Chapter 78: Big Dipper Phenomenon
On a giant snowy mountain that was over 100,000 feet tall in the Spirit Domain Realm.
There was a layer of extremely dense dark clouds in the sky, within which thunderclaps were rumbling incessantly, and the occasional flash of dark blue lightning could also be seen.
Down below, gusts of fierce wind were howling incessantly, stirring the countless snowflakes in the sky into a frenzy.
Close to 100 kilometers away from this mountain was a peaceful area with clear skies and a bright moon, creating a stark contrast with the snowy mountain.
The peak of the snowy mountain had already been sliced off, turning it into an enormous plateau that was over 1,000 feet in size.
On the plateau were dozens of black stone pillars that were each over 100 feet tall. The pillars seemed to have been arranged in a random and haphazard manner, but in reality, they were positioned in a way that they formed a giant ring-shaped formation that consisted of two circles, one outside the other.
There were a series of complex spirit patterns engraved onto the ground at the center of the array, while pieces of spirit stones with extremely abundant spiritual power were embedded onto the tops of the surrounding stone pillars.
At this moment, there was a tall figure seated with his legs crossed at the center of the array amid the wind and the snow.
He was wearing a thin azure robe, and he had a set of unremarkable yet well-defined facial features. His eyes were as bright as stars, and it was none other than Han Li.
He gently closed his eyes while making a rapid series of hand seals and chanting an incantation in a low voice, activating his Big Dipper Origin Arts.
All of a sudden, a burst of dazzling light appeared on the mountain peak.
Boundless silver starlight pierced through the dark clouds, projecting down from the heavens, forming seven incredibly thick pillars of silver light that enshrouded the entire mountain.
All of the swirling snow that fell into the pillars of silver light instantly vanished, having been evaporated into vapor.
Han Li continued to make a series of hand seals while raising his hands up to the sky, and a burst of black light flashed from his waist, following which the seven Starmoon Mirrors flew out, with each of them flying into one of the pillars of light before giving off dazzling radiance.
At the same time, a strange vortex suddenly appeared above Han Li, drawing the seven mirrors toward itself.
As the vortex grew larger and larger, the suction force that it was releasing also became more and more pronounced, and all seven of the mirrors began to converge involuntarily toward its center.
The seven massive pillars of light were also influenced, beginning to tilt and angle themselves toward the center of the vortex.
A rumbling boom akin to a thunderclap rang out, and the seven pillars of silver light finally fused as one, forming a gigantic pillar of light that was over 1,000 feet in diameter.
The pillar of light seemed to be connecting heaven and earth and encompassed the entire mountain.
At the same time, a startling change was also taking place in the Big Dipper constellation in the sky.
The seven stars of the Big Dipper began to glow with purplish-silver light one after another, and at the same time, they were also shifting in position, first forming a straight line, then arranging themselves into a circle.
Immediately thereafter, an incredibly thick pillar of purplish-silver light surged out of the ring, piercing through the night sky before shining down directly upon Han Li.
In the instant the purplish-silver light came into contact with Han Li, his clothes were instantly incinerated into ashes.
At the same time, his body turned completely transparent and took on a bright silver hue.
It could even be seen through his skin that changes were beginning to take place in the muscles and bones in his body. In the past, they had only been enveloped by a layer of faint silver light, but now, it was as if they had been encased by liquid silver.
A burst of loud buzzing rang out on the snowy mountain as countless fragments of silver light fell from the sky, replacing the falling snow.
The fragments of light formed an enormous spherical light barrier that encompassed the entire mountain, and there were extremely fearsome spiritual powerful fluctuations emanating from within it.
As these fluctuations became stronger and stronger, the entire mountain began to sway and tremble violently, and soon, the entire mountain range was plunged into a state of unrest.
The ground in a radius of close to 1,000 kilometers was quaking incessantly, and countless long and winding fissures had opened up. Some of them were even causing shifts in the nearby riverbeds, resulting in a restructuring of the rivers.
Plumes of dust began to rise up from all over the lush primitive forest nearby, and countless wild beasts were galloping through the forest while roaring in panic.
In the sky above the forest, countless birds and flying beasts were soaring through the air, forming a dark blanket that concealed most of the sky.
Several hundred kilometers away, a tall volcano that had already laid dormant for over 10,000 years erupted once again under the effects of these violent and persistent tremors.
Large volumes of dark red lava were spewing out of the volcano amid plumes of dense black smoke, rising up high into the sky.
Countless rocks that had been scorched bright red were hurled up into the air, then came crashing back down like a meteor shower, leaving long fiery tails behind them in the night sky. The falling rocks passed through the permeating layers of volcanic ash, then crashed down onto the forest below.
Large sections of the forest were instantly set alight, illuminating the night sky in a bright red hue amid the dense smoke.
Immediately thereafter, around a dozen streaks of light flew out of different parts of the mountain range, and all of them drew to a halt in the air dozens of kilometers away from the silver ball of light.
There were people of all types of descriptions gathered at the scene, and most of them were alone, with only a few rare groups interspersed among their ranks.
They were all vagrant cultivators who were lurking in this mountain range, and their cultivation bases varied drastically, with the weakest ones only at the late-Core Formation Stage, while the strongest ones were at the mid-Spatial Tempering Stage.
Aside from them, there were also some strange-looking humanoid figures. Some of them had horns growing on their heads, some had vibrant stripes on their bodies, some were covered in a coat of fur, and some even had beastly heads rather than human heads. It was clear that these were demonic cultivators.
