Stone Piercer's heart stirred. He fixed his gaze and saw a change in the ancient glazed lamp at the center of the array.

The four exotic beasts beneath the lotus lamp stand had their eyes lit with an eerie red glow.

Stone Piercer merely glanced at the red light and felt a "buzz" in his head, as if struck by lightning.

He felt a boiling sensation in his blood, an unbearable heat throughout his body, and even his breathing became difficult.

He quickly composed himself, urging his cultivation technique to protect his body. When he looked at the four exotic beasts again, he felt as if they had suddenly come alive, grinning hideously.

An unspeakable feeling of resentment welled up in his heart.

In a daze, he felt that the world treated him unfairly. He was peaceful and unwilling to get involved in the struggles between his brothers. He only wanted to be a wealthy merchant roaming the world, collecting rare treasures – how carefree and at ease that would be.

Yet, his eldest brother, his fifth sister, and even other brothers seemed to harbor animosity towards him. Why was that?

Since you are unjust, then don't blame me, Stone Piercer, for being disloyal…

Gradually, his already handsome face became contorted, his eyes filled with a savage look.

Just then, a sharp shout suddenly echoed in the air.

The voice was very familiar, it was Han Li. After the shout, Stone Piercer's mind cleared, and the strange phenomena he was experiencing all disappeared.

His complexion was terrible, and he felt a lingering fear in his heart.

When he calmed himself and looked at the glazed lamp again, he found that the red light was still there, but it was being suppressed by a powerful divine sense.

The source of this divine sense was naturally Han Li.

At this moment, Han Li seemed calm on the surface, but within his sea of consciousness, turbulent waves were raging.

He didn't know if the Great Refinement Method left by the Purple Green Twin Beauties was false, or if he had injected too many divine sense crystal threads into the lamp, but it had triggered a backlash from the lamp. The four exotic beasts had materialized within his sea of consciousness, voraciously absorbing his divine sense, attempting to devour his soul.

Within his sea of consciousness, the illusory figures of four enormous exotic beasts were slowly advancing towards the center from the four cardinal directions, constantly compressing his sea of consciousness.

Han Li silently chanted the fifth layer incantation of the Spirit Refinement Art, fully urging the technique.

Waves of powerful divine sense fluctuations spread out from the center of his sea of consciousness, transforming into immense waves that crashed towards the surrounding exotic beasts, hindering their advance.

However, this was only a temporary measure, capable of delaying but not resolving the current crisis.

"Freeze!"

Han Li roared.

His entire sea of consciousness seemed to be struck by a blizzard. A snow-white light swept through, instantly freezing everything and encasing the four exotic beasts in ice.

With the movements of the four beasts restricted, Han Li was able to catch his breath. Just as he was about to advance further, a "crack" sounded.

Having absorbed a large amount of his divine sense, the four exotic beasts were not able to be frozen at all. One after another, they broke free from the ice and continued to roar as they converged towards the center of his sea of consciousness.

A sense of oppression far greater than before filled his entire sea of consciousness, with an alarming tendency to grow even stronger.

Seeing this, Han Li's heart sank.

He understood that once the four beasts converged and completely compressed his sea of consciousness, his divine sense would be completely depleted, his soul would be utterly extinguished, and he would ultimately become a walking corpse.

Just as he was in this predicament, a purple light suddenly appeared above his sea of consciousness. Streams of warm and comforting energy flowed out, merging into his sea of consciousness, rapidly replenishing his divine sense.

Han Li's spirits lifted. He quickly urged his spell incantation, concentrating all his divine sense and striving to merge with the energy. At the same time, he continued to condense waves of divine sense even stronger than before, preventing the approaching exotic beasts.

Although the speed of the exotic beasts had slowed significantly, they were still approaching bit by bit.

Han Li felt the oppression in his sea of consciousness grow stronger and stronger. As the space shrank, it seemed that his divine sense was being drawn away little by little. The purple light above his sea of consciousness also became somewhat distorted as the space compressed, as if it had been crumpled into a ball.

A suffocating feeling of terror arose spontaneously.

But at that moment, a thunderclap suddenly resounded throughout his sea of consciousness. The ball of purple light suddenly shone with dazzling brilliance and transformed into flakes of purple light that swept outwards.

"Boom!"

The final bottleneck that had long plagued him was broken under this extreme pressure!

The fifth layer of the Spirit Refinement Art was finally completed.

Before Han Li could rejoice, his sea of consciousness was in an uproar. Streams of powerful divine sense gathered in the sky above his sea of consciousness. All the light converged little by little, ultimately condensing into an immensely large divine sense sword.

The divine sense sword was translucent and inscribed with strange runes. It emanated waves of powerful divine sense, like strong air pressure, impacting the surroundings.

As the divine sense giant sword slowly descended from above, waves of intense fluctuations pressed in all directions.

The illusory figures of the four beasts, which had seemed unstoppable, were suppressed by the fluctuations of divine sense and began to retreat backward, until they had retreated out of Han Li's sea of consciousness.

