Inside the stone hall on the surface, a continuous rumbling echoed through the chamber. The Hidden Moon Sect disciples were still laboriously using their magical tools to pound away at a massive stone pit several zhang deep. But no matter what tool they struck the pit with, they could only chip off pieces of stone roughly an inch in size, leaving everyone increasingly disheartened with every blow.
After several hours, all the male and female disciples sat blankly on the ground, staring at the great pit in silence, every last one of them looking utterly lifeless. At this point, none of them held out any real hope of rescuing that grandmaster! Everyone had begun to contemplate the terrifying consequences of losing their ancestor, and each was quietly looking for a way out for themselves.
Just then, a tremendous boom rang out from beyond the stone hall, followed by a violent tremor through the ground, as though something earth-shaking had occurred outside. The disciples froze in momentary confusion.
"What's going on?" They exchanged bewildered glances, and two male disciples immediately rushed out of the stone hall to investigate.
"Grandmaster!"
Moments later, the two disciples' voices erupted from outside the hall — wild with elation. Their shouts were so loud that even the disciples still inside the hall heard them clearly. After a stunned exchange of looks, the entire crowd surged out in a swarm.
About a dozen zhang from the entrance of the hall, a great hole roughly a zhang in diameter had appeared in the ground. Standing near the edge of the hole was a stunningly beautiful woman in flowing white robes — unmistakably the young female grandmaster, though she now looked a touch older than before. At this moment, the Hidden Moon Sect ancestor was gazing coldly into the distance, her face a mask of utter indifference. She paid no attention whatsoever to the two male disciples who had already taken positions behind her.
This quickly sobered the disciples from their wild joy, as though a bucket of cold water had been dumped over their heads.
"Could this ancestor intend to hold us accountable for triggering the protective seals?"
At the thought, every disciple cast a furtive glance toward the female disciple among the Hidden Moon Twin Beauties. Coming to her senses, the girl turned deathly pale, her heart seized with terror.
The woman in white gazed into the distance for a full quarter of an hour before finally turning around. She swept a look over the assembled disciples behind her and issued a single ice-cold command: "Move out!"
……
Han Li was leaping rapidly from one great tree to the next, his body as agile and nimble as a monkey, hurtling down the mountain at a speed that was in no way inferior to flying on a magical instrument.
Right now, his entire body surged with spiritual energy — he possessed a full thirteen layers of Magical Power. This marvelous sensation of drastically increased power was rather intoxicating. However, this surplus spiritual energy would not last long; in another few hours it would fade.
In order to escape the underground swamp, the woman who had shared an intimate union with him had used some secret technique to temporarily transfer a portion of her sealed power to Han Li, catapulting him in one leap from the eleventh layer all the way to the peak of the Qi Condensation stage.
Then, one wielding the Vermillion Bird Ring and the other wielding the Golden Light Brick talisman treasure, the two had carved a tunnel straight through the earth to the surface by sheer force.
Throughout the process, whenever Han Li's power was depleted, the woman would silently channel more into him. By the time the two emerged from underground, Han Li's Golden Light Brick talisman treasure had expended all its might and become nothing but scrap paper, while the young woman had burned through twenty to thirty years' worth of cultivated power — a devastating loss by any measure.
Truth be told, this woman's Su Nü Reincarnation Art was truly extraordinary.
During the reincarnation period, she could transfer her sealed power to a man, but she could neither release the seal herself nor transfer that power to another woman. Moreover, the amount of power she could send was limited by the man's own realm of cultivation. Since Han Li was only at the Qi Condensation stage, the power transferred to him could never exceed the thirteen layers of a basic cultivation technique — there was no way it would push him into Foundation Establishment.
Because Han Li had only just received the woman's power at the moment they broke through the final barrier to the surface, he could still maintain this state of thirteen-layer power for a while longer, allowing him to savor this extraordinary feeling just a little more.
"Nangong Wan."
Han Li silently recited the name in his heart. This was the name he had asked from the woman before parting ways with her.
Yet thinking back to how she had looked — clearly reluctant to even tell him — a pang of melancholy still stirred within him.
He understood that even if he reached Foundation Establishment, let alone remain at Qi Condensation, she would never have any further connection with him. The gap between them in both lifespan and standing within the world of Cultivating Immortality was simply too vast, so when she had parted with him so coldly, all he could do was accept it with a bitter smile.