A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality: Immortal Realm
Chapter 727: Rumor

Mere moments after the spatial restriction was restored, Gui Mu suddenly appeared on the second floor of the palace.

Right as he was about to fly up to the third floor, he suddenly turned to the side hall to the left with slightly furrowed brows, but then shook his head and withdrew his gaze before continuing up to the third floor.

At the same time, Han Li and the others appeared in a secluded alley amid a flash of light, and as soon as they emerged, Han Li's brows immediately furrowed slightly with discomfort.

"How can conditions be so different on the other side of the wall? Not only is the air here much more murky, even the baleful qi has become far denser than before," Fox 3 complained with a disgruntled expression.

"Not only that, but the air temperature here seems to be quite a bit higher as well," Shi Chuankong remarked.

"Fellow Daoist Baili, does the Reincarnation Region have any information about Asura City?" Han Li asked.

"I'm afraid not. The regions of the Gray Realm are all quite wary of one another, and information isn't readily shared. To make matters worse, the Infernal Region is extremely xenophobic, so there's even less information to come out of here," Baili Yan replied with a shake of his head.

"In any case, let's head to the border first. As long as we can bypass that hurdle, we'll be able to enter the Soul Cleansing Region," Han Li said.

"The layout of this area is a little strange. There are many ring-shaped buildings that haven't been marked out in the map, and their purpose is unclear. If we're going to the border, then we'll have to pass by these buildings," Mo Guang said.

"We'll just have to do our best to avoid them and pass by them as quickly as possible," Han Li said.

With that, everyone set off toward the border.

The Infernal Servant patrol groups were popping up with greater and greater regularity, and there were even some mid-True Immortal cultivators in many of the buildings. Security here was even tighter than it was in the Hundred Treasure Area, and it took the group a great deal of effort to finally arrive at the border of the Soul Cleansing Area.

Right as Fox 3 was about to employ his usual concealment method for everyone, Mo Guang suddenly said, "Stop! We can't go any further than this."

Han Li and the others hurriedly stopped in their tracks upon hearing this.

"Why not?"

"Take a look over there," Mo Guang said as he pointed in a certain direction.

Han Li turned to that direction, and his brows instantly furrowed slightly.

On the ground near the city wall up ahead was embedded a red watermelon-sized eyeball, and identical eyeballs were embedded into the ground at set intervals along the wall.

What was even more disturbing was that the black city wall up ahead was also riddled with these harrowing eyeballs.

"Those are Asura Ghost Eyes," Baili Yan sighed.

"Asura Ghost Eyes? Are they going to be a problem?" Fox 3 asked.

"These things are the eyes of Great Asura Demons, each of which has three thousand six hundred such eyes that can see through all types of illusions, so your illusions most likely won't work here," Baili Yan explained with a shake of his head.

"How are we supposed to get close to the city wall then?" Shi Chuankong asked with tightly furrowed brows.

As soon as his voice trailed off, the Asura Ghost Eye that was closest to them suddenly turned in their direction, and Han Li and the others immediately restrained their auras before retreating to a safe distance away.

After replaceing a new hiding place, Han Li was just about to say something when a resounding boom abruptly rang out nearby.

Everyone was quite startled by this, thinking that they had been discovered, and they hurriedly began inspecting their surroundings.

"Over there!" Baili Yan said with a peculiar expression as he pointed in a certain direction.

Han Li turned to that direction to replace that a black mushroom cloud was rising up into the sky above one of the mysterious ring-shaped buildings that Mo Guang had mentioned earlier.

After a brief moment of contemplation, Han Li decided, "Fellow Daoist Mo Guang and I will go take a look, all of you remain hidden and wait for us here."

"I'll go with you. There seems to be something rather out of the ordinary there," Baili Yan said in a low voice.

"Alright," Han Li replied with a nod.

"Be careful," Shi Chuankong cautioned.

With that, Han Li's trio emerged onto the street outside as three blurry shadows, and they quickly made their way over to that ring-shaped building while taking care to avoid the nearby watchtowers.

Up close, Han Li discovered that these buildings were even taller than he had thought they were from afar, and the walls were riddled with complex runes, but thankfully, all of them were merely for fortification purposes.

The three of them snuck into the building to replace that it was quite empty, with the only noteworthy feature being a large black plaza, littered across which were some black rocks that were several dozen feet tall.

