The Power of the Moon-Sun Pearl

After waking up, Han Li did not immediately walk out of the tree hollow. Instead, he sat down cross-legged.

Spiritual power surged within his body. His magical power had fully recovered to its peak state before entering the forbidden land.

The aches and pains in his waist and legs had vanished without a trace. His physical strength was at its absolute limit.

Having completed his internal examination, Han Li slowly opened his eyes, feeling thoroughly satisfied.

Only then did he stand up and inspect the talismans and magic tools in his storage pouch, making his final preparations.

Han Li had never had the chance to carefully examine the several storage pouches he had obtained from the bearded man and his accomplices. Now, naturally, he had to go through them to see if there were any usable magic tools.

To be honest, whether it was the storage pouches of the bearded man and his companion or the pouches they had looted from others, the scarcity and low quality of the magic tools inside left Han Li speechless after his inspection.

In the five storage pouches combined, there were twenty-three magic tools in total: five low-grade, seven mid-grade, and eleven high-grade.

One of the pouches contained only two low-grade tools and two mid-grade tools, with no high-grade tools at all. This discovery puzzled Han Li for a long time and prompted a lengthy sigh of realization.

The difference in wealth between ordinary disciples and elite disciples was truly as vast as the distance between heaven and earth!

With such a large pile of storage pouches, not a single top-grade magic tool was to be found. No wonder the bearded man had been completely helpless when trapped by his "Earth Prison Technique," forced to watch helplessly as Han Li crushed him with the "Golden Light Brick."

Then Han Li thought of the number of top-grade tools possessed by the Treasure-Bearing Maiden and Feng Yue, and he could not help but feel helpless at the poverty of ordinary disciples.

No wonder others, upon seeing his shallow cultivation, instinctively assumed he was weak and could be bullied, without ever considering what powerful magic tools he might possess. It turned out that ordinary disciples had so few decent tools.

Now, Han Li finally understood why so many disciples at the Yellow Maple Valley Council Hall had been so excited upon hearing that high-grade tools would be distributed. It seemed that his own sect, Yellow Maple Valley, treated their miscellaneous disciples rather well! After all, they were willing to use dozens of high-grade tools to boost morale.

In truth, Han Li was still mistaken about this matter. Even among the elite disciples sent by the various sects on the forbidden land expedition, the number of top-grade tools they possessed was pitifully small.

Those who, like the Treasure-Bearing Maiden, were equipped with a full set of top-grade tools numbered only a handful among the elite, and most of them had significant backing. The average elite disciple could not even dream of comparing.

Han Li, who had three or four top-grade tools on his person, was already enough to make the so-called elite disciples drool. Before reaching the Core Formation stage, aside from "Talisman Treasures," top-grade tools were the most powerful combat reliance. Each additional top-grade tool could completely refresh one's combat strength.

Because Han Li had had so little contact with his fellow disciples at Yellow Maple Valley, his understanding of these matters of the cultivation world was incomplete. He still subconsciously assumed that all elite disciples had a pile of top-grade tools.

This was not surprising. Ever since his great battle with that "Senior Brother Lu," every enemy he had encountered had top-grade tools, giving him the false impression that top-grade tools were common, leading to this major misunderstanding.

Now, although he understood the poverty of ordinary disciples in terms of magical tools, he still did not fully grasp the value of top-grade tools. Whether this was a blessing or a curse for Han Li remained to be seen.

Han Li naturally ignored the low-grade and mid-grade tools, never considering using them. He tested each of the high-grade tools one by one and finally selected three with the greatest power and practicality as his backup tools.

A gleaming blue flying dagger, a golden gong, and a jadeite pot. These were the items Han Li had chosen.

The flying dagger and the golden gong were purely offensive magic tools, nothing special to say. But the jadeite pot was quite rare, being an uncommon auxiliary-type tool.

From the pot, one could spray a green, misty poisonous fog that would surround the enemy and cause them to die of poisoning. At first glance, the pot's effect seemed decent, but in reality, it was a chicken-rib type of tool. All elemental shields could block the poisonous fog, making it impossible to truly poison a cultivator!

If Han Li had not thought that this green poisonous fog could temporarily blind the enemy's eyes and cause some trouble for their vision, he really might not have chosen this tool.

After organizing everything on his person, Han Li estimated the time, quietly slipped out of the tree hollow, identified his direction, and began to walk slowly and cautiously.

