Chapter 843: Altar

Volume Six: Spirit Treasures of *A Mortal's Journey to Immortality*

Moments later, the small azure cauldron shimmered brilliantly within the infant flame, emitting a scorching heat. The entire secret chamber began to churn with heat waves as the temperature rapidly increased.

A cold glint flickered in Han Li’s eyes. He raised a hand, and a spell flew towards the small cauldron.

With a soft "thud," a streak of azure light shot up from the cauldron. The lid flew off by itself, made a single rotation, and then hovered motionlessly above the small cauldron.

Seeing this, Han Li quickly pointed at a square jade box on the ground before him. The lid of the box vanished silently, revealing a dark, tuber-like object inside, several inches in size and somewhat flattened.

Han Li gazed at the object for a moment, then beckoned with his hand. The tuber-like object immediately flew out of the jade box and hovered in the air, about a *zhang* above the ground.

Han Li calmly flicked a finger, and an azure flash passed by. A fifth of the tuber silently broke off and fell.

He then flicked his sleeve, and an azure glow shot out from the cuff, enveloping the fallen piece before rolling and tossing it into the small cauldron.

Next, he sent another spell towards the tuber, and it immediately dropped back into the jade box.

Han Li then disregarded the object and cast a spell to open another long wooden box, revealing a section of an unknown spiritual herb stem, dripping with vibrant green.

He similarly cast a spell, using a sword gleam to cut off a small section, which he then placed into the cauldron.

Following the alchemical formula, Han Li carefully selected portions of the various ingredients before him and placed them into the cauldron. Finally, he took out a single Spirit Candle Fruit.

An azure sword light flashed, dividing it into four parts. He took one part and placed it into the cauldron.

Only then did Han Li gently point at the unmoving cauldron lid.

The cauldron lid descended directly, sealing the small cauldron tightly.

Han Li let out a soft breath. He opened his mouth again, and the azure infant flame spewed forth. The azure flames immediately surged, and the room's temperature increased significantly once more.

At this point, staring at the small cauldron in the flames, Han Li's fingers danced ceaselessly. Spell after spell continuously flew out, all striking the small cauldron without fail.

Before long, rumbling sounds began to emanate from within the small cauldron, and the sound grew progressively louder.

Seeing this, Han Li raised his eyebrows. The speed of his hand incantations changed, suddenly becoming erratic—sometimes slow, sometimes fast.

The thunderous sounds within the cauldron also fluctuated, sometimes high, sometimes low, appearing extraordinarily bizarre.

Han Li’s expression was impassive, but a blue light flickered in his eyes, as if he could see through the cauldron walls and observe the pill’s condition inside. He appeared devoid of emotion.

Time passed by, little by little.

While Han Li was engrossed in bitter pill refinement, at the altar in the basin, the Ghost Spirit Sect一行 people finally ascended to the top of the hundreds-of-feet-high altar.

It was unknown what the ancient cultivators who built the altar were thinking, but the restrictions on the altar steps were truly abnormal. Starting from the base of the altar, almost every time they climbed a certain height, the gravitational force exerted on them would immediately increase significantly.

Therefore, from the base to the middle of the altar, the group slowly took over two hours. However, walking from the middle of the altar to the top took a full day and night, even forcing them to rest for half a day midway to recover their spiritual power.

The Nascent Soul cultivators, such as the Ghost Spirit Sect Master, fared relatively well. But the three Core Formation disciples found it extremely difficult to reach the top. By the last dozen steps, every step they took felt as if a thousand catties of force were pressing down on them. These Core Formation cultivators practically had to inch their way to that spot.

Of course, the most relaxed among them was naturally Wei Wuya.

From beginning to end, the restrictions seemed to have no significant effect on this late Nascent Soul cultivator; he never showed any sign of strain. Even Wang Tiangu and the others, when they reached the final section, could only walk a step and stop a step, their faces looking considerably grim.

Naturally, Wei Wuya's performance caused the Ghost Spirit Sect Master to feel secretly alarmed, and he couldn't help but regard Wei Wuya with even higher esteem.

Although their group had varying levels of cultivation, the Ghost Spirit Sect Master deliberately ensured they ascended to the top of the altar simultaneously.

The moment they set foot on top, the feeling of being as heavy as Mount Tai immediately vanished without a trace. The few Ghost Spirit Sect disciples finally breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Although they had protective spiritual light, walking all the way from the base of the altar still left them with aching backs, sore legs, and weak bodies.

They had not experienced this feeling, common only to mortals, for a very long time. After all, normally, they could reach any destination with a mere stomp of their feet, so they had not suffered such discomfort in ages.

Wang Tiangu and the others paid no attention to all this. The moment they set foot here, they immediately began looking around.

The area was over a hundred *zhang* wide, with the ground paved in exceptionally clear white jade bricks. In the center was a huge altar table, six or seven *zhang* long, made of exquisite emerald jade. The rest of the space was empty, but in each of the four corners of the altar stood a tall bluestone pillar.

These stone pillars were about ten *zhang* high, and the surface of each pillar was inscribed with dense, intricate runes and incantations that appeared obscure, ancient, and difficult to comprehend. At the top of each stone pillar crouched a lifelike Qilin stone statue, each in a different pose, emitting a faint spiritual light, seemingly extraordinary.

Such simple objects were naturally surveyed by the group in a fleeting glance.

