Chapter 1329: The Heavenly Tribulation Descends

By this time, Han Li was already at the foot of a small mountain two thousand miles away. His appearance had drastically changed; he was now a middle-aged man with a long, three-stranded beard, and his height had also shrunk by several inches.

At this moment, he was devoid of spiritual energy, having reverted to an ordinary body-cultivator. He sat cross-legged on a bluestone slab, eyes slightly closed, with no expression on his face.

After a while, Han Li suddenly opened his eyes, a faint smile playing on his lips, and murmured:

"I've finally dispersed the last trace of fire spiritual energy from my body. Unless they investigate me up close, they'll never recognize me."

Even so, Han Li had no intention of leaving immediately.

It was a sensitive time, and even with his altered appearance and aura, he wasn't willing to take any risks.

So, he leaped off the bluestone and, with a few bounds, sped towards the mountain.

Soon after, he reached a cliff face heavily obscured by countless vines and bushes.

Han Li glanced around, nodded in satisfaction, then took a deep breath. His fists suddenly glowed golden, and he unleashed a rapid succession of punches at the stone wall in front of him.

After a series of thunderous roars, a stone cave several zhang deep immediately appeared.

With a flicker of his body, he strangely darted inside.

Then, facing the entrance, he struck the cave ceiling with another backhanded punch.

Instantly, a pile of rubble fell, completely sealing the entrance.

The stone cave immediately became pitch black.

Han Li, however, was unfazed. He flipped his palm, and a pre-prepared moonstone appeared in his hand.

He took the stone and lightly pressed it against the cave ceiling. With immense force, the moonstone easily embedded itself into the rock.

Under its faint glow, most of the stone cave became clearly visible.

Han Li found a clean spot and sat down. His spiritual ring flashed, and he retrieved the small blood-red bottle from his storage bracelet, examining it with a curious gaze.

Apart from continuously emitting a blood-red light, the bottle appeared quite ordinary. Its material felt unusually smooth, seemingly like common porcelain.

Han Li gently stroked the small bottle with his finger, murmuring to himself. Simultaneously, memories of the Flame-Devouring Spirit Race's knowledge of divine blood surfaced in his mind.

After a while, he frowned and took out a palm-sized jade bowl from his storage bracelet. Only then did he open the blood-red bottle's lid and gently tilt it over the bowl to pour.

A purple glow circulated around the bottle's mouth, and after a long time, seven or eight drops of deep purple liquid slowly poured out. As they fell into the bowl, each drop immediately dispersed, unable to merge.

Han Li narrowed his eyes and gazed intently for a moment before extending a finger and gently touching one of the purple drops. The instant his finger seemed to make contact, the purple liquid abruptly leaped up, enveloping his fingertip as if trying to invade it.

However, Han Li raised an eyebrow, and a golden flash on his finger instantly isolated the purple liquid from his skin. With a slight shake, the liquid slipped back into the bowl.

"Excellent, it truly is the divine blood of the Spirit Race," Han Li muttered, a flash of excitement in his eyes.

Next, he poured the purple liquid back into the small bottle, carefully returned it to his storage bracelet, and then calmly meditated and rested in the mountain cave.

Although he was currently devoid of magical power, he hadn't lost his ability to abstain from food and drink, meaning he didn't need to eat or drink at all.

Soon after, waves of divine sense swept over the small mountain where Han Li was. As Han Li possessed no spiritual energy, these senses naturally passed over him without the slightest notice of his presence.

In the initial days, these divine sense searches were extremely frequent, sweeping over the area more than a dozen times a day.

However, after half a month, they immediately reduced to only two or three times.

Two months later, it was down to once a day. Moreover, the divine sense used was significantly weaker than before, indicating a change in the search personnel.

Yet, Han Li remained unmoving, still hidden in the stone cave.

Half a year passed in a flash, and no more divine senses appeared.

Sensing this change in the cave, Han Li's heart filled with joy.

However, he waited for several more months before, one day, he opened his eyes, punched through the rubble blocking the cave entrance, and slowly emerged.

He surveyed his surroundings, and seeing no unusual changes, he chuckled, flicked his sleeve, and strode swiftly down the mountain.

Soon, his figure vanished without a trace in the mountain forest.

A year later, a young body-cultivator with an unfamiliar face arrived in a small town near Sunset City. After hastily purchasing some items, he departed, his whereabouts unknown.

Since the item was never recovered, rumors about the divine blood gradually spread.

Furthermore, several cultivators and body-cultivators who had participated in the Three Races War gradually corroborated the incident, causing a genuine sensation for several years.

It was astonishing that the item had been snatched by a mere Nascent Soul cultivator, even with the likes of Spirit Monarch Huangliang and other Void Refinement stage experts intervening.

Spirit Monarch Huangliang remained somewhat unwilling to give up. After returning to Sunset City, he spent several years investigating the matter and diligently searching for the identity of the cultivator who had taken the treasure.

