Winds Stir Beyond the Seas, a Glimmer of Hope

Han Li took the ring and, without hesitation, slipped it onto one of his fingers.

The old man smiled slightly at this.

“Alright. You may enter the city. You’ll have about half a day of free movement during daylight hours; the rest of the time, the entire city will be under martial law. When the battle begins, the ring will send you a summoning message. Just wait in your cave dwelling.” Having said this, the old man slowly closed his eyes and said nothing more.

Han Li gave the old man a long, deep look, then walked straight into the city.

Once past the city gates, he found Heaven Star City’s streets eerily empty. Only the occasional cultivator could be seen flying overhead. Most mortals had locked themselves indoors. An air of desolation hung over everything.

Han Li’s expression remained calm, but inwardly he breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

Given the situation, the market district within the city was almost certainly shut down. If he hadn’t prepared all his necessities in advance on South Ember Island, he would have been in serious trouble right now.

A low chuckle escaped him. Then his body transformed into a streak of cyan light, shooting into the air and heading straight for the cave on Sacred Mountain.

As he passed over the market at the mountain’s base, Han Li couldn’t help glancing down.

As expected, every shop was closed. Not a single shadow stirred. He shook his head slightly, didn’t linger, and flew up to the thirty-ninth layer of Sacred Mountain.

The moment he entered Sacred Mountain’s territory, Han Li keenly felt that the security was even tighter than in the outer city. No fewer than a dozen strands of spiritual sense covertly swept over him, probing. Fortunately, as soon as they detected the yellow ring on his finger, they withdrew on their own. No one appeared to question him.

What made Han Li frown was that among those probes, he detected the spiritual sense of late Core Formation cultivators.

Pretending not to notice, Han Li flew straight to his cave dwelling in one go.

The restrictions outside the cave were exactly as he had left them. Nothing had changed.

But after standing outside the restrictions for a long, dazed moment, Han Li let out a long sigh.

His time away hadn’t been especially long, yet he had been caught between life and death several times, even forced to consider abandoning this cave he had occupied for nearly a hundred years.

That thought stirred a faint pang of melancholy in him.

He used his restriction token to silently deactivate the barriers and slowly walked inside.

Everything inside the dwelling was exactly as he had left it.

Han Li went first to the insect chamber, the one he was most concerned about. Seeing that all the Gold Devourer Beetles were safe and sound, he finally relaxed.

But he immediately took out a spirit beast pouch he had prepared earlier and packed all the beetles into it. Then he visited the medicine garden, harvested all the spirit herbs, and stored them in his storage pouch.

Only after finishing all of this did Han Li let out a temporary breath of relief. He walked slowly to the bedroom, lay down on the bed, and began to properly contemplate his plans going forward.

He had to kill a fellow cultivator of the same rank from the Rebel Alliance to use the teleportation array to the Outer Star Seas. For him, that condition was not particularly difficult.

But what worried Han Li was the possibility that, before the great battle even began, Star Palace would already learn that the Void Heaven Cauldron might be in his possession. He had no way of estimating when those old monsters would escape the Void Heaven Palace. If they leaked this information when they emerged, he would be as good as dead.

Beyond that, he had another concern.

Although unlikely, he also feared that even if he fulfilled the conditions, Star Palace’s high-level officials might change the terms once he arrived. He would still be helpless to use the teleportation array. After all, if the higher-ups reneged, what could a cultivator like him do about it?

So, even though he had calmly agreed to Star Palace’s terms at the city gates, he had never intended to obediently wait for their summons.

He planned to scout the security around the teleportation array and see if he could slip through directly. If the security was lax, he would naturally take the opportunity to escape.

As for whether this would thoroughly offend a behemoth like Star Palace, he was already destined to be targeted by those Nascent Soul old monsters sooner or later anyway. So, this was hardly something he needed to worry about anymore.

Comforting himself with this thought, Han Li drifted off to sleep, slipping into a drowsy slumber.

After so many twists and turns, his body and mind had truly grown exhausted.

The next day, Han Li woke up full of energy.

Daylight was bright. He slowly walked out of his cave dwelling, flew into the air, and surveyed his surroundings.

Although there were still far fewer cultivators than usual, there were vastly more than when he had entered the city the day before.

It seemed this time window was designated for free movement.

Without much hesitation, Han Li activated his flying light and took a short loop around the nearby area. After confirming that no one was watching or paying him any special attention, he headed straight for the fiftieth layer.

