Magic power surged throughout Han Li"s entire body in a frenzy as he let loose a low cry.
Brilliant spiritual light erupted from the surface of the huge sword, and it shuddered before instantly transforming into a wyrm-like streak of golden light, circling in the air above before cras.h.i.+ng down with ferocious might.
A loud rumbling boom erupted as the golden light struck the ma.s.sive bronze pillar.
In the face of the golden light, the mountainous pillar appeared as if it had been constructed from playdoh, and it was sliced in half with ease.
From a distance, it appeared as if a doomsday-like scenario was unfolding on the horizon.
All of the Starfall Coalition cultivators nearby hurriedly rose into the air atop their treasures.
Such a loud commotion had naturally drawn the attention of all of the cultivators on both sides.
Thus, Han Li was naturally thrust under the limelight.
At the sight of Han Li, completely contrasting expression appeared on everyone"s faces; some were horrified, while others were ecstatic.
Of course, not everyone had the spare capacity to turn their attention toward Han Li.
For example, Han Li was currently looking at a man and a woman who were caught in an extremely fierce battle with five ma.s.sive ghostly heads, and were unable to pay any heed to the earthshattering boom that had just erupted.
Coincidentally, the devilish Qi and pink fragrant mist emitted by the twin Lan devils were being completely dominated by the greyish-white devilish flames erupting from mouths of the five ghostly heads, so they had been forced firmly onto the back foot.
Elder Zhao and Elder Ma were ecstatic upon seeing this, and they immediately cast their treasures toward the twin Lan devils to plunge them into an even more perilous situation.
As for the dozen or so swarms of golden beetles released by Han Li, they were also dominating the battlefield.
At Han Li"s behest, the beetles only targeted Starfall Coalition cultivators below the Nascent Soul Stage. They swept through the battlefield like golden clouds, and no matter what treasures were used to try and keep the beetles at bay, all of them were devoured into nothingness.
Within a span of a few moments, several tens of cultivators had been completely devoured by the Gold Devouring Beetles.
All of the Starfall Coalition cultivators nearby had been thrown into a complete panic, and all of them were desperately trying to get away from the swarms of beetles.
The fact that Han Li had just destroyed the core of the Heavenly Windfire Formation with a single sword strike further compounded their woes, and morale had dropped to an all-time low.
Many of the Starfall Coalition cultivators were already fleeing from the battle.
There were only a few at first, followed by a dozen or so, which quickly turned into hundreds of cultivators fleeing into the distance!
Han Li didn"t even need to attack any further, and the Starfall Coalition"s defeat had already been sealed. The old woman and the elderly man with the Long surname could see that the situation was in a drastic downward spiral, so they also immediately shook off their opponents and flew away as quickly as they could.
The twin Lan devils clearly also knew that it would be unwise to stay any longer, and they suddenly summoned several powerful treasures before detonating them all once. In doing so, the five ghostly heads were temporarily forced back, thereby creating an avenue of escape for the two of them.
Han Li"s brows furrowed upon seeing this, and he immediately flapped his Thunderstorm Wings without any hesitation, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
The twin Lan devils had only just escaped from the ghostly heads when a dull thunderclap erupted up ahead, following Han Li appeared out of thin air, directly cutting them off.
The two devils" hearts immediately sank upon seeing Han Li"s cold and expressionless.
However, both of them were powerful Devil Dao cultivators in their own right, so they certainly weren"t going to give up and allow themselves be killed. As such, they glanced at one another before raising their hands in unison, summoning several treasures of various different colors. At the same time, their bodies swayed, and both of them unleashed devilish techniques to attack Han Li.
A hint of killing intent surfaced in Han Li"s eyes upon seeing this.
Several days later, the entire Scattered Star Seas was in a ma.s.sive uproar. Not only did the final battle between the Star Palace and the Starfall Coalition commence far earlier than everyone had expected, the end result also had most people"s jaws dropping to the ground.
Not only had Wan Tianming of the Myriad Gates of Enlightenment perished during this battle, many high-grade Starfall Coalition cultivators had also been killed, as had the vast renowned twin Lan devils.
As such, Han Li"s name became known to virtually everyone in the Scattered Star Seas. Some people had even dug up some information about Han Li"s past, particularly about how he had obtained the Heavenvoid Cauldron from the Heavenvoid Hall even prior to reaching the Nascent Soul Stage, and how he had been hunted by the Starfall Coalition in the aftermath of that incident.
Countless cultivators in the Scattered Star Seas were amazed by those legendary tales, and there were no longer any Nascent Soul cultivators who dared to go after the Heavenvoid Cauldron.
In the next few months, the Star Palace deployed a large number of cultivators to recover their lost territory while also hunting down the high-grade Starfall Coalition cultivators who had managed to escape. In the end, they reached the main base of the Starfall Coalition in one fell swoop.
The Nascent Soul elders of the Starfall Coalition were unwilling to concede, and they gathered a group of powerful cultivators to engage the Star Palace in another battle at the Starfall Coalition"s main base.
On this occasion, the Starfall Coalition naturally crashed to an even heavier defeat without a late-Nascent Soul cultivator among their ranks.
They had deployed three mid-Nascent Soul cultivators at once to take care of Han Li, only for two of them to be slain by Han Li with ease. The final cultivator was able to escape with his Nascent Soul intact using some kind of secret technique, but his body had been sliced in half and even if he could successfully possess a new vessel, he would most likely be unable to recover to his original cultivation base.