Aboard the small boat, Stone Piercer looked anxiously at Han Li in front of him, holding a piece of purple sun warm jade in his hand, hesitating whether to continue placing it above the latter's head.

Just then, a translucent crystal light suddenly shot out from between Han Li's eyebrows, startling Stone Piercer. As he was about to dodge, he discovered that the crystal light was a crystal-clear small sword, stably suspended in front of his brow.

Stone Piercer did not move rashly. He glanced down at the Soul Devouring Lamp and saw that the red light in the eyes of the four beasts had been extinguished. Only then did he feel slightly relieved and fall back, landing on his rear.

Opposite him, Han Li slowly opened his eyes, his pupils filled with divine light, clearly unharmed.

The translucent small sword of divine sense flew back and disappeared into his brow.

He glanced at the small piece of purple sun warm jade still floating above his head, and the other piece held in Stone Piercer's hand. His heart stirred slightly, and he cupped his fist at Stone Piercer, saying, "Today, thanks to Brother Stone's help, otherwise the consequences would have been unimaginable."

"What's with the politeness? I'm still hoping that Brother Li's strength will increase further, so that I can have more confidence when we encounter trouble in the future. By the way, tell me, what happened? Why were you suddenly backlashed when you were perfectly fine before?" Stone Piercer waved his hand and then changed the topic.

"I'm not sure either. It seems that when injecting divine sense crystal threads into the Soul Devouring Lamp, I failed to control the amount, resulting in too much divine sense flowing in, causing the four beast statues to backlash. Fortunately, at the critical moment, you protected my soul with the purple sun warm jade, replenishing the gap in my divine sense, allowing me to break through the bottleneck and turn defeat into victory," Han Li explained.

Stone Piercer listened in a daze, but connecting it with the situation just now, he could understand the danger to some extent.

"What was that translucent small sword just now?" he asked, still puzzled.

"That is the Divine Sense Sword. It is another divine sense supernatural power that I mastered after the fifth layer of the Spirit Refinement Art was completed. The specific supernatural power is hard to say now, but in short, it won't be bad," Han Li hesitated slightly before explaining.

Since it concerned other people's cultivation supernatural powers, Stone Piercer would not continue to ask even if he still had questions.

As the two spoke, the strange phenomena of the towering stone steps on the cliff had been left behind and could no longer be seen. The small boat they were riding on had glided out of the open waters, leaving behind winding ripples on the river.

Time flies, and eighty years have passed in the blink of an eye.

Above a gloomy sea as black as ink, a giant black whale carrying a thousand-zhang island on its back was breaking through the waves and swimming forward.

The entire island was no more than a hundred zhang high, with a flat terrain. It was covered with lush vegetation, and pavilions and towers could be vaguely seen.

In a small mountain pavilion in the very center of the island, two people were sitting face to face, drinking wine, enjoying the gentle breeze.

"Brother Stone, it's a bit too extravagant for just the two of us to charter this entire Voyager Whale Island," Han Li, dressed in a green robe and sitting on the left, said with a smile, holding a wine glass in his hand.

"Brother Li, can you please not pretend to be humble after taking advantage of the situation! I chartered this island because I fancy the array on it that can absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and eliminate the demonic energy, so that you can stay comfortably," Stone Piercer said unhappily.

"I'm just afraid of being too flamboyant and attracting the attention of others. Speaking of which, the closer we get to the central area, the more intense the demonic energy in the world becomes. Even though I have cultivated demonic techniques, I have to resist it from time to time, which is ultimately a bit annoying," Han Li said with a wry smile.

"As the saying goes, reality and illusion are intertwined! They don't know our exact whereabouts, so naturally they can't stop us," Stone Piercer said with a smile.

"Your eldest brother and fifth sister are by no means ordinary people. The last twenty years have seemed peaceful, but they may be brewing some other conspiracy, so we must be careful," Han Li said.

"It doesn't matter. We are now approaching Ink Sea, and it's only a step away from returning to Nightfall City. We must be vigilant, but we don't need to be too cautious," Stone Piercer said with a smile as he drank a glass of fine wine.

"Awoo…"

As the two were talking, a loud but long sound came from the mouth of the black whale beneath them.

Stone Piercer frowned slightly and looked towards the distant sea, only to find nothing there. However, his expression became somewhat tense.

He carefully turned his head to look at Han Li, afraid that he would say he was a harbinger of bad news again.

"It's just a large underwater demon. Its aura is only at the peak of Golden Immortal, and it's not the fierce and combative type," Han Li said after glancing into the distance.

As soon as he finished speaking, a bright light suddenly appeared under the sea ahead. The black sea surface churned violently, bulging into an extremely large water bubble.

Under the water bubble, there was a huge white jellyfish, far exceeding the size of the black whale. Its entire body was translucent, but crystal light shone inside, making it look like a white lamp reflected on the sea surface.