The security along the way was lax on the surface but tightly controlled beneath it. Before long, Han Li had arrived above the Star Void Hall, where the teleportation array was housed.

He did not pause. He flew past the hall as if he were simply passing through.

But in that brief moment, Han Li’s spiritual sense quietly probed into the hall.

At first, it went smoothly, penetrating most of the outer hall without any hindrance. But the moment his spiritual sense approached the inner hall, a blue and yellow double-layered restriction suddenly appeared.

Luckily, Han Li reacted quickly. He withdrew his spiritual sense immediately, without actually triggering the restriction.

At the same time, his expression darkened.

He estimated that this restriction shouldn’t be able to block his spiritual sense if he forced his way through. But doing so would alert the cultivators stationed inside the hall. Han Li wasn’t foolish enough to do that.

Hovering in midair, his brows knit tightly.

Because of the restriction, he hadn’t been able to detect the number or cultivation levels of the cultivators inside. But Nascent Soul cultivators shouldn’t appear in a place like this. At most, there would be mid or late Core Formation cultivators inside. That would already be the limit.

Compared to other more important locations, the Star Void Hall wouldn’t command much attention from Star Palace’s high-level officials.

After flying a sufficient distance away, Han Li made a wide loop, slightly altering his original path, and then flew back.

This time, as he passed beside the Star Void Hall, Han Li reluctantly released his spiritual sense again, hoping to find some flaw in the hall’s restrictions.

He didn’t find any weakness in the restrictions, but a hoarse voice suddenly entered his ears.

“Brother Zhang, how did it go? What did that guy guarding the teleportation array say? Three thousand spirit stones per person still not enough? That’s the absolute maximum we can offer.”

Startled by these words, Han Li’s heart stirred immediately.

His gaze quickly swept toward two cultivators flying at low altitude in the distance, and his flying speed slowed.

The two cultivators were a middle-aged man in a gray robe with a dark complexion and a gaunt, sallow-faced man. Both were at mid Foundation Establishment cultivation.

The hoarse voice had come from the dark-faced middle-aged man, directed at the gaunt man with an anxious tone.

The two were being cautious, whispering in a secluded area with no one around. But under Han Li’s powerful spiritual sense, not a single word escaped him.

“Shh! Be careful. Better to speak via sound transmission about this matter.” The gaunt man nervously glanced around. Han Li, alert as ever, instantly concealed his form and entered a qi-concealment state. Naturally, the man found nothing.

At the same time, Han Li withdrew his spiritual sense from everywhere else and focused it entirely on these two, preparing to forcibly eavesdrop on their sound transmission.

This was possible only because Han Li’s spiritual sense far surpassed theirs. Any other Core Formation cultivator would have needed a rare, top-tier secret technique for the same feat.

“Although that man is a distant relative of mine, letting people slip through to the Outer Star Seas privately still carries considerable risk,” the gaunt man transmitted with a wry smile. “He said it would take five thousand spirit stones per person, or else don’t even think about it. And that’s only because we’re Foundation Establishment cultivators, expendable to Star Palace. If it were a Core Formation cultivator, he wouldn’t let a single one through, no matter how many spirit stones were offered.”

“Five thousand? He really thinks we’re fat sheep to be butchered. We’re only Foundation Establishment rogue cultivators. Where are we supposed to get that many spirit stones?” The dark-faced middle-aged man’s expression was ugly as he shouted via sound transmission, though he still had enough sense not to speak aloud.

“But staying in the Inner Star Seas is too dangerous. As rogue cultivators, we could be swept up in this catastrophe at any moment. When that happens, our lives won’t be worth a single spirit stone. We’ve already calculated it. Star Palace and the Rebel Alliance are evenly matched. This war could drag on for years, even decades. I don’t want to spend that time hiding in fear. As for spirit stones, we all still have some rare materials we’ve been hoarding. We can scrape together enough to compensate him. That much, I can still salvage with my connection,” the gaunt man sighed and tried to persuade him.

“No way! You want us to go broke just to get to the Outer Star Seas? I’m not willing to do that at all,” the dark-faced middle-aged man shook his head stubbornly, like a miser guarding his treasure.

“Forget it. Let’s see what the others decide first.” The gaunt man seemed equally troubled, speaking with reluctant defeat.

(A chapter will come tonight. The weather has been really strange lately—hot one moment, cold the next. I caught another fever without noticing. Pretty frustrating. Everyone, be careful and dress warmly when needed. Don’t end up like me.)