Chapter 173: Reality or Illusion

Chapter 173: Reality or Illusion

A burst of rippling silver light appeared within the mist, and a series of beautiful palaces and pavilions emerged, while gorgeous white jade arched bridges suddenly appeared to connect the mountains in the mountain range, giving the area the appearance of an immortal paradise.

As soon as this strange setting appeared, Fang Pan arrived on the scene before instantly drawing to a halt.

He looked down at the extremely life-like palaces and pavilions down below, and he harrumphed coldly, "Looks like you haven't just been sitting around, doing nothing for the past half a year. Let me see what other tricks you have up your sleeve!"

As soon as his voice trailed off, he swooped down toward the palaces, plunging headfirst into the mist before landing on the summit of one of the mountains.

He then closed his eyes, only to reopen them a moment later as a hint of bewilderment appeared on his face.

He discovered that he was suddenly unable to detect Han Li's exact location. Instead, he could only roughly sense that Han Li was somewhere nearby.

A cold look appeared on his face as his body began to blur, following which six identical clones flew out.

The seven Fang Pans then split up and shot forth in seven different directions as streaks of azure light.

The seven streaks of azure light traversed back and forth through the area, then returned to their original starting point not long thereafter, having failed to track down their target.

Right at this moment, one of the Fang Pans suddenly noticed something, and he immediately crouched down before laying a palm against the ground.

"This is... an array within an array!" he murmured to himself with tightly furrowed brows as he withdrew his palm before rising to his feet.

As soon as this realization was made, the seven Fang Pans immediately formed a circle with their backs facing one another.

All seven of them then lashed out with their black sabers in unison, sending seven massive saber projections sweeping through the air in all directions.

Gusts of fierce wind were swept up as the seven saber projections multiplied rapidly into countless saber projections, resembling a black lotus flower of saber projections as it rose up into the air while revolving incessantly.

The surrounding space trembled violently, and all of the illusory palaces and spires began to warp and twist in the face of the tremendous and peerlessly sharp power of the mass of saber projections.

Immediately thereafter, a dull thump rang out, and all of the illusory buildings gradually began to fade away, revealing the true state of the mountain.

As it turned out, the summit of the mountain had already been shaved off to produce a plateau, and the ground was laden with white jade stone slabs, upon which were engraved countless circles of strange rune. Engraved onto the ground at the center of these circles of runes was a strange-looking beast.

Around the beast were roughly a dozen white stone pillars, each of which was over 100 feet tall, and there were many crystals of different shapes and colors embedded onto the pillars, presenting a captivating sight to behold.

The seven Fang Pans reverted back to a single one, and a slightly dazed look appeared in his eyes at the sight of the scene that he had been greeted by. However, he then immediately turned around to spot the azure-robed Han Li standing several thousand feet away, holding a round array plate in one hand while rapidly casting incantation seals onto it with his other hand.

Han Li seemed to have detected Fang Pan's gaze, and he raised his head as a faint smile appeared on his face.

He was currently in the process of activating an array by the name of the Calabash Illusory Light Array, which was a high-grade illusory array that he had found through the Transient Guild several months ago, and it was a disposable array.

For this array, he had spent all of his top-grade spirit stones, the only two remaining Great Earth Fruits in his possession, and even a pair of spirit treasures of quite a high caliber from the storage bracelet given to him by Gan Jiuzhen.

It was said that the array was extremely powerful, and that anyone below the Golden Immortal Stage that fell into it would be unable to awaken on their own. Instead, they would only sink deeper and deeper into the array until they perished within it, and even their nascent soul wouldn't be able to escape.

However, the array also had some major drawbacks, the first of which was that it took an extremely long time to activate, which was why Han Li had set up a Nine Palaces Heavenly Array around it to stall for time.

The second drawback was that the one using the array had to use themselves as the array's core. As a result, they had to be subjected to the effects of the array as well, so the array posed just as much of a threat to its user as its target.

However, the one controlling the array naturally held many advantages over someone who was completely unprepared, and if they could awaken before their enemy, then they would be able to control the array to directly attack said enemy.

A sense of foreboding welled up in Fang Pan's heart at the sight of the faint smile that had appeared on Han Li's face, and he immediately launched himself at Han Li while thrusting his black saber directly toward Han Li's heart.

Meanwhile, sweat was beginning to bead up on Han Li's forehead, and he was finally able to cast the last incantation seal onto the array plate right before the tip of Fang Pan's saber could reach him.

All of a sudden, the surrounding stone pillars began to release bursts of bright light of different colors, and Fang Pan's vision was blurred by these bright lights.

