After Han Li woke up, he didn’t immediately leave the tree hollow. Instead, he sat cross-legged, feeling the surging spiritual power within him. His mana had fully recovered to its peak state before entering the forbidden area. The soreness in his waist and legs had completely vanished, and he felt incredibly energetic.
Having completed his internal inspection, Han Li slowly opened his eyes, feeling extremely satisfied!
He then stood up and checked the talismans and magical instruments in his storage pouch, making his final preparations.
The storage pouches he had obtained from the bearded man and his accomplices that day were something Han Li hadn’t had the chance to examine carefully before. Now, he naturally went through them one by one to see if there were any usable magical instruments.
To be honest, whether it was the storage pouches of the bearded man and his companion or those they had looted from others, the scarcity and low quality of the magical instruments inside left Han Li speechless after he saw them!
Across the five storage pouches, there were a total of twenty-three magical instruments: five low-grade, seven mid-grade, and eleven high-grade.
One of the storage pouches contained only two low-grade and two mid-grade magical instruments, with no high-grade ones at all. This discovery puzzled Han Li for quite a while, leading him to sigh with emotion.
The wealth gap between ordinary disciples and elite disciples was truly like heaven and earth!
With such a large pile of storage pouches, not a single top-grade magical instrument could be found. No wonder the bearded man had been completely helpless when trapped by his “Earthen Prison Technique” that day, forced to watch as he was crushed to death by the “Golden Light Brick.”
Thinking about the number of top-grade magical instruments possessed by the Treasure-Bearing Woman and Feng Yue, Han Li couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of helplessness at the poverty of ordinary disciples.
No wonder others, upon seeing his shallow cultivation, instinctively assumed he was weak and easy to bully. They never even considered the possibility that he might possess powerful magical instruments. So this was why ordinary disciples had so few high-quality magical instruments!
Now Han Li finally understood why, that day in the Yellow Maple Valley’s assembly hall, so many disciples had been so excited at the prospect of receiving high-grade magical instruments. It seemed that Yellow Maple Valley, to which he belonged, treated its miscellaneous disciples quite well! After all, they were willing to use dozens of high-grade magical instruments to boost their morale.
In truth, Han Li had still misjudged the situation! Even among the elite disciples sent by various sects into the forbidden area, the number of top-grade magical instruments they possessed was exceedingly rare.
Those like the Treasure-Bearing Woman, who were equipped head-to-toe with top-grade magical instruments, were few and far even among elite disciples, and most of them had significant backgrounds. Ordinary elite disciples couldn’t hope to compare!
Someone like Han Li, who possessed three or four top-grade magical instruments, would already make so-called elite disciples drool with envy! After all, before reaching the Core Formation stage, aside from “Talisman Treasures,” top-grade magical instruments were the most powerful tools for combat. Each additional top-grade magical instrument could completely transform one’s strength!
While at Yellow Maple Valley, Han Li had had too little contact with his fellow disciples, which was why his understanding of these matters in the cultivation world was only superficial. He had subconsciously assumed that all elite disciples were loaded with top-grade magical instruments.
No wonder—since his battle with “Senior Brother Lu,” every enemy he had encountered had possessed top-grade magical instruments, leading him to mistakenly believe that top-grade magical instruments were commonplace. This had created a significant misunderstanding.
Now, although he understood the scarcity of magical instruments among ordinary disciples, he still hadn’t fully grasped the value of top-grade magical instruments. For Han Li, it was hard to say whether this was a blessing or a curse.
Naturally, Han Li ignored the low- and mid-grade magical instruments, not even considering using them. He tested each of the high-grade magical instruments one by one and finally selected the three most powerful and practical ones as backup instruments.
A blue flying dagger, a golden cymbal, and a jadeite pot! These were the items Han Li had taken a liking to.
The flying dagger and golden cymbal were purely offensive magical instruments, with little else to say about them. But the jadeite pot was quite rare—it was an auxiliary-type magical instrument, which was relatively uncommon.
From the pot, a green, misty poison could be sprayed, enveloping the enemy and causing them to die from poisoning! At first glance, the pot’s effect seemed quite useful, but in reality, it was a rather mediocre magical instrument. All five-element protective barriers could block the poison mist, making it impossible to actually poison a cultivator!
If not for the fact that Han Li felt the green poison mist could temporarily obstruct the enemy’s vision and cause them some trouble, he might not have chosen this magical instrument at all.
