Chapter 657: Battle in the Water Divination Palace

Han Li quickly swept his gaze over the plaza, and something caught his attention.

He rose up into the air, then flew over to a giant palace across from the plaza.

This palace was far more massive than the other ones, and it had been constructed out of some type of translucent, dark blue crystalline material. There was a layer of faintly rippling blue light over its surface, giving it the appearance of a seabed crystal palace.

Han Li was able to identify this blue crystalline material as Seablue Crystal, a type of water-attribute crystal that was renowned for its sturdiness. It wasn't exactly a premium material, but it was still quite precious, and constructing an entire palace out of it was a huge show of extravagance.

However, he hadn't been drawn to the palace by its construction materials. Instead, he was intrigued by what was inside.

It was very faint, but he could sense a burst of time law fluctuations deep within the palace.

Perhaps it was because the palace had been entirely constructed from Seablue Crystal, but it was almost perfectly preserved, despite the fact that all of the other palaces in the same area were displaying damage to different extents.

Hanging above the entrance of the palace was a plaque that read "Water Divination Palace", and Han Li was just about to step into the palace when his gaze was suddenly drawn to something by the entrance.

It was a dark blue stone statue that had toppled to the ground. The statue was over a thousand feet tall, and it depicted a strange child with a massive head and a disproportionately thin body.

The base of the statue had been shattered, and as Han Li looked at the statue of the strange child, he was struck by a sense of familiarity, as if he had seen it before somewhere.

All of a sudden, he recalled where he had seen the child before.

Back when he was eavesdropping on Patriarch Miro's lecture through the translucent wall of light, there had been five figures seated around him, and one of them had been this strange child.

Why is there a statue of him here? Does he have something to do with this Water Divination Palace?

After lingering at the entrance of the palace for a short while longer, Han Li cast that train of thought aside before stepping inside.

As soon as he stepped into the palace, he immediately found himself in a rather dim setting with a subtle sense of pressure in the air.

His brows furrowed slightly, but he continued onward.

The palace was rather empty, with nothing inside with the exception of a few giant Seablue Crystal pillars. There were many signs of battle in here as well, and one of the stone pillars had even been severed altogether.

Han Li swept his gaze across the palace, but didn't discover anything, so he continued onward, and it didn't take long before he had reached the palace's deepest point.

There was a giant gate on the wall on either side of him, and beyond those gates were a pair of long black tunnels that extended as far as the eyes could see before vanishing into darkness.

While Han Li was outside the palace, he had noticed many more palaces behind this one, and it seemed that this was quite a large cluster of buildings.

Han Li could sense that the burst of time law fluctuations was situated somewhere to his right, so he immediately made his way into the tunnel on the right without any hesitation.

The tunnel had been entirely constructed out of a type of black stone material, and it was giving off a cold aura.

There were many signs of battle here as well, including countless gashes that had been sliced into the walls and a series of large cracks on the ground.

However, these black walls were extremely sturdy and hadn't been completely destroyed.

On top of that, there were also some bodies belonging to True Mantra Sect disciples or Heavenly Court cultivators littered throughout the tunnel, and perhaps it was because this was a rather isolated place, but the baleful qi here was quite dense, and there were gusts of yin wind sweeping through the air from up ahead.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this. At the moment, he was struggling with his baleful decay, so he was naturally not fond of an environment like this one, but he wasn't going to turn back over such a trivial matter.

The black tunnel was remarkably long, and even after walking for several minutes, Han Li still hadn't reached the end. However, the more he continued onward, the wider and taller the tunnel became.

At the same time, the baleful qi in the air was also becoming denser and denser, stirring up some unrest in the baleful qi in his own body.

Han Li hurriedly channeled his cultivation arts to protect himself and keep out the external baleful qi.

After continuing onward for a while longer, his expression suddenly changed slightly as he stopped in his tracks.

He could hear the sound of faint rumbling ringing out up ahead, and it seemed that a battle was taking place.

After a brief moment of contemplation, he chanted an incantation to conjure up a dim light barrier that enveloped his entire body, then silently shot forward as a faint shadow.

It didn't take long for him to reach the end of the tunnel, and a series of connected dark palaces appeared up ahead.

All of the palaces were connected by passageways, resulting in a complex network of passageways.

