Chapter 2179: Preparations

As the stone door was opened, Daoist Xie had already sensed what Han Li was doing, and he arrived before Han Li in a flash, then appraised him with silver light flashing within his eyes.

At this point, Daoist Xie had already recovered his Grand Ascension Stage powers, and his gaze was sharp as a blade, striking Han Li with a sense of discomfort.

Daoist Xie seemed to have identified something during his inspection, and he asked, "Are you preparing to make a breakthrough to the Grand Ascension Stage, Fellow Daoist Han?"

Han Li wasn’t surprised to hear this question, and he replied, "Indeed."

"You’re currently in peak condition in all areas, so your chances of making a successful breakthrough should at least exceed 50%; such a high probability is very rare even in the True Immortal Realm," Daoist Xie said.

"That’s very reassuring to hear. My breakthrough is going to cause quite a commotion, so it’ll most likely attract some bystanders; please keep a lookout for me, Brother Xie," Han Li requested as he cupped his fist in a salute.

"I can do that, but if I have to expend any energy to protect you, then that will be coming out of the elixir you’ve supplied to me," Daoist Xie said with an indifferent nod.

"Of course, I’ll be counting on you then, Fellow Daoist," Han Li replied with a smile.

Just as he was preparing to leave, the door of the other secret chamber also opened with a dull thump, and a beautiful woman emerged from inside; it was none other than Silvermoon.

Her complexion was slightly pale, but she wore an elated expression as she cast her gaze toward Han Li.

"Congratulations on making such large strides in your cultivation base, but isn’t it too early to be attempting a Grand Ascension Stage breakthrough? Why don’t you consolidate for a few more years?"

It was clear that Silvermoon currently wasn’t being afflicted by the effects of the Art of Indifference.

Han Li swept his spiritual sense toward Silvermoon, and replied with a smile, "Your cultivation base has also progressed during these past few decades; it looks like the cultivation art provided by Senior Ao Xiao has been quite effective. I’m currently in a very special state, so if I can’t successfully make a breakthrough now, then I’ll most likely still fail even if I were given 1,000 more years to prepare."

"Your cultivation base and experience far exceeds my own, so I’m sure you have your reasons for making this decision. Let me keep a lookout for you alongside Brother Xie to prevent any pesky individuals from disrupting you," Silvermoon offered.

"That would naturally be more than welcome. By the way, where is Guo’er? She doesn’t seem to be in the cave abode right now," Han Li asked.

"Guo’er had recently encountered a bottleneck in her cultivation and needs to absorb the essence of the rising sun daily to make a breakthrough. Hence, she moved out of the cave abode a few years ago and is cultivating by herself on a nearby mountain," Silvermoon explained.

"I see. The Greater Incarnation Arts are indeed different from normal cultivation arts, so it would be best for us to not interfere with her cultivation," Han Li replied with a nod.

Thus, Han Li’s trio flew out of the cave abode, then decided on a certain direction before flying toward it together.

Around 15 minutes later, the three of them descended into a basin tens of thousands of kilometers away from the cave abode.

Han Li inspected the spacious surroundings and the mountains far away in the distance before giving a satisfied nod.

"This is a suitable place. Please wait here while I set up a few formations and make some preparations. They won’t be able to help me transcend my heavenly tribulation, but they’ll disguise some of the phenomena that’ll arise during my breakthrough, making it more difficult for outsiders to track us down."

Silvermoon and Daoist Xie naturally had no objections to this, and they flew away to a pair of nearby mountains before landing upon them.

The two of them then sat down on a giant rock each and appraised Han Li’s actions from afar.

Han Li took a deep breath before sweeping a sleeve through the air, releasing around a dozen balls of white light, which transformed into a series of giant ape puppets, all of which were holding different types of formation tools.

"Go," Han Li instructed, and the puppets rose up into the air before carefully setting up the formation tools in the surrounding area.

Meanwhile, Han Li rose from the edge of the basin, then flipped a hand over to summon a series of translucent top-grade spirit stones, which he sent raining down from above.

