Chapter 598: Severing Karmic Ties
Chapter 598: Severing Karmic Ties
Han Li and the others were gathered nearby, and all of them were instantly enshrouded within this burst of crushing pressure.
Xiao Bai was the one who fared the worst out of everyone, letting loose an agonized cry as blood began to flow out of all of its orifices, and it instantly reverted back into a white jade pendant that attached itself back to Han Li\'s waist.
As for Han Li himself, his vision turned completely dark, and he felt as if he had been dealt a heavy blow to the chest, causing him to stumble back close to 20 steps before steadying himself.
Daoist Xie had already flown back into Han Li\'s body for shelter, while Mo Guang remained largely unaffected despite the severe injuries that he sustained, once again putting on display the incredible physical constitution of the Gray Immortal body that he had attained.
The golden humanoid figure only lingered in mid-air for a few seconds before flying into the ball of golden light, following which the golden vortex abruptly expanded even further like a gargantuan golden mouth.
A burst of tremendous suction force then erupted out of the vortex, sucking in the five-colored spirit cloud up above.
The golden vortex was like an insatiable, bottomless pit, and it continued to slowly expand as it devoured the spirit cloud in the sky.
Around 15 minutes later, the entire spirit cloud had disappeared without a trace, and only then did the golden vortex begin to shrink.
A few seconds later, the golden vortex vanished as well, and all that remained in the sky was a golden ball that was around 10 feet in size, resembling a giant golden egg.
Han Li heaved an internal sigh of relief upon seeing this, but he was still reeling from the recollection of the terrifying golden figure that he had just witnessed.
The golden ball continued to hover in mid-air as streaks of dazzling golden light occasionally flashed over its surface.
At the same time, it was giving off bursts of formidable aura fluctuations, and it seemed that there was something extremely fearsome being nurtured inside.
After a brief moment of contemplation, Han Li flew over to the golden ball, following which a streak of white light slid out of his sleeve, then transformed into a small white flag.
This was one of the immortal treasures that he had obtained from Gongshu Jiu, and it instantly began to swell drastically at his behest, forming a giant white flag that was several hundred feet in size.
A vast expanse of white mist surged out of the flag, forming a white cloud that was several acres in size in the blink of an eye, completely concealing the golden ball within it.
The cloud seemed to have an aura concealment effect, and the astonishing aura emanating from the golden ball was instantly significantly diminished.
"Let\'s get out of here for now," Han Li said, and he was just about to depart with the white cloud and the golden ball when he suddenly stopped cold in his tracks.
A white-robed young man had appeared not far in front of him, completely without his detection.
The man was extremely handsome, and he appeared to be 30 to 40 years of age with a head of flowing black hair, running down the middle of which was a lock of faintly shimmering golden hair.
Even with his enormous spiritual sense, Han Li was completely oblivious to the man\'s arrival, and Mo Guang had clearly also been caught off guard.
It was as if the man had been conjured up out of thin air.
Even though there was no powerful aura emanating from the man\'s body, Han Li\'s instincts told him that the man possessed unfathomable power.
The white-robed man took a glance at Han Li and Mo Guang, and he made no attempt to announce his intentions.
Han Li was silent for a moment, then asked, "May I ask your name, Senior?"
Instead of answering Han Li\'s question, the white-robed man smiled and remarked, "You did very well. I must say, you really did surprise me."
Han Li was even more alarmed upon hearing this.
It was clear from this remark that the white-robed man had arrived on the scene long ago, and perhaps he had even witnessed the entire battle that Han Li had fought against the Gold Devouring Immortal.
All of a sudden, a thought occurred to Han Li, and he exclaimed, "Your voice! Could it be that you were the one who trapped that Gold Devouring Immortal for 20 years?"
"That\'s right," the white-robed man replied in a calm manner.
"Thank you for helping me in my time of need, Senior!" Han Li said in a serious manner as he extended a grateful bow.
If the Gold Devouring Immortal hadn\'t been trapped for those 20 years, he and Jin Tong would\'ve most likely already met their demise at this point, so it was no exaggeration to say that this man had saved their lives.
"I only acted on the request of someone else," the white-robed man said in an indifferent voice.
Han Li was rather taken aback to hear this.
"I helped you to repay you for helping Le\'er all those years ago. From this day forth, any connection between the two of you is severed," the white-robed man explained.
"Le\'er? Liu Le\'er? Is she with you right now, Senior? How is she?" Han Li immediately asked.
"Le\'er is doing very well. Like I just said, the two of you shared some history back in the Spirit Domain Realm, but any ties between the two of you have already been severed, so you are not to meet her again," the white-robed man said in a cold voice.
Han Li was silent for a moment, then nodded in response.
Even though the white-roebd man hadn\'t displayed his cultivation base, Han Li was confident that he had to be a Great Encompassment Stage being.
In the face of such a formidable being, Han Li had no choice but to comply with all of his demands. In any case, Han Li was happy as long as Liu Le\'er was doing well.
