"If that man becomes a Great Spirit General, then won't he also have the ability to get rid of our slave marks?" the three-headed giant python exclaimed with elation.
A hint of anticipation also flashed through the cow-headed beast's eyes, but that quickly disappeared as a wry smile appeared on its face. "Theoretically, yes, but why would he help us?"
"Our senior in the Black Infernal Mist is most likely either dead or has abandoned us. In any case, we haven't been able to get in contact with him for over 100 years. If we don't give this a try, then our lives will truly be under threat," the golden ape said in a grave voice.
"So what do you two suggest?" the cow-headed beast asked.
"If that man really can successfully progress, then why don't we offer him that treasure so he can lift the restrictions on us?" the giant ape suggested.
"That item is extremely important for our future progression; are we just going to hand it over to someone else? What if he takes the treasure, but doesn't lift our restrictions? That would be a disaster," the cow-headed beast said in a hesitant voice.
"What's the point of having such a treasure if we're going to lose our lives? This man may not be a being of the same race as us, but he's been quite fair during the exchanges that we've had with him, so he most likely won't revoke any promises. I will admit that there's some risk involved, but we'll regret it in the future if we don't try to take this opportunity. This man is an outsider, so who knows how much longer he'll stay here for?" The giant python was growing rather agitated, and it slammed its massive tail into the ground, smashing a crater into the soil that was several feet deep.
The golden ape nodded in agreement upon hearing this.
"Seeing as both of you support this course of action, then I'm also willing to take this risk. However, let's wait and see if this man succeeds in his breakthrough for now. If he fails, then we won't be able to do anything anyway," the cow-headed beast sighed.
The other two beasts naturally nodded in agreement, and their discussion ceased as all three of them looked on toward the phenomena taking place in the distance with concern in their eyes.
At this moment, the white cloud ring above the five-colored giant mountain was slowly expanding outward, seemingly at a slow rate, but that was only because it was so massive already. In reality, it was proliferating at a startling rate, and it was soon big enough to fit around the entire giant mountain.
As the cloud ring expanded, the winds within it also became more fierce and impossible to withstand.
The five-colored light down below was sucked upward by the gale-force winds at an astonishing rate, and the films of light over the giant mountain gradually thinned out.
After such a long time, the specks of five-colored light converging toward the giant mountain had also begun to lessen.
The spiritual light manifested from the world's origin Qi finally gathered in one place before being swept up into the cloud ring by the fierce winds.
The entire underside of the giant cloud ring gave off the appearance of a huge five-colored bowl.
When the final layer of layer disappeared from around the mountain, the winds suddenly ceased, and the entire cloud ring fell silent with only five-colored light shimmering incessantly within it. It was as if the calm before the storm had arrived.
All of a sudden, a loud dragon roar erupted from deep within the mountain, and golden light flashed at its summit before the giant golden projection with three heads and six arms appeared.
The projection was over 10,000 feet, and it was if it were an actual being. The projection slowly raised its three heads to reveal two balls of piercing golden light on each of its blurry and indistinct faces. Those balls of light opened up to form pairs of completely emotionless eyes that looked up at the cloud ring in unison.
All of a sudden, the three heads swayed together, and three long cries rang out once again in a relentless manner, like rumbling lightning that echoed throughout the entire heavens.
The normal beasts in the distance only grew more petrified as a result, but exhibited no other symptoms. However, the demon beasts that already possessed demonic power were suddenly struck an intense ringing in their ears, and it was if their spiritual sense had been plunged into a turbulent ocean, making it impossible for them to formulate any coherent thoughts.
The long cry unleashed by the giant projection dragged on for as long as 10 minutes before abruptly coming to a halt. After that, each of the six arms made a hand seal, and following a few muffled thumps, spiritual light flashed in the surrounding area, and four more projections appeared, each of which was only half the size of the original one.
These consisted of a massive azure bird, a five-colored peacock, a five-clawed golden wyrm, and a huge rainbow phoenix.
As soon as these true spirit projections appeared, each of them let loose their customary cries and began to fly in the air around the original golden projection.
Light suddenly flashed from two of the projection's three blurry faces, and they instantly became clearer as both of them took on Han Li's set of ordinary facial features.
Golden light was flashing in the eyes on those two faces, and both of them wore grim expressions. For some reason, the final head remained quite blurry and indistinct, making it impossible for one to glean its facial features.
One of the faces let loose a loud roar, and the four true spirit projections faltered before flying toward the massive golden projections.
Spiritual light flashed, and all four projections disappeared in the blink of an eye.
