Chapter 92: The Ninth Chain

The sudden turn of events before him made Han Li's expression darken, but he quickly regained his composure.

Given the peculiarity of the black chains, this occurrence was within his expectations.

After letting out a light breath, he fiercely urged his cultivation technique, causing an even denser stream of silver light threads to surge into his dantian and bombard the black chains.

A series of crackling sounds erupted!

Although the silver light threads were still shattered upon contact with the black runes, the black runes were also continuously consumed.

The blades formed from divine sense crystal threads continued to chop down as well.

With wave after wave of bombardment from the silver light threads and divine sense crystal threads, the black runes around the chains grew increasingly dim.

Yet Han Li's face showed little joy.

The black runes were indeed decreasing, but at this moment, his internal magic power was nearly depleted.

Although he had made ample preparations beforehand, allowing his five viscera and dantian to store magic power to their limits, it now seemed far from sufficient.

Han Li let out a low shout, fiercely mobilizing all remaining magic power within his body, causing all the silver light threads in his dantian to flash and transform into eight silver light hands, which pierced through the remaining black runes, grabbed the eight black chains, and pulled hard.

The black chains immediately tightened, and a sharp pain emanated from his nascent soul.

Han Li clenched his teeth, but his heart stirred!

Since the nascent soul had been sealed by the black chains, he had felt nothing at all, but now it finally had some connection with his main body.

Without a word, he activated the Spirit Refining Art, pouring all his divine sense power into his dantian, splitting it in two. With a flash of crystalline light, it transformed into two crystalline giant axes.

Several silver arcs of lightning flew from the lightning hands, coiled around the crystalline giant axes, and struck down fiercely, chopping at the taut black chains.

A loud crash!

The taut black chains shook violently, and cracks appeared at the points where they were struck.

Overjoyed, Han Li drove the giant axes to strike again.

At that moment, a sudden change occurred!

A ripple in the void around him arose, and a section of black chain materialized out of thin air. Before Han Li could react, it flashed and vanished into his body.

The surrounding starlight formation seemed unable to hinder it in the slightest.

With a "crack" sound!

The black chain coiled around Han Li's nascent soul, connecting the other eight chains together.

Hum!

Countless black runes emerged on the surface of the nine black chains, spinning rapidly and radiating light, causing the two silver light hands gripping the chains to be instantly pierced by dazzling black light and dissipate.

Clang! Clang!

The crystalline giant axes struck the chains and immediately shattered, scattering into a patch of crystalline light that dissipated.

...

At the same time, within a hall deep in a desert somewhere in the Immortal Realm.

A zombie-like man extended one hand forward, his entire body enveloped in dazzling black light, with countless black runes flickering and leaping within.

The chains around him clanked loudly, writhing like countless tentacles, striking the ground and the hall's walls with thunderous roars.

The zombie-like man lowered his raised arm, the black light on his body rapidly dissipated, and the wildly dancing chains soon calmed down, falling to the ground.

"Old Seven, considering our master-disciple bond, I will help you this last time," the zombie-like man murmured to himself, then closed his eyes.

...

In the small courtyard, Han Li suddenly stood up, his eyes flashing with blue light as he looked around, his expression extremely grim.

At the same time, he unhesitatingly released his divine sense, instantly covering the sea area for thousands of li around Wumeng Island, but found nothing.

After a long moment, his expression shifting between uncertainty, he slowly sat back down.

The black chain that had suddenly appeared must have been sent by a being with extremely high cultivation through remote spellcasting.

Now it seemed that the one who had placed the seal on his nascent soul was far more terrifying than he had anticipated.

Suddenly, a thought flashed through Han Li's mind, and he quickly urged his divine sense.

A series of soft buzzing sounds!

His vast divine sense surged into his dantian, forming a layer of crystalline light that enveloped the nascent soul layer by layer.

Although this might not be useful, he hoped it could at least block some connection with the outside world.

After doing all this, Han Li sat cross-legged again, flipped his hand to produce a thousand-year-old Cloud Crane Herb, and put it into his mouth, chewing vigorously.

Although this attempt had ultimately failed, what comforted him was that this method indeed had a glimmer of possibility to shake the black chains.

Although the black chain that appeared out of nowhere had ultimately caused the effort to fall short, if he had enough magic power to support him, even if another chain appeared, he might still be able to forcibly break them.

...

One month later, in a secluded courtyard on Wumeng Island.

At night, seven enormous white light pillars descended from the high sky, enveloping the entire small courtyard.

Han Li, dressed in blue, sat cross-legged in the courtyard's open space, his eyes tightly shut.