However, regardless of what race these cultivators belonged to, all of them were currently looking up toward the top of the snowy mountain with stunned and fearful expressions, and not a single one of them dared to approach the scene to investigate.
"Could it be that there's a Grand Ascension cultivator about to transcend an ascension tribulation here?" a white-robed young man asked in a bewildered voice as he stared at the phenomena unfolding on the snowy mountain.
The young man was accompanied by a thin elderly man, who shook his head as he said, "I don't think so. There's no sign of any tribulation lightning falling. Instead, it seems more like someone is practicing an extremely profound cultivation art, and these phenomena are a sign that they're about to reach full mastery of that cultivation art."
"This is all because someone's practicing a cultivation art? How is that possible?"
The white-robed young man drew a sharp breath upon hearing this, unable to wrap his head around such a staggering concept.
Right at this moment, a thunderous roar erupted from the mountain peak, and an incredibly powerful energy blast swept through the air in all directions from the mountaintop.
Everyone was already quite far away from the mountain peak, but they still immediately flew back in retreat as streaks of light. One of the weaker demonic cultivators wasn't able to get sufficiently far away in time, and they were struck by the energy blast. As a result, they instantly sustained extremely severe injuries and came within a hair's breadth of being killed on the spot.
Only after retreating a further 100 kilometers or so did everyone draw to a halt before turning back to the mountain peak with lingering fear in their eyes.
The spherical light barrier encompassing the entire snowy mountain had expanded to about twice its original size, thereby encompassing an even larger area. As a result, the entire snowy mountain was reduced to a blur, and only an extremely faint outline could just barely be made out.
……
At the same time.
On the Nine Palace Peak of the Origin Realm Temple, Daoist Closed Mountain was standing on the Star Gathering Platform, looking up at the altered Big Dipper constellation in the night sky with a complex look on his face.
He had been pressured by Han Li into destroying the arrays that facilitated communication between the temple and the Immortal Realm, so he had completely betrayed Daoist Clear Bright.
Now that Han Li seemed to be about to leave, Daoist Closed Mountain was considering what he was going to do if Daoist Clear Bright decided to try and punish him for this transgression.
In addition to that, the Cold Flame Sect had been developing rapidly these past few years, absorbing many smaller powers and sects, and at this point, the Cold Flame Sect and the Origin Realm Temple were roughly evenly matched. With Han Li's departure, the Spirit Domain Realm was most likely going to be plunged into conflict and unrest.
With that in mind, Daoist Closed Mountain couldn't help but heave a forlorn sigh.
……
On a plaza at the top of the Cold Flame Sect's Holy Fire Peak.
Sima Jingming was clutching the white jade railing before him with both hands, and he was also looking up at the night sky with a complex look in his eyes.
After some time, he heaved a long sigh, then murmured to himself in a relieved voice, "You're finally leaving, Senior Han..."
Even though the Cold Flame Sect had become significantly more powerful in the wake of the Heavenly Ghost Sect's demise, Han Li's existence had constantly been weighing on his heart like a mountain.
Even though the Cold Flame Sect was on rather good terms with Han Li, that still didn't change the fact Han Li was someone who was capable of wiping out the entire Cold Flame Sect on a whim if he so pleased. Hence, his very existence posed a constant threat to what was otherwise supposed to be a dominant powerhouse of the Spirit Domain Realm, so it was no wonder that Sima Jingming was feeling so apprehensive.
……
Meanwhile, in a secluded cave abode on the Cloudrise Peak.
Gu Yunyue and Yu Menghan were seated beside the stone table in the courtyard of the cave abode.
The latter had her chin resting in her hands as she looked up at the ring-shaped Big Dipper in the sky, as well as that pillar of purplish-silver light, and her eyes were a little out of focus.
A gentle smile appeared on Gu Yunyue's face at the sight of her forlorn display, and she said in a slightly teasing voice, "I must say, Elder Han has been very good to you. Not only has he left this cave abode to you, he also left you so many treasures and pills. In total, these resources rival what one would expect to find in an entire small sect, and they'll be more than enough to support you to the Deity Transformation Stage."
Yu Menghan faltered slightly upon hearing this, then replied, "Elder Han is most likely only giving me this preferential treatment because I was the one who took him and Sister Le'er back to our Yu Manor. Come to think of it, he's already repaid that favor long ago. I owe him far more than he owes me."
Gu Yunyue smiled and offered no response to this.
Thus, both of them fell silent, and peace and quiet returned to the courtyard.
……
In a cave abode halfway up the Cloudrise Peak, Daoist White Stone was seated with his legs crossed in a secret chamber.
Placed in front of him was an old book that was slightly yellow with age, and its cover bore the title "Profound Water Cultivation Journal" in bold and primitive text.
This was a top-tier ghostly cultivation art of the Heavenly Ghost Sect, and in the past, it was an extremely important resource that would've never been given to anyone outside of the sect, which was why Daoist White Stone had been astonished when Han Li suddenly paid him a visit and bestowed this cultivation art upon him.
As soon as he obtained the cultivation art, he immediately began to study it in earnest, and at this point, he had already reached the second level. As a result, the early-Core Formation Stage bottleneck that had stumped him for years was finally beginning to loosen a little.
This was naturally an extremely encouraging turn of events, and not only was Daoist White Stone elated by this progress, he was also feeling extremely fortunate that he had been able to follow Han Li, albeit only for a short time.
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