BXBX NOVEL Chapter 659: Five Paths
Chapter 659: Five Paths
“It looks like there are more buildings up ahead, but we haven’t even explored the cluster of palaces that we just passed through. What do you all want to do? Should we keep going or return to those earlier palaces for future exploration?” Ren Hao asked.
Han Li’s trio remained silent, but all of them cast their eyes directly forward.
“It looks like we’re all on the same page. Onward we go,” Ren Hao said with a smile.
With that, the four of them continued onward in a single-row formation.
The white jade path was quite wide, but it wasn’t very long, and the four of them quickly reached its conclusion, where they arrived before a plaza that was over ten thousand feet in size on the mountain summit.
The ground was paved with white jade slabs, and at the center of the plaza was another stone statue of the same child with the large head.
This statue hadn’t been damaged, and it seemed to have already been standing here for countless years.
Han Li and the others took a glance at the statue, then quickly turned their attention to the front of the plaza.
There were five smaller white jade paths that branched off in different directions from the plaza before fading into the white mist up ahead.
There was a tall blue jade plaque next to each path, and they carried five place names: Disciple Meadow, Three Water Pagoda, Five Spirit Pavilion, Heavenbearing Palace, and Heavenly Medicine Valley.
A contemplative look appeared in Han Li’s eyes as he looked at the five place names.
The Disciple Meadow and the Heavenly Medicine Valley were most likely where the True Mantra Sect disciples resided and where their spirit medicines were stored, respectively. However, the Three Water Pagoda, the Five Spirit Pavilion, and the Heavenbearing Palace didn’t reveal much just based on their names alone.
Ren Hao, Feng Qingyuan, and Feng Lin were also observing the five paths with hesitant expressions.
“Looks like we’ll have to split up from here. Which paths are all of you planning to take?” Ren Hao asked.
Han Li turned his gaze to the second path, the one that was labeled “Three water Pagoda”.
He could sense that this was where the time law power fluctuations were coming from.
Before he had a chance to speak, Ren Hao suddenly said, “I’ll choose this path. I’m using a water-attribute cultivation art, so I should be able to find something useful at this Three Water Pagoda.”
A hint of vexation flashed through Han Li’s heart upon hearing this, but his expression remained unchanged.
“I want to take a look at this Heavenly Medicine Valley. Hopefully, I’ll be able to find some useful spirit medicines there,” Feng Lin said.
“In that case, I’ll go with the Heavenbearing Palace. It sounds like an important place, so maybe I’ll have some luck there,” Feng Qingyuan said, then wasted no time as he promptly departed.
Han Li remained silent as he made his way onto the third path, the one labeled “Five Spirit Pavilion”.
“Alright, it looks like everyone has made a decision. This is where we part ways, I wish you all good fortune,” Ren Hao said with a smile, then stepped onto the second path, quickly disappearing into the mist.
Han Li’s trio also quickly vanished into the white mist on their respective paths, and peace and quiet returned to the plaza.
Moments later, an azure shadow shot back out of the third path, then descended onto the plaza, revealing itself to be Han Li.
He took a quick glance at his surroundings, then flew down the path labeled “Three Water Pagoda”.
Shortly thereafter, a figure emerged on the fourth path, and it was none other than Feng Qingyuan.
He also immediately began making his way down the second path without any hesitation.
Mere moments later, Feng Lin also reappeared on the white jade plaza before taking the same path as everyone else.
Han Li’s aura was completely concealed as he made his way down the second path, and it didn’t take long before he arrived in an open area, where a giant three-story pagoda was standing over ten thousand feet up ahead.
The bottom level of the pagoda was octagonal in shape and constructed out of giant azure stone blocks that were riddled with tiny runes, and there was a huge arched entrance that was around thirty feet tall directly facing him.
Han Li briefly inspected his surroundings, but wasn’t able to find Ren Hao, and after ensuring that there was nothing amiss, he began making his way toward the pagoda.
