Chapter 666: Translucent Lotus Flower

Han Li hovered in mid-air as he carefully observed the pond below for a moment, and he discovered that the lotus flowers on the pond appeared to be distributed in a completely haphazard fashion, but in reality, they were arranged into a large array.

After a brief moment of contemplation, he descended onto the pond, then looked down with his Infernal Devilish Eye, which allowed him to see the distribution of lotus flowers over the pond with even greater clarity.

A faint smile appeared on his face as he swept a hand through the air, releasing a burst of silver flames that transformed into a silver fire raven, which flew in a circle around the pond, and all of the lotus pads in the pond were instantly set alight.

Within mere moments, all of the lotus pads in the pond had been incinerated into ashes by the Essence Fire Raven, and the pond had become completely barren and lifeless.

Even so the dense white mist over the pond refused to dissipate, and the lotus flowers also still remained.

This seemed to have come as no surprise to Han Li, and he made a beckoning motion to summon the Essence Fire Raven back to himself.

Upon flying back to Han Li, the fire raven transformed into a tiny silver figure that skipped its way onto his shoulder.

The silver figure then began to look around with a perplexed expression, wondering why Han Li had instructed it to burn down all of the lotus flowers in the pond, but not finish the job.

If it had been granted just a little more time, it would've reduced all of the lotus flowers to ashes as well.

All of a sudden, specks of green light began to appear around the lotus flowers, following which some green buds began to sprout among them, and the surrounding mist also began to swirl violently.

Shortly thereafter, the buds began to unfurl at a rate that was discernible even to the naked eye, and before long, the entire pond was filled with lotus pads once again.

This was not the result of some illusion. Instead, there was simply such an immense abundance of spiritual qi in the pond that these lotus pads were able to almost instantly regrow, albeit with the assistance of an array.

The silver figure's eyes widened with shock upon seeing this, and silver flames rose up all over its body as it prepared to swoop down to incinerate the lotus pads once again.

However, Han Li raised a hand to pat it on the head, indicating for it to stay put, and the flames around its body faded, following which it flew back up Han Li's sleeve.

At this point, the layout of the pond had already become clear to him, and he flew several thousand feet horizontally, arriving above one of the pink lotus flowers before reaching down toward it.

He then made a grabbing motion, and a large azure hand appeared, then grabbed onto the pink lotus flower before uprooting it.

Its roots were glowing blue, and there was an incredibly beautiful translucent blue lotus flower hanging from them.

As soon as this blue lotus flower emerged from the water, all of the other pink lotus flowers in the pond instantly began to wilt.

However, all of the lotus pads in the pond were still standing instead of also withering away, but they had lost their previous green luster, as if they had also been robbed of their vitality.

At the same time, the dense white mist over the pond slowly began to dissipate bit by bit.

Han Li paid no heed to the changes taking place in the pond as he observed the translucent blue lotus flower in his hand, and a faint smile appeared on his face as he sensed the potent water law power fluctuations emanating from it.

All of a sudden, his right index and middle fingers lit up, and a door of silver light emerged before him.

He stepped through the door into the Flower Branch domain, arriving at the golden lotus pond outside the bamboo building before planting the blue lotus flower and the pink lotus flower that it was connected to into the pond.

The blue lotus flower instantly took root where it was planted, and six pink lotus flowers quickly emerged within the pond, releasing wisps of faint mist.

At the same time, a faint breeze began to blow through the area, carrying the faint mist to all parts of the domain, creating an even greater abundance of spiritual qi in the entire area.

Mo Guang was cultivating on the second floor of the bamboo building, and his eyes instantly sprang open as he sensed this sudden change.

However, he only briefly observed the changes that had taken place in the domain, then took a glance in Han Li's direction before closing his eyes again.

Over at the spirit medicine garden, Daoist Xie was standing by the railing of a recently constructed bamboo building, looking on with a surprised expression.

Han Li stood in mid-air with a faint smile on his face and his hands clasped behind his back, allowing his robes to flap in the breeze.

After ensuring that nothing was going amiss, he gave a pleased nod.

With this blue lotus flower working in conjunction with the existing array and the golden lotus flowers, the circulation of spiritual qi in the domain had become far more fluid, thereby severely reducing the rate of energy expenditure from the Immortal Origin Stones.

With no more work left to be done, Han Li emerged from the Flower Branch doman, then flew over the lotus pond outside to continue onward.