After organizing everything on his person, Han Li estimated the time and quietly slipped out of the tree hollow. Then, after confirming his direction, he set off at a slow pace.
Flying directly into the ringed mountains from above after dispersing the mist was absolutely not an option! He would be noticed by countless flying demon beasts and surrounded and killed. Over the years, a few safe paths into the ringed mountains had been discovered. Han Li headed straight for the passage closest to him.
The entrance to the passage wasn’t far, and Han Li soon arrived at the location mentioned in the materials!
Hiding behind a large tree and looking at the boundless, sky-obscuring fog before him, Han Li was truly stunned!
The vast white fog almost blotted out the sky! Not to mention seeing the entrance to the ringed mountains, Han Li couldn’t even see a place a few meters inside the fog!
No wonder almost no one dared to climb this mountain before the “Moon Yang Pearl” was available! The thought of having to endure attacks from various demon beasts that came and went without a trace in such dense fog left Han Li speechless for a long time!
The fog was still so thick—it seemed the Tianque Fort disciple in charge of the pearl hadn’t yet started the spell to disperse the mist.
Thinking this, Han Li stood behind the tree and began waiting silently!
In the area where Han Li was waiting, facing the fog, wild trees and weeds grew in chaotic profusion. Hiding a dozen or so people here would be no problem at all.
Although Han Li hadn’t detected anyone else nearby, he knew there must be others here. After all, there were only a few paths up the mountain. It was just that, with the mountain entry imminent, no one cared about his arrival.
Time passed, quarter-hour by quarter-hour!
After waiting bitterly for three or four hours, Han Li suddenly felt an astonishing spiritual power emanating from the southwest direction. Then, a towering white beam of light shot straight into the sky from a far-off place! Above the vast sea of fog, it condensed into a giant ball of light.
Although the ball of light had formed, the beam showed no signs of stopping, continuously injecting energy into the ball. As a result, the ball grew larger and larger, brighter and brighter, until eventually, it became like a newly risen sun, too dazzling to look at directly!
A moment later, the beam of light suddenly vanished, leaving only the giant ball of light floating high in the sky.
But the lifespan of the light ball was pitifully short. In the blink of an eye, it began to twist and deform, its surface bulging and denting as if made of dough. Han Li, watching this scene, was utterly stunned, his mouth hanging open in disbelief.
With an earth-shattering “boom,” the giant ball of light finally exploded high in the sky, transforming into countless beautiful points of light the size of fists that drifted down, showering the vast mist below like an incredibly gorgeous rain of light!
Each white point of light, upon falling into the mist, immediately caused the nearby thick fog to come alive like a flood dragon, desperately crowding toward the light point. But upon contact, the mist would instantly be dissolved by the light point, though the light point would also dim considerably.
As more and more points of light came into contact with the fog, the entire misty area began to seethe and boil like a mountain collapsing and a sea roaring! It was as if a giant demon beast was making a final, desperate struggle.
Han Li stared unblinkingly at all of this. For the first time in his life, he witnessed the true power of a high-level magic treasure! Along with his shock, his heart was filled with envy and longing.
After a struggle with the points of light, the fog finally began to thin. The tall, perilous outline of the ringed mountains appeared before Han Li and the others for the first time.
“So tall!”
This was the exclamation of everyone who clearly saw the ringed mountains, and Han Li was no exception.
The section of the ringed mountains before Han Li was indeed terrifyingly high!
Looking up, the mountain reached thousands of feet into the sky, towering into the clouds with its peak invisible. The surface of the mountain was covered with bizarre rocks and steep cliffs, and towering ancient trees so thick that several people couldn’t wrap their arms around them grew densely across the entire mountain. Even more startling was that the strangely perilous mountain range extended continuously into the distance on both sides, with no end in sight.
Only the ridge facing Han Li and the others was exceptionally gentle, far less steep than the other directions. It seemed this was the so-called path up the mountain.
From within the mountain, faint growls of demon beasts could be heard, sinister and fierce, sending chills down the spine of anyone who heard them!
Han Li was staring in a daze!
“Whoosh!” A yellow figure shot out like an arrow from the grass near Han Li, darting into the dark, vast mountain and disappearing.
This move seemed to trigger the nerves of all those lying in ambush. Immediately, several others leaped out simultaneously, all rushing forward. Just before entering the mountain forest, they slightly distanced themselves from each other and infiltrated the ringed mountains from different points.
Han Li didn’t emerge. He intended to observe who else would choose the same path into the mountain as he did.
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