There were a dozen or so foreign beings waiting outside his cave abode, and at the forefront of the ground were four yellow-robed beings, all of whom were at the pinnacle of the Spatial Tempering Stage. The rest of the group was comprised of armored warriors wielding long silver halberds, and all of them were wore serious expressions on their faces.
One of the yellow-robed men cupped his fist in a salute as soon as Han Li emerged from his cave abode, and said, "Fellow Daoist Han, we were given orders by Senior Qian Jizi to take you to the meeting place where everyone has gathered."
"I'll have to trouble you to lead the way, then," Han Li replied in a calm manner.
In the past, only very few of the most important beings in Cloud City were aware of the fact that he was the one who had activated the Vast Glacial Badge. However, now that the opening of the Vast Glacial Realm was imminent, many more people had most likely been made aware of this information.
Qian Jizi was naturally afraid that someone would try to kidnap or kill Han Li for their own objectives, which was why he'd deployed this group to accompany him to the meeting place.
The yellow-robed man smiled upon hearing this before waving a hand toward the armored warriors behind him. The dozen or so armored warriors immediately parted to reveal a spirit carriage that was shimmering with azure light. The carriage was being drawn by a pair of gorgeous massive azure birds, and it was quite clear that this was no ordinary spirit carriage. Han Li strode forward and entered the carriage without a fuss, and the four yellow-robed beings also rose up into the air before descending onto the carriage.
The four of them had clearly rehearsed this before, and they each landed on one corner of the spirit carriage to shield Han Li between them at the very center.
The two azure birds let loose a few clear cries before spreading their wings, and they rose up into the air with the spirit carriage behind them. Meanwhile, each of the armored warriors summoned a silver disk, and they also rose up into the air atop these treasures. Moments later, the azure spirit carriage had reached an altitude of several thousand feet, and it was flying straight out of Cloud City.
It was quite clear that the entire Cloud City was on high alert. Not only were there extremely few pedestrians on the streets, there were also many groups of armored warriors patrolling the city on the ground below, as well as in the air above.
What Han Li also noticed was he could sense restriction fluctuations coming from some of the more important places in the city, as if all of the spell formations there had been activated.
It appeared that the higher-ups of Cloud City really did regard the opening of this Vast Glacial Realm as an extremely important event.
The spirit carriage flew along without encountering any mishaps, taking Han Li directly to the inn where he'd first activated the Vast Glacial Badge.
At present, this area had been completely sealed off by layers upon layers of restrictions, and even from afar, several tens of giant pillars could be visible in these restrictions. These pillars were around 1,000 feet tall each, and they encircled the entire area in a radius of close to 10 kilometers around the inn.
These pillars were all emanating spiritual lights of different colors, and they formed a five-colored light barrier that made it impossible for anyone on the outside to see what lay inside.
As soon as the carriage approached the area, Han Li could clearly tell that there were at least 10 times as many guards here than compared to other places. Almost the entire area had been surrounded by armored warriors, and there were also over 100 puppets present.
These puppets were around 70 to 80 feet tall each, and some of them were as inky-black while others were fiery red, and they'd also been deployed to various locations in the area.
A hint of surprise flashed through Han Li's eyes upon seeing this.
All of the guards here were at least of the Core Formation Stage, and the majority of them were at the Nascent Soul Stage.
As for Spatial Tempering Stage aura, even after just a quick inspection using his spiritual sense, Han Li had already discovered two or three in the nearby area, and this wasn't even taking into account the layers of restrictions that had been set up all around.
To say that the defenses here were tight would be quite an understatement!
The azure spirit carriage didn't appear to have any special features on it, but none of the guards stopped it along the way.
Now that they were close to the light barrier, a few armored warriors riding atop steeds that appeared to be giant winged wolves flew out of the light barrier, heading directly toward Han Li's carriage.
"General Tie, is Fellow Daoist Han here?" An azure-armored man who appeared to be around 50 years of age asked from afar as he sat on his giant wolf steed.
"Hehe, Senior Qian must've asked you to come and greet us, right, Brother Hua? Rest assured, Fellow Daoist Han is sitting in the carriage, so you can open the restriction for us now," one of the yellow-robed men standing on the spirit carriage replied with a smile.
"That's good to hear; I'll open the restriction right away." The azure-armored man nodded upon hearing this, following which he and a few other armored beings each summoned a restriction badge, then waved them in unison toward the light barrier that they'd just emerged from.
Pillars of light of different colors immediately shot forth from their badges before striking the light barrier and forming a light formation that was around 10 feet in size.
The light barrier immediately swayed before a faint buzzing sound rang out, and an opening appeared on it before expanding to form a passageway.
There was five-colored light swirling within the passageway, giving it quite a mysterious appearance, and the yellow-robed man who had spoken earlier immediately spurred on the giant azure birds, instructing them to lead the spirit carriage into the passageway.
The silver-armored warriors behind them and the wolf-riders also hurried and followed suit.
What appeared to be an ordinary passageway took the spirit carriage quite a long time to fly through, and Han Li rather surprised by how long it took to reach the other side.