......

Meanwhile, in another set of ruins somewhere in the True Mantra Sect.

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

The ruins were filled with collapsed buildings, walls, and pillars, and littered throughout the wreckage were countless bodies belonging to True Mantra Sect and Heavenly Court cultivators. Some of them clearly possessed very advanced cultivation bases at their time of death, as evidenced by the fact that their skeletons were still glowing faintly, even though it had already been countless years since they perished.

At the center of the set of ruins was a relatively well preserved giant palace, but it was rather strange in appearance, looking much like a crimson flame that was completely still. Above the entrance of the palace hung a giant plaque that read "Flowing Fire Palace".

Even now, there were still waves of heat slowly surging forth from the walls of the palace, causing the nearby air to shimmer and warp, and it was unclear whether this was because the palace had been constructed out of some type of special material, or if there were things like pill refinement cauldrons inside it.

At this moment, a string of resounding booms were ringing out incessantly in front of the entrance of the palace.

There were two spirit domains overlapping one another, one purple and one yellow, and inside the two spirit domains was a seductive woman in a purple palace dress locked in battle against an hunch-backed elderly man with a sickly yellow complexion.

The woman was none other than Yan Ziyan, the city lord of Illusory Smoke City.

At this moment, there was a furious look in her eyes, and her brows were tightly furrowed, pushing the red mole on her glabella. She was holding a purple jade lute, and her fingers were quickly strumming over the lute's strings.

Beautiful maidens conjured up out of illusory smoke emerged one after another, and all of them were holding curved purple blades as they launched themselves at the hunch-backed elderly man, who was swaying back and forth on the plaza in front of the palace, evading the oncoming smoky maidens with ease.

His cultivation base was far superior to Yan Ziyan's, so there was no fear in his eyes, whatsoever. Instead, his eyes were filled with mockery, and he seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the experience of having so many beautiful women around him, even if they were only conjured up out of smoke.

His gaze was blatantly roaming over Yan Ziyan's chest and backside, and there was perverted smile on his face as he chuckled, "You and I stuck in the middle of nowhere in these ruins, all by ourselves, so why don't we engage in some more fun activities than senseless battle, City Lord Yan?"

"You recognize me?" Yan Ziyan asked in a grim voice.

"How could I not? You're the mistress of the vastly renowned Palace Master Fu. Unfortunately for you, Fu Yuanhai isn't around to save you in these ruins," the elderly man chuckled.

"You're nothing but a perverted coward! If you truly had a spine, then you'd discard your Robe Change Order disguise and show me your true appearance! I assure you that once we're out of these ruins, I'll call on Palace Master Fu, and the two of us will pay you a visit together!" Yan Ziyan spat through gritted teeth.

Despite what she was saying, she didn't dare to look down on her opponent. The elderly man's cultivation base was far superior to hers, and if it weren't for the fact that he was intentionally toying with his prey, there was no way that she would've been able to survive to this point completely unscathed.

"Fine. If that's what you want, then your wish is my command." the hunch-backed elderly man said with a smile, then grabbed onto his own collar from behind before wrenching it forward.

As a result, his robes and his skin were torn away, revealing a handsome man in a pristine white robe.

"How about now? Is this appearance of mine more appealing to you?"

Not only had his appearance completely changed, his demeanor and voice had also been drastically altered, and in the blink of an eye, he had become a completely different person.

Yan Ziyan could see that there were no longer any signs of disguise on his body, indicating that this really was his true appearance, and a sense of foreboding immediately welled up in her heart.

The fact that he was willing to reveal his true appearance to her indicated that he was going to make sure that she wasn't going to live to tell the tale of their encounter.

The white-robed young man licked his lips at the sight of Yan Ziyan's apprehensive expression, then burst into laughter as he said, "Rest assured, there's no way I could bring myself to kill a woman as beautiful as you. Instead, I'm going to cut off all of your limbs and deprive you of all of your senses, then add you to my collection."

A chill ran down Yan Ziyan's spine upon hearing this, and she grabbed tightly onto her lute, then suddenly pulled back its strings like bowstrings before releasing them in the white-robed young man's direction.

A loud twang rang out as a pillar of purple light erupted out of the lute, transforming into a giant purple bat that swooped directly toward him.

Within Yan Ziyan's purple spirit domain, the bat let loose a sharp screech, sending invisible soundwaves sweeping through the air.