Chapter 459: The Third Decay
At around noon, three days later.
Han Li reappeared on the white stone plaza, looking completely reinvigorated.
His immortal spiritual power and his spiritual sense had both been fully restored, and he swept his gaze across his surroundings, then raised a sleeve to release a bolt of golden lightning, which transformed into Daoist Xie not far away.
Daoist Xie took a glance at Han Li, and a faint smile appeared on its face as it said, "I can see that your cultivation base has advanced even further. Congratulations, Fellow Daoist Han."
"I did manage to make some progress, but we've already been in here for several centuries, and I can't help but wonder how things are going outside. Today, I'm going to make another attempt to reach the Golden Immortal Stage to see if we can leave this place a little sooner. This space may be an isolated one, but there are still many risks involved when it comes to forcing a realm open, so I'll have to trouble you to keep a lookout for me, Brother Xie," Han Li said with a smile.
"Rest assured, just go ahead and do what you need to do," Daoist Xie replied with a nod.
As soon as its voice trailed off, a flash of golden lightning surged over its body, and it vanished into thin air.
Han Li sat down with his legs crossed upon seeing this, then swept a sleeve through the air to release a streak of azure light, which contained three or four white jade vials and an intricate jade box.
With another sweep of his sleeve, the stopper of one of the jade vials flew off on its own, and a longan-sized golden pill flew out from within before landing on the palm of his hand.
This was none other than the Myriad Axis Pill, the pill capable of assisting even late-True Immortal cultivators in advancing their cultivation base.
Han Li picked up the pill before promptly devouring it, and it immediately disintegrated into a surge of warmth that flowed through his meridians, but compared with the intense influx of heat and pressure from the first Myriad Axis Pill that he had taken, the effects had become far milder.
One reason for this was because he had already taken so many of these pills that he had developed some tolerance to them, and the other reason was that his physical body had become significantly enhanced after his attainment of full mastery over the Great Universe Origin Arts.
His brows furrowed slightly as he made a beckoning motion, and two more Myriad Axis Pill flew out of the vial, both of which he swallowed at once.
Only after that did he close his eyes and begin to cultivate.
As he began to chant an incantation, a layer of gentle golden light surfaced to envelop his entire body, and over 10 years flew by in the blink of an eye.
Throughout the 500 years that Han Li had spent cultivating the Great Universe Origin Arts and this latest passage of over a decade, the entire secret area remained completely unchanged from back when Han Li first entered this place.
The sun rose and set every day, and there were different weather conditions on display, but there was never any passage of seasons, and even the slick moss that was extremely prevalent throughout the entire secret area maintained its dark green hue perpetually.
At the edge of the city, Daoist Xie was standing on the rooftop of a three-story azure bamboo pavilion. Its yellow robes were flapping audibly around it, but it stood completely still like a statue as its gaze remained fixed firmly on the center of the city.
Right at this moment, it suddenly murmured to itself, "It's finally here..."
As soon as its voice trailed off, a resounding boom rang out from the center of the city, and the entire secret area shuddered violently as a pillar of golden light erupted into the heavens.
Layers of dark clouds converged from all directions above the white stone plaza, and it didn't take long before a vortex of dark clouds with a diameter of several dozen kilometers had taken shape.
Lightning was constantly flashing within the vortex, letting loose bursts of dull rumbling, as if there were countless ferocious beasts trapped within the clouds.
At this moment, Han Li was seated within the pillar of golden light. His robes had already been torn to shreds, and his chiseled yet proportionate muscles were basked in golden radiance, while his long hair was standing up in a completely vertical fashion.
All of the 35 immortal acupoints that had opened up on his body were glowing radiantly, while a golden vortex was taking shape within the 36th immortal acupoint at the center of his chest, looking as if it were going to be completely opened up at any moment.
Right at this moment, Han Li's eyes abruptly sprang open as he let loose an earth-shattering roar, and the golden light within the swirling vortex brightened even further as wisps of the world's origin qi that were visible even to the naked eye rapidly converged toward the immortal acupoint.
The sound of howling wind rang out as the world's origin qi gushed into the immortal acupoint, but it resembled a boundless abyss that was impossible to fill, and it was displaying no signs of getting any fuller at all.
Han Li wore a solemn expression as he continued to make a rapid string of hand seals, carefully guiding the direction of flow of the world's origin qi while also moderating the rate at which the immortal acupoint was absorbing the world's origin qi to ensure that it wouldn't burst of an excessive influx.