To fly directly into the ring-shaped mountain from the air after the fog was dispelled was absolutely not an option! He would be noticed by countless flying demonic beasts and be surrounded and killed. Over the years, there were several paths that had been discovered to safely enter the ring-shaped mountain. Han Li headed straight for the passage closest to him.

The entrance to the passage was not far away, and Han Li arrived at the location mentioned in the documents in no time.

When he hid behind a large tree and looked at the endless, vast fog before him, Han Li was truly shaken.

This white, boundless fog almost blotted out the sky and covered the sun! Not only could he not see the entrance to the ring-shaped mountain, but he could not even see a single zhang into the fog.

No wonder, in the past, without the "Moon-Sun Pearl," almost no one dared to ascend this mountain! Thinking about having to constantly endure attacks from all kinds of ethereal demonic beasts within such fog, Han Li was speechless for a long time.

The fog was still this thick. It seemed the Heaven's Fortress disciples in charge of the pearl had not yet begun their fog-dispelling ritual.

Thinking this, Han Li stood behind the tree and began to wait silently.

In the area facing the fog where Han Li was, there were cluttered wild trees and overgrown grass everywhere, enough to hide a dozen or so people without any problem.

Although Han Li had not detected anyone else in the vicinity, he knew there must be others. After all, there were only a few paths up the mountain. It was just that the time to enter the mountain was imminent, so no one was concerned about his arrival.

Time passed, quarter-hour by quarter-hour.

After waiting bitterly for three or four shichen, Han Li suddenly felt an astonishing burst of spiritual power from the southwest. Then a soaring pillar of white light shot straight into the sky from a very distant place. High above the sea of fog, it condensed into a massive ball of light.

Although the ball of light had formed, the pillar of light showed no sign of stopping. It continued to inject energy into the ball. Thus, the ball of light grew larger and larger, more and more dazzling, until it finally became like a newly risen sun, too brilliant to look at directly.

A moment later, the pillar of light suddenly vanished, leaving only the huge ball of light floating in the high sky.

But the lifespan of the ball of light was pitifully short. In the blink of an eye, it began to twist and deform. Its surface bulged and sank like dough, stunning Han Li, who was watching this scene. His mouth gaped open, forgetting to close it.

With a sky-shattering explosion, the giant ball of light finally burst in the sky, transforming into countless fist-sized, beautiful specks of light that drifted down, scattering over the vast mist below, like a rain of extraordinarily gorgeous light.

Every white light orb that fell into the fog immediately caused the nearby thick mist to come alive like a flood dragon, desperately surging toward the light orb to gather around it. But upon contact, the fog was instantly dissolved by the orb, though the orb itself dimmed considerably.

As more orbs made contact with the fog, the entire mist region became as astonishing as a mountain collapse and a tsunami. All the mist rolled and churned endlessly, like a giant demonic beast making its last desperate struggle.

Han Li stared fixedly at all of this without blinking. For the first time in his life, he witnessed the true power of a high-grade magic treasure. Beyond the shock, his heart was filled with deep admiration and longing.

After a struggle between the fog and the light orbs, the mist began to thin out gradually. The tall, perilous outline of the ring-shaped mountain appeared before Han Li and the others for the first time.

"So tall!"

This was the exclamation of everyone who could see the ring-shaped mountain clearly, and Han Li was no exception.

This section of the ring-shaped mountain before Han Li was indeed terrifyingly tall.

Looking up, the mountain was over a thousand zhang high, towering into the clouds so that the peak was invisible. The mountain's surface was covered with jagged rocks and steep cliffs, and massive ancient trees, too wide for several people to encircle, were densely packed all over the mountain. What was even more chilling was that the incredibly steep and perilous mountain range stretched into the distance on both sides, its end unknown.

Only the ridge facing Han Li's group was relatively gentle, far less steep than the other directions. This seemed to be the so-called path up the mountain.

At this moment, from within the mountain came the faint roars of a few demonic beasts. The sounds were savage and piercing, sending chills down one's spine.

Han Li was staring somewhat dazedly.

With a "whoosh," a yellow figure shot out from the grass beside Han Li like an arrow, dashed into the dark mountain, and disappeared.

This action seemed to trigger the nerves of all the people in hiding. Immediately, several more people leaped out at the same time and rushed forward together. But as they were about to enter the forest, they slightly increased the distance between each other, slipping into the ring-shaped mountain from different spots.

Han Li did not come out. He planned to observe who else would choose the same path into the mountain as he had.