The place Han Li intended to visit lay in a small basin somewhere within the ring-shaped mountain. It was completely enclosed by tall, strangely shaped rocks, leaving no opening for wind or rain. In the very center of the basin stood a massive, ancient-looking hall built of bluestone. Although the hall was enormous, its entrance was pitifully small, barely wide enough for two people to pass through side by side. This gave Han Li, who was standing on a boulder and looking down at the place, an intensely incongruous and peculiar feeling.
Han Li furrowed his brow, jumped down from the boulder, and then slowly walked to the vicinity of the hall entrance, raising his head to examine the stone hall carefully.
The longer he looked, the deeper the suspicion on Han Li's face became.
He did not know whether it was an illusion, but he kept feeling that a faint azure light occasionally flowed across the surface of the stone hall. Yet whenever he focused his eyes and tried to inspect it closely, he could not see anything unusual. After several repetitions, he muttered inwardly, wondering whether someone had placed some kind of forbidden spell here.
Han Li lowered his head and surveyed the nearby ground. He could not see the slightest sign that anyone had passed through, which made his eyes narrow.
"There is definitely something strange about this place! The basin may be a little remote, but a stone hall this large should not have gone undiscovered by everyone. Besides, the information I have came from that scoundrel Zhong Wu himself. How could he never have come here?" Countless thoughts turned through Han Li's mind in an instant, and he instinctively sensed that something was wrong with this place.
Even so, he was somewhat unwilling to leave just like that.
Thus, he retreated a few steps. He reached into his storage pouch, and a golden blade appeared in his hand. He tossed it into the air, transforming it into a streak of golden light that struck a certain bluestone on the hall entrance with great force. With a soft crack, azure light surged across the stone. It remained completely unharmed, while the golden blade spun end over end and was bounced several yards away.
Han Li shook his head and turned around to leave.
Avoiding unnecessary danger and making it out of the forbidden land alive was his greatest objective. This stone hall was so strange that it would be better not to enter it, Han Li thought without changing his expression.
But after he had taken only two steps, Han Li's expression suddenly changed drastically. His figure blurred and vanished into thin air. The next moment, his figure appeared inside the hall entrance, only to disappear into the stone hall almost immediately afterward.
At that moment, a large group of Yan Yue Sect disciples suddenly appeared on the rocks at one side of the basin. Leading them was the elfin girl who looked young but was, in reality, the Yan Yue Sect's founding ancestor.
The girl's eyes held a trace of puzzlement as she looked toward the spot before the entrance where Han Li had vanished. She seemed to have sensed that someone had been there, yet now there was no one at all. Could she have sensed incorrectly?
Unwilling to believe it, the girl remained where she was and gently closed her eyes. Her enormous spiritual sense spread out in an instant. Aside from their own group, she indeed sensed no other cultivator anywhere near the basin. However, when her spiritual sense swept over the stone hall, some kind of force immediately repelled it outside. The girl was startled, but then she was overjoyed, and a smile appeared on her face.
She had noticed at first glance that the stone hall was protected by a restriction, so this did not surprise her. The dozen or so hidden demon-beast dens they had searched earlier had also contained several places protected by spells. That was nothing special. But this restriction could even block her spiritual sense. It was the first time she had encountered such a thing, and it was absolutely incomparable to the superficial restrictions in those earlier places.
Excited for the moment, the elfin girl no longer wished to investigate what had happened just now. She believed that even if one or two disciples from another sect were secretly watching nearby, they could never affect so many Yan Yue Sect disciples. Thus, she led the group toward the stone hall.
Han Li was currently inside the main hall of the stone building, pacing anxiously in circles.
He had genuinely been about to leave. Out of habit, he had first released his spiritual sense to inspect the surroundings, and then he had prepared to slip away.
He never expected that the moment his spiritual sense spread out, it would immediately detect a large group of cultivators so close to him. His blood nearly froze with fright, and he darted into the stone hall without a second thought. Regardless of which of the other six sects the newcomers belonged to, there was no need to imagine what would happen if they saw him here.
If his physical strength had not been so severely depleted over the past two days, he could have used his extreme movement technique to shake off those cultivators openly and leave. Unfortunately, in his current condition, he could use that technique only a few more times, and he certainly could not run very far.
Now that he was hiding inside the stone hall, Han Li was temporarily safe. At the same time, however, the group of cultivators had blocked him in, making it impossible for him to leave.
And the stone hall had been constructed far too simply. After entering through the door and walking along a winding corridor, one arrived at this completely empty main hall. There was not even a place to hide in the vast space. Judging from the way the group outside was acting, they had clearly come for this stone hall. Hoping that they would not enter was nothing more than wishful thinking.
