A friend and I were driving and talking in rural east-central Illinois around 11 PM at night. We pulled off into a backroad that was tucked away in a somewhat open valley, surrounded by trees on all sides. As we were cruising around and talking (driving east), we noticed a very odd light in the sky (the sky was also very clear) that was just over the treetops in the distance, thinking it was a cell tower. We realized very quickly that there was not a cell tower in that direction whatsoever. At this point, we assumed we were either looking at a helicopter or some sort of commercial aircraft that was flying west. We got out of the car to watch it, and shortly after, the light, which began to blink and pulsate, dispersed into 8-10 smaller lights. My friend and I had no idea what to think at this point.Each light had a very light-bluish and whitish coloration. They all blinked with no apparent pattern whatsoever, and were also not in any organized formation of sorts upon dispersion. Also, as each light blinked randomly, there seemed to be some sort of "aura" that pulsated about it, in a much more rich color than the light that was blinking. Another interesting thing to note was that each of these lights "danced" around within a circle vicinity as they blinked and pulsated. There was absolutely no sound heard.We pretty much ruled out commercial aircraft after these events. The lights continued this same behavior for close to 10 minutes, then all but one of the lights began to move, though they continued in the same movement pattern - dancing around in a circle while pulsating and blinking. All but one of the lights disappeared behind the treetops, and we did not see them again. There was one light left, still blinking and pulsating. We realized that this was the biggest light out of all of them. It continued this behavior for another solid minute, then suddenly the shape of the light sort of "flatlined." It turned into a straight light, then moved in the night sky what had to of been a few miles within a second. It turned from this circular, starlike shape to a straight line, and zipped from one area to another in a second, then returned to its original form and behavior. Almost directly after this, we noticed that it was getting brighter and appeared to be moving in our direction, so we decided to leave. Unfortunately, due to the fact that we only had our iPhones on us and no type of complex camera (night vision, etc.), we were not able to capture these lights on film. We also did not make an audio recording of it, as each light emitted no sound whatsoever.We got about halfway down this road when I turned around and the light - and all other lights - had disappeared. It was an incredible experience, probably the most irrational thing that both of us had ever seen in our lives so far. There was simply no explanation for it.