Chapter 607: The Mysterious River

Han Li's expression changed instantly upon hearing this voice.

Before he could do anything, the crystal wall suddenly blazed with light, and a massive whirlpool emerged, rumbling as it began to spin.

With a thunderous roar!

A tremendous suction force suddenly emanated from the whirlpool, enveloping Han Li's body.

This suction force was immense, far surpassing the previous traversals, and his body was even lifted slightly.

But in the next moment, the suction force enveloping Han Li's body vanished without a trace.

He felt a sharp pain in his mind, and then his soul, unable to resist, was sucked in. His vision went black, and he lost consciousness.

After an unknown amount of time, Han Li's consciousness slowly emerged from a daze. He looked around and suddenly let out a soft exclamation.

He was now in a grayish space, below which lay a dark red wasteland stretching to the horizon.

The wasteland was barren, with nothing in sight but endless sand and stone.

Above the wasteland, a vast, silver, crystalline river hung across the sky, flowing with a rumbling sound like muffled thunder.

Upon closer inspection, what flowed in the river was not water, but countless droplet-like clusters of light.

Han Li looked around, a look of surprise on his face, but he did not move immediately.

This soul traversal felt different from the previous ones?

The surroundings were filled with a mysterious aura.

Then, in his mind, there appeared the eyes on the Celestial Bottle that had emerged before the traversal, as well as that vague, indistinct voice.

He was no stranger to those eyes—they belonged to the spirit of the Celestial Bottle.

As for those words, they were most likely spoken by the bottle spirit as well.

What did the bottle spirit mean by that? It seemed to carry a hint of anticipation, as well as a warning.

Han Li thought for a moment but found no clue, and he did not detect the bottle spirit around him, so he shook his head, cast the thought aside, and stopped dwelling on it.

As he shook his head, he suddenly noticed another issue.

He was not currently attached to anyone's body, but was floating in mid-air in the form of a clump of soul energy.

"This..." His mind churned, countless thoughts flashing through it in an instant.

All of this should have been caused by the golden ring he had condensed earlier using the power of the three time laws; that thing seemed to have triggered a deeper change in the Vial Gourd.

Having figured this out, Han Li steadied his mind and looked around.

There was only an endless wilderness around, nothing worth investigating.

He quickly withdrew his gaze, moved his body, and flew toward the great river in midair, soon arriving nearby.

Closer now, he could see the great river more clearly.

The river flowed from the end of the horizon ahead and disappeared into the sky on the other side, with no end in sight. Countless water droplets and light spheres rushed along, dense and innumerable, beyond counting.

These light spheres varied in size, some as large as millstones, others as small as grains of rice.

Regardless of size, each water droplet light sphere flickered with images, like a revolving lantern, but they flowed so fast that they were hard to make out.

The entire great river exuded an indescribable mysterious aura, vast and mighty, carrying the torrent of light spheres as it flowed onward.

Han Li was startled by the scene in the river; it took him a while to recover, then he cautiously approached the river again and looked at a huge water droplet flowing past.

On this droplet, an image of a yellow desert faintly appeared, shifting rapidly and indistinctly.

Han Li hesitated briefly, then sent a strand of divine sense onto the droplet, trying to see the image clearly.

But at that moment, the droplet seemed to be stimulated; its light suddenly flared, and it emitted a tremendous devouring force.

With a "whoosh," Han Li's entire soul was sucked into the droplet without any resistance.

His vision went black, and he lost consciousness again. It was unknown how long passed before he slowly regained awareness.

"...This man's strength is truly terrifying. Even with the five of us Star Envoys joining forces, he still killed three of us." A panting voice entered Han Li's consciousness, tinged with lingering fear.

"This man's Soul Refining Art has reached the fifth level's peak, so naturally he's extraordinary. Fellow Daoist Gu and the others foolishly rushed forward to claim credit without any caution. But thanks to those three fools distracting him, we managed to capture his son and make him hesitate." Another sharp voice sounded, also somewhat weak, but sneering coldly.

"Fellow Daoist Gu and the others were killed; we've suffered heavy losses on this trip. Will the大人 blame us?" The first voice asked worriedly.

"No. As Inspection Envoys, we carry out dangerous missions. What's a few deaths? As long as we deliver Lu Renjia's head to the大人, we'll surely be richly rewarded." The sharp voice said with a smug laugh.

Han Li was startled by their conversation and immediately restrained his soul's fluctuations.

After stabilizing his soul, he quietly sensed his surroundings.

As in previous instances, he was now attached to a corpse.

The corpse was a middle-aged man in a black robe, with disheveled hair and a long, thin face like a jackal's. Though dead, he still exuded a fierce aura.

He now lay in a stretch of yellow desert, the ground around him pockmarked with countless huge craters, some dozens of miles across.

