Chapter 1724: Pillar of Light
Han Li's eyes flashed, and a serious look appeared on his face as he appraised the green chair on the platform.
"Could it be that the person uttering the incantation has to sit on the chair for it to work? I wonder if this is a risk that's worth taking." A hesitant look appeared in Han Li's eyes.
This place had been concealed in such a mysterious place, so it definitely harbored quite an important secret. This was something that even an immortal clearly held in very high regard; how could he be willing to leave without exploring everything to the best of his abilities?
However, the illusionary formation in the starry sky diagram had been so fearsome that it naturally made him very cautious about getting his golden body to sit on the chair at the center of the diagram.
"So be it, risk and reward have always come hand in hand. Generally speaking, the greater the risk, the greater the reward; I've already successfully manifested a golden body, so I'll just have to get my second Nascent Soul to take a risk. If I miss out on this opportunity, there's no way that I'll encounter any other immortal ruins in the Spirit Realm."
After contemplating this conundrum for a long while, a determined look finally appeared on Han Li's face. He had always been prone to erring on the side of caution, but in the face of the massive temptation presented by this treasure left behind by an immortal, even he was convinced to take a risk.
Almost at the exact same moment, a peculiar light flashed through the golden body's black eyes, and it immediately strode toward the chair.
Moments later, the huge golden body stopped in front of the green chair, and it seemed to be rather hesitant as it was too massive to sit in the chair. Thus, it immediately made a hand seal, and it quickly shrank down amid a flash of golden light, reducing itself to around 10 feet tall compared to its original 20 feet stature.
Only then did it take a seat on the chair and lay its arms on the armrests before uttering the incantation again.
On this occasion, changes began to occur around the golden body as soon as it began to utter the incantation.
Green light suddenly flashed from the chair that it was sitting on, and a series of silver runes surfaced before revolving around the golden body.
As the incantation grew louder and more fervent, specks of five-colored spiritual light also began to appear in the air above the platform. More and more specks of spiritual light began to gather, and it was as if there were countless five-colored snowflakes fluttering through the air, creating quite a spectacular sight to behold.
Han Li's heart stirred as he looked on at the scenes unfolding on the platform with an intense unblinking gaze.
Almost right after the five-colors specks of light began to appear, golden, silver, and white light abruptly emerged from the massive starry sky diagram on the platform.
The sun, moon, and stars flashed before exploding into spiritual light of three different colors. Spiritual light surged once again before instantly forming a beveled silver rune, a golden seal rune, and another rune in a white text that he had never seen before. The runes formed a peculiar light formation that enshrouded the entire platform within.
The nine silver armored puppets and the golden body projection were situated right at the core and other vital locations within the light formation, and an indistinct yet profound connection seemed to have been forged between them.
A peculiar light flashed through Han Li's eyes upon seeing this, but he didn't take any additional measures.
The second Nascent Soul had already reached the final few sentences of its incantation, and azure light flashed through the eyes of the nine puppets as they finally sprang into action.
All of the puppets suddenly shifted a half-step either forward or backward from their original location, and it wasn't a massive change at all, but a burst of restriction fluctuations were suddenly triggered. The fluctuations resonated with the light formation, and the scenes unfolding within the formation instantly changed.
The five-colored specks of light that were hovering in the air shuddered before plunging into the light formation like a torrential storm.
At the same time, golden flames erupted from the bodies of the nine puppets as they held onto their silver halberds.
The golden flames reflected off their silver armor, making the puppets appear as majestic and imposing as heavenly generals.
However, these puppets certainly weren't just there to look good; as soon as the golden flames emerged, bursts of enormous spiritual pressure suddenly erupted from their bodies.
This spiritual pressure was so immense that it instantly caused the world's origin Qi around the platform to surge and churn before forming gusts of strong golden wind that howled through the air.
Han Li was situated over 300 feet away, and he was only barely glanced by the peripheral gusts of golden winds, but his expression immediately changed drastically. Golden light flashed from his body, and he shot back like a giant arrow as if he had been struck by some kind of tremendous force.
He reappeared over 200 feet away in the blink of an eye, and he only managed to just barely steady himself after stumbling back several steps in succession.
The spiritual pressure being released by these puppets was truly terrifying! Even though Han Li's body was currently more powerful than that of even the average holy-grade being, he still couldn't withstand the spiritual pressure for even an instant. Han Li was naturally quite stunned by this development, but had no time to dwell on it as he hurriedly raised his head to cast his gaze toward the platform.
There, the silver halberds in the hands of the nine armored warriors suddenly shuddered in unison before expelling a golden pillar of light each, which surged directly toward the golden ball of light up above before vanishing into it in a flash.
A strange rumbling sound immediately rang out from within the ball of light, and the light within it began to rapidly revolve, slowly forming a gigantic vortex.
Three-colored light swirled within the huge light projection, and a three-colored rune that was virtually the same size as the formation slowly emerged before hurtling into the air in a flash.
