Chapter 817: A Cover for Ears and Eyes

Shi Chuankong's heart stirred. He looked closely and saw that the ancient glazed lamp at the center of the formation had changed.

The four strange beasts beneath the lotus lamp holder now all had eerie red light glowing in their eyes.

Shi Chuankong merely glanced at the red light, and a buzzing sound rang in his head. His entire body felt as if struck by lightning.

At that moment, the blood throughout his body seemed to boil, making him unbearably hot and even struggling to breathe.

He forced himself to calm his mind and activated his cultivation technique to protect his entire body. When he looked again at the four strange beasts, he felt as if they had suddenly come to life, all grinning hideously.

An indescribable sense of resentment surged in his heart.

In a daze, he felt that heaven and earth had treated him unfairly. He had no desire for conflict, unwilling to involve himself in the struggles among his brothers. He only wanted to be a wealthy merchant who roamed the world, collecting rare treasures—how free and carefree that would be.

Yet his eldest brother, his fifth sister, and even his other brothers seemed hostile toward him, both openly and secretly. Why was this?

Since you show no mercy, don't blame me, Shi Chuankong, for being unrighteous...

Gradually, his handsome face twisted into a grimace, and his eyes filled with brutality.

Just then, a sharp shout suddenly rang out from nowhere.

The voice was very familiar—it was Han Li's. After the shout, Shi Chuankong felt his mind go blank, and all the strange sights and sounds before his eyes and ears vanished.

His expression was grim, and he felt a deep, lingering fear.

When he steadied himself and looked again at the glazed lamp, he saw that the red light was still there, but it was being suppressed by a powerful divine sense force.

The source of this divine sense force was naturally Han Li.

At this moment, Han Li appeared calm on the surface, but within his sea of consciousness, turbulent waves raged.

Whether the refining method left by the Purple and Green Sisters was false, or because he had injected too many divine sense crystal threads into the lamp, it had triggered a backlash. The four strange beasts had materialized in his sea of consciousness, greedily absorbing his divine sense power and attempting to devour his soul.

Within his sea of consciousness, the phantom images of four massive beasts advanced slowly from the four cardinal directions toward the center, compressing the space of his sea of consciousness.

Han Li silently recited the fifth-level mantra of the Divine Refining Art and began to fully activate it.

Powerful waves of divine sense radiated from the center of his sea of consciousness, turning into enormous waves that crashed against the beasts, slowing their advance.

However, this was only a temporary measure, delaying but not resolving the crisis.

Condense!

At that moment, Han Li shouted.

It was as if a sudden blizzard had struck his entire sea of consciousness. A snow-white light swept through, instantly freezing everything, encasing the four beasts in ice.

With the beasts' movement hindered, Han Li finally caught his breath. Just as he was about to take further action, a cracking sound was heard.

After absorbing a large amount of his divine sense power, the four beasts could not be frozen. One by one, they broke free from the ice and continued roaring as they converged toward the center of his sea of consciousness.

A sense of oppression far stronger than before filled the entire sea of consciousness, with an alarming trend of increasing intensity.

Seeing this, Han Li's heart sank.

He understood that once the four beasts converged and completely compressed the space of his sea of consciousness, his divine sense would be utterly depleted, his soul would dissipate, and he would become nothing more than a walking corpse.

Just as he was in this predicament, a patch of purple light suddenly appeared above his sea of consciousness. A warm and comfortable power flowed from it, merging into his sea of consciousness and rapidly replenishing his divine sense power.

Han Li's spirits lifted. He quickly focused his mind, gathered all his divine sense, and tried to merge with that power. At the same time, he continued to condense waves of divine sense even stronger than before to block the approaching beasts.

Although the beasts' speed was greatly reduced, they still drew closer bit by bit.

Han Li felt the pressure on his sea of consciousness increasing. As the space shrank, it seemed his divine sense power was being drained drop by drop. The purple light above his sea of consciousness also became distorted as the space compressed, as if being crumpled into a ball.

A suffocating terror arose.

But at that moment, a thunderclap suddenly echoed through the entire sea of consciousness. The crumpled purple light burst forth with dazzling radiance, transforming into patches of purple light that swept outward.

"Boom!"

The long-stagnant final bottleneck had actually been breached under this extreme pressure!

The fifth layer of the Divine Refining Art was finally perfected.

Before Han Li could even feel joy, a storm arose in his sea of consciousness. Surges of powerful divine sense gathered high above, all light converging until, astonishingly, a colossal divine sense sword coalesced.

The divine sense sword was translucent, inscribed with strange runes, and emanated waves of powerful divine sense that pressed outward like intense air currents.

As the giant divine sense sword slowly descended, waves of intense pressure radiated in all directions.

The four-beast phantoms, which had seemed unstoppable, began to retreat under the suppression of this divine sense fluctuation, withdrawing all the way out of Han Li's sea of consciousness.