Wei Wuya found nothing more noteworthy, and his brow couldn't help but furrow. He instinctively cast a sideways glance at the Ghost Spirit Sect Master.

The Ghost Spirit Sect Master, however, was gazing up at the sky, his hands clasped behind his back, motionless, as if he had seen something interesting.

Wei Wuya was puzzled and likewise glanced at the sky. High above, the sky was a blood-red expanse, while lower down, various colored glows floated and drifted. Aside from a slightly greater number of these wisps of light, there was nothing else unusual.

"Sect Master Wang! We are here now. Where is the entrance to the Spirit Mists Garden?" Wei Wuya asked unceremoniously and directly.

"No need to be anxious, Fellow Daoist Wei. The entrance to the Spirit Mists Garden is naturally concealed by restrictions. But the method to break the restrictions is only known by the spirit in that painting. We will know once we summon him and ask," the Ghost Spirit Sect Master replied unhurriedly.

"So that's how it is. It seems this is also one of the agreements you made with that Senior Cang Kun's avatar," Wei Wuya said slowly, his expression shifting.

"Hehe! Fellow Daoist Wei is a clever man. This matter does involve some conditions I promised to the other party. Please wait a moment, Fellow Daoist; I will summon it now," the Ghost Spirit Sect Master said with a smile, reaching into his sleeve, and the silver-white scroll appeared in his hand.

Wang Tiangu's eyes flickered, and he walked over without a word.

This time, the Ghost Spirit Sect Master had barely thrown out and unfurled the scroll when a ball of green light actively flew out of the painting, immediately transforming into the scholar's form.

"Yes, this is it. I never thought I would actually return here one day." As Senior Cang Kun's avatar spirit materialized, he ignored everyone and instead excitedly surveyed his surroundings, looking deeply moved.

"As per our agreement, I have brought you to the altar here. As you said, this place is the center of the Devilfall Valley, the entrance to the Spirit Mists Garden. Now it's time for you to fulfill your promise and open the entrance to the Spirit Mists Garden," the Ghost Spirit Sect Master said coldly, only speaking with indifference after the scholar's expression had somewhat recovered.

"You've already placed a restriction on me, so do you fear I would trick you? The entrance to the Spirit Mists Garden is above the altar. I haven't lied to you about that. It's just that the restriction is a bit strange. I must personally cast a spell to activate it." After saying this, the scholar also looked up at the sky, glanced at the glowing clouds, rubbed his hands together, and a gray-white fireball appeared in his palms. With another flick of his hand, the fireball shot directly towards the sky.

When the fire ball reached the clouds, it mysteriously vanished into thin air.

Seeing this, the scholar nodded, then turned to look at the four stone pillars around him, no longer wasting time. He said,

"A few fellow Daoists, please inject some spiritual power into the four stone pillars. Then, the task of breaking the restriction below can be left to me."

Upon hearing this, Wang Tiangu and the other two exchanged glances. The Ghost Spirit Sect Master hesitated for a moment, then said in a low voice:

"Alright, we will follow your words, Fellow Daoist. The three of you go to those stone pillars. Junior Brother Wang, I will also need your help with the task below."

"Understood, Sect Master!"

The three disciples immediately bowed in agreement, and Wang Tiangu did not hesitate, taking a few steps towards one of the stone pillars.

Under the Ghost Spirit Sect Master's command, the four individuals each placed a palm on a stone pillar and slowly injected spiritual power into it, transferring the power through the pillars to the stone statues at their tops.

Before long, the four stone pillars began to hum and tremble slightly.

Meanwhile, the Qilin stone statues at the top, with spiritual light flickering on their bodies, had their impassive eyes suddenly light up with blood-red light, as if they were about to come alive.

Seeing this situation, Wei Wuya vaguely felt that he had heard about the circumstances of the four stone pillars somewhere before, but he couldn't recall it at the moment. A pensive look appeared on his face.

The Ghost Spirit Sect Master stood still, silently watching this scene.

Suddenly, the Qilin stone statues simultaneously and slowly raised their heads and opened their large mouths, within which five-colored light flickered, as if something was about to spray out.

The ethereal scholar, meanwhile, moved.

He raised both hands, flicked his fingers, and four hazy gray spells shot out, striking the stone statues.

Immediately, the objects within the Qilin's mouths expanded and contracted, then continuously shot out.

Four five-colored light pillars soared into the sky, converging at a single point high above. Then, the light intensified greatly, and a five-colored light sphere, *zhang*-sized, appeared in the high sky.

Following this, the space near the light sphere twisted and deformed. After an earth-shattering roar, it suddenly exploded.

The five-colored spiritual light was blindingly dazzling, momentarily obscuring the entire sky above the altar. The astonishing spiritual energy fluctuations swept like a raging tide towards the cultivators on the altar.

Even a cultivator like Wei Wuya, upon sensing the intensity of the spiritual energy fluctuations, couldn't help but change his expression. The others couldn't help but retreat several steps, hurriedly activating the spiritual energy within their bodies to resist.

Fortunately, this explosion process was very short. In a blink of an eye, the radiant light retracted, and the spiritual energy dispersed. The Ghost Spirit Sect and others finally felt relieved and quickly looked up at the sky.

Upon clearly seeing the situation in the sky, everyone was greatly astonished.

Wei Wuya's face turned ashen. He sharply turned and stared at the scholar, saying with an icy tone:

"This is what you called the entrance to the Spirit Mists Garden..."