Beside him, countless tiny, sparkling white lights, like countless white fireflies, slowly danced around him, occasionally lightly touching his skin before bouncing off and floating back into the air.

Within the courtyard, the white light was faint, like a layer of white gauze, from which emanated waves of rich and gentle starlight power fluctuations.

At that moment, the seven clusters of blue light on Han Li's chest and abdomen gradually faded, and the white light surrounding him suddenly brightened, then slowly dissipated. The seven pillars of light in the night sky also vanished.

He slowly opened his eyes, looked up at the starry sky, a helpless expression on his face, and smiled bitterly: "As expected, it still doesn't work..."

Over the past month, he had tried several methods to increase his internal magic power, all without exception, with no effect.

In recent days, he had continued to cultivate the Little Dipper Stellar Origin Art, trying to find a way to further enhance the power of the Five Viscera Tempering Art.

However, although starlight power still responded and descended, the seven major acupoints in his body were already full and could no longer absorb any more starlight power.

Han Li sighed, staring fixedly at the Big Dipper in the night sky. His vision gradually blurred, and he felt that several of the stars, as they flickered, became hazy and seemed about to merge.

At that moment, his heart leaped, and a sudden inspiration flashed through his mind: Since he couldn't increase his own magic power, why not cultivate an avatar?

With this thought, Han Li reached out and stroked his chin, pondering carefully.

Using an avatar to cultivate and accumulate magic power would naturally bypass the seal on his nascent soul. As long as the avatar could provide him with sufficient magic power, he could deal with those troublesome black chains.

But where would this avatar come from?

Although Han Li had previously practiced the Profound Mother Nascent Infant Art and had even succeeded with the Wood Spirit Infant, this technique required the condensation of a second nascent soul.

Condensing a second nascent soul not only had stringent requirements but also required a great deal of energy and time, which was precisely what he least wanted to waste now.

Other avatar techniques he knew of also required a lot of time, without exception, and were equally inadvisable.

Just as he was hesitating, the statue head in the forbidden area of Wumeng Island came to mind, and his eyes immediately lit up.

"That's right, an Earth Deity avatar is also an avatar..."

Thinking of this, Han Li immediately stood up from the ground. With a wave of his hand, a beam of light flew out from his sleeve and descended toward a certain part of the island.

...

About half a quarter of an hour later, two figures appeared in the seabed forbidden area in the northwest of Wumeng Island.

One of them, tall and dressed in blue, was Han Li. Behind him stood a puzzled man in a Confucian robe, naturally Luo Feng.

He had been cultivating in his cave dwelling when he suddenly received a sound transmission talisman from Han Li and immediately rushed over. Now he was somewhat bewildered.

"Senior Liu, you summoned me to this forbidden area—is there something urgent you wish to instruct?" Luo Feng couldn't help asking.

"I have some questions for you later," Han Li said simply, without further explanation.

After speaking, he walked straight to the stone platform, reached out, and picked up the blue statue head.

After examining it for a moment, his eyes flashed with blue light, and he pointed with two fingers toward the center of the head's brow.

Seeing this, Luo Feng's heart leaped, and he instinctively wanted to stop him, but in the end, he did nothing, only leaning forward, mouth slightly open, frozen in place.

The moment Han Li's fingertip touched the statue's brow, a light invisible to the naked eye suddenly lit up from the statue head, rippling outward like water waves.

Although this light was not very strong and had little destructive power, the moment it touched him, Han Li's body shook violently, and an expression of disbelief appeared on his face.

He was astonished to find that the chains within his nascent soul resonated faintly with this light, now swaying slightly in tandem with the light's fluctuations.

After a moment's thought, Han Li's hand suddenly glowed with blue light, and a wisp of pure magic power shot out from his fingertip into the statue head.

Within the head, it was as if a storm had suddenly erupted. Countless threads of faith power churned wildly, and several strands of blue magic power surged out, colliding directly with the blue magic power Han Li had input.

Although the blue magic power was pure, it was only a very thin wisp. Upon collision, it immediately dissipated like smoke.

Looking at those few strands of blue magic power, Han Li was overjoyed. He withdrew his finger from the statue head and turned to ask Luo Feng:

"Clan Leader Luo, besides using law power, what other abilities did the Earth Deity avatar of your Wumeng Island ancestral god possess?"

At this moment, all the anomalies and fluctuations on the statue head also disappeared.

Seeing that the statue head was unharmed, Luo Feng relaxed a little. Hearing Han Li's question, he replied:

"Although Lord Luomeng's Earth Deity avatar had no nascent soul, it could convert faith power into some magic power, so it could also use other spells."