Han Li took the ring and slipped it onto a finger without hesitation.
The old man gave a faint smile at the sight.
"Good, you may enter the city now. Each day you'll have a little over half a day of free movement during daylight hours; the rest of the time the entire city is under martial law. When the great battle begins, the ring will automatically transmit a message summoning you. Just wait in your cave dwelling." With that, the old man slowly closed his eyes and said nothing more.
Han Li gave the old man two long looks, then headed straight toward the city.
After passing through the city gates, the streets of Heavenly Star City were nearly deserted. Only the occasional cultivator could be seen flying overhead. The mortals had mostly hidden themselves at home; the whole place had an air of desolation.
Han Li's expression remained unchanged, but inwardly he let out a quiet sigh of relief.
Judging from this situation, the city's marketplaces were almost certainly closed. If he hadn't already stocked up on everything he needed ahead of time on South Bright Island, he'd be in a real headache right now.
Han Li let out a soft chuckle, transformed into a streak of azure light that shot into the sky, and sped directly toward his cave dwelling on the Holy Mountain.
As he passed over the marketplace at the foot of the Holy Mountain, Han Li couldn't help but glance down.
Sure enough, every single shop was shuttered, with not a soul in sight. Han Li shook his head slightly, lingered no longer, and flew on to the thirty-ninth level of the Holy Mountain.
The moment he entered the Holy Mountain's perimeter, Han Li keenly sensed that the security was even tighter than in the outer city. No fewer than a dozen waves of spiritual sense had swept over him covertly. Fortunately, once those probing threads caught sight of the yellow ring on his hand, they withdrew on their own, and no one appeared to question him.
What made Han Li frown was the fact that some of those spiritual senses belonged to late-stage Core Formation cultivators.
Han Li pretended not to notice and flew all the way to his cave dwelling in one breath.
The restrictions outside the dwelling were exactly as he had left them when he departed—not a single change.
But after standing outside the restrictions and staring blankly for a while, Han Li let out a long sigh.
This trip hadn't lasted particularly long, yet he had repeatedly found himself on the brink of life and death—so much so that he had been forced to abandon this dwelling where he had spent nearly a hundred years.
It truly stirred a flicker of melancholy in Han Li's heart.
He took out his restriction command token, silently lowered the barriers, and slowly walked inside.
Everything within was just as he had left it.
Han Li first went to check on the insect chamber—the place he cared about most—and only after confirming that all the Gold Devouring Beetles were safe and sound did he truly relax.
However, he immediately used a prepared spirit beast pouch to gather up every last beetle, then headed to the herb garden, harvesting all the spirit herbs and storing them in his storage pouch.
Once all of that was done, Han Li let out a slow breath of relief, walked leisurely to the bedroom, lay down on the bed, and began carefully thinking through his plans for the future.
He needed to kill a fellow cultivator of equal rank from the Anti-Star Alliance before he could use the teleportation array to reach the Outer Star Sea. This condition wasn't particularly difficult for him.
But what worried Han Li was the possibility that, before the great battle even began, the Heavenly Star Palace might learn that the Void Heavenly Cauldron could be in his possession. After all, he had no way of knowing when those old monsters would emerge from the Void Heaven Palace.
If they leaked this information at that point, he was dead for certain.
There was another concern on his mind as well.
Although it was unlikely, he feared that even if he fulfilled the condition, the Heavenly Star Palace's higher-ups might pull some new trick, leaving him still unable to use the teleportation array.
After all, if the higher-ups reneged on their word, what could a bunch of cultivators like them do about it?
So, even though he had agreed to the Heavenly Star Palace's conditions without batting an eye at the city gate, from the very beginning he had never actually planned to sit around obediently waiting for the Palace's summons.
He intended to scout the security around the teleportation array and see whether he could slip through and teleport out secretly. If the guards really were lax, he would seize the chance to make his escape.
As for whether this would thoroughly offend the colossal power of the Heavenly Star Palace—well, sooner or later he'd have those Nascent Soul old monsters hunting him anyway, so it didn't seem like something he needed to worry about.
Comforting himself with these thoughts, Han Li drifted off into a drowsy sleep on the bed.
After so many tribulations, his body and mind were truly exhausted.