Chapter 1023: An Ambush
Having escaped the range of the Goldweight Spirit Trees, the two demons climbed off the tortoise’s back and she immediately returned to her human form. It appeared that passing through the trees had taken a toll on her as her complexion was now bloodlessly pale.
Then, their bodies blurred and they quickly made their way towards the hall.
Old Devil Qian’s crimson incarnation was one step ahead of them. The three saw the mass of silver threads tear the silhouette to shreds as it passed by, but at the same time, blinding crimson light erupted from its body and continuously mended it.
As this happened, the silhouette vanished behind the Greathnorth Essence Lights.
The three didn’t dare to delay at the sight of this. In a practiced fashion, the Lion Hawk blurred and appeared in front to widely open its mouth to silently release a golden soundwave. As a result, a small gap from the silver threads began to split.
Immediately after, the Silver-winged Nightfiend unfolded his wings and produced an azure wind as well, blowing away the fractured silver threads.
With continuous alternation between the two abilities, a gap had finally opened and the three quickly rushed in before slowly exploring the hall.
Still outside, Lin Yinping’s expression turned unsightly. So rapidly, their party had been reduced to five.
She gritted her teeth and tensely frowned. She turned her head to Grand Immortal Xu and said, “Brother Xu, we...”
As the Grand Immortal continued to chop at a huge tree with a jade sword, he calmly interrupted, “The Saintess need not worry. Our main goal is that Han fellow, not the treasures. With so many people entering, they won’t be easy to contest either. Let us rid ourselves of the remaining trees and guard the gate.”
Ge Tianhao grinned and said, “Ah hah! Brother Xu’s words are reasonable. Even if the others acquire the treasure, they must also leave through here. Although we aren’t able to pass through the Greatnorth Essence Lights, they won’t be able to get past us once they leave.”
Lin Yinping glanced at the deceptively lethal silver strings and nodded after a moment of thought.
The two black-robed old men also found this plan to be reasonable. Although they worried about the lost opportunity for profit, they continued to chop away at the huge trees.
In the blink of an eye, an explosion sounded out and a thirty meter tall tree fell down.
...
Han Li stood in front of Kunwu Hall and breathed out a long sigh. He glanced behind him and saw a dense mass of silver threads.
“Those ancient cultivators are quite cunning to intentionally place an illusion formation inside the Greatnorth Essence Lights. If it weren’t for my Brightsight Spirit Eyes, it would’ve proved quite troublesome,” Han Li muttered.
He turned around and found himself in the rear section of Kunwu Hall. It couldn't be considered large, but there were two rows of a dozen variously-styled wooden chairs that formed an official affairs hall.
At the end of these rows, there was a faintly golden chair between them with a three-meter-tall table standing to its side.
The chair was made from common Goldstring Spirit Wood, but the table was made from a single piece of glistening marble. Its entire body was unordinary and filled with spiritual Qi. At the moment, a green barrier covered it, but he could faintly see a few items laying on it.
These should be the treasures of Kunwu Hall!
Han Li raised his brow and looked around to see that the hall was completely empty and void of anything else eye-catching. He then turned around and looked above him.
Behind the faint golden chair, an unremarkable painting hung on the wall of three men looking at the moon.
A Buddhist, a Daoist, and a Confucian stood inside a bamboo forest and were speaking vigorously about something as they gazed at full moon.
Because the image was only a foot tall and faded from the test of time, Han Li hadn’t taken note of it at first. But now, it caught his eye and he looked at the painting with scrutiny.
A long while later, Han Li lowered his head and mulled over his thoughts.
He wasn’t able to see anything strange from the painting, spiritually or physically. His intuition, however, gave him a distinctly odd feeling. How could such an ordinary item exist in a place like this?
As his expression wavered, Han Li suddenly swayed his hand with resolution. A three-meter-long streak of golden light shot out and rend the painting.
In a flicker, the painting was torn to shreds and the pieces fell to the ground.
‘Could it just be my imagination?’ Han Li puzzlingly thought.
But since he had already started, he wasn’t about to leave matters unfinished.
With a casual wave of his sleeve, several fist-sized fireballs appeared in front of him and he prepared to incinerate the remains of the portrait.
“Master, be careful!” Silvermoon cried out.
In his alarm, his figure blurred into eight exact copies of himself before he even realized what was happening.
Just then, a stone burst from the ground three meters behind him. A spiritual light shined behind the rubble and several blinding streaks of gold and silver struck at Han Li’s copies from behind. A crisp clang sounded out as one of them were blocked, revealing a gold-silver shuttle.
Han Li tumbled from the strike and blurred twenty meters away. He then turned his head around and was face full of furious alarm.
Were it not for the Silver Tailstar Shield he had prepared ahead of time, he would’ve likely been gravely injured.
His normally stoic face now held shock and fear with rage burning in his heart. He suddenly flipped his hand and recovered the shining small silver shield into his hand. He flicked his other arm to summon over thirty small golden swords, cleaving at the mound of rubble in front of him.
Then, a woman’s laugh rang out in a flash of light to reveal a huge gold-silver object. Although so many swordlights moved to attack the object, they all strangely fell to the ground.
When he saw this, his heart trembled and a majority of his fury vanished. He immediately looked over.
The gold-silver object was actually a ten-meter-tall textile shuttle. Its surface shined like a golden mirror. It was the same shape as what had attacked him earlier, but those shuttles were many times smaller.
“Fellow Daoist must be quite vigilant for that strike to fail. Tch tch, could you tell me what techniques you cultivate?” The small shuttles that attacked him earlier appeared at the huge ones side. They revolved once around before entering inside. The young woman’s voice came from within.
Han Li gloomily recalled the flying swords and thoughts quickly flew in his mind. Spiritual light flashed from his entire body and he shot towards the nearby table in an azure streak.
Since there were others here, he planned to first grab the treasures and handle the rest later. The longer he was tied down, the more people who would be able to make it past the Greatnorth Essence Lights, decreasing his chances of acquiring treasures as well.
But just as he took off, he felt that there was something odd and found the woman’s voice to be unfamiliar. She definitely wasn’t one of the demons or humans he saw up to now. Could it be there were more that entered Kunwu Mountain at an even greater speed than them?
The young woman suddenly shouted out in alarm. Han Li was over sixty meters away and had arrived above the table.
But then, the air above him suddenly warped and an azure scarf appeared above his head before falling onto him.
It was nearly twenty meters wide and appeared right next to him when he least expected it. Even with his vast abilities, he was helpless to act as it covered him. He had become completely trapped!
Azure light shined everywhere he looked and he hastily produced the Silver Tailstar Shield as he cursed in his mind. A layer of white mist then surrounded him.
A woman strangely appeared on the surface of the azure scarf, the Immortal Form Sect’s Lady Mu.
Having witnessed the power of Han Li’s Triflame Fan, she naturally knew that the scarf wouldn’t be able to hold him down for long. But with the success of her attack, she didn’t dare to delay and shot towards the table.
She raised her hand and produced a silver command medallion. Then in a flash, it struck the green light barrier covering the table with mist.
Under the shine of the silver light, the seemingly formidable barrier melted away and revealed the true appearance of the treasures that lay there: four crimson wooden tiles, a small purple sword, a palm-sized monk staff, and a scroll brimming with red light, and a dark green block seal with the imprint of a life-like five-clawed dragon.
Lady Mu rejoiced when she these items and her gaze dropped onto the seal. After a moment’s pause, she took all the into her grasp with a wave of her sleeve.