Thick smoke billowed from some of the craters, carrying the sulfurous smell of subterranean magma.

Clearly, a fierce battle had taken place here not long ago.

Two men in golden armor stood nearby; the patterns on their armor bore the emblem of the Heavenly Court.

One was a tall, elderly man with sword-like brows and a high nose, his face cold and stern.

The other was a short, stout young man with a round head and face, completely bald.

Both looked pale, especially the stout young man, with a trail of blood at the corner of his mouth and his golden armor somewhat battered.

Further away on the ground lay three more bodies in golden armor.

Han Li only glanced outward once, then immediately withdrew his divine sense, his soul diving deeper into the depths of the corpse's mind.

Though he had only glanced, he had sensed the auras of both the tall old man and the stout young man.

Both were Taiyi realm beings, and their cultivation far surpassed that of Gongshu Jiu from before—at least mid-Taiyi, possibly even late Taiyi.

From the conversation he had just overheard, Han Li knew these two were Inspection Immortal Envoys of the Heavenly Court. If they discovered another soul within this corpse, they would surely destroy it immediately.

His soul had traveled here due to the Vial, and he did not know what would happen if it were destroyed here, but he assumed it would be nothing good.

Just as Han Li's soul was diving deep into the black-robed man's mind, a sudden change occurred.

A vast surge of heat suddenly erupted from the black-robed man's mind and merged into Han Li's soul.

This surge of heat was an extremely pure and immense power of divine sense. Han Li's soul instantly began to swell like an inflating balloon.

Within the vast divine sense were fragments of memory, belonging to the black-robed man, which also rapidly merged into Han Li's mind.

Perhaps because Han Li had already undergone several traversals, his soul had grown accustomed to this process. Though the black-robed man's memories continued to merge, he felt little pain and easily absorbed them.

Han Li's soul easily accommodated these memory fragments, but the power of divine sense was too vast. Only half of it merged into his soul before stopping.

The remaining divine sense power swirled around his soul, forming a crystalline white cloud that revolved rapidly along an extremely mysterious trajectory.

Han Li was overjoyed. This power of divine sense was immensely strong, far surpassing his own, and its mode of operation was exactly the fifth level of the Divine Refining Art.

He had been diligently cultivating the fifth level of the Divine Refining Art over the years.

But the fifth level was exceptionally obscure and difficult, far beyond his expectations.

After centuries of hard cultivation, he had made little progress.

Now, sensing the operation of this divine sense power, many obstacles in his past cultivation suddenly became clear, as if he had received an epiphany.

But at this moment, Han Li had no time to ponder these insights.

He suddenly opened his eyes and abruptly raised his hand to strike.

A blinding black light shot from his palm—a pitch-black flying sword.

The black light from the sword flared, then blurred and vanished.

Instantly, countless black sword lights silently materialized, forming a massive sword mountain that pressed down toward the tall old man and the stout young man.

The commotion within the black-robed man's mind was too great to escape the notice of the two nearby.

Sure enough, the tall old man and the stout young man both looked at the corpse on the ground, their faces full of shock, and hastily leaped backward.

But neither noticed a wisp of crystalline light shoot from Han Li's brow and vanish into the void.

"You're not dead? Impossible!" the tall old man roared in disbelief, reaching out with one hand to grab at Han Li.

Countless blue ripples surged from his palm, coalescing into a massive blue dragon phantom that lunged at the black sword mountain.

The blue dragon's enormous body coiled around the black sword mountain, binding it tightly.

A bone-chilling cold erupted from the dragon phantom, and icicles formed in the surrounding void, freezing the entire space instantly.

The black sword mountain flashed blue and halted, frozen solid, covered in a thick layer of blue ice.

The stout young man's eyes showed a hint of fear, but he too let out a shout and swung his arm.

A clear ringing sound rang out as two crimson beams shot from his sleeve—a pair of crimson hooked blades.

The hooks were three feet long, shimmering with clusters of red flames that formed fiery blossoms, radiating a terrifying heat.

The two hooks trembled, transforming into two crimson streaks that curved around and slashed toward Han Li.

Han Li slapped the ground, his body shooting up like a sheet of paper, then twisted strangely, turning into a black shadow that passed between the two streaks just in time.

"Seal!" A smile touched his lips as he quickly formed hand seals.

Behind the tall old man, the void shimmered, and several crystalline chains shot out, vanishing into his head.

The old man's face showed terror, and he raised his hands as if to act.

But the next moment, the light in his eyes faded, replaced by a blank stare. His flying body halted, frozen like a stone statue.

The distance between them was too close, and Han Li's sudden ambush left the tall old man, a mighty Taiyi cultivator, with almost no chance to use his power before being trapped by the Divine Thought Prison.