Chapter 91: Attempt
Inside a secret chamber in the courtyard that Han Li was staying, the ground and the table were littered with scrunched-up balls of paper, presenting a rather messy sight.
On these scrunched up pieces of paper were all types of complex and profound array runes, and Han Li was seated beside the table, in the process of rapidly inscribing runes down onto more pieces of paper.
Moments later, he raised his head and heaved a long sigh as he set down the brush in his hand.
Recently, he had been racking his brains, tapping into all of his memories and expertise in the art of arrays in an attempt to remove the chains of laws on his nascent soul, but unfortunately, he hadn't made any substantial progress.
Even though he had designed several restrictions that looked as if they could remove those chains of laws, they were only feasible in theory, and after careful consideration, none of them were deemed to be viable in practice.
The biggest problem was that he knew far too little about the eight chains of laws that his nascent soul was bound by. If he could find out what type of power of laws was imbued within these chains, perhaps there would be a sliver of hope.
Right at this moment, a streak of white light flew in from outside before transforming into a voice transmission talisman.
Han Li drew the voice transmission talisman into his grasp, then injected his spiritual sense into it, upon which a hint of elation appeared on his face as he stood up and left the room.
Shortly thereafter, he returned with a jade box in his hand, within which were roughly a dozen jade slips.
He pulled out one of the jade slips before pressing it against his own forehead and injecting his spiritual sense into it.
Moments later, his brows furrowed slightly as he set down the jade slip, then repeated the process with another one of the jade slips.
Soon, most of the jade slips in the box had already been examined, but his brows were only furrowing tighter and tighter.
These jade slips did indeed all contain secret techniques related to seals on nascent souls, and they were more advanced than the ones that been previously brought to him, but they still weren't useful at all for his current predicament. Then again, this wasn't really much of a surprise. The resources on Dark Veil Island were far from abundant, and this was most likely already the limit of what they could do for him.
He hadn't placed much hope in Luo Feng anyway, so he wasn't overly disappointed.
Looks like I'll have to make some time to pay Black Wind Island a visit.
With that in mind, he picked up another azure jade slip before pressing it to his own forehead.
However, this time, after a brief inspection, his expression changed slightly, and he examined the contents of this jade slip for a long time before finally setting it down as a hint of excitement appeared in his eyes.
The jade slip contained a secret technique by the name of Origin Separation Heavenly Refinement, and it was a secret technique designed to seal magic power rather than nascent souls, but after some deliberation, Han Li discovered that the secret technique shared many similarities with the eight chains that his nascent soul was bound by.
At the end of the jade slip was a note, which stated that this secret technique was derived from another secret technique by the name of the Origin Separation Law Chains.
"Origin Separation Law Chains... Could it be that those are the very same chains as the one's on my nascent soul?" Han Li murmured to himself.
He couldn't be sure of this, but just that notion alone was enough to make this secret technique worthy of careful consideration. Through studying this secret technique, perhaps he would be able to find a way to remove the chains of laws on his nascent soul.
Han Li picked up the rest of the jade slips before inspecting their contents one by one, but unfortunately, they didn't yield anything useful to him.
He took a deep breath as he tossed all of the other jade slips into his storage bracelet, then picked up the jade slip that contained the Origin Separation Heavenly Refinement secret technique before pressing it against his own forehead again.
Several days later, Luo Feng received an instruction from Han Li to gather a list of materials, and that came as quite a relief to Luo Feng, who had been feeling rather uneasy.
Even though the materials that he had been asked to gather were all quite expensive, thankfully, the required quantities weren't very large, so gathering them wasn't going to be much of a problem.
……
Half a month later.
A string of dull thumps suddenly rang out from within the peaceful courtyard.
Immediately thereafter, around a dozen pillars of white light rose up all around the courtyard, then formed a white light barrier to encompass the entire area.
After that, a vast expanse of yellow light appeared around the courtyard, forming a yellow light barrier to join the white one.
A sharp screeching sound then suddenly rang out as seven or eight large silver flags appeared around the courtyard, releasing countless silver runes that formed a huge cloud of silver mist, which encompassed the entire area within a radius of several hundred feet around the courtyard.
At this point, the sun was already setting, and the entire Dark Veil Island was basked in an orange afterglow.
Luo Feng and the elders of the island were standing on a tall platform, looking at the courtyard from afar, which had already been inundated by silver mist, and surprised looks had appeared on all of their faces.
"What is Senior Liu doing causing such a commotion?" The question had been raised by Luo Hanliang, the elder who had been sent to Black Wind Island in search of the secret techniques that Han Li had requested.
"We don't need to try and figure out what Senior Liu is doing, and we certainly shouldn't be asking questions," Luo Feng said in a stern voice.
Luo Hanliang still had a perplexed look on his face, but he replied, "Yes, Chief."
"Elders, even though there have been no further attacks from the Cold Crystal Race, this period of peace is only temporary. On top of that, we're all aware that the Cold Crystal Race isn't the only power targeting our island.
“Right now, it's no exaggeration to say that the fate of our entire tribe rests entirely on the shoulders of Senior Liu, so we absolutely cannot afford to do anything that may induce his ire," Luo Feng said with a serious expression as he turned to face the elders.
The elders hurriedly spoke up in agreement.
