The Great Teleportation Token and the Ancient Teleportation Array

Chapter 274: The Great Teleportation Token and the Ancient Teleportation Array

Han Li had never heard of the term “Great Teleportation Token.” But seeing how readily Lü Tianmeng and Xuan Ye had resorted to eliminating rivals for it, he understood its immense value.

Nevertheless, the bizarre arrangement of the five-colored skeleton kept him from acting rashly.

He produced a golden blade and cautiously prodded the bones. When nothing happened, he stepped closer to examine the token.

The token glowed a brilliant blue, radiating a faint luminance. From its archaic engravings and the ancient characters inscribed upon it, it was clearly an artifact from primordial times. Aside from that, Han Li sensed nothing out of the ordinary about it; its spiritual power was not especially high.

Considering for a moment, he used the golden blade to carefully lift the token. It came into his hand easily.

Pressing it, he found the material was not metal as he had imagined, but rather somewhat soft yet firm, as if carved from a particular kind of wood.

Han Li turned it over in his hands, then tentatively tried to infuse it with spiritual power.

Instantly, a tremendous suction force surged from the token, draining his spiritual energy in a torrent. Startled, Han Li quickly cut off the flow, and the pull ceased.

Having learned his lesson, he refrained from further experiments and carefully stored the token in his storage pouch.

He then circled the unknown teleportation array several times, intensely curious about where it might lead.

Of course, he was not reckless enough to try activating it—and even if he were foolish enough to consider it, he could not. One corner of the array was damaged. Though the damage was minor, it was enough to render the formation unusable.

Blinking, Han Li produced a jade slip and began to copy the array’s design and markings. He intended to find someone who might know whether it could be repaired. He held great anticipation for this possibility.

After finishing, he searched the rest of the massive cavern thoroughly for any overlooked treasures.

Behind a thick stone pillar, he discovered two translucent, crystalline eggs each the size of a fist.

Ecstatic at the sight, he knew at once that these were the eggs of the spider beast.

He had personally experienced the terror of that spider and was not about to let this opportunity slip. He quickly found an animal-skin pouch meant for spirit beasts in the storage pouch of a Spirit Beast Mountain cultivator, carefully placed the eggs inside, and tucked it into his belt.

Satisfied with these gains, he continued searching the remaining area with renewed care. Unfortunately, he found nothing else.

Already content with his haul, he did not mind.

He returned to the white spider’s corpse and methodically dismembered it, stowing the parts in his storage pouch. Then he incinerated the bodies of Xuan Ye and Lü Tianmeng with fireballs and buried their ashes on the spot.

When he reached the five-colored skeleton, Han Li casually tossed a few small fireballs at it to destroy it as well. But after the intense flames subsided, the bones had condensed into seven or eight small, multicolored beads. Surprised, Han Li collected them out of curiosity.

Before leaving, he decided to ensure the teleportation array would not be discovered by anyone else. As he exited, he used his Azure Origin Sword’s light to shatter the cave entrance, thoroughly sealing it. Of course, he left some covert markers nearby so he could later find his way back.

Following the airflow of the stalactite cavern, he found a well-hidden exit a few hours later and finally stepped onto the surface.

Fearing that the demonic cultivators might still be lurking nearby, Han Li wasted no time in summoning the Divine Wind Boat and flew toward the Taiyue Mountains.

The journey was uneventful.

Seven or eight days later, he returned to Yellow Maple Valley. After reporting a carefully edited version of his experiences to the sect duty officer, he retired to his cave dwelling to await further orders.

By then, he learned that the second major battle had already erupted. In the early stages, backed heavily by the two other nations, the Seven Sects seemed to hold the upper hand against the Six Sects. This had noticeably eased the tension within Yellow Maple Valley, and the earlier pessimism had begun to fade.

Back inside his cave dwelling, everything was as he had left it. Han Li let out a sigh of relief.

Though returning to the sect in these times was hardly a wise move—he was almost certain to be dragged into a mission—the Seven Sects were now enforcing extremely harsh penalties on disciples who shirked their duties or made excuses to avoid assignments. Minor penalties involved fines in spirit stones; severe cases could lead to having one’s magic power forcibly dispersed. There was no leniency.

Rumors said that nearly a hundred Seven Sects disciples had already received penalties of varying severity.

To prevent evasion, the rules required all disciples without pending tasks—or those who had completed their tasks—to report back to their sect on time. Those who failed to show up without a valid reason would be judged as having shirked their duty.

