At this crucial moment, Man Huzi raised his head and studenly stared at a certain area. With an icy face, he loudly shouted, "Who is sneaking around over there? How about you get lost!" He then sent a punch that shook his beard, sending out a three meter large golden hand to grab at the air.
A muffled peng sounded out, revealing a barrier of azure light. The light barrier forcibly stopped the golden hand's approach, but it revealed the white silhouette within.
"It's you!?"
"Star Palace?!"
Several shouts came from the eccentrics of both the Devil and Righteous Dao, and their expressions vastly changed.
Zenith Yin's expression grew unsightly, and he rushed to question them,"Star Palace enforcement elder, when did you sneak up on us? Didn't you claim to not intend to enter the Inner Halls?"
The white clothed elder didn't respond to Zenith Yin and slowly addressed Man Huzi instead, "Sigh! My luck is truly bad. I didn't expect that the Heavenvoid Cauldron's emergence would cause such a great disturbance that I would have to use a technique to defend against its icy Qi, leaving me to be discovered by Brother Man. It seems Fellow Daoist Man possesses the highest cultivation out of all of you." His face remained completely calm for someone that had been lying in concealment.
Zenith Yin grew furious, but he didn't dare to rashly act against someone from the Star Palace.
As for the Righteous Dao cultivators, it seemed they also had their own misgivings. They all stared at the Star Palace elder in a moment of silence.
"Wait, isn't there another person?! Han Li, be careful! The Bloodjade Spider!"
Ever since the Star Palace elder had appeared, Qing Yi had started muttering to himself. After hearing the Star Palace elder's words, he became extremely suspicious. With some further thought, he suddenly recalled something and hastily shouted. When Han Li heard this from a distance, he was stunned.
Before he realized what was going on, two streaks of burning white light shot out from the other side of the altar. Each one cut through the air towards Han Li and the Bloodjade Spider with a chilling whistle. Afterwards, a white-clothed old man appeared where the attacks had been launched from.
Han Li's complexion paled.
"Fast, too fast!" This was the single thought that filled Han Li's mind as he saw the white light flash towards him. He did the only thing he could possibly do in that instant; he raised the jade scepter with both hands and used it to block his chest as best he could.
Peng! Han Li felt a huge impact from his hands before nearly losing all sensation; he fell from the sky, completely oblivious apart from a burning sensation from his chest along with the faint sounds of wind and furious shouting as he fell from the sky.
Before Han Li could stop his fall, he felt pain on the back of his body. His body had collapsed upon a barrier of light that was slowly rising.
"Yi!" A cry of disbelief came from the Star Palace elder that had attacked him. He felt surprised that he hadn't managed to execute a weakling like Han Li in a single strike.
Since his magic treasure, the Piercing Sun Swords, failed to cleave Han Li at such a short distance, Han Li must've been wearing a top grade protective treasure. However, this was no matter as his other sword had struck true. With that thought, he turned his gaze to the altar.
The Bloodjade Spider had been cleaved into two halves. Its blood flowed into the ground, and the small portion of the revealed Celestial Ice Flame had silently sunk back into the hole.
The two remaining fire pythons completely lacked the strength to further pull up the Heavenvoid Cauldron.
Having seen this, the white-clothed elder was completely satisfied and recalled his two flying swords with a wave of his hand. He then put them away and revealed a strange smile towards the ashen faces of the Righteous and Devil Dao Nascent Soul cultivators.
Because these Nascent Soul cultivators had their attention drawn to the other Star Palace elder, they were unable to respond to the sneak attack on Han Li and Bloodjade Spider. As they had seen the Bloodjade Spider executed before their very eyes, they each wore an expression of fury and their eyes burned with rage.
Man Huzi didn't have any qualms against taking action. He loudly rained curses on them and clapped his hand together, causing golden light to burst from his body.
But before Man Huzi could do anything else, the Star Palace elder that had earlier attacked started to fade into specks of white light, causing him to disappear without a trace. All that had remained was a faint gold talisman that floated to the floor. A similar scene occurred with the other white clothed elder. He faded away into specks of light with a smile on his face, leaving behind a similar golden talisman.
