Chapter 527: Disappeared?
Sun Buzheng was quite severely wounded, and his face was deathly pale. His voice was rather unsteady as he said, "I owe you for getting us into this mess, Yungui, but it looks like I won't be able to repay you this lifetime. Let's be brothers again in our next lives!"
Meng Yungui heaved a concerned sigh upon hearing this. "How is Qianqian going to be able to fare on her own?"
The guilt on Sun Buzheng's face became even more pronounced upon hearing this, and he gritted his teeth tightly.
The young man withdrew his five-colored umbrella, then pointed his thumb at himself as he declared, "Don't be in such a hurry to decide your own fate. Whether you live or die is up to me."
"If you're going to kill us, then do it! Stop wasting time!" Sun Buzheng yelled in a furious voice.
"Tell me where you came from. How did you obtain all of those powerful treasures, and what's the deal with that bird? If you answer these questions truthfully, perhaps I'll find it in the kindness of my heart to spare one of you," the young man said.
Sun Buzheng's expression changed slightly upon hearing this. If possible, he wanted Meng Yungui to survive.
"So you want to kill us, but you're afraid of our backers, and you want to know who they are before you kill us and get rid of the evidence, right? Save your energy, we're not going to say anything!" Meng Yungui declared in a resilient voice.
"I gave you a chance, but you didn't want it, so you can't blame me," the young man said with a sinister smile, then tossed his five-colored umbrella up into the air with a flick of his wrist, and it rose up into the sky to encompass everyone from above.
The runes on the umbrella were flashing incessantly, while countless bursts of five-colored light emerged over the umbrella's frame, then shot down toward Meng Yungui and the others like a storm of five-colored needles.
Meng Yungui was calmly prepared to face his death, and his final thought was still of his sister.
Right as everyone thought that everything was about to come to an end, the five-colored umbrella hanging in the sky suddenly shuddered violently, following which it was forcibly closed, shutting in all of the five-colored needles of light before the umbrella was sent flying even higher up into the sky.
Immediately thereafter, a hand reached out to grab onto the umbrella, and with just a casual swipe, its connection to its former owner was completely erased.
The young man gave a muffled groan as he looked up into the sky with shock and horror in his eyes.
A green jade flying carriage had appeared in the night sky up above, atop which stood three figures.
"Master Li! Qianqian!" Meng Yungui immediately exclaimed in an ecstatic voice.
Sun Buzheng and the others were also ecstatic, and tears were beginning to well up in Meng Xiong's eyes.
"We pay our respects to Master Li!" all of them declared in unison as they fell to their knees.
"You did very well, Yungui," Han Li said with a nod of approval.
Meng Yungui didn't know what Han Li was referring to, and a perplexed look appeared on his face, but Sun Buzheng knew that he was being praised for refusing to reveal his own identity even in the face of death.
With that in mind, a hint of lingering fear welled up in his heart. If he had let slip even a single word of information earlier, then they would've most likely all been left here to die.
"Big Brother!" Meng Yungui called out as she flew down from the carriage before descending by Meng Yungui's side, then pulled a white jade vial that had been given to her by Han Li and tipped a few yellow pills from within before handing them out to everyone.
Just a moment ago, the young man had been confident and assured, but now, there was a fearful look on his face, and Xu Shou and the others were so terrified that they didn't even dare to breathe too loudly.
"You're from the Stone Ditch Palace, is that right?" Han Li asked as he glanced at the young man's attire.
The young man forcibly composed himself, then replied, "Yes, Senior, my name is Luo Hua, and I am an outer sect disciple of the Stone Ditch Palace."
Even though he was only at the pinnacle of the Grand Ascension Stage, he had seen extremely powerful figures during his time in the Stone Ditch Palace, and he knew that there was no way he could contend against this man, so he didn't even try to put up any resistance.
To his surprise, Han Li suddenly asked, "Do you know Gao Sheng?"
Luo Hua faltered slightly upon hearing this, then asked, "Are you referring to Elder Gao Sheng, who once served in the Immortal Palace?"
"All I know is that he once served at an Ascension Platform," Han Li replied.
"That's him. Elder Gao Sheng disappeared several hundred years ago, and our sect has expended a huge amount of resources to try and find him, but to no avail so far," Luo Hua explained in a fearful manner.
"He disappeared? How?" Han Li asked as his brows furrowed slightly.
"I'm but a mere outer sect disciple, so my knowledge of the circumstances surrounding Elder Gao Sheng's disappearance is very limited. Please forgive me, Senior," Luo Hua replied in an uneasy manner.
Han Li was unconvinced, and he reached out with one hand before making a grabbing motion, upon which Luo Hua was forcibly wrenched up from the ground.
Han Li caught him by the throat, and he struggled violently with a horrified look on his face as he pleaded, "Please spare me, Senior!"
