Chapter 2266: Underground Stone Forest

Han Li, however, stood beside the broken armor and weapons, glancing down. Suddenly, he frowned and made a grabbing motion in the air. With a "whoosh," a gleaming sword fragment shot into his hand. Han Li lifted it for a closer look. On the surface of the seemingly incredibly hard fragment, there was a strikingly clear and deep claw mark, deeply embedded as if meticulously carved.

Han Li pondered for a moment, then squeezed the fragment with two fingers. A strange golden glow flickered at his fingertips, and his fingers sank directly into the fragment. As a result, a finger mark, seemingly as deep as the claw mark, also appeared on the fragment.

"What is it, Fellow Daoist Han? Did you find something?" Evil Lotus asked, intrigued by the sight.

"Try it yourself, and you'll see," Han Li said indifferently, tossing the fragment over.

Evil Lotus chuckled softly, raising a slender hand to catch the item. She glanced down at it and gasped: "Grand Unity White Gold! This weapon was actually forged from Grand Unity White Gold."

"Grand Unity White Gold! That's a renowned material across all realms. While there might be materials harder than it, there certainly aren't many. For the owner of this weapon to possess such a large piece, it truly indicates extraordinary fortune," Old Ancestor Green Stone exclaimed in surprise upon hearing this.

"Hmph, what's the use of such great fortune? It still ended up as food for these vicious insects. However, to directly leave such a deep mark on an artifact forged from this material, Fellow Daoist's physical body must be incredibly strong, as one can imagine. I wonder how much of your true power you used just now, Brother Han?" Evil Lotus remarked, her voice filled with wonder. Dazzling white light flickered from her own fingertips as she spoke, leaving a much shallower mark on the fragment before she shook her head and asked.

Old Ancestor Green Stone, upon seeing this, was first somewhat horrified, then could only force a bitter smile.

"Of course, I used a considerable amount of strength; otherwise, how could I have left such a deep mark on it?" Han Li said with a serious expression. "However, have the two of you considered how incredibly powerful the physical body of the vicious insect that could crush this Grand Unity White Gold weapon must be? In any case, it's certainly not something the human-faced insects we encountered earlier could do."

"Those human-faced insects are weaker than us, so they naturally couldn't have done this. Could it be the mother of the Spirit Devouring Moth herself?" Old Ancestor Green Stone's face turned somewhat pale.

"That's unlikely. With the immense power of the Spirit Devouring Moth mother, how could she personally act against mere guardians of the underground palace?" Evil Lotus denied without hesitation.

"So, besides the human-faced insects we just saw, there's actually another, even more formidable type of vicious insect in this underground palace?" Han Li murmured.

"I'm afraid so," Evil Lotus said with a helpless expression.

"There's no need for the two of you to worry too much," Old Ancestor Green Stone said, seemingly having come to terms with it, trying to reassure them. "Even if such vicious insects exist, their numbers shouldn't be too great. And this time, dozens of fellow Daoists have entered the underground palace; that should be enough to handle all the vicious insects."

"Yes, this second type of vicious insect is indeed very rare. Otherwise, Baohua and Yuan Yan wouldn't have failed to get any information on them. Perhaps there are only a few of them," Evil Lotus mused, then agreed.

"Since there aren't many, there's nothing to fear. Fellow Daoists, let's first examine the damaged restrictions," Han Li said, his expression relaxing.

Afterwards, he and Daoist Crab took the lead and walked towards the deeper parts of the hall. Evil Lotus and Old Ancestor Green Stone exchanged glances, then followed.

A short while later, in a large hall at the center of the palace, Han Li and the others were gathered around a formation that covered the entire hall, discussing something in low voices. This gigantic formation appeared incredibly complex, with dense and intricate spirit runes, making it very profound. However, one part of this formation had clearly been forcibly altered not long ago, while another part had been directly erased and destroyed, rendering it somewhat unrecognizable.

"Fellow Daoist Evil Lotus, are you not confident in repairing this formation?" Green Stone asked Evil Lotus, his brows tightly furrowed.

"I brought the original diagram of this area's restrictions before we set off, but I didn't expect such extensive alterations here," Evil Lotus replied with a bitter smile. "To restore it exactly as it was would naturally be possible if given enough time. However, Baohua hasn't allotted us that much time. That's why I find it so troublesome."

"If that's the case, then we're truly in big trouble. My own mastery of formation arts isn't high, so I'm afraid I'd be willing but unable to help here," Old Ancestor Green Stone said with a sigh.

"If there's an original diagram of the formation, I might be able to offer some help," Han Li said slowly after pondering for a moment. "Fellow Daoist Baohua only asked us to activate these restrictions as much as possible, not to fully restore them. I'll take a look at the formation diagram to see if there's a way to temporarily activate the restrictions without completely restoring the entire formation."