Before he had a chance to react, he stumbled forward, feeling as if he had passed through an invisible barrier before arriving in a rather dimly lit hall.

He swept his gaze across the thick square pillars around him and the antiquated braziers hanging from the pillars, as well as the bright green flames burning within the braziers, and a sense of familiarity welled up in his heart.

The sound of metal chains clattering over one another suddenly rang out within the deathly silent hall, followed by a deep and extremely authoritative voice.

"How dare you swing your blade at me! Are you trying to kill your master?"

Fang Pan shuddered violently upon hearing this voice, and he reflexively lowered his blade in fear and submission.

He turned his gaze forward to discover an inky-black chair over 100 feet up ahead, upon which sat a middle-aged man. The man was wearing a pristine white cape, and he had purple and green zombie-like skin.

"Master," Fang Pan called out in a dazed voice, then immediately shook his head vigorously as a cold look appeared in his eyes.

"No, you're not my master! You're just an illusion conjured up by this array!" he roared as he raised his saber and pointed it directly at the zombie-like man again.

He then sprang forward through the air, leaving a trail of blurry afterimages in his wake.

In the blink of an eye, seven identical Fang Pans had appeared in the hall, and they were pouncing at the zombie-like man from all directions.

"How dare you!" the zombie-like man roared, and a devastating aura erupted out of his body.

He wasn't chanting any incantations or making any hand seals, but all of the black chains littered through the entire hall seemed to have suddenly sprung to life, surging through the air in all directions like a series of black waves.

Despite their incredible speed, all seven Fang Pan clones were struck by the chain without exception before falling onto the ground with blood gushing out of their mouths.

"I taught you everything you know, yet now, you're trying to turn on me?" the zombie-like man questioned as a derisive look appeared on his face.

Fang Pan was astonished by what he was seeing. The zombie-like man's aura, powers, disposition, and voice were all completely identical to those of his master.

Could it be that I fell into some type of special teleportation array as opposed to an illusory array?

For the first time, Fang Pan was beginning to doubt his own conviction.

Before Fang Pan had a chance to ponder the topic any further, the zombie-like man's voice rang out once again. "Come over here and accept your death! Or do you want me to catch you myself?"

A hesitant look appeared in Fang Pan's eyes...

Meanwhile, Han Li had fallen into the illusory array as well.

The wind was howling past his ears, and he found himself rapidly rising up into the heavens.

At this moment, there was a massive expressionless face high up in the sky, and it was gradually becoming more blurry and indistinct. A burst of dazzling purple light flashed behind it, following which a long white rift slowly opened up, from within which the sound of faint Sanskrit chanting could be heard.

This is the gate to the Immortal Realm! Am I transcending my ascension tribulation?

Never did Han Li think that the illusion that awaited him would be his ascension tribulation.

All of a sudden, a deafening thunderclap rang out from overhead, and a massive bolt of seven-colored lightning came crashing down from the giant face, which had almost completely faded at this point.

The bolt of lightning came crashing directly down toward Han Li, carrying with it a devastating aura of destruction.

Han Li reflexively swept a hand through the air, and a string of golden lightningfire instantly flew out of his palm toward the bolt of seven-colored lightning.

He looked down to find a dark green longsword in his hand, and the sword was very familiar to him.

It was none other than his Profound Heavenly Spiritslash Sword.

Han Li hesitated momentarily as he felt the tremendous pressure weighing down on him from above, then sped straight up into the heavens as a streak of azure light with the Profound Heavenly Spiritslash Sword in his grasp.

A resounding boom erupted throughout the entire sky as a layer of resplendent light that obscured the entire sky flashed erratically before being destroyed amid a burst of violent law fluctuations.

Han Li was sent plummeting down from the heavens, and his entire body was in excruciating pain.

His body had been charred black and was riddled with bright red gashes, almost falling apart at the seams, while the Profound Heavenly Spiritslash Sword in his hand had been completely destroyed.

At the same time, the giant face up above had become extremely clear again, and it remained expressionless as ever. It seemed to be looking down on all things with cold apathy before abruptly exploding.

Immediately thereafter, the gate leading to the Immortal Realm suddenly closed, while a massive spatial rift appeared beside it.

Through the rift, Han Li caught a glimpse of a vast expanse of absolute darkness that seemed to be capable of devouring all things.

The darkness didn't even harbor the slightest glimmer of light, yet it somehow struck him with a peculiar sense of allure, evoking within him an irrepressible urge to fly into it.