Chapter 709: A Dilemma

Just as Han Li and Mo Guang reached the door of the room, the former suddenly stopped in his tracks, his body trembling violently.

“Fellow Daoist Han, what’s wrong?” Mo Guang was taken aback and quickly asked.

Han Li did not answer. At this moment, a layer of gray light suddenly appeared in his eyes, and the muscles on his face began to twitch, showing extreme pain.

Soon after, his entire body began to tremble, and his face turned deathly pale.

The baleful qi within his immortal apertures had inexplicably erupted, rolling violently beyond control.

Before long, strands of pitch-black baleful qi surged from his body, writhing like demonic hands, causing the temperature in the surrounding space to plummet sharply.

“Let’s go into the room first,” Mo Guang said, his eyes flickering.

Han Li did not reply. He pushed the door open forcefully and walked in, his mind racing with thoughts.

“Could it be another outbreak of baleful decay? At a time like this…”

It had been several hundred years since the last outbreak, so it was normal for the grace period of the Time Strands to have expired.

As he pondered, he waved his hands rapidly.

With sharp whistling sounds, hundreds of array flags shot out, landing in various parts of the room and forming several thick layers of restrictions that enveloped the entire room.

Seeing this, Mo Guang raised his hand and waved, sending a beam of black light from his palm, which formed a black restriction behind Han Li’s barriers.

This black restriction was shrouded in black mist, with faint crisscrossing black chains visible.

A dense wave of baleful qi emanated from the black net, mixed with traces of law fluctuations. Unknown what kind of restriction it was, it immediately blocked eighty percent of the rolling baleful qi.

The two worked together to block all the baleful qi fluctuations.

However, despite their quick reactions, the baleful qi erupted too suddenly, and a small amount still leaked out.

At the same time, the baleful qi in the surrounding heaven and earth was immediately attracted, surging madly toward the stone fortress palace. The momentum was so vast that it rivaled the changes in celestial spiritual energy during a breakthrough in the immortal realm.

Miao Xiu was on her way to her inner residence when she suddenly raised her head and glanced toward that palace, a trace of surprise flashing in her beautiful eyes.

“Such powerful baleful qi fluctuations. As expected of a Xuhe clan member born with exceptional cultivation aptitude…” Miao Xiu murmured to herself, a strange light flickering in her eyes as if she was calculating something.

In Shi Chuankong’s room, he sat cross-legged on the bed with his eyes closed. Above his head floated the silver pipa, emitting waves of silver light as if he was refining it.

He suddenly opened his eyes, glanced toward the door, and quickly closed them again.

…

In Han Li’s room, a flash of golden lightning appeared, and the figure of Crab Daoist materialized.

“Fellow Daoist Mo Guang, Fellow Daoist Crab, I’ll trouble you two to protect me,” Han Li said, then immediately sat cross-legged and began to circulate his technique.

The next moment, dazzling golden light burst from his body, and waves of time law surged out.

Mo Guang and Crab Daoist exchanged a glance, then each went to a corner of the room and sat down cross-legged.

“Eh!”

Just as Han Li was using the power of the time law to cover all his immortal apertures, he suddenly noticed something amiss.

The violent activity in his body was limited to the immortal apertures that had been invaded by baleful qi; the remaining pure immortal apertures showed no abnormality. This seemed different from the previous outbreak of baleful decay.

“Could it be that it’s not an outbreak of baleful decay? Could it be…” Han Li thought to himself, his just-relaxed brow furrowing again.

If baleful decay were to erupt now, although he was confident he could suppress it again, it would take some time. Moreover, he was currently in the Gray Realm. If anyone detected him undergoing baleful decay, his identity would be exposed immediately, leading to great disaster.

Han Li’s mind raced. He wrapped the violent baleful qi with his immortal spiritual power and time law, suppressing it with force.

But no matter how he tried to suppress it, the baleful qi in his immortal apertures seemed to be stimulated, churning more and more violently.

Han Li felt an increasingly intense restlessness in his heart. For some reason, his sea of consciousness churned violently, and an uncontrollable impulse surged within him.

At this moment, his eyes turned bloodshot, emitting a fierce and baleful aura that grew denser.

Not only that, but the baleful qi in the surrounding void seemed attracted to him, rapidly converging toward him and merging with the baleful qi in his immortal apertures.

The pitch-black baleful qi in his immortal apertures increased rapidly, churning even more violently.

Han Li bit the tip of his tongue fiercely, using his remaining rationality to suppress the impulse within, and immediately moved his hands.

The nearby void flickered, and a white light door emerged.

Then, with a flicker of his form, he vanished into the light door, entering the Blossom Cavern Heaven.

As soon as he entered the Blossom Space, the surging baleful qi was brought in with him, and the baleful qi in the room immediately thinned, causing the baleful qi in Han Li's immortal aperture to stop growing.

Han Li's expression relaxed slightly. He sat down cross-legged again, flipped his hand, and produced a pitch-black pill, which was none other than the Baleful-Suppressing Pill.

Without any hesitation, he opened his mouth and swallowed the pill, then fully activated his cultivation technique to refine it.