Upon reaching the arched entrance, he discovered that the black pagoda gates were opened inward, and there were some signs of damage on them, indicating that whatever restrictions that had been placed upon them had been destroyed.
Instead of immediately entering the pagoda, he peered into its interior from the entrance, but all he could see was a faint layer of mist that was almost non-existent, but made it impossible to see what was inside.
After a brief moment of contemplation, he stepped into the pagoda.
As soon as he did so, he immediately felt as if the surrounding blue mist had suddenly become several times denser, and there was also an acrid stench in the air that caused his brows to furrow slightly.
He looked down at his own feet, upon which he was astonished to discover that he was standing on a crimson sea of fire, and the acrid odor that he had just caught a whiff of had come from his burning boots and robes.
This is another illusion...
As soon as Han Li made this realization, he immediately channeled his Spirit Refinement Technique.
In the next instant, a cool and refreshing sensation permeated throughout his consciousness restoring his clarity of mind.
At the same time, the flames all over his body quickly faded until all that remained in the room was the same blue mist from before, which still refused to dissipate.
Han Li activated his Infernal Devilish Eyes, then quickly swept his gaze over the surrounding area, and the entire room was instantly made clear to him.
The empty hall was severely ravaged, littered with destroyed stone pillars and chunks of wood, while the ground was caked in dried blood.
Virtually the entire hall was covered in a layer of bodies, all of which appeared to have suffered very horrific deaths.
From the robes that still hadn’t completely succumbed to erosion, Han Li could see that the bodies belonged to both True Mantra Sect disciples and Heavenly Court cultivators, indicating that a fierce battle had taken place here.
On top of that, there were also many blue humanoid puppets interspersed among the bodies, but they had all been destroyed beyond repair.
There were multiple partitions in the hall, and as Han Li made his way through the area, he saw more of the same, namely severely ravaged walls, bodies strewn everywhere, and the ground caked in dried blood.
Upon reaching the deepest point of the hall, Han Li spotted a white jade staircase that led up to the second floor of the pagoda.
There was an enormous sword that was still plunged into the staircase, but it was extremely severely eroded and was nothing more than a huge piece of scrap metal.
Piles of bodies were strewn around the sword, stacking up to several dozen feet tall, and after scanning the area, Han Li wasn’t able to find anything useful, so he moved on to the second floor.
As soon as he made his way onto the second floor, he was immediately struck by a bone-chilling sensation, and the immortal spiritual power in his body began to circulate on its own to protect him from the chill.
It was as if he had entered a glacial space, and everything, from the ground, the pillars, the walls, the window frames, and even the ceiling was all covered in a layer of blue ice crystals.
For a moment, Han Li came under the impression that the second floor was even larger than the first one, but he then quickly realized that this only appeared to be the case as the partitions on the first floor were absent from the second floor.
However, just like on the first floor, the second floor was also littered with bodies belonging to True Mantra Sect and Heavenly Court cultivators, all of which had suffered horrific deaths, but the owners of these bodies clearly possessed superior cultivation bases back when they were alive, as evidenced by the fact that some of the bodies hadn’t completely decayed yet.
On top of that, Han Li also noticed many giant demon beast carcasses near the walls, but all of them were so severely damaged that it was impossible to tell what they had been.
The baleful qi on the second floor was far denser than it was on the first floor, and Han Li made his way past the bodies in an expressionless manner, walking toward the staircase up ahead, which was also encased in ice.
However, after walking only several hundred feet, his expression suddenly changed slightly as he looked down, only to discover that there as nothing on the icy floor aside from his own reflection.
I clearly sensed something just now...
Right at this moment, he suddenly rasied an eyebrow as he noticed that an extremely exaggerated and gruesome smile had appeared on the face of his own reflection on the ground.
In the same instant, he summoned an Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword before plunging it firmly into the ground.
However, his reflection was able to evade the sword strike as if it were an agile fish in water, and it sprang out of the ice directly ahead of Han Li before plunging its hands directly toward his chest.