Han Li's brows furrowed slightly as he turned to the source of the sound, only to discover that a crack had appeared on the white jade cushion that he had been sitting on, which then disintegrated right before his eyes.

The cushion had disintegrated into powder that spread through the entire hall, and at the same time, the golden hall began to tremble violently as a burst of peculiar energy fluctuations spread through the air.

A thought suddenly occurred to Han Li upon seeing this, and he immediately flew out of the hall before arriving on the plaza outside.

The tremors outside were even more violent than inside the hall, and Weeping Soul hurriedly approached him with the Essence Fire Raven as she asked, "What's happening, Master?"

"I'm not sure, but I seem to have triggered some type of mechanism in this secret area, which could lead to some unpredictable changes," Han Li replied.

"In that case, we should get out of here," Weeping Soul hurriedly said.

Han Li nodded in response as he heaved a forlorn sigh.

There were clearly still far more secrets to be discovered in this secret area, but there was no time to explore them.

With their minds made up, the two of them immediately turned to fly toward the spatial rift in the sky, only to discover that it had disappeared!

"Where did the spatial rift go? It was there just a moment ago!" Weeping Soul exclaimed.

The silver figure on her shoulder immediately stood up and nodded vigorously to back her up, causing the seven lines of rainbow fire on its head to bob up and down incessantly.

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"I believe you. Something must've changed in this secret area," Han Li replied with a nod.

He had already noticed the changes that had taken place in the Essence Fire Raven, but this wasn't the time to be focusing on such matters.

"By the way, during your seclusion, there were some tremors that ran through the secret area on over ten separate occasions, the most intense of which came right after you reached the late-High Zenith Stage. This is already the fourth time that it's happened this month, and everytime it happens, the mist around the secret area will recede, revealing new areas," Weeping Soul said.

"Have you explored any of those new areas? Is there anything special about them?" Han Li asked.

"I only went exploring once nearby, and I didn't discover anything abnormal. Over time, the tremors became more and more frequent, and I didn't dare to stray, so I've been staying here the entire time," Weeping Soul replied with a shake of her head.

Han Li's brows furrowed tightly upon hearing this, and right as he was contemplating what he had just been told, a pillar of golden light that was over a thousand feet thick suddenly erupted out of the golden hall and into the heavens, immediately following which the tremors around the hall suddenly subsided.

Han Li was rather perplexed to see this, and he attempted to approach the hall for a closer examination, only to be kept out by a burst of invisible force.

"Master, are you getting the feeling that the ground is slowly elevating?" Weeping Soul suddenly asked.

Han Li's attention had been focused on the golden light this entire him, and after hearing this question form Weeping Soul, he immediately sprang up into the air before scouring his surroundings, upon which he discovered that the gray mist around the secret area was churning violently, while new land was beginning to appear bit by bit.

......

Inside the Azure Silk Col outside the secret area, the ground was trembling violently, as if an earthquake were taking place.

"The earth dragon is rolling over!"

All of the villagers of the Spare Food Village hurriedly rushed out of their homes before arriving on a spacious plot of vacant land outside.

Right at this moment, a burst of thunderous rumbling rang out from underground, and a massive pillar of golden light erupted out of the White Head Valley. The pillar of golden light rose all the way up into the heavens, turning all of the clouds within a radius of several hundred kilometers a bright golden color.

The pillar of light was incredibly thick, dwarfing even the nearby mountains, and the world's origin qi around it trembled violently as the golden clouds in the sky churned and rumbled incessantly.

All of the villagers were looking on with flabbergasted expressions.

All of a sudden, someone yelled, "This is a divine miracle from the gods!"

All of the villagers hurriedly fell to their knees and began worshiping the pillar of golden light upon hearing this.

Meanwhile, seven or eight streaks of light were approaching the Azure Silk Col from the southeast, and they drew to a halt close to ten kilometers away from the col to reveal a group of cultivators.

They were led by a Golden Immortal Stage elderly woman holding a yellow serpent staff, while the rest of the group was comprised of young men and women who were all at the True Immortal Stage.

They were all dressed in uniform yellow robes, indicating that they were members of the same sect, and all of the True Immortals in the group were very excited at the sight of the phenomenon taking place before them.

"It looks like some type of treasure or secret area must've emerged here, Martial Aunt Lin. Let's go down and take a look. Otherwise, once other people arrive, we could be faced with a lot of competition," a male disciple said in an excited manner, and all of the other disciples nodded eagerly in agreement.

