Chapter 451: The Palace

Han Li only felt his vision blur, and amid a shift of light and shadow, his figure had already appeared in an entirely new environment.

He steadied himself slightly, sweeping his gaze around, and saw that the surrounding terrain was flat, with nothing but barren red soil as far as the eye could see, devoid of any vegetation, not even a trace of any living creature.

Lu Yuqing was not far from his side, and she too was gradually coming to her senses.

Not far ahead of the two, a small whirlwind swept by, raising a cloud of red sand and dust, and the air was filled with a desolate atmosphere.

Han Li slowly scanned his surroundings, but his brows furrowed involuntarily.

Just now, he had tried to release his divine sense to probe this place, but found that his body was bound by some unknown force; his movements were unimpeded, but his divine sense simply could not extend beyond his body.

“Just how vast is this Minghan Immortal Mansion? Why are there so many peculiarities?” Han Li sighed and couldn't help muttering to himself.

“When I was young, I once flipped through an ancient text in my father's study. It said that the earliest ancient name of the Northern Cold Immortal Domain was ‘Minghan Immortal Domain.’ Later, for some unknown reason, the name was changed. If this Minghan Immortal Mansion is related to the ancient name of the Immortal Domain, it's not surprising that it is vast and full of peculiarities.” Lu Yuqing was not particularly surprised by this and said with a smile.

Han Li was about to speak when his expression suddenly froze, his mouth slightly open, stopping mid-motion.

“Brother Han, what's wrong?” Lu Yuqing, seeing this, was startled and quickly asked.

“Nothing, I just suddenly recalled something…” Han Li paused, waved his hand, and said vaguely.

Lu Yuqing said “Oh,” half-believing his words but not asking further.

Han Li shifted his gaze toward a direction deep within the red earth wasteland, his brows furrowing involuntarily.

In fact, what had interrupted his speech was not a sudden thought, but the True Word Wheel within his body.

For some reason, ever since a moment ago, whenever he looked in that particular direction, the time dao patterns on the True Word Wheel began to flicker, as if sensing the power of the Time Law.

“Brother Han, since we can't use divine sense, which way should we go next?” Lu Yuqing looked around and asked.

“Let's go check over there first.” Han Li hesitated for a moment, then pointed in the direction sensed by the True Word Wheel.

“Alright.” Lu Yuqing glanced at him and nodded.

Han Li waved his hand, summoning the cyan spirit boat, and after inviting Lu Yuqing aboard, they transformed into a streak of light and sped deep into the red earth wasteland.

Flying high in the sky, the whistling wind in their ears suddenly intensified. Han Li's gaze roamed, scanning the wasteland below.

From a high altitude, one could see that the terrain of the wasteland was not truly flat; there were still occasional ridges and mounds protruding from the ground, but compared to ordinary mountains, they were far inferior, at most just small hillocks.

The further they went, the more complex the ground became. Besides the ridges and highlands, there were also ravines of varying depths on the earth, seemingly carved by water erosion, but they had long since dried up, with no trace of water.

After flying for about half a quarter of an hour, Han Li suddenly raised an eyebrow, spotting at the edge of his vision a red earth ruin that looked like a city. He quickly accelerated toward it.

Approaching the edge of the city, the cyan spirit boat gracefully descended, stopping before a moat over ten zhang wide.

The moat was naturally dry as well, the cracked, armor-like riverbed showing no signs of moisture.

Leaning on the railing, Han Li and the others saw that the city wall on the opposite side of the moat was tall and appeared relatively intact, but the surface bricks were covered with dense cracks, some from sharp weapons, others from tremendous force, a sight that was shocking.

The two walked in silence toward the city across a stone bridge not far away.

When they reached the middle of the stone bridge, Han Li suddenly caught sight of half a section of white bone exposed on the riverbed, resembling a segment of a strange beast's horn, as thick as an adult's arm, with a certain curvature.

Han Li stopped, raised his sleeve, and waved. A cyan light spread out, seemingly unremarkable, but in an instant, it lifted a large area of accumulated soil on the riverbed, revealing a complete white skeleton.

Seeing the full skeleton, Lu Yuqing let out a soft exclamation, a hint of surprise flashing across her face.

Han Li also showed a look of astonishment.

The skeleton had a peculiar shape, making it impossible to discern its original form. The only certainty was that it had once been a colossal creature no smaller than a mountain giant ape.

The white bone Han Li had earlier guessed to be its horn was actually just one of its teeth.

“Brother Han, do you recognize what beast this is?” Lu Yuqing asked in confusion.

“There is no trace of aura left on this beast. Based on the skeleton alone, I cannot tell what it is.” Han Li shook his head and said.

Though he said this, he couldn't help but think of the murals he had seen in the hall near the spirit medicine garden; the strange beasts depicted there seemed somewhat similar to this one.

