Chapter 44: Origin Separation Law Chains
Meanwhile, on the Cloudrise Peak of the Spirit Flame Mountain Range.
The interior of a certain secret chamber in a secluded cave abode was completely illuminated by dazzling white radiance.
A huge human-shaped white cocoon was situated at the center of the secret chamber, and its surface was riddled with thin threads of white light, forming countless layers that were stacked up on top of one another.
All of a sudden, the array on the ground began to glow brightly, particularly the nebula diagram beneath the white cocoon, filling the entire secret chamber with even brighter radiance.
The threads of light on the surface of the white cocoon instantly began to squirm incessantly as if they had sprung to life, and immediately thereafter, countless white runes appeared on the cocoon before expanding at an incredible speed.
Moments later, the cocoon exploded with an earth-shattering boom, revealing a young man who was seated with his legs crossed and his eyes closed.
The young man's upper body was completely bare, but there was a cloud of white qi all around him, and it was none other than Han Li.
All of a sudden, he opened his eyes, which were flashing with blue light, and an astonishingly powerful aura erupted out of his body to dispel the white qi around him.
Five dazzling specks of blue light could be seen on his chest and abdomen, each of which contained a starlight rune that was revolving and shimmering incessantly.
The flesh, tendons, and bones under his skin were also glowing faintly, making it appear as if his body were holding countless stars.
A short while later, as the starlight runes gradually faded, the radiance emanating from his body also slowly disappeared.
Han Li exhaled deeply, and a hint of irrepressible excitement welled up in his heart.
After two years of grueling cultivation, he had finally successfully manifested a fifth profound aperture, mastering the fifth level of the Big Dipper Origin Arts.
The progress that he was making was hundreds of times faster than what the average cultivator could expect, but what excited him the most was that his physical injuries had finally been completely healed, and his spiritual sense had also been restored to around a third of what it had been at his peak.
As he assessed these changes in his body, he flipped a hand over to produce a light blue spirit herb that resembled a piece of ginseng, then placed it into his mouth and began chewing.
Even though his dantian was slowly being replenished with magic power, a wry smile appeared on his face.
With the help of the Heaven Controlling Vial, he had already accumulated quite a large collection of Cloud Crane Herbs that were 500 to 600 years old during the past two years.
In his current state, this was already enough, and anything beyond that would simply go to waste.
Not long ago, he had conducted an experiment, maturing a Cloud Crane Herb all the way to 10,000 years old before consuming it. However, as soon as the magic power yielded by the herb went beyond the Nascent Soul Stage threshold, the superfluous magic power simply dissipated without providing any benefit to the recovery of his cultivation base.
Han Li shook his head to rid himself of that train of thought, then closed his eyes to inspect his own internal condition. As a result, he discovered that the mist within his dantian had clearly become far thinner and more sparse.
This was a very encouraging sight, and he quickly tracked down his nascent soul using the golden light that it was giving off, then projected his spiritual sense toward it. The nascent soul was still in its original posture and remained in a state of slumber.
Han Li hesitated momentarily upon seeing this, then manifested a series of thin threads of spiritual sense in his dantian, which slowly approached the nascent soul at his behest.
As soon as the spiritual sense threads drew close to the nascent soul, they instantly accelerated, piercing directly toward it like a storm of steel needles.
Right at this moment, a resounding boom rang out as an arc of black light swept out of the nascent soul's body, keeping all of the spiritual sense threads at bay.
Han Li's body shuddered, and he gave a muffled groan as his dantian churned violently.
After some more hesitation, he gritted his teeth before turning to his Spirit Refinement Technique.
His spiritual sense instantly filled the entirety of his dantian, and the number of spiritual sense threads increased dramatically, forming a formidable wave that struck the arc of black light with devastating force.
The arc of black light only managed to withstand the assault momentarily before dissipating into a plume of black smoke.
The wave of spiritual sense threads instantly inundated the miniature golden figure, and Han Li's spiritual sense was finally able to enter his nascent soul.
However, the sight that he was greeted by was far from a pleasant one.
There were eight inky-black chains that were glowing faintly spreading throughout the inside of his nascent soul's body.
