Chapter 1230: Ulterior Motives

"Not only is he no ordinary person, he also harbors a huge..."

Phoenix Celestial Envoy, upon saying this, suddenly realized he was getting carried away and nearly misspoke. He forcefully swallowed the word "secret."

"So, Celestial Envoy, how do you plan to deal with this man?" Lu Chuanfeng asked, not pressing further, merely smiling.

"Palace Lord Lu, first confine and imprison this man. After I report to the Heavenly Court, we will decide. Through this matter, you and I have rendered a tremendous service, and we will be richly rewarded." Phoenix Celestial Envoy said, his smile unwavering.

Upon hearing this, Lu Chuanfeng showed no change in expression, but inwardly he was full of complaints.

It was clearly his own effort that captured Han Li, yet this Celestial Envoy, with just a few words, turned it into a joint achievement?

If he then reported it upward, most of the credit would likely fall on him.

"I ask Palace Lord Lu to guard me for a while. I need to use the Soul Communication Disk to report the situation here directly to the Heavenly Court. The ritual must not be interrupted." Phoenix Celestial Envoy, unaware of Lu Chuanfeng's dissatisfaction, continued smiling.

"Rest assured, Celestial Envoy. Leave this place to me." Lu Chuanfeng nodded.

Hearing this, Phoenix Celestial Envoy, despite his severe injuries, immediately sat cross-legged, turned his wrist, and produced a white jade disk the size of a dinner plate, holding it before him.

He formed hand seals with both hands, then pointed with his fingers and lightly tapped the empty space above the white jade disk.

The white jade disk rose into the air, floating before him. The ring-shaped runes inscribed on it lit up layer by layer, revealing individual runes that rapidly revolved along the path of the ring-shaped patterns.

Seeing this, Phoenix Celestial Envoy closed his eyes, and a chanting sound began to emanate from his mouth.

At the same time, rings of white crystalline light shone around his body, and a ring-shaped rune appeared on his brow, projecting a beam of white light onto the communication disk.

The disk trembled slightly, emitting ripples of light like water waves.

Just then, the white light on Han Li, frozen into an ice sculpture, suddenly faded, and a layer of dark red light rekindled. An immensely powerful bloodline force erupted.

After several futile attempts, Han Li activated his true spirit bloodline, combining it with the Heavenly Fiend Prison Suppression Art. His body began to transform into a three-headed, six-armed divine demon form.

However, suppressed by the extreme cold ice-attribute law power, this transformation process became very slow and could not be completed in one go.

With a roar in his heart, Han Li abandoned protecting his heart and internal organs, summoning the Essence Fire Bird out of his body to melt the extreme cold ice and help unleash his bloodline power fully.

"Alas, don't cause trouble at a time like this." Just as his transformation was about to complete, Lu Chuanfeng sighed and said.

With that, he raised his sleeve and waved it. A blue talisman flew out from his cuff and landed on Han Li.

The moment the talisman touched him, Han Li's bloodline froze, and the flow of blood in his body stopped instantly. His true spirit bloodline could no longer operate, and all his efforts were in vain.

Delayed by Han Li, Lu Chuanfeng turned to look at Phoenix Celestial Envoy and saw that the white jade disk before him trembled with light, and a blurry figure began to coalesce, not yet fully formed.

At that moment, a sudden change occurred!

Lu Chuanfeng struck like lightning. A drop of essence blood flew from his palm, transforming into a blood-colored rune in the center of his hand, which he slapped down onto the crown of the seated Phoenix Celestial Envoy's head.

A solid blue beam of light shot from his palm, instantly pouring into Phoenix Celestial Envoy's body. With a soft "puff," it vanished without a trace.

Phoenix Celestial Envoy was struck as if by lightning. His eyes snapped open, the whites filled with bloodshot lines, but strangely, the lines were not crimson but deep blue.

His lips parted slightly, his throat moved, but he could not utter a sound, only a stream of blue mist flowed out.

In the next instant, his entire body turned into blue ice crystals from the inside out, including the white jade disk before him, which fell from midair and shattered into ice shards.

"Celestial Envoy, my apologies." Lu Chuanfeng let out a long breath and said slowly.

With that, he waved his sleeve. A gust of wind swept past, and Phoenix Celestial Envoy's body shattered, along with his Nascent Soul and divine soul, turning into a pile of blue crystalline powder scattered on the ground.

Lu Chuanfeng glanced at the storage bracelet and storage ring that had fallen to the ground, showing no intention of picking them up. He reached out his hand, and a layer of blue frost enveloped them, crushing them into dust as well.

Witnessing this, Han Li was utterly astonished.

If the previous surprise attack by Heavenly Star Venerable on Phoenix Celestial Envoy was shocking enough, then now the Palace Lord of the prestigious Golden Origin Immortal Palace actually striking down a Celestial Envoy of the Heavenly Court, cleanly and ruthlessly, was even more unbelievable.

