Chapter 349: Perplexing
Han Li stayed in the secret chamber in the inn for close to two years.
During this time, he occasionally came out of seclusion a few times in disguise, but only to visit all of the shops in the city, keeping an eye on any news about the Immortal Palace while also checking to see if there were any spirit materials worth buying.
Perhaps it was because the Black Wind Sea was truly too secluded, but even up to this point, the Northern Glacial Immortal Palace still hadn't sent anyone to Wave View City. However, news of what had happened in the Blaze Dragon Dao had still managed to travel here, and it had become the most shocking piece of news in the entire Northern Glacial Immortal Region in recent years.
Han Li naturally paid some extra attention to this news, and he was quite relieved to hear that Daoist Hu Yan hadn't fallen into the hands of the Northern Glacial Immortal Palace. However, at the same time, he was a little perplexed about why Daoist Hu Yan wasn't also a wanted fugitive in the Immortal Outlets.
Aside from that, Baili Yan appeared to have still been alive as well.
Han Li didn't have any ties to him, but he was still happy to see that Baili Yan hadn't met his demise. After all, he was currently wanted by the Northern Glacial Immortal Palace, so it definitely wasn't a bad thing that Baili Yan was diverting their attention away from him.
One day, at the center of Wave View City.
A burst of dazzling light erupted out of the five-story white pagoda, and a pillar of blue light rose up from its rooftop straight into the heavens.
At this moment, many of the cultivators in the city were gathered around the pagoda, watching the cultivators entering the pagoda with undisguised envy on their faces.
All those who were entering the pagoda had naturally obtained teleportation spots, and it had been said that many cultivators had reaped benefits from the Black Wind Sea of late. This was the primary reason why Wave View City was already so prosperous despite being such a new city.
In the crowd was a fair-skinned scholar holding a folding fan, and he was staring at the white pagoda in an expressionless manner, making it unclear what he was thinking.
All of a sudden, he emerged from the crowd and stowed his folding fan away as he strode toward the pagoda.
This person was none other than Han Li in disguise.
After entering the pagoda, he passed through a short corridor to arrive in a spacious hall that was over 1,000 feet in size, and on either side of the hall's entrance stood a cultivator wearing Black Wind Island robes.
"Please display your teleportation badge and vouching token," the black-robed cultivator on the left said to Han Li in a calm manner.
Han Li flipped a hand over to produce the two requested objects before handing them over.
The black-robed cultivator summoned a white jade tablet, which released a burst of white light that enveloped the two objects, following which a pair of fist-sized golden runes appeared on the tablet before vanishing in a flash.
"Right this way, Fellow Daoist," the black-robed cultivator on the right said as he gestured toward the entrance of the hall.
Han Li gave a slight nod in response, then made his way inside.
The hall was rectangular in shape, and the floor was paved with pristine white jade bricks. There were countless runes engraved upon the surrounding walls, and they were giving off a white glow that illuminated the entire hall.
Aside from several Black Wind Island cultivators, there were already around two dozen cultivators dressed in different attire waiting inside the hall.
The teleportation array was situated at the very back of the hall, and even though it hadn't been activated yet, it was already giving off bursts of faint spatial fluctuations.
Han Li's arrival didn't attract much attention, drawing only a few glances from some of the cultivators, while everyone else paid no heed to him.
He casually swept his gaze across the hall while making his way over to an empty corner of the hall, where he sat down with his legs crossed.
His expression remained unchanged, but he was actually rather intrigued to notice that the white-robed cultivator who had been concealing his own cultivation base that he had encountered upon first entering Wave View City was standing no more than 200 feet away from him.
This wouldn't have been worthy of note on its own. After all, it wasn't a strange occurrence for a True Immortal to travel to the Black Wind Sea.
What had truly caught Han Li's attention was that there were five or six cultivators around the white-robed young man, all of whom were also True Immortals that were only revealing Body Integration Stage cultivation bases. In particular, one of them, a middle-aged man with a square face and thin eyebrows, was at the late-True Immortal Stage, ranking alongside Han Li as the two most formidable cultivators present.
It was rather noteworthy that such a formidable force was collectively traveling to the Black Wind Sea, but as long as they didn't get in his way, Han Li certainly wasn't going to meddle in their business.
Time slowly passed by, and around a dozen more cultivators had arrived in the next two hours.
Right at this moment, a black-robed elderly man emerged as he declared, "Sorry to keep you all waiting, everyone, it's almost time for the teleportation array to be activated."
The declaration immediately caused a stir among the crowd, and all of the cultivators who were meditating had opened their eyes and risen to their feet.
Han Li rose to his feet alongside everyone else, and he discovered that he had met this black-robed elderly man once before; it was the itinerant immortal referred to as Elder Yi. [1]
"I'm sure you're all aware that things are a bit different nowadays than they were before, so prior to entering the Black Wind Sea, I'll have to get all of you to pass through this sensory array," the black-robed elderly man said as he raised a hand and made a hand seal.
