Chapter 1125

The middle-aged man who seemed like a blind man, upon seeing this scene, his facial muscles twitched, and he let out a startled cry:

"Xu Tian Palace! Impossible, it hasn't even been three hundred years since it was last opened!" This person actually recognized the origin of the floating palace at a glance.

Upon hearing the name Xu Tian Palace, the blue-robed Daoist and the scholar were not particularly affected, but the three green-clothed elders were suddenly startled, and the burly man's voice even trembled slightly:

"Xu Tian Palace! That is the secret place where ancient treasures are hidden!"

"If not this palace, then what? It appeared before the appointed time—this is rather strange, but even if it truly is Xu Tian Palace, without the Xu Tian残图, one cannot enter it at all. Hey, what is that? Someone has gone over."

Just as the middle-aged man was in doubt, suddenly a mass of fire clouds rolled in from another direction in the sky, moving with astonishing speed, as if they too had noticed the anomaly above and wished to reach the revealed palace first to investigate.

Seeing the momentum of the fire clouds, the gray-white-eyed middle-aged man's expression changed slightly; his original intention to flee there instantly shifted. However, a hint of chill appeared deep in his pupils.

As the fire clouds' momentum grew terrifyingly close to the palace, a corner of the great hall, half-hidden within the white light, suddenly flashed with five-colored light, and an incredibly thick, azure-hued light pillar shot out, piercing straight through the sea above.

Instantly, a bottomless black hole appeared on the sea surface where the light pillar struck; the seawater parted on its own, forming a sizable whirlpool.

But an even more astonishing scene appeared!

In the middle section of this azure light pillar, a white-colored magic formation several zhang in diameter appeared without any prior sign; then, light flashed upon the formation, and a man, a woman, and a cyan-colored giant cauldron materialized out of thin air, though both individuals stood motionless, as if still trapped within the light pillar and unable to move.

At this moment, the fire clouds had already rushed forward; upon seeing this scene, they paused, seeming somewhat at a loss.

But just then, a heaven-shaking, earth-rumbling boom came from within the white light mass; the great palace trembled, spatial fluctuations erupted immediately, and under the blinding white light, the palace vanished strangely into the void.

The azure light pillar also flashed wildly a few times before similarly dissipating and vanishing, leaving only the man, woman, and the giant cauldron hovering in the vast sky.

The people within the fire clouds seemed to have sensed something amiss; with a roar, they suddenly shot back along their original path.

But at this moment, the woman raised her eyebrows and shook her sleeves.

Hundreds of crystal-clear sword lights surged out from her sleeves, instantly filling half the sky with gloomy cold light, sweeping straight toward the fire clouds.

The sword lights moved with astonishing speed, flashing a few times to easily catch up to the fire clouds, then without hesitation, they lashed out wildly at the fire clouds.

After a furious roar came from within the fire clouds, they rolled violently, and faint cold light flickered inside, as if the cultivators within had unleashed some treasure.

But the moment they made contact, the fire clouds, as if encountering their nemesis, dissipated and melted within the white misty crystal light; the few treasures unleashed showed no power at all before being cleanly severed by the sword lights and falling from the sky in pieces.

The cultivator within the fire clouds was greatly terrified, wishing to cast a spell and flee, but had no chance whatsoever.

A hundred swords fell together, a miserable cry rang out, and this person was hacked to pieces by the chaotic swords, unable to even escape his Primordial Spirit.

Immediately, a large amount of blood and filth rained down from nowhere; this cultivator of not-low rank was thus utterly annihilated in a single encounter.

This scene not only caused the green-clothed elders and other Core Formation cultivators to turn pale and panic-stricken, but even the usually calm middle-aged man showed a hint of fear on his face.

"Martial Uncle, could the person within the fire clouds be a disciple of Hun Hehuan Lao Mo? Otherwise, how could..." The burly man moved his lips slightly, forcing a smile as he tried to say something.

"What disciple of which sect? It is Hun Hehuan Lao Mo himself! Otherwise, how could the burning fire** have such power!" After taking a deep breath, the middle-aged man spoke dryly without turning his head.

Although he had long suspected this, upon hearing the middle-aged man's words, the three Core Formation cultivators still drew in a sharp breath of cold air.

"Hun Hehuan Lao Mo is a Nascent Soul-level cultivator, just like your Martial Uncle—how could he possibly be slain so easily? It seems he didn't even have time to flee with his Nascent Soul!" The alluring woman exclaimed in shock.

The green-clothed elder and the burly man naturally wore the same expression of disbelief.

The middle-aged man said nothing, merely staring fixedly at the distant scene without blinking.

At this moment, the man and woman in the sky seemed to exchange a few words; then the woman let out a cold smile, suddenly retracted the flying swords in the air, and transformed into a ten-plus-zhang-long crystal rainbow, flashing once and vanishing at the horizon's edge.

The man shook his head, glanced toward the harbor direction, and transformed into an inconspicuous cyan rainbow, flying slowly with a composed demeanor.

But this action by the distant man caused the Gan-surnamed middle-aged man in the pavilion to change expression, and he urgently shouted:

"You three stay here, do not act rashly, I'll go and return shortly!"

As his words fell, the middle-aged man transformed into a blue light and flew directly out of the pavilion, after a slight circle in low altitude, he headed straight toward the approaching cyan rainbow over the island.

This caused the people in the pavilion to stare at one another in surprise!