Only after around two hours had passed did the rate of influx of the world's origin qi gradually slow down, while the light radiating from the immortal acupoint was only becoming brighter and brighter, gradually approaching a state of stability.
At this point, Han Li was already sweating profusely, but he didn't dare to let down his guard in the slightest, and he was constantly preparing for something to go wrong.
All of a sudden, a rumbling boom rang out in the sky, and the lightning that had been suppressed within the dark clouds was finally released.
A black pillar of lightning that was as straight as a spear pierced through the clouds before crashing down directly upon Han Li's head.
Han Li immediately threw a punch upward in response, and a starlight fist projection erupted upward to oppose the pillar of lightning.
Seven punches were thrown in succession, and seven starlight fist projections, each of which was several dozen feet in size, flew up toward the pillar of lightning. Halos of starry radiance surged out of the fist projections, connecting together to form a resplendent screen of silver light.
The pillar of black lightning crashed straight into the silver light barrier with an earth-shattering boom, and the latter shuddered violently before a huge hole was blasted straight through its center by the pillar of black lightning.
At the same time, an even louder burst of rumbling rang out from within the dark cloud vortex in the sky, and a pillar of black lightning that was twice as thick as the previous one came crashing down, as if the heavens had been provoked and were determined to make Han Li feel their wrath.
Daoist Xie's expression changed slightly as it witnessed this from afar, and it instantly vanished from the spot amid a flash of golden lightning.
In the next instant, it reappeared within the space between Han Li and the pillar of lightning, and golden lightning erupted out of its entire body as it raised an arm toward the descending pillar of lightning.
A layer of golden lightning emerged from its arm, and its hand abruptly transformed into a giant golden crab pincer that clamped down forcefully upon the pillar of black lightning.
An earth-shattering thunderclap rang out as the pillar of golden lightning was snapped into two before exploding violently, but the point at which the pillar of lightning was severed transformed into a spherical lightning cage that trapped Daoist Xie within it in the blink of an eye.
Daoist Xie let loose a cry of alarm upon seeing this, and it hurriedly reached out to make a grabbing motion, but it was already too late.
A burst of black light emerged around the spherical lightning cage, and arcs of black lightning as thick as a grown man's arm shot out in all directions, causing the surrounding space to crackle and shudder.
One of these flailing arcs of lightning struck Han Li's back like a black whip, instantly raising a trail of black sparks and leaving a large section of his back charred black.
His brows instantly furrowed slightly as he hurriedly turned his gaze toward his own chest, only to find that a hair-thin strands of black light had suddenly appeared in the immortal acupoint that was taking shape there, and it quickly began to spread like a cobweb, staining the majority of the immortal acupoint black.
Han Li's pupils contracted drastically upon seeing this.
Even though he had never experienced it before, this appeared to be the acupoint decay of the three decays.
Han Li had already anticipated that this would happen, but now that it was truly happening, he still couldn't help but feel a little panicked.
Throughout the ages, there had been countless prodigious cultivators who had overcome all types of obstacles and hardships to successfully oppose the heavens and reach the True Immortal Stage. After that, they spent countless years grinding away, finally rising up above the other countless True Immortals to reach the pinnacle of the True Immortal Stage.
However, right as they were about to leave the True Immortal Stage behind altogether, they would be blighted by the curse of the acupoint decay, and all of their countless years of arduous cultivation could be for nought.
It was said that unlike the other two decays, the onset of acupoint decay was extremely fast and uncontrollable, like a spreading wildfire. Once one immortal acupoint fell into decay, all of the immortal acupoints that the cultivator had painstakingly nurtured would also suffer the same fate.
Once all of one's immortal acupoints fell into decay, one's immortal body would also wither away, and all of their immortal spiritual power would dissipate. In the end, they would be reduced to a mere mortal. In fact, they would be in an even worse situation than a mortal as they wouldn't even have the chance to begin cultivating anew.
The entirety of Han Li's attention was drawn to that acupoint, and he couldn't help but feel a little uneasy, fearing that all of his other acupoints could be infected one after another before decaying as well.
This was a very strange sensation that could only be experienced and not described.
It would be like if someone painstakingly nurtured a lotus flower, only for someone to drip a drop of lethal poison onto the flower right as it was about to bloom. The poison would quickly spread over the entire flower, then down its stem and across its leaves, leading to a rapid decay.
Right as Han Li was about to use his time law powers to counteract the decay, he noticed that something wasn't quite right.
As it turned out, the contaminated acupoint maintained a half-black, half-white coloration, and the decay didn't spread rapidly as all of the ancient records claimed it would.
What's going on here?
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