Chapter 456: Small City

Han Li felt nothing but gray mist all around, then suddenly the ground beneath him gave way. He stumbled forward involuntarily, his steps first faltering before finding solid footing again.

He felt as if he had passed through a layer of hazy miasma, and before he knew it, he had appeared in another space entirely.

He rubbed his aching temples, and only then did his blurred vision slowly clear, allowing him to see the moss on the stone slabs beneath his feet.

Straightening up, Han Li looked around and found that he was alone—Golden Boy, Qu Ling, and Lu Yuqing had not followed him in. He frowned slightly and let out a soft sigh.

He had never expected that he would reunite with the Devourer Immortal Golden Boy, who had been separated from him for so many years, under such circumstances. Although they had not exchanged many words, Golden Boy had stepped forward at a critical moment to save his life, which inexplicably warmed his heart.

After all, since arriving in the True Immortal Realm, he had encountered the same deceit and scheming as in the Human and Spirit Realms. Except for Liu Le'er, the little fox he had met when he first entered the Spirit Huan Realm, he had not felt such genuine concern from anyone in all these years.

Of course, this might also be related to the fact that he had always regarded Golden Boy as half his own child.

Clearly, over the past two thousand years, Golden Boy had also encountered some opportunity and greatly increased his strength, to the point where he could confront a late-stage Golden Immortal for so long. But Han Li knew well that he was no match for Qu Ling. This woman had many tricks up her sleeve, her control over the laws of power far surpassed his own, and she also had that mysterious Xuantian Gourd.

For now, he could only hope that Golden Boy would turn danger into safety, even if it meant temporarily surrendering or submitting. From the earlier situation, it seemed that Golden Boy had already been taken as a spirit pet by Qu Ling.

If anything happened to Golden Boy, once he advanced to Golden Immortal in the future, he would surely seek out Qu Ling and make her pay the due price.

As for Lu Yuqing, he had always felt that there was something strange about her, though he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

However, he had only met this woman by chance, and entering the Minghan Immortal Mansion this time was a cooperative venture, so their relationship was not deep. Although provoking Qu Ling was mainly due to his own reasons, since she had chosen to follow him in search of greater opportunities, such risks were unavoidable.

Now that he had been inexplicably sucked into this place, facing Qu Ling's wrath, he could only let her fend for herself.

Pushing aside his thoughts for the moment, Han Li turned his gaze and swept his eyes around.

Looking around, he found himself in an old mansion courtyard, surrounded by crumbling walls and collapsed houses covered in dark green moss and weeds, abandoned for who knows how long.

However, when his gaze turned to the back of the courtyard, his eyebrows lifted slightly, and a hint of doubt flashed in his eyes.

At the upper right corner of a not-too-tall house behind him, roof tiles were suspended in midair, appearing scattered, as if frozen by some invisible force, still maintaining the state of collapse.

With a thought, a blue light flashed in Han Li's eyes, and he released his divine sense to probe it.

After a while, his figure silently leaped high and landed on the roof ridge. He reached out and gently grabbed a black tile floating in the air, while the rest of the rubble and roof debris remained unchanged, unaffected.

Surprised, Han Li, standing on the high roof ridge, looked beyond the courtyard. What met his eyes were collapsed houses and buildings, dense ruins stretching for dozens of miles in all directions.

Among these buildings, strange scenes like this courtyard were everywhere. The damaged pavilions and towers had shattered into countless pieces but had not scattered on the ground; they seemed frozen in the moment of collapse, maintaining a state of dust rising and hanging in the air.

After a moment's thought, Han Li slowly closed his eyes, and his vast, ocean-like divine sense spread outward.

Unlike the previous red earth wasteland, this area did not restrict divine sense, allowing free exploration.

However, only a moment later, his eyes suddenly opened, the blue light in his pupils completely fading, and his expression turned somewhat strange.

"What is this..." he murmured, but found himself at a loss for words.

The size of this area was far smaller than he had expected. His divine sense had only extended slightly before sweeping through the entire place—a mere hundred miles in radius, with spatial barriers at the edge of his perception.

Logically, since he could enter here, it meant that this place was not completely isolated from the outside world; there should at least be some weak point in space. If he could find it, he could break through the spatial barrier when necessary and return to the original area.

However, after his earlier divine sense exploration, he had not found any place with significant spatial fluctuations or unstable spatial barriers.

Frowning deeply, Han Li formed a hand seal with one hand, and a burst of golden light surged from behind him, from which the True Word Wheel slowly emerged.