The original golden projection shuddered before swinging its six arms through the air, and its body began to expand drastically amid swirling golden light once again.
Within moments, it had grown significantly taller than even the massive mountain beneath it, and it was almost able to reach up and extend its hands directly into the light within the cloud ring.
Right at this moment, bursts of Buddhist chants rang out from one of the heads that had taken on Han Li's facial features, following which all six arms pointed up into the sky in unison.
The cloud ring that had become completely motionless suddenly sprang to life again. Spiritual light flashed, and the giant cloud ring descended soundlessly, encircling the entire massive projection within, descending all the way down to the projection's waist before finally stopping.
It then began to rotate around the projection's body.
A peculiar scene then ensued!
The five-colored light within the cloud ring surged into the projection in a frenzy, and as a result, the body of the projection took on a vibrant rainbow hue as opposed to its original golden color.
During this process, the projection's body was trembling uncontrollably as agonized expressions appeared on both sets of its faces.
It was as if the more five-colored light was being injected into its body, the more pain it had to suffer.
Furthermore, the rate of influx of this five-colored light was quite astonishing.
After just a few moments, all of the light within the cloud ring had disappeared without a trace. The projection then let loose a loud cry, and the white cloud ring around it also disintegrated into hundreds of balls of white light that hovered in the nearby area.
At this moment, the three heads opened their mouths in unison to blast forth bursts of golden light that swept these balls of light into their stomach.
After doing all that, the pain on the faces of the projections eased significantly, but its body suddenly began to shrank.
In the blink of an eye, the mountainous projection had transformed into a normal-sized human being with layers of five-colored light over its body.
The humanoid figure sat down in the air above the mountain with its legs crossed while making a hand seal, and he hovered there in a completely motionless manner.
The astonishing spiritual pressure and phenomena had all disappeared, and it was as if everything had gone back to normal.
Only then did the beasts and demon beasts in the distance slowly return to their senses.
The normal beasts struggled to their feet before letting loose a few panicked cries and fleeing back to their nests and lairs as quickly as they could, not even daring to sneak a glance back at the massive mountain.
All of the demon beasts also fled into the distance as if they'd just survived an extremely perilous ordeal.
The trio of mid-grade demon beasts were faring slightly better than the other beasts and demon beasts, yet they were also only able to barely remain standing. At this moment, the golden ape asked in an anxious voice, "What happened? Did he succeed?"
The cow-headed beast seemed to be the most knowledgeable among the trio, and it said in a slow voice, "I don't know. The breakthrough process most likely still hasn't concluded yet. The phenomenon that we witnessed earlier was just him absorbing the nearby world's origin Qi. Everything appears to have settled down now, but don't be fooled; this is the key moment for his breakthrough."
The three-headed giant python and the golden ape were both slightly surprised to hear this as they cast their eyes toward the giant mountain again.
"Let's go. It'll take him quite a while to break through his bottleneck. At least a few days will pass and we might even have to wait months for the final result, so if we stay here for too long, we might irk him and accomplish the opposite of what we intended," the cow-headed beast continued.
The other two demon beasts' hearts stirred upon hearing this, and they immediately nodded in agreement.
Thus, the three demon beasts flew away into the opposite direction as gusts of demonic winds.
After a while, they disappeared without a trace into the distance.
Meanwhile, the humanoid figure sitting in mid-air atop the giant mountain had his eyes closed the entire time, as if he'd seen nothing and knew nothing.
One day, two days, five days, ten days…
Two months passed by, yet the humanoid figure hovering above the mountain remained completely stationary.
The only difference was that the five-colored light barrier around him was growing more and more dazzling.
The mid-grade demon beasts had snuck back to check on Han Li on a few occasions during this time, and all of them found this to be quite intriguing.
At the same time, they were all quite perplexed by what was happening.
During this period, there were the occasional beasts that had forgotten about the phenomena that had taken place here not long ago and ventured within 50 kilometers of the giant mountain.
All of them then disappeared amid a burst of white mist.
A gargantuan restriction had been set up around the entire massive mountain, and the closer one drew to the center of the restriction, the more powerful it seemed to become.
After another half a month, the humanoid figure within the light barrier suddenly shuddered, and the five-colored light around his body swirled before he finally opened his eyes.
A long cry then erupted from his mouth.
The cry didn't contain any power or abilities; it was merely an expression of elation.
Moments later, the cry cut off, and the humanoid figure rose to his feet before swinging both arms through the air, and the five-colored light barrier around him disintegrated into specks of spiritual light.
Immediately thereafter, he made a hand seal, and a pair of wings appeared on his back before he disappeared following a loud thunderclap.
