Chapter 112: Clues

"These people all seem to be low-level minor cultivators, or those with spiritual roots!" Jiao Shiliu said abruptly upon hearing this.

"Indeed! Then you mean we should also disguise ourselves as low-level cultivators and be teleported in?" Jiao Jiu transmitted.

"Right. After all, with our cultivation, it shouldn't be a problem to hoodwink others." Han Li replied thus.

"The place we're being teleported to might be related to Gongshu Hong. Should we notify Jiao Ba and the others?" Jiao Shiliu hesitated slightly.

"We're only trying to infiltrate for now. We'll talk about it when we find something." Jiao Jiu replied with a somewhat indifferent tone.

With that, he raised a hand and lightly tapped his cheek and forehead. An invisible ripple immediately spread from his body.

Although his illusory face remained unchanged, the aura on his body rapidly shifted, in the blink of an eye reaching the level of mid Foundation Establishment.

Han Li and the other man saw this and followed suit, adjusting their auras to the Foundation Establishment stage.

Then the three of them focused slightly, waiting for the red light to rise from beneath their feet.

However, after half a quarter of an hour, red beams of light kept rising around them, but none appeared beneath their feet.

"Why isn't there any teleportation? Could it be that you misjudged, and this 'Heavenly Selection' is random?" Jiao Jiu asked hesitantly via voice transmission.

"Don't rush. Let's wait a bit longer. If the 'Sixty-Year Heavenly Selection' ends and we still haven't been teleported, we'll use divine sense to investigate on a small scale." Han Li replied after thinking it over.

Jiao Jiu said nothing more, only cautiously glanced around.

Just then, a light suddenly shone beneath his feet. A red beam shot up, enveloping him, and the eyes of the surrounding crowd instantly turned toward him.

Before he could react, the light converged in an instant, and his figure vanished.

Amid the surrounding crowd, murmurs of discussion and praise arose, filled with words of envy and regret.

But before their voices could fade, two more red beams suddenly flared up beside them, flickering once and taking away two more people.

Naturally, these two were Han Li and Jiao Shiliu.

Han Li felt the surroundings spin in a blur of light and shadow, his body involuntarily swaying in the void before landing on solid ground again.

He looked around and found himself still packed shoulder to shoulder with countless people. Jiao Shiliu stood not far away with a puzzled expression, but Jiao Jiu was nowhere to be seen.

The place they were in turned out to be an immensely vast underground palace. People were everywhere, and the walls of the palace were invisible, only the ceiling above and thick stone pillars standing nearby could be seen.

Huge fire basins hung from each pillar, burning something unknown, emitting no smoke, only red flames leaping constantly.

At the same time, red lights continued to flash around, sending one mortal or low-level cultivator after another here.

Compared to the solemn atmosphere of the square, this place was noisier. Everyone teleported here seemed unable to contain their excitement, shoulders shifting as they stood on tiptoe to look around.

Besides a few Foundation Establishment and Qi Condensation cultivators around Han Li, most were mortals. To them, being suddenly teleported here seemed like a miracle, and they devoutly murmured prayers.

All kinds of sounds merged, echoing continuously throughout the underground palace, buzzing incessantly.

Hearing these sounds, Han Li felt a slight sense of oppression for some reason.

However, this feeling did not last long and soon disappeared, but a faint bloody smell lingering in the somewhat turbid air refused to dissipate.

He wrinkled his nose slightly and looked down at his feet, noticing that the bluestone slabs on the ground all showed a slightly blackened dark red color, as if stained by blood over the years.

Seeing this, Han Li couldn't help but recall the yin earth discovered beneath the stone slabs of the Red Moon City underground palace in Lan Province, and his brow furrowed.

At that moment, Jiao Shiliu squeezed through the crowd with difficulty and came to his side, lowering his voice to ask:

"Well, have you found anything?"

"There seem to be some clues, but I'm not sure yet. Let's find Fellow Daoist Jiao Jiu first." Han Li shook his head.

With that, he transmitted a message to Jiao Jiu, asking where he was.

After some communication, he learned that Jiao Jiu had been teleported some distance away, near the center of the underground palace.

Thus, the two moved inconspicuously toward the center amid the noisy crowd, naturally drawing complaints and curses along the way.

The closer they got to the center of the underground palace, the stronger the bloody smell Han Li could detect, and the deeper the discoloration of the floor slabs.

By the time they reached near the center, the color of the stone slabs had become almost purplish-black.

Han Li looked up slightly and saw a statue over three zhang tall standing ahead, exactly of the Red Moon Island Lord, Gongshu Hong.

Near the statue, there was a stone platform ten zhang square, slightly raised above the ground, empty except for a short, sturdy man of unremarkable height.

