arrange for the clan to pack up their belongings. Once I finish refining this bead, I'll immediately take you all out of this Minor Asura Realm." Han Li withdrew his gaze from the bead and spoke to the elder without hesitation.
"Thank you for Senior's great kindness! I'll pass down the orders at once. Oh, Senior will certainly need a quiet place to refine the bead — please use my personal cultivation chamber." The Kongyu clan chief replied, visibly moved.
"Very well, lead the way." Han Li showed no intention of refusing and gave a slight nod.