They had personally seen a cultivator of the same level as their Martial Uncle, like an ant, being effortlessly slain by that woman; since this man was her companion, his cultivation must certainly not be inferior.

They naturally grew anxious and fearful.

Not only them, but the Gan-surnamed middle-aged man heading toward the cyan rainbow also felt equally uneasy in his heart.

However, after seeing the woman's move from afar, he almost without thought immediately concluded that the woman was most likely a terrifying late-stage Nascent Soul existence on par with the Tianxing Double Saints and Liudao Extreme Saints; if she intended to attack them, even if he wanted to flee, he could absolutely not escape her pursuit.

After all, he was merely a low-level early-stage cultivator, and his divine abilities were vastly inferior to hers.

Thus, he thought it better to proceed cautiously and actively approach, to avoid making any rash move that might instead trigger her killing intent.

Under these circumstances, this early-stage Nascent Soul cultivator steeled himself and came forward.

The two遁 lights approached each other, and in almost no time they met.

The cyan rainbow's light retracted, and the man's figure reappeared.

The Gan-surnamed middle-aged man halted his遁 light over ten zhang away, his pupils similarly constricted, then focused his gaze.

Only then did he discover that the opposite party was actually a青袍-clad youth of ordinary appearance, slightly dark skin, smiling faintly as he looked at him.

After a sweep of divine sense, the middle-aged man's pupils shrank slightly, his expression straightened, and he clasped his hands, saying:

"I am Gan Lin, Elder of the Huangsha Sect! May I ask, Fellow Daoist, your esteemed name and title? Is there anywhere Gan might be of service?"

Although he addressed the other as an equal in generation, his tone was exceptionally respectful.

The youth facing him heard this, also observed the middle-aged man twice, and smiled:

"I am surnamed Han; I seem to have heard of the Huangsha Sect before, but too much time has passed, and I don't recall clearly. Is the place ahead under your sect's control?"

"Our sect is merely a small sect in the Luan Star Sea; it's no wonder Fellow Daoist hasn't heard of us. Han Brother, if you don't mind, would you honor our humble abode with a visit?" Upon hearing the youth's amiable tone, the middle-aged man felt relieved inside, yet still dared not be negligent in his words.

Because his earlier brief investigation had revealed that this person was indeed a genuine late-stage great cultivator, which made him treat him with utmost care.

This youth is naturally Han Li, who had painstakingly cultivated in the Xu Tian Palace for over eighty years and finally managed to escape.

Speaking of which, after he had spent sixty years refining his cultivation to the peak of the中阶 Nascent Soul realm with the aid of the spiritual eye spring, he then spent twenty years consolidating this realm to reach the conditions for breaking through this bottleneck, and then, with a hopeful heart, casually attempted to break through the bottleneck of the late stage.

And then something happened that left him speechless!

He actually encountered almost no obstruction, and as if water finding its channel, easily broke through the bottleneck and entered the late-stage Nascent Soul realm.

This made him, despite having already become a late-stage great cultivator, still feel an incredulous sensation.

For you must know, when he initially sought to break through the中阶 realm, he had expended the strength of nine oxen and two tigers, prepared various spiritual pills and medicines to assist, before succeeding.

As for this later-stage attempt, he had merely prepared some ordinary medicinal pills to assist, holding little hope at all, yet it succeeded as easily as breathing.

He naturally felt utterly strange, as if dreaming.

He turned it over and over in his mind, considering it several times, yet still could not grasp any clue.

This might be due to the earlier cultivation of the Elder Dayan Art and the effect of taking that Nascent Infant Pill, or perhaps the five-colored pearls formed from the Bu Tian Dan had improved his spiritual roots, or maybe the Qing Yuan Sword Formula he cultivated was inherently easier to advance in the later stages, or because his cultivation far surpassed that of his peers at the same level...

Any of these conditions could be the cause, or perhaps a combination of several or all of them working together. Han Li ultimately gave up trying to find the reason.

After all, every cultivator who succeeds in reaching the late Nascent Soul stage has conditions that cannot be replicated; otherwise, great cultivators in the human realm would not be so rare.

Once his cultivation was complete, Han Li naturally did not hesitate to reforge the Eight Spirit Ruler and the Xu Tian Ding, easily completing the second layer of the Treasure Controlling Art, and then went to find the silver-clad woman who had also been in secluded cultivation.

As a result, upon seeing Han Li now a late-stage cultivator, the tenth-grade Jade Phoenix was so startled that she could not close her beak for a long time.

Thus, the demoness completely abandoned any thought of opposing Han Li; under the secret technique she provided, the two of them, together with the five demons and the humanoid puppet, actually managed to activate the control spell formation, forcibly moving the Xu Tian Palace out of the void and descending it into the 'Chaotic' Star Sea.

Then, using that control spell formation, the two of them simultaneously transmitted themselves and the Xu Tian Ding out.

As for the demonic cultivator in the fire clouds, he too was unfortunate—the ice phoenix, having been imprisoned in the Xu Tian Palace for nearly a hundred years without cause, was further agitated by Han Li's surprisingly easy advancement to the late stage, and thus released a mouthful of stagnant qi directly at him, after which it immediately left Han Li to seek its own way back to the Great Jin.

Although Han Li had greatly advanced in cultivation, he still had little confidence in dealing with this woman, so he let the demoness depart as well.

Of course, regarding the ancient teleportation formation that could return to Tiannan, he naturally would not reveal even the slightest detail to this ice phoenix.

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