The pill quickly melted, and two vast auras, one hot and one cold, intertwined and surged, traveling through his limbs and bones.

All of Han Li's pores involuntarily opened wide, and streams of dense black baleful qi surged out from all over his body, dispersing into the surroundings.

"Strange, when did such dense baleful qi form inside me again?" He was startled at the sight of the endless black baleful qi pouring out.

Last time, with the help of three Baleful-Suppressing Pills, although he had not expelled the baleful qi from his immortal aperture, he had greatly removed it from other parts of his body. How had such dense baleful qi formed again in such a short time?

"Could it be the effect of being in a baleful qi environment for a long time after entering the Gray Realm..." Han Li's eyes flickered, but he quickly shook his head, stopped dwelling on it, and focused on refining the medicinal power.

At that moment, a black figure flickered, and the silhouette of Mo Guang also appeared behind Han Li.

He muttered incantations and raised both hands.

Two beams of black light shot out from his palms, quickly merging into a black pillar as thick as a water vat.

On the pillar, black light rippled like waves, faintly forming the shadow of a huge beast resembling a tiger or lion, which opened its mouth wide and inhaled fiercely.

The baleful qi emanating from Han Li immediately flew toward the beast's shadow, pouring into it in rolling streams.

Moreover, the devouring force from the beast's shadow enveloped Han Li's entire body, greatly accelerating the outward leakage of his internal baleful qi.

Seeing this, Han Li's mind stirred, and he continued to circulate his technique to refine the medicinal power.

With the help of the Baleful-Suppressing Pill's power and Mo Guang, the baleful qi inside him rapidly dissipated outward, and the roiling baleful qi in his immortal aperture seemed to find an outlet, gradually calming down.

In the blink of an eye, seven or eight days had passed.

The baleful qi emanating from Han Li gradually diminished from much to little, finally disappearing completely.

He slowly opened his eyes; the blood light in them had vanished, restoring clarity.

Not far behind him, Mo Guang, with his hands forming seals, dispersed the black pillar of light.

Han Li concentrated to sense the situation within his body; the baleful qi in his immortal aperture had ceased its agitation and returned to calm.

However, the baleful qi in his immortal aperture had not decreased at all; on the contrary, because the earlier agitation had absorbed some external baleful qi, it had even increased slightly.

Seeing this, Han Li could not help but sigh inwardly.

This black baleful qi slowly rotated within his immortal aperture, like lingering specters that could not be dispelled, constantly spying on his body, unknown when it might erupt again.

“Fellow Daoist Mo Guang, thank you for your assistance this time.” Han Li turned around and nodded in thanks.

“A trivial matter, not worth mentioning.” Mo Guang waved his hand and said.

“Fellow Daoist Mo Guang, you are now in the body of a gray immortal. After this period of磨合, you must have comprehended the mysteries of baleful qi power. These past two days, you have been helping me calm the baleful qi. Have you discerned anything? Why did the baleful qi in my immortal aperture suddenly become so agitated?” Han Li pondered briefly and then asked.

“Fellow Daoist Han, you overestimate me. Although I have temporarily occupied this body and, after this period of contemplation, have gained some understanding of the path of baleful qi, I am far from having fully comprehended it. However, through my observations these two days, I have indeed noticed some clues.” Mo Guang said thoughtfully.

“Oh? What have you noticed? Speak freely.” Han Li raised an eyebrow and asked.

“Fellow Daoist Han, you are now in the Gray Realm, and your body is constantly exposed to external baleful qi. You are someone undergoing the Baleful Calamity, with dense baleful qi within you. The two attract each other due to their same nature. Since entering the Gray Realm, without your awareness, the baleful qi in your body has accumulated rapidly, reaching an extremely dense level. I suspect it is precisely because the baleful qi in your body is too dense that it triggered the agitation of the baleful qi in your immortal aperture.” Mo Guang’s eyes flickered as he spoke.

“So that’s it.” Han Li nodded and murmured to himself.

It seemed that after entering the Gray Realm, on the surface he appeared able to adapt to the baleful qi environment here, but in reality, because he had already accumulated a large amount of baleful qi in his body and, by a twist of fate, had also cultivated a Gray Realm technique, his body had undergone some changes. Simply put, he was no different from half a gray immortal.

Under such circumstances, although he could move freely in the Gray Realm, he would also, through repeated eruptions of baleful qi, gradually make his body adapt to this environment. If this continued, after perhaps just a thousand years, he would completely degenerate into a gray immortal, never to return.

“Fellow Daoist Han, the baleful qi elsewhere in your body is easy to handle. Taking a Calming Baleful Pill, with my help, it is not difficult to expel. But the baleful qi in your immortal aperture is beyond remedy. We have barely suppressed this eruption, but the next eruption, or the one after, is hard to say.” Mo Guang said seriously.

“As it stands, the only option is to find a way to return to the True Immortal Realm as soon as possible, or directly pass through the Baleful Calamity.” Han Li smiled bitterly upon hearing this and said.

Even so, he knew in his heart that leaving the Gray Realm in a short time was obviously not easy, and trying to survive the Baleful Calamity in an environment like the Gray Realm was even more fanciful.

Now, he was caught in a dilemma with no way forward or back.