He wore a purple robe, also embroidered with a blood moon pattern on the chest.

His eyes were half-closed, concealing most of their sharpness, and his entire aura was calm and restrained. He was a loose immortal who showed no outward signs of his power.

Han Li and the other man stopped at the edge of the empty area, glanced briefly at the loose immortal, and then looked toward the back of the statue.

There, amid the crowd, a man squeezed forward slightly, revealing half his body—it was Jiao Jiu.

He also saw Han Li and the other man and was about to move toward them when the loose immortal suddenly raised his head and swept his gaze left and right.

After a moment, the short man withdrew his gaze, looked straight ahead, and spoke:

"Everyone..."

As his voice arose, all surrounding noise ceased abruptly. The entire underground palace fell into extreme silence, and everyone's eyes turned to him.

The atmosphere on the scene suddenly became somewhat tense.

Seeing this, Jiao Jiu also stopped and looked toward the loose immortal.

"The Heavenly Selection ceremony has ended. All of you here, because of your sincere faith in the Holy Lord, have received his favor and obtained this supreme glory." The sturdy short man declared loudly.

Upon hearing this, the crowd was overjoyed and burst into cheers.

Han Li swept his gaze around and noticed that no more red lights flashed in the underground palace, and no one else was teleported in.

The short man raised both hands and pressed down slightly in front of him. The cheers gradually subsided, and the underground palace returned to silence.

He then spoke again:

"The Holy Lord is benevolent and wishes to open the immortal gate. He has decided to select from among you those with exceptional talent and deep immortal destiny, to teach them the secret arts of cultivation and keep them by his side. You must pray sincerely, hoping for the Holy Lord's descent."

Upon hearing this, the people in the hall immediately clasped their hands before them, closed their eyes, and assumed a praying posture.

Jiao Shiliu's face immediately showed a hint of joy, and he transmitted to Han Li and the other:

"Fellow Daoists, since we know Gongshu Hong will descend here, should we immediately notify Lord Jiao San?"

Han Li's gaze sharpened as he looked toward Jiao Jiu opposite, who appeared deep in thought.

Just then, the statue at the center of the underground palace suddenly trembled, and two blood-red beams of light lit up in its eyes.

Han Li and the others also turned their gazes toward the statue.

"Welcome the Holy Lord's descent."

The sturdy short man turned around, bowed to the statue, and said with utmost reverence.

Seeing this, the crowd immediately followed his action, bending deeply in a bow, and also chanted: "Welcome the Holy Lord's descent."

Han Li also bent slightly, but his eyes were fixed on the statue and the unremarkable short man.

The man formed hand seals before his chest, his lips moving constantly as if silently reciting something.

The blood-red light in the statue's eyes suddenly flashed, turning into two red beams that shot forward.

"Crack, crack, crack"

As the statue slowly turned, the two blood-red beams swept across the crowd.

When they passed over Han Li, he clearly felt a divine sense linger on him for a moment before shifting away.

What struck him as strange was that the source of that divine sense seemed not to be the statue, but the purple-robed short man.

At that moment, Jiao Jiu's voice transmission echoed in Han Li's mind:

"What is this man up to? Where is the Holy Lord's descent? It's clearly just him releasing his divine sense!"

"It seems he's merely using the Holy Lord's name to conduct the ceremony. Gongshu Hong probably won't descend here." Han Li replied after a moment's thought.

As his words fell, the two red beams sweeping through the crowd stopped, landing on two young men.

The two immediately showed expressions of surprise and delight, and under the loose immortal's summons, moved toward the center, drawing countless envious looks along the way.

Han Li glanced at the two, sizing them up, and noticed that although they were only at the Foundation Establishment stage, their spiritual root attributes and bone structure seemed quite good.

Then, the two beams roamed through the crowd again.

After a moment, they stopped on a thin young boy and a delicate young girl.

Han Li saw at a glance that although these two were not cultivators, their aptitude for cultivation was excellent.

Afterwards, as the red beams moved and paused continuously, one young boy or girl after another was selected.

All of them, under the loose immortal's guidance, moved toward the stone platform at the center of the statue.

Before long, over two hundred people had gathered there.

In Han Li's judgment, if one ignored cultivation level and only looked at aptitude, they were all the best among the tens of thousands in the underground palace.

Seeing this, a flash of insight struck him. He connected many previous events and seemed to understand a key point. He quickly transmitted to Jiao Jiu and the other:

"Fellow Daoists, things might be bad. This place is probably not a venue to meet the Holy Lord, but a blood sacrifice site of Red Moon Island."

"What?" Jiao Jiu was startled.

"Jiao Shiwu, have you found some clue? What's going on?" Jiao Shiliu also looked at Han Li with a puzzled expression.