Soon, a series of formations had taken shape within the basin.

After doing all that, Han Li returned to the center of the basin, where he produced a series of shimmering treasures that he tossed toward all parts of the formations.

Most of those treasures had been obtained by Han Li from the many devilish lords and Sacred Ancestor clones he had killed, and all of them were extremely powerful. In the eyes of a normal Body Integration cultivator, even just one of those treasures would be regarded as an extremely prized asset, but Han Li had brought out over 50 of them, and they were only being used to bolster the formation cores and enhance the formations he had just set up.

After that, Han Li flicked a wrist to release a huge pile of formation materials from his storage bracelet, and only then did he take a seat with his legs crossed.

After setting up the formation plates and formation flags in their hands, the giant ape puppets immediately collected more formation materials from the pile before returning to work.

These formations were clearly no ordinary formations, and even with the assistance of the formation tools, it still took close to half a day to complete them, after which all of the giant ape puppets returned to Han Li and stood before him in a still manner.

Han Li swept a sleeve through the air in an expressionless manner, releasing a burst of azure light to stow the puppets away. At the same time, yellow light flashed from his body, and he made a hand seal before casting a profound incantation seal onto the ground.

The incantation seal vanished into the dirt in a flash, upon which Han Li yelled the word "rise"!

The ground immediately tremored as a square platform that was around an acre in area rose up from the ground, instantly reaching a height of around 300 feet.

Han Li then made a different hand seal and opened his mouth to expel a silver fireball.

The silver fireball quickly transformed into a silver Fire Raven that was around a foot in size, which then swelled drastically to over 100 feet.

The giant Fire Raven soared up into the air at Han Li’s behest, then swiveled around and plunged down toward the platform.

As the silver Fire Raven approached the platform, it transformed into a vast expanse of silver flames that inundated both the platform and Han Li.

Han Li stood ramrod straight within the silver flames in a completely still manner, and the silver flames merely flashed past him, leaving him completely unharmed.

However, the platform quickly melted under the flames, and its surface began to rapidly crystallize.

After the span of just a few breaths, Han Li swept a sleeve through the air, sweeping up a gust of fierce winds that snuffed out all of the silver flames.

At this point, the platform had become completely translucent and covered in a layer of white crystalline material. Under the light of the sun, the platform gave off a stunning radiance, and it appeared to be a jade structure from afar.

After being briefly refined by the spirit flames, the ordinary stone platform had become as resolute as normal tool refinement materials.

All of a sudden, 72 small azure swords flew out of Han Li’s body, then rose up into the air before transforming into streaks of azure sword Qi.

Han Li pointed a finger up at the streaks of sword Qi, and all of them descended toward the platform in unison.

Streaks of azure light revolved around the crystalline platform, scratching away countless scraps of crystalline material while creating a series of spirit patterns.

The streaks of sword Qi were as fast as lightning, and they covered the entire area of the platform in the blink of an eye before rising back up into the air, where they reverted back into 72 small azure swords.

At this point, countless profound spiritual patterns had appeared on the surface of the platform, and one would be struck by a peculiar sense of dizziness if they were to behold the spirit patterns for too long.

Han Li swept his spiritual sense over these spirit patterns, upon which a pleased look appeared on his face. He then flipped a hand over to produce four small flags, each of which was around an inch tall, and all of them instantly disappeared.

In the next instant, a burst of mist rose up from each of the four corners of the platform, manifesting into four giant flags that were over 100 feet tall. The flags were of different colors comprised of red, green, yellow, and purple, and there were extremely life-like monsters engraved onto each of them.

"The Heaven Defying Platform is finally complete; I hope that this really will assist me in my breakthrough as Senior Mo says it will," Han Li murmured to himself as he inspected the four giant flags.

Immediately thereafter, he cast an incantation seal toward the flying swords up above, and they transformed into over 1,000 streaks of identical azure sword Qi.

They then scattered in different directions before vanishing into thin air, but if anyone were to reach within 1,000 feet of the platform, they would immediately be struck by a bone-chilling sense of peril.