Recalling the ferocity of the battles depicted in the murals, a guess suddenly arose in Han Li's mind: could the battles in the murals have taken place here?

No sooner had this thought arisen than he dismissed it. The scale of the battles in the murals was too vast; if they had occurred here, this city would have no buildings left standing and would have been completely razed to the ground.

The two crossed the stone bridge and arrived before the city gate arch. Looking up, they saw the city wall was broken, with jagged rocks everywhere.

Directly below the city wall, three silver-white characters were engraved: “Yuehe City” (Moon River City).

Passing through the city gate, just as they emerged from the shadow of the arch, Han Li's heart suddenly lurched, and he couldn't help but stop again.

The dozen or so clusters of dao patterns on the True Word Wheel within him flickered unsteadily, and his感应 of the Time Law power suddenly grew stronger.

Han Li frowned slightly and looked into the city. Inside, it was a complete ruin, with collapsed walls and broken tiles everywhere. Beneath many dilapidated walls, faint traces of white bones could be seen.

Among them were both beast bones and human skeletons, but all were decayed beyond recognition.

The two followed the main road toward the inner city, encountering the same desolate scene all along the way. Only when they reached the core area in the north of the city did they see a golden palace over a hundred zhang high in the distance.

Compared to all the buildings they had seen along the way, this golden domed palace was remarkably well-preserved, with only slight signs of collapse on the roof and many cracks on the walls.

Beyond that, the golden light on the palace body was still very bright, as if coated with a layer of golden film, reflecting the sunlight and shining brilliantly.

Just as Han Li was about to approach, his storage bracelet suddenly grew hot, and a faint disturbance came from within.

Frowning, he stopped, turned his hand over, and took out a glowing emerald green jade box.

With a soft “click,”

Han Li opened the jade box, revealing a round, gray eyeball that looked like a stone carving, but on its surface, a grayish-white halo continuously rippled.

“What is this?” Lu Yuqing, seeing this, approached a few steps in surprise and asked.

“A single eye of the strange beast Tai Fei.” Han Li said calmly.

Seeing that Han Li seemed reluctant to say more, Lu Yuqing's gaze dimmed slightly, and she didn't ask further.

Han Li stared at the Tai Fei's single eye for a moment, noticing only a faint halo emanating from it without much fluctuation. Unable to discern anything, he held it in his palm and continued toward the golden palace.

He and Lu Yuqing advanced together. When they were about a hundred zhang from the golden palace, Han Li suddenly narrowed his eyes, grabbed Lu Yuqing, and dodged behind a ruined low wall to hide.

At the golden palace, beneath the dozens-of-zhang-high golden gate, stood a silver-robed woman. She was holding a hand seal with one hand and a残缺 golden ring-blade in the other, casting spells at the palace gate.

“Why her?” Lu Yuqing peered through the low wall and said in surprise.

Han Li quickly raised a finger to his lips, making a shushing gesture.

Although divine sense was blocked here, the other party was a Golden Immortal cultivator. If they made a sound, they might be discovered.

Han Li also recognized the woman; it was none other than Qu Ling.

The ring-blade in her hand was engraved with a string of ancient runes, from which strands of golden light shot out, connecting to a peculiar circular pattern on the golden gate, seemingly破解 the gate's禁制.

Both the ring-blade in Qu Ling's hand and the golden gate emitted明显的 fluctuations of the Time Law.

Frowning deeply, Han Li cautiously poked half his head out to look, noticing that not far from Qu Ling, there was a strange figure crouching.

Even crouching, its figure was seven or eight zhang tall. At first glance, it looked like a yellow wall, but upon closer inspection, one could see that its exposed body was covered with strange灵纹 patterns.

Though its back was turned to him, and Han Li couldn't see its face, an image of another giant figure involuntarily surfaced in his mind—the one-eyed giant “Tai Fei” he had killed years ago.

Although the sizes of the two were vastly different, their body contours, skin color, and the strange灵纹 on their bodies were almost identical.

The more Han Li observed, the more puzzled he became. Subconsciously, he glanced at the single eye in his hand.

At that moment, the faint white halo on the single eye, which had been flickering, suddenly emitted a dazzling light, like a bright lamp suddenly lit in the dark night.

The strange figure, which had been crouching on the ground, abruptly stood up and turned around, revealing an ugly face with a flat nose and wide mouth. Above its nose, there were no eyes, only a huge vertical single eye in the center.

It was indeed a smaller version of the Tai Fei beast.

The beast let out a roar, and a light flashed in its single eye, shooting a thick white beam directly toward the hiding place of Han Li and Lu Yuqing.

“Not good…”

Han Li exclaimed in alarm, grabbed Lu Yuqing's wrist, pulled her hard, and leaped high into the air, dodging the beam, and landed on the main road leading to the golden palace.

Their figures were now completely exposed.