Chapter 1140

Han Li's expression changed for a moment, then immediately returned to normal as he calmly walked past the front of the Six Linked Halls as if nothing had happened.

Miaohe True Person and another yellow-robed old man only glanced at Han Li, surprised that the thin old man's attire concealed a cultivator of considerable foundation establishment, but they did not dwell on it, leading the other four golden core cultivators straight toward the city center.

Han Li likewise walked forward without looking back, appearing to merely pass by the shops before the Six Linked Halls.

At this moment, the crane true person and the yellow-robed old man moved their lips slightly, yet no sound emerged, beginning to converse via voice transmission.

Han Li's back turned to the two, his figure paused slightly, but immediately resumed normalcy as he put increasing distance between himself and Miaohe True Person and company.

After the final turn, Han Li entered what appeared to be a rather imposing attic.

A full hour later, he emerged under the respectful escort of a cultivator dressed as a shopkeeper, but did not immediately leave, instead walking into another nearby shop...

When Han Li exited the fifth shop satisfied, he had already collected over a hundred high-grade spirit stones exchanged for magical treasures, ancient artifacts, and some rare materials.

But upon exiting this time, he suddenly noticed several unknown foundation establishment cultivators nearby, each appearing indifferent, yet clearly flashing a hint of strange color in their eyes.

Han Li coldly snorted, immediately abandoned his original plan, and strode out of the market along the street, ultimately walking all the way out of Shicheng on foot.

Those cultivators mostly employed concealment techniques to follow Han Li out of the city gate, but immediately stared at each other in bewilderment.

For Han Li had clearly been within their spiritual sense range moments before, yet under everyone's watchful eyes, he mysteriously vanished, and the nearby air trembled emptily, with no sign of any escape light.

These cultivators naturally fell into a great uproar.

Some were secretly dispatched by the shops, others had noticed Han Li's frequent entries and exits, each time seeing the shopkeeper respectfully send him out, felt compelled to follow on their own initiative.

Although the old man Han Li disguised himself as was a late foundation establishment cultivator, under sufficient temptation of great profit, these people would not truly shrink back; indeed, earlier, someone had already discussed joining forces.

But now Han Li's mysterious disappearance left these cultivators staring dumbfounded, able only to search nearby for a while, finding nothing, and finally returning to Shicheng in gloomy frustration.

Not long after these people departed, a green light flashed at the high altitude where Han Li had vanished, and a blurry figure flickered into view. Immediately, spiritual light condensed, the figure solidified into form—indeed, it was Han Li restored to his original appearance.

Han Li gazed at Shicheng, the corner of his mouth curling into a hint of mockery.

Had he not suddenly formed another plan, previously unwilling to startle the snake and let the city's Nascent Soul cultivators discover his presence, he would absolutely not have allowed these following cultivators to live and return.

Their failure to see through Han Li's concealment technique should be considered extremely fortunate; otherwise, had Han Li hardened his heart, he would not hesitate to wipe out these foundation establishment cultivators with a single gesture.

After surveying the surroundings from high altitude, Han Li settled on a direction and transformed into a green light, departing.

Shortly after, the green light descended into the mountain pass between the two small hills encircling the small town.

Here, birds sang and flowers bloomed, the place secluded to an extreme, with thick mountain mist gathering and not dispersing.

Han Li merely glanced around, then gave a slight nod.

Raising his hand, a stack of five-colored formation flags appeared, and after more than ten beams of light shot out, they all vanished into the surroundings without a trace.

Immediately, a white mist rose swiftly from the ground, merging with the mountain pass's water mist, becoming indistinguishable.

Han Li's figure was thus submerged within the mist.

Having laid the concealment formation, Han Li in the mist slapped a certain spirit beast pouch at his waist.

A loud buzzing sound erupted as tens of thousands of gold-devouring insects swarmed out of the pouch's mouth, forming a golden cloud hovering before him.

Han Li sat cross-legged, murmuring softly, and blue spiritual light began to flicker on his body,

With a "Boom!", the insect cloud transformed into golden flowers that shot outward in all directions.

Almost simultaneously, Han Li suddenly opened his eyes; the divine light in his eyes was first crystal clear, then abruptly turned eerily dim beyond compare.

This was precisely the Divine Sense Division into a Thousand Secret Technique Han Li had once performed in the Fallen Devil Valley, a divine ability he independently comprehended with the aid of the Great Expansion Decision, allowing half of his divine sense to instantly split into thousands of minute divine thoughts, temporarily attached to each gold-devouring insect, as if he suddenly gained thousands of eyes and ears.

This Divine Sense Division into a Thousand Secret Technique and Han Li's earlier Spirit Object Attachment Technique appear somewhat similar, yet are fundamentally different.

One involves splitting most of the divine sense into countless minute divine thoughts, using the gold-devouring insects' senses to perform searches and inspections impossible for divine sense alone, requiring personal command by the primordial spirit, cannot exceed a certain range, or the divine thoughts will retract on their own.

