A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality: Immortal Realm

Chapter 958: Weeping Blood Array

Han Li's gaze followed the movement of the line of fire, all the way until it had spread along the ground for over a thousand feet, at which it seemed to have reached its conclusion.

All of a sudden, the ground on either side erupted into flames, illuminating the entire space that Han Li was in.

Han Li inspected his surroundings momentarily, and a stunned look appeared on his face.

The space that he was in was around two thousand to three thousand feet in size, and there was a series of massive reliefs engraved onto the walls, depicting tall mountains, turbulent rivers, majestic cities, and various other pieces of stunning scenery.

The forests engraved onto the walls were teeming with exotic beasts, while cultivators were flying through the air, and it seemed to be depicting a scene that would only be found outside of the Scalptia Spatial Domain.

Why are there reliefs like these in a place like this? Could they have been made by someone in reminiscence of the outside world?

Han Li strode over to the walls to carefully examine all of the reliefs engraved upon them, and he discovered that the reliefs weren't connected, and there didn't seem to be any clear correlation between them, either.

Before long, Han Li had made his way deep into this space, where he spotted a black stone coffin that was around thirty feet in size on the ground. Engraved onto the coffin was what appeared to be a male puppet with a string attached to each of its joints, suspending it in mid-air. Its expression and limbs were all very stiff, presenting a rather peculiar sight to behold.

All of the strings ran over the surface of the stone coffin before converging above the puppet's head, and upon closer inspection, Han Li discovered that there all of the strings had come together to form a yin-yang symbol above the puppet's head, but there was no customary eight trigrams design around the yin-yang symbol.

After a brief hesitation, Han Li gently laid a hand upon the yin-yang symbol, and he discovered that there was some give to it, so it could be pressed down by external force.

An elated look appeared in Han Li's eyes upon seeing this, and he began to chant an incantation as he pressed down upon the yin-yang symbol.

The yin-yang symbol slowly sank down under the gentle pressure exerted by Han Li's hand, and the sound of stone grating on stone rang out as the stone coffin slid downward to reveal a transparent, cubic, crystal container, with each side roughly measuring five inches in length.

Inside the crystal container was a hollow silver ball that was riddled with extremely complex patterns, and it was also giving off peculiar energy fluctuations that were similar to soul power fluctuations.

Looks like this is it...

He observed the silver ball momentarily, then carefully examined the area around the crystal container, yet right as he was about to reach out to grab it, it occurred to him that something wasn't quite right.

He raised his head to continue inspecting the scenic reliefs on the surrounding walls, following which he made his way back to the stone coffin before replacing its lid.

He then began to pace back and forth while thinking back to the contents of the jade slip, and a particular detail suddenly sprang into his mind.

A look of realization then appeared on his face as his gaze roamed over the surrounding reliefs once again.

He made his way around the stone coffin until he was directly behind it, then began to stroke his hand along the relief on the wall before pressing down onto the sun engraved upon it.

A faint click rang out as the sun sank into the wall under the pressure exerted by his hand.

Han Li's eyes immediately lit up upon seeing this, and he made his way over to the next relief on his right.

This relief depicted an image of an impending storm, and Han Li pressed down onto a particular cloud on the wall.

After that, he pressed down onto a river and a mountain on the next two reliefs.

The detail that he had recalled from the jade slip was that the eight trigrams were supposed to be concealed within these reliefs, and that was why they were absent from around the yin-yang symbol.

As all of the hidden mechanisms that represented the eight trigrams were pressed down by Han Li, the entire space began to tremble violently, and the stone coffin on the ground sank down in a shaky manner to reveal an entrance to a passageway.

A faint smile appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this.

The entrance of the passageway wasn't very large, only able to fit one person at a time, and it revealed a stone staircase that led underground.

Han Li made his way down the staircase, and after descending around a dozen steps, the staircase turned left, leading to an opening that had white light glowing inside.

Han Li carefully made his way through the opening, arriving in another space that was only less than two hundred feet in size and was almost completely empty.

However, even though the area wasn't very large, there were dense clusters of star bones embedded into the walls, and the light that they were giving off was what was illuminating this space.

