Three days later, the sun was high in the sky.

Han Li's figure reappeared on the white stone plaza.

At this moment, his eyes shone with a hidden light, clear and bright. Both the immortal spiritual power in his dantian and the divine soul power in his sea of consciousness had been adjusted to their peak state.

He first scanned his surroundings, then raised a hand and with a flick of his sleeve, a golden thunder light flashed out, converging not far in front of him. Crab Daoren's figure emerged from within.

"Fellow Daoist Han looks radiant. It seems your cultivation has improved again, congratulations," Crab Daoren said, a faint smile appearing on his face as he sized up Han Li.

"Indeed, there has been slight progress. Unknowingly, hundreds of years have passed since I came here. I wonder what the situation is like outside. Today, I plan to try breaking through to the Golden Immortal realm again, to see if I have a chance to leave this place sooner. Although this space is closed, there are still many inexplicable risks involved in breaking through. I will have to trouble Fellow Daoist Crab to protect me again," Han Li said with a smile.

"Rest assured and focus on breaking through," Crab Daoren nodded.

As soon as he finished speaking, a golden lightning flashed around him, and with a shake of his body, he merged into the void and disappeared.

Seeing this, Han Li's expression slightly changed, and he sat down cross-legged.

With a turn of his wrist, a green light scattered in front of him, and three or four white jade porcelain bottles and a delicate jade box floated into view.

He reached out into the void, and the stopper of one of the jade bottles flew off on its own. A light golden pill the size of a longan fruit flew out, landing directly in his palm.

It was none other than the Myriad Wheel Pill he had previously refined to help True Immortal late-stage cultivators improve their cultivation.

Han Li pinched it, put it into his mouth, and swallowed it.

As soon as the pill entered his stomach, its medicinal power immediately dissolved, turning into a stream of heat that poured into the meridians of his body. However, compared to the intense impact of the first time he took it, it had become much gentler.

This was partly because he had taken too many, and his body had developed a certain tolerance to it. On the other hand, it was because after cultivating the Great Zhou Celestial Stellar Art to completion, his physique had changed significantly, and his flesh, bones, and tendons had been strengthened to a certain extent, far from what they had been before.

Han Li frowned slightly, and with a successive hook of his fingers, two more Myriad Wheel Pills flew out, which he swallowed in one gulp.

Then, he closed his eyes, formed a hand seal, and silently began to cultivate.

As the sound of chanting formulas rang out, a layer of soft golden light rose from the surface of his body, enveloping his entire being.

Time passed little by little. Unknowingly, another dozen years had passed.

Whether it was the five hundred years that Han Li had previously spent painstakingly cultivating the *Da Zhou Xing Yuan Gong*, or the dozen years now, no matter how time changed, this ruined city seemed to remain the same, almost identical to when Han Li first entered.

Although it also experienced the rising and setting of the sun and moon, and the flow of wind and clouds, it never saw the alternation of seasons or the flourishing and withering of vegetation. Even the slippery moss, which was visible everywhere in the city, remained a deep, dark green.

At the edge of the city, on top of a three-story green bamboo pavilion, Crab Daoren, dressed in a yellow robe, stood on the flying eaves of the roof. The clothes on his body were flapping loudly in the strong wind, but he remained facing the city, motionless, like a statue.

"Finally here..." he suddenly said, slowly.

Boom!

As soon as he finished speaking, a loud noise came from the center of the city, and the entire ruined city shook violently.

A golden beam of light suddenly shot up into the sky, reaching far beyond the clouds.

Above the plaza, layers of dark clouds gathered from all directions, like thousands of horses galloping, rolling and surging wildly.

Before long, these dark clouds turned into a vortex of dark clouds with a diameter of tens of miles, swirling out in circles. Lightning flashed constantly within, as if countless terrifying beasts were imprisoned within, emitting muffled roars.

Han Li sat upright in the golden beam of light, his clothes torn and tattered. His lean but not exaggerated muscles seemed to be coated with a layer of gold, and his blue hair stood on end. He looked like an angry-eyed Vajra from Buddhism.

The thirty-five immortal apertures he had previously opened up were all glowing brightly at this moment. A golden vortex was gathering in the thirty-sixth immortal aperture in the center of his chest, only a hair's breadth away from being completely opened.

"Drink..."

At this moment, Han Li suddenly opened his closed eyes, and let out a resounding shout.

The vortex in front of his chest suddenly flashed with golden light, and rotated violently. The strands of earth spiritual energy visible to the naked eye in the surrounding area immediately flew over rapidly, gathering towards the aperture.

"Whoosh whoosh..."

As if a whistling wind was pouring in, the aperture was like a vast ocean, seemingly impossible to fill. It continuously absorbed earth spiritual energy from all directions to consolidate itself.

Han Li's expression was solemn, and he did not relax in the slightest. His hands moved non-stop, guiding the flow of spiritual energy on one hand, and controlling the absorption speed of the immortal aperture on the other, to prevent it from being damaged by being overfilled due to its unstable foundation.

