Chapter 414: Exposed
Patriarch Cold Flame and Xiong Shan were observing the island down below with excitement in their eyes.
"It looks like no one's found this place yet," Patriarch Cold Flame remarked as he took a glance at his surroundings.
"That's only to be expected. This is an extremely secluded place, and I wouldn't have stumbled upon this island back then if I hadn't been frantically fleeing from that pack of frost beasts," Xiong Shan replied as he stared at the palace within the light barrier with fervent excitement in his eyes.
"You seem very confident, Fellow Daoist Xiong Shan. You must've made some extensive preparations for this trip," Patriarch Cold Flame chuckled.
"I bet you've done the same, Fellow Daoist Cold Flame. You've most likely already completely mastered the Great Universe Origin Arts. I'm assuming you weren't going all-out against those frost beasts from earlier," Xiong Shan harrumphed coldly in response.
"How could my paltry powers possibly compare with yours?" Patriarch Cold Flame chuckled in a modest fashion.
The two of them exchanged a glance, and both of them fell silent as a slightly tense atmosphere began to set in.
"We still haven't entered the Light Frost Palace yet, so there's no need for the two of us to be praising one another like this. Besides, our objectives are different, so there are no conflicts of interest between us. Let's break this restriction as quickly as possible to avoid any unforeseen mishaps," Patriarch Cold Flame proposed.
"That sounds like a good plan," Xiong Shan replied with a smile, then patted the storage pouch strapped to his waist, and a small golden sword instantly emerged, followed immediately by an azure wooden ruler and a small blue flag.
All three treasures were giving off astonishing spiritual qi fluctuations, and they weren't far off from immortal treasures.
At the same time, Patriarch Cold Flame swept a sleeve through the air to release two bursts of light, one red and one yellow, and they were revealed to be a crimson bowl and a small yellow seal, both of which were also top-grade spirit treasures.
As soon as the five spirit treasures were summoned, they immediately flew high up into the sky as five dazzling balls of spiritual light before vanishing out of sight in a flash.
The sky up above shuddered as a vast expanse of radiant five-colored light emerged, encompassing the entire area within a radius of dozens of kilometers down below.
The five spirit treasures were visible deep within the five-colored light, and they had formed a circular array.
All of the world's origin qi in the space encompassed within the five-colored light became completely stagnant, as if it had been frozen in place by some type of invisible force.
Han Li's eyes narrowed slightly as he observed what was unfolding up ahead using his Brightsight Spirit Eyes.
"What are they doing, Brother Liu?" Lu Yuqing asked.
"They're using spirit treasures of the five elements to unleash the Great Five-elemental True Light," Han Li replied.
As the two were conversing with one another, Patriarch Cold Flame and Xiong Shan had already begun chanting an incantation, upon which the five-colored light swirled momentarily before quickly transforming into a five-colored pillar of light that shone down upon the black light barrier.
The black light barrier instantly brightened, and countless threads of thin black light emerged one after another like streaks of black sword qi, then converged to form a black sword dragon that pounced at the pillar of five-colored light.
The two clashed, and the black sword dragon was able to keep the pillar of light at bay while tearing at it viciously with its claws, fangs, and tail.
Streaks of formidable black sword qi were erupting out of the sword dragon's claws and mouth, but the pillar of five-colored light remained stable and completely unmoved despite the sword dragon's best efforts.
Patriarch Cold Flame and Xiong Shan continued to chant their incantation while making hand seals, and five-colored spiritual light was rapidly revolving within the pillar of light, forming a series of five-colored balls.
Each ball was the size of a millstone, and all of them were semi-transparent. They were quite spectacular to behold, but also struck the beholder with a sense of awe and foreboding.
The five-colored spiritual light at the forefront of the pillar of light flashed momentarily, following which all of the balls of five-colored light shot forth, crashing into the black sword dragon's body.
The five-colored balls of light then exploded into a vast expanse of light that completely inundated the black sword, tearing it apart with ease amid an anguished howl.
Lu Yuqing's eyes widened with incredulity upon seeing this, while Han Li's expression remained unchanged, and it seemed that this was the anticipated outcome for him.
After vanquishing the sword dragon, the five-colored balls of light continued onward without pause to strike the black light barrier down below, which instantly began to warp and twist violently.
In the end, the black light barrier was only able to withstand the assault for a few seconds before it was torn apart and disintegrated into countless specks of black spiritual light.
