Chapter 456: Small City
Han Li felt as if he had been plunged into a cloud of gray mist, and all of a sudden, the ground gave away beneath his feet, causing him to stumble forward involuntarily, only to land back on a solid surface an instant later.
He felt as if he had passed through some type of smoky illusion, and before he knew it, he was in another space.
He massaged his slightly sore temples as his blurry vision slowly recovered, and only then was able to see the moss-covered ground beneath his feet.
He quickly looked around to find that he was the one here, and that none of Jin Tong, Lu Yuqing, or Qu Ling had managed to follow him in here. His brows furrowed slightly as he heaved a faint sigh.
Never had he imagined that he would reunite with Jin Tong under these circumstances. Even though there hadn't been many words exchanged between them, Jin Tong had swooped in to save his life without any regard for its own safety, and that was very touching to Han Li.
After all, ever since he had come to the True Immortal, he had never had a genuine connection with anyone and was constantly having to watch his back. The last person that had felt true affection and concern for him had been Liu Le'er back in the Spirit Domain Realm.
Of course, the fact that he had always regarded Jin Tong as half a child of his also had something to do with this.
It was during the time they had been separated, Jin Tong had become significantly more powerful than before, allowing it to oppose a late-Golden Immortal cultivator for such a long time. However, Han Li knew that it was definitely no match for Qu Ling, considering her exceptional mastery over law powers, as well as her array of formidable treasures, including that peculiar Profound Heavenly Gourd.
At the moment, all he could do was pray that Jin Tong could somehow find safety, even if it meant having to temporarily submit to Qu Ling. Judging from what he had seen earlier, it seemed that Qu Ling had taken Jin Tong under her wing as a spirit pet.
If something were to happen to Jin Tong, then once he reached the Golden Immortal Stage, he would be sure to go after Qu Ling and make her pay the price.
As for Lu Yuqing, at some point, he had developed the impression that something was rather strange about her, but he couldn't put his finger on exactly what it was.
Having said that, she was only an acquaintance of his, and they had entered the Infernal Frost Immortal Manor as collaborative partners, so he didn't feel any obligation to her. While it was true that she had run into Qu Ling because she was with him, she was the one who had chosen to follow him in the first place, so she had to accept the risks that came with such a decision.
Now that he had been sucked into the place somehow, she would just have to deal with Qu Ling's wrath on her own.
Han Li cast these thoughts aside as he swept his gaze over the surrounding area.
In doing so, he discovered that he was standing in an old courtyard, surrounded by dilapidated walls and collapsed buildings that were overgrown with moss and weeds.
However, as he cast his gaze toward the rear section of the courtyard, a hint of befuddlement appeared in his eyes.
Hovering in the air above the upper right corner of a building in that direction was a roof tile, which was frozen in the process of blowing up into pieces. It was as if it were being held in place by some type of invisible form, and the moment of its destruction had been forever immortalized.
Han Li activated his Brightsight Spirit Eyes while also releasing his spiritual sense to examine the roof tile, and a few moments later, he sprang up into the air before landing on the roof of the building.
There, he reached out to pluck a piece of the hovering roof tile out of mid-air, while the rest of the roof tile fragments remained in their original positions, completely unaffected.
Han Li was rather bewildered and intrigued by this, and he cast his gaze out of the courtyard to find more sets of ruins in all directions, spreading as far as the eyes could see.
Among these collapsed buildings, similar peculiar scenes as this hovering roof tile could be seen everywhere. All of those destroyed buildings and pavilions had been shattered into countless pieces, but not even a single fragment had fallen onto the ground. It was as if time had stopped in the instant that they were destroyed, leaving them trapped in their perpetual purgatory.
After a brief moment of contemplation, Han Li slowly closed his eyes before releasing his vast spiritual sense over the surrounding area.
In contrast with that barren red area from before, his spiritual sense wasn't restricted at all here.
However, only a few moments had passed before his eyes suddenly sprang open, and the blue light in his pupils faded as a peculiar look appeared on his face.
It seemed that by examining his surroundings, he had only become more perplexed.
As it turned out, this area was far smaller than he had anticipated. He had only just released his spiritual sense slightly, and it had already filled this entire space, which only had a radius of several dozen kilometers.
The entire space was surrounded in all directions by spatial walls, but theoretically speaking, the fact that he was able to enter this place meant that it wasn't completely isolated from the outside world.
