Lightning Sky Island was already quite a large island, but it was simply incomparable to the ma.s.sive scale of Green Spirit Island. Han Li hovered in the air several tens of kilometers away from Green Spirit Island, surveying the island from afar. He felt as if this island wasn"t much smaller than Heavenly Star City.
Of course, the island didn"t have as many buildings, nor huge mountains like the sacred mountain. However, there were several mountains that were close to 100,000 feet in height and they were extremely rare in their own right.
What was most astonis.h.i.+ng was that the mountains were all extremely steep and barren. From afar, not even a single blade of gra.s.s could be seen growing on the mountains, making them appear as if they were stone pillars extending all the way up into the heavens. The peaks of the mountains down to around their halfway points were all obscured from view by the clouds.
However, none of those details caught Han Li"s attention. What he was more concerned about was the fact that there wasn"t even a single tinge of green to be seen on the entire island. The whole island had a drab greyish-white undertone and he couldn"t sense any spiritual Qi fluctuations coming from the island, either.
This island was like a desolate land without any spirit veins!
Han Li was rather perplexed upon making this observation.
Wasn"t it said that this island had ma.s.sive spirit stone mines? How could it not even have a single spirit vein? Generally speaking, spirit mines were products of spirit veins. Where spirit veins existed, spirit stone mines of different grades would inevitably slowly emerge. Conversely speaking, places where spirit stone mines were found generally had spirit veins as well.
In Han Li"s imagination, an island on which high-grade spirit stone mines could be formed had to be sitting on top quality spirit veins that were extremely rare in the human world.
However, the scenes currently laid out before his eyes had him at a loss for words.
After contemplating the situation, Han Li realized that he had been too naive. If there were top quality spirit veins that were easy to discover on a ma.s.sive island like this, how could the so-called high-grade spirit stone mines only have been unearthed recently? They would"ve been mined by ancient cultivators until there was nothing left. It appeared that there was something on this island that could conceal the fluctuations of spirit veins.
With that in mind, Han Li was immediately enlightened.
He raised his head to look up at the scorching sun. It was noon at this point and even though Han Li was confident in his abilities, it was naturally still more convenient to act at night. Thus, he circled over the surrounding area for a while before discovering a rock that was exposed above the surface of the ocean, upon which he landed upon it.
He then sat down on the rock with his legs folded in front of him and began to meditate.
Several hours later, night fell once again and Han Li abruptly opened his eyes.
He flew toward the island as a streak of azure light, unleas.h.i.+ng a secret technique as he did so to make light more blurry and indistinct. In the darkness of the night, normal cultivators would definitely be unable to detect his presence.
After a while, Han Li reached the ma.s.sive island.
Due to the fact that he had used the soul search technique on Daoist Master Swift Crane and the yellow-robed man, Han Li was able to easily identify the area that had been occupied by the Starfall Coalition cultivators. Thus, he immediately snuck onto the island and flew toward a ma.s.sive mountain.
Along the way, Han Li encountered many concealment restrictions. After unleas.h.i.+ng his spiritual sense, he discovered that there were many guards concealed nearby and the closer he got to the mountain, the more guards he discovered.
However, at his current power level, these restrictions and low-grade cultivators were naturally nothing to him. He snuck past them without any impediment, and none of the guards were alerted to his approach.
An indistinct streak of light flew directly toward the center of the Starfall Coalition area, finally reaching the foot of the ma.s.sive mountain.
The azure light receded and Han Li"s figure emerged.
He wasn"t in a hurry to continue onward. Instead, he looked up toward the mountain peak and contemplated momentarily before a blue light suddenly flashed through his eyes.
A faint blue barrier of light was suddenly revealed to Han Li as a result.
The light barrier encompa.s.sed the entire mountain peak and its surface was as smooth as flowing water. This was a powerful restriction created by some sort of rare formation spell.
Han Li"s brows furrowed upon seeing this.
Such a ma.s.sive formation restriction couldn"t be broken just by using some sort of secret technique. Of course, this didn"t mean that the restriction was actually going to be able to stop Han Li. The blue light in his eyes faded and he flipped his hand over, upon which a ball of three-colored flames emerged.
It was none other than his Triflame Fan.
Doing this could alert the nearby guards, but Han Li had no choice. In the worst-case scenario, he would just have to kill the guards.
As long as he didn"t waste any time, it wouldn"t be difficult for him to find Zenith Yin, and after killing him, no one on the island would be able to stop him from escaping.
With that in mind, Han Li raised his feather fan and prepared to blast his way into the restriction. However, right at this moment, his expression suddenly changed and the spiritual light on his Triflame Fan was snuffed out as a surprised look appeared on his face.
He then immediately stowed the fan away into his sleeve and disappeared on the spot.
Almost at the exact same moment, light flashed in the distance as several streaks of light came rus.h.i.+ng toward the mountain with reckless abandon, making no attempt to conceal themselves.
A short while later, the streaks of light reached the foot of the mountain and as the light receded, three people were revealed.
The one at the forefront of the group was a cultivator with disheveled white hair. He had a set of remarkably youthful features, yet his cultivation base was at the mid-Nascent Soul Stage. The two people behind him were rather similar in appearance to the white-haired man, but their faces were completely pale and devoid of blood.