Actually, it was not quite true that there was absolutely nowhere to go.
In the center of the hall before Han Li stood a dark underground passage surrounded by a jade railing. A flight of steps descended diagonally from its entrance into the earth, while damp, hot air continuously blew outward. It was truly impossible to imagine where it led.
Han Li could guess without thinking that the passage did not lead to a pleasant place. It was certainly filled with danger, which was why he had hesitated to descend. But there was genuinely nowhere else to hide in this hall. Cold sweat suddenly poured from Han Li's forehead.
At that moment, a chaotic sound of footsteps came from the hall entrance. It seemed that the group of cultivators had already entered the stone hall and would reach this chamber in the blink of an eye.
Seeing this, Han Li sighed inwardly. He gritted his teeth, lightly vaulted over the railing, and slipped into the underground passage.
After entering the passage, Han Li found himself in complete darkness. He reached into his storage pouch and took out a moonlight stone, causing the surroundings to brighten.
The passage was not large. It was entirely built of bluestone and was barely wide enough for one person to squeeze through.
He did not dare delay in the slightest, afraid that the people behind him would catch up. He carefully made his way downward.
After descending several hundred stone steps one by one, the originally narrow passage gradually widened until two people could walk side by side without difficulty. However, the damp air blowing toward him grew even hotter. In only a short while, Han Li was sweating profusely, and his entire body was already soaked through.
After going down nearly another hundred steps, Han Li estimated that he was more than a hundred feet below the surface. At last, the bluestone passage came to an end. When he stepped out of it, an extraordinary marshland world appeared before him.
This underground world was only a little over thirty yards high, but it stretched for several miles in every direction. As far as the eye could see, the land was covered with mud that bubbled blackly. The scorching, damp wind was generated out of nowhere above the marsh, rushed rapidly through the passage behind Han Li, and then carried fresher air in from outside, forming a balanced circulation.
Tall mounds of black earth surrounded the marsh. Along the edge on the other side grew dozens of exotic flowers and spirit herbs of different colors. Several of the heavenly spirit medicines Han Li needed were among them, and there were quite a substantial number of them.
Yet none of this attracted Han Li's attention as much as the small white-jade pavilion in the middle of the marsh. A huge golden chest was floating in the pavilion for no apparent reason. The chest was about twelve feet long and five feet wide, its lid tightly shut, while a faint golden light flowed through its body. Anyone could tell at a glance that it was no ordinary object.
Han Li looked only a few times before quickly shifting his gaze away. It was not that he felt no interest in the treasure inside the golden chest; it was that a large group of murderous figures had already arrived behind him. Finding a place to hide was the truly urgent matter. What use would treasure be if he lost his life?
Han Li's figure swayed several times, and he had already reached a spot behind a mound of earth some distance from the passage entrance. He immediately used both breath-concealing and shape-concealing techniques. Then he lay motionless atop the mound. After concealing himself, Han Li had blended completely into the nearby black earth. From a distance, no one could easily discover his whereabouts.
Han Li had barely finished all this when the elfin girl's figure appeared on the steps at the passage entrance.
As soon as she appeared, she calmly surveyed the surroundings. But when she saw the huge golden chest in the white-jade pavilion, the composed expression on her face finally changed, and a fiery look gradually emerged in her eyes. Although her disciples had described the golden chest to her, seeing it for herself at close range was incomparably more shocking.
The girl descended the steps in a few strides and stood alluringly before the marsh. The other male and female Yan Yue Sect disciples following behind her then poured out in a rush and formed a line behind her.
From his position some distance away, Han Li saw everything clearly. He could not help feeling secretly alarmed, and his curiosity about the identity of the young-looking girl leading them increased greatly.
"Is that black-scaled python hiding here?" the girl asked. Her tender voice was filled with indescribable majesty.
"Reporting to Ancestor, that giant python is hiding in the marsh. It has swallowed more than a dozen disciples from the various sects who came seeking the treasure chest. Its vicious reputation has spread far and wide, and this place has become a forbidden zone that disciples of the various sects dare not approach. However, this demon beast is indeed far stronger than ordinary peak-level demon beasts. Ancestor, please be a little careful!" a female disciple replied respectfully with her head lowered.
"Hmph! Do you think I cannot deal with a mere level-one demon beast?" The girl's tender white face darkened, and she put on a comical, affectedly mature expression. Yet this caused the white-robed woman who had answered her to turn pale and hurriedly say that she would never dare think so.
"Go down. Everyone, follow the original plan. No matter how powerful this black-scaled python is, it will never be a match for the Yin-Yang Attraction Technique! However formidable it may be, it is still only a level-one demon beast!" the girl said in an unquestionable tone, greatly invigorating the disciples behind her.