Thus, in the short span of just half a year, the Star Palace had become the ruler of the Scattered Star Seas again, and all of the other sects and powers pledged their allegiance to the Star Palace once again.
Ling Yuling took this opportunity to extend an olive branch the low-grade Starfall Coalition cultivators who had managed to escape, but she showed no mercy to the very few Nascent Soul Stage Starfall Coalition elders that remained.
As such, the Starfall Coalition began to crumble from the inside as all of the low-grade cultivators switched their allegiance to the Star Palace, while the remaining high-grade cultivators fled for their lives. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, the mighty Starfall Coalition had been wiped off the face of the Scattered Star Seas.
Half a year later, there was a man and a woman making their way through a long pa.s.sageway within the belly of Heavenly Star City"s sacred mountain.
This pa.s.sageway had been completely paved with pristine white jade, creating spotless mirror-like surfaces.
The woman was an exquisite beauty while the man"s appearance was much more mundane; they were none other than Han Li and the master of the Star Palace, Ling Yuling.
Han Li was walking behind Ling Yuling, and he inspected the jade walls around him as he asked, "I can"t believe the Divine Essencefused Mountain was placed in such a location; is it really that fearsome?"
"Fearsome is an understatement, Brother Han. Any cultivators below the Nascent Soul Stage who accidentally approach this mountain would immediately suffer from spiritual power backlash, and they could easily perish as a result. Nascent Soul cultivators can stay around the Divine Essencefused Light a little longer, but prolonged exposure to the mountain could still result in a regression in cultivation base," Ling Yuling explained with a smile.
"I"m even more curious about this Divine Essencefused Mountain now. I wonder how this mountain was discovered in the first place," Han Li mused with a contemplative look in his eyes.
"Father did actually mention this to me in the past. During one of his journeys to the outer seas, he witnessed this mountain erupting out from an underwater volcano. In order to transfer the mountain to this place, Father had to expend extensive efforts, and there were even several Core Formation cultivators whose cultivation bases had severely regressed during the process. After that, my parents attained initial mastery of the Divine Essencefused Light before attempting to refine this mountain bit by bit as if it were a treasure. However, this is an extremely time-consuming task, and even when they pa.s.sed away, they had only refined a small portion of the mountain," Ling Yuling explained.
"Hehe, if they had successfully refined this mountain, they most likely wouldn"t have been bound to it as they were," Han Li chuckled.
Ling Yuling merely smiled in response, yet gave no reply to this. After rounding a corner, her footsteps came to a halt.
There was a ma.s.sive green jade door up ahead further down the corridor, and there were countless s.h.i.+mmering restriction talismans of different colors plastered over the door.
"This is where my parents once cultivated. These are the restrictions that they painstakingly set up in order to isolate the Divine Essencefused Mountain"s five-elemental power." As she spoke, Ling Yuling raised a hand, and a snowy white jade badge surfaced over her palm.
She then waved the badge gently toward the gate, upon which a clump of white threads short forth from the jade badge, sweeping away all of the restriction talismans on the jade door.
The jade door abruptly began to tremor violently, following which a low buzzing sound rang out, and the entire door began to move.
A serious expression appeared on Ling Yuling"s face as she opened her mouth to blast forth a blue jade hook.
The hook seemed to possess some kind of mystical property, and it transformed into a veil of blue light that settled over Ling Yuling"s body.
Only then did she turn to Han Li as she cautioned, "Treasures that don"t contain any powers of the five elements are affected the least by the Divine Essencefused Moutain. You"re obviously a lot more powerful than I am, but it"s still best to exercise caution in there."
"Don"t worry, Fellow Daoist Yuling, I know my limits," Han Li replied with a smile.
Golden light abruptly s.h.i.+mmered all over his body, following which a s.h.i.+ny golden light barrier suddenly appeared.
It was none other than the vajra barrier that Han Li had cultivated. Even though this wasn"t an item constructed from jade, it was something that was outside of the realm of the five elements.
Ling Yuling faltered initially upon seeing this before a smile appeared on her face. She raised a hand to toss the jade badge into the air, then chanted something in a heavenly voice.
The jade badge shuddered as runes of all types of different colors flew out from it before disappearing into the jade door.
The ringing emanating from the jade door also came to an abrupt halt, following it opened outward, revealing a cavernous s.p.a.ce and a vast expanse of white light.
As soon as the jade door was opened, Han Li was struck by a bone-chilling sensation as the hairs on the back of his neck stood up on end. His heart jolted with shock as pure wood-attribute spiritual power surged through his meridians like frantically galloping wild horses.
Thankfully, he was somewhat mentally prepared for this and activated his Azure Essence Sword Art. Only then was he able to shrug off this asphyxiating spiritual pressure, and spiritual power within his body began to circulate in a normal manner again.
Han Li"s expression remained unchanged, but he was slightly shaken internally.
He had been struck by such a fearsome sensation after activating his vajra barrier; if he had refrained from doing so, he would"ve been in a bit of trouble just then. Han Li was not surprised that mere exposure to this mountain could threaten a normal cultivator"s life.
With that in mind, Han Li couldn"t help but turn his gaze toward Ling Yuling.
Even though she had that blue light barrier s.h.i.+elding her body, her blood had also churned violently in her veins just then, and her delicate cheeks had become faintly flushed, making her appear extremely alluring and seductive.