Luo Feng was silent for a moment, then continued, "Pass down my orders. From this day forth, all entry points into our island are to be sealed off. At the same time, we must increase the number of people patrolling all parts of the island at all times. Some suspicious individuals have appeared on our island of late, and we must keep a closer eye on them. We absolutely cannot afford to have Senior Liu's identity exposed."
The elders immediately accepted their orders before quickly flying away, leaving only Luo Feng behind. He continued to watch Han Li's courtyard from afar, and it was unclear what he was thinking.
Meanwhile, a massive array was slowly operating on the ground in the courtyard. Countless intertwining silver patterns on the ground were flashing erratically while fluctuating in brightness, and there were seven silver pillars in the surrounding area, all of which were also riddled with runes and positioned in the configuration of the Big Dipper. It was a setup that was very similar to the array on the Origin Realm Temple's Star Gathering Platform.
Han Li was seated with his legs crossed at the center of the array in a completely still manner.
Time slowly passed by, and the sun soon completely set, plunging the entire island into darkness.
On this night, the stars were particularly bright, and they were flashing incessantly.
Han Li took a glance up at the night sky, and a faint smile appeared on his face as he began to chant an incantation, then released an incantation seal onto the array with a sweep of his hand.
The array immediately began to radiate scintillating light, and bursts of enormous spiritual power fluctuations surged through the area. Even though he had set up three layers of restrictions in the courtyard, they were still unable to completely mask the fluctuations.
At this point, Han Li had no attention to spare to such trivial matters as he made a rapid series of hand seals.
The operation of the array sped up considerably, and the Big Dipper in the night sky abruptly brightened as they released beams of bright starlight down from the heavens, converging toward the courtyard to form seven pillars of starlight.
Instead of landing on Han Li, these pillars of starlight landed upon the seven silver stone pillars in the array.
All of the array patterns on the stone pillars instantly lit up, and the pillars themselves also took on a glittering and translucent appearance.
As more and more starlight continued to rain down from above, the patterns on the stone pillars glowed brighter and brighter, and all of a sudden, they began to move as if they were living creatures, forming seven eye-shaped designs.
Immediately thereafter, a string of seven dull thumps rang out in succession as a beam of starlight that was roughly as thick as a human thumb shot out of the seven eye-shaped diagrams, then injected themselves into seven parts of Han Li's body, including his lower abdomen, his chest, and his glabella.
Han Li's brows furrowed slightly as a pained look flashed across his face, and seven specks of blue starlight appeared on his lower abdomen.
The starpower that was being injected into his body flashed slightly, then transformed into a series of thin silver threads that began to flow through his meridians.
At the same time, the magic power in his dantian also began to slowly circulate through his meridians.
The thin threads of starlight and Han Li's magic power flowed through his meridians in unison, but no conflict arose between them, and they were able to coexist in peace.
Han Li took a deep breath as he made a hand seal, and white light began to radiate from his hands.
Countless tiny white runes then appeared in his meridians amid a burst of fluctuations, and his magic power and the starpower in hi sbody were instantly encompassed within these white runes, causing them to brighten in unison before fusing together.
As a result, they formed a series of bright silver threads of light that were as bright as lightning, and those threads of light began to rapidly surge through his meridians while releasing a unique aura.
These threads of light were formed by a fusion of starpower and Han Li's magic power through the use of a secret technique, and they had been created with the express purpose of removing the chains in his nascent soul.
"I hope this works," Han Li murmured to himself, following which the threads of silver light flowed through his meridians before gathering his dantian, where they intertwined to form a silver net of light around the nascent soul before instantly closing in from all directions.
Right at this moment, Han Li activated his Spirit Refinement Technique, and his vast spiritual sense instantly filled his entire dantian, forming countless translucent threads of spiritual sense that shot toward his nascent soul through the gaps in the silver net of light.
Right as the silver net and the threads of spiritual sense were about to make contact with the nascent soul, a faint buzzing sound rang out, and those eight black chains emerged on the surface of the nascent soul's body amid a flash of black light.
The chains then began to tremble violently as if they were sensing a threat, releasing a vast expanse of black mist throughout the area.
The silver net of light and the threads of spiritual sense crashed into the black mist amid a string of cracks and pops, and both sides were rapidly whittling away at one another.
After an indeterminate period of time, as more and more silver threads of light and threads of spiritual sense continued to emerge, the black mist was gradually torn apart.
Finally, some of the threads of spiritual sense and silver light were able to tear through the mist before striking the black chains.
The black chains shuddered violently, and the black light glowing on their surfaces quickly faded.
A hint of elation welled up in Han Li's heart upon seeing this.
It seemed that the silver threads of light were effective on the black chains.
With that in mind, his threads of spiritual sense transformed into a series of translucent blades at his behest, then struck the black chains with vicious might.
A string of loud clangs rang out, and the translucent blades instantly shattered into specks of light upon making contact with the black chains, but the trembling of the chains was also becoming more and more pronounced.
Right at this moment, the eight black chains rustled violently in unison, clattering together audibly before abruptly lighting up.
Countless tiny black runes then emerged from the chains to ward off the threads of spiritual sense.
The threads of silver light were also enveloped by countless black runes before seemingly melting away, and the black chains, which had dimmed slightly, quickly returned to their original state.