Several of the jade bricks on the floor between the elderly man and everyone else abruptly lit up with golden light, following which a series of golden runes flew out from within, quickly intertwining in mid-air to form a ring of golden light that was around 10 feet in size.
Inside the golden ring, balls of golden light of different sizes were whizzing incessantly through the air.
A hint of blue light flashed through Han Li's eyes, and he discovered that every single one of these balls of light was formed by countless golden seal text runes. His expression remained unchanged, but his heart sank slightly upon seeing this.
Most of the cultivators present seemed to have already been aware that this was going to happen, and aside from a few who displayed surprised reactions, the rest began to pass through the ring of light one after another.
Whenever someone passed through the rings of light, the balls of golden light around it would shudder slightly and display some minute changes.
Meanwhile, Elder Yi's gaze remained fixed firmly on the ring of light this entire time, seemingly observing something.
Before long, around a dozen people had already passed through the ring of life and entered the teleportation array. Even the white-robed cultivator that Han Li had noticed earlier had already passed through the ring of light, and up to this point, no abnormalities had been displayed.
Instead of immediately approaching the ring of light, Han Li made his way over to a purple-haired Body Integration Stage young woman beside him as he said, "Greetings, Fellow Daoist, I am Luo Feng of Dark Veil Island. I had to leave the Black Wind Sea due to clan matters several hundred years ago, and at the time, this procedure hadn't been implemented. Could it be that something's recently happened in the Black Wind Sea?"
Judging from her attire, she seemed to have been a cultivator from Cedar Gift Island, which Han Li recalled was affiliated with Black Wind Island.
The purple-haired woman was just about to make her way toward the ring of light when she stopped in her tracks, then turned to Han Li as she explained, "If you've been away for several centuries, then it's no surprise that you don't know about this. This is a new rule established by Island Master Lu a century ago, and I don't know the exact reasons why, but it seems to have something to do with a certain evil cultivator."
"I see. Thank you for enlightening me, Fellow Daoist," Han Li replied with a smile as he cupped his fist in a salute.
The purple-haired young woman waved a casual hand before making her way forward.
Meanwhile, Han Li's mind was racing as he cast his gaze toward the ring of golden light once again.
His first thought upon hearing mention of an evil cultivator was that it had to have been himself. After all, he had killed Tao Yu, who was clearly a very important figure, and it would've only made sense for him to have been deemed an evil cultivator by the Northern Glacial Immortal Palace.
However, he then quickly decided that this most likely wasn't the case.
Not only had he not heard of any ties between Black Wind Island and the Northern Glacial Immortal Palace prior to this, the fact that this restriction had already been set up for a century indicated that it clearly had nothing to do with him. After all, back then, he was still in the Blaze Dragon Dao and hadn't done anything out of line.
Aside from that, the white-robed cultivator hadn't triggered any reaction from the restriction, so it seemed that this restriction didn't pay any heed to one's true cultivation base.
As these thoughts were flashing through Han Li's mind, more cultivators continued to pass through the golden array. At this point, there was barely anyone left around him, and the other True Immortals that had concealed their true cultivation bases had also stepped into the teleportation array.
Thus, he took a deep breath before stepping into the ring of golden light.
The surrounding balls of golden light shuddered in unison, following which a burst of gentle force instantly enveloped his entire body, flowing over him like trickling water.
Han Li's expression remained unchanged as he continued.
One step!
Two steps!
Three steps!
All the while, Elder Yi continued to scrutinize the golden array with his hands clasped behind his back.
The ring of golden light didn't encompass a very large area, and Han Li was able to pass through it in just a few steps without any mishaps, much to his relief.
Shortly thereafter, the remaining few cultivators also passed through the sensory restriction without any incident.
Only then did Elder Yi give a slight nod before sweeping a sleeve through the air to wave away the restriction. At the same time, streaks of blue light shot out of his other sleeve before landing upon Han Li and the others, revealing a series of blue talismans.
In the next instant, the teleportation array lit up with dazzling radiance, and Han Li's entire field of view was completely filled with white light.
A long while later, the scene around him stabilized once again, and he found himself situated within a circular hall.
This was the interior of Black Wind Island's Heavenly Star Pagoda, so Han Li had some recollection of this place.
A hunch-backed elderly woman wearing a black robe was standing in front of the array, and she smiled as she declared, "Welcome to the Black Wind Sea, fellow daoists!"
Everyone cupped their fists in a collective salute toward the elderly woman before stepping out of the array and making their way toward a nearby archway.
Han Li was walking slowly among the crowd, and all of a sudden, he slowed down slightly, seemingly having noticed something.
Just now, he had noticed out of the corner of his eye that the white-robed cultivator wasn't following the crowd. Instead, he had stopped in the hall after stepping out of the teleportation array, and the same applied to all of the other concealed True Immortals as well.
The hunch-backed elderly woman didn't raise any objections to this, and Han Li became even more curious about who these people were.
1. This guy showed up once back in chapter 156, he's not an important character, so don't worry if you don't remember him. ☜
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