(I originally wanted to combine two chapters into one tonight to catch up, but I didn't expect to be off my game these past two days, feeling terribly drained. I could only manage the word count for a single chapter. Once I adjust my condition, I'll find a way to make it up to you all! –Wang Yu) The place Han Li was heading to was located within a small basin somewhere in the Ring Mountains. It was completely surrounded by tall, oddly-shaped rocks, creating an impenetrable barrier against wind and rain. Right in the center of the basin stood an ancient, massive hall made of blue-grey stone. Though the hall was enormous, its entrance was pitifully small, barely wide enough for two people to walk through side-by-side. Standing on the rocks and gazing down at it, Han Li felt a peculiar sense of disharmony.
Frowning slightly, he jumped down from the rock and walked slowly towards the entrance, looking up to examine the stone hall.
As he stared, the doubt on Han Li's face deepened.
He wasn't sure if it was an illusion, but he kept feeling like a faint blue light occasionally flowed across the hall's surface. However, when he tried to focus his eyes to look closer, he couldn't see anything unusual at all. After several attempts, he muttered to himself, "Could some kind of restriction have been cast on this place?"
Lowering his head, Han Li scanned the ground nearby. There were absolutely no signs of anyone having been here before, which made him squint his eyes.
"Something's definitely off! Even if this basin is remote, a stone hall this big couldn't have gone unnoticed by everyone. Besides, the information came from that fellow Zhong Wu – how come he never came here himself?" Countless thoughts flashed through Han Li's mind in an instant, and he instinctively sensed that something was wrong with this place.
But leaving now, he felt somewhat unwilling.
Taking a few steps back, he reached into his storage pouch and pulled out a golden blade. He tossed it into the air, and it transformed into a streak of golden light that struck hard at a block of blue stone above the entrance. "Pfft!" A surge of blue light flickered across the stone, leaving it completely unharmed, while the golden blade spun away end over end, flung back several yards.
Han Li shook his head and turned to leave.
"Avoid unnecessary danger. Safely getting out of the forbidden grounds is his primary goal. With this stone hall being so strange, it's better not to go inside," he thought, his expression unchanged.
But after just two steps, Han Li's face suddenly changed dramatically. His figure flickered and vanished into thin air, only to reappear inside the hall's entrance moments later, and then disappear once more into the depths of the stone hall.
At that moment, on the rocks beside the basin, a large group of disciples from the Hidden Moon Sect suddenly appeared. Leading them was the elf-like young girl who appeared youthful but was actually a grandancestor of the sect.
The girl gazed with a hint of puzzlement at the spot before the entrance where Han Li had vanished. She seemed to sense that someone had been right there, but now it was empty. Could her senses have been mistaken?
Unwilling to accept this easily, the young girl stopped right where she was. She lightly closed her eyes and released her vast spiritual sense all at once. The result was clear: apart from their own group, she sensed no other cultivators in the basin. However, when her spiritual sense swept over the stone hall, it was abruptly repelled by some force, startling her but then filling her with delight, a smile spreading across her face.
At first glance, she had noticed that a restriction had been placed on this stone hall, but it hadn't surprised her. Several of the dozen or so monster beast dens they had cleared earlier also had restrictions cast upon them – nothing extraordinary. But a restriction strong enough to block even her spiritual sense was something she encountered for the first time. It was absolutely not comparable to the shallow prohibitions at the previous sites.
Caught up in excitement, the elf-like girl didn't want to pursue the matter any further. She believed that even if a disciple or two from another sect were secretly spying nearby, they wouldn't pose any threat to so many Hidden Moon Sect members! Leading the way, she headed towards the stone hall.
Meanwhile, Han Li was standing in the hall's main chamber, pacing back and forth in agitation.
He had been about to leave! As per habit, he had first released his spiritual sense to check the surroundings, then planned to slip away.
But he never imagined that the moment his spiritual sense expanded, he immediately sensed a large group of cultivators extremely close by. The shock nearly froze the blood in his veins. Without a second thought, he flickered into the stone hall. No matter which of the other six sects these people were from, if they found him here, the consequences didn't require much imagination.
In truth, if he hadn't been so physically exhausted these past two days, he could have used his swift movement technique to openly outrun and escape from these cultivators. But unfortunately, in his current state, he could only use such techniques a few more times at most, and even running wouldn't get him far.
Now, hiding inside the stone hall, he was temporarily safe! But at the same time, he was also trapped here by that group of cultivators, unable to leave.
Moreover, this stone hall was built far too simply! After entering the gate and passing through a winding corridor, one arrived at this completely empty hall before him. There wasn't a single place in the entire spacious hall to take cover. And judging by the demeanor of that group outside, they were definitely coming for this stone hall. Hoping they wouldn't enter was pure wishful thinking!