However, an azure light barrier then emerged, and it seemed to be no less formidable than the black light barrier.
Patriarch Cold Flame and Xiong Shan didn't seem surprised at all to see this, and the five-colored pillar of light continued to descend while releasing more five-colored balls of light that surged toward the azure light barrier.
The five-colored light barrier brightened considerably while releasing gusts of fierce azure wind, and a string of earth-shattering booms rang out as the gusts of wind clashed against the balls of five-colored light.
Ultimately, the azure light barrier wasn't able to fare much better than its black counterpart, and it only lasted a few minutes before it was also torn apart, following which a white light barrier emerged.
Han Li raised an eyebrow upon seeing this.
The restrictions outside the palace were more complex than he had imagined, and they were all quite formidable, so even for him, it would've taken a great deal of time and effort to bypass them.
However, judging from the expressions of Patriarch Cold Flame and Xiong Shan, they were clearly already aware of this and had prepared countermeasures.
The two of them continued to make more hand seals, and the five-colored pillar of light shone brighter and brighter as more balls of five-colored light emerged before raining down upon the white light barrier.
Several hours passed by in the blink of an eye, and rumbling booms were ringing out incessantly on the island, while spiritual lights of different colors flashed erratically.
The five-colored pillar of light had become thicker than before, and it was releasing countles balls of five-colored light that were raining down upon a gray light barrier.
The gray restriction was releasing extremely dense gray light that formed a dark gray cloud, and all of the balls of five-colored light that fell upon it exploded violently on contact.
The gray cloud didn't appear to be remarkable in any way, but it proved to be extremely resilient, able to keep the barrage of five-colored balls of light at bay, albeit with great difficulty.
At this point, Patriarch Cold Flame and Xiong Shan were both looking rather weary.
During this time, they had already broken through over 10 different restrictions, of which each successive one was more formidable than the previous one, and the balls of five-colored light weren't making inroads anywhere near as quickly as before.
However, the barrages of attacks were still effective, and the gray cloud was slowly being stripped away bit by bit.
Close to an hour later, the gray cloud was finally completely eradicated, thereby revealing the gray restriction down below.
Both Patriarch Cold Flame and Xiong Shan instantly seized this opportunity, renewing their efforts to send close to 100 balls of five-colored light erupting out of the pillar of light at once.
Instead of crashing down right away, the balls of light converged to form an enormous ball of light the size of a house.
Furthermore, this ball of light was no longer semi-transparent. Instead, it had a virtually substantial form and was giving off astonishing spiritual power fluctuations.
The giant ball of light circled around in the air before crashing heavily down onto the gray restriction and exploding violently.
A five-colored sun that was over 1,000 feet in diameter appeared in the sky, and shockwaves that were visible even to the naked eye erupted forth in all directions, causing the surrounding space to tremble violently.
The gray light barrier was severely warped before exploding, and Patriarch Cold Flame and Xiong Shan heaved a collective sigh of relief upon seeing this.
Han Li was observing the proceedings from afar, and he was also quite pleased to see the restriction being broken.
The gray light barrier disintegrated into countless specks of gray light that quickly dissipated, only to be replaced by another starry light barrier.
There were countless starry specks of light on the light barrier, and they were moving in a profound rhythm, as if they really were stars in the night sky.
"There's still more? How many restrictions are there?" Lu Yuqing exclaimed upon seeing this.
"Don't worry, this should be the last one. Those two sure have been made to work hard," Han Li replied with a faint smile.
Right at this moment, his expression suddenly changed slightly as a burst of dazzling starlight emerged to encompass his entire body, and the source of the starlight was the storage pouch strapped to his waist.
The starlight was extremely bright, and it immediately burst through his concealment ability.
Lu Yuqing was greatly startled by this unforeseen turn of events, and she had to clap a hand over her own mouth to prevent herself from yelling out loud.
The starry light barrier in the distance also began to glow brightly, and the specks of starlight moving over its surface suddenly accelerated by severalfold, forming a series of profound constellations.
It seemed that the starry light barrier was resonating with the starlight radiating from Han Li's body.
Patriarch Cold Flame and Xiong Shan were also caught completely off guard, and they immediately swung around with bewildered expressions.
Han Li immediately tried to search for the source of the starlight in his storage pouch, only for a ball of dazzling starlight to fly out from within on its own, containing a gray stone slab.
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