As soon as the words left his lips, Han Li flicked his sleeve, and a ball of golden light shot outward. After circling once, it suddenly condensed into a tiny golden figure with crystalline eyes, no eyebrows, no nose, and a body suffused with purple-gold light — none other than the Gold Devouring Beetle King.
"Golden Child, protect Senior Blood Soul for a time. Don't let anyone harm her," Han Li instructed.
The tiny golden figure showed not a flicker of expression upon hearing this, but its form blurred and it vanished in a teleportation, reappearing hovering motionlessly above Blood Soul's head.
"Thank you, Senior. With Senior Golden watching over me, this junior has absolutely nothing to worry about within the Heavenly Cauldron Palace," Blood Soul said, overjoyed. She had witnessed the Golden Child's power during their journey and was deeply grateful. She then produced a pure-white jade bottle from her person and placed it in Han Li's hands with both palms.
The bottle, naturally, contained a single drop of this woman's essence blood infused with a secret technique.
"There are others who entered before us. To be on the safe side, we should split up immediately," Han Li said calmly.
Blood Soul responded with a respectful acknowledgment.
The two of them then rose on their respective streaks of light, each heading toward a different area's barrier of light.
The Golden Child followed silently behind Blood Soul like a shadow, never straying a single step.
If Han Li wished to reach the depths of the Heavenly Cauldron Palace, there was no question of doing so without first breaking through the restrictions blocking the way in the various areas ahead.
Thus, when he flickered into existence before a curtain of white light, he didn't hesitate for a moment. With a casual grab at empty space, a shimmering green longsword materialized in his palm, and with a flash he brought it down hard against the barrier ahead.
With a deafening boom, the white light-screen shattered like porcelain.
Han Li felt the scenery around him blur, and in the next instant he found himself standing on a narrow forest path.
Lining both sides were verdant trees rising seven or eight zhang high. At first glance they looked no different from ordinary trees, but upon closer inspection one could see that the whorls of bark on their surfaces were in fact twisted faces — men, women, old, and young alike — each wearing an eerily blissful expression, as though lost in peaceful slumber.
Han Li narrowed his eyes at this. Just then, wafts of fragrance drifted toward him from the far end of the path. A single whiff gave one a strangely intoxicating sensation that clouded the mind.
But with Han Li's formidable spiritual sense, a deep breath was enough to push through the mild discomfort in his head. The effect went no further.
Han Li smiled faintly, realizing he had fallen into some manner of profound restriction. Without another word he proceeded down the path, but after taking only a dozen or so steps, the eyes on all the faces lining the trees snapped open simultaneously.
With a series of sharp hissing sounds, dense clusters of pitch-black light filaments shot forth from those eye sockets — each one razor-sharp and pulsing with an extremely eerie aura.
Han Li reacted with no great urgency. A layer of gray luminescence simply unfurled across his body's surface, transforming in a flash into a hazy gray barrier that shielded him within.
When the black filaments struck the barrier, they erupted in a cascade of crackling reports like rain lashing a fence. Then, with a flicker of light, they sank eerily into the barrier and went silent.
Meanwhile, his steps never faltered. He continued along the path at a leisurely pace.
Han Li's calm demeanor seemed to enrage the multitude of grotesque faces on the trees. Without warning, one of them let out a piercing shriek.
All the faces twisted into fury, and from each open mouth, wisps of green flame were exhaled — foul beyond measure, turning the narrow path into a sea of fire in an instant.
Han Li merely smiled blandly. His stride didn't change in the slightest, and the gray barrier across his body shimmered with a flow of crystalline light, absorbing the green flames just the same.
Moreover, wherever Han Li passed, the gray barrier hummed as countless gray crystal filaments shot outward like a downpour of rain, each one piercing the grotesque faces on the trees with perfect precision.
With mournful wails, the faces dissolved into wisps of green smoke and vanished from the trunks.
The moment every last face disappeared, the once-lush trees withered and turned a burnt yellow, no longer emitting any trace of vitality.
After walking roughly a hundred zhang, Han Li finally emerged from the forest, only to find himself before a garden bursting with every color imaginable. Circular stone altars stood quietly amid the grassy expanse, each containing a tree roughly a zhang tall bearing a single enormous flower.
These giant blossoms varied in color and shape, but all were breathtakingly vivid, caught at the peak of their bloom.
The intoxicating fragrance he had smelled earlier originated from this very garden.
Han Li's gaze flickered briefly as his spiritual sense swept across the flowers. After a slight pause in expression, he continued forward at a slow walk.
The moment his body passed beside a certain altar, the nearby giant flowers suddenly began to tremble, each one transforming into a green-faced, fang-baring ghost head that hurtled toward Han Li with eerie cackling laughter.
"Humiliating little demons — and you think you can approach me? You're simply courting death," Han Li snorted. His hands came together in a swift rubbing motion, then parted and swept to both sides.
Two peals of thunder cracked across the clear sky!