Neither of them had any expressions on their faces and their white robes presented a slightly eerie sight in the darkness of the night.
The white-haired cultivator seemed to be very familiar with the restriction around the mountain peak. He stopped directly in front of the blue barrier of light before raising a hand, upon which a fiery red voice transmission talismans shot forth into the light barrier.
A short while later, light suddenly flashed from the blue barrier and a loud rumbling erupted as an opening slowly appeared.
The three cultivators flew in through the opening one after the other, following which the light barrier rapidly sealed over again.
No one noticed that there was a faint azure figure that had flown in with them behind the last white-robed man in their group. Even the white-haired cultivator didn"t notice that anything was amiss.
Within the blue barrier of light, several cultivators stood in front of the white-haired cultivator with respectful expressions on their faces.
"Greetings, Senior Fei. Elder Tang currently has some important matters to attend to, so please rest for a night in the guest pavilion first, and tomorrow, Elder Tang will meet you at the Cloudsmoke Hall." The man who had spoken was a burly Core Formation cultivator who appeared to be around just over 30 years of age, and was wearing an extremely respectful expression on his face.
"What do you mean by that? He told me that there was urgent business to be taken care of and asked me to get to the island as soon as possible, but he"s now telling me to meet him tomorrow? Is Elder Tang intentionally trying to play games with me?" The white-haired cultivator"s expression immediately darkened with displeasure. The burly man"s face immediately paled as he hurriedly explained, "That"s definitely not the case! Elder Tang really is busy attending to important matters; there"s no way he would show any disrespect toward you, Senior Fei."
The white-haired cultivator harrumphed coldly before abruptly changing the topic. "Forget it. I"ll ask him about this in person tomorrow. How many fellow Daoists have arrived on the island so far? Tomorrow is the final deadline for arrival, right?"
The burly man was clearly very relieved by this change of subject, and he truthfully replied, "Aside from Senior Swift Crane of Lightning Sky Island and Senior Huang Mo of Heavenly Light Island, all of the other seniors are here."
"Ever since that Swift Crane had his body destroyed, he"s become as cowardly as a rat. He"ll surely come with Huang Kun, so it"s no surprise that he"s late." A disdainful look appeared on the white-haired cultivator"s face.
The burly man could only pretend that he hadn"t heard that. He didn"t dare to voice his opinions on Nascent Soul cultivators.
The white-haired man chuckled coldly upon seeing this before issuing an instruction to one of the white-robed men behind him. Crimson light flashed through the man"s eyes as his body twisted at an incredible angle. His upper body elongated like a python to several times its original length and he immediately pounced on a defenseless Foundation Establishment cultivator. He plunged his fangs into the Foundation Establishment cultivator"s neck and began to gulp down large mouthfuls of blood essence.
"Argh!" The Foundation Establishment cultivators standing nearby hurriedly stumbled back in horror. A few of them had even brought out their protective treasures to defend themselves.
"Quit kicking up a fuss! It"s just feeding time for my devilish corpses." The white-haired man glared at the low-grade cultivators, the guards could only put away their treasures.
Only then did the white-haired man"s expression eased slightly as he patted a storage pouch hanging from his waist. A thumb-sized pill that was filled with blood energy shot forth from the storage pouch, upon which the man pointed a finger at the pill, sending it flying toward the other white-robed man.
The man opened his mouth expressionlessly and swallowed the pill before continuing to stand still on the spot. Meanwhile, the other white-robed man was still sucking the guard"s blood essence with reckless abandon. The guard was originally seven feet tall, but following a series of crackles and pops that rang out from his joints, his body began to shrink rapidly. At the same time, his skin became extremely shriveled and dry, taking on the appearance of old tree bark.
The white-haired cultivator looked on with a cold expression and had no intention of rescuing the guard. After the victim had been reduced to a height of around half a foot, he finally made a hand seal and cast a crimson incantation seal onto the white-robed man"s back.
The white-robed man"s body immediately shuddered and he reluctantly released his victim before its body reverted back to his original state.
Crimson light shot forth from the white-haired man"s hand, striking the guard that had been reduced to an unrecognizable miniature version of himself.
A spluttering sound erupted as a ball of crimson flames engulfed the Foundation Establishment cultivator"s body, reducing him to nothingness in the blink of an eye, completely eradicating even his soul in the process.
"Take me to the guest pavilion," the white-haired man instructed as if nothing had happened.
"Yes! Please follow me, Senior!" The Core Formation cultivator hurriedly forced a smile onto his face and did as he was told.
He rose into the air as a streak of light and led the trio up toward the mountain peak, disappearing into the cloud and mist up above in the blink of an eye.
The other Foundation Establishment cultivators all heaved a collective sigh of relief with fear lingering on their faces.
Unbeknownst to all of them, a concealed humanoid figure had witnessed everything that had just unfolded from a vantage point in the air over 1,000 feet above them.
"Sinister Yin Blood Corpse! I didn"t think there would be someone in the human world that would dare to refine such devilish corpses! Isn"t he afraid that the sinister Yin Qi will enter his body and kill him?" The man who was muttering to himself was naturally none other than Han Li, who had snuck surrept.i.tiously into the restriction.
He had his arms crossed as he hovered in mid-air, murmuring to himself in an inaudible voice, seemingly having identified the nature of the white-haired cultivator"s devilish corpses.