On the small boat, Shi Chuankong watched Han Li nervously, holding a piece of Purple Sun Warm Jade, hesitating whether to continue placing it above the latter's head.

Just then, a translucent crystalline light suddenly shot out from between Han Li's brows, startling Shi Chuankong. As he was about to dodge, he saw that within the crystalline light was a tiny, crystal-clear sword, hovering steadily before his brow.

Shi Chuankong did not move recklessly, only glancing down at the Soul Devouring Lamp. Seeing that the red light in the eyes of the four beasts had extinguished, he felt somewhat relieved, then fell back and sat down with a thud.

Across from him, Han Li slowly opened his eyes, his pupils shining with divine light, clearly recovered.

The translucent divine sense sword swept back, vanishing into his brow.

He glanced at the small piece of Purple Sun Warm Jade still floating above his head and another in Shi Chuankong's hand, his heart stirring slightly. He clasped his fists toward Shi Chuankong and said, "I am deeply grateful for your help today, Brother Shi. Otherwise, the consequences would have been unthinkable."

"No need for formalities. I was hoping you'd grow stronger, Brother Li, so I'd have more confidence when we run into trouble later. By the way, tell me what happened. Why were you suddenly struck by backlash when everything was fine before?" Shi Chuankong waved his hand, then changed the subject with a question.

"I'm not entirely sure either. It seems that when I injected the divine sense crystal threads into the Soul Devouring Lamp, I failed to control the amount properly, causing too much divine sense power to converge, which triggered the backlash from the four-beast statues. Fortunately, at the critical moment, you protected my soul with the Purple Sun Warm Jade, replenishing the deficit in my divine sense power, giving me the chance to break through the bottleneck and turn defeat into victory," Han Li explained.

Shi Chuankong was bewildered, but connecting it to what had just happened, he could somewhat grasp the danger involved.

"And what about that translucent little sword just now?" he asked, still puzzled.

"That was a divine sense sword, another divine sense ability I mastered after perfecting the fifth layer of the Divine Refining Art. As for its specific power and might, it's hard to say now, but it certainly won't be weak," Han Li said after a moment's hesitation, still explaining.

Since it concerned another person's cultivation and divine abilities, Shi Chuankong, even if he still had questions, would not continue to press for answers.

As the two spoke, the strange sight of the Heavenly Stone Stairs on the cliff had already been left behind and could no longer be seen, while the small boat they were riding in had slid out of that open expanse of water, leaving only winding ripples on the river's surface.

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, eighty years had passed.

On a pitch-black, ink-dark sea, a massive black whale carrying a thousand-zhang island on its back cut through the waves, swimming forward.

The entire island was no more than a hundred zhang high, with a generally flat terrain covered in lush vegetation, and faintly visible pavilions and towers.

On a small hill pavilion at the very center of the island, two people sat facing each other, drinking wine, enjoying the gentle breeze in utmost comfort.

"Brother Shi, just the two of us chartering this entire Traveling Whale Island is really too extravagant," said Han Li, dressed in a blue robe, holding a wine glass with a smile.

"Brother Li, can you not be so smug after getting a bargain? I chartered this island precisely because I valued its formation that can absorb celestial spiritual energy and block out celestial demonic energy, so that you could stay more comfortably," Shi Chuankong said with exasperation.

"I'm just afraid that being too conspicuous might attract others' attention. To be honest, the closer we get to the central region, the denser the demonic energy in the world becomes. Although I have practiced demonic techniques, I still have to constantly resist it; it's quite annoying after all," Han Li said with a wry smile.

"As they say, the real and the false intermingle! Since they don't know our exact whereabouts, they naturally can't stop us," Shi Chuankong laughed.

"Your eldest brother and fifth sister are no ordinary people. The past twenty years may seem calm on the surface, but they might be brewing some other scheme. We must be on guard," Han Li said.

"No matter. We are now about to reach the Ink Sea region, just a step away from returning to Yeyang City. We must not lack vigilance, but there's no need to be overly cautious either," Shi Chuankong said with a smile, drinking a cup of fine wine.

"Ooo..."

Just as the two were speaking, a loud, clear, yet prolonged sound came from the mouth of the black whale beneath them.

Shi Chuankong frowned slightly, his gaze fixed on the distant sea, but seeing nothing there, he couldn't help but feel a bit tense.

He carefully turned his head to look at Han Li, afraid that he might again call him a jinx.

"Just a large underwater demon, its aura only at the peak of Golden Immortal, and not the aggressive kind," Han Li said after glancing into the distance.

As soon as he finished speaking, a bright fluorescent light suddenly lit up beneath the sea ahead. The black sea surface churned violently, bulging out a huge water dome.

Beneath the water dome was a massive white jellyfish, far larger than the black whale. Its entire body was translucent, yet a crystalline light shone from within, looking like a white lantern reflected on the sea surface.