The elderly woman was looking quite excited, but she remained calm as she said, "Don't make any rash moves. This phenomenon is indeed a precursor for the emergence of a treasure, but it still hasn't completely revealed itself yet, so even if we go down there now, it won't amount to anything.

“On top of that, judging from the scale of this phenomenon, whatever's going to appear here isn't something that we can handle. Send a message back to the sect to inform everyone of what's happening here."

The young disciples behind her immediately sprang into action upon hearing this, pulling out their communication array plates to contact their sect.

Right at this moment, two more streaks of light shot forth from afar, then drew to a halt near the col to reveal a pair of black-robed Golden Immortals.

"They're from the Dark Scorn Sect," a young man informed.

"Ignore them. Come over here with me," the elderly woman said as she descended onto a nearby mountain summit.

The two black-robed cultivators took a glance at their group, then also descended onto a nearby mountain before pulling out communication treasures to contact others.

Word of the phenomenon taking place in the central region of the Golden Origin Mountain Range spread like wildfire, and more and more powers within the mountain range were sending people to the scene.

Close to a month flew by in the blink of an eye, and not only had the pillar of golden light not faded in the slightest, it was only growing more and more massive.

Inside the secret area, Han Li was watching intently as the surrounding gray mist rapidly faded.

At this point, the space within the secret area had already expanded to around twice its normal size, gradually revealing its true appearance.

Two enormous golden mountains were revealed on either side of the dense forest, standing like a pair of unfathomably tall city walls to form an enormous canyon that the forest was nestled into.

The majority of the two mountains were concealed above the gray mist, making it impossible to see them in their full glory.

What was most intriguing of all was that a series of gray chains that were as thick as water vats were hanging down from the gray mist, trailing all the way down to the foot of the two mountains.

The chains were flashing with arcs of gray lightning, presenting a rather fearsome sight to behold.

Han Li descended to the foot of one of the mountains, and after a brief hesitation, he reached out to touch one of the gray chains, upon which an arc of gray lightning instantly sprang forth to strike him.

Han Li gave a muffled groan as he took a step back, and his hand had been charred black by the lightning strike.

As he channeled his immortal spiritual power, the coloration of his hand quickly returned to normal, but he was still stunned by how formidable this gray lightning was.

Furthermore, that was only a single arc of lightning. If he were to be struck by more of these arcs of lightning at once, then that could spell some trouble.

Han Li withdrew his gaze from the mountain summit, then peered deep into the canyon formed by the two mountains. The gray mist there was constantly receding, revealing a path that led deeper into the secret area.

After a brief hesitation, Han Li decided to fly in that direction.

......

At the same time, tens of thousands of figures had already gathered around the Azure Silk Col.

They were from a wide array of different sects and powers, each of which had established their own temporary territories, and there were also some itinerant cultivators among them who required no territories other than some ground to stand on.

The areas nearest to the pillar of light had been claimed by seven or eight sects, while the mountain previously occupied by the elderly woman and the golden-robed disciples had since been taken, forcing them further to the back.

They had been joined by three more people, consisting of a yellow-skinned middle-aged man, a seductive young woman, and an elderly man with a head of white hair.

These three were all Golden Immortals, and in particular, the yellow-faced man was already at the late-Golden Immortal Stage, seemingly the leader of the group.

"The Spirit Heaven Sect, the Worry Not Pavilion, Blazing Light City, the Ink Fragrance Pavilion, the Azure Lock Valley, the Rising Moon Pavilion, and the White Cloud Mountain Cottage have all sent people here. Those scoundrels from the Rising Moon Pavilion have taken our territory!" the elderly woman said in a resentful voice.

"There's nothing we can do. Those sects all have High Zenith cultivators among their ranks, so there's no way that our tiny Yellow Wind Sect can compete with them," the yellow-faced man sighed.

"According to our observations, the phenomenon taking place here seems to be a precursor for the emergence of a secret area or immortal manor. When it comes to exploring these areas, luck is sometimes more important than power," a middle-aged woman said.

Everyone knew that she was grasping at straws a little, but they still nodded in agreement to make themselves feel a little better.

"How strange... I would've expected to see cultivators of the Immortal Palace here, but there doesn't appear to be any present," the white-haired elderly man said.