This indicated that there was a spatial restriction enclosed within the light barrier, and if an oblivious being were to try and sneak into the light barrier, they'd be temporarily trapped in there regardless of how profound their movement techniques were.
As a result, there was no way that they'd be able to avoid being discovered during their infiltration attempt.
Just as these thoughts were flashing through his mind, the azure spirit carriage emerged on the other side of the light barrier, and Han Li was greeted by the sight two massive formations down below, each of which had a radius of several hundred feet.
There were countless fist-sized crystals embedded all over the surfaces of these formations, and a series of complex and profound patterns had been carved around the formations.
All of these crystals and patterns were emanating faint spiritual light of different colors, creating quite an exuberant sight to behold from afar.
Between the two formations, there was nothing else aside from a newly-constructed hall that took up an area of several acres.
There were humanoid figures all around the formations, as well as the massive hall, and there appeared to be thousands of beings present.
Most of them were armored warriors who were on guard duty while the remaining several hundreds of them all wore different attire. However, there was one constant, which was that all of them possessed advanced cultivation bases.
Even though these people had surrounded the two formations and the hall, there was not even a single person who was speaking.
However, as the azure spirit carriage that Han Li was in began to descend from above, many people down below still raised their heads to look up.
The four yellow-robed men paid no heed to the widespread attention they were receiving, and they merely continued to drive the carriage, taking to a smooth landing on a plot of empty land that appeared to have been prepared specifically for this purpose.
Han Li cast his gaze around him, and only then did he discover that there was another completely identical spirit carriage parked beside him, except that one was completely white in color.
After the carriage had drawn to a stop, one of the yellow-robed men turned to Han Li as he cupped his fist in a polite salute, and said, "Fellow Daoist Han, Senior Qian Jizi and all of the other seniors are waiting for you in the hall. We still have other matters to attend to, so we'll have to part ways with you here."
"Thank you for transporting me here, Brother Tie." Han Li also returned his salute with a smile.
After that, his body swayed, and he slowly drifted down from the carriage, then made his way toward the hall in an unhurried manner after landing on the ground.
The dozen or so armored warriors had witnessed Han Li disembarking from the spirit carriage, so they only appraised him with curiosity in their eyes, and refrained from stopping him to ask questions or conduct a search.
Han Li was naturally quite glad to be spared the trouble, and entered the hall without a hitch.
After passing through a corridor that was lined with armored warriors on both sides, he arrived in a spacious hall, within which were around 40 to 50 people, some of whom were standing while others were seated.
At the center of the hall was a chair, upon which sat a white-robed man who appeared to be in his twenties. It was none other than the man with the Weng surname.
Qian Jizi, Duan Tianren, Cai Liuying, and seven or eight other holy race beings were also seated in various parts of the hall.
Behind them were groups of beings from various different races, all of whom were at the pinnacle of the Spatial Tempering Stage.
As Han Li was walking into the hall, Qian Jizi was in the process of saying something to the white-robed man with a smile on his face, while everyone else was listening in silence.
However, everyone's attention was then immediately drawn to Han Li following his arrival.
Han Li's heart jolted slightly at the sight of the white-robed man, but his expression remained calm as he extended a deep bow, and said, "I pay my respects to all of the seniors present."
"I'm glad to see you're here as well, Fellow Daoist Han. The Vast Glacial Realm will be opening in a few hours, and I'll introduce you to your companions later," Qian Jizi said with a smile.
"Yes, Senior." Han Li naturally wasn't going to state any objections here.
The white-robed man glanced at Han Li, and he seemed to have noticed something as a hint of surprise had flashed through his eyes. He suddenly asked, "So you're the one who unintentionally activated the Vast Glacial Badge?"
"Indeed, Senior Weng," Han Li hurriedly replied with a respectful bow.
"You recognize me?" The white-robed man was rather taken aback.
"I had the honor of seeing you from afar during the Four Races Auction, Senior," Han Li replied in a truthful manner.
The white-robed man appraised Han Li carefully for a moment before saying something that was quite unexpected to everyone. "The Four Races Auction, eh? In that case, it seems we have some affinity with one another. I can see you're only a seventh-tier upper race being, but your magic power and spiritual sense are both several times more powerful than beings of the same cultivation base. I have a treasure that I unintentionally came across many years ago known as the Heavenly Astral Seal. Using it is quite taxing on one's magic power and spiritual sense, but it's very useful for beings below the holy race, so I think it'll be perfect for you."
As soon as his voice trailed off, he swept sleeve through the air, and a shimmering silver object was immediately sent flying toward Han Li.
Han Li initially faltered upon seeing this before a hint of elation welled up in his heart. He hurriedly expressed his gratitude before making a grabbing motion toward the oncoming object.
A burst of azure light swept forth from his fingertips, enveloping the item before drawing it into his grasp.
He then focused his gaze to discover that this was a small antiquated silver seal that was around five to six inches in size.
At the very bottom of the seal was inscribed a few pea-sized purple characters that read "Heavenly Astral Seal" in a type of ancient text.
This was an extremely rare text from ancient times, but thankfully, it was one that Han Li recognized from his extensive studies.