Man Huzi quickly suppressed the fury on his face and muttered to himself with a flickering expression, "The Star Palace's Incarnation Talisman! So they flaunted their wealth instead of having their true bodies come! They did this to prevent us from being able to settle our debt with them."
As for the others, they each helplessly watched the golden talismans fall to the ground with unsightly expressions before the talismans combusted and turned to ash.
In a quiet corner of the fifth floor in the Inner Halls, two white-clothed were sitting down cross-legged in the dark; their eyes were closed. One of them slowly spoke with a voice containing slight happiness, "Fortunately, we followed them. Otherwise, the Heavenvoid Cauldron would've fallen into their hands."
"However, our incarnations had been discovered a bit too early. Else, we could've taken action as they fought over the Heavenvoid Cauldron. They would have been too distracted with one another to prevent us from making off with the treasure!" The other old man spoke somewhat gloomily with a tone of slight regret.
"Hehe! We had best not be too greedy. It was the optimal opportunity to sabotage the Righteous and Devilish Dao's attempts to acquire the treasure, and we achieved a decent result. However, we merely delayed the crisis for this occasion. The next opening of Heavenvoid Hall will still prove to be a problem."
The gloomy voice said without care, "That's not wrong, but we might not be there to see the day. I did wish to see whether or not the Heavenmend Pill was as miraculous as they had said, able to make up for the deficiencies of impure spiritual roots or refine new Heavenly Spiritual Roots. It is quite unimaginable."
"That is a pity! However, we've nearly reached our end. It would simply be too much of a waste for us to use it. Though funnily enough, it was unknown who said it first, but many Nascent Soul eccentric had completely taken the rumors to heart! That it was capable of both extending one's life as well as breaking through the bottleneck of the Nascent Soul Stage! If these miracles were true, the Archsaint of the Six Paths as well as the Mad Matron would've definitely arrived. But unfortunately, the Heavenmend Pill is only capable of massively increasing the chances for a Core formation cultivator to condense a Nascent Soul. It's just that refining the pill is truly too difficult." The first voice said with a mocking tone.
"Humph! Are Core Formation cultivators capable enough to come here? Besides, those Nascent Soul cultivators were the same as us. They spent many years cultivating but found themselves unable to advance, and they placed their complete hopes on acquiring the famed Heavenmend Pill. That is at least understandable. Were we still young, we would've definitely made every attempt to acquire such a pill. It would even constantly be on our minds!" After this was said, the other voice kept silent as if in tacit agreement.
"Let us set off! We had best prevent them from trying to find us in their rage. That would prove quite troublesome. They must be absolutely furious!" With that said, the darkness became silent once more as if no one had been there.
Their guess had not been wrong. The Righteous and Devilish Dao cultivators were fuming. Their eyes held no spirit and they felt rather depressed. However, they were all the cunning sort and were able to quickly recover their calm. They knew there was no value staying angry over the Star Palace's disruption. Instead, the Righteous and Devilish Dao floated in the air in confrontation.
Han Li was once again ascending as he remained on the light barrier that broke his fall. At that moment, he looking at his hands in horror. They were bloodily crushed and there was a complete tear between his thumb and forefinger. But his gaze didn't stay there, instead focusing on the jade scepter that he was clenched in the right hand.
At that moment, Wan Tianming coughed as if he wanted to say something to the Devil Dao cultivators, but at that moment, Zenith Yin's fire pythons were no longer able to endure and had let go with a wail, returning to their original forms.
The Heavenvoid Cauldron released a hum as it fell.
Everyone couldn't help but lower their heads at the scene, even Wan Tianming who was about to speak. Zenith Yin looked particularly gloomy, and his eyes contained objection.
But then, something completely unexpected occurred!
As the Heavenvoid Cauldron was falling, it had been been struck by something, and its hum became a dragon's roar. Then with a heavy roll of thunder, a fist-sized rainbow ball of light shot out into the air from within the blue flames.
"Heavenmend Pill!" Both the Righteous and Devil Dao cultivators simultaneously shouted out its name with delighted surprise.