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Chapter 605: Keeping a Low Profile
Chapter 605: Keeping a Low Profile
Chapter 605: Keeping a Low Profile
Tens of thousands of kilometers to the south of the Floating Cloud Mountain Range stood the largest and most prosperous city in the northern region of the Black Mountain Immortal Region, Jade Gathering City.
In contrast with the cities of the Northern Glacial Immortal Region, which were mostly inhabited by mortals, there were hundreds of immortal powers in Jade Gathering City, including both cultivating clans and sects, and the vast majority of the city's residents were also cultivators.
Perhaps this was why the Immortal Palace was particularly stringent in its regulation of the city, which was split up into two sections, the outer city and the inner city. All cultivators could access the outer city as they pleased, but there were many restrictions on those wishing to enter the inner city.
Cultivators below the True Immortal Stage and weren't registered with any of the Black Mountain Immortal Region's local sects were barred from entering the inner city, and that included even local itinerant cultivators.
Only those who were at least at the High Zenith Stage were free to enter the inner city without having to satisfy any other conditions.
It was said that an immortal envoy from the Heavenly Court was constantly stationed in the inner city of Jade Gathering City, and that they possessed unfathomable power.
Back when Han Li first arrived in the Black Mountain Immortal Region, he had actually gone straight to Jade Gathering City as opposed to the Leisure Valley.
As soon as he entered the city, he spotted a plaza, upon which was a hovering platform named the Immortal Slaying List.
The platform hovered over 10,000 feet above the ground, and there were figures from all types of different races depicted upon it, beneath which were lines of text that stated their crimes and the rewards on offer for their capture or demise.
Han Li spotted quite a few familiar figures on the list, including Baili Yan, Daoist Hu Yan, and Wyrm 3.
Wyrm 3 was ranked even higher on the list than Baili Yan, but the name attached to her visage was Gan Jiuzhen, and instead of revealing her true appearance, the image of her only depicted her wearing a crimson mask.
As Han Li's gaze neared the bottom of the list, he spotted himself.
In the image, he was dressed in an azure robe while holding a sword in one hand. His appearance was slightly inaccurate, but it was certainly very vibrant and lifelike.
Beneath his image was a small passage of text that read: "Li Feiyu, cultivated forbidden arts and participated in the killing of an important Heavenly Court official. 5,000 Immortal Origin Stones, dead or alive."
Han Li's brows instantly furrowed tightly upon seeing this, not because he was on the list, but because he was feeling indignant at the measly reward being offered for his capture, which was only 5,000 Immortal Origin Stones compared with 100,000 for Wyrm 3.
Setting aside his killing of Tao Yu, surely the reward on offer for him should've been higher, given the role that he had played in killing Gongshu Jiu, a High Zenith Stage immortal envoy.
With that in mind, Han Li turned his gaze back to the image of Gan Jiuzhen on the list, upon which he discovered that she was being accused of a far more extensive list of crimes, including cultivating forbidden arts, killing immortal officials, and colluding with Gray Immortals.
An enlightened look instantly appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this. It seemed that Gan Jiuzhen and Mo Yu were being regarded as the main culprits behind Gongshu Jiu's death, while he was only considered to be an accomplice.
After that, Han Li was planning to leave the city right away, but he quickly discovered that even though there were countless cultivators in Jade Gathering City, barely anyone ever stopped to check the Immortal Slaying List.
Upon closer inspection, he discovered that most of the people on the list were wanted by the Black Mountain Immortal Palace and the Heavenly Court, so they were already very familiar to the majority of the people in Jade Gathering City. Hence, they naturally weren't going to waste any time checking the list unless they had gathered some leads.
Of course, another important factor was that most of the people on the list were formidable figures that were not to be messed with.
Hence, Han Li decided to temporarily stay in Jade Gathering City to find a way to resolve the issue for the baleful qi in his body. However, his efforts proved to be futile, and given the special circumstances surrounding himself and Mo Guang, they encountered many inconveniences in the city, so after encountering Duan Yuzai by chance, he decided to move to the Leisure Valley.
Everyone was quite amused to see Immortal Lord Hot Flame storming away.
"There really was no need to do that, Fellow Daoist Duan. This is not a matter that I expect to have resolved anytime soon, so you could've easily finished your game with Fellow Daoist Hot Flame before sending him on his way," Han Li said with a smile.
"It's fine. The heart is the most important thing in the game of go. I had already lost interest in the game, and I'm sure that was apparent to Fellow Daoist Hot Flame as well. Besides, I have the position memorized, so we could easily continue the game another time," Duan Yuzai replied, then swept a sleeve through the air to release a burst of black light that swept up the go board and the stone holders.
Right at this moment, Daoist Master Jingyang approached Han Li with a smile as he said, "Fellow Daoist Li, you mentioned last time that you were going to brew a few jars of Fire Drop Wine. How has that been going?"
"Fire Drop Wine isn't as difficult to brew as your Green Fermented Wine, so my batch is already done," Han Li replied with a smile.
