Chapter 129: Breaking the Chains (Part 2)

At the moment Han Li barely managed to break one of the chains binding his Nascent Soul, in a desert hall countless miles away from the Black Wind Sea region, the withered man seated on the pitch-black throne in the hall slightly stirred, slowly opening his eyes to reveal a pair of murky pupils as if covered by a film.

The bluish-black chains that filled the entire hall immediately floated off the ground like goose feathers, all emitting a trembling sound.

The man showed a hint of contemplation, then after a cold laugh, made no further move and slowly closed his eyes again.

Within the hall, all the chains fell to the ground quietly, once again becoming silent.

…

In the four-sided courtyard on Wumeng Island.

Han Li, with his eyes tightly shut, was fully focused on driving silver light threads to coil around the second pitch-black chain.

At this moment, his brow suddenly furrowed involuntarily, and a moderate ripple stirred within his sea of consciousness.

He vaguely sensed that when he had cut the first chain, he seemed to have lightly touched some terrifying existence at the other end of the chain.

This made his mind tense involuntarily, fearing that a new black chain might spontaneously appear in his dantian, just like last time.

But fortunately, after a long while, no abnormality appeared on the Nascent Soul, so he felt a bit more at ease and focused all his attention on the second chain.

The silver light threads formed by his magic power and star power climbed up one by one, soon enveloping the second chain as well.

Immediately, the surface of the chain began to emit a hissing sound, black smoke rising, and the black crystalline light on it also started to fade.

However, compared to the previous time, the fading of the black light was noticeably slower this time, and correspondingly, Han Li's silver light threads were consumed more heavily.

For a moment, the situation became somewhat stalemated.

…

One night several days later.

The silver light pillar in the four-sided courtyard exploded with a loud bang, dispersing into specks of silver light.

Han Li slowly opened his eyes, looked at the Earthly Immortal incarnation sitting opposite him, and a trace of fatigue appeared in his eyes.

After several days of continuous erosion, the black runes on the second chain were largely consumed, and finally, after dozens of strikes with his divine sense axe, it also snapped.

However, after this ordeal, the meager magic power within Han Li's body and the magic power converted from faith power by the Earthly Immortal incarnation were both exhausted, so he had to stop temporarily.

“It seems this will be a protracted battle…”

Han Li murmured with a sigh, flipped his hand to take out a pill and put it into his mouth, then closed his eyes to regulate his breathing.

Beside him, the calm-faced Earthly Immortal incarnation sat cross-legged, his whole body glowing with a faint blue light, slowly absorbing the faith power transmitted from the stone statues all over Wumeng Island.

…

Meanwhile, in the Cloud Floating Realm.

High in the sky, the clear blue expanse was dotted with clusters of huge clouds of various shapes, rolling and unrolling, gathering and dispersing under the push of air currents.

As the sun's position in the sky shifted continuously, the angle of sunlight changed constantly, causing the colors of the white clouds it illuminated to change as well, displaying different hues such as cyan, blue, yellow, and red.

Beneath a huge cloud shaped like a multicolored phoenix lay a green mountain range stretching over a thousand li, its undulating terrain resembling a crouching dragon, quite imposing.

In the middle of the mountain range, a solitary peak over a thousand zhang tall stood proudly, towering far above the surrounding mountains.

From the foot to the waist of the mountain, vegetation was dense, full of vitality, while the summit, piercing into the colorful clouds, had sparse vegetation, with white rocks exposed everywhere.

On the summit, a broad white square was built, and behind the square, near the cliff, stood a magnificent golden hall.

At this moment, inside the hall, dozens of cultivators dressed in various attires were gathered, standing respectfully on both sides like secular court officials paying homage.

Among these people were elderly men, young maidens, middle-aged Confucian scholars, and rough-looking men, all without exception being Mahayana-stage cultivators.

At this time, on the main seat in the center of the hall sat a young man in black tight-fitting clothes, appearing to be in his twenties or thirties, with extraordinarily handsome features and exceptionally sharp eyes—it was none other than Fang Pan, who had been sent to the Cloud Floating Realm to quell the beast tide.

“Fang Immortal Envoy, under the joint efforts of the Fengxian Sect and the Zhuoyan Sect, the many cultivator sects on the Eastern Flow Continent and the Western River Continent have joined forces to clean up, and the beast tide there has been completely suppressed. I believe it will be thoroughly eradicated soon,” said a long-bearded old man in a gray-white Daoist robe, stepping forward and speaking respectfully to the black-clad young man.

Almost everyone in the hall held a sense of awe for this Immortal Envoy from the Immortal Realm, partly because his strength was unfathomable, and partly because his style of conduct was too ruthless and decisive.