Han Li extended a finger forward in an expressionless manner, and a burst of light emerged over his fingertip as he tapped it against Luo Hua's glabella to employ a soul search technique.
He then raised an eyebrow as he discovered that there was a restriction in Luo Hua's consciousness that was impeding his spiritual sense.
Of course, this posed no obstacle to him, and as soon as he channeled his Spirit Refinement Technique, the restriction in Luo Hua's mind instantly faded away.
After searching through Luo Hua's memories for a moment, a furious look appeared on Han Li's face, and the light glowing from his fingertip became even brighter.
Initially, there had been a horrified look on Luo Hua's face, but his eyes quickly rolled over into the back of his head, and he began drooling in a slack-jawed manner. His expressions became stranger and stranger until finally, he fainted altogether.
Han Li gave a cold harrumph upon seeing this, then slapped him with such tremendous force that his body was completely embedded into his ground. Not only had he been reduced to a pile of mincemeat, even his nascent soul, which had already been stripped of its spiritual nature by Han Li's Spirit Refinement Technique, was completely shattered as well.
Xu Shou and the others were astonished to see this.
In their eyes, Luo Hua had been an almighty deity, yet it was clear that this dark-skinned young man was countless times more powerful than he was, and they couldn't and didn't even dare to imagine just how lofty his cultivation base was.
At this moment, all of them were knelt down onto the ground, and they were trembling uncontrollably as cold sweat poured down their faces.
Han Li had become so incensed because Luo Hua had been blatantly lying to his face.
He wasn't just some ordinary outer sect disciple, as he proclaimed. Instead, he was one of the disciples of the Stone Ditch Palace specifically assigned with the task of gathering intelligence, and he had only come to the Late Age Nation during the course of his investigation of Gao Sheng's disappearance.
After that, he discovered that there was a Sunray Sand mine here, and in order to claim it for himself, he assisted the Xu Clan in replacing the Yun Clan and destroying the Sun Clan to take over the nation.
As for Gao Sheng, he was a direct disciple to the Stone Ditch Palace's grand elder, and his disappearance had created a massive stir in the sect. The circumstances surrounding his disappearance were indeed quite murky. All that the sect knew was that it had to do with a certain mysterious person, and there were portraits of that person circulating throughout the sect.
That mysterious person was naturally none other than Han Li.
There were many more intelligence-gathering disciples like Luo Hua, and they had been sent out several centuries ago to search for Gao Sheng.
Hence, he had instantly identified Han Li as the mysterious figure depicted in the portraits.
After killing Luo Hua, a hesitant look appeared on Han Li's face as he pondered whether he should make a trip to the Stone Ditch Palace to see if he could find any news about Gao Sheng. After all, the events that had unfolded several centuries ago were still a mystery to him.
However, ultimately, he decided not to make such a detour. It had already been some time since he had left the Infernal Frost Immortal Manor, and it most likely wasn't going to be long before the Heavenly Court made its move.
His top priority right now was to leave this immortal region as soon as possible.
With that in mind, Han Li pointed a finger at Xu Shou, releasing a burst of azure light that instantly bound him to the spot.
"I'm going to the mountain outside the city. You only have an hour," he declared, following which the green jade flying carriage vanished into thin air.
"Thank you, Master Li!" Sun Buzheng yelled as he knelt down in gratitude toward Han Li.
Shortly thereafter, the sound of blood-curdling howls rang out as a slaughter ensued.
......
On the mountain outside Bright Cloud City, Han Li was seated in a pavilion on the mountain summit, resting with his eyes closed.
Jin Tong was seated on the ground with her legs crossed beside him, and she was holding a white longsword in her hands, which she was breaking up into pieces before eating. As she did this, her gaze was constantly roaming over her surroundings, and it seemed that she was quite interested in this area.
Han Li opened his eyes, then flipped a hand over to produce a disk treasure.
A hint of befuddlement appeared on his face at the sight of the peculiar patterns on the disk.
Just now, as he was channeling his Spirit Refinement Technique, the disk had suddenly reacted.
After some contemplation, Han Li channeled his Spirit Refinement Technique once again, and a cloud of white mist instantly rose up over the disk to encompass its entire surface.
At the same time, a speck of pulsing red light emerged on the disk.
Han Li withdrew his Spirit Refinement Technique, and the speck of red light gradually faded.
After repeating this experiment several times, it became apparent to Han Li that this disk was capable of detecting those using the Spirit Refinement Technique nearby.
He didn't know how large its sensory range was, but the fact that it came from a High Zenith Stage Jade Immortal like Gongshu Jiu meant that it had to be quite a powerful treasure. In the future, he had to be careful when using the Spirit Refinement Technique.
Han Li exhaled as he stowed the disk away, and he suddenly heard the sound of gentle snoring ringing out from beside him.
He turned to discover that Jin Tong had already fallen asleep while laying on the bench under the pavilion, and there was a faint smile on her face.
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