Han Li cast his gaze forward to discover a rectangular, black stone table positioned against the wall directly across from him, upon which were placed two extremely intricate white jade boxes.

After briefly examining the surrounding area to ensure that nothing was amiss, he strode over to the table and removed the lid of one of the jade boxes.

A fist-sized ball was revealed, sitting peacefully inside the box.

The ball was black in color, and just like the silver ball that Han Li had seen in the stone coffin, it was also hollow and riddled with strange patterns.

However, this ball wasn't giving off any energy fluctuations, and it didn't appear to be remarkable in any way aside from its intricate appearance. Hence, in contrast, the silver ball from before seemed more like a genuine artifact.

Han Li lifted the ball out of the box, then began to carefully inspect it while cradling it over the palms of his hands, and he spotted arcs of golden lightning that were as thin as strands of hair silently flashing deep within the heart of the ball.

Han Li had a feeling that this was no ordinary item, so he carefully tucked it down the front of his own robe.

After that, he turned his gaze to the other jade box.

This box had a round disc that was riddled with complex patterns embedded onto its surface, and there were two circles of holes on its outer edge, with a tiny golden rune visible beneath each hole.

Han Li reached out to lift the jade box, only to discover that it seemed to be fused as one with the table, refusing to budge even a single inch.

A series of profound acupoints lit up over his arms as he redoubled his efforts, and the jade box shuddered violently along with the table beneath it, but both the box and the table remained firmly locked into place.

Han Li raised an eyebrow upon seeing this, and he suddenly raised a fist before throwing a punch at the jade box.

A burst of radiant starlight immediately flashed over the surface of the jade box, releasing a burst of tremendous power that forced Han Li to stumble back a step.

A perplexed look appeared on his face as he turned his gaze back to the jade box. The jade slip that Daoist Xie had given him had explicitly mentioned that the black ball was something that had to be secure, but there was no mention of what was in the other jade box.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly as a series of profound acupoints lit up over his body, and he mustered up even more power before throwing another punch at the jade box.

The retaliative force released by the jade box was even stronger this time, forcing Han Li back several steps, all the way until his back was against the wall.

Han Li harrumphed coldly as he prepared to launch an even more powerful attack at the jade box, butright at this moment, he noticed that a crack was slowly appearing on the ground beneath his feet, leading straight to the underside of the jade box on the stone table.

He immediately realized that he couldn't continue to try and break open the jade box through brute force. Otherwise, this entire space was going to be destroyed along with it. On top of that, he didn't have any more time to waste here.

Right as Han Li was able to return to the main group, he suddenly spotted an image of a starry sky on the ground, illuminated by the light radiating from the star bones on the surrounding walls.

However, the image was quite small, and there were also parts that were missing.

Han Li observed the image for a long while before a look of surprise and realization suddenly appeared on his face, and he clapped his hands together as he exclaimed, "I see now!"

Immediately thereafter, he pulled his Star Wave Pen out of his sleeve and began repairing the image.

After completing his final stroke, Han Li stood up straight again to examine his own handiwork.

The starry sky image on the ground had begun radiating dazzling light, and a string of faint mechanical clicks rang out as the disc on the jade box began to slowly turn, following which the box sprang open on its own.

An elated look appeared on Han Li's face, and he peered into the jade box to discover a sheet of light gray beast hide that had been folded into a small square.

Han Li picked up the sheet of beast hide before spreading it open to reveal an image of an underground pentagonal altar, with a strange winged beast statue perched on each corner of the altar.

It was identical in appearance to the blood sacrificial altar that the five city lords were currently in.

Above the image of the altar was a heading that read "Weeping Blood Array", and Han Li immediately began carefully examining the entire image.

After comparing the Weeping Blood Array to the one outside, Han Li was quickly able to determine that the two were indeed one and the same. On top of that, according to the image, the blood pond in the array was enormous, and the array patterns engraved onto its walls were complex beyond belief.

There were also small passages of annotations around the image of the array, pointing out certain important features of the array and their functions.

The more Han Li saw, the more he came to understand what E Kuai's true intentions were.

In the end, his gaze settled on an annotation on the bottom right corner of the image, and a faint smile suddenly appeared on his face.