Han Li followed the sounds that he was hearing and passed through around a dozen palaces, upon which he discovered the source of the sounds in a giant palace that was tens of thousand of feet in size.

There were a series of thick stone pillars standing in this palace, and all of them were riddled with countless runes.

Most of these pillars had already collapsed to create a large, open area, and at this moment, there were three cultivators in that open area, locked in battle against five or six black shadows.

The three cultivators consisted of a brawny man in a blue cloak, wielding an enormous blue sword, an elegant purple-robed woman with a veil over her face, and handsome red-robed man who seemed to be wearing some makeup on his face, giving him a rather effeminate appearance.

The purple-robed woman had dense devilish qi swirling all around her, and it was clear that she was a being of the Devil Race.

As for the red-robed man, Han Li was able to identify as Feng Qingyuan, the man that he had come across once back in the Leisure Valley, and he certainly wasn't expecting to see him again here.

It seemed that the Heavenly Court had also had its sights set on the True Mantra Sect ruins, but it was unclear to Han Li how they had managed to enter the ruins.

The black shadows that the three of them were battling were some type of black humanoid creature that was several dozen feet tall.

Their bodies were covered in black fur, giving the appearance of giant apes, and each of them also had a pair of dark red horns on their heads, as well as mouthfuls of fearsome-looking fangs.

What are those things?

To Han Li's surprise, these black ape-like creatures were quite formidable. Despite their enormous statures, they were able to move as swiftly as the wind, and their bodies were so resilient that they could directly clash against the immortal treasures of Feng Qingyuan's trio without sustaining any injuries.

Occasional bursts of black flames erupted out of the black apes' mouths, and Feng Qingyuan's trio seemed to be quite apprehensive of these black flames, mostly choosing to evade them, rather than withstand them head-on.

Even though Feng Qingyuan's trio was firmly on the back foot in this battle, they were clearly all seasoned combatants, and they remained calm and collected, managing to keep the ferocious assault from the black ape creatures at bay.

Han Li only observed the battle for a short while before turning his gaze to the rest of the palace, but he didn't notice any treasures here.

It seemed the three of them hadn't come here to pursue any treasures. Instead, they were simply unfortunate to have encountered these ape creatures.

Seeing as there were no treasures here, Han Li naturally had no intention of revealing himself, yet right as he was about to slip away, a black beastly claw suddenly appeared behind him out of thin air before making a grab for his heart.

Han Li's expression changed slightly as he shot forward like lightning while hurriedly sweeping a sleeve through the air, releasing a streak of azure swordlight that appeared behind him in a flash before slashing toward the black claw.

A resounding boom rang out as the streak of azure sword light was shattered, reverting back into an azure flying sword that tumbled back through the air.

As for the black claw, a long gash had been slashed into it, one that had almost sliced the claw into two.

A giant black ape creature then shot out of the darkness before letting loose a furious roar in Han Li's direction.

This ape creature was around twice the size of the others, and its entire body was riddled with a series of crimson patterns. There was also a cloud of black qi swirling around his body, hovering within which was a large black flag that was giving off the law power fluctuations of an immortal treasure.

Black light was rapidly flashing from the palm of the black ape creature's hand, drawing the surrounding baleful qi into its body, and the gash on its hand was fully healed in the blink of an eye.

A hint of surprise flashed through Han Li's eyes upon seeing this, and he summoned the Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword back to himself before descending onto the ground.

All of this had taken place in an instant, and Feng Qingyuan's trio was currently also staring at Han Li with surprised looks on their faces.

The giant ape creature let loose a thunderous roar before pouncing at Han Li as a black shadow,and Han Li gave a cold harrumph in response as he swept a sleeve through the air, releasing a thick arc of Divine Devilbane Lightning toward the oncoming creature.

All of the nearby baleful qi in the wake of the arc of golden lightning instantly disintegrated into nothingness, but the ape creature was completely unfazed as it opened its mouth to blast forth a burst of black flames.

A resounding boom rang out as the lightning and flames clashed, and they began tearing at each other like a pair of wyrms, one golden and one black, with neither one able to get the better of the other.

Han Li raised an eyebrow upon seeing this, and he opened his mouth to release another azure flying sword, which pierced straight through the lightning and flames at an astonishing speed.

A dull thump rang out as the black flames were scattered, while the azure flying sword continued onward, appearing in front of the giant ape creature in the blink of an eye before piercing directly toward it.