The outcome left him helpless. The various divine abilities displayed by the treasure thief were all extraordinary, yet it was as if the person had sprung from a stone, leaving absolutely no clues.

A year or two later, Spirit Monarch Huangliang left Sunset City and, by agreement with Huan Tianqi, went to the Barbarian World. With no one left to focus on the topic, the matter of the divine blood eventually faded away without resolution.

Several years later, deep within a towering, majestic mountain far from human habitation, in a space as black as ink, a figure sat quietly in meditation, faintly shimmering with golden light.

Beside the figure lay a small blood-red bottle, resting horizontally on the ground, seemingly empty.

The meditating figure remained perfectly still; were it not for the slight rise and fall of its chest, it would have appeared to be a clay sculpture.

For mortals in the Spirit Realm, over a hundred years represented most of a lifetime. However, for powerful immortal cultivators, it was merely a fleeting moment in their existence.

One day, over a hundred years later, the majestic mountain remained unchanged. A team of fully armored knights, riding giant wolves, slowly passed by the foot of the mountain, escorting several exceptionally beautiful beast-drawn carriages.

Inside one of the carriages sat three individuals: an old man with grizzled hair, a sturdy-looking boy of six or seven, and a slender girl of similar age.

The old man's forehead was deeply wrinkled, yet the skin below his neck was as supple and lustrous as a young person's. In contrast, his hands, exposed beyond his sleeves, were shriveled and gnarled like old, withered vines.

Strangely, the old man's fingernails were not only several inches long and unusually sharp, but they also emitted a faint red glow, giving them an incredibly mysterious appearance.

The young boy and girl opposite him stared unblinkingly at the red glow on his nails, looking very curious.

The old man showed no intention of concealing the unusual appearance of his nails; he merely smiled silently at the two children.

Suddenly, the sound of hooves came from outside the window, followed by a man's voice abruptly speaking from outside the carriage:

"Reporting, Elder Huo, the pathfinders sent ahead have returned. All beast packs and demonic beasts within a thousand-mile radius of Cloud-Piercing Mountain have been cleared out."

"Hmm, well done. This way, our trade guild has opened a new trade route, and there shouldn't be any major issues for the next decade or so," the old man said, his expression shifting. With one hand, he slowly drew open the curtain.

A burly middle-aged knight, riding a mutated giant wolf with snow-white fur, was respectfully accompanying the carriage.

"However, are you truly certain there are no demonic beasts left in this mountain? It's normal for the Demonic Qi Disc to miss a cleverly hidden beast skilled in concealment," the old man said, his tone suddenly turning serious as he gazed at the knight.

"That shouldn't be the case. Besides the Demonic Qi Disc, I also asked several immortal masters to specifically sweep the entire mountain with their divine sense. There are indeed no more demonic beasts present," the knight replied, his expression subtly changing before he affirmed with certainty.

"Oh, in that case, it seems there's truly no problem. Although the cultivators we invited were only of the Core Formation stage, there couldn't be any high-level demonic beasts in this mountain either. Very well then, proceed," the old man said, nodding in satisfaction and casually giving a compliment before reaching to lower the curtain in his hand.

But just then, an anomaly suddenly occurred in the sky.

Suddenly, an earth-shattering roar came from high in the distance, followed by continuous rumbling. The nearby sky abruptly filled with dark clouds, and whistling winds swept in, making the entire heavens unusually gloomy.

The entire transformation of the sky occurred in merely an instant; the old man hadn't even had time to close the curtain.

"What is that…?" the middle-aged knight exclaimed in surprise from outside the carriage, his gaze suddenly fixed on the cloud-piercing peak of the giant mountain.

The old man frowned, raised his hand, and abruptly knocked three times on the carriage with a "thud-thud."

The beast-drawn carriage jolted and immediately stopped.

The old man pushed open the door, stepped out of the carriage onto the flat ground, and also looked up towards the peak of the giant mountain.

His face instantly changed drastically.

"Heavenly tribulation. A cultivator is undergoing heavenly tribulation! This is a bit strange; it doesn't seem like a minor tribulation, but it's not quite a major one either," the old man muttered, gazing with a mixture of shock and uncertainty at the phenomenon of electric snakes dancing wildly over the distant mountain peak, somewhat dazed.

The peak of the distant giant mountain had already turned as black as the bottom of a pot. Arcs of golden and silver lightning flickered and danced endlessly within the clouds, and the dull rumbling sounds emanated from there. Slightly below the black clouds, gusts of misty white hurricanes raged and howled, relentlessly striking the mountaintop, causing rocks to crack and trees to be flung about.

At this moment, the entire convoy had halted, and all the knights were staring dumbfounded at this rare spectacle, one they might never witness again in their lifetime.

Meanwhile, from the other beast-drawn carriages, several individuals soared into the air. After briefly circling, they all flew towards the old man.