At the very least, there had to be some fragile spots in the space here, and if he could track down those spots, then he would be able to break through the spatial walls to return to the outside world if such a need ever arose.
However, through his spiritual sense examination, he wasn't able to identify any weak points in the space here for him to target.
After taking a moment to contemplate how to proceed, Han Li made a hand seal, and his Mantra Treasured Axis appeared behind him amid a flash of golden light.
Following the emergence of the axis, the dozen or so active Time Dao Runes on its surface lit up one after another, and the Eye of Truth at its center began to scour the surrounding area while releasing a beam of golden light.
Han Li was unable to find any way out using his spiritual sense, so he had no choice but to turn to his Eye of Truth.
He flew up into the air, then turned his gaze to the center of the courtyard that he had first appeared in through the perspective of the Eye of Truth, but even under the scrutiny of the beam of golden light, the courtyard didn't display any abnormalities.
Han Li's gaze slowly roamed over the ground to the stone table in the courtyard, then to the walls, the dead trees, and the buildings, but he wasn't able to find anything worthy of note.
However, as the gaze of the Eye of Truth fell upon that room with the hovering roof tile above it, a burst of golden light suddenly erupted out of the roof of the building, following which it was quickly restored to its original state, as if it had been rebuilt anew.
Han Li was very surprised to see this.
Could it be that this building contains time law powers?
Before he had a chance to approach the building for a closer examination, the projection of the repaired building began to flash and waver in an unstable fashion.
Han Li withdrew his Mantra Treasured Axis as he descended in front of the building, and he took some time to examine the outside of the building before entering it and conducting a thorough search, but he wasn't able to find anything that contained time law powers.
How strange... Could it be that the time law powers here are too sparse to be detectable? Surely that's not the case...
After some contemplation, he summoned his Mantra Treasured Axis once again, then rose up into the air and left this courtyard to fly toward the other areas in this space.
Looking down from above, he could see that even though all of the buildings here were quite dilapidated, the general layout was quite orderly and well-structured. The layout of this place was very similar to that of the average mortal city, and Han Li began to do some exploring.
He started from the eastern side of the city and slowly made his way westward, making sure to examine all of the buildings that seemed to have been frozen in time along the way. Whenever he gazed upon them through his Eye of Truth, those buildings would present projections of back when they were whole, but those projections were also quite blurry and unstable.
It was as if faint time law fluctuations permeated throughout this entire city, but only to a very faint degree that was completely undetectable.
It took Han Li only less than half a day to explore the entire city, but he wasn't able to discover anything.
As night approached, the sun began to set.
In the southern part of the city, there stood a nine-story black wooden pagoda in a garden that was overrun with weeds. The pagoda had many scorch marks on its surface, and it was tilted severely to one side, looking as if it could collapse at any moment.
Han Li was standing on the black roof tiles atop the pagoda's roof with one hand resting on the tip of the pagoda as he cast his gaze toward the setting sun in the distance.
Standing beside him was the yellow-robed Daoist Xie with a neutral expression on its face.
"Can you see anything special about the layout of this city, Brother Xie?" Han Li asked.
"Not at all. At the very least, on the surface, it seems to only be following the standard protocol in the way normal cities are constructed. As for whether there are some special hidden mechanisms, it's impossible to tell just by looking," Daoist Xie replied with a shake of its head.
Han Li was silent for a moment upon hearing this, then asked, "In that case, can I trouble you to examine this place to see if there are any hidden mechanisms or arrays?"
Daoist Xie nodded in response, then vanished from the top of the wooden pagoda in a flash.
As the light of the dying sun gradually faded, Han Li abruptly shot through the air as a streak of azure light.
However, a resounding thump rang out in the air just a moment later, and Han Li was repelled back through the air like a cannonball, having just crashed into an invisible barrier.
However, as soon as he landed on the ground, a burst of azure light instantly emerged over his body as he shot straight toward another direction.
Several days passed by in a flash.
In this ruined city was a private garden, within which was a lush forest. The forest was littered with numerous strange rocks, each of which was as tall as a grown man. These rocks were quite dark in coloration, and they were covered in layers of slick moss.
Two figures were making their way side by side toward the center of the forest down a winding path.
"There are quite a few restrictions and secret chambers in the city, but barely any of them are worthy of further examination. This is the only place that I feel is worthy of note. At the very least, the array here stands out from the rest," Daoist Xie said while leading the way.
"In that case, there's probably a good chance that this is the exit of this secret area," Han Li replied as a hopeful look appeared in his eyes.
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