Moments later, the giant rune vanished into the golden vortex, and the golden light surged violently as a loud rumbling boom rang out.
Immediately thereafter, powerful spatial fluctuations erupted from within the vortex, and a few rumbling booms rang out as the golden pillars of light erupting from the silver halberds instantly increased to over twice their original thickness, making their thickness comparable to that of large bowls.
Bright light also erupted from the light formation on the platform, manifesting a substantial three-colored light barrier then enshrouded the entire platform within.
There were countless golden and silver runes emerging in a frenzy within the light barrier, and they were drifting directly toward the golden body sitting on the chair.
The entire light formation was activated to its very maximal extent, and the rumbling booms had become as deafening as thunderclaps.
At the same time, Han Li suddenly sensed that the light around him had abruptly dimmed, and as he inspected his surroundings, he was immediately given a massive fright.
He had returned to the massive starry sky that he had already been trapped in once. However, on this occasion, he had a rather strange perspective where he was looking down on everything from above, and there were a series of scorching white stars hovering right beside him.
The golden body, green chair, three-colored light formation, armored warriors, and golden vortex were also situated within the same starry sky.
Han Li abruptly waved a sleeve through the air, and a flying sword that was around an inch in length surged forth, then circled around before transforming into a streak of azure light.
The azure light slashed through several nearby stars, completely dispersing them in the process, but mere moments later, the stars that had been destroyed returned to normal amid flashes of white light.
Han Li raised an eyebrow upon seeing this, but he was quite relieved internally. It seemed that this starry sky wasn't an illusionary realm, and on this occasion, he had managed to retain clarity of mind.
However, just as this thought appeared in Han Li's mind, the spatial fluctuations emanating from within the golden vortex suddenly became several times more powerful.
The fluctuations seemed to have formed substantial waves that were visible to the naked eye, and they erupted from the vortex in all directions.
The sky blurred in the wake of these fluctuations, and it was as if the entire starry sky had instantly been tipped on its head in an involuntary manner.
All of a sudden, a resounding boom rang out, as if heaven and earth were being torn apart, and an extraordinarily thick white pillar of light erupted from the golden vortex. The pillar of light struck the light formation on the platform with unerring accuracy, encompassing the chair and the golden body in the process.
The sound of howling winds and rumbling thunder could be heard coming from within the pillar of light, and it contained countless five-colored runes. Even though Han Li was currently situated hundreds of feet away from it, he could still sense the extremely pure spiritual power imbued within the pillar of light. However, upon closer inspection, it seemed that the pillar of light didn't just contain spiritual Qi; it also seemed to be imbued with a boundlessly enormous aura like that of a star.
Before the second Nascent Soul had a chance to react, the pillar of light had descended upon the golden body, and the space around it instantly tightened as a burst of irresistibly heavy force weighed down upon its body.
Even with the golden body's immense strength, it was unable to move so much as a single finger.
The pure spiritual power within the pillar of light and the five-colored runes surged into the golden body in a frenzied unstoppable wave.
Han Li's expression changed drastically as he looked on from afar.
At such close quarters, his main Nascent Soul still had a close connection with his second Nascent Soul, so he was able to directly sense everything as if he were the golden body itself.
With the frenzied influx of pure spiritual power and five-colored runes, the Profound Yin Devilish Qi that the second Nascent Soul had cultivated to the pinnacle of the mid-Nascent Soul Stage instantly progressed to the late-Nascent Soul Stage, as if the bottleneck between the two stages didn't even exist.
Furthermore, the second Nascent Soul continued to become more powerful at an incredible rate under the illumination of the pillar of light. Mere moments later, progressed to the pinnacle of the late-Nascent Soul Stage and encountered the Deity Transformation Stage bottleneck.
This was an obstacle that even Han Li had only just barely overcome in the past, yet the second Nascent Soul merely progressed to the early-Deity Transformation Stage as if it were taking a stroll in the park.
Its cultivation base was still being rapidly enhanced, and less than the span of 10 breaths had passed since the pillar of light had fallen upon the golden body.
Han Li was understandably extremely astonished, and he could barely believe the information that the second Nascent Soul was transmitting to him.
However, what was even more astonishing was that the golden body projection was beginning to crumble under the pillar of white light, disintegrating into thousands of droplets of golden liquid that hovered within the pillar of light. Thus, the second Nascent Soul was completely exposed.
However, before Han Li had a chance to figure out whether this was a positive or worrying development, some of the five-colored runes in the air suddenly shrank down to around the size of grains of rice, then surged into the droplets of golden liquid.
These droplets of golden liquid seemed to have been cleansed over and over again by some kind of mysterious power, and Han Li and the second Nascent Soul suddenly let loose a cry of excruciating agony in unison.
The second Nascent Soul had black Qi churning violently over its body, which was shuddering uncontrollably, and Han Li immediately plummeted out of the sky as a ball of golden light.