The older golden-armored cultivator explained, “You haven’t consumed the Earth Cleansing Pill and cleanse your body of the aura of the lower realm you came from. It will cause your minor tribulation to become two-colored. Even if you are vastly powerful, there will be no way for you to survive it. This time, we’ve helped you disperse of the tribulation, but as a result, the next tribulation will come earlier. IN a hundred years, you will experience your second tribulation. So long as you consume an Earth Cleansing Pill every year, it will change your aura to one native to the spirit realm, preventing your tribulation from becoming two-colored. Our Deep Heaven City gives one to every ascended cultivator each year. If your tribulation remains two-colored, it will become a third greater in power than the last.”

Han Li blinked and asked, “Senior, does that mean I will have to live the rest of my life at Deep Heaven City?”

The pale cultivator insipidly said, “Of course not, so long as you consume the Earth Cleansing Pill for three hundred years, you’ll cleanse yourself of the aura from your lower realm, and be freed of Deep Heaven City.”

“Deep Heaven City may be a place where ascended cultivators gather, but you can’t be giving away the pills for free. What are we tasked to do?” Han Li asked without further delay.

The older cultivator stroked his beard and smiled, “Fellow Daoist is quite intelligent. Although the Earth Cleansing Pill is quite useful to ascended cultivators, it requires rare materials that are found in the wildlands. You will have to purchase the pills for a price. However, this matter is best explained when you are in the city. First, you should follow us. If you refuse, we won’t force you, but you should understand what will happen to you.”

When Han Li heard this, his face slightly changed.

He muttered to himself for a moment and looked at the cloudless skies in the distance. He then took another look at the boat and boarded it in a blur.

The two gold-armored cultivators smiled at the obvious result. Having witnessed the fearsomeness of the two-colored lightning tribulation, there was only once choice left. Furthermore, he was only an early Deity Transformation cultivator, so it was quite a miracle for him to last long enough for them to arrive.

When Han Li arrived on the board, he looked around and discovered a small scale spell formation at the center of the boat.

Just as he was examining it, the two gold-armored cultivators stepped into it and called out to Han Li.

After some brief hesitation, Han Li joined them.

The two then struck the formation with a spell seal and it let out a drone, lighting up in dense light and enveloping the three of them.

Afterwards, the older cultivator flipped his palm and produced a golden plate. The plate had many silver rune characters on it.

He then slapped the plate on the top of the board, and golden light began to s.h.i.+ne from it, along with dazzling silver talisman characters.

Meanwhile, the golden boat trembled, suddenly releasing streaks of milky white mist. The mist wrapped around the bottom of the golden board and began to circle around it, eventually forming the light formation Han Li saw from before.

The entire spell formation flared blindly and the boat disappeared with a tremble.

The spell formation then scattered without a trace.

This was all seen from a distance by Elder Huo and the Core Formation cultivators. Ever since the two golden-armored cultivators appeared, they completely kept silent and even their breaths turned quiet. When the golden boat eventually disappeared, they let out a large sigh, glancing at each other with happiness.

The yellow-robed youth hesitated and eventually said, “Elder Huo, it seems the Deep Heaven Guards aren’t as fearsome as the legends say. It seems they are exaggerated.”

Elder Huo hesitated from a moment and said, “What do you know? In the three human regions and the seven demon lands, the sole city free from the jurisdiction of the three human sovereigns and the seven demon kings is Deep Heaven City. Those gold-armored soldiers are among the highest existences in the city. Each of them can freely travel through any region without restriction. Furthermore, they can openly slay any human or demon they deem to be a threat. Their vast authority even inspires some dread in the three sovereigns. Furthermore, in their wars against the other tribes, the three sovereigns and seven kings first seek to dispatch the Deep Heaven City’s elders.”

“So it was like that.” The yellow-robed youth widely opened his eyes in shock. Then after a pause, he said, “I’ve only heard from my master to never offend a Deep Heaven Soldier no matter what. I think a while back the Deep Heaven Guard spent an entire month butchering over a hundred cultivator clans. However, n.o.body knew what caused it and the three sovereigns turned a blind eye to it.”