These chains ran through the entirety of the nascent soul, with some of them connected to the nascent soul's limbs, while others were linked directly to its head. All of the black chains had faint black mist permeating around them, giving them an extremely peculiar appearance.
What was even more astonishing to Han Li was that these black chains seemed to be imbued with some type of unknown power of laws.
Han Li's brows furrowed slightly, and he manipulated his spiritual sense to form a small ax, which was swung down upon one of the black chains.
A loud clang rang out as the sharp edge of the ax struck the chain, and it shuddered violently before being repelled and sent flying back by some type of inexplicable force. As it was sent flying back through the air, it disintegrated into specks of light that quickly vanished.
Han Li was struck by a slight rush of dizziness as a result, but after a brief rest, he decided to try again.
Under the manipulation of his spiritual sense, a large amount of his spiritual power was transformed into a cloud of smoke that drifted toward the black chain before adhering to it in an attempt to melt away the chain.
However, in the instant that the smoke came into contact with the chain, the latter immediately began to rustle rapidly, releasing wisps of black mist that quickly enveloped the smoke before devouring it.
Han Li was still unwilling to give up and continued with his experimentation.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the Immortal Realm.
On a vast desert with a dark and overcast sky, fierce wind was howling incessantly like the wailing of countless ghosts, sweeping up clouds of sand and dust that filled the entire air.
In the distance, several dozen sand tornadoes were positioned next to one another to form a yellow wall that stretched all the way up into the heavens. The wall of tornadoes was moving forward, and as it did so, it was becoming wider and wider.
However, once the wall of tornadoes reached a point that was roughly five kilometers away from the center of the desert, it abruptly disintegrated, sending sand flying in all directions as if it had crashed into an immovable mountain, even though it clearly hadn't encountered any obstacles.
At the center of the palace stood a majestic hall that was over 100 feet tall. The entire hall was of an earthy yellow color, and there were no embellishments at all on the outside. It was as if it had risen up from the sand of the desert, and it was giving off a barren and archaic aura.
The interior of the hall was quite large, with several dozen thick square pillars distributed throughout. There were around a dozen braziers hanging on the walls, and they were giving off a faint green glow that gave the entire hall a dark and sinister appearance. With the dim light provided by these braziers, one could just barely make out a large black chair at the center of the hall.
What was rather strange was that despite the howling wind outside, no sound could be heard at all inside the hall.
On the large black chair sat a thin middle-aged man, who was in the process of raising one of his shriveled hands, causing the black chains around his arm to clank and rustle.
The man had a set of sunken cheeks and a dry and withered face. His mouth was slightly agape, revealing rows of white teeth. He was wearing a white cloak that left large sections of his purplish-green skin exposed, giving him the appearance of a discolored zombie.
Upon closer inspection, it could be seen that there was a series of thick black chains wrapped around his body beneath the cloak, and the chains extended in all directions, filling virtually the entire hall.
All of a sudden, the zombie-like man's tightly shut eyes abruptly sprang open, and a hint of surprise appeared on his wizened and discolored face.
"Come to me!" the zombie-like man commanded in an extremely hoarse voice, almost as if his throat were also filled with wind and sand.
The chains on the ground not far in front of him rustled momentarily, and an earthy yellow bulge slowly rose up from the ground, then transformed into an imposing man wearing a suit of archaic copper armor.
The man's face was dark green in color, almost as if there were a layer of copper rust growing over his skin, and he immediately fell to one knee. "How may I be of service, Patriarch?"
"In the past 1,000 years, have any of my disciples used the Origin Separation Law Chains that I've bestowed on them?" the zombie-like man asked.
"300 years ago, Master Fang Ban once used his chains to kill an enemy while serving on duty for the Immortal Palace. Aside from that, no one else has used their chains," the armored man immediately replied.
"I see," the zombie-like man mused, and after a brief pause, he instructed, "Send a message to Fang Ban. Tell him that the enemy that he killed with those chains 300 years ago is still alive, and they've reactivated the power of laws imbued within those chains."
"Yes, Patriarch," the armored man replied.
"Also, tell him to eradicate this enemy as soon as possible. Otherwise, I'm going to intervene in 100 years and recover the power of laws in those chains," the zombie-like man added in an expressionless manner as he slowly closed his eyes.