Published: September 2, 2025
Chapter 506: Making a Plan
When the two finished speaking, their expressions turned gloomy, and they abruptly stopped their conversation. Then, they accelerated their magical artifacts, flying swiftly down the mountain.
Han Li did not follow closely behind them. That would be too obvious.
Instead, he covertly entwined a bit of his spiritual awareness around the gaunt man. After coldly watching them fly a good distance away, he calmly revealed his figure and followed from afar.
Compared to Han Li, their speed was quite slow.
After flying for over an hour, they finally reached the fourth level of the Sacred Mountain and walked side by side into an extremely ordinary-looking residence.
After a moment, Han Li’s figure appeared silently above the courtyard.
The environment here was relatively quiet. Nearby, aside from a few similarly styled courtyards in the distance, there was a small patch of lush green bamboo forest, giving a touch of elegance.
Han Li stared at this courtyard, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes.
Although this residence looked unremarkable, it had a small “Flowing Water Formation” magic formation arranged outside. While it wouldn’t do much against a determined intruder, it could at least provide some warning.
However, this formation was useless against Han Li himself. Even an ordinary core formation stage cultivator with some knowledge of formations wouldn’t be affected at all.
Han Li was fully confident that he could slip in unnoticed without triggering the outside barrier.
And that was exactly what he did.
He formed a spell formation with his hands, and after a brief blur, he suddenly vanished within a flash of azure light.
...
Not long after, Han Li, hiding his presence, silently appeared inside the courtyard.
At this moment, he suppressed all the flow of his magical power. Not to mention foundation establishment stage cultivators, even core formation stage immortal cultivators would find it nearly impossible to detect him.
This caution was because Han Li suspected that there really might be core formation stage cultivators here. Otherwise, a simple concealment technique would have sufficed.
Han Li stood motionless in the middle of the courtyard. But his spiritual awareness spread out slowly from him, enveloping the entire residence.
Then, a strange expression crossed his face as he turned to focus on a side room on the left.
He clearly sensed that the other rooms were empty. Only this small side room held seven cultivators inside.
Among them were the gaunt man and the black-faced middle-aged man.
Two of the seven were women. One was a fairly attractive woman, while the other was a young woman of ordinary appearance.
But the strongest cultivation base belonged to a brocade-clad burly man with keen eyes and a hooked nose.
Aside from that somewhat unpleasant nose, the man’s features were fairly well-proportioned, and he looked dignified. He had roughly late foundation establishment stage cultivation, already entering the false core realm, ready to begin core formation.
The others were mostly foundation establishment stage cultivators of early to mid-level.
This was quite normal. Such cultivation was the minimum requirement to venture into the outer star sea.
However, whatever they had just discussed seemed serious. Everyone’s expression was gloomy and silent. The whole room was quiet without a single word spoken.
Han Li was in no hurry. He quietly stood there, waiting.
He believed their conversation would provide useful information, so he could decide his next move.
Sure enough, after a short while, the middle-aged woman couldn’t suppress her impatience and spoke up.
“Brother Yi, Brother Huang just brought back the message. They actually want five thousand spirit stones per person before allowing us to go to the outer star sea. Should we complete the Star Palace’s mission openly and be sent over officially, or secretly hand over the spirit stones and be covertly transmitted there? Yi, what’s your opinion? Once the battle starts, even if they want to let us go, it might be too late.” Her tone was somewhat irritated.