“That is so. But I don’t have much information regarding Deep Heaven City. However, the city’s cultivators don’t normally appear in the demon and human territories. They are specialized in dealing with great foreign enemies. Furthermore, even if they appear in the territories of the two clans, they would only be the gold-armored Deep Heaven Guard.”

As the two chatted, the other Core Formation cultivators listened in. They didn’t know much about the city and could only look at each other in dismay.

...

At that moment, Han Li was inside a nameless city’s secret teleportation formation.

The two gold-armored cultivators jumped off the golden boat and replaced several of the formation’s glittering spirit stones. Then they struck the boat with more spell seals and activated the spell formation once more.

When Han Li looked at the crystals, he felt his heart jump. They were extremely valuable high-grade spirit stones. Just as his thoughts churned through his head, the golden boat was engulfed in white light. They teleported to another area. It was clearly an underground cave with a similar teleportation formation underneath the golden boat.

The two cultivators did the same again, and the boat teleported once more.

As Han Li indifferently observed them, the boat continued to teleport another twenty times.

In the past, Han Li only used a mid-grade spirit stone to deliver him from the Heavenly South to the Scattered Star Seas. By using high-grade spirit stones so many times, they were travelling a distance that Han Li found difficult to imagine.

Woosh. The golden board teleported once more, but this time, Han Li looked around and felt his heart tremble. He immediately realized that they’ve finally arrived in Deep Heaven City. This time the teleportation formation was set on an altar-like platform that was over thirty meters tall. There were four black-armored cultivators surrounding it.

The black armor appeared cruder than the armor of the two golden-armored cultivators, but silver characters still s.h.i.+ned from their surface.

The platform was in a huge hall over three hundred meters wide and over fifty meters tall. Outside the huge platform, the surrounding s.p.a.ce was empty. There were no other objects inside of it.

In the instant the golden boat appeared, the four black-armored cultivators immediately wore a vigilant expression. But when they saw the golden-armored cultivators, their expression relaxed, but they floated up to the platform.

Among them, a large green-eyed man immediately stepped forward and respectfully kneeled, “We pay our respects to the Elder Heaven Guards!”

When Han Li looked at them, his face stirred.

The four appeared to be Nascent Soul cultivators of varying cultivation: one at peak stage, one mid, and two early.

“Stand up. This is a newly ascended cultivator. I recall your squad is missing a Dark Azure Guard. Hehe, perhaps he will become your squad leader. Bring him to the Spirit Flight Hall to rest for a night. We will report our mission to the elders and see to him later.”

“Yes!”

When the large man saw that Han Li was a Deity Transformation cultivator, he showed no surprise at hearing the Deep Heaven Guard. He simply bowed to Han Li.

The pale cultivator then said, “Go ahead followed them. We’ll talk about other matters tomorrow.”

Han Li nodded.

The three then descended from the platform and arrived at the hall gates. Han Li took note that the large green-eyed man was the only one following after them. The other three were sincerely guarding the platform.

It seemed that the spell formation and the golden boat was very important as four Nascent Soul cultivators were guarding it.

When they left the hall gate, they appeared in front of a huge road that was twenty meters wide.

Grey stone walls were raised to either side, but every interval of the wall had a portion that was engraved with silver talisman characters, giving them an air of mystery.

The road was circular and made a shallow incline.

Han Li raised his brow, but he didn’t have any detailed thoughts.

The two gold-armored cultivators then went off to a different direction and the black-armored guard led Han Li away.

Every kilometer along the huge road, there would be identical gates that appeared, but some were shut while others were open.

For the open gates, Han Li could clearly see within them.

They had identical boats, platforms, and teleportation formations, along with several Nascent Soul cultivators guarding the location. They were also just as empty.

As for the halls that were shut, Han Li swept his spiritual sense past them, but he discovered that the silver inscriptions on the wall blocked him.

Occasionally, he would see other cultivators on the road. A vast majority of them wore black armor and were at Nascent Soul stage, but he did come across several cultivators wearing dark azure armor. They possessed Deity Transformation-stage cultivation and were the so-called Dark Azure Guards.

When these cultivators saw Han Li, an outsider, they gave him a curious glance, but didn’t ask him any questions. They simply marched on their way as if out of training.

When Han Li saw this, he frowned.