"Brother Han, you also study the path of formation arrays! If what Fellow Daoist says is true, that would naturally be excellent news!" Evil Lotus exclaimed, delighted by the news. With a flick of her wrist, she tossed over a crystalline jade slip.

Han Li caught it and sent his spiritual sense into it. Indeed, there was an extremely complex formation diagram inside. After a brief, focused examination, he confirmed it was indeed the diagram for the formation here.

For the next period, Han Li and Evil Lotus began researching how to repair the formation. Old Ancestor Green Stone and Daoist Crab went outside the hall to stand guard.

Given Han Li's mastery of formation arts, and with the diagram available, it took only a short half-day for him to devise a repair method. After Evil Lotus listened to Han Li's explanation and carefully considered it several times, she found no issues and immediately nodded with a look of delight. She immediately took out some materials from her storage bracelet, and together with Han Li, they began repairing the gigantic formation in the hall.

Throughout the entire repair process, both Han Li and Evil Lotus were extremely cautious, as if treading on thin ice. After all, a single mistake during the repair could trigger the entire underground palace's restrictions, potentially immediately awakening the Spirit Devouring Moth mother deep within. As a result, the two of them worked diligently in the hall for an entire day and night before finally completing the repair of the entire formation.

When Evil Lotus, with a solemn expression, cast a spell into the formation, the entire hall immediately hummed. Layers of soft white light began to emanate, and an extremely profound wave of energy silently dispersed from the hall, vanishing into thin air.

"Excellent, no problems. Brother Han's plan truly worked." Evil Lotus waited for a while. Seeing no abnormalities, she let out a long breath and said to Han Li with a radiant smile.

"Since there are no issues, all we need to do now is wait for Baohua's message, and then completely activate these restrictions," Han Li said, a faint smile appearing on his face as he surveyed the formation in the hall. "I wonder if the other fellow Daoists will also be able to complete their tasks on time!"

"According to Baohua's plan, the message should arrive at the latest in half a day. In the meantime, let's properly rest and recuperate. We don't know what kind of fierce battle awaits us soon."

Evil Lotus nodded, raised her hand to send out a communication talisman to notify Daoist Crab and Old Ancestor Green Stone outside, then walked to a corner of the hall and sat down cross-legged. Han Li naturally had no objections and also sat down cross-legged in his spot.

Moments later, two startling streaks of light, one green and one silver, shot in from outside. With a flash, they appeared in the other two corners of the hall, also sitting cross-legged on the ground. The four of them sat in the hall, like wooden statues, resting with their eyes closed.

Time flowed by rapidly, and four to five hours passed in the blink of an eye.

Han Li's expression suddenly changed, and he opened his eyes. Not only him, but Evil Lotus, Old Ancestor Green Stone, and the others also opened their eyes with a start.

With a "boom!" the ground trembled without any warning. Then, the entire hall shook violently. After a chaotic flash of light from the ground formation, a hazy white beam of light suddenly shot up from its center, flashing and disappearing into the hall's ceiling without a trace.

At this moment, the entire underground palace world began to shake. Simultaneously, in an extremely hidden area of the underground palace, tall, ancient-looking stone pillars rapidly shot out from underground, forming an eerily vast stone forest due to their dense arrangement.

Looking down from above, these stone pillars astonishingly formed a strange, square-shaped formation diagram. At the center of the formation diagram, there were eight bronze pillars, distinctly different from the ordinary stone pillars. These eight pillars were not only covered in rust, but their surfaces were also inscribed with unknown, mysterious ancient texts. At their tops, spherical light screens pulsed continuously.

Within each light screen, a blood-red ancient lamp was placed. Of these ancient lamps, only one still flickered with a faint yellow flame, while the other seven were cold and appeared to have been extinguished for countless years.

Even stranger, at the very center surrounded by the eight bronze pillars, stood a blood-red altar over ten zhang tall. On it, a pitch-black alms bowl was enshrined, with dark mist coiling around its surface, giving off an extremely sinister aura. Yet, from within the alms bowl, a low, eerie chuckle emanated!

"How could this be possible! We haven't even formally activated the formation yet, so why did the restrictions trigger on their own prematurely?" Evil Lotus cried out, her face turning exceptionally pale.

Old Ancestor Green Stone's face was filled with alarm. Han Li's expression also turned exceptionally grim. Although he didn't know what had happened, it was clear that events had deviated from Baohua's and the others' plans.

"Let's go, something has changed. We don't need to wait for a message here; we must quickly rendezvous with the others," Han Li said with unusual decisiveness after his expression flickered several times. Then, beckoning to Daoist Crab, a burst of green light erupted from his body, and he shot away as a streak of green light. Daoist Crab also remained silent, his escape light flaring up, transforming into a silver rainbow that swiftly followed.