What on earth was going on?

Before Han Li could figure things out, a series of "bang-bang" sounds rang out in the Jiuyuan Pavilion.

The dozen or so ice sculptures standing beside Han Li shattered one after another, just like the Celestial Envoy Fengtian, turning into blue crystalline powder that covered the ground.

In the end, only Han Li remained.

At this moment, even without the freezing power of extreme cold, Han Li's heart had already sunk to an icy low. He did not believe that Lu Chuanfeng had come to save him; otherwise, there would have been no need to freeze him here earlier.

Han Li never hesitated to consider the worst possible outcome for his situation—this was one of the reasons he could navigate the Immortal Domain and remain safe thus far.

"Senior Vial Spirit, Senior Vial Spirit..."

Han Li called out repeatedly in his mind, but perhaps because he could not use immortal power or the power of time law, or for some other reason, the spirit of the Heaven-Controlling Vial never responded to him.

Without the help of the Vial Spirit, there was no way he could escape now.

Just as he was about to resort to some extraordinary means at the cost of severe injury to seek a sliver of hope, an unexpected scene unfolded before him.

Lu Chuanfeng suddenly raised his hand and waved it. A blue light fell from above, swirling around Han Li like a whirlwind, and the layer of extreme-cold ice encasing him melted and vanished within the blue light.

After regaining his freedom, though filled with doubt and uncertainty, Han Li still immediately withdrew the Essence Fire Bird into his body and once again concealed all his aura.

"Heh, you don't need to be so cautious. Within my domain, not a trace of aura will leak out," Lu Chuanfeng glanced at him and said slowly.

"Are you also a member of the Reincarnation Hall?" Han Li asked, his guard still up.

"Just as the rumors say, you're overly cautious. Yes, I am indeed a member of the Reincarnation Hall. I've been lying low in the Heavenly Court for who knows how many years. This commotion will completely expose me," Lu Chuanfeng said with a smile.

"This..." Han Li glanced at the mess strewn across the hall, hesitating.

"Ask whatever you want. There are some things you can know," Lu Chuanfeng said nonchalantly.

"Is this the plan of the Reincarnation Hall? I can't believe that the entire Reincarnation Hall would scheme for so long just to assassinate a Celestial Envoy of the Heavenly Court," Han Li frowned.

"Haha... of course not. If it were just to kill such a waste, exposing both my identity and that of the Heavenly Star Venerable at the same time would be far too costly. This is just one link in the chain. But the Hall Master said before that you don't need to get involved in the subsequent tasks, so you don't need to know," Lu Chuanfeng laughed.

Hearing this, Han Li frowned slightly, puzzled as to why the Reincarnation Hall Master would specifically mention him.

But he did not voice this question, only saying:

"Then how should we clean up this mess now? The Nine Yuan Observatory should soon discover the situation here, right?"

"No aura has leaked from here for now. Except for you, I will erase all traces of everyone else. It will take some time for the Nine Yuan Observatory to figure out what happened. But it doesn't matter; they were meant to know anyway. Otherwise, this trouble wouldn't be quite... enough," Lu Chuanfeng raised an eyebrow.

His demeanor at this moment was completely different from usual, showing none of his former gentle and mild-mannered appearance, but instead appearing somewhat unrestrained and carefree.

With that, he raised his wrist and casually tossed something over.

After a moment's hesitation, Han Li reached out and caught it. Upon inspection, he found it was a token of an inner disciple of the Nine Yuan Observatory.

"From now on, you need to change your appearance. You can no longer appear as Chang Qi," Lu Chuanfeng instructed.

"Thank you, Senior," Han Li nodded.

"Alright, go attend to your own affairs," Lu Chuanfeng stretched lazily, as if shedding his usual disguise had brought him some ease and cheerfulness. He turned to Han Li and said.

Hearing this, Han Li raised his hand and wiped it across his face. The face that originally belonged to Chang Qi began to twist and deform, eventually turning into that of a young man with ordinary features and long, narrow eyes.

Then, with a flash of light, his clothes transformed into a set of light gauze Daoist robes.

After hanging the token at his waist, Han Li clasped his fists to Lu Chuanfeng, turned around, and walked out of the hall.

At this moment, he saw that the shattered remains of the Lake Mountain Sect cultivators on the ground were gradually merging into Lu Chuanfeng's domain, until all traces of their aura completely disappeared.

Han Li's eyes twitched slightly, still feeling a lingering sense of fear.

Once he exited the Jiuyuan Pavilion, he immediately flickered and dashed toward a patch of forest outside the square.

A moment later, a white rainbow shot up from the Jiuyuan Pavilion into the sky.

The already battered hall then collapsed with a rumbling sound, raising a great cloud of dust.