The other involves attaching an independent split spirit to a spirit object, allowing the split spirit to actively command the spirit object according to prior instructions, with the primordial spirit not interfering, even enabling direct command of refined spirit insects and beasts to attack enemies, somewhat akin to incarnation techniques in wonderful ways. Moreover, as long as the attachment time is brief, it works regardless of distance from the caster.

The Divine Sense Division into a Thousand Secret Technique is hardly usable unless divine sense is inconvenient, feeling rather useless. Meanwhile, the Spirit Object Attachment Technique is a great divine ability rarely mastered even by late Nascent Soul cultivators, incomparable to the former.

Now, all the gold-devouring insects, upon flying out of the white mist, immediately some burrowed underground, some rose into the air, and in the blink of an eye, all these spirit insects vanished without a trace.

Sitting cross-legged in the formation, Han Li closed his eyes again, his face cold and expressionless.

Time passed gradually, the sun in the sky slowly sank from the sea surface, finally reaching nightfall, and the entire Biling Island fell into darkness.

Yet within Shicheng, lights blazed brightly, blocks of moonstone infused with ample spiritual power sparkled, illuminating the city as if it were daytime. Thus, Shicheng's surroundings appeared even darker, accompanied by the ceaseless howling of sea winds, as if countless demons lurked in the darkness.

Although cultivators disregard day or night, and can see clearly at night with slight expenditure of magic power, distance pales in comparison to daytime. But in the outer star sea, it is impossible—outer sea teems with demonic beasts; not to mention traveling by day on the sea surface, even staying on the island at night risks silent approach by beasts skilled in concealment, followed by sudden ambush!

After all, ordinary cultivators cannot constantly extend their divine sense for vigilance; each year, nearly as many cultivators fall due to this as fall in formal demon beast hunts, with numbers even exceeding by several tenths.

Therefore, unless urgent matters or high-level cultivators with vast divine abilities insist, upon nightfall, cultivators on the island will maximize vigilance; naturally, gathering points activate all restrictions, and cultivators who did not go to sea all shrink back.

And for Shicheng, nestled among mountains, eight stone towers simultaneously lit up, a layer of pale blue light curtain enveloping the entire city to prevent demonic beasts from sneaking in for ambush.

But on such a night, several hooded figures quietly arrived at a certain city gate.

The gate was guarded by a foundation establishment cultivator and several qi foundation cultivators; the leader merely lifted his cloak slightly, revealing his true face, whereupon the guard cultivators immediately panicked and opened a breach in the city's defensive barrier, respectfully sending the few people into Shicheng.

While these people had just left the city, they immediately transformed into several escape lights that vanished into the dark night sky, disappearing in an instant.

The few cultivators' escape speed was not slow, yet none spoke, merely lowering their heads and rushing forward.

But after departing Shicheng by over a hundred li, suddenly a soft "Huh?" sound came from one escape light; the light paused, and a fine white line shot out from it, flashing and vanishing into the void behind.

The other cultivators started, involuntarily halting their escape lights, all turning their heads to look back.

With a "Zizi" sound, a cluster of piercing golden light suddenly exploded in the distant black sky; the white line faintly struck something, followed by a strange hissing cry, then a fist-sized golden light plummeted straight down from afar.

"What is that?" another cultivator exclaimed in surprise.

While the cultivator who initiated the attack merely waved his hand, the white line instantly flew back from afar, circled once, and fell as a snow-white fine needle into his hand. At this point, he slowly said:

"I don't know; it seems to be some kind of spirit insect, whether wild or domesticated I cannot tell. But this insect was not pierced by my 'White Sorrow Needle'—truly hardy. Go retrieve its corpse, I wish to examine what kind of spirit insect it is."

The last sentence was spoken as this person turned his head, instructing the two cultivators behind him.

Immediately, the two behind responded respectfully, transforming into two escape lights that shot straight into the dark earth below, seeking the slain golden-colored spirit insect.

But after a full incense stick's worth of time, the two returned, dispirited.

"Reporting to the Sect Master, that spirit insect seems not to have died; we found no corpse there!" one replied somewhat anxiously.

"Not dead? Do you take my White Sorrow Needle for an embroidery needle? To fail to kill a mere spirit insect and return empty-handed!" the attacker's tone sank, seeming somewhat annoyed.

"White Brother, perhaps that thing is really fine, I also didn't find any trace of that spirit worm." At this moment, another cultivator wearing a cloak, however, suddenly solemnly said.

"If it's true, let me take a look!"

The cultivator who released the needle treasure was startled, and hurriedly extended his spiritual sense to the distance, conducting a careful search.

As a result, after a moment, his face under the cloak became extremely ugly, and indeed no trace of the golden 'colored' spirit worm was found in that area.

In shock, he transmitted two sentences with slight lip movement, and immediately another cultivator, without saying a word, simultaneously raised his hand, one releasing a piece of emerald small hammer, the other raising his hand to unleash countless fine white threads, the two treasures instantly enveloping them in protection.

"Which senior is following behind us, don't skulk about, come out and meet us!" The cultivator who released the white threads shouted loudly, at the same time his eyes flashed with precision 'shooting' in all directions, and suddenly a soaring astonishing aura erupted from his body.

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