The white-robed man\'s expression eased slightly at the sight of Han Li\'s compliant display, and he added, "Also, you\'re forbidden from telling anyone about what happened here."
Once again, Han Li was rather surprised to hear this, but he didn\'t display his surprise as he nodded in response once again.
After that, the white-robed man flipped a hand over to produce an azure jade slip before tossing it at Han Li, who reflexively caught it.
"This is a map, get away from this place as soon as possible, and don\'t come back again," the white-robed man said, then took a glance at Mo Guang as a peculiar look flashed through his eyes, following which he abruptly vanished from the spot.
Han Li faltered slightly upon seeing this, following which a wry smile appeared on his face.
It seemed that human cultivators really were very unpopular in the primordial land. If it weren\'t for his past ties with Liu Le\'er, perhaps the white-robed man would\'ve struck him down on the spot.
After a brief silence, Mo Guang turned to Han Li as he said, "That man felt even more fearsome to me than that High Zenith Stage Gold Devouring Immortal... Could it be that he\'s a Great Encompassment Stage being?"
Han Li offered no response, and after taking a deep breath to compose himself, he injected a wisp of his spiritual sense into the azure jade slip.
Much to his elation, the map provided by the white-robed man was quite detailed, marking out four enormous territories that belonged to four major races, and all of them were marked as forbidden areas.
The area that Han Li had passed through earlier was part of the Heavenly Fox Race\'s territory, and with that in mind, it occurred to him that the white-robed man from earlier was most likely the patriarch of this Heavenly Fox Race.
As for Liu Le\'er, she was said to have been taken by a member of her own race, so she was most likely a member of this Heavenly Fox Race as well.
In that case, it seemed like Han Li didn\'t need to be concerned for her.
Outside of these four areas, there was also a relatively safe route leading to the Black Mountain Immortal Region marked out on the map.
After a brief inspection, Han Li withdrew his spiritual sense out of the jade slip.
"What do you plan to do from here, Fellow Daoist Han?" Mo Guang asked.
"We\'re clearly not welcome here, so let\'s leave this place before we\'re forced to leave," Han Li replied as he summoned the green jade flying carriage, then made a hand seal, and the white cloud rapidly shrank down into a ball of dense white mist that carried the golden ball that contained Jin Tong onto the carriage.
"Fellow Daoist Han, would you happen to have a yin-attribute spirit beast pouch?" Mo Guang suddenly asked.
Han Li faltered slightly upon hearing this, then searched through his belongings briefly before producing a black spirit beast pouch that he handed over to Mo Guang.
This was a yin-attribute spirit beast pouch that he had obtained from Qu Ling, and it had quite a large internal space.
"Thank you, Fellow Daoist Han. Please wait for me for a moment," Mo Guang said, then flew down into the ravine, quickly reaching the bottom.
At this point, the ravine had already been transformed into an enormous crater that was riddled with holes, and only a tiny portion of the immense baleful qi that was originally in it remained.
Mo Guang made a hand seal, and the spirit beast pouch immediately flew forward before opening up wide to release a burst of tremendous suction force.
The remaining baleful, qi at the bottom of the ravine instantly surged forth, injecting itself into the spirit beast pouch as a pillar of black qi.
There wasn\'t much baleful qi left, so it didn\'t take long before all of it was sucked into the spirit beast pouch, which immediately swelled up, and the sound of sloshing liquid could be heard coming from inside it.
The pouch was originally as light as a feather, but it had since increased in weight to around 150 kilograms, and even through the pouch, one could sense the incredibly dense baleful qi inside.
An elated look appeared on Mo Guang\'s face as he stowed the spirit beast pouch away, then rose up into the sky before landing atop the flying carriage.
Han Li took a glance at Mo Guang, but didn\'t say anything as he swept a sleeve through the air to summon Daoist Xie.
"Please pilot the carriage along this route, Brother Xie," Han Li instructed as he handed the jade slip to Daoist Xie, who briefly examined the map that it contained before making a hand seal, and the flying carriage immediately shot forth as a streak of green light.
Meanwhile, Han Li made his way over the side of the carriage and closed his eyes as he focused his attention on the immortal acupoints in his body.
Out of his 107 opened immortal acupoints, most of them had been opened through the use of the Profound Baleful Spirit Arts, and all of those immortal acupoints had varying amounts of baleful qi within them.
In particular, the immortal acupoints that had been opened while in the ravine were especially abundant in baleful qi.
Han Li heaved an internal sigh upon seeing this. Even though he had drastically accelerated his own cultivation progress using the Profound Baleful Spirit Arts, it was most likely going to be exceedingly difficult for him to progress to the High Zenith Stage.
After all, making a breakthrough to the High Zenith Stage required one to face the fifth decay, and all of this baleful qi was going to pose a massive problem.
After a brief silence, he shook his head to rid himself of that train of thought, then closed his eyes to meditate and recover from the injuries that he had sustained during the earlier battle.