"My batch of Green Fermented Wine is still a few thousands years away from being ready, so if I were to bring it out now, it would be a terrible waste," Daoist Master Jingyang explained with a slightly embarrassed expression.
"There's no need to explain yourself, I know you're not a stingy person, Fellow Daoist Jingyang," Han Li assured, then swept a sleeve through the air, releasing a yellow wine jar in front of Daoist Master Jingyang.
Daoist Master Jingyang hurriedly grabbed onto the jar with an ecstatic expression, then opened the clay seal before taking a whiff, upon which a blissful look instantly appeared on his face.
"Exceptional!"
A perplexed look then appeared on his face as he asked, "Why does this wine look like it's been sitting for at least several centuries? It doesn't look like something that only just finished brewing recently."
"We're all friends here, so I naturally have to bring out my best wine. This is a prized jar from my collection, so you're all in luck," Han Li explained with a smile.
Duan Yuzai and Yu Ziqi weren't avid drinkers, but they were more than happy to have a drink as a small circle of friends.
As night fell, Han Li took his leave and returned to his cave abode, which had been dug into a mountain face deep within the bamboo forest, quite far away from the cave abodes of the other four men.
At this moment, the stone gate of the cave abode was tightly shut, and there were two Dao Warriors standing on guard duty on either side of it.
The two Dao Warriors were looking far different from before, with both of them displaying increased statures and drastically elevated auras, and some peculiar corkscrew patterns had also appeared on their bodies.
On top of that, there was a hint of intelligence flashing in their eyes, and both of them extended a collective bow toward Han Li upon his return.
Han Li paid no heed to the pair of Dao Warriors as he made his way into the cave abode, upon which the stone gate swung shut behind him on its own.
The cave abode wasn't very large, consisting of only a main hall and several secret chambers.
He took a glance at two of the secret chambers to the left, which were where Mo Guang and Daoist Xie were cultivating in seclusion.
Even though Mo Guang's baleful qi was being concealed through consumption of Origin Void Pills, that was still not a foolproof solution, and in particular, he had almost been exposed on multiple occasions back in Jade Gathering City.
Hence, upon arriving in the Leisure Valley, Mo Guang had remained in the cave abode the entire time.
As for Daoist Xie, he had also suddenly gone into seclusion for some reason after arriving in the Black Mountain Immortal Region.
Han Li withdrew his gaze as he made his way into the secret chamber where he normally cultivated, then sat down with his legs crossed in silence.
Following his separation with Jin Tong, he had followed the route on the map given to him by the white-robed man, which had allowed him to avoid most of the dangerous areas in the primordial land. Even so, he still encountered several crises that left him on the verge of death.
If it weren't for his current cultivation base and his time law powers, as well as the accompaniment of Mo Guang, he would've most likely already fallen to his demise.
On one occasion, they were pursued by several High Zenith Stage Lightning Beasts for three whole years. Those Lightning Beasts were extraordinarily fast, and they were able to use a teleportation secret technique similar to Han Li's lightning teleportation array.
For some reason, they were intent on hunting Han Li down, and in the end, Han Li was unable to shake them off his trail, so he had no choice but to fight them.
He and Mo Guang joined forces to slay two of the Lightning Beasts, intimidating the remaining Lightning Beasts into retreat, but he had also suffered severe injuries during the battle, injuries that took him several years to fully recover from.
On another occasion, he inadvertently stumbled into a naturally arising secret area that was filled with fire, and in the end, he was only able to escape after over 10 years of toil with the help of the Essence Fire Raven.
While it was true that this had been an extremely perilous journey, he had also reaped many rewards.
Setting aside all of the precious primordial materials that he had gathered, he had also snuck into the settlements of some primordial tribes along the way and learned many of their secret techniques and cultivation arts.
The two Dao Warriors at the entrance of his cave abode had been refined using one of those secret techniques.
Under normal circumstances, he would've been ecstatic to have reaped so many rewards, but at the moment, the threat of the baleful decay was constantly looming over his head, so he was constantly under a great deal of pressure.
After sitting in silence for a moment, he suddenly made a hand seal, and a series of bright golden halos emerged in front of him, then converged toward a single spot to conjure up his Clear Time Vial.
The vial was significantly larger than before, and it appeared almost substantial in form. There were hundreds of Time Dao Runes flashing on its surface, and a series of long streaks of golden light were wrapped around the vial, giving off formidable time law power fluctuations.
Over the past years, he had attempted to incorporate the experience that he had accrued while cultivating the Mantra Treasured Axis, using the time crystals produced by the Heaven Controlling Vial to increase the number of Time Dao Runes on the Clear Time Vial, and it had worked without a hitch.
Han Li inspected the Clear Jade Vial momentarily, then set it down beside him before making another hand seal, upon which bursts of golden light surged out of his body.
He began to chant an incantation while continuing to make hand seals, and the streaks of golden light transformed into grains of golden sand that hovered in the surrounding air while giving off faint golden light and time law power fluctuations.
More and more of these grains of golden sand were emerging, and in the span of just a few seconds, they had formed a golden sand pit that was over 100 feet in size, filling up virtually the entire secret chamber.