After about an hour, the speed of the earth spiritual energy pouring in gradually slowed down. The light on the aperture became brighter and brighter, and gradually stabilized.

At this moment, Han Li was already covered in sweat, but the hand forming the hand seal still did not dare to relax in the slightest, always being careful to prevent any unexpected changes.

Suddenly, a loud rumbling sound came from high in the sky.

The dark clouds and lightning that had been suppressed for a long time finally erupted. A black lightning pillar as straight as a spear directly pierced through the clouds and struck down towards Han Li.

Han Li became alert, raised one hand, and punched the sky hard with a fist wrapped in starlight.

"Bang" "Bang" "Bang" "Bang" "Bang" "Bang" "Bang"

Seven punches in a row!

Seven starlight fist shadows, each several feet in size, flew upward like lightning, emitting circles of starlight from within, connecting the seven fist shadows together, and condensing into a silver curtain of glittering stars.

The black lightning pillar pierced straight down and struck the silver curtain directly, making a deafening noise.

The silver curtain shook violently, countless stars shattered and annihilated, and the overall silver light dissipated. Especially in the area directly impacted by the lightning pillar, a large hole was blasted open.

At the same time, an even louder roar came from the vortex of dark clouds in the sky. As if it had been angered, a black lightning pillar, twice as thick as before, tore through the clouds again and fell vertically.

Crab Daoren watched this scene from afar, a golden electric current flashing in his eyes, and his figure disappeared in a flash.

In the next instant, his figure appeared out of thin air in the void between Han Li and the lightning pillar. Surrounded by golden electric light, he suddenly raised an arm and slammed it hard towards the golden lightning pillar.

A layer of golden electric light suddenly appeared on his arm, and his entire palm suddenly turned into a huge golden crab claw, which clamped down fiercely towards the black lightning pillar.

"Crack"

A shocking thunderclap sounded, and golden electric light burst out. The black lightning pillar immediately split into two and collapsed suddenly.

Where it shattered, it directly turned into a spherical electric cage, enveloping Crab Daoren completely.

"Not good..."

Crab Daoren was surrounded by lightning, and a scream came from his mouth. He waved his hand again and grabbed towards the outside of the spherical electric cage.

However, it was already too late.

Dark light rose outside the spherical electric cage, and black electric cables as thick as arms burst out, sweeping wildly in all directions, shaking the surrounding void and crackling.

This process seemed slow but was actually rapid. One of the electric cables, like a black whip, struck Han Li's back solidly with a vertical split.

"Zzzzzz"

A burst of black sparks shot out, and Han Li's back immediately became charred.

His brow furrowed immediately, and he quickly looked towards the front of his chest.

In the immortal aperture that had just taken shape, a thin strand of black light suddenly sprang out, spreading like a spider web in an instant, dyeing most of the aperture black.

Han Li's heart shuddered, and his pupils shrank.

Although he had never experienced it before, judging from the scene in front of him, the "Aperture Decay" among the Three Decays had finally arrived!

Although Han Li had expected this, when it actually happened, he couldn't help but feel a brief moment of absent-mindedness.

Throughout the ages, countless talented and brilliant cultivators have experienced countless hardships on the path of cultivation, overcoming obstacles, and adding all kinds of opportunities and good fortune, before finally breaking through bottlenecks step by step, going against the tide, and transcending tribulation to become immortals. Then, after countless long years of tempering, they finally stood out from among the myriad immortals and endured to the peak of the True Immortal realm.

Just as they were about to cross this leap-like step and achieve the Golden Immortal status that all immortals admired, Aperture Decay descended. Everything they had painstakingly cultivated before might be reduced to nothing at this moment.

According to legends, Aperture Decay is different from the previous two decays. It comes swiftly, like a raging fire. After one aperture decays, it will spread immediately, quickly infecting all the thirty-odd immortal apertures that the True Immortal cultivator had painstakingly opened up, causing them all to rot.

Once all the immortal apertures rot, the True Immortal body will follow closely behind and decay, all the immortal spiritual power will dissipate, and all the efforts of cultivation will be in vain. In the end, they will completely become useless, without even the chance to make a comeback.

Han Li's entire mind was drawn to that aperture, and he couldn't help but feel uneasy, fearing that the immortal apertures on his body would be infected by black threads one after another, and then decay one after another.

This was a very peculiar feeling, one that could not be deeply understood without personally experiencing it.

It was as if he had painstakingly grown a green lotus, but at the moment when the flower bud bloomed, someone had dropped a fatal poison, and the entire lotus, from the lotus heart, petals to roots and branches, was all infected by the poison, and quickly rotted.

Just as he was about to use the power of the Law of Time to deal with it, he realized that something was wrong.

The aperture, which was half-dyed black, actually remained half-black and half-white, and did not spread as swiftly as fire as described in ancient books.

What was going on?