Since his arrival in the Cloud Floating Realm, he had swiftly implemented multiple measures to deal with the beast tide, not only requiring strict enforcement by the major sects but also personally carrying out supervision duties.

Several elders from the major sects in the hall had been decisively slain by him for incompetence in handling affairs.

However, none in the hall harbored any resentment toward this Immortal Envoy Fang.

On one hand, this was naturally because they dared not; on the other hand, it was because he was extremely conscientious in dealing with the beast tides, even more so than those from the Cloud Float Realm.

They had personally witnessed Immortal Envoy Fang charging alone into the beast tides multiple times, slaying several of the most ferocious hidden mother beasts.

After hearing the report, Fang Pan nodded slightly and was about to speak when a cluster of yellow light suddenly lit up at his waist, accompanied by a rapid buzzing sound.

His expression shifted slightly as he took out a round communication disk from his waist. With a thought, he swept his divine sense over it.

After a moment, his expression became uncertain, and finally, it turned completely gloomy.

Seeing this, everyone in the hall grew tense, not daring to breathe loudly.

Putting away the disk, Fang Pan looked at everyone in the hall and said in a low voice:

“All of you, set off immediately. Order every sect to mobilize all their forces. Within the shortest time, clean up the remnants of the beast tides on the two continents. Anyone who disobeys will be killed!”

Hearing this, everyone was shocked, but they dared not raise any objection. They all accepted the order and withdrew from the hall.

Soon, the entire hall became empty, leaving only Fang Pan alone.

He flipped his hand and took out a translucent white jade bottle, raised it to his eyes, and looked at the drop of golden essence blood slowly sliding along the bottle wall, muttering to himself:

“Even if you can break the Cell-Separating Spell Chain, so what? Since you have returned to the Immortal Realm, with this last drop of essence blood, I can find your exact location. Once this matter is concluded, I will return and personally grind your bones to dust. This time, I will surely annihilate both your body and soul…”

As he finished speaking, a trace of ferocity flashed across his brow, and an extremely vicious look appeared in his eyes.

…

Time flew like a white horse passing a gap, and soon a whole year had passed.

During this year, almost every night on Wumeng Island, silver beams of light fell from the night sky onto the island, and from time to time, various unusual sounds arose.

All the islanders knew that this was because their patron deity of Wumeng Island was in seclusion cultivating.

At first, they were still somewhat unaccustomed, but as time passed, they gradually got used to it. Instead, if there was no unusual activity on any given day, they would find it hard to sleep peacefully.

Tonight, however, the commotion on the island was truly too great. Almost the entire island trembled incessantly, and even the surrounding sea area was affected, stirring up towering waves.

Many islanders, unable to sleep, came one after another to the ancestral god statues scattered across the island and began to pray devoutly.

At this moment, in the central courtyard of the island, Han Li, dressed in blue robes, sat cross-legged amidst a patch of shimmering starlight, his eyes tightly shut, his face full of solemnity.

Before him, the Earth Deity incarnation sat facing him, its body glowing with a water-blue light, converting all the faith power within it into spiritual power and continuously channeling it into Han Li's body.

At this moment, within Han Li's dantian, it was filled everywhere with the silvery-white power of stars. A small golden figure floated within that white light.

The eight pitch-black chains that had originally extended from its body were now nowhere to be seen, replaced by a single, nearly solid, bluish-black chain extending from its lower abdomen.

This chain was precisely the final chain formed after the previous eight chains had all shattered.

With the aid of the great formation, Han Li had used the power of stars and spiritual power to wear away the black mist and crystalline light on it for over three full months before finally managing to erase them almost completely, revealing its true form.

"Hoo..."

As Han Li's mind stirred, a crystalline great axe, condensed from the power of his divine sense, immediately materialized in his dantian. It rose abruptly and then struck heavily down at the chain.

With a "boom," it was as if a thunderclap had exploded in Han Li's dantian.

The divine sense great axe flew high back, dissipating into crystalline light, while the bluish-black chain remained as smooth as before, without a single mark.

Han Li's expression did not change, as if he had long anticipated this outcome.

He let out a low shout, and all the spiritual power within his body surged forth, drawing together all the star power in his dantian to condense into a silver light palm, which reached out and grabbed the chain.

At the same time, under the operation of the Soul Refining Art, a storm raged within his sea of consciousness. The vast power of his divine sense poured down furiously, rushing into his dantian and directly transforming into a crystalline giant hand, which also grabbed the chain.

Once the two giant hands had a firm grip, Han Li immediately pulled with all his might.

The black chain clanked loudly, instantly tautening into a straight line, and a sharp pain shot out from his Nascent Soul.

He clenched his teeth, urging the power of his divine sense to continuously pour into his dantian, while the two giant hands pulled with unrelenting force.

However, though the taut black chain kept emitting a "clanging" sound, there was no sign of it loosening.