Chapter 511: 柳暗花明

Volume 4: Winds Rise Overseas

Han Li took the ring and, without hesitation, slipped it onto one of his fingers.

The old man smiled faintly at this.

"Alright, you may enter the city now. You'll have about half a day of free time during the day, but the rest of the time, the entire city will be under martial law. When the great battle begins, the ring will automatically send you information to summon you! Just wait in your cave dwelling." With that, the old man slowly closed his eyes and said no more.

Han Li gazed deeply at the old man for a moment, then walked straight into the city.

Upon entering the city gate, the streets of Tianxing City were sparsely populated. Only occasionally could one spot a cultivator or two flying overhead. Most mortals had taken shelter in their homes, leaving a desolate atmosphere.

Han Li's expression remained calm, but he secretly let out a sigh of relief.

From the looks of it, the city's market was most likely closed. If he hadn't prepared the necessary items in advance on Nanming Island, he would probably be in immense trouble right now.

Han Li chuckled softly, then transformed into a streak of azure light and flew into the sky, heading directly for his cave dwelling on the Sacred Mountain.

As he passed the market at the foot of the Sacred Mountain, Han Li couldn't help but glance down.

Indeed, all the shops were closed, not a soul in sight. Han Li shook his head lightly and didn't linger, flying directly to the thirty-ninth floor of the Sacred Mountain.

Upon entering the Sacred Mountain area, Han Li acutely sensed that the security was far stricter than in the outer city. There were over a dozen waves of divine sense secretly observing him. Fortunately, once these divine senses swept over the yellow ring on his hand, they automatically withdrew, and no one appeared to question him.

What made Han Li frown was that among them, there was even the divine sense of a late Core Formation cultivator.

Han Li pretended not to notice and flew directly to his cave dwelling.

The restrictions outside his cave dwelling were exactly as he had left them, completely unchanged.

However, after standing outside the restrictions and staring blankly for a while, Han Li let out a long sigh.

This outing hadn't been particularly long, yet he had repeatedly found himself on the brink of death, even to the point of having to abandon this cave dwelling where he had lived for nearly a century.

This truly made Han Li a little wistful.

He silently disengaged the restrictions with his token and slowly walked inside.

Everything inside the dwelling remained naturally as it was.

Han Li first went to check on the insect room, which was his primary concern, and felt truly relieved when he saw that all his Gold Devouring Beetles were safe and sound.

However, he immediately placed all the Gold Devouring Beetles into a spirit beast pouch he had prepared earlier. Then he went to the medicinal garden, harvested all the spiritual herbs, and stored them in his storage pouch.

After completing all this, Han Li breathed a temporary sigh of relief and slowly walked to the bedroom. He lay on the bed and began to carefully ponder his future plans.

He needed to kill a fellow cultivator of the same rank from the Anti-Star Alliance to use the teleportation array to the Outer Star Seas. This condition didn't seem particularly difficult for him.

However, Han Li was concerned that before the war even began, Star Palace might learn that he possessed the Void Sky Cauldron. After all, he couldn't estimate when those old monsters would emerge from the Void Sky Hall.

If those old monsters were to reveal this information, he would undoubtedly be doomed.

Besides this, he had another worry.

Although unlikely, he also feared that even if he met the conditions, the high-ranking officials of Star Palace might play some trick, leaving him unable to use the teleportation array.

After all, even if the higher-ups reneged on their promise, what could these cultivators do to them?

Therefore, even though he had impassively agreed to Star Palace's conditions at the city gate, he had never intended to passively await Star Palace's summons from the beginning.

He planned to scout the security around the teleportation array to see if he could secretly teleport out. If the security was truly lax, he would naturally seize the opportunity to slip away.

As for whether this would completely offend Star Palace, that behemoth, he figured he would eventually be targeted by those Nascent Soul old monsters anyway. He seemed to have no reason to worry about this matter.

Comforting himself with these thoughts, Han Li drifted off to sleep on the bed.

After several twists and turns, he was indeed quite exhausted, both physically and mentally.

The next day, Han Li woke up feeling refreshed.

The sky was bright, and he slowly walked out of his cave dwelling, flew into the air, and looked around.

Although there were still far fewer cultivators than usual, their numbers were vastly different from when he entered the city yesterday.

It seemed that during this time, one could move about freely.

Han Li didn't hesitate. He summoned his遁光 (flight light/aura) and first circled the vicinity. After confirming that no one was monitoring or paying attention to him, he headed straight for the fiftieth floor.