As his hand gestures changed, over a dozen translucent time patterns on the True Word Wheel lit up in succession, and the giant golden eye suspended in the center began to rotate, emitting golden rays as solid as substance.

Since he could not detect any restrictive formations or hidden spatial entrances with his divine sense, Han Li had no choice but to use his True Eye to investigate.

He flew into the air, urging the giant golden eye to focus on the center of the courtyard where he had first appeared.

Under the golden rays, the stone slabs in the courtyard were empty, showing nothing unusual.

Han Li slowly moved his gaze from the stone slabs on the ground to the stone table in the courtyard, then to the withered tree by the wall, and then to the side rooms on both sides—all were peaceful, with no changes.

Only when the True Eye's gaze moved to the house that remained in a state of collapse did a change occur in the hazy golden light. The collapsed roof actually restored itself under the surging golden light.

"Eh, strange! Could it be that this house contains the power of time laws?" Han Li's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

Before he could go forward to examine it closely, the barely restored phantom of the house began to flicker frequently, the image never stabilizing.

Han Li withdrew the True Word Wheel and landed in front of the main hall. He first inspected the exterior of the entire hall, then entered and searched carefully inside, but found nothing that contained the power of time laws.

"That's strange. Could it be that the time law power contained within is too weak to detect? That shouldn't be the case." Han Li muttered to himself, filled with doubt.

After a moment's thought, a gleam of light flashed in his eyes, and the True Word Wheel appeared again. His figure floated up, leaving the courtyard and flying toward other areas.

Looking down from high above, although the buildings in this area were dilapidated, their overall layout was very orderly, basically consistent with the market ward pattern of mortal capitals. Thus, Han Li planned to investigate the entire city district by district based on the crisscrossing roads.

Starting from the outer wards in the east, he moved westward, carefully examining some buildings that remained in a collapsed state. Each time he used the True Eye to look, he could vaguely see the image of the building in its original intact state, but like the previous mansion, it could not stabilize.

It seemed that the entire city was filled with faint fluctuations of time laws, but none reached a level that could be sensed.

In less than half a day, Han Li had investigated the market wards in the four directions—east, south, west, and north—but found nothing.

By evening, the sun on the horizon had turned fiery red and began to set behind the western mountains.

In the southern part of the city, in a garden mansion overgrown with weeds, stood a nine-story black wooden pagoda. The pagoda's body had many burn marks and was severely tilted to one side, looking as if it might collapse at any moment.

Han Li, holding onto the iron frame at the top of the pagoda, stood on the black tiles of the roof, gazing at the distant setting sun.

Beside him stood the Daoist Crab in a yellow robe, his expression calm and face devoid of any emotion.

"Daoist Crab, is there any significance to the layout of this city?" Han Li asked, narrowing his eyes slightly.

"Although the district distribution of this city subtly conforms to the Nine Palaces numerology, it is merely the standard pattern for constructing ordinary cities. At least on the surface, there is nothing special. As for whether there are any hidden arrangements, just looking like this reveals nothing." The Daoist Crab shook his head and said.

"In that case, I'll trouble you, Daoist Crab, to investigate on my behalf and see if there are any hidden mechanisms or formations." Han Li thought for a moment and then said.

The Daoist Crab nodded silently, and his figure flashed and disappeared from the pagoda.

Watching the afterglow of the setting sun gradually fade, Han Li's eyes suddenly flashed, and his entire body turned into a beam of cyan light, shooting out.

However, only an instant later, a loud "bang" suddenly came from high in the sky!

At the edge of the city, a cyan light suddenly flickered in the void, and a cyan figure was heavily bounced back by an invisible barrier, falling down.

The figure was naturally none other than Han Li.

But before he could fall to the ground, a cyan light suddenly flared on his body, and he charged straight in another direction...

Time passed, and several days had gone by.

In a private garden mansion in the center of this ruined city, there was a lush green grove of wild grass. Scattered throughout the grove were numerous jagged rocks as tall as a man, dark in color and covered with slippery moss.

On a winding path in the grove, two figures—one cyan and one yellow—walked side by side toward the center of the grove.

"There are quite a few restrictions in the city's secret chambers, but most are very crude and not worth exploring. Only this place is different, whether it's the layout of the grove or the dense patterns, it all seems unusual." The Daoist Crab said as he led the way.

"If even you, Daoist Crab, call it unusual, then this place is very likely the exit of the secret realm..." Han Li's eyes flashed with anticipation upon hearing this.