At this moment, the plaza was looking severely ravaged, and Han Li's trio was hiding behind a relatively intact rock. However, this rock also had a hole that was roughly the size of a human head blown through it, and wisps of white smoke were rising up from the hole.

All of a sudden, a burst of rumbling rang out from the other side of the plaza, following which the ground split open to reveal an underground passageway.

Immediately thereafter, several figures made their way onto the plaza from the passageway.

They were quite short, only around half the height of the average grown man, and their upper bodies were bared to reveal their dark green skin. Their facial features were quite hideous, with thin, tapered ears, protruding sharp teeth, and bald heads with only a tuft of black fur in the middle.

Despite how short and stubby they were, their muscles were extremely well-developed, and their arms were particularly thick and strong with a series of copper rings around them, giving them a very fearsome appearance.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly at the sight of these beings, and he was struck by a sense of familiarity, as if he had seen records of such beings in the scriptures that he had read, but he was unable to recall exactly what they were.

"There's a really strong karmic fire aura here," Baili Yan suddenly remarked in a low voice as he examined the rift on the ground.

Han Li's attention was focused on the green-skinned beings at the moment, so he failed to hear Baili Yan clearly.

The leader of the green-skinned beings had the most copper rings on his arms at five each, and he was scouring his gaze over the plaza with a furious expression as he roared, "This is pathetic! This amount of power isn't enough to do anything! How can we possibly catch the interest of the Infernal beings with this? Go and test out the largest one!

As soon as his voice trailed off, another green-skinned being immediately approached him in a shaky manner, holding a black ball in his hands.

"Please return to the underground shelter, esteemed elder," the green-skinned being said to the leader of the group.

The elder turned around and made his way back down the underground passageway with a dark expression, while the rest of the group hurriedly followed along.

Meanwhile, Han Li's trio turned to the green-skinned being holding the black ball with perplexed expressions.

After chanting an incantation, the green-skinned being pressed a palm down onto the black ball in his hand, then tossed it toward the center of the plaza.

The patterns on the surface of the black ball began to light up, and a sense of foreboding instantly welled up in Han Li's heart as he hurriedly raised a hand to summon a dark green turtle-shell-shaped shield.

Immediately thereafter, an explosive boom rang out, and an enormous ball of black flames erupted out of the black ball, forming a sea of black flames that spread rapidly in all directions.

The green-skinned being that had detonated the black ball attempted to scurry back into the underground passageway, but he was swallowed up by the waves of black fire before he could reach the entrance, and his body melted away into a puddle of goo.

The large rocks on the plaza also rapidly melted away in the face of the scorching black flames, quickly reduced to lava-like black liquid.

The rock in front of Han Li's trio was also rapidly melting away, and while the shield that Han Li had summoned was keeping the black flames at bay, it was also sizzling and crackling incessantly.

"Let's get out of here," Han Li said, and the three of them immediately flew out of the ring-shaped building.

At this point, all of the black rocks on the plaza had already been wiped out, and the black flames were ravaging the surrounding walls, while a black mushroom cloud that was several times larger than before rose up into the sky.

At the same time, all of the patterns engraved onto the plaza and the walls began to release black light alongside peculiar energy fluctuations, counteracting the black flames and containing them within the building.

Han Li's trio returned to the spot where Shi Chuankong and Fox 3 were hiding, and the latter asked with a puzzled expression, "What happened? We thought you'd been exposed, and we were just about to go after you."

"That building seems to be a test site of some sort for Gray Realm weapons," Han Li explained.

"What was that just now then?" Shi Chuankong asked.

"If I'm not mistaken, that appeared to be an explosive treasure forged using karmic fire, and it's powerful enough to pose quite a threat even to the average True Immortal," Mo Guang said.

"It looks like those green-skinned beings that we saw are from the Dwarf Tribe, a tribe that's very adept in tool refinement," Han Li mused.

"The Dwarf Tribe? Weren't they supposed to have been completely wiped out several thousand years ago?" Shi Chuankong asked with a surprised expression.

"It seems like that was only a ruse. The reality is that they were abducted to craft treasure for the Infernal Tribe," Han Li said.

"In that case, that rumor must be true," Baili Yan suddenly said.

"What rumor?" Fox 3 asked.