As for those who disappeared outright or fled to other nations, the consequences were even graver: they would face a lifelong pursuit by the Seven Sects Executionary Squad, which would continue as long as the sects themselves existed.

Since Han Li had no intention of abandoning Yellow Maple Valley to flee Yue Country, he had to obediently return and await orders.

In his estimation, with both the demonic and orthodox sects expanding simultaneously, there was no peaceful corner left in all of Tiannan. Every region’s cultivation world would be dragged into conflict—it was only a matter of sooner or later. Under these circumstances, staying in Yue Country was as good a choice as any. After all, it was hard to leave one’s homeland.

Han Li’s first task upon returning was to submerge the spider eggs in the Spirit Eye Spring, letting the spiritual energy slowly nurture their incubation.

Then he immediately went into secluded cultivation for two days and successfully completed the first layer of the Great Derivative Art. Whether by coincidence or not, the Azure Origin Sword Art—which had not progressed in a long time—also broke through to the fifth layer, pushing Han Li into the middle stage of Foundation Establishment.

Elated by this breakthrough, he knew that every increase in cultivation gave him just a bit more hope of survival in the coming chaos.

Yet, a few days after his return, the sect still had not assigned him any tasks. This made Han Li uneasy.

In his experience, the more unusual the calm, the greater the trouble that lurked beneath.

But after some reflection, he realized that in the current war with the Six Sects, no task was truly safe. Even guarding a spirit stone mine had nearly cost him his life. Under these circumstances, one task was as dangerous as the next.

With this in mind, Han Li restored his usual calm demeanor. Seizing this brief respite, he began investigating what the “Great Teleportation Token” truly was.

As for Master Li Huayuan and Red Whisk, there was no need to report on Dong Xuan’er’s fate. As Core Formation cultivators, they were already away on their own missions and were not at the sect.

Han Li spent two days searching through the Tianzhi Pavilion, the sect’s library, before he finally found a simple description of the token in a book called Dongxuan Jie (Annotation on the Cave’s Mysteries).

According to the record, the brilliant blue token was a mandatory artifact used by ancient cultivators for ultra-long-distance teleportation. Without it, one could not guarantee survival during the transfer.

Only with a Great Teleportation Token could ancient cultivators withstand the spatial pressure generated by teleportation over extreme distances—pressure that would otherwise crush a person to death. For short-distance teleportation, the spatial pressure was negligible, just as Han Li had felt no discomfort when using the small teleportation formation within Yuelu Hall.

The book did not explain how the token protected the user, nor did it describe the method for crafting one. The technique for making a Great Teleportation Token had been lost long ago in the chaotic wars that plagued the cultivation world in ancient times. The remaining tokens had gradually vanished over the millennia until they became nothing more than legends in the present day. No one was known to possess one.

Of course, this mattered little to the current cultivation world.

Ancient teleportation arrays had become legendary items even earlier than the tokens. In the Tiannan region, at least, not a single one was said to exist on the surface. Whether any remained in remote, inaccessible places or in the secret grounds of some sect or family was anyone’s guess.

The most powerful teleportation arrays that contemporary cultivators could create spanned only a few hundred li. This was nothing compared to ancient arrays, which had supposedly connected points tens of millions of li apart. And even at this limited range, the cost of building a single array was so exorbitant that even a large sect could afford only three or four before feeling the strain.

Once Han Li understood the purpose of the Great Teleportation Token, his first thought was, Could that underground teleportation array be an ancient one?

His heart began to pound at the possibility. It seemed highly likely.

If that were the case, then with the Great Teleportation Token in hand and the array repaired, he could instantly travel to a place at least ten million li away. This would allow him to slip free of the muddy struggle between the Seven Sects and the Six Sects, and continue his cultivation in a completely new land.

The thought would not let him rest.

He began searching for any books related to ancient teleportation arrays, hoping to find a way to repair the underground formation.

He spent several more days in the sprawling Tianzhi Pavilion library, leafing through countless tomes on formations. But he found nothing at all about ancient teleportation arrays.

Deeply disappointed, Han Li then recalled that there was one person who might be able to help him repair the array.

(Here, the author inserts a note: The holiday has arrived, and the hospital aide I originally hired has gone home for a family reunion, so I’ve had to spend more time at the hospital. During these couple of days, I can guarantee I won’t stop updating entirely, but I can’t say exactly how much I’ll be able to write. After all, when I get home, there will be a mountain of family and social obligations to handle. Still, it’s only two or three days—it will pass quickly. Please bear with me!)

(End of this chapter)