The security on the path was outwardly relaxed but inwardly tight. Before long, Han Li flew above the Starry Sky Hall, where the teleportation array was located.

He didn't pause, merely passing over the hall as if he were just passing by.

But in that brief moment, Han Li's divine sense quietly penetrated the hall.

At first, it was smooth, intruding into most of the outer hall with almost no obstruction. However, as his divine sense approached the inner hall, a layer of cyan and yellow restrictions suddenly appeared.

Fortunately, Han Li reacted quickly and immediately withdrew his divine sense before truly triggering the restriction.

At the same time, his expression darkened.

Although he estimated that this level of restriction shouldn't block the forceful intrusion of his divine sense, doing so would alert the cultivators inside the hall, and Han Li would not do something so foolish.

In the air, his brows furrowed.

Due to the restrictions, he hadn't detected the number or cultivation levels of the cultivators guarding the hall. However, Nascent Soul cultivators shouldn't be present here. At most, there would be Core Formation cultivators of mid or late stage, which would be quite remarkable!

After all, compared to other important locations, the Starry Sky Hall wouldn't receive too much attention from Star Palace's higher-ups.

After flying a sufficient distance, Han Li made a wide circle, deviated slightly from his original route, and then flew back again.

This time, as he passed by one side of the Starry Sky Hall, Han Li, still somewhat unwilling, released his divine sense again to see if he could find any flaws in the hall's restrictions.

However, he found no loopholes in the restrictions, but a rough, hoarse voice suddenly reached his ears.

"Fellow Daoist Zhang, how is the situation? What did that fellow guarding the teleportation array say? Is three thousand spirit stones per person still not enough? That's the maximum we can offer."

Upon hearing this, Han Li was first surprised, then his heart stirred.

His gaze quickly swept towards two cultivators flying at low altitude in the distance, and his flight speed immediately slowed down.

These two cultivators were a black-faced man in a gray robe, who appeared to be middle-aged, and a thin, sallow-faced man. Both were at the mid-Foundation Establishment stage.

The question he had just heard was asked by the black-faced middle-aged man to the thin man, with a hint of anxiety.

The two were being careful and secretive, whispering alone in an unpopulated area, but under the cover of Han Li's powerful divine sense, every word was heard clearly.

"Hush! Be careful. Let's use voice transmission for this matter." The thin man nervously glanced around, while Han Li, being extremely alert, instantly concealed his figure and immediately entered a state of breath concealment. Naturally, the thin man found nothing. At the same time, Han Li immediately withdrew his divine sense from other areas and focused it entirely on these two, preparing to forcibly eavesdrop on their voice transmission.

This was only possible because Han Li's divine sense far surpassed theirs, allowing him to do so without them realizing. Otherwise, other Core Formation cultivators would need to combine several rare, top-tier secret techniques to potentially eavesdrop on their voice transmission.

"Although he and I have a distant relative connection, privately letting people into the Outer Star Seas carries a significant risk. He said, unless it's five thousand spirit stones per person, don't even think about it. And this is only because we're Foundation Establishment cultivators, more or less expendable to Star Palace. If it were a Core Formation cultivator, he wouldn't let a single one go, no matter how many spirit stones you offered." The thin man said with a bitter smile, somewhat helplessly, through voice transmission.

"Five thousand? He really takes us for fat sheep. We're just rogue Foundation Establishment cultivators; where are we supposed to get that many spirit stones?" The black-faced middle-aged man growled with a grim expression, though he at least remembered to use voice transmission.

"But staying in the Inner Seas is too dangerous. We rogue cultivators could be drawn into this great calamity at any time. When our lives are gone, what use are spirit stones? After all, we've estimated that Star Palace and the Anti-Star Alliance are quite evenly matched in strength, and the battle could last for several years, even decades. I don't want to live in fear, hiding and dodging every day. As for spirit stones, I believe we all have quite a few precious materials hidden away, right? We can barely scrape enough together to serve as payment. He'll even grant me that favor." The thin man sighed and advised.

"No way! Are we supposed to lose everything just to teleport to the Outer Star Seas? I refuse to do that!" The black-faced middle-aged man shook his head repeatedly, like a miser.

"Forget it. Let's see what the others decide on this matter," the thin man said, seemingly equally troubled and somewhat unwilling.

(There will be another chapter tonight. The weather lately has been really strange, alternating between cold and hot. I accidentally caught a fever again, which is very frustrating. Everyone, please be more careful, wear more layers when needed. Don't catch it too.)